The Night Run and New Things

Ouch ouch ouch ouch... Last night was the Vienna Night Run. I did it! But I am incredibly disappointed in my time. I was sure I would have beaten my Women's Run time but it was not to be. I also think I could have pushed myself a little bit harder but I was kind of distracted by the absolute gorgeousness of the Ring at night.

Oh look, the Twin Museums, oh look Parliament, oh look the Rathaus, oh look Votiv Kirche. Vienna's Ring is like the 5k equivalent of a Jimmy Choo store. Last night was a beautiful night to run and I am very glad I participated! I do regret, however, the pizza I ate before the race. A friend and I have been thinking about this race for a while and a few weeks ago she suggested we stop for an early bird special at her favourite Italian restaurant Da Capo a few hours before the run. Pizza is my everything so I responded with "Capital idea!" 

After work we stopped for a couple of glasses of wine and pizza and that was a big mistake (not for her though, she beat everybody). I still have not digested that damn pizza. CURSES! After an early dinner, we headed to my place to change and get nervous. I did point out that it was incredibly strange for us to be hanging out, in the evening, not drinking. At 7 we walked down to the Hofburg Palace. We still had plenty of time to kill before our start time at 8:50. We did note that people were warming up by getting a run in... before the race? It was obnoxious... This is a FUN RUN. Do not make me feel bad for not breaking the 30 minute mark on the 5K. Ugh.. Crazy runners. My friend and I decided to check out the start of the race. It was exciting when the countdown started. It was so amazing to see visually impaired runners with their guides run past. It was terrifying to see how EFFING FAST some of the runners were. Like full out sprinting!! My friend pointed out that our faces looked like this:

We soon met up with the rest of our team, joined our starting block. I tried not to vomit and off we went. I was the last to finish on our team (Go me!) and then we headed to Molly Darcy's for a beer. That truly was the best beer I have ever ever had. One drink and we were all ready to head home. This morning the Kid had another freak out. He is getting a cold.... again... He is currently in his bed, talking to himself in his own language. The Husband will stay home with him today. I will get ready for work slowly if I can regain the ability to walk. The good news is that I have no pain in any of my muscles yet my arches have decided to go on strike. I just took some Midol which I have no idea if that will help but at least I won't be hormonal? So that was the Vienna Night Run. While I am disappointed about my time, I am pretty proud of the fact that I have done 2 runs this year. Back in February, if you had told me I would be paying to actually run for fun and not running because a velociraptor was chasing me, I would have called you crazy.

And in other news... I am very excited to announce the Autism in Vienna Facebook page I started yesterday. Already there are close to 90 page likes and I have received many messages from parents and specialists and friends and I am overwhelmed! I am so excited that we are building a community! I am hoping to have our first parent wine night at the beginning of November and I hope to set up monthly workshops/informational evenings with specialists. I hope that we can create a network so that no parent will have to go through what we had to the past 2 years. The Autism in Vienna network is open to anybody and while the focus is autism, it is an inclusive group. While it is currently in English, I will be translating (the Husband will be translating) aspects of the page into German. The more people we can get involved, the better! I am already meeting a couple of parents tomorrow and I hope to set up a few meetings with trained specialists in the next couple of weeks to discuss courses, etc. I also have a Skype date with an old classmate who is an Autism therapist so yay to Facebook and high school! I feel incredibly blessed to know so many incredible people, to feel so much support and for not needing more than 6 hours of sleep a night. I wrote my ex-therapist yesterday an e-mail with the title "Update" and told her all the things I have been up to. I think I heard the sigh from across the city. She started the e-mail with "When I saw the title update, I thought oh she is busy again. I did not expect this busy!!" Heh, she really knows me. 

So to recap, if you are a parent with a child with autism, or involved in autism in anyway, please sign up with the Autism in Vienna page. There will be updates about events as often as possible. Also, drop me a line at tmspatz@gmail.com if you want to chat or pm me. I am incredibly excited! 

Today is Wednesday and the last day of September... if I can still walk tonight, I will be starting to bring the Halloween decorations over from our friends' basement around the corner. I am excited to get started and I figure I need to do as much as possible now because I have a feeling October will be crazy! I wish you all a fantastic day