Luck of the Irish

Happy St. Patrick's day! Most assume the luck of the Irish is good but this is not always the case.

Saturday agenda-Miramar 5k

This event actually featured a 10k as well and seemed more popular than the one I chose. Since I am still within 30 days of my last marathon, I chose the lesser distance;no long runs till next month. Race was timed by split second timing. The race director of this one seemed lost & SST's timing director, Rick, offered his experience to help the crew get the show rolling. The course was designed for the 10k, evidenced by the 10k instructions given at our (5k) start & the cone layout. When the gun went off, I immediately fell behind 2 masters & by a mile & a half, I got passed by another. After 2 miles, I was in the master pack! Now comes the luck of the irish. The bad luck was that the master leader followed the cones & I followed him while passing the master who passed me, only to hear a volunteer finally wake up & say, "where are you going? that's the wrong way". This occured halfway through the final mile. I believe the master leader didn't hear him & continued into yonder. I lost 2 positions but by the grace of God, referred to as the (good) luck of the Irish in Ireland, I managed to pass both of them & capture the ever elusive master title. This one had good amenities, enough to consider as a small scale flash race. Overall submaster & master winners got a plaque. Age groups offered trophies to 1st & 2nd, while 3rd got a medal. If overall went 3 deep, I would have been the last top guy.

Sunday agenda-Niketown 5k

Since most of my email to niketown was ignored & all staff that I spoke to were ignorant to the details of their (niketown enterprise) own race, I opted out to avoid squandering my hard earned money on another fun run. The question was simple, "are they giving awards to age groups & if so, what are they & how deep"? I did receive one response, but it only stated that the race is designed to help kids & there will be 4,000 runners. So I ran this one as a training run, slow for my standards. Now, the (bad) luck of the Irish. They gave out generic plaques (no date or division listed on it) for normal age groups but no overall or master title. Finisher's medals & bags were only given to kids, even though without the adults, no race could be held. Had I been registered, I would've placed, despite the poor time. The (good) luck of the Irish was for those who got awards by taking that chance. Well, you live & you learn;I'll sign up next year. Average imenities & course.

Honorable mention

Team mate Chris placed amongst a group of champions at the Nike 5k: the overall winner-Ronnie Hollasie & Jon Williams, RRCA male runner of the year. Good job.