Gasparilla 15k

I'm a firm believer in the old saying " you get out, what you put in". In some cases, you put in diddly, and you get squat.

That's the best way to describe my performance at Gasparilla this year. I am not the kind of runner that cannot train and then pull off a great race. Since I knew I hadn't trained properly and woke up with a belly ache ( i was still getting over the virus that ran viciously through my house) I decided to just enjoy the race atmosphere and not get too caught up with my time. I told the girls ahead of time to leave my butt in the dust when necessary. By mile 3 they were out of my sight.

Miraculously I kept my first 6mi at a 10min pace. I drank when thirsty, kept my pace steady and tried not to look at my watch very often. At mile 5.5 I took my shock blocks. By mile 6 it all turned bad. The water stops caught up with me and I had to hit the porta potty. Eeeeek! In the future, I'll opt for peeing myself. The shocks had a lot of caffeine and sodium in them which led to a super high heart rate and VERY swollen fingers. They were like freakin sausages by the time I crossed the finish line. Needless to say my last 5k of the race was not pretty and I really had no clue of my pace at this point. I was just hoping not to crawl across the finish line.

In the end I was a little slower than last year, which I had expected. Thankfully it wasn't 10min slower!!

This race is such has beautiful scenery, great support and an overall fun and exciting atmosphere. We could not have asked for better weather. The free beer is another nice bonus. Even though, this wasn't my most successful race it was a total blast and I was grateful to share the morning with two very good friends.