Hey there everybody. Just wanted to let you know Team Tuma arrived safely in Austin on Friday afternoon after 20 hours of driving over two days.

It’s been non-stop since we arrived. On Friday, we picked up our race materials at the downtown Austin Convention Center. Thanks to all the generous donations to the Lance Armstrong Foundation via my LIVESTRONG Challenge account, I was rewarded with a lot of cool LIVESTRONG stuff, which will make for some nice souvenirs and memorabilia from this trip.

LIVESTRONG Loot

This morning Murray and I participated in the “5k” Run/Walk. That was a fun experience. The energy and excitement from all the participants was contagious. I felt not a single tinge of pain at all on my left ankle, so I was able to post an outstanding time. Granted the event was not a real 5k since the course was only 2.67 miles long. My time for that distance was 17:19, but my pace was the fastest 5k pace I have ever run at 6:29 minute/mile! For about a minute I actually led the field. What an incredible feeling that is to be the race leader and have everyone else behind you. It was surreal. In the end I knew that I could not sustain that lead pace, which was an insane 5:14 minute/mile. In the end, I finished in the top 10 of the entire field and maintained a personal best average race pace.

TexMex lunch with family

For lunch we met up with my cousin and his wife, Ed and Connie. Murray and I are staying at their luxurious vacation home on Lake Travis. Maria, her sister, husband, and my nephew and niece were also able to join us for lunch.

After lunch, Murray and I took a quick tour of the Lance Armstrong Foundation headquarters. What a unique office and top-quality operation. It was very uplifting. Please check out the pictures of that office later. They are very cool.

LAF Offices

To wrap up the evening, Murray and I participated in the LIVESTRONG Challenge Celebration Dinner. My guest and I were invited because I raised over $3000 thanks to your generosity. What an uplifting dinner featuring cancer survivor, Eric Shanteau, Olympic athlete and World Champion swimmer. Of course, we heard from the man himself, Mr. Lance Armstrong two times. He did a little Q & A that was very interesting and also gave us a closing speech at the end of the evening.

Q&A with Lance Armstrong

Tomorrow is the big ride. I’m finally fully amped up for the ride, and Murray and I are excited to dedicate our pain and suffering on the bike tomorrow to Vivien Tuma!