weekly wrap: 9.3.17 – 9.16.17 (hurricane edition)

Happy Monday!  It’s time for the Weekly Wrap with HoHo Runs and MissSippi Piddlin, !

I didn’t post anything last week, for the simple reason that we were pretty much in the throes of Hurricane Irma, including the preparation and aftermath. Things were pretty intense and crazy, but we got through.

Brace yourself for the last two weeks of my life and training.
Sunday – rest

Sunday, Funday! We went to a friend’s house for swimming and BBQ. It was lovely hanging out with some of our favorites.

Monday – RunJax Labor Day 5K. 

In the morning, I drove up to Jacksonville for the Run Jax Labor Day 5K. While it was hot and humid, I ran my fastest 5K since my injury. It was incredibly encouraging.

Afterwards, we grilled at home and had a nice meal with my parents.

Tuesday – rest

With the coming of Irma, people were very interested in shopping for supplies and getting themselves together for the impending storm, making work pretty quiet.

Afterwards, I had a Cub Scouts leadership meeting, where we discussed the plans for our first meeting of the year as well as some upcoming campouts. I am feeling more and more part of that group, which is nice.

Wednesday – 5.2 miles, running

I changed up my run day to Wednesday and got in a solid five miles.

Work was fairly quiet again. Irma continued its relentless trek towards Florida and people seemed way more interested in stocking up on supplies or evacuating. Preparation is key for hurricanes, so I was glad to see it, even if it did make things pretty eerie.

Thursday – 3.4 miles, running

I made the attempt to get back on track, but I was behind schedule so I could only get in 3.4 miles. Not so fabulous, but I had things to do.

The rest of the day was spent doing errands. I had work for PTA, and we needed more supplies for the house. Traffic was awful from all the people evacuating from the southern parts of the state.

Mr PugRunner and I had made the decision to stay put, but things were getting hairy. The school district had called for early dismissal on Thursday, as well as closings on Friday and Monday.

Friday – rest

Since we were home for the day, I organized a mommy-child movie trip. The weather was nasty and drizzly, so it was lovely to get some friends together to see The Emoji Movie. (It wasn’t as awful as I expected, either).

On our way home, we realized that no one felt the cooking, so we invited the husbands to join as at our local Mexican restaurant for some tacos and margaritas before the storm.

It was a great way to blow off some steam and relax a little. I think we all benefited greatly.

Saturday – 2 miles, running

My intentions? Good. Solid. However, the incoming Nor’easter had other plans. I got through almost two miles before I got caught in a heavy downpour. Fortunately, S went driving by and was able to snag my phone and get it to my house before it got soaked. She also treated me to my last Dunkin iced coffee in more than a week.

This was our last day of preparation, and we were in the zone. We had a friend and her two little boys coming to ride out the storm with us, and my parents wanted to pay a visit with my cousin (there is a lot of downtime before a hurricane which leaves people with lots of extra time and nervous energy).

We got everything ready to go, with little breaks to let the kids outside when the weather was decent.

Sunday – rest

The weather was pretty icky, and we spent a good portion of the day glued to the television. By midday, the outer bands had reached us, and we kept an eye on the weather reports from across the state.

Things deteriorated throughout the day. At around 8:30, we had a tornado warning, with the alert to take shelter. We all squeezed into our laundry room, ready to close up, but fortunately, the tornado lifted about six miles from our house. A little too close for comfort.

Mr PugRunner, little man and I slept on air mattresses downstairs so we could keep an eye on the news. The pugs approved.

Monday – rest

Our power cut out at about 1:00 AM. We had been keeping the house at meat locker temperatures leading up to this big moment, so it was tolerable through the rest of the night, even for the pugs.

The winds and rain continued through the morning, finally clearing around lunch time, when we were able to go out and survey the damage.

We were lucky – besides the power, the worst we suffered was some flooding where the canal came past our fence line in one corner of the yard. Fortunately, we had another 25-30 feet before the water would have reached our house so we just had to wait for it to recede. There is also a tree that is going to need to be cut down.

Others were not so lucky. Flooding was a huge factor and the power outages were extensive.

Also nice was that the weather was cooler and breezier than normal. We were able to keep our windows open and get some decent circulation, which made everything so much nicer in the situation at hand.

Tuesday – 5 miles, running

School was canceled for Tuesday, and later for the rest of the week. Many of our schools are used as shelters and there were areas of our town that were not ready for the return of residents.

Even though I knew I would be stuck with a cold shower, I ran my five miles. It was a great way to get out some stress and energy.

That night, just as the weather started getting to the point of uncomfortably warm, the power came back in our neighborhood. I felt ready to take on the world.

Wednesday – rest

It was finally back to work for me, and that meant a long day of getting everything back in place. Not too awful, to be sure.

We also had to come to terms with the fact that our vacation to Islamorada for our friend’s 50th birthday would not be happening. The Keys were flat-out closed due to the level of damage, and we were heartbroken for everyone who had no idea if their homes or business had made it through the storm.

Our Cub Scouts Packmaster reached out that afternoon to let us know that a friend of hers had donated some food and she wanted to set up a cook out to offer to families who were still lacking power. Between what was donated and what other scout families brought, there was enough food to feed almost 80 people. The kids were amazing, assisting with everything from food prep to serving without complaint in the heat, and I was really impressed that the pack pulled it together so quickly with such great turnout

They were even treated to a visit from some of our local firefighters, who were more than happy to load up some plates!

Thursday – 5 miles, running

I woke up a little later for this run. The mornings had been way too early and I really wanted to “sleep in” a bit. I also got to run through some “snow” – crushed ice that someone was discarding from after the storm.

Then it was time to start getting the house back together. Stores were still pretty low on supplies and gas was reported to be tough to find, so I figured we could clean and do laundry. I was pretty thrilled for the opportunity.

Friday – rest

Since I wasn’t leaving town, I was available for our PTA meeting at one of my teammate’s houses. A lot of things on the calendar had to be postponed or canceled so it will take quite some time to sort it all out again.

We braved the mall with my mom afterwards, so I could pick up some things for scouting. The place was slammed and I was a stressed out wreck trying to get a parking spot for lunch and get back on the road. Ugh. Since everyone was out of school, and in some cases work, it seemed like they all came for a day of shopping, food and air conditioning. Completely understandable but the streets were a mess.

Saturday – 8 miles, running

Much as I didn’t want to, I had to get these miles in. My running buddy wanted to join me for five or six, so I got up extra early to run two before I got to her house. It was a struggly run, with my hip aching a little and around mile 6.5, I just couldn’t catch my breath. We ended up walking a bit, and I was grateful for her patience through it.

I needed to be home on the early side because we were taking a small family trip to Orlando. Most of the hotels had emptied out as evacuees and stranded vacationers were able to leave the city, so we figured we could use a little break from reality.

The Mariott Orlando World Center was a perfect relief from everything. Our room was ready when we arrived, so we put on our bathing suits and spent the entire day chilling at the pool. Little man had the waterslides and made a new buddy, there were huge TV screens so Mr PugRunner could watch football, and I was able to read with a mojito in hand.

After a hibachi dinner, we went back to the pool to enjoy the nightly laser light show, and I’m not ashamed to admit we were all sound asleep by 10:00 PM.

 

 

It’s been a rough two weeks. We are familiar with the devastation of hurricanes (you can’t live in Florida and not understand the fury of these storms), but having two terrifying storms in back-to-back years is a lot to bear. According to Slate.com, our area wasn’t expected to be hard hit, but ended up in the top five areas of greatest impact. Not a fun statistic. Once again, I reiterate that we were incredibly lucky regardless, but I’m hopeful the rest of the season is quiet.

How was your week in training?

Have you ever been through a hurricane?