Austin Marathon, spectator's view

Last Sunday was the Austin Marathon. I ran this race in 2004 and enjoyed it. This year I'm not in shape for even a 5K, but I like watching races, so I joined a classmate outside his apartment to see the runners go by. We were near the 9-mile marker, and the field was both full and half-marathon competitors. I haven't seen the numbers, but there were several thousand all told.

I got a late start (waking up early is still an alien concept) and missed some of the leading runners but still saw most of the field. I brought my camera.

Here's the 3:20 pace group. In a pace group, one or two people who can keep a steady speed agree to lead whoever wants to come along to finish the race in 3 hours 20 minutes. When I ran the race in 2004 I was with the 3:15 group part of the way. Pace groups are great for camaraderie and support.

It was a cool morning; you can see the runners' breath in the chilly air. As running weather it's just about perfect.

We were right next to a DJ who was playing upbeat tunes to give the runners a boost. When he played "Shout" some of the runners threw their hands in the air.

Same thing when he played "YMCA". People were having a great time.

That's my Mass Comm Theory professor on the right. This was her first half-marathon, and she walked it with her friend, but she told me later that she's eager to do another one and run hard the whole way.

That's one of the fun things about racing: Every time out is an accomplishment, and you can go out and do it again if you want to. Runners are real supportive of one another, too. If I ever heft my lardbucket self out the door regularly again, I'll be out there racing too.

This really isn't supposed to happen

In the box today I found four pieces of mail intended for the apartment downstairs.

One is from the county tax office. One is from the university. One is from a bank. None of them appear to be junk mail.

The fourth is a mass mailer from the Postal Service itself, labeled "Identity theft prevention tips."

The Gang of 500

One topic I find coming up a lot these days, both in my classwork and in my readings of interest, is the Gang of 500. That is the name given by Mark Halperin to the political insiders in Washington, D.C. -- journalists, upper-level politicians, people with various kinds of influence -- who collectively embody the "conventional wisdom" and whose influence, it seems to me, is out of proportion to both their numbers and their worthiness. (Atrios calls them the "Villagers". I may use both terms interchangeably.)

I'll have more to say about them later. Just wanted to introduce them.

Okay, okay, I have a blog

A friend from Fort Worth told me that she gets a lot of questions about how and what I'm doing since I moved to Austin in August 2007, and suggested that I start a blog. It sounded like a good idea, so here it is.

I'm a Ph.D. student in journalism at the University of Texas, in my second semester so far. Austin is a cool place to live, but I have rarely had time to go out and enjoy it, since I still haven't figured out this "time management" thing.

What will go in this space, I hope, is some stuff about the things I'm learning in class and studying, and some things about life in Austin, and whatever else I find interesting enough to share.

Comments are welcome and appreciated.