Karen Saenz and “Team Amazon” win division in Zilker Relays

I am a proud husband this morning after attending the Zilker Relays in downtown Austin last night.  Karen and her team of tall and fast ladies claimed their Open Women division title.  Each member of the four-person “Team Amazon” blazed through their 2.44 mile leg in under 15 minutes,  with a sub-one hour total time for the team.  They beat out 20 other teams in their all-women division and shared the spotlight with other team division winners which included running giants like Bernard Manirakiza and Chris Kimbrough.  For complete results of the race, visit Run-Far results.  I posted Karen’s team results below:

1    Team Amazon                               100       F/31      4      58:51.6     6:02/M    9.760
            Karen Saenz, Caroline Newman, Vanessa Kelly, Anna Seals                   
                                                      Lap   1      14:34.6     5:58/M    2.440
                                                      Lap   2      14:54.0     6:06/M    4.880
                                                      Lap   3      14:52.9     6:06/M    7.320
                                                      Lap   4      14:30.0     5:57/M    9.760

The Zilker Relays is one of the uniquely Austin events which brings together Austin’s active community and serves as a kickoff to a Labor Day weekend full of Austin-area events.

Improved access out of East Austin!

I am excited to hear that the city is finally making Cesar Chavez two-way through town.  Before today, getting from the Holly St area to Mopac/Westlake involved either taking 6th street, a complicated combination of Cesar Chavez/2nd Street, or another mix of Riverside and Barton Springs Rd.

As East Austin becomes more mainstream, access continues to improve.  Making Cesar Chavez a two-way thoroughfare will help bottlenecks at many intersections on current alternate routes, greatly improve traffic flow through downtown, create another crosstown opportunity between Mopac and I-35, and provide the growing East Austin community with better access to West Austin and the Central Business district.

Personally for me, it is going to give me a better commute to the Keller Williams office which helps me better serve my clients.  Kudos to the city for this latest move!

2008 Texas School Ratings are Out

The yearly Texas Education Accountability Ratings have been released.  Search by county at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/perfreport/account/2008/countylist.srch.html.

Many well-performing Austin area schools continued to maintain their positive ratings.  The highly regarded Eanes ISD improved to a full slate of Exemplary ratings for all schools in the district, including Westlake H.S.  Notable also were several elementary schools in Austin ISD that improved from Recognized to Exemplary.  I was disappointed to see the UT Elementary on the eastside dropped from Exemplary to Recognized.

Families with children typically consider school ratings as a primary factor in choosing a new home.  More and more, though, buyers without school age children are asking about school ratings.  This is especially important in softening real estate markets as school districts can play a big factor in an area’s real estate values.

Good listing agents also know how to leverage school ratings in marketing homes for sale.