2006 Gasparilla Distance Classic PT Cruiser Challenge

POTFH

I am back and I survived!!!!

Short version:
The results still aren’t up yet. I will add them when they are.

The long version:

I drove down Friday morning and I found the convention center and the race expo fine. I only missed one exit and it was easy to double back. The race expo had the same stuff I will see in 2 weeks at the Gate River Run. I did pick up a nice polo shirt and a hat, some gel packs and a few power bars since I was out. Otherwise I just walked around some and finally left to find my hotel.

I found my hotel which was next to a Ker's Wing House. http://www.winghouse.com/. So I had lunch there. I drove around until I found a grocery store to buy some bananas. The hotel seemed to be in the middle of everything but what I needed. I got directions to an Olive Garden to try and get in to get some pasta. By the time I got there it was packed. I drove around for 20 minutes or so until I found a Bennigans and got some pasta, a Guiness and a couple of Miller Lites. Then it was head home and to bed.

Got up at 4 on Saturday Morning. Got ready for the race and drove downtown in about 15 minutes. Couldn't figure out a good place to park so I finally just picked a garage that I thought would be close and parked. After about half an hour 45 minutes of napping, I headed for the starting area. I walked around and waited like I normally do. For the 15K they use a split start with the men in one area and the women in another. That was different. There were a few women mixed in with the men but it wasn't any big deal. The temperature was 65 degrees according to my truck and felt humid. The sun was up and very little wind. At 7:30 or there abouts the crowd starts moving forward. They don't use a cannon or anything to start this race. (I think they used cowbells, since Chik Fil A was there that morning????) So I just started my watch and followed the crowd. I am cruising along feeling okay. I begin to wonder where the first mile marker is. I look at my watch, see it has been 12 minutes and I know that I have blown by it so I just try and watch out for the mile marker 2. I see marker 2 and my watch says 16:09. I'll take it. I was looking for 8 flats and I am pretty close. I try and not spend to much time weaving through the crowds. I just pick and choose and I end up running on a concrete divider on the highway since it was the clearest lane for awhile. I get to mile 3 and I hit that one in 7:50. I am still feeling pretty good. I continue to pound out the miles and I make the turn around and head back. The crowds have finally thinned out some and I am still able to keep on hitting 7:50 - 7:55 pace for splits. I wish I could give what my other thoughts and feelings were for this race but it has been 2 days now and I think all I was thinking was keep it easy and steady, you have 2 more races to go. I end up crossing the line in 1:30.21. I was kind of hoping to break to 72 but I'll take it.

After I collect my medal and get my picture taken with a Pirate wench I realize that I need to walk/job about 10 blocks to put my medal away. I don't want to run the 5K with it which is due to start in about 40 minutes. I hustle to my truck throw the medal on my seat and hustle back. I find the start area and squeeze myself into a spot. I bump into another guy that is doing the challenge also and he sees me looking at my time and he asks what it was. I tell him and we realize that we must have been neck and neck towards the end. Well time to get ready for the 5K. Again the crowds surge forward without any kind of loud signal for the start of the race. Not sure why, but for being such a big race I thought they would have something to signal the start. I start my watch at the mats and I just move with the crowds. This was probably the most crowded 5K I have ever done. I do some weaving trying to find an open spot to run. I work my way up and I see the first mile marker and my I hit my split. 13:59???? I thought i hit my watch at the first marker. Maybe I didn't. I keep on running. I hit the turn around point where they send us back to the finish line and I hit my split again but I don't look at it. I don't see a marker for mile 2 or mile 3. I just continue on up the roads pounding along, just wanting to finish. I cross the line, hit stop on my watch and see that I have run the 5K in 24:23. Not bad, I wanted to do both races in under 8 minute miles and I am pretty close.

I collect my second medal of the day, get my picture taken with a different pirate wench and wander off to get my 10 minutes of massage. After the massage, which was okay. I only paid for 10 minutes I wander off to find the post race celebration. This was a little bit of a disappointment. Not many people hung around for it, and they gave you 1 small 6 – 8 ounce glass of beer for free. I was able to snag 2 of them and then after that you were supposed to pay 3 bucks for a 12 ounce glass. I decide to head home and get some lunch. After taking a shower, I take a nap and head off to find a McDonalds. I bring back my food and then I watch TV and nap the rest of the afternoon. At around 5:30 I head out to see if I can get into Olive Garden again. It is packed again so I just say forget it, and I head to Hooter for a sandwich and a beer or 2. On the ride home I decide that I will leave right after the marathon.

Sunday morning comes at 2 am for me. I am hot and I turn the switch on the a/c to what I thought was high cool but it was apparently high fan. I toss and turn until about 3:30 and then I get up and get the truck loaded and my race stuff on. I head back downtown, make a wrong turn and I get lost. After about 10 minutes of driving I somehow get back to where everything is familiar. I park in the same garage I was at yesterday. I then lay down to take another nap. A loud rushing sound wakes me up and I realize that it is pouring rain outside. GREAT, here we go with a repeat of the Jax marathon. I try and fall back asleep but to no avail. Finally I walk over to the starting area and I get settled in. Some guy is trying to make an announcement but the speakers aren’t loud enough for most of us to hear what he is saying. The start time has been pushed back to 6:30 for some reason. At least the rain is just a light drizzle that comes and goes. I am getting a little chilly and antsy standing there.

Finally the crowd moves off. I drop into a comfortable pace. My goal is 5 hours flat for this one. My legs are a little tight but nothing major. I am more distracted by the fact that I have to take a leak than anything else. The half hour delay just kind of ticks me off. We start running the course and head over onto an island with some nice small homes. We get routed by an airport and there are some people out braving the rain and the cooler temps. My truck had said it was 70 when I got out of it but it felt a little cooler than that. I am clicking off the miles now. The problem is that I was running them at 8:30 to 8:45 and I wanted 9’s since I knew I had run so much yesterday. All I can do is try and keep it slow. We cross back to the main part of tampa. At this point you are back by the finish line and the course splits for the full and half marathoners. I get to run by the finish line and hear that the first place guy for the half has just finished. God, I just finished 8.5 miles and he is done with 13.1. Oh well. I plod on along. The crowds get thinner since the pack has split. I run by the arena where the Tampa Bay Lightning play and then off through some more city blocks. There is some guy cheering runners on at around mile 10 wearing a rain poncho and where his arms should be sticking out, he has attached 2 extra legs. That made me smile to see someone out in the rain cheering us on like that. We head back to towards the start line. I only get intermittent splits. I don’t think they marked all the miles. I run by the parking garage where my truck is. I start wondering if I will be able to get my truck out after my race. We cross over a bridge and head onto part of the campus of the University of Tampa. We do a loop of their track and head back down to the final section of the race. This is the long part. I finally see mile marker 14. I now have 12 miles left and it is one long out and back. Lots of beautiful homes and decent crowd support here. I continue running telling myself not to walk until I hit the final turn around of the course. I run and run and run. I hit mile 18 and my legs are dying. I finally give up and I walk for a minute at mile 18. I then start running again. I hit mile 19 and walk 2 minutes. Mile 20 and the turn around, only 6 to go and I walk 2 minutes. Then the head winds come. It felt like 20 mph but I have no clue how strong. My legs are tired, my brain is tired and I just want to finish. I know I won’t quit, I am to close to the finish. I grab water and Gatorade and walk through each mile for 2 minutes. I am heading for home. The miles finally start clicking off quicker. 2 ladies draft off of me for about 5 minutes until I stop for my water/walk break. Of course they are to small for me to use a draft. I even hear them say something like take whatever breaks you can find. I grumble at that since there is no one that I can really use to draft off of. Not that I draft well anyway, I always feel like I am going to run up into them so I end up taking the lead. I come up on the final half mile or so and my pace had dropped way off but I don’t care, I am going to finish another marathon. The crowds are a little larger now and they help to pull me along. I cross the line and just put my hands on my knees. I am tired!!! I collect my medal and this time the lady was nice enough to put it around my neck for me. I get wrapped in a black garbage bag since they ran out of those silver foil ones. I get my final post race picture with a Pirate and I head off for water etc. I grab a bottle of water and sip that. I find the Gatorade and guzzle 2 cups of that. I get a banana and I eat that. They are giving out plates of some black beans and rice, salad, and some other gumbo like concoction but I am in no mood to eat it. I wander off to my second massage in 2 days. They lady does a decent job. She is concerned that my calfs are going to cramp up on my even though I assure her they are fine. My quads and hamstrings felt worse. I wander down to the post race celebration and no one is there???? I get my ONE free small beer, say screw it and I walk back to my truck.

Once at my truck I change out of my wet shorts and into a dry pair of shorts and a tee. I climb in and head home. What a day. I just ran 38 miles in 2 days. It is a different experience than doing 31 in one day that is all I can say. I do know that as I was running the marathon that I was thinking about my desire to run the Tahoe Triple in 2008. Based on how my legs felt after running 12K one day and then a marathon, I am not sure if I will be able to make 3 marathons in 3 days. For now that dilemma is going to wait. I am going to rest for a few days, do some light jogging and get ready for the River Run on March 11 and the Guana 50K on March 25.

For all 3 races the start and finish were a good ways apart.

15K – 7:30 AM Start
Mile 1 – Missed it
Mile 2: 16:09
Mile 3: 7:54
Mile 4: 7:50
Mile 5: 7:45
Mile 6: 7:48
Mile 7: 7:54
Mile 8. 7:54
Mile 9: 7:48
Finish: 2:20
Total: 1:13:21

5K – 9:30 Start
Split 1: 13:59 – Not sure of the distance
Turn around: 1:39
Finish: 8:42
Total: 24:23

Marathon:
Mile 1: 9:01
Mile 2: 8:32
Mile 3: 8:29
Mile 4: 9:13
Mile 5: Missed it
Mile 6: 17:03
Mile 7: 8:38
Mile 8. Missed it
Mile 9: 17:15
Mile 10: 9:02
Mile 11: 8:50
Mile 12: Missed it
Mile 13: Missed it
Mile 14: 27:12
Mile 15: 9:16
Mile 16: 9:49
Mile 17. 9:21
Mile 18: 9:33
Mile 19: 10:40
Mile 20: 10:02
Mile 21: 10:04
Mile 22: 10:16
Mile 23: 10:39
Mile 24: 10:18
Mile 25: Missed it
Mile 26. Not marked
Finish: 4 hours 5 minutes 23 Seconds

I will post the link to the race photos once they are up.

PRESIDENT

The only response I got is Shocked

and

Most excellent Boiler. Great report too. Mr. Green

Pyromaniac

Jeebus Boiler, dat's a lot of running! Nice job!

The Pinball

that is unreal!

congratulations FB, 3 well-done races for you.

<would like to insert pirate smilie here>

Member

Congratulations on 3 great races! Sounds like you are more than ready for your 50K.

Member

Nice racin' Sean! 4:05 is sure smashing the 5-hr goal...nice thumbs up

Member

Great races Eric!!!!! Congrats on finishing all three and coming in 1 hour under your marathon goal!! Nice work!!

Member

Awesome Job FB!

Canadian Bacon

Great Job!!
thumbs up

POTFH

Thanks Everyone,
One correction though, I meant I was hoping for 4 hours or 9 Minute miles for the marathon.

Edited to say:
Now after I posted the 4 hour goal, I don't really remember what I was telling my buddies at work that I run with what my goal was. I thought it was 5 hours but now that I have looked at the pace needed for that, it seemed to easy. Whatever, I kicked butt, my legs are tired today and I am done!

cheers

POTFH

Here are the results from the website:
15K:
Total athletes: 3555 (Females: 1544 / Males: 2011)
Overall: 592
Final Time: 01:14:39
Chiptime: 01:13:17
Class MALES 35 TO 39 Age 37
Gender M
pace: 7:51.7
half: 0:37:42
gender_plc: 458
div_plc: 82
ag_pct: 57%
ag_place 1192

5K:
Total athletes: 6428 (Females: 3473 / Males: 2955)
Overall: 533
Final Time: 00:25:22
Chiptime: 00:24:23
Class MALES 35 TO 39 Age 37 Gender M
pace: 7:48.9
gender_plc: 407
div_plc: 38
ag_pct: 54.1%
ag_place 966

Marathon:
Total athletes: 1101 (Females: 391 / Males: 710)
Overall: 417
Final Time: 04:06:39
Chiptime: 04:05:25
Class MALES 35 TO 39 Age 37 Gender M
Pace: 9:21.8
mile5: 0:45:36
half: 1:30:18
mile20 3:03:42
gender_plc: 314
div_plc: 49
ag_pct: 51.7%
ag_place 610

I can't figure out the difference between div_pl and ag_place??? I thought ag was aggregate but when I did the math do the percent it didn't come out right.

POTFH

Well I found the results for the actual challenge. I did pretty well.

21 out of 61??.
Eric Norris 37 M TEAM# 513 WITH A ACCTIME OF 05:43:05
Eric Norris TEAM# 513
PLACED 21 WITH A SCORE OF 05:43:05

20513 Eric Norris 38 in MALES 35 TO 39 00:24:23
00513 Eric Norris 82 in MALES 35 TO 39 01:13:17
21513 Eric Norris 49 in MALES 35 TO 39 04:05:25

Not to bad at all.

Member

Amazing stuff FB. Great report too! Very Happy

Member

you did that all in the span of 2-3 days??

Awesome job man! thumbs up

POTFH

Here are the official email Summaries I got from Gasparilla.
15K
Chip Time 01:13:17 Pace Per Mile 7:51.7
Fintime 01:14:39 and Halfway Split 00:37:42
You Placed 594th of 3565 Total Finishers
82nd of 290 Males aged 35 to 39 and 458th of 2016 Males

5K
Chip Time 00:24:23 Pace Per Mile 7:48.9
Fintime 00:25:22
You Placed 535th of 6474 Total Finishers
38th of 327 Males aged 35 to 39 and 409th of 2973 Males

Marathon:
Chip Time 04:05:25 Pace Per Mile 9:21.8
Fintime 04:06:39 and Halfway Split 01:30:18
You Placed 417th of 1105 Total Finishers
49th of 112 Males aged 35 to 39 and 314th of 713 Males

2006 Gasparilla Distance Classic PT Cruiser Challenge

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