the ING weekend

Once again, the last days of January are dedicated to Miami, the ING weekend! Yes, this time I remained at 'home' down here in Miami to compete, instead of travelling, to fulfil my desire & destiny of being an athlete for life.

Saturday agenda-tropical 5k

I stuck to my tradition of using the tropical 5k as a tune-up for the main event the following day. That means I had to pass on other races. Like last time, I wanted to help pace Leo, Gene if necessary, since both were in attendance. However, this year, I got left behind & just hoped to finish well enough to place. I wanted only to do enough to make the top 5 in my age group but since they got stingy by not offering a master title and reduced it to only 3, my 5th place age finish didn't make the podium. If it hadn't been a finishers medal, I would've walked away empty handed, or neck, if want to be technical. To add insult to injury, the post race refreshments were pathetic, with only bagels & bananas (no oranges or sweets). Afterwards, I went to the expo to pick up my packet & met up with lots of fellow athletes, most of whom were planning on running tomorrow. I met with current 'old' friends, such as Courtney, Louis Best (at race) & some newer ones, like Allan W, Tamara, Lisa Dorfman. I had the honor to speak to & cool down with the legendary coach GP (3rd overall @ 5k). The second, also a legend, was Lisa Dorfman.

Sunday agenda-main event!

The main events are distance races, the half & full marathon. Having completed the first five as marathons, I am satisfied & now choose the former on my quest to a decade with this event. I dub it as the main event because #1, the marathon and half are the feature events and #2, we're talking about distance, which requires endurance. I am on par to get the ten year jacket so other races (like the Ocala marathon) have to wait.

It started off a decent 70 degrees with not much rain in sight. It remained cloudy throughout keeping the heat down but, it was seemed humid and a bit windy. This is my 3rd half of the year (& month), and coupled with the fact that this course is not exactly flat & forgiving, I didn't expect a great race.

I had a great start and made some personal accomplishments, such as being with Leo till 5k point, Gene & Leo in sight on ocean dr, still within target range through 10k, in front of Louis M till near 15k; it went downhill from there. Fortunately, I escaped without any serious physical harm, even though my pinky toe hurt like the dickens. I have officially completed all ten of their events! Now I gotta fight to get my jacket, like 5 years ago. The post race refreshments were 3 1/2 star (no oranges). The finishers medal was by the far the best ever. No official mylar blankets were given out.

Congrats to all runners who finished, especially runners depot teammates .