Pushing Hard at Gasparilla

Race Recap: The Gasparilla Half Marathon
(my second half)
The Day Before

The big expo before the races definitely got me excited about my half. There’s just something about a bunch of runners getting together that really gets my mind into the game.

I am sooooo happy my gym buddy Pam saw these compression sleeves for calves. I talked with the guy at the local running store, Feet First, about my shin splints and calf pain and he suggested these might help.

I bought the Zensah Compression Leg Sleeves (about $40). He suggested the compression would minimize the fluid buildup in my calves which would minimize the pain. Worth a try (even though they were pretty expensive at $41)! I wore them all day Saturday to prep my calves. (I believe these sleeves were what got me through the race since the day before I couldn't run for 10 seconds straight!)

on of the sleeves... so comfortable!

what I bought

what i got!

After the expo I took about 2.5 hours to do yoga for runners, stretching and foam rolling. I felt so much better physically and more mentally prepared after this.

David, his parents and I enjoyed a great pre-race meal at Sweet Tomatoes! This is an awesome buffet that focuses on salad, soup, bakery and pasta. Mmm!

Race Day

I woke up at 4:00 a.m. race day and thought, “This is not the day I want to run a 13 mile race!”

a shot of darkness... the race started at 6:00am!

I fueled with my race-day-standard of banana oats and ½ glass of orange juice.
But seeing the more than 10,000 runners definitely got me motivated. I met up with my friends Pam and Sarah to start the race.
I held onto them as long as I could, running straight through the first 35 minutes. Then I branched off for continuous 4 minutes of running and 1 minute of walking.

Around Mile 8 someone was giving away free Larabar samples! I saw it was Cinnamon Roll and just had to have one! HA! Not a good idea when you’re running a RACE. I had to walk most of the next 10 minutes with intense side cramps. (At least it tasted good :-)

my one running shot- with Larabar in hand!

Other than freaking whole food Larabars, I also mentioned on a few Clif Shots as a smart refueling tool during the race. I switched between Gatorade and H20 at the stops along the race. Normally I only do water, but on race day I’ll take all the fuel I can get!
The last four miles were the toughest when my knee and foot pain started to kick in. My shoes weren’t supported enough and that (along with my shin injury) was causing pain. On top of the pain it started pouring rain- and it was cold!

And that’s when I started chanting “Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional.” Yes I was in intense pain. Yes it was raining and I was SO COLD. But I had the option to push myself, run through that and get that medal at that end.

So that’s what I did.

Every step hut like crazy, but every step was one more choice to push hard when pain pushed into me. I was running in spite of everything against me and it felt so good!!

I sprinted to the finish-line (have no idea where that energy came from!) and almost cried! Two days ago I wasn’t sure if I was going to run, and now I pushed myself past my comfort zone and made PR by 10 minutes!

After the race I did some light stretching, icing and traded my shin sleeves for a knee sleeve. I can’t walk down stairs but otherwise I feel pretty good :)

I also munched on some Larabars :)

Later

Luckily I had a fun blogger meet-up to keep me moving throughout the day :)

We had the best lunch at Datz Deli here in Tampa! Here are a few shots:

my entree

David's entree

the infamous Monkey bread

of course we ALL had to take pictures! :)

And a HUGE shout out to Meghann and Caitlin for running three races each in two days and making some PRs!

couldn't help but stop for some ice cream at Dlites!