Friday, July 25, 2008

Week 6 Complete (kinda sorta)!


Turtle survived Mexico! What an awesome week of relaxation, sun, swimming, friends, Corona, surf, and oh yeah a wedding! Cabo San Lucas is beautiful. The picture of The Arch is one of my favorite spots. My first day, Monday, I went horseback riding on the beach then took a water taxi to Lovers' Beach and got a tour from the water of The Arch. It's where the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific Ocean meet. Really beautiful.

I befriended wild dogs on the beach. They live on the beach and hang out by the resort at night begging for food. So, the second night there I snuck beef out of the buffet and fed them. Every night I was sneaking beef and chicken in my bag to bring down to the beach. I have to throw out that bag now or I'll have dogs following me all over Chicago.

One of the craziest things I did on the trip was swim with a dolphin. It was at an aquarium at the Marina. The friggin dolphin was 11-feet long and scared the crap out of me! Our trainer started the group out with us sitting on the edge of the water and making it do tricks and stuff. Then she said 'get in the water!'. There the 7 of us were treading water while the dolphin swam around us. I kept thinking what if it's a shark?? I know it's a dolphin but what if a shark got in here somehow. I just kept seeing fin and praying it was Flipper. The grand finale of the encounter was to ride it - either nice and easy breezy on its stomach while it swam backwards or super fast and crazy on its back. Of course I opted for super fast and crazy. So, the trainer sent me swimming all the way across the aquarium. I finally got to the other side and I'm just treading water in my life jacket and she yells at me to put my arms straight out and slap the water with my hands. I'm like okay this is whack - how am I going to get on this thing?? The trainer blew her super annoying high frequency whistle and the dolphin - did I mention it's 11-feet long?? - turns and hauls ass right for me. I was freaking out. The thing swam a million miles an hour bearing down on me and at the last second went underneath me, behind me, turned around and surfaced the water with me on its back. LOL. I was screaming bloody murder. Somehow I grabbed onto its fin and just held on for dear life as he hauled ass back to the other side of the aquarium. It was pretty cool. I survived my dolphin encounter and the thing didn't even hump me, so even better.

The wedding was beautiful. The ceremony was at an old Catholic church in town. A rooster started going off down the street in the middle of mass so that was pretty funny. All of Tracy and Chris' wedding gifts are going to have a rooster theme. The reception was fun. We closed it down at a discoteque at the resort and when that closed we emptied all our minibars and ended on the beach. All in all, a great week, tons of debauchery and laughs.

Oh yeah, I did run two days I was there. I started out well - ran Tuesday and Wednesday but then kind of forgot on Thursday, Friday was a rest day, and Saturday I had to get every last minute of my time before the wedding in the sun at the pool. Since returning to Chicago I came down with the Mexican plague. The only running I've done this week is to the bathroom. Quick trip to the physician for antibiotics to kill whatever is in my stomach and I'm back in action. Keeping my fingers crossed for the 12-miler Saturday. Having only run twice in the past two weeks doesn't bode well. Wish me luck.

A recap of Week 6:
  • Monday - rest day (horseback riding on the beach, water taxi ride to the Pacific Ocean)
  • Tuesday - ran 3 miles (at the pool from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., made friends with a pack of wild dogs)
  • Wednesday - ran on the beach (I would like to say I pranced down the beach of Cabo San Lucas like a gazelle but I looked more like a mule trudging through ankle-deep sand. That crap was not packed so it was grueling. Ran for 17 minutes and it felt like 5 hours. A guy at the wedding said he could only run for 1 minute on the beach because of the sand so I didn't feel so bad)
  • Thursday - slacker & no running (6-hour city tour of Cabo San Lucas and San Jose)
  • Friday - rest day (as if - this whole week has been restful!)
  • Saturday - slacker & no running (wedding and fiesta)
  • Sunday - cross-training (I guess the trip home counts!)

I'm glad to be back home and hopefully back on track!

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