I was vacationing on the beach in Florida last week, with a quick side trip to Memphis last weekend before returning home.

The beach at Destin was great — no oil except for a few stray streaks on skin and suits, thank goodness.  We did battle the elements a bit thanks to the distant hurricane — lots of rain and high surf — but this proved to be a blessing in disguise.  Once we did get a glorious sunny day (our final day there), it proved to be so hot and exhausting we knew we would’ve been toasted by mid-week if the rain hadn’t kept things cooler and moderated our activities a bit.

The real bummer was the cold I came down with on day 1, which I’m still battling.  As a result, I spent a good string of days completely off running, and when I finally did get back and tried to get my long run in (shooting for 18 miles last Friday), it was on the very day the sun returned.  It was positively brutal, and while I managed to cover 16 miles on foot, I walked more than half of it.  I did complete a couple of shorter runs during our travels, but this week saw more off time as I tried to shake this beast.  Still sniffling, but back to working out now — shooting for 20 on Sunday!

Anyway, the boys had a ball in the sand, and the break was a good one regardless.