Oh, what a weekend

Good ol' Jon came through with another mysterious, but far race. I was itching for a tune-up race prior to the main event (relay).

Saturday agenda-Woody's waterside 5k

I thought this race was based on the famous woodpecker's summer home, but it actually was put on to support special Olympics. I told Jon that whenever you pick a race like this, you roll the dice when it comes to victory. He, like I, was wishing for a repeat of the last mystery event. The only thing true was that he beat me. He didn't realize until too late that the race organizer was a track coach & former competitor of his. Therefore, the race attracted a lot of kids from at least 3 different track teams, with the most from the race sponsors, 3D track club. Although he placed 3rd overall with a good time, he fell to age group. Since only overall, & top masters, grandmasters & senior grandmasters were given trophies, he had to settle for a medal. He was understandably disappointed with his prize, more so than his time. It had the very basic amenities.

Sunday agenda-escape to Miami triathlon

I was fortunate to have Jennifer, thus far, the fastest swimmer I've had on any relay, except for perhaps the mystery one from St Anthony's, if the swim distance was 1.5 k. Plus, the president of the Bikila athletic club & spin class instructor, Steve. I knew I'd be in a good position after those guys did their job. What we could not predict was the late start, which pushed me deeper into the extreme heat & humidity of the day. I had an early battle in the 1st mile with a 16 yr old kid from mack cycle's relay team, who kept clipping my heels. I had to use a waivering pattern to discourage the obvious drafting & unsportsmanlike conduct. He finally broke off & started homing on Elliott after 2 miles & crossing the bridge. It didn't take long for him to lose steam & without extra effort, I passed him. I was doing fine until after crossing over the bridge a second time (5 & a half miles). At this point, I started experiencing extreme heat exhaustion & dehydration. I was forced to start walking to mitigate my damages, then a combination of that & jogging in order to complete the run & avoid a DNF. I did my darndest not to let down the team. I pushed so hard because before I even got to start, the Steves' (USAT ref & our cyclist) got into an argument & the ref wanted to DQ him, which would in turn eliminate the team from the competition & render all efforts futile, & I wanted my best performance regardless. I had to get medical attention, including an I.V. to rush back what I lost. In an ironic twist, after the high winds swept in, it began to rain hard, dropping the temperature almost to the point of a cold day; I could've used that sooner. After I finally recovered, all the team members were gone, both mine & the competition, but I stuck around to check out the race results list. I found out the list wasn't up, but the award ceremony was wrapping up. To my surprise, despite my dismal performance & the maximum penalty imposed short of DQ, we still placed 3rd. This mimicked St Anthony's in that the 3rd one was a charm; a team I was on finally placed here. The was a 4 star event.

? what's up with these kids using track spikes on the concrete course? This weekend, I couldn't catch them.