Running for Booty! [Gasparilla Recap]

I just ran the Gasparilla Half Marathon on Sunday.  My reason for registering for the half was purely for the medal!  The Gasparilla 5K was my first race ever back in 2009.  I've run the 5K with my sister the last couple of years but was envious of last year's hinged jaw half marathon medals.  I wanted the cool booty this year!!  I'm glad they had similar medals this year!

You can't deny, that's a pretty awesome medal.  It's all mine now, my precious.

 

 

I had a great time at the Gasparilla Expo on Friday. I love this expo...it's probably my favorite.  Look what else they had this year!  It's the usual running backgrounds that are a perfectly silly, photo opportunity AND if you uploaded your picture to Instagram with their hashtag, it printed out a sticker for you.  My picture is on the left and the sticker on the right.  So cool!!

The expo vendors provide tons of healthy samples, registration for upcoming races, running apparel and even some discount prices!  I bought a new pair of orthaheel flip flops for 20% off from Feet First (these are so much better for your feet than flat flip flops).

Before the expo, I considered joining the 2:10 pace group.  My official chip timed half PR was 2:15:41 and I wanted to beat that time.  But I decided against joining a pace group.  I didn't want the added pressure of staying with a group especially when they don't stop AT ALL.  I have a hard time drinking while running so I usually walk the water stations.

It all worked out because we didn't get there with enough time to find said pace groups.  Before the race, we used the nice bathrooms in the Convention Center instead of smelly, disgusting porta-potties, posed for pictures, and finally lined up at the back of the start line right before the first wave started at 6:00am.

 

 

Our wave started at 6:10am but I didn't cross the start until 6:14am. About a quarter mile into the race the route made a sharp left turn and took us over the bridge and on to Davis Island which created a massive bottleneck.  It was slow going and packed until mile 3 where it finally open up a bit.  I guess that's the advantage of being in the front at the start line.  We stayed on Davis Island until mile 5 when we crossed the bridge back to Bayshore.

 

The run on Bayshore was beautiful but quite windy at times.  It was an overcast day and I was thankful the sun was not yet visible through the fog and thick clouds.  It was already hot and humid out and I was not "feel'n it" during this race.  A runner has good races and not so good races.  This was a not so good day for me.  I felt like I had a good pace going and would looked at my Garmin to check my pace....10:10 or 10:15.  WHAT?!  I had to be running faster than that!  I thought maybe all the cloud cover was interfering with my Garmin's GPS but I knew that was just wishful thinking wasn't the case.

 

My half way stats from the Gasparilla tracking system stated:

Chrissy at the Halfway 13M in 1:08:16.
Pace 11:23 min/Mile.
Estimated Finish Time: 2:29:10.
Estimated Time of Arrival: 8:43:26.

I kept watching my watch and knew I'd be very close to my 2:15 PR time.  I did catch up to and pass the 2:20 pace group but I never saw the 2:10 group.  The last couple of miles I really pushed myself because I wanted a PR if even by mere seconds.  I didn't even take time to look at the beautiful houses along Bayshore.  The thing was, my training runs had been so much better and faster then this race.  It just wasn't a good day for me.

I did end up with a PR by a minute.  It wasn't a 2:10 but I'll take it!  And I made up some time in the second half.  As you can see above, my estimated finish time at the half way mark was 15 minutes after I actually finished.

Chrissy at the Finish in 2:14:36.
Pace 10:16 min/Mile.
Here are my splits.

I got my gorgeous bling and completed my 3rd race toward my 13 in 2013.

 

Have you ever run in Gasparilla?  Did you run a race last weekend?