Daylight Savings

     In about an hour and a half, the clocks on the computers, phones, ipad and TVs will automatically reset and fall back 1 hour.  I have already set the clocks, microwave and oven clocks back so when I wake up in the morning, I won't be alarmed by the difference in times.  Computers however, are not full proof in knowing the correct dates to change times as was evidenced last weekend when Nicole and I took part in the Run for the Water race.  As we headed downtown, some of the electronic signs had already adjusted to an earlier time announcing 5:30am instead of the actual 6:30am that we were at while driving on Barton Springs looking for parking to get to the starting line in time for my 7:15 5k kick off.

     I am fairly certain that the organizers of the race thought that the clock would change that weekend too, when they decided to start the 10miler so darn early in the morning.  Another explanation is that runners and organizers of runners here in Austin are just plumb crazy for setting a start time so early on a Sunday morning.

I know that Nicole was not too happy about getting up so early on a Sunday.  I had to use the parental line of, "We are lucky to have the things we have, including clean water to drink each day, because some people have to wake up this early to walk to get clean water," to help Nicole adjust her attitude about the wake up call (things you never thought you would say to your kids type of line).
      The race was a good bit larger than I had expected and Keller Williams Realty is a big sponsor for the race.  After meeting Gilbert Tuhabonye at one of KW Team Meetings, I decided to add this event to my list, substituting it for the Capitol Triathlon that I didn't do in September due to lack of training time.  The formation of the Gazelle Foundation was inspired by the story of Gilbert who was a survivor of the Hutu/Tutsi civil unrest in Burundi.  He wrote a book, This Voice in My Heart, that I intend on reading soon, and is an autobiographical account of his upbringing and tale of survival.

Right after signing up for the race, I posted on Facebook that I had signed up and invited some friends to join me.  Allison and Maria eventually signed up to run with me and it was nice to have the support.  Allison is currently training to run a marathon and has been logging quite a few miles each week in preparation and Maria is more like me, not quite as much running.  When I asked Allison how fast she could run a mile, she pointed to her iPhone that was securely attached to her arm and said that it depended on the music that was playing.  I knew that I wasn't going to be able to keep up with her when she said the first song to play would be Let's Get it Started AND that I had forgotten to even bring music to run to during the 5k.  Maria remembered her music but was nice enough to hang with me throughout the race.  Having her to talk to helped in two ways 1) I ran a bit faster than I have recently and 2) I actually ran the entire 5k nonstop.
     I finished the run in about 37 minutes, not my best time in a 5k and also not my worst.  From the results, I was 24th in my age group.
     Nicole and Hadley were signed up to run the Kid K that started right around 9am.  It was fun to see them lined up at the starting line and I was proud of both girls for participating for the cause of clean water. 

     I definitely want to send out a special thanks to Allison and Maria for running with me, and to their husbands, Dan and Matt, who came out to the race to watch Nicole and Hadley while we ran our race.  We celebrated with breakfast at NXNW and then Nic and I came home and I didn't do much the rest of the day as I was still recovering from the 5k swim and then the 5k run complete within days of one another.

New list update to come this week.
Time for bed..even though we set the clock back one hour, I don't need to push my luck.