From a volunteer standpoint, the event was quite well planned.  There was a good amount of scrambling to staff holes and while I was supposed to work hole 1, I ended up on 12 and 14 Thursday, hole 16 Friday and finally hole 1 on Saturday.  I begged off work today as we have sick kids and when I found that most all other volunteers only worked 3 days I had no problem begging off the day.

Thursday on hole 12 found that the hole had been horribly staffed and 4 of the morning marshals had to stay the entire day to cover the hole.  The pros had some trouble on this hole and a number of them hit into the jungle or up onto the road.  This normally wasn’t an issue until the fans decided to get into the fun and began bushwhacking through the scrub and jungle trying to find the ball.  The first time this happened I waited for the closer marshal to deal with the fans, but when the caddie, the pro and 4 fans were deep into trees and jungle, I ended up heading down and pulling fans out of the jungle and sending them back to the pathway.  That particular pro never found his ball.  The next couple times I just immediately left my post and headed down to keep the fans back and away from the pro.  It was a learning experience.  That was a pretty dull day though, with only about 6 of all the pros hitting outside the fairway and I really wished I had a book or Soduko or mosquito repellent.   This was also my first day dealing with the evil TV folk.  This PGA tour is covered by a few local channels but also quite extensively by the Golf channel, and the golf channel employees have an amazing sense of entitlement.  I had a group of pros teeing off when a lady in a golf cart took no notice of the guide rope blocking her path and tried to ram right through it.  When I informed her that she should NOT drive along the path because the pros were teeing off and she was going to be driving through the fairway they were hitting along, she unwrapped the rope from her steering wheel (the guide rope did its job – kept her from advancing) and said, “oh, they’re used to us and besides I’m TV (angels sang at the mention of “TV”) and we’re allowed to do whatever we want to. “  Um, ok.   So she disentangled herself and advanced about 5 inches (because obviously, the pros were hitting the ball over the path she wanted to take).  But daymn if she didn’t get her 5 inches!

Friday, having learned from Thursday, I brought a book, 2 Soduko books, water,  some cereal bars and an umbrella.  I was pulled off 12 that day and placed on hole 16.  I really liked 16 – there were only 2 people manning the entire hole and they really needed some extra bodies.  I soon found why.  The pros were very consistently hitting the ball off the fairway, but still quite playable and I was constantly pulling the guide ropes out of their way and keeping fans away from the ball.  I had no need for Soduko or books that day but I was VERY glad I’d brought an umbrella as it rained and misted a lot of the day.  The pros were very considerate, even around the TV assholes (who insisted on things the pros then declined) and always thanked me whenever I helped them out.  I even taught a Spanish phrase to one of them (but since I know NOTHING about golf, I have no idea who it was).  The hole was so understaffed, however, that I never was able to get a bathroom break that day.  Luckily it was so overcast that I didn’t need to drink much.

Yesterday I was Very prepared with sunblock, mozzy repellent, book, Soduko, umbrella (didn’t need it for either sun or rain), food (they gave us a fruit, cookie and chips for “lunch” each day), lots of water and the desire to get back before nightfall.  Both previous days had me leaving before the kids woke and coming home tired after nightfall.  Today I was determined to get home as early as possible.  Hole 1 was rather boring after all the wild shots on 12 and 16, so I spiced it up by positioning myself between 1 and 3 and helping out the guys on 3 putting into the green as pros walked by after teeing off on 1.  It was a very sunny day and I was able to find shade and breeze but still used every ounce of sunblock I applied.  I was surprised by the low crowds – we had much more traffic on 12 and 16 and if I do this event next year, I’ll be looking for a more “hopping” hole.   The pros were still very considerate and thankful and they really made the event.  And over on hole 1, I didn’t see 1 single golf channel person.  Everyone I talked to was disgusted with the behavior of the TV personnel so I felt vindicated in my distaste.

Today is a lazy Sunday, I was supposed to do a 7 mile run but I’m not sure that will happen until the temperature drops a little.  I think I ran a 9 min mile yesterday but without some official chrono, I’m tempted not to believe my watch until it happens consistently.

On Sunday, Jesse and I volunteered at a 5K race/walk.  We were supposed to arrive at 6:30AM and I ended up missing the alarm and woke at 6:36.  We boogied on into town and I’m really glad we made the effort – they really needed their volunteers.  We were the only ones signaling two essential turns.  I was really surprised at how well it was organized, especially since it was a school putting on the event, it seemed to be put together quickly AND it was their first.  Quite a few families, runners and walkers turned out and the winner was BOOKING!

The community here in PaaMul has been planning an “olympic” games event and serendipitously it came together yesterday.  I had vaguely been following it but the kids really didn’t have any interest (and honestly, I expected it to turn out to be quite simply an excuse to drink to excess) but 15 minutes before the start, they got VERY interested with all the adults dressed up in costumes, chanting and singing.  Each group picked a team color, made up a country name and anthem and flag.  It was VERY entertaining.  The girls both were assimilated into two separate teams and Sissy even participated in the “curling” event.  It was a long afternoon of events and by the end, the kids were STARVING but not about to eat the dinner Jamie had made them when there were hotdogs and hamburgers to be (purchased and) eaten.

This coming Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday I’m volunteering at the Mayakoba Golf classic – I’ll be working on hole 1 on the (US definition) afternoon shift if you’re bored enough to watch the Golf channel.  It is a PGA event and “big names” are coming, but I honestly don’t know enough about golf to really know anyone.  I seriously didn’t even know Tiger Woods was married and I thought he was around 17 or 18.  Go figure.

Then, I decided, for reasons purely of pride, to find Home Depot from where we were instead of going back to the 2 streets we know.  We spent at least an hour driving around Cancun looking for a street we might recognize and finally asked a taxi at a light who was amazed we would be looking for Costco in the area we were in.  We were WAY far away.  Cancun is the only town I have NEVER been able to orient myself in (yes, I did end that sentence with a preposition).  I ALWAYS get lost.  Next time I’m going to draw myself a map from Google and see if that helps.  The streets all curve around and meander and diagonal here and there and I can NEVER get my sense of direction there.  Den of snakes indeed!

So, we’re out in the Middle of Nowhere and we are STARVING, but this is Mexico, so fast food abounds.  We had choices of fresh fruit, horchata de nuez or chicken or ribs.  And this is just from people walking the streets.  We finally decided on a chicken, beans, rice, salsa, tortillas and ribs.  I pulled over, we signaled the guy BBQ’ing and he brought us our order.  Wish I’d taken a picture, but this is so NORMAL I never thought to do so.

The boy’s room is coming along beautifully.  The palapa is FULL of polvo, but it was full of polvo just from all the construction next door, so it really was the perfect time to do construction.  The room is going to measure about 5.2 x 3.1 meters and will be huge.  The ceiling over the dining room and kitchen was lowered (well, not a ceiling but just palapa posts) and the room went up little by little and we now have just the acabado (finishing) mixta and electrical and windows and door.  The boys are getting so excited.  I’m not sure when we’ll start work on Merida – it seems cruel to put this room together for them and then immediately leave for Merida, AND the abanil next door hails from the Merida area and we’re talking about having him do the construction on our house there, so we might be waiting on him anyway.  But first we need to talk to an architect.

Pike is close to testing for his yellow belt but poor Jesse’s knees won’t allow him to do any Judo at all and I’ve been looking for something for him to involve himself in.  He is so isolated and alone now without Judo, and I constantly worry that we’re doing him a disservice living here.  Jamie started riding (bike) again and I’m really proud of him.  Getting back up on that horse was really difficult for him.  I’m still plugging along at running but keep all that chatter over at blogspot. And that’s all the news that’s fit to print.

But Dino is a master palapero and Freddy is an artist with cement, so we signed on, having no real idea what we’d be left with and what it would take to get there.

The first day started with a huge change of plans.  We were going to lower the current support posts that criss-cross the palapa to allow them to support the boys room.  The posts were supposed to live on TOP of the kitchen wall, but it was decided that the cement and blok wall really wasn’t nearly as strong as the post.  You know, I have to wonder if it wasn’t just palapero prejudice against cement.  I bet the abanil would have found the post to be flimsy and the wall to be Herculean.   So we now have all kinds of wood all over the cement walls and they are really, to be perfectly honest, quite ugly.  This is so NOT what I expected.  Pike tried to bouy our spirits yesterday but by the end of the day, even the palaperos noticed it just wasn’t to our “gusto”.

Today the palaperos decided to start putting in the floor of the room.  They also began the process of moving the pasillo (the straight part of the catwalk upstairs) over to make room for the new room.  This was a new development for them, they had no idea that the pasillo they’d removed just the day before would have to be reinstalled in a new spot.  Dino speaks Mayan to the palaperos I think mainly because he knows I won’t understand, but honestly, even “did you see the hammer fall?” in Mayan sounds like an overt threat.  When Dino told the head palapero that the pasillo would be reinstalled it sounded like WWWIII was about to start, but I’m sure it is just the language.   So the guys backtracked and figured out how to install the pasillo in a new spot and proceeded to stick more ugly wood all over the kitchen walls.  Sigh.

So tonight we checked out the flooring they’d begun cutting (but thankfully not installing) and determined that really, we were going to need more than pine planks as flooring.  Tomorrow I’m going to have to insist on triply as a base and pine planks ontop of that.  I just hope the whole damn thing doesn’t come falling down.

In most excellent news, I’m running another 10K this weekend and if the runny nose/sore throat that has been making its way through the family manages to leave me alone, we’ll be once again basking in the Jonna and Mimi colonial.   And in even BETTER news, as a thank-you for picking her up at the airport the other day, Mimi muled my replacement camera down.  I took it to Kilo beach today and put it through the paces and fell in love again.  Unfortunately, it has the SAME problem as the last one, so I’m guessing this must be a user issue, even though Canon tech support said it was a camera malfunction.  Sigh.

So, Cliff Notes version: Palapa remodel – Stressful; Camera back – Life is good!

The AC in the recamera has been on its last legs for a Very Long Time and while we were gone it looked like someone dropped a brick through it.  There is construction going on next door, so who knows.  So, while we were bleeding through the fridge purchase we picked up an AC for the recamera.  Jamie is LOVING the new QUIET and efficient AC but Sissy is wishing for the freezer effect of the old AC.

One of the things I really like about the workout tracking site I use (http://www.dailymile.com) is the “motivation” you can send people.  They have a whole page setup and feed you profile after workout profile with canned motivational sayings and all you have to do is SEND.  It is so sweet and fun to sit and send motivation to strangers.

I’ve decided to track all my running stuff over at blogspot because I honestly don’t want to clutter this up (and I might not be able to handle the training anyway).  The trailer is sinking deeper and deeper on one side and although I very strongly suggested that Dino even it out today it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen anytime soon.  I think I’m going to try and level it myself tomorrow, at this rate the whole trailer is going to crumple on one side.

The nortes have left us for the moment and we’re loving the warmth.  Well, *I* am.  I have a feeling Jamie isn’t really all that much.  Nights are still rather cool though.

I did a quick perusal for a transito and pulled the U turn. Almost immediately a transito appeared and the 4 cars that were waiting behind me pulled their U turns. I guess the flecha appeared immediately after I turned.

So I pull over and as he starts walking up a 2nd transito appears (both on motos). He starts asking for the car’s papers and my license. I play TOTALLY dumb about the car papers because I REALLY REALLY don’t want them taken away. I know my license is gone but I figured I really didn’t have much choice there. I keep playing dumb about the car’s papers and the 2nd transito tells the first, “look at the placa! She’s a foreigner” So the 1st transito keeps going on and on about the cars papers, I play dumb and we talk about the ticket, how to get to the station to pay it, how much longer it is going to be open, how the station will radio him and let him know I’ve paid the ticket and then he’ll bring my license to the station, yadda yadda. He was adamant that he did not have to provide me with a license, that my ticket would be my license until I paid it. (I’ve been told by other folks that the transito is supposed to provide you with a temporary license once they impound your license) So he goes to the back of the van (still running, it’s a diesel) and “writes the ticket”. So far, not ONE IOTA of sniffing for any kind of mordida.

The 2nd transito is chatting me up and keeps going on and on about the papers and finally I say, “You mean this permit?” as I point to the permit stuck to the windshield. His face brightens and he is visibly relieved. He says that the placa could be impounded if I didn’t have that. He asks if it is current (it is) and I tell him I also have an FM3 so it didn’t really matter that it was current. So now he asks me if I want him to give me a hand with the 1st transito and I’m thinking “AHA! HERE is the mordida” but I”m resolved not to pay anything but the infraction but I figure what the hell, I’ll take what I can get so I say, “Sure, buddy! thanks!” and he goes back to Transito no.1 and BRINGS BACK MY LICENSE AND TELLS ME TO BE CAREFUL. I was so shocked that I thanked him and QUICKLY pulled out before they realized they didn’t get the mordida. I totally expected him to race up and pull me over and ask, “didn’t you FORGET something???” but he didn’t. AND, I got directions to Costco while we were chatting. I’m still puzzled.

I have one eye pegged on the side mirrors watching, just KNOWING they must be on their way. We take his excellent directions and make it to Home Depot where we buy not one but TWO ACs, one door, 2 windows and a mirror. While we were shopping some Home Depot dude with a lolipop stuck in his mouth says, “my, that’s a LOT of merchandise you have there. How about a discount?” and takes us over to (I’m guessing the mayorista area) a counter and writes up a bill that effectively removes IVA from our tab. I saw him do this to one other couple and yet another couple walked up to him and did the same. These other 2 couples didn’t have much merchandise – they didn’t even have carritos, so go figure there.

So, what up, CUN? Youse guys are freaqing me out!

I ran my first back-to-back days today.  I’ve never run 2 days in a row as my knees used to not be able to handle the stress.  We’ll see how the week pans out, but so far I’m good.  I have a 4 mile planned yesterday (done), 2 miles today (done), 4 miles on Thursday and 5-6 on Sunday.  I’ve also been scouring the calendars trying to find a race.  I just might make Guatemala my first marathon (assuming I can handle the training) but for now, I’m just looking at a half.

Keep Haiti in your thoughts today – they suffered a horrific natural disaster season in 2008 and while 2009 was better, they were hammered today with a 7.0 earthquake.  If you can afford to help, the Lambi fund is highly regarded and does excellent work.

For those searching on “PaaMul murder”, here’s the lowdown. According to NotiCaribe, “Ben Walker” apparently suffocated his wife and hid her body under his bodega. They had been living here at least as long as we have and while we were remodeling our place we were in frequent (if not daily) contact with the (murdered) woman. Here in Mexico, you’re assumed guilty until proven innocent, so it is looking bad for “Ben”. If the Mexican authorities ever let him go, he has charges of child molestation pending in Arizona, so he has a long, hard road ahead of him.  According to Noticaribe, his defense was that his wife hit her head after drinking, but as of yesterday it appears she was strangled.  I was pretty freaked out when I first heard the news, but really just because our girls were in close contact for about a 6-month period in 2007.  We pretty much stay completely out of the gossip mill here, so I’ve just been going by the newspapers for news.  And honestly, now that I’ve pretty much determined the girls were not in danger, I’m just ignoring it.

I’ve been reliving some of the 10K yesterday and remembered how eerily quiet it was during the WHOLE race.  It was impossible not to get completely blissed out and zoned running down Paseo de Montejo, the entire 6 lanes of traffic to ourselves and hearing only the footfalls and breathing of the other runners.  I’ve run and done triathlons back Before Kids and I don’t think I’ve EVER done any event that was so quiet.  At first it was a bit uncomfortable, but then I just zoned into it and enjoyed it.

It is SO incredibly freezing I can’t even begin to say.  I don’t want to hear about how cold it is in actual snow, but when it is so cold we can’t even eat in the diningroom (outside) you know it is wicked cold.  There is also no such thing as barefoot anymore.  In the land of no shoes, that is not such a great thing.

Tomorrow I start on week 5 of pre-marathon training and I still haven’t decided on one single training program.  By the end of the week I should, but I just found Runforlife and have more options to try out.  I really should pick a marathon to shoot for and just be done with it, but I’m really not sure.  I found out today that the Lala marathon (March) is supposed to be super fun and then there is Disney which is a blast (Jan) and then IF we go to Hawaii (scatter ashes) there is Kona (June) and I just don’t know…

We headed out late Saturday afternoon (after judo and a dentist appointment) and the boys stayed behind to take care of the Sugden cats (but I suspect more to play unlimited Xbox 360 games).  I’d researched the run and since the registration was only $10 (0.80 US CENTS) I really didn’t expect much.  I figured I’d pretty much be on my own, no water, no aid stations and probably not even a marked course.  I drew myself a map, zipped it in a ziplock and proceeded to sleep for (maybe) 4 hours before getting up to register an hour before the event.  Turned out that they closed registration about 10 minutes before the race started, so I could have slept longer and stayed warmer longer.  It was REALLY REALLY cold in Merida last night and this morning.

It was a really lovely event!  There was a HUGE police presence (for traffic detail) and when the streets weren’t completely closed for us, the police kept the traffic away and managed.  I had no idea of my pace or what my pace should be or how to run.  So I just tried to run at the pace I do normally and keep the ability to talk and I slowly settled into a nice pace.  I picked out a couple (she was very obviously wearing a thong and was very easy to spot) and after I ascertained that my pace was probably good, I passed them and picked out another runner to pace off.  I had a smile on my face the whole race (except for a short stretch around 9km when I got tired) and ran the last 2 km harder than the previous 8 and the last km the hardest.

But I TOTALLY forgot about the whole get your time at the end and since everyone was being timed by volunteers at the finish line, I really can only figure my time from extrapolating the time Jamie took my picture to how the camera matched up with my watch.  So I’m guessing at 1:02.  I’m guessing that there will be official finish times available somewhere, but I haven’t the foggiest where.

And FWIW, your ten pesos ($10MN, $0.80 US cents) you got:

• aid stations with water tubes (no need to deal with cups and VERY EASY to drink from) at km 3, 6, 8 and one more I don’t remember
• police presence and traffic management along the entire course
• a VERY well-marked course
• 100 volunteers on the course, taking bib numbers and managing the runners
• 8 volunteers per aid station with both water and poweraid
• lunch at the end (fruit and fruit juice)
• poweraid at the end personally handed out by the poweraid girls (complete in hotpants and stiletto heels!!)
• immediate race results (I finished 6 minutes out of the money)
• prize money!!!
• race bib, finisher medal and T-shirt
• huge expo
• food vendors galore (tortas, tamales, marquecitas, fruit, etc.)
• portapotties that were CLEAN, NO LINES and with TP!!!
• “Rocky” theme song at finish
• free Sol beer at finish, Sol prize (I got a washrag with Sol logo) and coupon for free beer
• First aid, paramedics, massage
• more that I probably missed…

I had such a great time and can’t wait to go back again!  Unfortunately, Mexico doesn’t have the plethora of races that the US does, but the first 4 places for the marathon all went to Kenyan runners, so there you go.  I’m not sure I’d be up for the marathon – there are really NO race course spectators, so you are TOTALLY on your own for encouragement and motivation.  And for 42 kilometers, that would be a long, lonely run.  But maybe…  I really love that town.