Posts Tagged ‘gasparilla marathon’

Gasparilla Marathon Photos (Official & Unofficial)

22, Mar 2010

Here are my photos from the Gasparilla Marathon 2010!

Official Gasparilla Marathon Photos
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47967354@N07/sets/72157623671260902/

Unofficial Gasparilla Marathon Photos
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47967354@N07/sets/72157623671264856/

P.S. – I haven’t run a mile since February 28th… something funny going on with my left achilles/calf muscle. I’m unofficially running the Colon Cancer 4 miler in Central Park next week… let’s see how that goes!

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J

Overwhelmingly Detailed Gasparilla Marathon Weekend Recap (Part II)

3, Mar 2010

Before I went to bed, I set the alarm clock for 4am. In order to be on time for a 6am race located almost an hour away, I figured that might be cutting it kind of close, but on the same token, I also couldn’t fathom waking up at an hour with the digit ‘3′ in front of it. So 4am it was.

I slept remarkably well considering I’m not used to going to bed at 8:30pm. Didn’t really have any pre-race anxiety, and although I woke up briefly a couple times, all I did was glance at the clock and go right back to sleep. Finally at about 3:20am, I woke up and was feeling anxious enough that going back to sleep wasn’t an option. I laid there for 20 minutes soaking up my last few moments of rest before engaging in my pre-race rituals.

Since everything was neatly laid out from the night before, I didn’t have to waste much bandwidth in getting out the door. I chugged a 36oz Gatorade while popping an assortment of vitamins and ibuprofen, chasing them down with bites from a dry blueberry bagel. The Gatorade went down quickly and it would be the last thing I drank prior to the race, which was still 2hrs away. No over-hydration like I’ve done in past marathons (I thought)… In both NYC marathons I’ve been forced to stop and pee against the wall of the Verrazano bridge immediately after completing the 1st mile. Of course I ended up stopping to pee mid-race anyway, and in keeping with tradition, found a nice overpass to urinate on.

But I digress. After finishing my food/beverage/vitamin intake, I took a hot shower. As I’ve mentioned before, the pre-long run hot shower is my ace in the hole. Wakes me up, warms up the muscles. I dried off and tried on my race clothes, which at this point had been downgraded to just a long sleeve tech shirt and running shorts (down from a tank top, 2 long sleeves, a pair of Asics tights and a pair of shorts). I had to remind myself, even though Florida has experienced a particularly cold winter, it’s still Florida, so why was I even considering dressing like it was nyc. Then I went outside to check out the temps and confirmed my choice in garb. Then it was out the door and off to Tampa…

J

Quality vs. Quantity

3, Oct 2009

I’ve been really easing into my marathon training plan this time around. Reeeaaally easing into it, running once every 3rd day and cross training in between. When I run, I run with intensity (5 miles at 6:36 pace on Friday, nice!). When I cross train, I cross train like crazy, circuit training my way around the gym and maintaining 20mph on the bike for upwards of an hour.

It’s a modified version of FIRST (www.nycin310.com/?p=259) that’s helping me get back into serious training mode, while continuing to recover from injuries. I swear to god, there’s always something wrong with me. Now I have some shit going on with my 2nd metatarsal in my left foot. Might have to schedule another trip to the podiatrist for early next week. But I digress.

I’ve been trying all week to find running articles online that will validate what I’m doing, but keep coming up short. I’m pretty sure it will be a while before I find any reliable source that says you can run 2 or 3 days a week and still run a respectable marathon time (I’m shooting for 3:25). FIRST requires 3 or 4 days. However, there’s definitely a trend in the mid-level amateur running world towards lower milage, higher intensity plans.

Today I was breezing through some of my favorite blogs and came across a post from the Running Laminator that debated the benefits of high-milage programs vs. lower milage/higher intensity programs. It’s an excellent post, with excellent comments and I highly reccomend reading it here:

http://therunninglaminator.blogspot.com/2009/09/debate-continues.html

There’s no doubt about it, if you’re trying to run elite/sub-elite times, you need high intensity running days, punctuated with easy running days in between… which leads to high milage weeks. It’s almost a guarantee that f you are injury prone, this style of training will lead to sprains, tendonitis, ITBS, etc. So in my injury-phobic state, am I going too far? Will I be able to succeed in shaving 15 minutes off of my 3:40 marathon PR by running even less than I already do?

I dunno, stay tuned.

J

Training for NYC with a Spring Marathon

20, Jun 2009

It’s been a while since I’ve given much thought to the idea of running 26.2 miles. So far this year, I’ve been wrapped up in racing 5ks/10ks and now, training for a half marathon. Even the 13.1 seems daunting right now, since I’ve been slacking a little in the workout department and stuffing my face with foods a runner shouldn’t touch with a 10ft pole.

Let me remind everyone that I’m not attempting my 3hr 10min NY Marathon this year. I’m attempting to Boston qualify in NYC 2010, which means that I still have plenty of time to get on the ball. And despite a recent plateau I’m in much better shape than I’ve ever been before.

Now before I dive back into the NY Marathon with an anticipated improvement of 30 minutes, I’ve decided that I first need to dip my proverbial toe back in the pond. So I’d like to split the difference by running about 3:25 in an early-spring marathon. Now… when and where to do it?

I’ve run the Miami Half before (www.ingmiamimarathon.com), so I considered running the full race distance early next year. But Miami is on January 31st and I get back from my honeymoon the second week in September. That leaves me enough time to train, but barely. I also considered the Disney Marathon (http://tr.im/Disney26) which is on January 10th, but the other factor I’m up against is the cost of hotel and travel.

So I need an early spring marathon that’s in a snowbird state and won’t cost me more than the price of entry and an airline ticket. Pretty strict criteria, where am I going to find that? Easy. Crash with my parents in sunny St. Petersburg, FL and run the Gasparilla Marathon in Tampa on February 28th (www.tampabayrun.com).

Not only is this a perfect race for me in terms of timing and expenses, but Gasparilla is an exciting time in Tampa, complete with…


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