President's Day 5k 2011

Hey y'all!


President's Day 5k Run this evening. I was a huge bundle of nerves beforehand. Mainly because this is likely to be my last chance to get a 28 minute 5k here in Africa (I may have one more depending on when they schedule the St. Patrick's Day run.) and yesterday's run was not very stellar. So I was full of negative thoughts and worry. Lemme recap the whole race. Granted it's only 3.1 miles, but for me, that may as well be a marathon right now!

Blurry race outfit...

My friend Will was kind enough to run next to me, he was only there for the shirt, and had no time goals at all. (He's way faster than me, so if he had he would have left me in the dust like the turtle I am.)

Yes. I just drew this in paint. Don't judge me.....

 Mile one was amazing. I was flying, and loving every second. Unfortunately, I was flying way too quickly, and that was a mistake. Remember when I said I am completely incapable of pacing myself. Yeah. I was not lying. Notice which way the wind is blowing? Mile one was basically against the wind the whole way. While it felt good, I was so ready for the wind to be at my back.

Mile two was not much fun. As soon as we started on the long stretch which is basically mile two, the wind stopped. Yeah, that's right. No wind to my back. It was around this time I started slowing down, not much, but a little. I realized I had started way too quickly, and was going to pay for it. At the turn around point they were giving out water bottles, and since I could taste sand, I knew I needed some. Unfortunately this meant for the second half of the race I was carrying a water bottle. I hate carrying things when I run. h.a.t.e. But I hate water bottles most of all, since the water swishes around and makes me angry. Haha. Also after the turn around the wind started up again. Yes. I swear it was out to get me. Though it did help cool me down. I was sweating like a wildebeest, so that was kind of nice. 

Mile three was torture. I swear I was running at a brisk walk pace. But I was running. I did not stop running the entire time, though I sure felt like it. Poor Will kept having to slow down, and was probably regretting his decision to run with th red-faced girl gasping for air like she was drowning. Haha. And then we right past the 1/4 mile left mark, on the map it says sand storm area. I wasn't kidding. Right then the jets decided to turn on the engines. Instant sand storm blowing directly into our faces. Not awesome. Not awesome at all. Couldn't see, couldn't breathe, I was pissed. So I sped it up SLIGHTLY (didn't have much left at this point....) and finished my race. When I found the clock (no, I was retarded and didn't time myself.) it said 29:12. Son. of. a. Witch.  Which means, I am guestimating I finished at around 29:05. However. Since I started in the middle of the pack, I'm going to say the clock started at the very beginning, and am giving myself a race time of 28:59. Which meets my goal! :) I'm so nice to myself, sometimes. :)

That means I went from a 33 minute 5k (Halloween) to a 28 minute 5k. Boo-yah. I know to some, that is like a crawl. (Like Will). But for me, it is an amazing improvement, and I'm super proud of it! Woohoo!

 Me and my t-shirt!

Yeah. That's dirt. Not freckles. For once...

Then I showered, shaved my hairy legs, and went and got some food. Yum, chocolate milk! :) 

Last night was also fun. A group of friends went out for sushi, you know I love my sushi, and it was awesome. Then we all went back to the "club" on base and told stories of drunken escapades. It was a really enjoyable night. Even lost a game of shuffleboard!

They didn't have room for all of us, so they set up 3 coffee tables, haha.

L to R me, Angela, and Sarah.

Yeah shuffleboard! Sarah and I lost like 25-7. Haha.

Well, guys. This girl is tired and watching some Scrubs and going to bed. Have a great Sunday, everybody!!

Greasy Hair, Don't Care

So February has been my total slacking month, apparently. 


Way to not go, Katy-girl. (Yes. I talk to myself. And have a nickname for myself. Being an only child for 17 years does weird things to you....)


I feel so bored. Not with you guys, I love you guys like long-lost BFFs. I think I'm just bored with Africa. Six months of the same exact thing, will do that to you. It's not that it sucks out here (I mean, it does. Just not in the same way Afghanistan does. Bombs and stuff. Not cool.) it's just so frustrating. And I only have like 5 weeks left, which to most people would be awesome. But it feels just out of reach, haha. 


Anyways. Enough moping about stuff I can't control. Whatevs. I'm here. I'm almost done. Get over it. 


So yesterday was super busy. And by that, I mean I. SLEPT. ALL. DAY.  And then went out and enjoyed sushi wonderfulness with a few friends (yes. I do socialize occasionally. It is rare, though.) Sushi was delicious. Then came back to base and had a couple beers and shouted over the insanely loud music chatted until midnight. Haha. It was awesome. I never hang with girls, since, well, I don't really hang with anyone outside of work, and that's all dudes. Haha. So it was nice to have some estrogen around for a little while last night. :)


So at the sushi place last night, it was amazing, but super pricey. So, since one of the people we went with knew the owner, we got a deal, the catch was, you got a certain meal, and couldn't choose the sushi. (If you wanted, you could pick and choose which rolls you wanted, but it was ridiculously expensive. Third world country, and we're still getting ripped off for good food.) 


So I ordered the meal, and they forgot about me!!


So the owner brought me a free roll to make up for it. I love free. Especially free sushi. :)

Free tuna roll.

I'm on a boat!

OMG. Please ignore how awful I look. It hurts my eyes..... Haha.

No. I didn't eat all of it. But I gave it my best shot. Haha. 

Today I slept a little less. Not much, though, haha. I did manage to get my hair cut. Now I have less dead ends, and closer to one color. Still have a ways to go. Please excuse my greasy hair. I can't believe I post these pictures. I realized when I took the first picture, my face is broken out like whoa on the right side of my face. I guess I only wash one side.... Weird. SO I took another.  

I only wash my hair with Crisco, sometimes.... Promise.

Anywho. I have been seriously lazy about working out. I mean. I still do it. But it takes a lot of effort to get my booty in workout mode. So I'm going for a run tonight. And some abs, then I will shower. Promise. Tomorrow morning is pt, then work. My goal is after department pt (gag me), to run the trail two lengths, which makes about 4 miles. But I work tomorrow, so I would have to leave my shop to do so. 

So I need to find motivation. Haha. Wish me luck. Anywho. I'm out. Have a great Thursday! :)

-Katy

Salt, Camels, and Makin' It Rain

Thanks for being so patient! I feel much better, and probably slept way more than I should have! But, it was wonderful, and I'm not going to apologize! Haha. Anyways, my day yesterday.

It started with an early morning, because I had department pt. But this week was the run, so I was happy. It was only 2.25 miles, which wasn't as long as I really wanted my long runs to be.... Haha. But my calves hurt so bad, I wouldn't have been able to much more, even if I was on my own. I have no idea how fast I was going since it was outside on the running trail, and I didn't time myself. Not very quickly, that's for sure! Haha. I think I'm going to shoot for the running trail from now on for my long runs, just to get myself used to running outside away from a treadmill again. :) 

Then, afterwards, we all left to go shower, and met back up again at the galley to collect food, and stock up for our trip. You can trade water bottles and chips and stuff to the local Djiboutians for souvenirs. Then we were ready to go! We left base at around 9:00.

Ready to go on our adventure!!

It's about a 2-3 hour drive to Lake Assal from base, and we stopped along the way for some photo ops... haha. But Fami (the guy on my left) drive like a bat out of hell, so we made awesome time! Haha. I was super impressed with his speed, even taking a picture of the speedometer. Until I learned it was kilometers per hour. Not mph. Then I felt kind of stupid... Haha.

He got up to 120, but alas... it was only kmph.

We saw a lot of animals along the way, goats, camels, a hyena!, even some monkeys. Here are some pictures of the various animals.

These little fellas ran alongside the truck with us! :)

Camels, and guy herding camels!

Right up next to the truck!

Skin and bones. :(

First "tourist" stop we made was the Djiboutian "grand canyon". It was super beautiful, but you were quickly reminded this was not America. There were no barriers, and you could literally walk right up to the cliff. We tried not to get close... Haha.

The group of us.

Just me! :)

Don't Fall!

There were Djiboutians trying to sell us rocks at this stop, but we politely declined. They are very aggressive in their marketing techniques, and it can freak me out sometimes. I'm sure they are harmless, but they do kind of swarm you and I'm so bad at haggling. Haha. I did buy some souvenirs later at the market, but even I wasn't going to get duped into buying a rock. :)

The next stop we made was another cliffside, but this one overlooked the ocean. It was so beautiful. You could see and island called Devil's Island, and once again... No barricades. Haha.

Devil's Island

The ocean.

Haha. More pictures of me! 

Don't worry. There are lots more pictures of myself to come! 

We saw some cool things along the drive, as well. Please forgive the quality of the pictures... We were in a truck, and it was moving very fast!

The Djiboutian Hollywood sign! Actually it says Allah al Akbar which translates into Allah is the greatest. Yeah. I took Arabic for two years.

Mountainside. And co-workers hand.... 

The next stop we made was the hot springs. Now. These hot springs are not the kind you want to get into. Unless you want your skin to blister off. Think the beginning of the movie Dante's Peak.... That hot. Apparently the Earth's crust is so thin right there it heats up the water to boiling. But I'm no expert. That was told to me, so it could all be hogwash. :)

Really neat look cliffs at the hot springs.

Hot springs! 

Me at the hot spring, though it kinda just looks gross... Haha.

Then, finally! Lake Assal. Now, Lake Assal, as I said earlier, it the saltiest body of water on the planet. It was so cool! You could float (whether you wanted to or not...) in 6 inches of water, and when you got out of the water and dried off, you have salt all over your body which is surreal. Though, thankfully it washes off super easy, since all we had were water bottles to clean off with. No showers, here folks. It was super neat, though I wouldn't go for hours, and certainly not a day long trip. You can't swim, really, and there is no sand. All that beautiful white in the pictures? Very sharp crystalized salt.  It would cut your feet up so fast, and then you are in the saltiest body of water on Earth... ouch.  So you can't really lay out either... Haha. The good news? No sharks. After all, nothing can live in this water. Here are some photos!

Lake Assal!

I could almost pretend I was in Hawaii again! :)

Crystalized salt! And ugly, pale feet....

Woot!

Salt at the water's edge. It looked like regular ocean foam, until you step on it! Ouch!

Co-worker floating in the 6 inch deep water. :)

Camels walking along the beach.

One of my co-workers traded some water for some salt souvenirs (the locals soak various things -even animal skulls!- in the water and the salt crystalizes on the object. It's pretty cool!) but I didn't get any, since it would have to stay here. Customs doesn't allow you to bring it home. I'm sure there are ways of getting it back to the States, but it wasn't worth it for me. And since I only have 6 weeks left... Haha. But it was cool.

Then we came back to Djibouti City to go to the French Beach. None of of us have ever been there before, and we got wicked lost. I kept getting nervous, because our base in Djibouti City is nine miles from the Somalia border..... and let's just say, we don't want to get too lost around here. But we eventually got directions by calling someone on base (though that was an adventure since they didn't speak English very well, and Djibouti doesn't have any sort of street signs. Haha. 

To get to French Beach you have to go off-roading, and it was quite an adventure. You wouldn't be able to make it in a vehicle without 4-wheel drive. At least, I wouldn't ever attempt it... Haha. I didn't take any pictures (sorry!) since I was too busy reading my Kindle and relaxing.... and eating cookies... Haha! But it was very pretty, and had real sand. The boys played football, while I read. It was very relaxing.

Then we made our way into town for the market, and that is such an experience. You have to haggle (well, you don't have to- but you'll get super ripped off!) and I'm still not very good at it. Though, I did pretty well, and I managed to get some wooden carved bookends, and a sandstone puzzle box. They're pretty nifty!

Then we made our way to a sushi restaurant. I love sushi. It's something I could eat every single day of my life and be totally fulfilled. 

I had a yummy delicious rainbow roll.

Om Nom Nom. My co-worker totally photo-bombed me...

My co-worker Will with his Dragon roll. That thing was epic. 

In the interest of full-disclosure... I did have a fried banana with banana ice cream. And I don't regret a second of it. Though I am back to my normal eating habits today. Too much sugar for me yesterday....

Then we hit up the casino. I have been to a casino twice in my life, and I am not a big fan of gambling. But, it is fun every so often, and I always have the exact amount I am willing to spend, and I won't go a dime over. I just so happened to have gotten lucky both times. I play roulette. This is a game of pure luck and I play it as such. Last night I won 135 dollars, though I tipped the table guy 10 bucks. (Hey, it was free money!) Well, actually I won 95 dollars, since I started with 40. It was super fun, and I loved watching the looks I got as I would squeal and jump when I won. You could tell the serious gamblers were annoyed by it, as they kept changing over 100 dollar bills every few hands. (I am so glad I do not have a gambling problem. It was very humbling to watch all of that money get lost.) 

I then proceeded to take "I make it rain" photos with my winnings. Once we were back on base of course. No need flaunting a hundred dollar bill in a poverty stricken area.... 

Big pimpin'

I never win anything (other than best hubs award, and now at roulette...) 

Anyways, that was my awesome day yesterday. Yes, I got sunburned (back of my neck from sitting in the backseat of the truck all day), and my feet feel bruised on the bottom. So today will be a rest day, and I'm back in the gym tomorrow. :) Cross training, since hills (UGH!) are on Monday. Now I need to brush my teeth, and clean my room, and go to dinner. This girl is HUNGRAY. 

Yeah. Dinner. I really did sleep all day. :) It's steak night at the galley! It's the little things, guys. The little things! Anyways, you guys are awesome for sitting through all of this! I hope you enjoyed my little peek of Africa. I have more pictures, but I've already been working on this for two hours, and I think you've probably been ready to move on with your lives for some time now! Have a WONDERFUL SATURDAY. I'm off to fill my belly. :)

-Katy