Gasparilla from beginning to end.

YES! Gasparilla is finally here.. Well it's been here, but it was race weekend this weekend. I've been SO stoked for this race. My first 15k and I've been anxious for weeks about it! Over all, awesome awesome awesome race!

I'll start from the beginning, this could get lengthy, but I like to reminisce and talk about everything so I can go back and read it one day and remember everything. So forgive me for the detail now.

My mom, sister & I kind of made it a girls weekend. Me and Stacey were running and our mom was our own personal paparazzi! =)  We left for Tampa last night after work.. uh we don't do big cities, and Garmin sucks in Tampa... It took what seemed like forever to get to the convention center for the Expo. All those one way streets are ridiculous!

Finally made it to the expo. WOW! This is our first big race so we've never been to an expo before, holy people everywhere! We got our packets, and shirts, and these neato publix back pack bags that we wanted. Stacey got some cool gear.. i'm on a budget and I didn't buy anything. I resisted all temptation & only pouted a little =)    We found our names on the runners wall. Pretty Cool.

We went back to the hotel to figure out what we were going to wear. Uhm who knew it was going to be 41* at race time!?  I didn't know until about 2pm yesterday... doh!

Yessir there's my outfit. Orange underarmour shirt, compliments of my Sissy Love.. Fila Tights, had to dig those out last minute. I was planning on wearing shorts. I also had to dig out some hats and gloves for us to wear. We ended up not wearing the hats for the actual run. Stacey took her gloves off before we even got to mile 2.. I kept mine on until about mile 4 or 5. My fingers were freeeezing! 

Uh we didn't sleep to well. There was a cheerleading thing at the convention center, and apparently some of the cheerleaders were on our floor..... at midnight they were standing right out side our door. literally. they were screaming, yelling, giggling. uh really? We called the front desk. That was just ridiculous.

We got up at 5am. I brought my own toaster, bread, peanut butter, nutella, honey & bananas for breakfast, lol. My mom thought I was kinda crazy at first, but it really worked out for the best. Where were we going to get breakfast that time of the morning?

 

Headed for the race at 6, and the start was at 7:05. Thankfully our hotel was not far from the race start. They were actually parking people in the parking garage for the hotel, so we really lucked out that we didn't have to drive in all that traffic to park somewhere! Phew! It was a nippy 41* this morning. 

 

Clearly I'm not thrilled with the cold. Where is my jacket?

Is it time to run yet?!

HERE WE GOOO!!!!!!

and we're off... With 4300 runners I thought we would have to stand around and wait to actually start running...but i guess since we started more towards the front we didn't end up waiting but a minute before we crossed the starting line. Our watches were a minute behind the time clocks. good stuff. 

I was glad for the chilly weather, I run better, breathe better & it just feels better. Stacey & I chatted a little for the first 2 miles, then I left her. I wasn't far ahead I guess, she said she could see me up until the last 4 miles.  My miles were pretty uneventful. There really weren't that many spectators throughout the course. There was music randomly through out the course, that was nice.  The course was really amazing, it runs down BayShore Blvd in Tampa, right along the Hillsborough River. There are a lot of old & HUGE houses that are absolutely amazing!  

I don't think I got any water until around mile 4 or 5. I don't drink a lot when I run. Stacey gave me some gum and that was awesome; kept my mouth wet for awhile. I ate some sport bean things around mile 5.  The funniest thing I saw was a lady with a box of Krispy Kreme donuts around mile 6...seriously, she was passing them out.. I kept running.  At mile 6 I told myself, "alright, just a 5k to go and you are there"....

I totally talked to myself for the last 2.5 miles. I was pep talking myself to death. I felt good, I was just ready to be done I guess. I kept telling myself "you came here to kick ass and take names"... " you didn't train, and run all those days not to do well"... just stuff like that. I prayed..a lot.

Mile 8 sucked. The wind picked up, OMG it was windy. They forecasted rain for today. It started sprinkling, and it got windier and windier and windier. I still felt great. I was just getting cold & wet.

I was so excited to see that finish line. Woo Hoo! I couldn't believe I finished, and I was SUPER happy with my time! My clock time was 1:23:52, my chip time was 1:22:55. My goal was to come in under 1:30:00.. SUPER excited! 

I'm in the orange shirt crossing the finish line! Yessir! 

woohoo!!! I'm super excited! 

Uhm, please excuse the geekyness. Lol. i'm Cheezin' like a freak & those glasses aren't helping the situation any! Just focus on the medals or something. 

My Stats:

Chip time : 1:22:55

Clock time: 1:23:52

Over all Place: 1426 of 4473

Female Place:  458 of 2272

Age Division:  78 of 356

Yessir! I'm excited! Can't wait for my first half next month!