Our Guamazing Adventure

Having a husband deployed to a BOAT presents its own unique set of challenges, most specifically communications. There, there naysayers, I realize I am incredibly fortunate in that he is not on a submarine and that this isn't World War I. However, in all fairness, the wives of the WWI boys probably couldn't quite wrap their heads around the notion of the world wide web.

First, some background: I just became an "online chatter" (sounds so scandalous!!) last week. Chris saw one of the hip young aircrew instant messaging (is IMing a word?) with his girlfriend, so Chris signed up, and happened to see that my brother has IM. Chris sent brother Blaise a message, and voila. So now I too have an IM screen name and we have chat dates. Now it's no video conference ala skype, it certainly pales in comparison to a phone call, and it lacks the well-thought-out long love emails/letters of yesteryear ($5 if you can use that in a sentence today without busting out laughing), but it's immediate, it's him, and it's awesome. I digress.

Herein lies my challenge. We had a "chat date" last night at 9:00 my time. He signed on a couple of minutes late, but we were able to "talk" for about 30 minutes before he mysteriously disappeared. I know they're having email issues, and in all fairness he is on a boat, somewhere in the middle of an ocean, but poof! Gone! We had already arranged for same time tonight, and it's now 52 minutes past date time. So... if adhering to the social etiquette proffered by the song the Gambler, at some point you have to know when to fold em, know when to walk away, know when to run... right? What point is that??? When do you pop the Nyquil and call it?

In other news, day 2 of training - WOOP. I started reading a book that my friend Crystal brought to me today - The Non-runners Guide to Running a Marathon, and the authors talk about how mental a marathon is. They suggest that the first step is to tell people you're doing it (check!), so you have the accountability. I took that one step further and decided to buy the CLOTHES to look like a marathoner... I should admit she gave me the book well after we went shopping at Guam's only real pearl of a store - Ross Dress For Less (sad in and of itself), but regardless - I look at this as a pivotal moment in my training. I bought really fabulous running gear. Do you SEE the commitment? I KNOW!!! I am now the proud owner of various running shorts and shirts. I even bought a pair of pink Asic shorts that say "New York City Marathon" on them... does it get better than that? Let me rephrase: Does it get better than that on Guam? If you've spent more than 10 minutes here, you too will know that the answer is absolutely not.

Day 2 required a 2.5 mile run. A little ambitious on my part, setting the old incline on the treadmill (it was no less that 167 degrees here today, the treadmill was going to have to do) anyhow, (focus) incline at 2.0, and trying to run at an 8:00/mile pace. That lasted about 1.2 minutes. By the end I was running at negative 0.5 incline (so I guess that's more of a DECLINE, but there will be downhill parts of the course, right??) at a 12:00/mile pace. This should be a true testimony that if I can do this, anyone can. Seriously. Anyone. Your grandma could do this.

More tomorrow... it's now 61 minutes past date time and I think it's time to walk away...