Lance Armstrong Knows How to Raise Money for a Great Cause.....But With Logistics? Not So Much...

We are back from beautiful (and sunny and warm!) Austin, Texas y'all! We had a blast - what a cool ass city. We've been to Austin several times before and my husband is secretly dying to move there so when we decided to have a fun weekend getaway without the kids, Austin was our first choice. The LIVESTRONG Challenge happening was an exciting bonus. Just before we left, I have to admit I was regretting signing us up for the events because I knew we wouldn't be able to live it up at night like we normally would - the 5k for me was at 7:30am on Saturday and the bike race for Jason was at 7:30 on Sunday - but I'm really glad we did. It was a truly awesome experience. The people were incredible. And the turn out at the bike ride was so inspiring.


Lucky for us, our hotel was downtown and actually right on the 5k course route so we were able to walk over to the starting line at 7:15 thus avoiding all traffic and parking issues. It was a cool morning, perfect running weather. The race started just a tad late because of some kind of course issue but it was no big deal. The course itself was fun and actually very challenging - who knew how hilly it could be in downtown Austin! I wish there were mile markers on the course, but other than that, no complaints from me. I even got a PR of 22:49 - woot!

After the 5k, we walked back to the hotel to get all cleaned up and then it was time to go tailgating at the UT football game! We were close enough to walk to the stadium and get our drink on then headed into the stadium. The atmosphere was fantastic and the game was awesome; we were super excited to go to a game when they were sitting pretty at number 1 in the country! After the game, we headed down to 6th Street to grab some dinner then we went back to the hotel. The bike ride was scheduled to start at 7:30 on Sunday morning but it was a good 50 minutes from downtown so we had to crash early.

So. Yeah. We left the hotel very early as instructed and all was fine until we were 2.9 miles from the event parking. They sent us down some random one lane dirt road that led to another side road and it literally took us one full hour to go that 2.9 miles!

Once we got to where they were parking cars, the real disarray was showing. The parking attendants looked totally freaked and shocked at how many cars were coming in. They kept running around and sending cars to different side dirt lots - I don't even know how to describe it other than total chaos. It was unreal. I've never seen anything so unorganized. I have no idea how they couldn't have realized how many cars would need to park!

Finally we got our spot then we started walking - just following other people because there were no signs and we were obviously not at the high school where the starting line was. We saw a school bus near the road and it looked like people were wandering toward it so Jason flew up there on his bike. Turns out it was a shuttle for spectators. I ran up there and jumped on and said to the driver, "Sorry! I didn't know there was a shuttle!" He just stared at me. Seriously. Didn't say a word! Just glared. He looked so annoyed.

Jason rode off to find the start and we sat there for about 10 minutes. Finally he started driving and only then did I realize just how far we were from the high school. I cannot believe that in all the emails LIVESTRONG sent out, they never once mentioned a shuttle service. There were a ton of spectators walking and I'm sure they missed the start because of it. We could hear the dispatcher over the radio bitching about everything from parking to people to traffic. At one point, she even said, "Did anyone give this thing any thought at all?!" The driver dropped us off at the opposite end of the school around back from where the start line was. Didn't say a peep, just dropped us and drove off. We all kind of stood there for a minute because we had no idea how to get around to the other side - there were bikers flying around everywhere and we were obviously in the staging area for them.....there were several rides: 90, 65, 45, 10-miles....so it was really packed back there and kind of chaotic. We found ourselves dodging bikers. Very unsafe for us and them and I'm sure beyond irritating for the bikers. I eventually got my way round the front and started to take pictures.

Once my irritation wore off, I was able to take it all in. It took my breath away. I cannot believe the amount of riders! They did the 90-mile start first and it took about 15 minutes to get them all across the start line. Then they did the rest of the rides with 5-minutes between each wave. It was quite a sight! Jason rode the 10 miler and I was excited that I actually got to see him cross the starting line. Then, 38 minutes later he was back (blue shorts guy in photo below; isn't he hot?!). Big smile and totally excited. He loved it and is already talking about doing the 45 miler next year.


We didn't stick around because at that point, there wasn't much going on. I'm sure it got fun later in the day when more booths opened up and more riders came in. Oh, then I had the fun of trying to find a shuttle again. We went around to the back of the school where I got dropped off and eventually a bus showed up. I had to describe the lot I was in and she looked pretty clueless. She snapped, "Just get in, we'll find it." Okay then. Another woman on the bus said to the driver, "I started walking then thought maybe there would be a shuttle somewhere. None of the volunteers seemed to know anything about it." the bus drive growls back, "Yeah, well, this is pretty unorganized. I don't know who put this thing together but it's awful." Oh boy.

So, note to Lance: You raised a ton of money for a very worthy cause and because of that, we will participate again, however, you may need to hire a better planner.