Mother's day weekend

Mother's day weekend is here! To all mom's (& potential moms), have a happy one.

Saturday agenda-race

To avoid mother's day, most events were scheduled for today, forcing me to pick one (I hate that). Listed from closest to furthest:

1. Lou Gehrig's Disease 10k/5 k
2. adventure triathlon
3. run for the roses 5k
4. race for the arts 5k

Logically, #1 would be a shoe-in but not! I been there, done that & already know there's no master title & if I place, the best I would get would be a medal; results indicated I would've taken my age group easily. #2 was interesting, but unless I enter a series or race has some significance to me, a tri or du will not override a run; I respectfully pass. My choice was #3 but Allan, the timer of Accuchip kept insisting I go to his event & I finally caved in. This was an extreme risk because the run for the roses almost guarantees I will leave with hardware since they have several top titles other than top 3 overall, starting with top 3 master, whereas there is only 1 master position for anyone not making the top 3 overall in #4. Results show I would have placed 3rd in masters. Although I been there, done that, it has been like 5 years ago, back when it was held by the ampitheatre. I heard it was moved to John Prince Park last year and the last time I was at that park also dated back sometime but was for a different race (shamrock, which is still held here). So, it was kinda like new, plus I remember that trophies were given back then & with the hope that they won't deviate from past success, I took him up on the offer & made the long trek up. Immediately, I had to contend with someone (Mike K) who wants to beat me, even though he's in a different division for now. Next year, I move into his group & he is already concerned. A decent field showed up, including Matt Triggs, who took that master title from us when we got passed in the 1st mile. I fought hard to break 19 but failed to that. However, in the process, I passed some people including Mike, who was not so pleased with that. We both made the top ten & won our respective age categories but some inept lady gave away mine & told me she will have a correct one mailed to me. Considering she already f***ed up, & the fact that the race was so far, I felt it was better to take the 2nd place one & note that I was actually the winner on it somewhere. Lucky for me, & maybe the reason why it was given away, they were all the same size. Post race was average except for meat eaters. They did give away useful coupons (I used one immediately) in race packet & was pleasantly surprised with the tech Ts.

Sunday agenda-train

Happy mother's day! Believe it or not, I found 4 races. However, 2 of them were too far, 1 in panhandle & another in Jacksonville; I did enough travelling already. Besides, I don't go that far for insignificant 5ks. Muddy buddy occurred in Orlando but again I'd have to travel & worse, find a partner to do that event. With no finisher medals, it's possible return empty handed after spending so much time & money; I pass. The last one was local but I couldn't get a swimmer in time so I have to pass on the adventure tri. Anyway, it was kind of expensive. However, I found out about a non competitive event in Miami called the walk to empower. It was a fund raiser to bring awareness to breast cancer & was held on jungle island. This was the first time I ever been inside the attraction & it was beautiful. I regret having not brought a camera. They had a decent layout for all participants. Once in a while, if no race is available, I will kick back and do some event not involving competition; this day was that day. Afterwards, I took my mom out to eat, then quickly had to train because the previous event was just a casual walk in the park & does not qualify as training under my system. For the first time ever, I rode the cross country trail I usually run on with a mountain bike at my favorite park. Wait, there's more. I did what my dad refers to as cross-training-cut my grass. Unlike him, this activity does not replace actual training, even if doing that is considered exercise. Once completed, I can call it day.