Spring forward

Well, it's that time of the year again. We gotta spring forward early (in the past, it was closer to and/or within my month). Along with the spring forward, I have to bounce back. First, from my worst bout of the flu that lasted about a month. Secondly will be addressed after my agendas.

Saturday agenda-Ocean drive 5k

A repeat visit, thanks to long lasting friend Steve, who helped me to sign up. Post race was at Nikki's beach in SoBe. Already affected by the previous day (still no treadmill, amongst all), I didn't look good. Samm dropped due to injury & my dad, already shaky about the sprint races, was discouraged by the weather. I got caught in the rain on the way up & when I got there, there was a gigantic lake, uh, puddle, at the finish line! On top of that, it was windy. I kept thinking to myself that I've trained in worse plus everybody else is subjected to this as well. I laid the load on the Lord & decided to see how it would play out. By mile 1, some unknown woman passed me & wound up as the overall female winner. By mile 2, I was in a battle with the 2nd overall woman, the same one that online appeared to beat me, when reality, she did not. I paced with her until the sprint zone & then put on the master kick. By the grace of God, I won the master title! While waiting for the awards, I hung out with fellow athletes, eating & chatting, as usual. The post race refreshment, though good, was average. The glass awards were nice but given only to the top 3 overall, top 3 overall masters, and top age group;everyone else got medals.

Sunday agenda-Cooper city 5k

I remember doing this one but forgot why. When I saw the trophies, my memory was jogged. Today was nearly the opposite. It was cool & dry & although still windy, I was much less. I expected to do a lot better but that didn't pan out. I, unfortunately, lost the battle for the master title because many of the heavy weights showed up aiming for the Jim Richardson honor. The winner gets his name engraved amongst all previous winners on a gigantic trophy (you do not get) & some extra incentive. I had to settle for the top of my age group. However, I felt the need to get past teammate Allan & a noticeably struggling Walthon, both of which were in front of me early in the race. This event had a better post race 'party', about 3 1/2 - 4 stars.

Synopsis of 3 day occurrence. Clint style:

The good: I placed on both days with time under 19 & to the best of my knowledge, we are still friends.
The bad: today's time was worse than yesterday, despite better weather (cool & dry), plus the master titles were swept by much faster comrades. I didn't get to see my lady friend.
The ugly: yesterday, it rained while going to the event. That was enough to discourage my dad from doing it. Sammy still needed to recover from injury;get well soon. Before all this, I got the 'dear john' call I dreaded to think about prior to the race.

Honorable mention

* Gene placed despite poor performance (self-judged).
* Rubio family does well, with felipe 3rd overall!
* George tops his group on both days.
* Jon did well at gate river 15k, won today's event.
* Fred raced again
* Silvia wins again