DOWN GOES SANDHOUSE…DOWN GOES SANDHOUSE!
It’s one thing to take a spill during a race; it’s another to fall before the race even begins! More on that later.
I left around 10:30am to make the nearly four-hour drive to Tampa. Sadly, it would be the second year in a row that I would be flying solo. This is my favorite race weekend, so I would just have to be my own best company. The line to valet park was around the building, but I was in no rush. I had phone company the entire drive, including Lindsey, Rachel, Bonnie, Betsy, and Susan; this made the trip more enjoyable. Once in my room, I made my way to the expo. It was not very crowded, and the number of vendors has declined since COVID. One thing I also noticed was that the companies of the specific products (Pro Compression, Zenzah, Hoka, etc.) have stopped coming to the race expos. Therefore, the items for sale were not any different that I could find at Runner’s Depot. The race shirts were great colors, and the jacket was a better material than in the past few years. I did two laps around and got to take a photo with Pepperjack. I walked over to Publix and picked up a Pub-Sub for supper, which is the normal routine when I’m on my own. The race times were an hour earlier than usual, which I think is a good thing.
Here is the race breakdownfor the weekend:
Half: 3,181
15K: 2,806
8K: 2,648
5K: 6,776
Total: 15,411
This was up close to 4,000 from last year, but still almost 12,000 less than the pre-pandemic days. The temperature was around 75° when the race began at 7am. It wasn’t very sunny during the race, which certainly helped. I ran really strong, and only stopped to pee one time! I left my water bottle at home, but there were plenty of water/Gatorade stations. My pace wasn’t the greatest, but when was it ever? I made my way over to take a picture with Christine, but she wasn’t there this year. Her boyfriend was having back surgery, but the other pirate ladies said they would relay my good wishes. I walked over to the after-party for a celebratory beer, and then back to the room for stretching and a shower before I met Erin for lunch.
I’ve known Erin since elementary school, and we try to get together whenever I run Gasparilla. She picked me up at the hotel and took me to Wright’s Gourmet House, which is supposed to be a landmark of Tampa. The food was very good, and we mostly talked about our upcoming high school reunion taking place at the end of April. Erin asked me if I wanted to check out a new outdoor shopping center, so we walked around for a while. It was nice, but no pity purchases to be made. After she dropped my off at the hotel, I watched a little college basketball, and went to bed early.
The half marathon started at 6am, so I was up early. As I was crossing the street in front of the hotel, I totally forgot there was a median in the middle of the road. I’m sure you can guess what happened next: DOWN GOES SANDHOUSE…DOWN GOES SANDHOUSE! It had been more than ten years since I’ve tasted the pavement, but this is the first time it’s happened before a run. Thankfully the injury report was minor…a bunch of scrapes on my knees, elbow, and foot, but nothing more than complete embarrassment. A couple ran over to me to see if I needed help, but I popped up right away and made my walk of shame to the starting line. It was 62° when the race started, but the energy level was not quite the same as it was for the 15K. That being said, I did not drag at any point during the race and had lots of energy. Thankfully, there was no blood from my cuts to wipe up and made only three-bathroom trips. The sun was under cover for most of the race up until the last four miles. For some reason, the last few miles of this race seems more grueling than most of the races I do. To help ease the pain, I called Glenda to keep me company.
