Mothers Day Classic

This weekend was one of those “BANANA SKIN WEEKENDS” … you know the ones … everyone has one of those when they are training for a fun run or they are on a diet … it is one of those weekends that you know have been booked into your diary in advance that you KNOW that you are GOING TO BE BAD and have a few drinks and have some pretty nice food & desserts … you know that if you don’t watch yourself then you are going to indulge a bit too much & before you know it then all of your training & dieting was for nothing. 
 
So you decide to be good within reason & only be naughty a little bit … but your friends are HARD TASKMASTERS & then won’t let you get away with it … it is a real test of your mettle.
 
So here we have the “Banana Skin” situation that we had this weekend  … before Christmas, the three of us organised to go to Saturday’s Golden Slipper at Rosehill … we went last year & had a great time … so we thought we would do it again.  Plan was to have a few glasses of “bubbles” … bit of a punt & go home.  We would do extra training on Sunday to make us feel better for indulging at the races.  It was a reasonable plan.  Warning: all of the best plans have Banana Skins!
 
Banana Skin #1 - Kylie’s brother announced a few weeks ago that he was accepting a job in Singapore & that he would also tie in this opportunity with marrying his long-time girlfriend Anna … on Saturday afternoon.  Now Chookie (my 62yo mum) said that she still wanted us to go the races with her so we agreed to go to the races & then after race seven get a taxi in town in time for the wedding.  We would be mindful that we had 2 big functions on the one day & pace ourselves with the naughty stuff.
 
Banana Skin #2 - race 2 has a rank outsider called “Book of Kells” win as odds of 61/1.  Now for those that have a bit of an Irish background & are renowned for betting on horses because of their name then you would understand that Irish born & bred Chookie “just had to” put a small wager on this horse.   Well it got up & felt like it paid millions.  It was enough for us to get the bubbles flowing at an early part of the day.
 
Banana Skins #3, 4 & 5 - this is becoming our best ever day at the races and we are winning with bets on the nose, each way, trifectas were getting up & even mystery trifectas were winners … you just have to have a few more glasses of bubbles right?  Luckily we knew that we still had to turn up at the wedding in a correct state so we pulled back & didn’t get sucked in.  But Chookie wasn’t going to the wedding & she wasn’t going to be deterred.  So we decided to pull the guilt trip on her … she was now an inspiration to thousands of other women around Australia in beating breast cancer & she needed to set a good example (memo to NRL stars & Olympic swimmers).  So from race 5 each glass of bubbles was complemented with a glass of water … and she agreed that she would go for two walks on Sunday instead of just one.
 
We had a great time at the wedding & kept at the slower pace that we set at the start of the day at the races.  The bride looked beautiful (don’t they always!!) and we headed home straight after the reception instead of going to that “banana skin” monster in the far corner of the hotel … the hotel bar.
 
On Sunday morning we got up & went for our long walks and also backed it up with an another long afternoon walk.  We felt quite good - we had an enjoyable weekend but didn’t let our training regime fall apart.  Next week Chookie starts incorporating some running into her training regime - she isn’t looking forward to it but knows it is better to put in a few short runs now before May 11. 
 
Looking back I think we found the right balance for these banana Skin Weekends.  If you “play hard” then you must also “train hard”.  Whilst any training regime must be disciplined you need to have a few days of fun … you are not running for gold in the Beijing Olympics … but you still need to keep a check on things & not go on a big binge. 
 
Watch out for those banana skins!
 
Here’s to a good week of training ahead & three cheers again to that wonderful horse “Book of Kells!!” 
 
Adrian Raftery
 
PS Thank you for those that have sent the good luck messages to Chookie.  Ye are superstars!
 
PSS Help grow the mothers Day classic this year & invite a family member or friend to join you … they don’t need to be fit … you just need to participate & share the love & help beat breast Cancer in this country.