I fell off the p90x wagon again.  I will be restarting today.  Why you say?  This is why....

See, what happened was this...We bought the admission into this race a looonnnggg time ago so clearly I had already forgotten about it.  In comes little sister with her have you been exercising face, and proceeds to show me what I actually signed up for...and that IT IS THIS SATURDAY.  

So, here I am putting on my shorty shorts about to turn on the workout video...because four days of exercise is clearly enough time to prepare for a race that someone apparently took from the depths of my nightmares...There's barbed wired people.  I may have to resort to showing up, bypassing the obstacles and just rolling in the mud before the finish line...Just kidding!  I will do EVERY SINGLE OBSTACLE, even if it takes me hours to finish or the barbed wire ends up taking my life.  Stay tuned for an inevitable hospital post....

See that little person on the left?  That is my little sister.  That girl started running when she was about 12 and never looked back.  My little sister is a running maniac or a cross-country runner or a OH-MY-GOSH-I-DIDN'T-RUN-TODAY weirdo, not because she obsesses over her figure, but because she loves it.

I don't get it.

She seems to think it 'feels good' and 'releases stress', but I am skeptical.  She seems red and sweaty...and please forgive my frankness, but it does not smell good.  Clearly I am not a fan.

The very first running meet that I ever showed up as her cheerleader, I started to read a book in the sidelines and missed the whole race, THE WHOLE RACE!!  Apparently when your sister tells you she is going to warm up, it means she is about to go run, not that her temperature is cold.  This may seem a little dumb, but I have never ever participated in a sport.  You tell me to warm up, and I put on a coat.

Well, last year, we participated in this race called the color run.  For one month, we trained.  We prepared extensively by reading running fan fiction and watching videos of runners on the television.  Many a rocky theme song was played.  My older sister, and I held hands as we gasped for air.  We had finally reached the culmination of our athletic abilities.  We could run for five minutes.  We were ready.

 Clearly we weren't ready.  I bet you were expecting some miraculous journey of self-discovery.  No.  This does not end well.  We had a blast, but a race that was supposed to take about thirty minutes took us about three hours.  Little sister made several visits to the finish line and back to where we were, knee deep in mud.  That's my excuse for going slow, and I'm sticking to it.  Let's just put it this way, we finished the race clean of paint.  By the time we passed the paint terminals, they had long since abandoned their posts.  Luckily there was a giant mosh pit of paint going on at the end of the race.  Epic.  

Also they gave me a free banana for my involvement in the race.  I took that as my medal.  They don't give those to just anyone...

So, here we are today, as I lay here on my bed with bagels wondering how many more years I will be able to get away with my sedentary lifestyle before I begin to pay the consequences.  This has brought me to my next possible conclusion.  I am doing P90x.  For those of you who do not know me, I have started this program twice.  The first time, I was sure I had torn SOMETHING....and if my whole body hadn't been throbbing as I crawled my way to the kitchen, I could have maybe identified the source of the pain...oh yeah, it was EVERYWHERE.  Apparently this 'soreness' happens when you exercise.  The second time, I reached all the way to the end of the first month, but life and traveling derailed my motivation.

My goal in putting this online is accountability.  Perhaps maybe this time it will stick if I remind myself that there are people out there who will boo at me if I go do not stick to the program (please don't...I'm a crier).  

My fitness goal is simple:  be able to run for thirty minutes, at my pace.  Who knows...maybe, at the end, I can be bold enough to post some 'after' pictures, but physical transformation is not my primary goal.  I never aimed to actually look like rocky.  I hope I can do this.  I am open to any tips anyone can give me.

 When in doubt, this will be my motivation.

 I have made it my personal mission to take advantage of all that Austin has to offer.  I lived in Houston for two years, and it wasn't until after I was already leaving that I began to actually explore the city.  You know what....I miss it.  I miss the traffic and the smoke....everything from the beautiful galleria to the seedy little holes-in-the-walls where I loved to eat and shop.

So now in Austin, it's time to get my exploring on.  This past weekend, I finally had the opportunity to celebrate my little sister's birthday with her (yay!!!).  We went swimming, did a grand tour of our favorite thrift stores (more on that later), and visited Barton Creek.

Barton Creek has one of my favorite trails running through it.  It is completely covered with trees and a river runs through it.  Sure, the river is dry right now so it's mainly just white rocks and dead fish, but it looks gorgeous when it is flowing.  A little dehydration imagination and you can almost see the river if you squint your eyes from a distance.  

I usually hit the trails with my lovely Maya, who wears a huge red back pack filled with water, ice, and food, but this time, we chose to keep it simple and enjoy each others' company instead aka as little of our dog circus as possible.

As a non-athlete, it is really inspiring to see the bikers just glide over rocks that I am having trouble walking over, almost inspiring enough to consider purchasing a bike.  Almost.