Bank of America Gasparilla Marathon - RunMarathon

What a great day to run, sunshine & the wind kept the temperatures comfortable. I wanted to do this 30 minutes faster but just didn't have the legs to moving any faster.
I used the 3mins/1min (Galloway) run to walk ratio from the start & moved quickly through the first 7 miles, my pace may have been a little too high.
Mile 16ish through 22 were the most difficult for me. I remember approaching mile 18 on Bayshore and across the road on the return is mile marker 21...that hit me hard thinking here are all these runners coming back at mile 21, it just made those next 3 miles from that point seem very long. I fell of the 3/1 routine, miles 17 to 20 were the lowest and found some resolve at mile 20 to push on. I still had some rough spots over the last 6 miles but I was able to get back on the 3/1 routine and finish the run w/o walking it in.
Overall, some great experience at distance running that I think will be helpful come this November's IMFL.

It wasn't too many years ago, out of shape & such, that I think I made the statement "I'll never do a marathon."
I could always train more and in the 4 months leading to this race I trained as much as I could fit onto the daily schedule of life.

I was in pain and they give you the largest, heaviest finisher medal I've ever seen. It they had put it around my neck I would have fallen face first & not been able to get up!
Hobbled back to car with my son; we had a great time this weekend, just the 2 of us. He's my best and only triathlon/marathon fan! He stayed out there the entire time watching everything from the finish line bleachers.


Genetics...


I did the Gasparilla half marathon 2 years ago, I love this course and time of year to run. The race is well done with plenty of volunteers, at mile 22 the road was lined with all probably 100 kids cheering and high fiving...that was great!