A Wet, Weird Couple Of Weeks, With A 5K In The Middle

And now here's another post about exercise, combined with a discussion on the weather. What?!, I can hear you saying. Who talks about weather on their blog? BORING. But don't worry...I promise it will all make sense, and it is actually kind of cool news, and actually is relevant to my family news...kind of.

Since September has otherwise been somewhat uneventful, I might as well talk about all the extra moisture we've been having. Those of you who've lived in Arizona will know that late summer (July and August, mostly) are the "monsoon months" where we get frequent afternoon thunderstorms. The monsoon usually slacks off by early September, but this year it's still going strong. This is mainly due to the busy Pacific hurricane season we're currently having. Usually, when a hurricane or tropical storm hits Baja California, Arizona gets some of the residual stormy weather. Over the last couple of weeks, we've had one nasty storm hit Tucson, and we had one near miss by an even bigger storm.

As luck would have it, the first big storm hit right about the same time a nasty virus started traveling through our house. Everyone was hit with it to some degree over the last week, starting with Celeste on Sunday night the 7th of September. Celeste went from "perfectly fine" to "feverish, clutching her head & crying in pain" within an hour. It was kind of scary, so we doped her up, gave her a priesthood blessing, and decided to keep her home from school the next day. The next morning, her eyes were watery and swollen(!), and I decided it was time to head up to our pediatrician in Tucson.

Unfortunately, this is what was waiting for us in Tucson...

...a crazy-huge rainstorm! My Sahuarita friends told me it only drizzled a bit at home, but the city of Tucson was flooded. I've lived here more than eleven years now, and I've only been caught in one other storm this bad.

When the weather report says Tucson gets two inches of rain, most northerners probably snicker and call us wimps. However, what these northerners don't realize is that Arizona streets are not designed to handle large amounts of water at all. The gutters and drainage are incredibly shallow, and lots of city streets are depressed in the middle. What that means is that during heavy monsoons, driving can become very difficult, if not hazardous.

For much of my drive, I had my windshield wipers going at full speed, and could still barely see outside. The rain was so loud I had to shout to be heard. I could hear the water sloshing around my tires, and occasionally run up to my car door (thankfully, none of the water leaked inside). Towards the end of the drive, our van's breaks were waterlogged, and squealed loudly every time I tried to move. Celeste & Aurora were in the backseat crying with worry. I was scared, but also kind of excited...when you live in a monotonous desert climate all year, driving in rain like this feels like a great adventure!

So we made it intact to the pediatrician's office...this is what it looked like...

The water had leaked in through their doors and the whole lobby was flooded. We had to walk carefully, so as not to fall and break any bones (although if we had broken any bones, at least we were right in the doctor's office...). After all that fuss, did Celeste have pinkeye? No. Did she have strep throat? No. The doctor said it was a virus and would have to clear up on its own. All that hazardous driving for nothing! Oh well...we managed to pick up a music stand on the way out of town. Here's what the parking lot of the music store looked like:

It was rainy on and off through the rest of the week. During that time, everyone else got sick. Aurora felt pretty lousy for a couple of days, Lorelai came home with a raging fever one day after school (she never called home...poor kid!!), and Nathan waited until the next Sunday to come down with the fever and leave church early (but not before watching all three of our girls participate in our LDS ward's Primary sacrament meeting program. We were very proud of all of them, and happy they were all well enough to participate).

Out of the whole family, I seemed to be the least affected by the virus. I felt a little wobbly on Wednesday and Thursday (the same time Aurora & Lorelai were sick), but that was about it. Maybe the sickness was mostly psychosomatic, since I was already dealing with a bunch of sickos? At any rate, I felt fine by Friday night (the 12th). Good thing too, since I was running a 5K with a bunch of my friends from my LDS ward!

This was the Color Splash 5K, which involved all the runners getting sprayed throughout the race with glow-in-the-dark water. It was my first 5K with friends, and my first run at night. I was very excited! Plus, the run was being held in Reid Park, a large city park in Tucson that our family used to live very close to. Being there always brings back happy memories. This was to be the first time I'd ever run in Reid Park, and I was very excited to do so.

 

For this run, a lot of my friends brought glow sticks to wear, as a show of solidarity. I've seen groups of ladies wear tutus/fancy hair/etc. at these 5K runs before, but I'd never really done anything fancy with myself. It was kind of fun to change things up a bit. Taralie Loveland even twisted the last few glow sticks into a rudimentary "halo," which she weaved into my hair. It managed to stay together for the whole run! Good job, Taralie!

It was raining on Friday night as well...in fact, our group drove through multiple cloudbursts on the way to Reid Park. There was rain at Reid Park as well; it drizzled steadily up until about 15 minutes until the start of the run. Everyone was a little nervous, since the rain would be likely to wash away our glow-in-the-dark water splatters. Fortunately that didn't end up being an issue.

The weather cleared up just in time, and soon enough everyone was off! For many of us, it was our first run in a long time; for others, it was their first run ever. Either way, it was a really fun group to run with. I had intended to hang back with some of the slower members of our party, but my instincts took over and soon I was jogging off by myself (I usually run alone, so this wasn't a big deal for me).

It felt wonderful running at night, particularly after a rainstorm. The air was cool and moist, and I felt like I had more energy than I usually do during my runs. I particularly liked watching the trail ahead of me, and seeing all the cool neon "bling" everybody was wearing (and getting splattered with!). Best of all, there was a distant lightning storm going on at the same time; every few minutes, I'd see several streaks of lightning criss-cross in the sky. It was an awesome, inspiring "natural light" contrast to all the neon flashiness.

My friend Lexie ran with me for a good portion of the race, before doubling back and finishing the race with the slower members of our group. I am so grateful for her support and encouragement; Lexie is a very fit gal (she regularly participates in triathlons and runs half-marathons), but she is not puffed up about it at all. The night of this 5K, she traveled from one group member to another, chatting and encouraging everyone. I'm happy to report that I shaved about a minute and a half off my time from my last 5K, and I think a big part of it was Lexie running with me!

This was the first time I've made it through the entire race without slowing to a walk; even though I was jogging really slowly by the end, I still managed to keep myself going at that faster pace. It gave me a great sense of accomplishment when it was all over with; in fact, I felt like I had the energy to keep going for a while longer! (That sensation eventually faded; I crashed pretty hard in the car on the way home.)

Overall, a very fun night; I've felt recently that I'm not seeing my friends as often as I used to, now that my kids are all heading to school and all our lives are getting busier. It was so nice to have a girl's night out and catch up with some amazing ladies who I don't see so often any more. They all inspire me in many different ways. I am really lucky to have such good friends as these.

No more rain fell on us as we drove home that night, but the rainy weather hasn't quite left us yet. There was drizzling on and off for the next several days, and for 48 hours this last week, there was a big flooding scare. A few days before, Hurricane Odile had slammed into Baja California, and afterwards the storm front was projected to plow right through Tucson. Weather forecasters projected doom and gloom; local fire departments distributed sandbags; everyone cancelled travel plans; and everyone was glued nervously to their computer screens, trying to track the path of the storm. The school district even cancelled classes for Thursday, September 18th. I got the call announcing the cancellation as the setting sun was shining in my window. Truly a bizarre moment!

And, after holding our breath for a couple of days, Sahuarita (and Tucson) got hit with...not much of anything. The massive stormfront abruptly shifted east and moved away from us. All we got was several hours of light drizzling in the morning, and then...nothing. At least the weather had cooled off! We had a nice day off from school, having friends over to play and eating pumpkin chocolate-chip cookies that I'd baked (the rain had me in a "fall" mood).

I won't lie; I was kind of disappointed that the "storm of the century" that everyone had predicted passed us by. I should probably be grateful, instead, that we avoided the destructive flooding that hurt other parts of Arizona & New Mexico. I hope those cities that were hit by the hurricane leftovers were able to recover quickly. But I still hope we get some more rain here in Sahuarita! The extra moisture has been really needed down here this year, and the cooler weather the rain brings has been much appreciated as well. It is helping get me excited for the change of seasons (such as it is, in southern Arizona), and all the festivities that fall and winter brings.