Texas is crazy hot. You can drink water at the aid station, but you may also find it’s better applied directly to your head. Water bottles dropped on the trail can be used as cooling devices. A still-warm-in-its-wrapper bacon McMuffin dropped on the trail likely makes the strangest item you’ll ever turn into the lost-and-found table. You can run as fast as your friend’s 14-year-old son through the wildflowers, but he’s still getting the nifty burnished birch coaster. Wearing a fake coyote tail is cool, but make sure all the kids get their tails before you ask for one.”Watch your paws” means the new trail on high ground away from floodwaters goes over freshly mowed prickly pear. Crazy Texas showers bring crazy gorgeous Texas flowers.

Wildflowers at Clear Creek Natural Heritage Center. Photo by Runner Susan Sullivan.