The running gods either love me, or hate me.

A week ago last Thursday, my wife, DD #2 and I flew to Costa Rica. They came for fun and sightseeing. So did I, with the side effect of having to work at our office starting last Monday. (Yes, the company I work for has an office in Costa Rica. Deal with it.)

We all had a blast over the first weekend, despite a lost passport that had to be replaced, and the ladies departed for home on Wednesday. I was to stay until Friday, then fly home to run the Pi Day race with daughter on Saturday.

What was the Pi Day race, you may ask? Well, as we all learned in school, “pi” is the mysterious number that expresses the relationship between the circumference of a circle and its diameter: (C = D * pi), more commonly known as 3.14159, etc. etc. to infinity.

Saturday was March 14 (3-14), thereby the moniker “Pi Day”. Add in that it’s 2015, and it’s 3-14-15 – a once-per-century event. So Epic Races in Ann Arbor organized a little race: 3.14 miles on 3-14-15 at 9:26:53 a.m., thereby snatching the first 10 digits! And to top it off, there was pie (the food kind) at the finish line. Both of us being nerds (she a late bloomer) we signed up right away.

But the running gods had other plans for me.

Thursday afternoon, one of Costa Rica’s slumbering volcanoes decided it was time for a little fun. The ashfall was light and no real damage was done, but they had to close the airport until they could clear it. Which led to incoming flights being diverted, which led to return flights being cancelled, mine being among them. “The earliest I can get you home,” the airline agent said when I called, “is Monday.”

So my part in the Pi Day race was scuttled, and I was forced to spend another weekend in Costa Rica. “Just so you know,” one of my coworkers helpfully told me, “no one here feels sorry for you.”

Well, si la vida te trata limones, haz limonada, I always say. The enforced additional layover allowed me to catch up on some things that I’ve been putting off due to a hectic schedule. Back home, I’d have run the race, then crashed for the weekend, or done stuff around the house. With none of those distractions here, I was free to focus on my backlog. And I got some more running in.

My runs have been short here – the longest has been 10K – but it’s included a lot of hill work (inescapable), and I climb six flights to my room several times a day. Plus it doesn’t take much heat to wear me out right now, as I’m still acclimated to below-freezing weather. But I hear it’s already much warmer at home, and spring trail races are coming up. Gotta stay in shape!

Heading home tomorrow – and there’s big news in my running life to share next time. Stay tuned!