Bank of America Gasparilla Marathon - Run

Where do I begin. Let me start with thursday. I started thinking about the half marathon I was signed up to do. I thought that, "If you can do a half you could do a full because it's probobly just a mental thing". So I decided to go for the full marathon. Back to race day. I was walking toward the start, after I parked my bike near the finish, when I ran into Max (who was looking for renee). Together we made our way to the start and found her and I got to run with them. I have to thank both Max and Renee. It was awesome running with you two. My mantra the whole time was once youget to bayshore it's all down hill. For me this proved to be incorrect. By the time I got to bayshore I could feel my body really starting to react. All of my surgically repair appendages (except my shoulder) were really giving me trouble. My ankle and knees were not good and started to really swell up. At this point I couldn't keep up with Max and renee and they continued on without me. This a is good because it got a little ugly after this. I wasn't doing that bad on bayshore. I managed a slow jog and tried to take in as many fluids as I could. Around Mile 18 I relized that I had stopped sweating, I knew this wasn't good. I have always had problems with cramping in college (so much so some once put an IV bag in my locker as a joke because I would get them in between practices to help with cramping). If anyone doesn't knw what cramping is, it is when the muscle doesn't get enough nutrients or water and just constricts as much as it can and it feels like it is going to rip out of your skin and the muscle is about to explode. Anyway with the way my legs were feeling and my lack of sweat I knew what was coming next. I kept laying down and trying to strech my legs out but I could really feel it coming on. Around mile 22 my hamstring went and cramped up badly. Luckily the first aid guy was there and able to grab my leg and work it out. While he was working it out my calf in my other leg started cramping. He worked that one out and I was back on my way. I made it another 200 yards when both legs started cramping. The first aid was there and worked them out again. This time I made it about five feet and cramped up again. At this point the first aid guy looked and me and we both knew I couldn't make it another 4 miles when I couldn't even walk. He loaded me on a golf cart and took me in. Of coarse we had to stop twice because I started to cramp up. The golf cart ride took about 40 minutes with the stopping and him working out the cramps. But long story short I physically was not ready to do a marathon. My thinking was this. I was sure I could have done the half without any problem (and for the record I was doing alright at mile 13); so if I had only done the half I wouldn't have been pushing myself. And I know if I had done the half I would have been mad because I would have said 'that wasn't bad, I wonder what would have happened if I had run the full'. So I guess the point of my rambling is that I am very dissapointed in myself for a DNF I know it was my body not mental, so that is good. You can fix a body, It's a lot harder to fix a head. This race just re-enforced my theory that I try to live my life by; that you constantly need to push yourself, take chances, and never be satisfied.

Dance with who brung ya. Race the race you trained for. My longest training runs were around 2 hours. Also, Marathons are long.

Hobbled over to BT gathering and had a beer with everyone. I think everyone was relived I was there so they could leave. Haley then used this stick thing on my legs that felt really good. I drank a beer... that also felt good. The gathering dispersed and I grabbed a guiness out of the cooler, found my bike, and pedaled back down bayshore to my house with a guiness in my hand.
The nice part was when I got home my girlfriend was very nuturing and went and got my bags of ice for my ice bath and La Terecita cubans and black beans and rice. She was at the finish line but didn't see me (because I haden't come in yet) so she figured I had done it in under 4 hours and went back home because she thought I must be there. I then took an ice bath and then sat on the couch and recovered and napped all day.


Training. Cramping.


The race was great and I will do better next year.