Blogging - Take 2! Gonzales' Come & Take It Festival

Well, since it’s only been… what?… 5 months?!… is that all?!?!... I think it is safe
to say that I am a bloggosphere-failure. That sucks. First, I hate failing. And, second, I hate failing publicly even more (sad, but true). And, third, I’ve thought about it and I do want to be a blogger! Some aspects of blogging, though, are not ideally suited to my strengths… well, duh! First of all, I tend to be a little extreme in that I am either all in or not in at all. I have witnessed some blogs that have 6-7 (or more) entries a day. Interestingly, that would probably be my style, but that's not going to happen as it would just take too much time. I’d like to consistently post something every 2-3 days like most “normal” bloggers, and that is going to require a certain type of discipline that is difficult for me.

You’re probably wondering (and rightly so), “ Ok…not sure what any of this has to do with running or the TIR”! The point that I am getting at is that even though my first attempt at blogging was an abject failure, that doesn’t mean I’m done trying. Not at all, my friends. If we took that approach with our running, how many of us would be runners at all?! I know for myself that there have been MANY times where I have “fallen off the wagon” in my running and not run a single time for months on end. I don’t consider this a good thing. But, sometimes you just have to let the past go and not let it get in the way of the “new” you! Then, when you do decide to get started with the running again, it’s just awful. The runs don’t feel good, and you wonder how you ever had time for them. It usually takes me a few different attempts to start – each time shaking off the past. But, then somehow it takes! While it is totally a personal thing (you don’t a PR to show for it), these re-commitments to running are amongst the sweetest of victories! And, that is how I am going to approach the blogging. Yes, the first attempt would appear humorous to a real blogger, but that’s ok…here we go… round two for me and the blogging habit!

Already I can tell that if I were to try to “catch up” from where I left off, I’d be writing a book. That would be like running a 20 miler for my first run back, which may not be a good idea. So, perhaps later I will address the topics of:

1) An old veteran’s attempt at a high schooler’s stomach
2) Baby Hope and the all-you-can-eat buffet
3) Lone Star Relay’s initial consideration of a couple of new events
4) Training for San Antonio, my first marathon in a few years
5) Coaching a group of marathon aspirants
6) TIR developments / improvements!

For now, though, I will just leave off with what we did this weekend, which was attend Gonzales’ Come and Take It Festival! It was a great time for the whole family that I highly recommend.

We started with the 5K, which ran through their Independence Park and alongside a golf course. Although it didn’t have the BIG race things like big start and finish lines, it had all the elements I value most… a good and accurate course, solid (but fun) competition, and 100% execution on all they advertised. The race had ~100 runners, and they did an excellent job! Joy and I were pleased to finish 2nd and 1st in the women’s and men’s races with times of 20:23 and 16:05. Both of us were satisfied with the efforts we put out, but Joy especially (IMO) has to be pleased considering she just gave birth! Regardless, the times & places were what they were, and sometimes I think it is just better to ask oneself, “Did I give a good effort?”, and if so, be happy with that - what more can you do? Then, you can ask yourself how the training has been (and if that has been consistently solid for a good long time)… and that may be the area, more than your time/place at a race, in which you may find more room to critique. In my experience, if I don’t get the race result I was hoping for, it’s much more often due to the preparation (and sometimes execution) rather than the effort.

After the race, cooling down, and the awards, we went into town and found a spot on St Louis (which the TIR Prologue runs on) to watch the parade. Maybe the Come and Take It parade didn’t have those huge blimp-ish parade floats that the Macy’s Thanksgiving and Rose Bowl Parade’s have, but beyond that, those parades had nothing on this one! In fact, I think I'd actually prefer this one. If you’ve never seen a real parade (lasting more than 10minutes), then you need to go sometime. It was over an hour long and it kept the kids (and us) riveted the entire time. Below are pictures.









After the parade, we perused about all the different vendor tents that had all things Texas for sale. Joy and the older kids did not have as much time for this as they went to see the Texas history show that Bob Burchard puts on in the Gonzales Courthouse. Bob was the fellow that gave the TIR pre-race address last year, and he does an excellent job with this show as it is both very informative and entertaining. I wished I could’ve seen it for myself, but I was on duty with the youngest 2 children.

Then, after the show, my two older boys and I did a couple of the carnival rides they have, and we all enjoyed cotton candy to boot!

Again, Barbara Hand (and all of Gonzales it seems) does a wonderful job putting on The Come and Take It Festival on the first full weekend of October every year. Completely putting aside how helpful and good they are to the TIR, they make it easy to recommend their event as they simply do a great job with it (and they have A LOT more going on, but with the kids, we couldn’t stay), and it is simply fun!