January 21 - Australia: Cairns
Just another speedwork day: Jon's run #49
Sorry, not too much to write about for today's entry. I guess I don't get much of a chance to think on these speed days. You try running 11 or 12 km at varying degrees of difficulty ranging from "just about usual pace" to "quite a few notches above normal" and tell me what great thoughts you've had! You'll find that you can't really focus on world peace or starvation because your spare thought cycles tend to keep returning to the fact that your legs really hurt and you can't wait until you are finally done...and glancing at your watch to see how much longer you have to keep going at this pace. So there you go, I guess I did have something to say after all.We went into work today for the morning "who's working today" meeting, and Horst said he only needed one of us. So Jon and I threw a quick Rock-Paper-Scissors (often the decider of difficult decisions for us), and Jon lost. Fair and square. So I took him to the marina and went home to do nothing all day.
Jon said he was snorkel guide and got a $12 tip from two Swiss-Germans who kept getting sea-sick. Funny how that works. Additional commentary by Jon: We went to Turtle Bay and Shark Mountain today. I had a total of 4 snorkellers, three of whom had never been snorkelling before which means that you-know-who gets to do some hands-on snorkelling! It turned out to be pretty good, once I got two of the women to overcome their fear of making the one foot jump off of the back of the boat and into the water. I told them that since they'd ridden in a boat for two hours to get here they may as well just close their eyes, hold their breath, and just fall forward into the water as if they were walking. It worked! I can see myself as a motivational speaker now, talking hundreds of people into stepping into the ocean...well, if work doesn't pan out when we get home at least I'll have this to fall back on! We did manage to watch two turtles eating underwater for about 15 minutes and even saw a couple of sharks too so the women were quite happy. The other two snorkellers, both men that spoke Swiss-German weren't as lucky. One of them kept getting seasick once he got out in the water and eventually threw in the towel and called it quits and his buddy, being a nice guy, did the same so his friend didn't feel bad. So these two that didn't even get to snorkel very much are the ones that decided to tip!
I'm afraid I don't have anything else exciting to mention for the day. We had "Chilitos" (chili-cheese burritos) for dinner, one of Jon's favorites. I did manage to get to the grocery store for some sour cream and avocados for guacamole.
Boy. That was an exciting journal entry.
To Grandma and Grandpa:
I have to give a big shout-out to my wonderful Grandma and Grandpa, who sent us a lovely "Happy New Year's" note just recently. It was such a delight to get some personal mail from you guys! Thanks G & G! And thanks for reading the journals. Love you, and hope to see you soon!