4.2 Miles Around Town Lake In Austin

This weekend’s long run was around the Town Lake Hike and Bike Trail in Austin. I decided to go counter clockwise today instead my usual clockwise route. Pretty much, the decision was based on when I’d be running into the sun, vs. when I’d be under the trees and in the shade.

Town Lake Trail

It was a hot, and dusty afternoon, but it was nonetheless very enjoyable out there.

The last few runs I’ve been on, I’ve seen and heard interesting and weird things. This time around, was no different.

I saw several groups of women out on the water using standing paddle floating things. They definitely had a better idea than I did.

Girls on standup paddle boards

I also saw someone that I hadn’t seen in years. It was an ex-girlfriend’s mother’s husband. He was out there on one of the benches, hitting on some chick. He was totally surprised to see me and gave me a double take when he saw me. I waved as I ran past.

There were some detours that I had to take because of the construction on Riverside’s bad juju corner. That’s what I call the northeast corner of Riverside Dr and I-35. Everything that opens in that corner goes out of business. It used to be several hotels, then was supposed to be a condo development, but that company went broke and now some other company is building something there.

Riverside construction

Hopefully they cleaned out the bad juju of the place, but time will tell.

I did run out of steam during the last mile and a half or so. I couldn’t tell if the reason for the fatigue was due to the heat or due to not having eaten for 5 hours before I went out on the run.

Hostel on Lakeshore Dr. also about the point where I ran out of steam

On the plus side, since there was supposed to be a cold front moving in, the smog of the city had blown off, and I was able to enjoy a nice view of downtown Austin as I made my way down the Pleasant Valley dog leg.

Downtown view from trail

Trail on Pleasant Valley

One other thing, I don’t know how many times I’ve run past this one corner, but I just realized that this gazebo that I run by is really a monument to Tejano music stars. I think, it’s called the Ray Montelongo Pavilion, but I could be wrong about that.