25.5 miles in 2 days. Sounds daunting, right. How about 25.5 miles in 2 days when you're severely under trained and haven't done jack since Ironman Florida in November of 2013? Even scarier! Nonetheless I tied up my shoes, filled my pockets with GU and faced the task at hand.
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| In between the 15K and 5K on day 1 |
I had been traveling for work all week and flew into Orlando to meet Mike (who was also down there for work). We traveled up to Tampa on Friday where thankfully we've got some friends who let us crash at their place! We headed to the Expo Friday afternoon and to my surprise it was huge! I had no idea how big this race was. We waited in line for our numbers and then headed over to the t-shirt pick up where we got not 1 but 3 shirts and a jacket (Mike got 4 and a jacket because he did the 8K as well). After a quick walk of the expo we headed to Publix to stock up on gatorade, granola bars and other needed items to get through the next 2 days.
5am came early on Saturday as we geared up for the first part of our two day running journey. Both Mike and I knew we didn't want to burn our matches so to speak so we decided to run together to keep the pace a bit slower ... ok slower for Mike but normal for me. Parking and getting to the start was quite easy, much easier than I had anticipated knowing how many people were participating. Because of our distance classic numbers we were able to get in the front of the corral for the 15k (and subsequently for all of the races). I popped a GU with about 5 minutes before the gun went off and then we were on our way. The course was flat which made me happy but also made my quads quite sore. I was able to keep a pretty decent pace for the vast majority of the 15k but also knew we still had another 3.1 to go once we crossed the finish line of the 15k. We hustled from one race to the next and didn't really skip a beat. Back into the corral we went, listened to the National Anthem and then was on our way for the final 3.1 miles of the day. I burned up (read: my legs started to die) around mile 2. Realizing I still had to put 13.1 miles in the bank the next day we took it down a notch and just trotted our way home. 12.4 miles for the day complete, two medals obtained. Not a bad Saturday morning.
Post race Mike and I headed home and I immediately popped into an icebath! While our miles for Saturday
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| holy moly thats cold |
were complete, 13.1 still loomed nearly in the distance (and 18.1 for Mike!). We grabbed some lunch with our buddy, Adam and then promptly took naps! Dinner that night was over pretty early as our 4am wakeup call was going to be here soon enough.
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| rounding out final miles on day 2 |
4am the alarm blares. It's time to rise and shine and take on day 2. Thankfully for me, the icebath has soothed out most of my muscles and I'm not feeling much pain. We approached the race start again, in a little different spot this time, and waited as the National Anthem was sung again. This time, Mike and I knew we'd part ways as soon as the gun went off so we said our goodbyes and confirmed our meet up spot post race. Thankfully I only had one race, he had two. The first miles seemed to drag on. My legs felt dead and my mind aloof. As we ticked down the miles and headed back over the bridge, around mile 5, something clicked. My mind became focused. My legs no longer hurt. Ironman tunnel vision presented itself and I found myself lost in the music and running faster than before. I was back in business. The final 8 miles seemed to tick by quickly. I gave others encouragement who looked forlorn. I feed off the energy from others. I might even PR at this pace. As I approached mile 12 my legs started to ache. I knew that I was just a mile away from a goal that I didn't think was possible ... well especially since I hadn't trained since Ironman Florida! As I approached the finish, those still running the 8K were in the corral. I scanned the crowd for Mike and sure enough, I found him. A quick kiss and statement " I might PR!" and I was on my way.
With the finish line behind me, I got 2 more medals and walked, admittedly a little slow and with a grimace on my face, to where I was supposed to meet Mike (he had another 5 miles to go!). Overall, Gasparilla Distance Classic was great. The swag is great, the crowd support was nice and the course was flat. We'll be back for certain and it was just the jump-start I needed to somewhat throw my mind back into triathlon training!
