It Was Ugly But We Made It

Well gang, your moment of silence must have paid off because we both managed to finish although it was not a pretty sight. It was a beautiful day for a run down Bayshore Boulevard with about 1,200 others.

Gary and I got there early and had our timing chips in place by 7 AM. With an hour to kill we strolled through the plaza in front of the St Pete Times Forum. Gary was taking pictures and I was observing the competition...trying to target the people we just had to finish in front of, like the old guy that looked like he had been doing this for awhile. Not a chance we could take him on. Gary kept snapping pictures and I began looking around for a few more stout people that we might be able to compete with. One thing you learn from participating in these events is that most of the participants are a whole lot skinnier than you and in much better shape. So on it went as we made our way through the plaza....

• Girls high school track team...no way,
• MacDill AFB Pharmacy team...not a chance, but they had a fitting sobriquet--The Drug Runners,
• Young father pushing twins in a stroller...forget about it,
• Boy's cross country team...you've got to be kidding, and on and on and on.

At 10 minutes to eight the DJ that was entertaining the crowd called the runners to the starting line. It was crowded but not nearly as bad as the start of the Gasparilla 5K. Then the count began, 10, 9, 8,....3,2,1,and we were off. Slowly at first as the herd spread out. By the time we were passing under the Convention Center we were moving along at a fairly good pace for us but slow by comparison to the SERIOUS runners. I thought this was a FUN RUN. Sorry you can't put those two words in the same sentence.

Then, there it was right in front of us, the hill of pain (the Platt Street Bridge). Up we trudged, passing the young mother with the stroller and little girl dressed in pink running playfully at her side and her young son who she was constantly calling to keep up. Surely we could beat this group. Down the other side we began to pick up speed. Us large guys have an advantage on the downside. Gravity is kind to us and we whisked past several groups of lollygagers. Ha! This isn't too bad. Then down Bayshore under the bridge to Tampa General and all of a sudden we ran out of gas. As we walked as fast as we could gasping for air there went the tall old guy that was power walking, the two girls that were fixing their hair and chatting as they were running, and mom and the girl in the pink dress. Damn!

OK, at the mile marker we cranked it back up again when what do we see, but the leader of the pack heading for home--not that is fast! We started to get the rhythm going again when all of a sudden I found myself flying headlong (or as some would say, "Asshole over elbows.") through the air and tumbling to the concrete pavement in a heap. I managed to trip over one of the uneven joints in the pavement. Several nice people stopped to see if I was OK and pressed on when I assured them I was alright. I'll have to send Mayor Pam a nasty gram about infrastructure maintenance. I was up as fast as I went down and after a short walk was back on stride with a bloodied up knee.

We made it to the turn and began gimping for home. Gary told me he felt like someone was sticking a knife in his shins--could this be shin splints? We slowed to a walk again but kept the pace up as best we could and eventually began a slow jog. We were almost back to the Tampa General bridge again when Gary told me to keep on going. I pressed on a pace to notches above slow. Then I saw them about a hundred yards ahead--the mom with the little girl in pink and her brother. With renewed determination I picked up the pace and caught them just before the second trip up the hill of pain. I slowed to a brisk walk on the upside passing them before leaving them in my dust as gravity took hold and whisked me down the bridge, under the convention center and on toward nirvana--the finish line. After having my timing chip cut off and grabbing a bottle of water, I waited for Gary who finished only a couple of minutes behind me.

And so it was on the morning of December 8, 2007. We learned that if you want to run with the Bulls, you have to watch out for the cow patties, I mean you have to practice, practice, practice.
We learned that we have a tough row to hoe if we want to achieve our goal of under 30 minutes at Gasparilla, just two short months away.

Don't ask me what my time was as I haven't found out yet. I am supposing they will send us an email with the finishing order. I think it was somewhere between 35 and 36 minutes. We will keep you posted. All in all it was fun in spite of the pain. I did beat the little girl in pink after all.

See you all next week.

Slash