Mother's day madness

First of all, happy mother's day to all the ladies. I am obviously not a mom but I felt blessed like one this weekend. On saturday, I competed individually & on Sunday, as a team member.

Saturday agenda: Run for the roses by GFLRRC

This race is catered for the women as you can tell by virtue of the name. All women got a five minute head start and the fellas had to try to "catch 'em if you can". Naturally, the elite women can't be caught but depending on the runner's speed, you'll get past a good number of the slower ones. Since I was focused on the relay event (next paragraph), I originally decided to run easy because this event was award generous (5 deep in age groups) and save my strength. This lasted for about 2 miles until the competitive drive in me compelled me to propel at my normal (or better) race pace. When the dust cleared, I met my normal time goal and placed (3rd) for the first time in the Master's division. Cynthia & Bernard Raes, race directors, did well in organization & because she runs well, she knows how it feels to win an award. In their races, they offer more overall titles, such as golden master, to honor the more senior runners; my dad has the utmost respect for events like that. Also, female winners got a medal different from the male winners. All female finishers got a nice rose in observance of mom day.

Sunday agenda: S. Fl duathon series dubbed as mother's day duathon by multirace.com

This was targeted as the main event of the weekend for me. My cyclist (JJ) & I already lead in the series with our combined efforts in the last few events but it doesn't hurt to pad the lead. Originally, I signed up the team to have 3 members: myself=run start, JJ=bike & my dad as anchor. After completing 4 marathons & 2 halves since October, 2005, at the last moment, my dad decided to pull out for these 2 reasons he gave, 1. He wanted to concentrate on long runs & 2. He felt my speed, even compromised, would better assist the team; he is the ultimate team player since he was concerned more about the team being number one than my desire to have him involved despite his speed. Therefore, in previous events, I had to run twice because my dad didn't run. A running partner of mine (JM) & top teammate of the 1st place 5k 5 person team at the marathon of the palm beaches last year, decided to accept the challenge of being on this team. He performed admirably & was second only to the race winner (run start leg), placing the cyclist in a perfect position. She had no one to really get in her way as she rode to her best time ever on the team. As team captain, I informed JM that some positions will be lost as I expected, but only a dozen elite men & the overall woman could get past her. When it was my time to shine (anchor run), by the grace of god, I was able to pass 3 of the men back but the real struggle came down near the end. I was still trailing the overall female after one & a half miles when, like an angel, the run start partner of the team served as a spectator & motivator. I then realized I didn't have far to go & dug down deep to outsprint her & help the team advance to 11th overall & top relay! I also set a PR pace for any leg that I've ever done, JM set the PR pace period & it was the first time any team I was involved with beat all the women. The rest of the day, I bonded better with my gratious bike partner, & no doubt we will be a force to be reckoned with (look out for next week); She no doubt had a great mother's day. I got the expected performance from JM & his services will be required again. In fact, both of the members will be utilized in some manner for future events.