Its been a while...I know...

Hi Gang,
So its been a while...Between heading back to Florida for the Christmas holiday and then, coming back to Penang, having a week or two to get settled back in, then heading to Singapore so that Roxanne could go through her hip replacement surgery...I just have not had time to update you all on the goings on...So crappy excuses aside I will attempt to recap the last two months as simply as I can...So on the 13th of December we headed back to Florida, excited to see family and enjoy the cooler (hopefully) weather. I had signed up for two races one on the 22nd of December and the other on the 30th. The first being the "5K Zombie run" held in Dade City, Florida...Now , i have to explain that I am horrible with directions and my location radar is and always has been broken...So I figured since we were going to be near Orlando, Florida at that time...i would be closer to the race, figuring that Dade City and Plant City Florida would be close to each other....I got that wrong. It was almost 3 hours drive from where I was to get to this race, and with the report of near freezing temperatures at race time, and the possibility of needing to traverse water...I wimped out...I figured the last thing I needed to do was to go trudging through the water in 30 degree Fahrenheit weather, after spending the last 2 years in a sub tropical climate...so I wimped out....Now, road training in St Petersburg, where we spent the first week of our trip is outstanding, i love, love, love my regular St Pete route,,, peaceful, a great track and there is always wildlife to see, dolphins, lots of bird life and sometimes a manatee or two...I also got the chance to run with two old friends, which was really great as well...

 So, after St. Pete, we went onto Roxanne's Dads place in Lake Wales, Florida, (again, where I was to do the Zombie run). Running at his place is also great because its just empty country road, some nice hills and plenty of cows, who really stink by the way...I also got to see Sandhill cranes, a few times on my runs...The problem there was that a few mornings were very foggy, almost zero visibility ..thankfully with the cooler weather I could go later in the morning...

Then it was onto Roxanne's Moms place in Lakeland,Florida where I was again treated to a great running route, around Lake Hollingsworth, It was really great having a closed course where there were only walkers, runners and some cyclists, and there is a water station right at the parking area and the end of my run.NICE!

The next race I had lined up was the "Boca 10k" in Boca Raton, florida, which was about 1/2 hour north of my parents place in Lake Worth, Florida, This was our next destination...This was a normal road race, no Zombies, no water, although it was supposed to be windy and in the low 40's Fahrenheit at race time...I was looking forward to this big time! So the 30th did dawn cold, but it was perfect for running...I really love smaller races and this one had about 1000 people total, between the 5k and 10k...The route is along A1A, right on the ocean, then through a nice neighborhood, then through a park...really well run race, nice course and I ran pretty well, finished in 47:44, that was good for 13th in my age group and 85th overall (out of 355 runners)...really enjoyed this run! So with that we had a great three Christmases, and a great time at home, It was back to Penang though on January 3rd... Arrival in Penang Set for January 5th. So it was back to Penang and the Hip replacement surgery in Singapore for Roxanne on January 23rd....