Happy Thanksgiving!!

Hmmm... last post was in July and now it's November.  I guess it has been a while...

This year Ramadan began on the 20th of July.  I think I flew out sometime around the 23rd to go to Dubai to visit my friend Robin from high school.  (Her company was flying her out there for a few days for work.)  Dubai during Ramadan of all times would probably not have been the safest choice for us to meet up again for the first time in over 20 years but I must say that we both behaved ourselves quite nicely, and neither of us were arrested for any reason.

I flew into Dubai at around 11:30 PM and arrived at the hotel at 12:30 AM and it was crazy humid there.  Everyone wanted to see my abaya, (a very common occurrence when I go home) and then they all wanted to try it on... which is not so common an occurrence. (This may have had something to do with drinking... but who knows for sure?)

 I'm sexy and I know it!

 But those chin snaps don't look good on anybody!

We mostly went to malls and stuff but this is one of the beaches off the Palm.  You have to know someone to get onto this beach!!  Yeah, Robin knows the important people!

Good times!  There were other pictures... some of which should be destroyed... but she has them and she never sent them to me so.... that was Dubai.

Then I went home (to the US) and Matt arrived about a week later because we were supposed to buy a condo which was supposed to close on August 2nd.  While we got a lot of stuff done, and we managed to move our stuff out of storage in Sacramento to the general vicinity of the new condo, we didn't end up closing until much later in August.  Weeks later!  The dates are all fuzzy now.  But at least we finally closed!  So then I was super busy trying to get all the furniture moved in and get locks changed and all that sort of stuff.

But it wasn't all work because my other friend, from my other high school, bravely came down to visit me in the new condo.  And in between appointments with AC guys, and garage door opener guys and such, we managed to have a pretty good time!

Red Rock Canyon is only about 15 minutes away from our new place! I am so going running there!!

And speaking of running..... I returned to Saudi the day before the first race of the season.  It was a 5K and it was at 4:30 in the afternoon.  When we left the compound at around 3, the thermometer said 43C which is about 109 degrees and believe me it felt like it.  Having just arrived the day before I was a bit jet lagged but I still survived. Barely.  It took me just over 30 minutes to complete it and afterwards I had to sit down.  Yikes!

The second race was a five miler (which turned out to be about 4.7 miles) and while it was still freaking hot, it was at least in the AM so it wasn't unbearable.  My official time was 43:05.  Not bad for the beginning of the season.

The third race was a 10K, but I was losing my voice and was feeling like I was coming down with something so I decided not to run.  Probably a good idea, but evidently it didn't help because two days later I came down with a full blown flu and was completely out of everything for about 2 weeks.  After about 10 days I was able to do a walk on the treadmill but felt exhausted afterwards.  

As a result, by the time the first 10 miler of the season came up (2 laps of 5 miles each) I was only able to complete one lap and my time was terrible! (52:52) I managed to jog another couple of miles afterwards but it was very hot that morning and shade was limited so I called it quits.  But Matt finished! 

The second 5 miler was 2 weeks later and I managed a time of 45:37 and I was really pushing it. Since my training had really taken a downturn I was perfectly happy with it especially since I managed to beat Matt at the very last second!  

After that, I decided to ramp the training back up and I was doing really well until (in addition to a full week of classes) I did a 10 miler.  The next day I was exhausted and took a rest.  Then I got sick again! What the heck??  So I finally gave in and gave up all classes for a week and only did 1 maintenance run that week.  When I felt better I did an easy 4 miler.  Then yesterday I did 8.  We have another 10 miler coming up tomorrow so I am hoping to finish it this time!  All in all, I feel much better but still not 100 percent.  Any plans I had of completing a marathon this calendar year have been tossed!  It is simply not going to happen.  And I think I am OK with that.  

But I did manage to get a half-marathon in with Andrea over the summer.  We did the America's Finest City half-marathon, and even though it it was in San Diego it was still HOT!!! And crowded!! But fun!

At this point we had already been up for about 3 hours and we still hadn't even started! I think it was about 89 degrees for the majority of the race.  Such fun!

And that is what I have been up to.  Happy Thanksgiving!!!!  We went to the American Embassy for Thanksgiving brunch and the food was very good.  Although it didn't really feel like Thanksgiving.  Perhaps that's because my mom doesn't usually blast Gangnam Style during dinner.  But who knows.  There's still time!!