Day 15 = Running + SXSW

Two years ago, I woke up and ran 10 miles around downtown on the Saturday morning during Austin's South by Southwest Film and Music Festival. It was the first day I was planning on meeting the Twenty-Six Two Marathon Club for training, but I showed up at the wrong place with the wrong group. I knew it was the wrong group when the coach said, "Today, we'll start off walking the three mile loop and we might run for about three minutes." I raised my hand and said, "Uh, I'm supposed to run 10 miles today. Is this the marathon group?" He said no and that I'd missed them.

So I set out by myself to carry on with my training. I was training for my first marathon that would have been in Sunriver, Ore. (the Pacific Crest Marathon), but about 4 weeks before the race, I slipped and fell off my friend's boat on Memorial Day weekend and sprained my knee's MCL. I was out of the race according to 3 doctors in two states, which was devastating. The only way I could describe this to my mother, who has never trained for a foot race in her life, was imagine you're pregnant and you have spent all this time preparing for the baby and being safe and eating and drinking the right things and staying healthy and then you miscarry. I said, "OK, that scenario is MUCH worse, but it's still devastating."

It was also this same year during SXSW that my friend Trey asked me to house a comic who was vamping for his shows during the Texas Rockfest. Turns out this strange lesbian comic from Kansas was the cleanest and most polite and quiet house guest I could have dreamed as far as strangers in my home are concerned. She was so cool.

Anyway, I left the comic at home asleep and went for a run. Running downtown on 6th Street in the morning during SXSW is a completely different experience than when you're bar-hopping at night in 4-inch heels. There are different smells and different people roaming around. The roadies were setting up. The waste management people were cleaning up trash. The homeless people were setting out for their daily wander. I dodged and weaved through the streets downtown and got in my 10 miles without a group.

In 2008, I bought a wristband for SXSW. It was the first time I'd ever attended. Trey's festival is free, and since he's a friend, that's who I've always supported. But I had a crush on this guy and I bought a wristband so we could hang out more, and we did. But alas, it was not a love connection. Things happen for a reason, and he's still a dear friend.

This year, I decided to run downtown again - just 6 miles. I got a similar affect, but I was running downtown around brunch time and bands were starting. Emo people who'd come from all over the world were walking around with their tight hipster jeans and black spiked hair looking for the next venue on their personalized schedules they'd printed from sxsw.com.

I ran over to Trey's venues and said hello. I didn't buy a wristband this year because I just took a vacation to Vail and attending SXSW pretty much requires a 3-day vacation and lots of energy. It's exhausting. But so much fun. Maybe I'll buy another pass for 2010.