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...