Day 237

Matt and I after surfing.

Crazy wet weather still, with huge waves.  Matt tried surfing and got up a few times, and I just rode the waves in my usual fashion on my board.  Today there was one other surfer, but he stayed closer to shore, at the same level as me, whereas Matthew went out really far.  I kept looking for the black bobbing head, out in the raging waters, and started worrying, because there was a strong riptide and he looked so small out there, and he is my baby, after all. 

But then I talked myself out of it, telling myself that he is 18 years old, a strong strong swimmer (one of the best on the team), and someone who keeps his head, so if he got swept out by the riptide he would know not to panic, but to let it take him until he couldn't feel it anymore, and then swim into shore from another vantage point, at the end of the beach, or even on to the island.  So I caught as many waves as I could, and just enjoyed myself, checking on his whereabouts every now and then, until it was time to go. 

It has been raining for three days now, non-stop, and everything is damp, my running shoes smell like they are growing, sand from the beach has over-run the bathroom, all the towels are wet, and it feels like we're in the wonderful Garcia Marquez book, One Hundred Years of Solitude, where it rained for four years, eleven months and two days.

Earlier I went for a run in this pelting rain, so that after a minute or so I was utterly slick with water, I might as well have jumped into a pool, I was wet as a seal.  I ran and ran, the middle part is really good, easy running, the first and last km just get me, I don't know if the first is just difficult because I am starting out and all the joints are not yet oiled, the lungs not yet warmed up, the brain not yet in gear, and then the last might be psychological, getting over that hump and revving your engine for that last great (for me) effort. 

So I discovered that I had run 5.02 km in 46 minutes, which means just over 9 mins per km!  I did have to battle through mud and puddles and duck under several rain-heavy overhanging branches each circuit, so maybe it wasn't that bad. 

So this is my photographic self-portrait in the meadow after the run, looking like a drowned rat, smiling.