Gasparilla Distance Classic

It's a week late but I'm finally getting around to my race recap for the Gasparilla Distance Classic.

Being from Tampa I love the GDC. I ran the 5K here back in middle school before I gave up running (the first time) and it was a blast. Two years ago, when I had finally started running again, I ran in the 8K, my very first "distance" race. I think at the time I had only run 5 miles once before, and it was hard but tremendously rewarding. The race that started the Crazy, perhaps?

Gasparilla used to have a marathon; however between a combination of low turnout and whining from folks who hated having their streets closed all day, they pulled back to a 1/2 marathon. GDC weekend there are 4 races: 15K and 5K on Saturday and the 1/2 marathon followed by the 8K on Sunday. The 5K this year had over 14,000 participants! 

It's a great time - typically you'll see people dressed up as pirates all over the place. Myth debunking: some of my friends thought that the race is pirate themed because of the Buccaneers, our NFL team. Not so! In reality the Gasparilla festival has been celebrated in Tampa since 1904. Jose Gaspar, the pirate captain, invades the city with his pirate mates, and the mayor surrenders the key to the city. "Sacking" ensues - basically a lot of parades, bead throwing and plenty of drinking. So the GDC takes place during this time. 

GDC also offers three different "challenge" options. Since Michelob is the big sponsor for the races, they're all named after beers. I did the middle challenge, the *takes a deep breath* Michelob Ultra Amber Challenge. This meant I would run the 15K and 5K races on Saturday followed by the 1/2 marathon on Sunday. The other two challenges entailed running the 15K/8K or all four races. In retrospect I should have probably signed up for the 15K/8K so I wouldn't have been so stressed out about my training during the worst part of the winter in PA. Oh well, lesson learned! 

Race Day #1: Saturday. 15K/5K.

The 15K started at  7am so I was up around 4:45; the usual sneaking around the house trying not to knock anything over and waking everyone else up. I was excited to rock my Moon Joggers Voyage to Venus shirt and gunmetal Sparkle Skirt. I recently bought some Brooks Glycerin 2-in-1 shorts which worked out wonderfully. They have a boy short liner with grippy hem so I can rock the shorts without getting any wicked thigh chafe.

My requisite pre-race bib selfie: Husband affectionately referred to my bib as "the Civil War bib."

Getting to Tampa on Friday had been a nightmare. Woke up that morning to fog but no apparently flight delays in PHL so I drove there expecting my noon flight to TPA to be on time. WRONG. Long story short: I ended up driving to ACY to jumpseat down on company. This ended up with a very very rushed Friday - barely any time for packet pickup and dinner, much less my normal hydration/yoga/foam rolling pre race rituals. And I was still organizing for the race at 10pm. *head desk*

Even though I knew it would be hot and humid, the race packet swore there would be aid stations nearly every mile, so I decided to forgo my bulky Nathan hydration belt for a SPIBelt with gel pockets that I picked up at the expo. The race support was so excellent at the race that I never regretted not bringing my own water. I never had to wait for water; there were at least 10 volunteers at each aid station for the 15K and even more for the 1/2 marathon. I can't say enough about how wonderful the race support was all weekend!

The Tampa "skyline," which was pretty invisible all morning due to fog.

The 15K course was wonderful; out and back down Bayshore Blvd. If you're looking for a flat race course, look no further. Besides the Brorein Street bridge that you cross immediately after the start, there was not a noticeable incline for the entirety of the race. Gotta love Tampa for that!

Running on Bayshore is like an architecture tour - the houses on and near Bayshore run the gamut from small ranches to magnificent Spanish style homes that list for millions of dollars. Bayshore is prime real estate.

After about 5 1/2 miles we had our turnaround. Some blessed souls were passing out Krispy Kreme donuts to all the runners - I wish I could've partaken but when I'm hot and sweaty the last thing I want is an uber-sweet donut!

Since it was hot and I felt massively undertrained I ran the race with a 4:1 interval - 4 minutes of running with 1 minute walk breaks. It actually worked out pretty well! I never got so tired that my form became sloppy. Judging from Nike+ my running portions ran about 11:15-11:30/mile so I averaged a 12:10/mile pace for the 15K with a time of 1:54:19. Not bad!

Unfortunately at mile 7 I started to feel an ache in my left foot. By the time I crossed the finish line it was hurting quite a bit. Oh no!!

A medal makes everything better for a little while...

The 15K medal. Yay booty!

At this point David and I finally found each other and we hung out for a little while waiting for the 5K start. Hubs had registered for the 5K the night before so I wouldn't have to walk it myself - Mom had originally decided to do it with me but came down with a nasty cold that weekend. 

I don't have any photos from the 5K for two reasons: I was in a lot of pain by this point and about a mile in it started to POUR. Torrential rainfall!! The rain would stop just to start up again about 2 minutes later. Doh! By the time we finished we were soaked and my shoes were all squishy. Gross. But we finished (55:24)!! After the race we had a quick photo op at the pier where we got married.

Hey look! We got married here! 

Saturday afternoon/evening I spent with my foot on ice. I was panicked that there was no way I'd be able to run the 1/2 marathon. This is why I always feel weird about getting race shirts/premiums before running the actual race - I already had the (really cool) 1/2 marathon shirt and the challenge finishers jacket at home...staring at me...telling me to not be a wimp. Pain is temporary, pride is forever, right? Right. So Sunday morning I roust myself at 4am to go "run" a 1/2 marathon. *head desk*

The weather, thankfully, was a bit cooler than the day before. I walked to the convention center/start line in some pain but no so much that I didn't think I'd finish the race. I even risked some ibuprofen that morning, even though I never take medication before I run.

Does this sound like a really stupid person talking? Yes, yes it does. Because I'm that crazy person.

I'll save you the gory details but it was a LONG race. A really long race. I still maintained my 4:1 ratio, but by mile 9 I decided to throw it out the window and just keep running, just to get the damn race over with. I was very thankful to get so many encouraging Facebook messages from my friends and running group - it kept me going. I'm glad I did the 1/2 but I never want to run injured again. It was stupid and not enjoyable.

It wasn't all terrible - by the 10K mark I realized that I was running really slow (over a 13'/mile pace which is slow for me for a 1/2) but that I was at 1:30 - which meant if I could negative split the last half the race I could get a sub 3 hour time.

Aaaaand the crazy person is back.

What is it about running and goals and times that make us absolutely insane? All I know is that around mile 10 either the serotonin kicked in or I was just tired of thinking about my foot because the pain went away. I actually pulled a decent pace for the last 5K of the half and finished in 2:59:17. Husband was even there to high five me right before I crossed the finish line (that's love right there, folks).

Nothing makes you happier about running 13.1 miles on a sprained ankle like a damn idiot like getting two shiny medals when you cross the finish line.

This doesn't look like the face of a person who just ran a 1/2 marathon on a sprained ankle, does it?  It because this is the face of a CRAZY PERSON.

The 1/2 marathon medal immediately became my New Favorite Medal.

Super booty, arrrr!!

It was nice to realize, after the race was over, that this was my 4th half marathon and that my first was exactly one year before that (at the Princess 1/2 Marathon in Disney). It's been a crazy awesome year.

Post race pic outside the Tampa Bay History Center - my favorite wedding photo was my husband and I sitting on this gator.

So. All in all I'm glad I decided to run the 1/2 on Sunday. Most of it sucked but I didn't die and I didn't break anything. So I call that a win. I could barely walk the rest of the day (or the next three) but at least I finished. You may think that it's irresponsible and crazy but it's just the way my brain works.

We're gonna need a bigger medal rack.

The sad thing is that I had to call out sick to work all week because of the damn sprain - I could barely walk around, much less use a rudder pedal or assist in an evacuation. So that was pretty stupid, professionally. But at least I was on reserve so they didn't have to cover a trip for me or anything. And yes, I went to the doctor. Rest, ice, take it easy for a week and NO RUNNING until it feels 100%. I can deal with that. There are worse things than convalescing in Florida before heading back to the frozen wasteland that is the Mid-Atlantic. Yesterday I finally had the bright idea to KT tape my ankle; it still hurts but feels a lot more supported than it did on an ankle brace and my shoes fit better to boot. At least I should be able to go to work Thursday, even if I'm not running yet.

Next race: I doubt I'll be doing the Run4Luck in Lancaster in 2 weeks; April 13th is the Hershey 10K. Going to try to get a time of around 1:05 so I can get a better corral placement for Disney Wine & Dine in October. Better corral placement = more time in Epcot post-race, woo!

Stay thirsty, my friends.

Abuse therapy and race prep

My inattention to my weak right hip is really coming back with a vengeance. Tonight I had an hour session with my stretch therapist, Brad. I was nearly in tears when he was working on my adductor and illiopsoas. Groan. Hopefully I'll be a little less out of whack tomorrow and this weekend. Plenty of pigeon pose in my future!

I'm finally packed for my trip to Tampa; if I don't get called I'm off reserve at 11am tomorrow (crossing fingers) and trying to get on a noon flight to Tampa. Then it's off to the Gasparilla race expo with Mom and David, who I'm hoping are both walking the 5K with me on Saturday! It would be so cool for them to both have race Ts and medals.

I finally sat down and wrote up a generic packing list for races, since I seem to travel for them so much. Of course the next 3 races I'm scheduled for are local. This will be a nice break.

David's currently at jetBlue U for his first recurrent; he's in the box tonight for his checkride until 3am. I know he's going to do amazing. I'm back on reserve Wednesday and while there's a nice 3 day trip with a wonderful MYR overnight in it, I'm hoping I don't get assigned as David will be home Wednesday/Thursday. It's been a really rough month. That the more time we spend together, the harder it is to be apart. We should be used to being on our own, as it's been 6 years since I started at Spirit, but it's honestly more difficult. Being married has made us even more attached to each other. I love him more every day and I know he feels the same way about me. But it's been a challenge since he's started at jetBlue, and worse since I chose to become a captain and lost most of the control I had over my schedule. Add Part 117 making schedules more troublesome and it's been a long winter so far. We're doing fine, it's just that neither one of us have any "B" plan. Well, David does. And we've always promised that we'd rather quit our jobs than endanger our marriage. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

Oh...all this thinking about what to do that's not flying the line just makes me stressed out. Oy.

More about the race this weekend.

Let's try this yet again...

I suppose I will yet again attempt to blog.

My problem continues to be the realization that no one really wants to read what I do workout or work-wise, and that's okay with me. I don't really read a lot of other blogs, to be honest. What I want to do is keep a journal, and I type much faster than I write. I would prefer, actually, to not have folks reading this. A lot is probably embarrassing. I'm not into giving advice. It's probably going to be boring. But I always seem to regret not keeping a journal, so here we go.

This weekend is the Gasparilla Distance Classic. I first ran Gasparilla when I was in middle school, with my bestie Amy. I remember having so much fun! This was before medals were a thing so I'm not even sure I have the tshirt laying around. That was the 5K in probably 1996 or 1997. Then in 2012 I ran the 8K (named the 5+3K after the sponsor, 5/3 bank of whatever they're called - it took me 2 years to figure that out). It's such a gorgeous course I couldn't wait to run more races.

Unfortunately last year Gasparilla ended up being on the same weekend as the Princess 1/2 marathon! However after the absolute craziness of the Princess I decided that I'd much rather run my hometown race. Sleep in my own bed? Not have to pack food? What the what?!?

My training was going so well in late fall (after being woefully under prepared for both the Bird-in-Hand 1/2 and the Disney Wine and Dine 1/2 I was SUPER motivated to not suck for this race) that I registered for one of the three challenges. Honestly I can't even remember the name - all the challenges are named after beer (yep, sounds like Tampa!). This Saturday I run the 15K followed by the 5K and on Sunday the 1/2. I had originally started training via the Dumbo Dare schedule but quickly fell behind on mileage. The winter has been absolutely horrible. I didn't know that running too fast on the treadmill is Bad For You and ended up aggravating a hip flexor that I pulled slipping on ice (ironically enough while heading into the gym). Being Mikel, The One Who Never Rests Injuries, I continued to run on it until I was limping every day. Sigh. So I haven't run in a month. Instead I've been hitting the elliptical as well as weight training and swimming.

Cardio-wise I feel prepared. Running-wise? Well, let's hope there's enough KT tape to go around. I slipped on ice AGAIN yesterday so my hip twinges a bit today. I'll hit up stretch therapy Thursday afternoon and continue to practice yoga and foam roll like a crazy person.

And that, my friends, is a huge slacker.

After Gasparilla it's on like Donkey Kong. I keep reminding myself that running is a lifelong journey. I do not need to Run All the Races this year. I've banned myself from signing up for anything more than a 10K until Bird-in-Hand in September. I need to be able to ramp my mileage up safely to get ready for marathon training June 1st. And then I have to pray that work will cooperate enough that I can train effectively. At least I'm learning that the elliptical is just find for short run/cross training days. And once the hip flexor heals up at last, I can return to the treadmill - but only for running slow. Like, turtle slow. 5 mph slow. 

That's enough for tonight, I think.

Today's workout:

Elliptical - 40 mins

Swimming - 30 mins, 1000m

Spring has sprung!

...Which we not so affectionately refer to as "duck rape season." Nothing like running around the pond by our house and seeing one poor female mallard trying to escape the unwelcome advances of two or three male mallards. Horn dogs. There was also one mama duck yesterday with about 17 brand spanking new ducklings. Today I saw her (or a different one, not sure) with about half that. We witnessed the mama mallard yesterday attacking and nearly drowning one of the ducklings, but my husband is trying to make me feel better by saying that I probably just didn't see the missing 8 or 9 ducklings. I wanted to rescue the one yesterday but he took shelter in the tall grass by our nesting swan, and there was no way we could have gotten close enough to grab the duckling. Plus with our being pilots, we would've just had to find an animal shelter to take him in. Still makes me sad!!

Anyways, to my run. Haven't run in about a week (sad face) but at least it seems the shin splints have completely cleared!! I decided to restart my half marathon training plan today. That way I can increase my mileage gradually and not be in a rush to get ready for the BIH half in September. I'm also hoping to try the Glass Slipper Challenge in February, which requires you to run the new Enchanted 10K at Disney the day before the Princess Half Marathon. If I have any hope of doing this I need to be regularly running 15 or 16 mile long runs. Additionally, it'll help me figure out if I'll ever be able to run a marathon. I have the itch.

Disney next week!! I love Disney runs.

4.22.13

It's funny how even when I run solo, I feel that running erases my loneliness. My husband has been away so much with his new airline that I've been home along most of the last two weeks. It was wonderful that we were able to be together for almost 2 weeks before that. It's been a long time since we had so many consecutive days together.

Sometimes when he's home I find it hard to go out on a run. I value our time together and feel that I'm being selfish for going on a run. Lucky for me I married a man who sees how happy running makes me. He all but throws my shoes at me sometimes. He's not fooling me, I know it's so he can work on building models.

Today was my first run in 6 days. My shin splints had gotten really painful so I forced myself to take a few days off. Did BodyPump and BodyFlow back-to-back yesterday (a really good mix) and my shins felt great.  Ran 4 miles today with a little pain; I tried to concentrate on my form and luckily that seemed to really help out my shins. Add some stretching, ice and some Zensah compression sleeves and I'm not feeling any twinges. Crossing my fingers!

Weather was beautiful for a run. 52F, a little windy, clear skies. Couldn't ask for a nicer day. I saw a bluebird! Never ever saw those in Florida so I'm still very excited to see one. Unfortunately today's adventure was devoid of labs :(

I also have a new "body" goal. Instead of it being a certain target weight (which I learned is unreasonable) or a certain pant size (except for I'd like last year's shorts to fit, yo). I decided that I want to feel FIERCE. I wanna have my muscly legs and arms back and some semblance of abs. I figure the rest will fall into place. My legs are already getting nuts between all this running and BodyPump!! Fierce, yo. Fierce. <3

#RunForBoston

Today I got out and ran 4.15 miles as soon as my reserve period ended. Some people have done 26.2 miles, 2.62 miles, 26.2 minutes, 4.09 miles or 4.15 miles. I think it's all important. I've seen a lot of quotes today about how messing with runners is futile, and I agree. You're not going to find a more dedicated, persevering, resolute bunch than runners, ESPECIALLY Boston runners. I can only hope and wish and train my butt off to become one of those people eventually.

I may have overdone it in the last couple weeks, going from a post-Princess 1/2 marathon (post to come later) break back to 5 and 6 mile runs with no real buildup. The left shin pain I had been feeling has been joined by right shin pain over the last week, and today it was so painful I barely managed a 13 min/mile pace, far off my typical 11-11:30. I tried zensah calf sleeves today and while they seem to help when I'm not running, I swear they make my calves cramp up. We'll try again. Yesterday instead of taking the whole day off after 2 races this weekend, I went to a BodyPump class. Probably not the best idea. David is home tomorrow from his first trip (yay!) so I'm sure he can convince me to hang out and relax a bit ;)

I tell you what, though. Instead of complaining during my run, I yelled at myself (this MAY have been out loud and not just in my head) to get over it. I thought about Boston. I thought about the dad who was running the race yesterday only to lose his son and come *this* close to losing his other two children and his wife. I thought about the other two people to lose their lives. I thought about the people who will never be able to run on their two legs again because they lost theirs yesterday. And if I can't get over some cramps and some shin splints...

It's been since 9/11 that a terrorist attack has affected me this much. I never felt connected to any of the mass shootings. I felt horrible for the victims, of course, but I didn't feel like those incidents affected me. But I can put myself in the shoes of those people. I've been there. I've waited for friends to cross finish lines. I've looked for my family as they watched for me to cross the finish line.

I think the most important thing about #RunForBoston was that it got people out running. Instead of sitting at home watching the news, we got out and did what we love most. Maybe we still felt sad, maybe we felt happy and free. But we got out there, back on the proverbial saddle. I hope that the survivors of this attack feel that they can persevere, as well. I hope they see us all running for them. I hope it helps.

The Boston Marathon

I'm normally not the sort of person who jumps on the "I <3 X" or "Today we are all ____" bandwagon after a tragedy. But today I'm wearing one of my race shirts as suggested by many of the running groups/blogs that I follow. I guess I feel more connected, since yesterday's bombings were at not only a race, but THE race. A race every runner dreams of running. Runners are happy people. This is why we run, because it makes us happy, it changes us inside and out. I guess that makes the bombing even more inexplicable; Boston is such an apolitical event. It celebrates the strength of the human spirit in its purest form. Thousands of people run this race for charities. Many participate in wheelchairs, either their own power or with family or friends pushing them. The rest have run countless miles, made huge sacrifices and pushed their bodies and minds so that they could qualify for this race of races.

One of the amazing things about Boston is the overwhelming amount of love and support from people along the entire 26.2 mile route, who turn out to cheer on their families, friends and complete strangers. The women of Wellesley college are famous for their screaming and kisses and signs at the midpoint of the race. The wounded and killed yesterday were there for the sole purpose of showering runners with love. For me that makes it all the more heartbreaking.

I can't help but wonder if any race I run ever again will be the same. There's plenty of security at large races, and even at small, local races, a few volunteer police officers are there to provide help and protect the runners. Will we be forced to have our bags searched when we get to bag check? Will runners have to go through metal detectors now before we go to our start corrals? Will spectators, the heart and soul and backbone of even the smallest races, stop coming out of fear? Will any of us ever be able to go on a run ever again and not think about what happened yesterday? I don't know if we can, and that makes me sad and angry. I feel like the purity of running has been stripped from all of us. I hope we can turn it into something positive. And for that, I'm wearing a race shirt today.