We got to San Antonio on Saturday, with the race on Sunday. After a nice lunch, we headed to the expo in the Alamodome. The Rock ‘n’ Roll series is a very large race series, so they were expecting at least 20,000 runners. The expo was kind of insane, taking up the entire Alamodome floor. We probably spent two or three hours just wondering around looking at all of the stuff.

After the mile walk back to our hotel, we just kind of collapsed for a couple hours. We were waiting for Whitney’s friends to get into town and make it through the expo. One of them was running the half marathon and one was running the full. Neither sounded like fun to me.

We all got together for a nice dinner. I tried to eat fairly light food, because running on a stomach full of last night’s greasiness never works out well for me. We headed back to the hotel and turned in for an early night.

The alarm went off bright and early at 5:00 a.m. The weather was cool and misty. The humidity was high, but the temperature made up for it. All in all, it was a perfect morning for a run.

We found the corral Whitney and her friend were in. There were people everywhere. It’s hard to imagine 20,000 people until you’ve experienced it. We waited for a port-o-potty for a good twenty minutes (and there was a huge line of them). It was disgusting, and I’m glad Whitney told me to bring Kleenex. Ew.

After that, I left Whitney and went to the relay transition point at mile eight. We got there in time to see the half marathon and marathon leaders run by. They were running around five minute miles and looking like they were out for an easy jog. Must be nice.

I knew Whitney was going to be running faster than her usual pace, but she still surprised me when she entered transition. She was flying! I took the drum stick (our relay baton) and headed out. The amount of other people on the course (the “traffic”) was huge. I was constantly running in a mob.

My first mile, when I was still hyped up on adrenaline and excitement, was my fastest ever at around 12:39. I was feeling good. Starting into the second mile I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep the pace, not if I didn’t want to die of a heart attack.

By now, the sun had burned off the mist, and the temperature was rapidly climbing. It wasn’t so bad in the downtown area, where the buildings blocked most of the sun, but once we got out into the residential areas, the heat was brutal.

At one point, a woman sideswiped my arm. I didn’t think anything of it and kept running. Time tends to stretch when I’m running, and a minute takes forever, but I run until my interval timer in RunKeeper tells me it’s time for a walk break. This interval seemed interminable.

I finally broke down and walked. I checked on RunKeeper to see how long I had left in the interval, only to find that the woman who brushed against me had managed to shut down RunKeeper. I must have left the screen on in my haste to get started, and she hit the screen perfectly to turn RunKeeper off. I restarted it and kept on.

By mile four, I was paying for my earlier exuberance. The sun was fierce and the people around me, most of whom were running the whole half marathon, were slowing down. I had a permanent side stitch from running too hard early in the race.

As we closed in on the Alamodome, I started to perk up. This misery was almost over. In one final attempt to break us, there was a steep hill just before the mile 13 marker (mile 5 for me). I tried to run it, but only made it halfway. I was spent.

The last tenth of a mile was a straight flat run to the finish. I was tired, but no way was I not going to run across the line. I started looking for Whitney and Dustin in the massive crowd lining the street. By a stroke of luck, I saw them both, and that gave me the extra motivation I needed to sprint to the finish.

Crossing the finish line was amazing, mostly because it meant I didn’t have to run anymore. Staffers were handing out medals and wet towels. The temperature had climbed into the 80s, and I was drenched in sweat, so a cool towel felt heavenly. There was a crush of people trying to exit the finish chute. I managed to get a drink and some food. The crowd spit me out, and I met up with Dustin and Whitney.

The walk back to the hotel wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I got to shower and clean up thanks to a late checkout. I put my medal on over my normal clothes. I worked hard for that medal, and I was wearing it for as long as possible.

We had burgers and fries for lunch. Nothing had ever tasted better. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped by the Alamo and took pictures with our race medals:

Overall, I had a PR for the mile and the 5k. My pace, 14:48, was a PR for a five mile run, and one of my fastest for any distance.

A huge thunderstorm blew through early race morning, complete with heavy rain and lightning. Thirteen minutes before the half marathon was supposed to start, the race was cancelled. The 5k was also cancelled, even though it was an hour and a half before it was scheduled to start. There were no refunds and the race was not rescheduled.

We were told we could pick up our champagne glass and chocolate at a downtown hotel. The pickup was madness, as hundreds of women all converged on a bar attached to the hotel. It must have been all they could pull together at the last minute. We had champagne and chocolate to celebrate our non-race. It was kind of depressing, especially because the rain had stopped, and it had turned into a nice day.

Overall, See Jane Run can’t be held responsible for the weather. However, there were a few other issues, including a lost pallet of race stuff. That wasn’t their fault, but the way they handled it, encouraging people to contact a specific person at FedEx by listing both his phone number and email address, seemed kind of sheisty.

It was only after I agreed that I realized the race started at 6:00 P.M. Now, Austin is known for many things, not the least of which is the sizzling summer heat. It’s been 100+ degrees for over eighty days this summer. At 6:00 P.M., the sun hasn’t set, and the temperature hasn’t dropped out of the triple digits. All of my running up to this point had been done in the miserable-enough eighty degree pre-dawn hours.

For weeks Whitney assured me that the temperature would come down. Week after week of 100+ degree heat didn’t dissuade her. And, sure enough, Monday of race week, the forecast for Friday (race day) was 93. It was a miracle. However, the miracle didn’t last. All week the forecast kept climbing, until it culminated in a race day temperature of 102. One. Hundred. Two.

To add insult to injury, while I was running my Thursday morning practice run, I got sick halfway through. I barely ran two miles before I had to give it up. I tried going to work, but went home defeated after half a day. I had a stomach bug I couldn’t shake. I slept for five hours Thursday afternoon and woke up still sick. That did not bode well.

Friday, I woke up feeling better, but only slightly. I munched on crackers all day and ate the lightest food possible. My stomach behaved, but it was still up in the air if I was going to be able to run.

After getting ready at a teammate’s house, I ate half an energy bar and sipped water. I felt okay, but not great. I was determined to run unless I wouldn’t be able to finish, so I kept a close watch on my body. I was running the third leg of the race, so the temperature was supposed to drop to a downright chilly 97 or so by the time I had to start. My stomach thanked the gods that I wasn’t going to have to run in the sun and hottest heat.

While I was waiting my turn, I got to watch the other teams compete. Let me tell you, the Zilker Relays are fierce. The first person to come in did it in under twelve minutes. Two and a half miles, under twelve minutes. My mind boggled. I was hoping to run it in forty minutes or less, especially with the sickness and heat. The fastest team could almost finish the entire race in the time it took me to run my leg, never mind the time my teammates would take.

Around the fifty minute mark, I saw Whitney approaching. She was the second leg of the race, and that meant it was showtime for me. We high-fived, and I was off. I had my phone tracking my run, playing music, and giving me interval information. Or so I thought.

I started faster than I should have, but I was hyped up on adrenaline. What no one mentioned was the fact that after about a quarter mile, the course took a vertical turn. The hill was steep and long. I kept at it, waiting for my five minute interval to finish so I could walk for a minute. I was wheezing, but stubbornness kept me going.

Finally, close to the top, I couldn’t take it any more and decided to admit defeat and walk. I had given myself a side stitch, the first one I’ve gotten since I started running. My interval timer app failed me; there was never an indication to walk. I didn’t take the time to fix it, so I walk/ran the rest of the race based on how I felt rather than a timer.

My first mile was fast, faster than my training, but it took a toll. I couldn’t shake the stitch in my side. Another hill, not as steep, but just as long, slowed me down. I fought through the second mile. Dustin and Whitney were cheering at about the two mile mark. I got a brief burst of energy, but I still had to run the final half mile.

I saw the fourth member of our team waiting for me at the finish line. All I had to do was make it to her, and then it would be over. It was the longest shortest distance ever. I crossed the line and someone removed the timing chip from my shoe. I forgot to stop my tracking app, so I knew my time was around thirty-eight minutes, under my forty minute goal, but I didn’t know exactly what it was.

I walked around and tried to catch my breath and get rid of the stitch in my side. By the time our fourth member finished, I was feeling better. There was an after party with free tacos and beer. I made a plate of tacos, then promptly thought better of it. I ended up carrying them home, because I couldn’t trust my stomach. No go on the beer, either.

I drank a couple bottles of water and Nuun (an electrolyte replacement drink) and called it good. When I got home, I ate a Nutrigrain bar, showered, and collapsed into bed.

Overall, I wouldn’t recommend it as a first race. It was short, which was nice, but it was hotter than hell and there were some very elite athletes. Everyone was super nice, so that was amazing, but our team of fast, moderate, moderate, and slow runners came in close to last.

My official time? 36:53.6. Booyah!*

*Yes, I’m aware that’s still slow as hell.

However, writing is also hard. Daily writing is a habit, and it’s oh-so-easy to fail. Habits need accountability, reinforcement, and encouragement. This is where a writing group becomes invaluable. My group consists of five women, including myself. We’re all interconnected, through work, existing friendships, or both. No one in the group is published, and though we’d like that to change, we write because we enjoy it.

Because all five of us have dark hair and Apple laptops, we have been humorously dubbed the “Brunettes With Macs Write Better” group. We get together for a couple hours once or twice a week to eat dinner and then write. It gives us a chance to commiserate about the tough times, rejoice in the good times, and be sociable while also increasing our word count.

Even though the group is highly informal, just knowing I am going is often enough to get me to put words on paper. We don’t guilt each other for not writing (well, except for the occasional good-natured ribbing). We meet in order to be lonely together, which is a whole lot more fun than being lonely alone.

If you’re a writer who is tired of being cooped up in your house, I highly recommend joining or starting a writing group. It doesn’t have to be formal or rigid, a group of like-minded friends is good enough. Just make sure that social time has a set time limit, such as while you’re eating dinner, and writing time actually happens, or you’ve created a social group instead of a writing group. Which is fine, but it’s not going to help you write your novel any faster.

Well, they all had the high honor of meeting me this past weekend. I know they must have been pretty excited, but they managed to play it cool and professional. I even let each of them scribble in some of my books. I’m awesome like that. :)

Dustin and I spent last weekend in Houston, or more specifically, at book signings at Murder By the Book, an independent Houston bookstore. We originally saw that Patrick Rothfuss was going to be there on Sunday, so we figured we’d pop over for the weekend and get our books signed. In a stroke of luck, both Patricia and Kim (am I the only one who feels weird calling famous people I’ve met once by their first names, like we’re pals now?) were signing on Saturday night, so we went over a little earlier and spent Saturday at Murder By the Book, too.

The turnout was crazy. The bookstore is fairly small, so if you go to any of their signings (and they have a ton!) make sure to get there early. We barely got a seat for Patricia and Kim and we arrived two hours early. For Patrick we arrived before the store opened on Sunday and there was already a line. They were expecting over six hundred people for his signing.

Overall, the bookstore was very nice. The staff was super awesome, even though I know they must have put in some crazy hours. If you’re in Houston, you should definitely check it out.

Here are a couple pics we took.

Patricia Briggs and Jessie

Patrick Rothfuss and Jessie

Jessie and Kim Harrison

Patrick Rothfuss and Dustin

When Dustin and I decided, back in 2009, to upgrade to the iPhone 3GS, we also decided to consolidate into a family plan. Unfortunately, AT&T does not let a family plan contain phones with two different area codes, which meant my old MO number had to go. I’d kept it around to let my family call me without long distance, and I was reluctant to part with it.

At the time, it seemed like Google Voice support for number porting was right around the corner, so I needed a cheap way to park my number until that happened. Phone.com was exactly what I needed. Cheap and easy, it forwarded calls from the old number to my new number. Piece of cake.

Fast forward nearly two years and–finally!–Google Voice supports number porting. But there’s a catch. It only supports porting from a mobile provider, and Phone.com definitely doesn’t count. ARGH!

Here’s how I got around the limitation for $15, plus the Google Voice porting fee.

Step 1: Buy a prepaid TMobile phone. I got my lovely Nokia from Walmart for $14.95. It had $3 in prepaid credit. Do not use the phone! You don’t want to use up your credit or you’ll have to add more. I got a terrible number that rang all hours of the day and night. I just muted the phone and ignored it. If you must check the voicemail, use a different phone.

Step 2: Activate the phone. There was no way to port when I activated online, but you may be able to combine steps two and three if you call.

Step 3: Call TMobile and ask for the Landline Transfer Department. Just asking to port your number is not good enough, at least it wasn’t for me, as I found out after a three day wait. Ask to port your Phone.com number to TMobile.

Step 4: Wait. It took two days to transfer from Phone.com to TMobile. I waited an extra day after the transfer was complete, just to be sure. If it takes longer than two days, contact Phone.com about the status of the port.

Step 5: Log in to Google Voice and start the transfer process. They didn’t ask for my TMobile PIN when I was entering the form, but they sent an email as soon as I submitted it that required me to update the information. Kind of a weird process, but whatever.

Step 6: Wait again. The port to Google Voice took almost exactly twenty-four hours.

Step 7: Cancel your Phone.com account. Porting the number does not automatically cancel the account. Donate or sell the TMobile phone, because it was deactivated when the port happened.

Friday was the Writers’ Workshop.  Before the workshop started, I sat and talked to Rachel Caine for probably ten minutes before I introduced myself.  When she said her name was Rachel, it finally clicked on why she looked familiar–she was the guest of honor.  I then had that “I’m sitting next to someone famous” moment, but she was very cool when I turned all fangirl on her for a couple minutes.  I’ve read the first two books in her YA Morganville Vampire series and they were fun, fast reads.

The writers’ workshop was awesome.  There were four other aspiring authors in my group, and the group was led by Gordon and Ilona Andrews.  Gordon and Ilona are very nice, very cool people.  They gave me great feedback on the story I submitted.  Some of it was critical, but it’s what I needed to hear to be able to see the story through their eyes.  They also said some very, very nice things about my ability, so that was awesome.  I even got a mini shout-out on their blog.  The Jessie in the second paragraph… totally me.  ::dies::

Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday were mostly panels.  I took a bunch of notes but haven’t even started to process everything yet.  All I know is that my To Be Read list just got a whole lot longer.  The con was smallish, but it was a nice size because it felt intimate, like a group of friends getting together to talk books.  I guess I was basing my perspective on A-Kon, which is freaking huge, but I was expecting more people.

Sunday afternoon, thanks to the urging of the greatest husband on the planet, we got to hang out and have a drink with Gordon, Ilona, their friend Reece, and Stina Leicht (who also organized the workshop).  I totally wouldn’t have went over to talk to Gordon without Dustin’s urging, because I never want to be “that girl” that bothers people.  That fear coupled with my seriously introverted nature almost guarantees I avoid talking to strangers, almost-strangers, and especially almost-strangers-that-I-really-admire.   However, Dustin talked me into it, and I compromised by saying I’d just go say thank you and then leave.  A couple hours of chatting later, I realized it was getting late and we really should leave this time.  It was amazing!

It turned out pretty good except that the vast majority of people we talked to during the day didn’t get the reference.   “Dr. Who?”  “No, Dr. Horrible.  Yes, it has Doogie Howser in it.  Yes, it’s funny, I promise.”

The write-in was at Dragon’s Lair, a local comic book/game store and I’m happy to report that the people there are much cooler (they recognized us).  These are my people.  :)

A pic:

The Doctors Horrible

You’ll notice that I’m missing the pocket.  I made it, I was just too lazy to sew it on last minute.

The tally so far is three years, two failed XBoxes.  The good news is that this XBox lasted just over two years (and died just outside of our Best Buy warranty period, boo!) where our last one lasted about a year.  Assuming this trend continues, we can expect four years from the refurb Microsoft sends us.  Hopefully.

This is a huge PITA for us because it means our XBox will now have to be sent into the void that is Microsoft.  The current estimate for repair time on their site is fourteen to twenty-one days.  Are you kidding me?  While this is better than the six weeks it was going to take back in 2007, it’s still crazy.

I’ve read the failure rate is something like fifty percent.  FIFTY PERCENT!  They should have this down to an art at this point.  If you include shipping time, it means we’ll be without an XBox for a month, right when we want to play Halo ODST.

It’s just so damn frustrating.  We love the XBox–the games, online play, and extras are fantastic.  However, we HATE the hardware.  Last time it was a freaking nightmare to get it setup so I could still play the games and expansions we had bought with Dustin’s account.  This time that won’t be the issue, but I’m sure something else will come up.  It’s bad enough that we’re about ready to jump ship and buy a PS3.

A picture for posterity:

I decided to participate this year because I’ve been thinking about writing a novel for a while.  It was a bit difficult since I started November 1st with just a vague idea for a story and no outline, but I managed.  I had to average 1667 words per day to get all 50,000 finished by the end of Novemeber.  I did it, I won!

My badge of honor:

Here’s an excerpt from the not at all edited and not even quite finished novel:

I was shocked awake by a hellacious pounding on the window next to my head. I jumped out of bed, brandishing the wakizashi like a baseball bat. I’m not quite sure how my addled brain remembered to grab it at all. The first thing I noticed was the sunlight streaming through the window. The second was a livid Nicolae burning holes into me with his eyes right outside said window. I shrank back, even though his eyes weren’t glowing red anymore they were just as scary this morning.

He motioned toward the front door and stalked off. I hesitantly unlocked my bedroom door and limped to the front door. My right knee was stiff this morning and my arm was still a bit sore as well. I unlocked and opened it to find a still furious man standing right in front of me.

“You revoked my invitation,” he gritted out.

I stood stunned that my silly idea had actually worked. “You mean that actually works?” I asked. “Vampires or evil or whatever,” I waved in his direction, “can’t enter without an invitation?”

“Yes, now if you would kindly invite me in, I would appreciate it.” The words were bitten off in anger.

I looked at him. I’m not sure inviting a furious vampire into my one sanctuary was such a good idea. He must have seen the hesitation on my face as I felt his power build, though I couldn’t actually feel any of it seeping into the house.

“So help me, Ava McKenzie, if you do not invite me back into my own house I will forget about all promises and you will be fair game just as soon as you step a single toe outside. And since I know how much food is in the house, that will be sooner rather than later.” His smile was absolutely demonic.

I backed away, watching him carefully. I figured now was not a good time to point out that this was technically my house now.

So there you have it.  Let me know if you’d be tempted to read the rest of it based on that snippet.  :)