It's finally time for me to take the leap and move over the Wordpress! I'm not ready to buy my own domain name but I am ready to take advantage of a different blog layout.
My new blog is found at: https://atxtrailrunnergirl.wordpress.com/
See y'all over there!
Monday, April 11, 2016
Sunday, April 10, 2016
House hunting realities
Who is addicted to HGTV shows like "Property Virgins" and "House Hunters?" I love those shows and, despite knowing they are not reality, I expected more of what you see on tv to be reality.
We moved to the Austin area with the hopes of buying a house. Houses here are not cheap but they are much cheaper than southern CA. The housing market is hot and we learned that bidding wars happen here like they do in Cali. Our apartment is in the 'burbs about 20 minutes from the heart of Austin and we fell in love with this area. Naturally, we wanted to find a house near where we currently live.
When we started browsing earlier this year, we got a reality check as to what we could buy in this competitive market. We met a fantastic realtor at an open house and she offered to show us around the area. During that 6 hour tour (did I mention she is fabulous?!), we discovered little pockets of the area that we did not know existed. We also realized we could get more bang for our buck by moving even farther from the city....hello, country living!
 |
| Our neighbors....far cry from Orange County / Los Angeles |
Our realtor told us that prices skyrocket spring through fall and we decided to start looking seriously sooner than anticipated. The neighborhood that caught our eye the most is a small community and few houses come on on the market in our price range; we knew we would have to jump on any that we liked. At the end of February, we looked at several homes and fell in love with one and put an offer on it. That experience was nothing like what we see on HGTV! A bidding war developed and we lost the house (possibly to an all cash offer) and it stung.
We kept looking and settled on a new build that appeared to be a great investment. Our offer was accepted two days before we left for Costa Rica. Note: It is not recommended to try and buy a home when you know you are traveling out of the country! We returned to a load of tasks to complete for the underwriter/mortgage company and we prepped for an April 15th close.
This past week, a series of events occurred in which we wondered if a body was buried on the lot next to ours and the outside inspector we hired wrote up a 30 page inspection report and flagged numerous code violations.
When I was driving the area a couple weeks ago, I saw something strange on the lot next door; I showed it to my husband and told our realtor about it the day of the inspection. We dug to get to the bottom of the creepy sign mystery and (thankfully) learned it is not a grave marker!
We quickly backed out of the contract (whew!) and revisited a house under construction that had never left my mind. In the course of 24 hours, we backed out of a contract due to discovering fraud and put a contract on a different house! Fingers crossed that it will be our home in a couple of months!
We still have to vacate our apartment since we had ended our lease early but we got an extension of a few weeks. Since there is a gap between when we move out of it until the house closes, I had to find us a place to live. VRBO to the rescue! I think I found a place to rent for a month.
When I was driving the area a couple weeks ago, I saw something strange on the lot next door; I showed it to my husband and told our realtor about it the day of the inspection. We dug to get to the bottom of the creepy sign mystery and (thankfully) learned it is not a grave marker!
 |
| Seeing this on the lot next door was just a little freaky! |
We quickly backed out of the contract (whew!) and revisited a house under construction that had never left my mind. In the course of 24 hours, we backed out of a contract due to discovering fraud and put a contract on a different house! Fingers crossed that it will be our home in a couple of months!
We still have to vacate our apartment since we had ended our lease early but we got an extension of a few weeks. Since there is a gap between when we move out of it until the house closes, I had to find us a place to live. VRBO to the rescue! I think I found a place to rent for a month.
How do I cope with all this crazy, stressful stuff? I run and workout!!! Running and other forms of exercise I do (pilates, barre, yoga, kettlebell) I feel are are gifts from God during the trials of life. I am grateful to have an outlet for relieving stress during weeks like this.
Next big decision--- What treadmill to buy!
Next big decision--- What treadmill to buy!
Saturday, April 9, 2016
The Maze 30K Race Report - Free Ice Baths!
Hi y'all! I hope you had a fantastic week. I am catching up on writing about last weekend's fun running "The Maze 30K."
We are in the middle of buying a house and last Saturday was spent running errands and sofa shopping; Saturday night and at 5am Sunday when I woke up, I felt I had a million things to do and I felt guilty for spending Sunday morning running and almost bailed on the race. Running is my way of dealing with stress and I am glad I got the mental break I needed by doing the race.
In December I signed up for Austin's Rogue Running Trail Series. I planned on training and building my long run up to at least 18-20 miles. That did not happen as I hoped since other things (ie. shopping for a house and sleeping) took priority. In California, trails near my house did not have trees and many did not have rocks but they had climbs of 500-2000 feet; here trails are flat but have rocks and tree roots. After destroying my ankle and dislocating a finger on a rocky course several years ago, I am not a fan of rock or other tripping hazards (including my own feet!). So, I know I need to spend more time on TX trails to adapt.
Since my trail running has been limited, I knew the race and distance would be tough. My other recent long run, a 15 miler, was my 2nd 15 miler since taking a forced break for about half of last year; I was nervous about running 30K since I knew I had to pick up my feet (instead of slogging along....) for longer than that.
I set one big goal for The Maze at Walnut Creek Park-- to finish without getting injured! My plan was to run slowly and focus on lifting my feet. The race director's email mentioned water crossings, so I was prepared for that and mud. I looked forward to exploring more of Austin's trails.
The course was three loops of the 10K course. I am typically not a fan of repeating loops but I enjoyed it because I learned the course hazards and it helped me pace myself. It was cold for Austin at the start and my fingers were number for the first 1.5 loops.
The ice cold water crossings (2 per loop) became short ice baths for me; my feet were number afterwards and it took a lot of concentration to avoid tripping and falling. I joked with another runner that the course had free ice baths. The course was EXTREMELY well marked, which was much needed since it was constantly winding and no trails were marked in the park.
I paced myself well and each loop took about 65 minutes -- slow for me but the water crossings and being super cautious to avoid tripping over rocks and roots made better safe than sorry totally fine with me. I forgot my camera so I did not capture any pictures during the race but that was probably for the best since snapping pictures while running can be a recipe for face planting.
The finish line was very low key-- cross the finish line, take off the timing chip and have the opportunity to grab tacos under the pavilion. The next race in the series is in a couple weeks and I know I will not be running much the next two weekends, so it will be interesting to see how well I survive it. No matter what, I love spending hours on trails!
We are in the middle of buying a house and last Saturday was spent running errands and sofa shopping; Saturday night and at 5am Sunday when I woke up, I felt I had a million things to do and I felt guilty for spending Sunday morning running and almost bailed on the race. Running is my way of dealing with stress and I am glad I got the mental break I needed by doing the race.
In December I signed up for Austin's Rogue Running Trail Series. I planned on training and building my long run up to at least 18-20 miles. That did not happen as I hoped since other things (ie. shopping for a house and sleeping) took priority. In California, trails near my house did not have trees and many did not have rocks but they had climbs of 500-2000 feet; here trails are flat but have rocks and tree roots. After destroying my ankle and dislocating a finger on a rocky course several years ago, I am not a fan of rock or other tripping hazards (including my own feet!). So, I know I need to spend more time on TX trails to adapt.
Since my trail running has been limited, I knew the race and distance would be tough. My other recent long run, a 15 miler, was my 2nd 15 miler since taking a forced break for about half of last year; I was nervous about running 30K since I knew I had to pick up my feet (instead of slogging along....) for longer than that.
I set one big goal for The Maze at Walnut Creek Park-- to finish without getting injured! My plan was to run slowly and focus on lifting my feet. The race director's email mentioned water crossings, so I was prepared for that and mud. I looked forward to exploring more of Austin's trails.
 |
| I love the T-shirt! And no, I did not wear it during the race. |
The course was three loops of the 10K course. I am typically not a fan of repeating loops but I enjoyed it because I learned the course hazards and it helped me pace myself. It was cold for Austin at the start and my fingers were number for the first 1.5 loops.
 |
| Near the start of the race |
The ice cold water crossings (2 per loop) became short ice baths for me; my feet were number afterwards and it took a lot of concentration to avoid tripping and falling. I joked with another runner that the course had free ice baths. The course was EXTREMELY well marked, which was much needed since it was constantly winding and no trails were marked in the park.
 |
| All smiles on loop 1 |
 |
| Still smiling on loop 2 |
I paced myself well and each loop took about 65 minutes -- slow for me but the water crossings and being super cautious to avoid tripping over rocks and roots made better safe than sorry totally fine with me. I forgot my camera so I did not capture any pictures during the race but that was probably for the best since snapping pictures while running can be a recipe for face planting.
The finish line was very low key-- cross the finish line, take off the timing chip and have the opportunity to grab tacos under the pavilion. The next race in the series is in a couple weeks and I know I will not be running much the next two weekends, so it will be interesting to see how well I survive it. No matter what, I love spending hours on trails!
 |
| I forgot to get a post-race picture but this will suffice. |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)