Bank of America Gasparilla Marathon - Run


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Tampa, Florida
United States
Gasparilla Distance Classic Assoc.
Precipitation
Total Time = 4h 28m 36s
Overall Rank = 631/1105
Age Group = F25-29
Age Group Rank = 32/55
Pre-race routine:

Alarm went off at 3:30. Drank coffee and gatorade and ate a bagel with peanut butter. Wrote my goal pacing on my arm: miles 1-5 - 11:30, miles 6-10 - 11:20, miles 10-20 - 11:15. I figured that should be doable since my pacing for my low heart rate training runs has been around 12 minutes per mile. Drove to Tampa. Sat in traffic in Tampa since I think the only parking garage that was open was the convention center one and there were a thousand cars all trying to get in at the same time. Definitely chaotic. I was a little panicky but luckily my bf Jeff who has done dozens of races before was really calm that kind of rubbed off on me. We finally parked, donned our garbage bags and headed to the start. Found out start was delayed which allowed for an additional and much needed bathroom stop.
Event warmup:

Talked to Jeff and stretched. Was so excited to get started and finally do the race that I had been training for and thinking about for so many months.
Run
  • 4h 28m 36s
  • 26.2 miles
  • 10m 15s  min/mile
Comments:

Going into the race I really wasn't sure what my pacing was going to be. My biggest limiter as far as triathlon went was my aerobic endurance so I've been training using the Maffetone method to bolster that. All of my training runs have been around 11-13 minute pace per mile (varied based on distance). Based on all my calculations I was pretty sure that I would stay within aerobic if I could keep my HR below 170. Once I hit 170 I told myself that I should probably slow down. So I was in the low 160s for the first 5 miles and was maintaining a pretty fast pace, almost 2 minutes per mile faster than my training pace. I kept going at the same pace, only slowing down a little when I saw the 170s on my monitor. When I hit mile 16 and I was at 2:45 I knew I was going to make my goal time of 4:45, I knew I could run 10.2 miles in under 2 hours. I was so psyched!! And then when I got to mile 20 and saw that 9:14 pace I decided to go full out and deal with a crash if it came. I sped up as much as was possible given the strong headwind. It was awesome having people call out my name as I was running, that definitely energized me!

I had a gel every 30 minutes which worked out great, I didn't have any stomach problems or cramping. Drank gatorade or water at every water station.

With the exception of the water stations and a couple times where I had trouble opening my gel packet and had to stop to use my teeth I was able to run the whole thing!
What would you do differently?:

Get a race belt! I was soaking wet for the first 20 miles or so which caused me some trouble when I tried to open gel packets. The race belt with the gel in a flask of some sort would have helped me tremendously.
Post race
Warm down:

Got my metals, hugged Jeff (well, really fell on him I think), collapsed on the side of the road to eat a bagel and drink some coke and water. With Mindy and Jeff's help, hobbled over to get some food which I ate as quickly as I could shovel it in, definitely wasn't pretty. :)

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Not knowing what pacing to use! Now I'm wondering if I could have pushed a little bit more earlier.

Event comments:

Wished I could have stayed to hang out with everyone! Jeff's parents were expecting us for dinner so we had to head out as soon as I was finished.




Last updated: 2006-01-10 12:00 AM
Running
04:28:36 | 26.2 miles | 10m 15s  min/mile
Age Group: 0/55
Overall: 0/1105
Performance: Good
Accidentally deleted all my split times and HR data!!! What a bummer. From what I can remember: Miles 1-10 ~9:50/mile pace with HR of around 165 Miles 11-19 ~10:40/mile pace with HR of around 169 Mile 20 9:14/mile pace (I remember this one b/c it absolutely SHOCKED me)! Mile 21-26.2 ~ 10/mile pace with HR of around 173 I never actually hit 11:00 min/mi pace! I couldn't believe it!
Course: Flat flat flat. Wow, I never get the privilege of running on anything near that flat!! But the last few miles were brutally windy. The rain and wind felt great, definitely helped to keep me cool. Bridges were slippery in parts but I was careful and didn't have a problem getting over them.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall:
Mental exertion [1-5]
Physical exertion [1-5]
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge
Organized?
Events on-time?
Lots of volunteers?
Plenty of drinks?
Post race activities:
Race evaluation [1-5]