Return to Normalcy

Who's to say what normal is. When school started back up in September I was complaining to my son about the traffic and how I missed the normal traffic. He reminded me that there is no normal. There's either school traffic or summer traffic, who's to say summer traffic is normal? Teenager!

At the very least maybe I will get back on track with my training, I've got a marathon in less than 3 weeks.

It has been two weeks since I posted. I've been busy at work but not really keeping up with the running schedule. Here's a quick run down of the happenings in my running world:

Saturday, September 29: Tyler was home for the week between terms. He always likes to find a race to do when he's home. I found a fun 5K, the Huntington Beach Surf & Sand 5K. It is run at 6:00 p.m. on the sand at low tide heading north from the pier. We had to run about a mile to get to the start. We parked far and were running late. Tyler worried about running on the sand. Tyler wanted to try to run this one on his own so at the sound of the gun I took off. I finished in 24:44 and Tyler broke 30:00 for the first time at 29:12. Very cool for him. I was happy with my time since I hesitated a couple of times in the race wondering if I should have waited for Tyler after all. Add the fact that I ran my last 20 miler earlier that morning in 3:04. Lisa and I also celebrated our 23 wedding anniversary that day. The cruise was pretty much our celebration but we did go out to dinner the following night.

I took Sunday, the 30th, off from running.

I finished September with 150.1 miles even with the low mileage cruise week, continuing the steady increase since the crash in May.

Monday, October 1: I did a 5 mile trail run in Bonelli, finishing in the dark. It is that time of year again. It was kind of fun, kind of scary and sad for the end of another season.

Work wise I've spent all my time getting ready for the Latin America Sales Training. Last Monday our team took the red-eye to Panama City, Panama. The 6+hour flight was followed by a 2 hour drive out to the all-inclusive resort where the training was held. There was nothing else around. I made it through my portion of training on Wednesday. I think it went pretty well. The sales teams first language is Spanish obviously but they all understand English well. My only language is English. Besides product training one of our goals was making them aware of resources, and I think we accomplished that. A secondary goal of the regional manager was team building and fun. I am certain that goal was accomplished. I was able to get in two runs around the complex and on the beach for 30 minutes Friday and 34 minutes Sunday.

The training team was treated to a tour by boat of the Panama Canal. It is a fascinating engineering feat. I had Internet access during the meeting so while things were going on in Spanish I took advantage of the time to keep up with all of you.

Monday, October 8: I returned home at 2:00 a.m. (4:00 a.m. Panama time) this morning.
I ended up taking a vacation day. I was just too tired to go to work and it was a beautiful day. I caught up on some things at home since I had been gone for a week and most importantly I headed over to Bonelli for my 5 mile loop at 4:00 to take full advantage of the daylight.

Tonight at 8:00 we had to flip back and forth between Dancing with the Stars and the Cleveland Indians/NY Yankees play off game. Yeah Indians. I don't follow sports too much but we do keep up with things when the play offs come around. Besides it is always fun to support the old home town team. I do feel for Joe Torre though. His sense of normalcy looks like it will be taking a new direction with this loss to the Indians. About DWTS, can we terminate Wayne Newton's contract, please?!

Anyway, 17 days to the Marine Corps Marathon. It won't be a PR by any stretch, but it will be a very memorable marathon, no doubt.