You go and pick up your packet, activate your chip and then stroll around and look at all the running goodies. Shoes, clothes, power drinks, power gels, special displays for your running medal and bib - there was even a table for the Marriott time share in Las Vegas. Its really quite fun to walk around. We finished when our friends, Tom and Sue Ann, were about 15 minutes out so we waited for them. When they arrived, we found a really nice French Bistro in town that was really great about letting us sit for 2 hours to get caught up. The waiter was perfect in getting our food to us slowly. It was great to get caught up.
After lunch we took a nice walk around town - ended up going into a place where I have gotten hot sauces during past trips called the Tears of Joy Hot Sauce shop which is on 6th street. I picked up a little sauce to bring back to New York and am really pleased with the result. They left and Linda and I sat in the lounge and rested up. It was really nice, we met so many nice folks from all over who were going to be running in the race. We went to dinner at the hotel and met some more folks from Canada and Washington State. Then it was time to settle in, race day was to start early the next day. Below are a few shots of some of the sites in Austin. The first is a picture of the Hyatt from the other side of the river - which is the side that downtown is on. The next is a shot of some of the buildings in the downtown area. 
The shot at the bottom is of the Congress St. bridge which is where the race will start early on SundayAll in all a really nice second day to our trip, the question that was still lingering for me all day about my back. I think the walks and some stretching I did helped a great deal. So I felt as though I was ready for the race.
