Giant Mushroom Forest

I shuffled my way around Lady Bird Lake on Friday afternoon. When I say shuffled, I mean it. I resorted to a "run 1/4 mile, walk 1/4 mile" strategy to get through 10 miles. After my typical personal temper tantrum/meltdown at mile 2, I realized... What do they call the person who finishes last at Ironman? An Ironman. Yup.... I really really do not care if I walk this damn race. It was nice to come to terms with that. I mean, really come to terms. It's all about finishing this thing... enough with the pressure already.

Acceptance felt pretty good, and it made the remaining 8 mile journey much more enjoyable. But the best part was at mile 9.5 or so, when I stumbled across the Giant Mushroom Forest!
In case you don't plan on stopping to check out WHY there are 3 giant mushrooms growing roadside in the park, here are the details. This piece is part of Austin's Art in Public Places program, specifically for this year's Texas Biennial. So. Freaking. Cool.

From the artist:
Giant Mushroom Forest is part roadside attraction, part stage set, part garden statuary. Public sculpture is always an encounter with something unexpected in the real world. In this case, the oddness of the art experience is itself a metaphor for other odd experiences, symbolized by those iconic fungi. The piece is made of concrete and metal lath over a foam armature and weighs roughly 2000 lbs. All the materials came from Home Depot. It took about three weeks to build it in my back yard in Houston. Stay tuned for the life-sized wooly mammoth.