Mid month crisis (Aug)

It that time again. Yesterday was not just a Friday, but the 13th! My bad luck included having to do a brake job on my car, in addition to the fact that I have not broken 19 since independence day!

Saturday agenda-race?

Well, at least there was 1 local event-the ING kick off 5k. Sadly, it was basically a fun run, with no individual awards or categories. Fortunately, the top 30 males & females got a prize. Last year, it was a medal. This year, a starbucks gift card on an ING lanyard, thus far the 2nd lamest as far as a finishers medal but however, practical. This was my debut 'race' wearing the Vibrim 5 finger shoes. I ran the 1st mile an easy 6:15 & basically ran with Allan W. lost ten seconds in the 2nd. The last mile I intentionally slowed down to adjust with Allan. At the final stretch, I pulled back, jogged near the finish, stopped & turned around to walk in backwards for the finish. Hey, I was having fun! Also, I needed to reserve my strength for the main event tomorrow. Unfortunately, I didn't escape without injury; I re-aggravated a callous on my right foot. My mission was accomplished for today-be in the top 30 & do it in under 20; yep, I made it even with the showboating. Remember, this was a FUN RUN. They had a nice post race with a raffle (rigged) offered. Oh, I forgot. There was a special category I missed because of that. George won the male swimsuit division. There were other winners, male & female, but I didn't know any of them.

Sunday agenda-race!

Already scheduled on my calendar, it's time for round 3 of the trilogy series. I saved my strength for this one because I not only compete as an individual, but also as part of a team; I was more concerned about the latter. However, I also needed to redeem myself for my last outing. Praise the Lord, the callous was not a factor & with 90+ % recovery, I was basically in race form. With little or no wind, conditions were ideal for cycling. Unfortunately, even with cloud cover, it was still hot & humid. By the grace of God, I cracked 6 minutes on the mile sprint (8 oa) to reach the awaiting teammate who blew the field with the fastest split, despite an 18 mile training the day prior. The good Lord came through again as I had one of my better cycling days with a better than 21 average (14 oa); yea, I lost some positions, as expected. Once Spencer took off, he advanced the team by dropping 10 people and we won hands down! Meanwhile, by God's grace, I picked off the same number as our overall position. I actually could've been 1 better but lost the sprint to the finish to a kid nearly 2 decades younger; that was expected. I warned him that he had better stepped it up or this old man would've beat him. If you check out the stats, I defeated him on both run legs, which means he was a faster cyclist. Post race was nice, with hot pancakes & lots of fruit. Oh, Spencer had the fastest split on the anchor run as well; thank you, teammate. My second run was rated the same as the 1st in overall position. I was aware I lost time in transition but winning twice, both as an individual & team, was well worth it. Crisis over?

Honorable mention

* George took the male swimsuit division in the 5k & age group in the du despite complications