Bank of America Gasparilla Marathon - RunMarathon

Got to the start line and looked for the 4 mile pace group I had signed up with. Knew this would be a lofty expectation based on my 4 hour training run but also knew it was within reason based on my half times, so figured I would just run with them as long as I could. This turned out to be the best thing I could have done, was so many people in this group from first time marathoners like myself to people who had run numerous marathons including New York and Boston, met one lady who came down from Maryland and another guy who came down from Seattle for this race and got a lot of good tips and advice on what to expect near the end which was helpful and just interesting stories from others to help pass the time quickly. Just by chatting with different people was off Davis Island and at the 6 mile mark before I knew it which was great. Our pacer Paul was awesome to, he would slow down a little for the aid stations which I made sure to stop at each one and alternated mainly between water and gatorade. By the end I would take both at some. Was feeling good still running through downtown and back to bayshore. When we got to bayshore could feel my legs getting a little sore but at the half way split was still on pace with the 4 hour group. At about mile 15 though started to fall back a little bit then my friend Matt showed up on his bike and rode along with me until Gandy which was helpful to keep motivated. At that point put on the headphones, which I had amazingly not used until this point and beofre I knew it had caught back up with the 4 mile group again, think i really picked up the pace on the soulja boy. Then when we hit the lake by Macdill is when i think I psychologically lost it. The loop around the lake seemed to go on forever with no end in sight, had never ran out here so didn't know how far I had to keep going, around mile 19 I knew I couldn't keep up with the 4 hour group any longer so slowed down the pace. Ran with some of the others who had slowed down also and finally got back to bayshore. Although the weather was awesome could have done without the strong headwind coming back down bayshore for the last 5.5 miles or so. Also Matt showed back up here on his bike and rode the rest of the way down with me. Shut it down pretty slow for a while then just ran hard until bay to bay, figured at that point would be able to make it under 4:15 which was great for me. So walked from Bay to Bay until Howard, then took a nice easy 11 + minute pace to the finish, legs were tired and sore but what a thrill to cross that finish line.

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Met Matt at the finish line, grabbed 2 bottles of water then headed over the bridge. The Columbia food just didn't smell very appetizing to me, although I usually am not hungry for 30 minutes to an hour after a race so just grabbed a banana and headed to the post race area by the convention center. Was looking to get a nice cold beer but found out they couldn't serve until 11, so we sat down for awhile but had about 30 minutes to wait. Legs started tightening up and was getting tired so decided to walk back to our cars and drive to Tijuana Flats for some lunch, had a good lunch then went home and took a nap.


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Great races and great people, had a wonderful weekend and felt a great accomplishment to not only complete my first marathon but also to complete the whole Michelob Challenge within the 6 hour time frame i had wanted to do it in.