Serendipity

Serendipity: is the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something entirely unrelated.

As many of you know, my life has been quite chaotic lately. I'm a single mom during the week while my husband is working two hours north. I have had to rent out our house and get it ready for the tenants to move in. I recently discovered that finding a place to rent is not that easy and I made two trips to our new stomping grounds to secure a home for our family so we don't have to live out of our cars.

Through all of this, I am sad to leave a city I love, incredible friends and a newly formed running group (of said friends) . The idea of starting over socially is just as scary as anything else. Enter serendipity.

I was checking out a condo to possibly rent and met a woman who is an Ironman alum!! When I pulled up to the condo and saw a woman in a tech shirt, running shoes and shorts and a visor, I knew I was dealing with good people. She and I spent more time talking about running, biking and swimming than we did lease terms and square footage. We seem to run about the same pace (her half marathon PR is very similar to mine). When I asked her if she ran with a group, she said no. The gears started turning. She talked about a twenty mile run that goes from Yorba Linda (where we are moving) to the beach along the Santa Ana River. She has always wanted to do it, but didn't want to do it by herself. I practically jumped up and down and squealed, "I will! I will!" As a matter of fact, as I think back, I may have actually done that.

We have exchanged information and have tentatively planned to go on a run together. It may seem like a little thing, but after the last couple of weeks, meeting a potential running partner is HUGE.

I think my life is starting to fall into place. We are moving this weekend and then I can start on the next chapter of my life.

It doesn't suck to live here!

At the risk of being boo'd by the majority of readers out there, I am going to gush a bit about San Diego weather. It was f'ing AWESOME this morning! I think it was in the high fifties/low sixties when we got to the beach at 9 a.m. for a Stroller Strides class. It was over 70 when we left at noon. I got a great workout pushing 100 pounds of kids and stroller up a mammoth hill along with upper body exercises that kicked my butt (I was a participant today, not an instructor).

Ironically, we also did some killer butt exercises!

As I was hanging out after class while my kids played in the sand and water, I watched surfers, divers, swimmers and even some dolphins in the cold water. I was riveted by the swimmers. There were at least a dozen people doing open water swims this morning. There didn't seem to be a race or anything, but there was a least one organized swim (there were a couple of kayaks going along with some of the swimmers). I think I have mentioned here before that I would love to do a triathlon. I am confident in the running part. I am pretty confident that I could train easily for the bike part. The open water swim freaks me out. Don't get me wrong. I can swim. I actually think I am a decently strong swimmer. I swam some decent distances in the Caribbean on our honeymoon. I feel confident while snorkeling etc. BUT, the Pacific Ocean, so dark and blue, intimidates me. A lot. Maybe I can do one in the Caribbean, since that crystal clear water is the only place I feel really confident. I even get a little weirded out in lakes (it's the fish below me, I think).

My friend, Jen, is a former collegiate swimmer and badass in the pool. She is a lifeguard (the beach kind, not the weenie rec pool kind*). She is going to train me (once we can get our schedules figured out). She assures me that she'll have me swimming through the waves in the Pacific in no time. Today would have been the perfect day for it. There was little or no break and the water looked really calm (maybe that is why there were so many people out there). The water was cold (about 56 degrees), but there were plenty of swimmers that were not wearing wetsuits. Not me. I was cold standing on the beach watching them. It got me ready to start working out in the pool.

Here are some pictures from our morning at La Jolla Shores. The kids had a blast. I didn't think it would be warm enough for playing in the water so I didn't have the appropriate attire nor did I have a change of clothes. Luckily, I had towels in the car. They rode home in their skivvies.

Can you believe this is January??!

Oops... she fell down. That didn't slow her down. I had to drag them away from the beach so that we could go eat lunch. I was STARVING.

He got a bit wet, as well....

They love to dig in the sand and stomp around

I sure do love it here.

*not to say that rec pool lifeguards are weenies. My mom was a pool lifeguard for years and she is the one that taught me to swim. It is just that at the pools, it seems like all the lifeguards do is blow their whistles. One time at the YMCA one actually jumped in after one of my kids (long story) and she looked genuinely annoyed to have to do so. Jen says that she has had days at the beach when she has gone into the water DOZENS of times. A true rescue in the ocean is life and death. My point is that if anyone is going to take me out into the ocean, I want it to be her ;-)