Adventures in Tampa- Half marathon #2- Gasparilla

After traveling to Jacksonville last week, I came back to Boston to work for a few days before heading back down to Florida to take on another running adventure. Doing back to back half marathons in a week sounded good months ago when registering, but as the event got closer, I wasn't totally sure it was my best decision. My uncle lives in Tampa, so I took the opportunity to spend a few extra days in the beautiful weather and left Thursday. Though the first two days I was there it was their only "Florida winter" and in the 50's, I certainly enjoyed letting them layer up, while I enjoyed the gorgeous sun. We had a great few days together and for me much of it was spent laying around the couch/ yard and forcing myself to relax, something I never do in Boston. To say that they spoiled me was an understatement and I enjoyed all my favorite home cooked meals. My pants endorse that this week...

I left for downtown Tampa after breakfast on Saturday and met Marcia and Melissa at the race expo. After getting our race stuff and some free swag, we indulged in the local food fare and got Cubans at this amazing place called Victoria's. If you're in the area, go. You won't regret it. It was my first "Cuban experience" and it was wonderful. :-)

We spent the afternoon touring Ybor city by way of our fabulous tour guide Marcia, with multiple libation stops, most notably Columbia. Best. Sangria. Ever. In fact, we drank more sangria than I ever would the night before a race. I hold my alcohol well, but generally don't partake at least a day or two before race days. I had actually stopped drinking for a while during BCM training, so my tolerance was a little lower. The food at Columbia also smelled amazing (more on that in a bit).  We ended the night at the Spaghetti Factory, to carb up (and drink a bit more Sangria) and were back to the house to prep for race day by 9. I was passed out 15 minutes later.

I did wake with some dehydration, but surprisingly enough, some peanut butter crackers, a banana and chugging a bottle of water took care of that pretty well.

Though I always thought I was pretty solid at planning things down to a dime, Marcia is definitely the most efficient time manager I know. The race was starting at 6am and although we were supposed to be in the last corral and probably wouldn't start until 6:20 or so, she ensured us that waking at 5 would be plenty of time. We were out of the house at 5:20, made a pit stop at Starbucks, parked the car blocks away, used the porta potties and still made it to the start line at 5:55. They weren't really sectioning people off...so we jumped into the barrier about 10 people behind the elites. We were off at 6:02! Marcia and Melissa run with the Jeff Galloway interval method, and though I never have, was looking forward to trying it out. We did 2:1's the whole way, which was pretty great, since I was not running at 100%. We finished in 2:35 on the nose, and aside for some discomfort from a blister I got in the race last week, had no pain or soreness at all! I will certainly incorporate intervals into future training!

The course itself was beautiful, with most of it along the Tampa shore. For a race having over 30,000 runners, I never felt like we were crowded. There was hydration at every mile and 2 stops with Gatorade chews, which I really appreciated since, GU is not my thing.

After finishing, we took some photos with the legendary Gaspar boat and got some amazing food, supplied by the delicious Columbia restaurant that we were at the night before. Paella, rice and beans, salad...so good! If the line wasn't so long, seconds would've been had by all.

I don't think I've ever sweat that much in my life, and would refrain from indulging so much before I future race, but given the circumstances was really happy with our time. In my competitive mind, I wonder what time I would've had if I gave my all, but told myself going into the race that I was going to do it for fun, so no regrets here!

After cleaning up, we grabbed brunch at Datz, another awesome place to go if you're in the Tampa area! I left for the airport at about 1:30, hoping to get on the 4:00 flight, but for the first time, had no luck on standby. I spent the following 5 hours in the Tampa airport, only to get denied at 9pm as well. With school vacation and snow birds, traveling I would have to try again in the morning. Monday morning I was able to get to DC, which would get me at least halfway. Luckily an hour and a half after landing in DC hopped on a plane home.

I cannot stress enough the importance of cross training, most importantly weight training. We earned one of the coolest medals ever, and I completed a challenge that a mere few days prior I was questioning. With the exception of the Breast Cancer Half I completed last week, each of the previous long races I have done I ended up in pain for days. After both of these races I felt great and either trained or took class the following day without any soreness. My longest run before last week was 6.5 miles, but made sure to get to bodyco at least four days a week, training at least one of those days. Though I may complain during the process, hard work does pay off & I look forward to seeing how I can improve my times and performance in future races. Now to find a new adventure...

6th Time's A Charm! 2015 Breast Cancer Marathon

As many of you know by my multitude of posts these past few weeks, I was again registered to take on the 26.2 with Donna- the National Marathon to FINISH Breast Cancer. This would be my sixth time taking on the race, and each year it becomes more near and dear to me. I have not only raced and raised money for this amazing organization, but have had the opportunity to help promote the race at local expos and such in Boston. It has gone from "a race I was trying to find to use as a workout goal" to something of passion.

The race itself is an unbelievable experience. The entire city comes out to support those who are running and throughout the race you can find anyone from "your average resident" cheering and giving high fives to breast cancer survivors and current women going through treatment thanking and hugging you along the route. If inspiration to get you through is what you need- this is the race for you! If you want to find an organization where 100% of your money raised will go to research to find a cure for the disease and give money to help pay bills of those battling it, this race is for you! If you want to spend time in Florida during cold snowy February, this race is for you!

This year, this race meant more to me than ever before. Though my dad didn't agree with everything Gina and I did (cue Spartan races and karate) he always supported us. This race on the other hand he always bragged about. He always talked about his "daughter who ran cancer races vs his daughter who shopped." Any time someone would call the house for some type of donation, his answer was always "I give money to my daughter who runs to fight cancer." As fate would have it, just two days after completing the 26.2 with Donna last year, we rushed dad to the hospital to find out a few hours later that he had "one of the worst esophageal cancers that ED had ever seen." One week later we found out it would take his life in six months. Running to raise money to help families battling this dreadful disease was one thing, but to experience it first hand took my love for this race to a whole different level. Dad's wish was to pass at home. He tried as hard as he could to do this, but the day before he passed, he asked to be taken to the hospital. While lying in the ED struggling to get comfortable, he told his nurse "you know, my daughter does cancer races so we can find a cure for this shit." It was then I promised him that I would continue to do so as long as I physically could, and there was no way I was letting him down this weekend.

The 26.2 was going to be taking place the day after Valentine's Day this year and with all my mom went through over the last year, I thought it would be a perfect treat for her to join me on my race journey. She is by far the most supportive person of any activity I take on, whether it be theater, half marathons, Spartan races or anything in between. (It took a while for me to break her from telling people that I did American Ninja Warrior in October). This would be her first Valentine's Day without my dad, so to keep her mind off things and get to see me cross a finish line of a race was going to be perfect.

Mother Nature however, felt the need to challenge that. If the beginning of school vacation wasn't challenging enough to get on an airplane standby, the foot of snow that she was bringing would take care of that. As the days to race day got closer, flights were selling out and on Thursday there were no open flights anywhere on the East Cost heading South. Gina tried everything she could to get us there, but in the end our only option was going to be to sleep in the airport Friday night and hope someone missed their flight. I contemplated driving down from Boston, but sleeping on it overnight realized it would be over my head to drive alone. I decided that if she could just fly me halfway I'd take care of the rest. The entire week leading up to the race I was an emotional mess. I wanted to do this race as well as I could and make dad proud, but the miles I got in over the last few months were sub par. My longest run was 6.5 miles. I had been training fairly regularly at bodyco, but running wasn't in that training by choice of my own laziness. With that emotion came a drained body. Friday night came and when I left work decided to go home and get some sleep as oppose to bunk at the airport. I would get there early Saturday and pray to the airline Gods to get me anywhere close to Florida. Gina and I also decided that night that we would leave mom behind. If there was only one seat on a flight it would be worse for my mom to see me get on it while she stood back, than to just promise her a trip some time soon. She took it relatively well (better than I did) and now we will be heading back to Disney next month (win!).

I got to the airport bright and early and as luck would have it got to Savannah Georgia! I rented a car and headed and hour and 45 minutes South to Jacksonville. I was going to be able to race. I am not sure I've been that stoked in a while and was so fired up that I barely slept Saturday night.

I also got the opportunity to attend the Mayo Clinic reception Saturday evening, which was overwhelming and a true confirmation of how much has been accomplished with the funds raised over the last 8 years. Not only is there now going to be a vaccine, but a multitude of new clinical trials, all supported by the 26.2 with Donna. We also got to meet one of the women that received funds from The Donna Foundation to be able to get her breast cancer surgery, that she was otherwise not able to pay for. Her touching story had everyone in tears, and if that was not enough energy to send me into race morning, what she said to me after sealed the deal for me. A few of us spoke with her after the reception. I thanked her for giving me that extra push for the morning and while hugging me said "what you do saved my life, and for that I cannot thank you enough." Tears and a full heart commence yet again.

 

I don't think we could've had better running weather. It was around 50 when we started and 60 or so when we finished. I told myself I wanted to do the best I could, but also didn't want to jump out of the gun too soon. Every year for the last five, I've crumped by mile 9, and struggled, contemplating why I took on this race again (of course that always changes a few hours after crossing the finish line). I never once had that feeling this year. At mile 10 I actually thought I was dreaming about passing the mile marker. Mile 11 got sick, but felt so good that I didn't even know until it happened, then killed the final two miles faster than all the previous. I pretty much ran the majority of the time, only walking through water stops (though this photo sort of looks otherwise ;) )

I ended up placing in the top 25% of my gender and top third of my age group, which is certainly a first for me. I got a 16.5 minute PR on the course from all my times over the last six years and beat last years time by a half hour. If I wasn't dehydrated when crossing the finish line I most likely would have shed more tears, but pretty sure I dove across the finish in excitement.

I feel super blessed and lucky to have stumbled upon this race years ago and very grateful to have found such a caring environment at bodyco where I have been able to grow physically. With the crazy weather, I haven't run outside since November. Thus, the minimal running I did (6.5 miles was my longest) was on the treadmill. I wasn't sure how prepared I'd be, but for emotional reasons was so ready to take it on. It was by far my training and bootcamps under Jody and Lauren that not only prepared my body for 13 miles, but strengthened my muscles enough to get me to that course PR. This weekend has truly been amazing and although was a completely draining process to get to, would not have changed a thing once I arrived.

 

When I return from races Aaliyah always enjoys running around with any new race medals I bring home. Here she is wearing all six of my 26.w with Donna medals. That only lasted about 30 seconds, but enough for a cute shot. :)

I am heading back down to FL this weekend to take on another half with some 26.2 with Donna ladies and get to marathon distance in a week. I'll be taking this one as a "fun run." More details on that next week. :-)