Veteran's weekend

Veteran's weekend is upon us! The day is officially Sunday but let's start honoring all those military, dead or alive, who served admirably to protect and defend because freedom is not free!

Friday agenda-race?

I found 2:

1. light the night 5k
2. waterford 5k

I had to pass on both due to current health condition (sick & out of shape) to prepare for the weekend.

Saturday agenda-race!

This day was stacked with events, too many to name. Therefore, I shall list those that interested me:

1. spartan norcal beast
2. Disney wine & dine half
3. Naples 15k
4. run to restore hope 5k
5. fantasy of lights 5k
6. sallarulos race for champions 5k
7. carbon monoxide awareness 5k
8. S. FL youth developmental championships
9. key biscayne lighthouse run 5k/10k
10. 5k wild walk
11. reason to run 5k
12. key largo bridge run (half/5k)

I had the opportunity to do a double header (#2, and 5=night races) but forced to pass due to more intense, flu-like illness. Needed to rest for endurance event next day. Meanwhile, I still needed a tune up race for that.

#1 automatically eliminated since out of state. With enough races in tri county area, #3 is out. #8 is for kids; gone. # 10 & 11 were good choices I inadvertently missed, along with #7. I like the latter but it is south of where I needed to drop off packet to teammate. My last memory of #9 was disrespect to runners like me because they removed the half hour interval between races (can't pay them more money to run twice) and no award ceremony (stand in line, give name & get frame with certificate in you placed); no go! My original selection was #6 but fell through, so I wound up with the remaining.

Turned out to be a great decision. Although the furthest, it was an inaugural and featured what I like from my original choice, finishers medals! I had a good scare since the top 3 were all faster than me, (one of which was a master), not to mention I am still sick, but by the grace of God, were the only men who beat me, thereby allowing me to win the master title despite my dismal time !

Sunday agenda-race?

Less but still a good selection:

a. trirock clearwater
b. 5k classic (lido key)
c. zoe loren make a difference 5k
d. 13.1 ft Lauderdale (& karhu 5k)
e. Miami man

Since the former would require a swimmer; strike 1. With enough in the tri-county area, b=strike 2. The latter would also require a swimmer for the tri, but the du was possible. I remember struggling through it a couple of years ago healthy; glad I didn't pick that this year. Normally c. would win but with lack of long runs, I needed d.

This was my first official role as a pacer. I selected 2 hours to be comfortable enough to do the distance carrying a sign. It was a race but I didn't really race. Considering I was running sick, it still felt like a race enough the pace was much slower than normal. It didn't help that it was extremely windy nor that I was sick, but the overcast did. I hope to do better next time because I couldn't hold up that sign with all that wind. I forgot that the karhu 5k began 5 minutes prior and was running faster than scheduled. I had to slow down in the last mile to allow anyone who was on pace to catch up. Before the start, anyone asking was told I want to beat 2 hours, just not by a large margin. I finished with 1:59:23. Shot out to Rosa L who I put on a team but got lost and wound up doing 11 miles.

Monday agenda-veteran's day (observed)