Happy Wife at Race Pace

We left our shores at 9ish and headed around the corner from the marina to the dinghy dock to refill. We weren’t even out of our channel yet and our dolphins came to escort us out. Dave the fuel guy met us there with his tanker truck and it worked out well to fill up there rather than at Hula Bay. From there we took a nice and easy trip over to the convention center where we docked at around 1pm Whenever it’s a race weekend, I am never quite as much fun as when we are out as usual. I have to say that I am very much a bore for a a few days before I run because I have to eat enough, sleep enough and I tend to generally obsess a bit about everything leading up to it. Having Happy Wife take me to the start line is just amazing. I cannot believe that we are the only boat at the municipal docks to take advantage of this year after year. I mean, It ’s just perfect…I can sleep in late, have my perfectly portioned breakfast at a reasonable hour, use my own bathroom instead of those ghastly porter potty’s and not have to worry about parking or wake poor Shaun who has to get up at ungodly hours to drop me off either. I mean, what’s not to love?? We had our doggies with us so we did plenty of walks with them. We had dinner on board with my folks and Philaine staying over with us on Friday night. Philaine and I walked over to Publix to buy some groceries and she made cottage pie for us all on this cold and chilly Friday night. In the morning we all woke at around seven, had breakfast and then Justine, Jax Danny and Jaidan all met us at the boat to walk over for the 5K start We had four generations running and today, my incredible dad ran his very first 5k at almost 89 and Jax, his 3rd at 5 1/2 I had to keep telling him to slow down. Shaun, Justine, Philaine, Danny and Jaidan ran with us too and we all stayed together. People cheered him on along the way shouting his name, patted him on the back and came up to congratulate him afterwards. This was so very special to me personally as I have had this as a goal for many years. My dad and I ran the whole course holding hands and chatting along the way about so many things. It was priceless beyond words but the greatest gift of all was seeing all of this through my fathers eyes. He was just thrilled to be with us all and being able to place that medal over his head brought tears to my eyes. I’m so thankful for this man and for this very special gift that we all got to share! Later in the day Shaun, Philaine and myself walked up the Riverwalk to Armature works for a delicious and as it turns out,”perfect fuel” lunch, on the lawn under beautiful sunny skies. We bought my favorite tuna bowls for supper and I went to bed at 9. My run was a breeze and I literally felt like I tiptoed it. I came 22nd in my division even though I just ran to enjoy the race for once, having not done enough training by far. I so love my running and certainly hope that I can continue in the sport for many, many years to come. I have had so many special moments on my own during my training and actual races, in fact far too many to count. I feel very blessed and grateful to have the ability to run as well as my amazing friends and family always there to support me along the way At around lunchtime on Sunday we left the convention center and sailed to Fantasy Island for the night. We love the seclusion and peacefulness there. I could have my bath up on the helm and Cali and Mr Pete’s just loved being out there with us too. We left early on Monday morning to get back for Shaun’s business meeting, docking at 9.30am back at Westshore Happy Wife is so special and we just love that we get to take our house with us wherever we go…we just let go of the ropes!