Originally Pam and I had planned to vacation in GA and FL for a week or two in February. However, work required I cancel my plans. Pam, being the sweetheart that she is, salvaged some of the trip for me, arranging a Florida weekend to participate in the Gasparilla Beck's Light Challenge - a 15k (9.3 miles) and a 5k (3.1 miles) on Saturday morning and a 1/2 marathon (13.1 miles) on Sunday morning.Things took a turn three weeks prior when I tweaked a calf muscle and was relegated to the ranks of "injured reserve" (i.e. no running). Managing to maintain a level of fitness with biking and swimming, and relying a pretty solid base of marathon training, I was confident, but naive as going from 0 to Gasparilla proved to be a challenge...
Another obstacle was the weather and I was delayed getting out of Detroit by some 4 hours. I didn't get to bed until 2a.m. and had a 4:30 wake-up call for Saturday's races. I managed to get up and join the masses at the start, wondering how my calf would hold up. At precisely 7 we were off and running.
The first three miles I clicked off 8:20's and felt good. I started back in the pack and was weaving my way through the crowd when I hear my named called out. Les, an online friend, recognized me by my shirt, which had "Press On!" on the backside (I had told him about the shirt). He was hoping to run 9:20's, and since I wasn't in any real hurry, settled in and chatted the next 6.3 miles away with him. Race 1 done. No calf issues. All is good...An hour later we were at the start of the 5k and my legs are reminding me they hadn't run in 3 weeks. Everything was getting sore. The gun went off and in true 5k fashion, however, I put the hammer down. I hit the first mile mark at 6:40 and, considering the circumstances, convinced myself I needed to slow down and just get to the finish. I chose to run the 2nd mile slow. My body decided for me that I'd run the 3rd mile even slower :-) Arriving at finish line #2 I finally realized this triple challenge was tough.
Post race Saturday meant relaxing, recharging and enjoying the Florida sunshine and my sisters company - oh and of course some good seafood for dinner! Had a great time getting to know Christine's friend Sherrie as well.
Four Green Fields is the last Irish Pub in America with a thatched roof. Very cool. Very friendly. Favorite hang-out for the local runners and I'm told the Tuesday night run club draws 300!
The race went off without a hitch, except the one in my giddyup! My legs were cursing me pretty loudly, trying to convince me that I really wasn't into this. The calf injury seemed to be a thing of the past, however, so I pushed the pain aside and pressed on. My original plan of 7:40's was out of the question, so on this day I decided 9:00/mile was the right recipe. I dialed in 9's and stayed there for the next hour and 58 minutes. Along the way I conversed with a number of other runners from all over the country, and spent a good amount of time getting to know Marc, who was in pursuit of his first sub 2hr half (which he nailed).
Some other race moments, good crowd support ...
And an A+ for the volunteers. They were awesome. We really can't do this without them!
And finally, the finish!
After the festivities, Sunday afternoon was spent enjoying the beach and a sunset over the gulf...
And I never come to Florida without enjoying a fresh grouper sandwich...
Monday we enjoyed the sunrise and beautiful vistas at Phillipe Park...
...and the nature and a sunset at John Chesnut Park...
...and another great dinner, this time at Molly Goodheads...
Thanks to my sister Christine for hosting me, and for these great photo's (the good ones are her's, the not so good mine :-) While I was out running, she was shooting some downtown scenes like these:
Thanks to my wife, Pam, for allowing me to have this awesome weekend.
A few more race photo's, just for fun...
And then, there is "The Rest of the Story", but that'll be my next post. Stay tuned!
