Today started off fairly early with a  4 mile run on the beach (and in the ocean from time to time, though not always intentionally).  It was really pleasant and a refreshing way to start the day.  My calves and ankles are sore as a result.  Good pain.  I thought about an ocean swim, but the lifeguard stands had red flags flying, so that was a no-go.  Plus it started raining.  Of course, the rain started right when Nate and I decided to walk to breakfast.  And then stopped as soon as we got to breakfast.

We set up our booth at the expo for this week’s Rock and Roll half marathon (the post-race entertainment is headlined by the B-52s), which didn’t go quite as smoothly as normal.  The highlight (if you can call it that) was unexpectedly having all 7 display walls fall on me – a crushing weight that I couldn’t hold up.  I got pinned against the wall of the truck (I was the only person at the trucks at that time), managed to lift the walls briefly to regain my ability to breathe, only to get my leg stuck under them twisted backwards.  At this point I made an astoundingly calm phone call to Molly asking for some help, and in the mean time managed to twist my leg free of the walls (though I left one of my sandals pinned under the pile).  Stephen showed up and helped me pull the walls out of the truck, and all was good.

Except that I hurt.  Besides already being sore from arm, core, and beach running workouts in the last three days, now my knee hurts and I think I bruised a rib or two (I was worried at first I’d cracked a rib, but the pain isn’t particularly centralized).  It’s still not fun to cough, laugh, touch my right side, or bend over.  Hopefully tomorrow will bring less soreness.

After set-up, I headed to the mall with Lyndsay and Molly, and I ended up watching Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 with Molly.  I’m not sure I’ll live that down with Nate or Stephen anytime soon, but it was enjoyable and worth it, or will be, or something.

On the way back to the hotel, we got stuck in random road construction traffic and were delayed an hour and a half.  Conveniently enough, we had a conference call scheduled and got that out of the way, but I still can’t believe how bad the traffic was to average less than a mile an hour.

For dinner we went to the Coyote Cantina, where I had a BBQ chicken burrito, which surprisingly was one of the tastiest meals I’ve had the entire trip.  After returning to the hotel, Nate and I wanted salt water taffy, so I went and got some.  I had a dollar, and Nate gave me 75 cents.  Nate must have had a psychic moment, because I picked out about how much I thought I could afford on our modest budget, and when it was rung out it came to exactly $1.75 after tax.

It was pretty tasty.  We watched Obama’s speech at the DNC, and then I talked to my parents for a bit while walking on the beach.

Today had numerous highs and lows, but overall was a really good day.  Tomorrow is a new day, hopefully including better weather and less pain.