Emotional Roller Coaster Weekend

This weekend was an emotional roller coaster to say the very least!  My best canine friend died on Friday and then we had a surprise 60th birthday party for my Dad, who is battling cancer, on Saturday.  My Dad has been in the hospital for the past two weeks and had surgery to have his gallbladder removed.  He lost a lot of weight and has not been feeling that great.  It is really hard to hide anything from my Dad but we truly surprised him this time!

Me and my Dad!

I have never seen my Dad cry in all of my life and this surprise party actually brought him to tears!  It was really hard to see my Dad cry because he always told us as kids not to cry.  My Dad grew up in a Japanese family that went through a lot of hardship but he never saw either one of his parents cry so he grew up with a very tough heart. Don't get me wrong, my Dad is a great person and he would not strike you as an heartless person but he is just never been one to wear his heart on his sleeve.  I watched both of my grandparents die (his parents) and he never cried at their funerals or during their last moments of life. He even cried when I told him that my dog has passed away. Although it was hard to see my Dad in such an emotional state, it was kind of nice to see the sensitive side of him that I have never seen before.

My Dad and Step mom

It was a small party with mostly family but he had a great time and he really enjoyed himself.  He didn't even seem to mind it when his sister in law put cake all over his face! She really got him good!

My step mom had the priest from her friend's church come to the party to pray for my Dad and to bless him. My Dad is a believer but has never been one to go to church so this was really good for him. He told me that the priest did not try to mislead him to think that he would get better but just reassured him that if he didn't that everything was going to be fine. I think he found some comfort in hearing those words.

So Sunday rolled around and I had a 14 mile run on the agenda.  After enduring all of these emotionally draining events, I was in no mood to run...at all! I woke up at 5:45am on Sunday, put my running clothes on and then thought of my dog and decided not to do it!  My daughter sent me a text a few minutes later and said, "Let's go the beach today."  I wasn't in much of the mood to go to the beach but I figured it wouldn't be a bad idea to get out of the house.  I really needed to get my mind off of my dog and my Dad so we got our beach stuff together and headed to Huntington Beach.  I wore my running clothes to the beach and hoped that by the time I got there I would be motivated to do some running. The weather was great and there is a really nice bike trail at Huntington which runners also utilize.  I had never ran on or near the beach before so it was a nice change for me. 

They decided to take it easy and do this, while I ran. They were pretty slow because they could not keep up with me (not that I am fast or anything) for nothing! 

Needless to say, I did not run 14 miles as planned! I called it quits at 6.55 miles and decided to spend some quality time with the family and try to recover from the overwhelming chain of events that had occurred in the previous days. I laid on the sand for the remainder of the day, took it easy and did some people watching.  These two got the "Most Interesting" award of the day!  Yes, that is a male and my nine year old son was sure to point out "the man in the bikini" to all of us!

The man in the bikini!

My mileage for the week sucked to say the least!  I was supposed to put 29 miles in and only managed to bank 22! I am in a very unmotivated state of mind this week and need to pull myself out of this!  The Disneyland Half Marathon is less than two weeks away and I need to get with it if I plan to PR!  No excuses this week, I promise! 

Please tell me what you do when you start to feel unmotivated!! I need some motivation here!!