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Well, I'm back safe and sound after perhaps the most enjoyable week of my life on the Island Paradise of Vieques.  I wish I could put into words the awestruck look on all of our faces as we climbed out of the jeep and saw that from my aunt and uncle's winter home you could simultaneously see both the Atlantic and Carribbean.  A fun-filled, jam-packed week of beach hopping and being the "Gringos", but it was definitely worth it.  At first I wasn't sure what to expect, as it took us 31 hours to get to our final destination.  Tip that I learned:  NEVER FLY UNITED!!!!  We woke at 2:30 am on January 3rd and headed off to the airport and checked in at 4:00 am for our 5:40 boarding for a flight to Dulles Int'l in Washington, D.C. only to find ourselves kept on board for more than seven hours because we were kept in the dark about a "sticking valve" on the plane.  Needless to say they let us off for five minutes because they were ordered to do so by law, but then they told us to reboard because we'd be on our way.... riiiight this was at 10:00 am.  We ended up finally getting airborn shortly after 1:00 pm, just "slightly" delayed from our initial departure.  Well they attempted to 'cool' us if you can call it that with a 10 dollar meal voucher and a 20% coupon off a future flight with United. All I can give to them is a big one finger salute.  We finally landed in San Juan, Puerto Rico at 11:35 PM local time, and as the last plane from San Juan to Vieques left at 5:30pm, we were stuck.  And furthermore, they wouldn't rebook us until 5:30 the following day, plus add to that the fact that they would not pay for a hotel room for us...  So there we were in San Juan, in a hot, sticky, airport surrounded by people we didn't know, forced to make the best of our situation.  My mother, sister, her boyfriend, Emma, and myself, paced the halls of the abandoned airport, and then gave in to our sleep deprivation and formed a makeshift bunker fortification just in front of the agricultural and security check-ins, with 3 rows of cheap, worn out airport chairs and our luggage as walls.  In the morning, we all decided we just wanted to get out of the stupid airport and all the junk that United had forced on us.  So we coughed up $80 for a taxi to the ferry and ended up in Vieques around 1:15pm.  From there we tried to forget the bad part of the trip thus far, and got on to enjoying the "Island Life".  I can't believe how breathtaking and absolutely amazing it all is.  And I cannot wait to go back.  I truly see why many people enjoy traveling.  To be able to walk barefoot on a beach, or run through the incoming tide, the waves crashing over you, waves of grainy sand just completely engulfing you in the moment... truly the trip of a lifetime.  I was sad to leave, but glad to get home and hopefully back on track from the "lazy" week I had.  Much to my dismay and I suppose in retrospect it was actually funny... our flight on United was "delayed" - aka overbooked (their fault, not ours seeing as how we made our reservations for our flight SIX MONTHS AGO!!!)  Luckily we got put on a different carrier and road US Airways to Charlotte, North Carolina where we ironically met up with two kids from my town! (this coming from a town whose high school has about 70 kids per grade!) What were the chances!?! Needless to say, US Airways gave us no problems, and I was happy to have a nice flight and read more of The Terror.  My mom is going to write a complaint letter and hopefully we get a voucher for another flight, because it truly is not fair to put up with the airlines shortfalls, when it was their own negligence that caused us to have both a crazy start and finish to our trip.  Looking forward to a run tomorrow and then to the 25k on Sunday!

Got some running/walking/swimming in this week.  Total Mileage ~ 5 miles.

9:30 AM - Zipped up my long sleeve shirts and laced up my new sneakers from Christmas to head out for a run today.  Wasn't sure what to expect with having a week off and not being used to the cold again.  I am sure that I've lost a good deal of the fitness level I had going into the Hangover Half.  But I am sure I'll get back there with a couple weeks of good running.  Had a lot on my mind and with the fiasco yesterday with Dad's stress test and my mom getting pulled over on the way to get him for it for speeding, I was in an I-really-really-detest-state-troopers kind of mood.  I had to chuckle a little though when I hung a left out of our road and saw a car come up over the hill by Waterwheel Village (The Waterwheel is a small country store located right in a valley between two 1/2 or 2/3 mile long hills going up in either direction; a kid was hit and killed here a couple of years ago right across the street because cars come barreling down going 60 or 70mph; This when the state Rte. Speed Limit is 55, with a yellow 45mph warning sign for the stretch coming down through the valley). Well this car comes barrelling up and you can hear it before you actually see it.  Then about two seconds later comes this State Trooper SUV with its lights on and pulled the guy over right at my road.  I don't know what is up with the cops, but I really feel they should do something better with their time like catch the real criminals, and I know we have a lot out there.  Have to allot for extra time to go to work tonight.

There was a pretty strong wind today about 12-15 mile per hour.  I felt alright, was trying to hold back and stay steady because I know tomorrow is going to be a long run.  But I didn't know how I was going to take it.  I mean I knew I would be out of shape, despite all the walking, swimming and jogging I did at the beach.  But I was kind of disheartened at the same time when I realized I was in fact going slower despite a steady effort.  Still overall pretty easy effort.  Oh well.  I guess that's the sacrifice I made for going on vacation.  Getting psyched about grad classes.  Going out to grab some supplies today.

Total Mileage:  8.11 miles   Total Time:  1:08:20  Average Pace:  8:25

ugh. Just got out of work.  It's 11:58PM... Going to go take a six hour nap and then up to run/jog a 25k race. Joy.  Note:  Saw 3 cops on the way to work today and 1 on the way home.  They need to get a life!