Maudie’s Moonlight Margarita Run goes virtual – and the trail will remain one-way at least through May

Maudie’s Moonlight Margarita Run goes virtual – and the trail will remain one-way at least through May

That’s me, posing with an unidentified runner, at the 2018 Moonlight Margarita Run. This year’s race is going virtual. Photo from 2018 race by Chris LeBlanc


The Trail Foundation’s biggest fund-raiser of the year, the Maudie’s Moonlight Margarita Run, is going virtual.

That means you can run the 5K race on your own time, wherever you want. The party half of the event will take place in October, and everyone who registers and runs the virtual race now will get a couple of free drinks then.
“Apart but together we can still celebrate the Trail while keeping our city safe,” said Heidi Anderson, director of The Trail Foundation, a non-profit organization that works to maintain and improve the beloved 10-mile Butler Hike and Bike Trail around Lady Bird Lake. “The Trail Foundation is grateful to everyone who is registering and supporting our efforts to ensure the Trail is in the best condition possible, even during these unprecedented times.”
These unprecedented times, in case you haven’t heard, have meant a temporary conversion of the Butler Trail to a one-way route. People are discouraged from using the trail at all right now, because it’s difficult to maintain a 6-foot social distance on narrow stretches of the pathway, but asked to travel clockwise if they choose to do so.
“The trail, at the Austin Parks and Recreation Department’s direction, will remain one-way at least through the end of May, and then they will re-evaluate,” Anderson said. “Our counters actually show that the majority of folks are complying. Depending on the day, between 75 and 85 percent of folks are moving clockwise.”
In the meantime, the one-way signs that were put up a few weeks ago are still disappearing. Another round of signs to replace them will go up today and Thursday. (Seriously, folks. Leave the signs alone. It’s a waste for the foundation to use its donations to keep replacing signs torn down, thrown away or swiped as souvenirs.)
As for the race, once you register online at https://eventdog.com/a/eventpage.php?eID=31787&refData=website, the foundation will send you links to create a virtual bib and submit your results. Everyone who signs up gets a T-shirt, and the first 700 will get a $10 Maudie’s Tex-Mex gift card.
You can run or walk any route you choose – on road, trail, treadmill or track – as many times as you want between June 4 (that’s the day after Global Running Day) and July 4. Send in your best time to compete against other virtual participants.
I try to do the race every year. I love the combination of fun and food, and the festive, outdoor atmosphere. I hope to see you at the October party.

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This home-made pull-up bar is kicking my butt

This home-made pull-up bar is kicking my butt

My husband used a set of bicycle handlebars and a length of waterski tow rope to make this pull-up bar in the front yard. Chris LeBlanc photo

Back when shelter-in-place started here in Austin, my husband installed a pullup bar made out of an old set of bicycle handlebars and a length of waterski tow rope on a tree in the front yard.

The thing hangs there, taunting me. I venture out from behind my computer once or twice a day to do some reps. In between sets, I pull out Drake elm seedlings that have been sprouting like an army of iron-clad weeds in our front yard. It’s not a bad workout.

Back in the pre-COVID days, before my swim team cancelled practices, I’d sometimes do pullups after I got out of the pool. I got to where I’d do four or five sets of five, but then I went cold turkey. I lost my pullup muscles.

I’m starting from scratch now, and it’s ridiculously hard. I think it may have something to do with the fact that this pullup bar swings freely. It hangs from a tree, and when you try to pull yourself up, the entire bar sways forward and back. I can barely do three before I drop off.

This morning, I got up early and met a friend at a cove on Lake Austin to swim 2 miles. I just took a mid-morning break to do pullups and pull seedlings.

It feels old school, and I like it. Sometimes the best workouts are the basic ones.

 

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Sweet and sturdy: Good Juju Energy Balls by distance runner Katie Visco

Sweet and sturdy: Good Juju Energy Balls by distance runner Katie Visco

Katie Visco, who ran across Australia in 2019 and runs Hot Love Soup, sells home-made energy balls, too. Photo courtesy Katie Visco

I’m always looking for stuff to eat while I’m out adventuring.

It needs to taste good, but it’s got to be sturdy, too, it’s wearing a tiny suit of armor. Cheese melts, fruit gets mushy and white bread smushes – I need something that holds up.

Ever hopeful, I ordered a sample tub of Good Juju Energy Balls, from former Austin resident (and ultra-long-distance runner) Katie Visco.

The balls taste vaguely like raw cookie dough. Photo courtesy Katie Visco

I met Visco and her husband Henley Phillips a few months ago, when I wrote about their human-powered trek across Australia. (Read the story at https://www.austin360.com/news/20200225/why-austin-woman-and-her-husband-decided-to-traverse-australia-by-foot-and-bike).

The sample tub I got featured two peanut butter cocoa cinnamon balls, three almond snickerdoodle balls and two peanut butter ginger coconut balls, each slightly smaller than a ping-pong ball. They tasted, to me, a tad like cookie dough – too sweet to eat more than one at a time, but made with real ingredients like rolled oats, honey, spices, and peanut or almond butter. My fave was the ginger-spiked one, made with coconut flakes and currents.

These are sweet – I couldn’t eat more than one in a sitting – but they can survive my kind of punishment. I tucked some in a baggie and stuffed them in the back of my bike jersey for a five-hour ride and they didn’t even crumble. They’d work for paddling and hiking, too.

Visco has been making and selling the balls for about seven years, and recently announced a subscription option – and if you order before the end of April you get a free care package (“meant to bring some joy and love to people during COVID times,” she says) that includes eight balls and two Kate’s Real Food bars.

Katie Visco sells Good Juju Energy Balls. Photo courtesy Katie Visco

Subscriptions last six months, and the balls are shipped every two months (choose 32, 48 or 72 balls per shipment), and there are always three or four flavors to choose from. Subscriptions start at $120; a one-time order of 24 balls costs $30 plus shipping.

Sign up for a subscription at https://forms.gle/B4HHfAv1VH9fJCjCA or place a one-time order at https://forms.gle/mLeMqkgqQLimeHii7.

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I jumped in the lake at dawn today, and it felt great

I jumped in the lake at dawn today, and it felt great

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For the past 35 years, I’ve jump-started three-quarters of my days by leaping into water.

Swimming jolts me awake. It feels like a full-body hug from Mother Nature, and gives me time, inside my head, to think, subconsciously solve problems and even frame articles I’m writing for newspapers and magazines. It’s a magic elixir for me, and therefore no coincidence that some of my favorite sports – scuba diving, water skiing, paddling – take place in the water.

The suspension of my morning workouts at Western Hills Athletic Club, where I’ve been knocking out a couple of miles four or five days a week for years, plus the closure of public swimming pools, has made me a tad cranky.

But after five weeks out of the water, I’ve logged four swims in the past week. Friends – and in two instances complete strangers – have reached out to offer access to their home pools. I’m beyond grateful.

This morning, it got even better.

A friend with access to a private dock invited me to join him for an hour-long dawn swim around a cove in Lake Austin.

Stretching my arms out and watching my hands plunge through a blue-green veil of water as the sun rose sent shivers of happiness through my body. We circled the entire cove – nearly a mile – as the sun progressively lit the shoreline with light. No boats, no people, no sound, just brisk water and dappled light.

I swam a little more, popping my head out to admire the rocky cliff on one side of the cove, and the Volkswagen-sized boulder at the tip of a point reaching out on the other. A fish splashed. I bumped into some submerged sticks, then rolled over on my back and floated, staring up at the sky.

Nothing out in this cove has changed much since the shelter-in-place order. And that felt reassuring.

 

 

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People are creating their own home gyms while sheltering in place

People are creating their own home gyms while sheltering in place

I can’t swim with my team right now, but I can do pull-ups on the tree in my front yard. Chris LeBlanc photo

My normal fitness routine screeched to a halt early last month, when Western Hills Athletic Club suspended swim practices and temporarily shut the pool.

Since then I’ve been mainly riding my bike and running. I feel like I’m losing upper body strength that I worked hard for, though, so I’m trying to incorporate other exercises into my routine.

This morning I channeled my inner monkey, and after pedaling 15 miles on my bike, I did some pull-ups from the tree in my front yard.

With gyms closed, parks shuttered and trails off limits, we’re all entering new territory when it comes to staying fit. I put out a call this morning, asking people to submit photos of home gyms they’ve put together since shelter-in-place orders came down.

Here are a few of photos shared by readers…

Kiana and Iram Leon drag giant tires, do jumping jacks and hop off and on a wooden box to stay fit.

Iram Leon and his daughter, Kiana, have made their own outdoor gym complete with a gigantic tire for lugging and a wooden box to jump on and off. They supplement that with plenty of running (Leon is president of Austin Runners Club) and jumping jacks.

Sheila Reiter made a home gym by rolling out a mat and gathering up some hand weights and an exercise ball. She’s also got an indoor bike trainer.

Sheila Reiter, my Texas Water Safari paddling teammate, rolled out a mat and gathered some weights and an exercise ball to create her version of a home gym. She’s rides her bike before the sun comes up some days, but also uses an indoor bike trainer, because she’s finding it harder and harder to cycle while maintaining a proper social distance on the hills where she likes to train.

Al White borrowed equipment from his gym and still works out with a coach – virtually.

Al White says his gym, Infinite Fitness, let him take home whatever equipment he needed, and he’s now doing Zoom sessions with his coach to stay on track.

Emily Werbow turned a mini-tramp into a mini-gym.

Emily Werbow has arranged a mini-tramp, a bunch of hula hoops and an exercise ball on her back patio.

Dan Driscoll tunes in to virtual workouts, but his cat doesn’t care.

Dan Driscoll is working out with his friends virtually, too, but it looks like his cat just doesn’t get it.

Cate Brookes Sweeney transformed her back balcony into a mini-gym.

New mom Cate Brooks Sweeney rolled out a mat on her balcony, and put her laptop on a chair so she can participate in workouts virtually. When she’s done exercising, she uses the area as a toddler outdoor sensory area.

Courtney Lyons-Garcia is doing high intensity interval training sessions in her home garage, too.

Courtney Lyons-Garcia is working out in her garage.

Massage therapist Kiplimo Chemirmir set up what he calls his “Lil Warriors den,” with an assortment of rollers, kettlebells, balls and hand weights.

Jennifer Leduc does her Camp Gladiator workouts from home.

Jennifer Leduc is following her Camp Gladiator workouts from the comfort of her porch.

Christopher Maynard’s boys have created a ninja warrior course in the back yard.

And Christopher Maynard’s boys have created a ninja warrior course in the backyard that they change up daily.

To see all the submissions, go to the Pamela LeBlanc page on FaceBook.

 

 

 

About Pam

I’m Pam LeBlanc. Follow my blog to keep up with the best in outdoor travel and adventure. Thanks for visiting my site.

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