Tropical Paradise?

This blog post comes to you from the tropics of British Columbia.  Seriously, the weather here is so damp and humid.  It's crazy.  Never had something like this before.

Actually ... there was this article in the paper the other day: Woman's banana tree grows fruit - in Surrey?  Really??? Banana's don't grow here ... EVER!!

Saturday morning we awoke to a heavy drizzle that just didn't want to let up.  I had plans to go for a long walk with a friend.  Finally late afternoon we headed out and as we pulled into the parking lot ... the rain stopped.  We took the doggies on a nice long walk (at least 10K over hilly terrain).  The sun even peaked out for a minute.  But it was so humid.  While it wasn't a basic walk in the park as it had some pretty good hills, I was sweating like I'd been running a half marathon on the hottest day of the year.  Sticky!

After the walk, we headed to Tim Horton's and moments after we got our drinks ... the skies opened up and it just poured.  Couldn't believe our luck.

Later that night we had the most amazing thunder & lightning storm.  The lightning came about every 10-15 seconds and went on for hours.

Sunday wasn't much better.  Off and on drizzle all day, just very light, but it was super warm.  After delaying for as long as I could finishing a few important tasks, I headed out for my planned 'long' run.  I had planned 8 miles and was fully prepared to stop as much as necessary.

Unfortunately I left it a little to the last minute and had to cut the run short to take my daughter to work.  During the old days, I would have had more than enough time.  But these days I require more stretch/walk breaks.  Even before I got to my first mile, my shins started hurting pretty bad and I needed to stretch for a good 10 minutes.  I REALLY need new shoes again.  These one's don't have alot of running miles on them, but I have worn them alot and one shoe is squeaking from a small hole in the air cushion.  Probably not ideal!

Funny thing ... I came back from my run and managed to gasp out to my husband "SEVEN TWENTY SEVEN".  He responded, "WOW, good, that's under 8".  HUH?????  He thought I meant my pace was 7:27/mile ... not that I'd run 7.27 miles.  Yeah right!  Not even in my best days did I run any kind of a distance in a 7:27 pace, maybe a single mile, but that's it.  My fastest race pace (on a 5K) is only an 8:01.  With the shape I'm in these days, I'm pickled as a pig in a pancake shop to be anything under a 10:00 pace.  I have no idea what he was thinking!