• 2019 Race Schedule (so far):
• 3/24 Oakland Running Festival (more to come)
• 4/28 SLO Half Marathon
• 5-4 Wildflower (Thanks BibRave)  Canceled
• 8-11 Oaktown Half (Thanks BibRave)

Honestly, fiasco is the nicest way to describe last week. If there was something that could go wrong or screwball it did. I feel like I unintentionally dared fate to come at me. I take it back! I don’t know what it was but I take it back!

Monday and Tuesday weren’t bad or if they were the rest of the week overshadows them. My foot was aching again so I knew I was likely only going to get in one run before Surf City on Sunday. That run was Wednesday and I really needed to run off some stress and clear my head. I ran the work route directly after work and made sure I had all my lights but I really needed that sunset view. And I got it. I had a pretty decent run and was feeling better when I arrived back at my car. Where I proceeded to stretch a bit and then promptly lock my key in the DAMN CAR!

It was completely dark and it was getting cold. I stared at the Knuckle Light, pepper spray and phone still in my hands like I could will them to turn into my keys but no luck. You idiot! I may have mentioned work’s proximity to the police station in town before but it is only one door down. So off I went to use the after hours phone to ask if they could help me. Nope. Told me call a locksmith. Grrrrr. So I called my parents who as it happens were just sitting down to dinner. Crap. My dad knew what I had done the second I said I had done something stupid. He was able to get my spare and bring it to me but work town is 45 minutes from home town. I was still stuck sitting on a curb. Again, my own stupid fault. I had texted a coworker just so I could tell someone of stupidity and she was nice enough to come back and let me hang in her car while I waited for my pops to arrive. Some people are awesome. I now belong to AAA.

Then Friday rolls around and I head to Penney’s after work to pick up a quilt I had ordered to finish off the room re-do. The parking lot was dark, wet and mostly empty but there was a man working on his car. I thought that was weird as there was a parts store and Wal-Mart at the other end of plaza that would have made more sense. He sort of followed me into the store which also made me a little paranoid. Once inside, there was a one man being helped by the cashier and another shopping. The man behind me spoke with the man shopping. See Fallon, no reason to be paranoid. I asked the other cashier for my catalog order while the shopping man kept piling clothes on the counter. The employee helping me went to the back to get my order and the one helping the other guy took him over to the dress shirts. Meanwhile the other man still looks like he is browsing clothes and his friend had left. All of sudden I hear rapid foot steps and he is running past me carrying all of the clothes from the counter and a few more. What the hell? Is this really happening? He barrels out the front door and I just stood there in shock. The employee comes back with my order and I was like “dude, you just got robbed!”. She just sighed and said it happens more often than you would think. Wait, what?!

Then, Saturday arrived and it was time to head down to Huntington Beach for Surf City! Except while most of the country has been dealing with mountains of snow, California’s been blasted by heavy rain. Which is great as we are drought ridden and the water is needed but also bad because fires. The fires leave burn scars that can’t handle that much water and we flood or worse- mudslides. We were about 20 miles outside of Santa Barbara when we got the alert that the 101 was flooded out and would be closed indefinitely. Ummm, crap. There’s really no way around or if there is it was likely flooded too. So we turned around and backtracked an hour to pick up a rural highway that heads east to the I5. The I5 though open was a mess. It was pouring rain, visibility was nil and we passed so many wrecks and bad ones at that.

I missed the expo, what should have been an 5 hour drive turned into 8ish. Thankfully, Surf City allowed other people to pick up your bibs as long as they had your QR code and a photo of your driver’s license. The other BibRave Pro’s were already there and Christine offered to get my bib and shirt for me. Lifesaver. I was able to meet her at her hotel and pick up the items. Then it was off to my hotel to check in then find dinner and try to decompress from the stress of the day.

Sunday- Surf City Half Marathon
Recap to come.

16.3 miles for the week. Slowly going in the right direction.

How was your week?

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