Gasparilla 5K Experience

It happened this past weekend. Saturday March 3, 2012. Everything was in place for the first time for team FITLORENZO to run at the Gasparilla Distance Classic 5K race and we did.

It is surprising that in my case to this point I have played competitive basketball, baseball, track and field, and some other sports. However I have never ran in an official distance race. Of course those who know me well enough know by now that I don't really like running for distances more than 1.25 miles.

Don't get me wrong, I have ran 3 to 5 miles many times (though I really hated it), but never officially 3.1 miles in a competition race like the one we participated in last Saturday for the Gasparilla 5K.

As team FITLORENZO we had a blast. We had fun, joked around, ate some good food and chilled during the mid morning to early afternoon. I was very proud especially of Tracy who's never ran neither in a race, and was so nervous, but finished well and her husband (a firefighter even saved a life so to say). Lisa despite her aching back ran it and did good to.

I'm moved by Jen Kellman leadership during the event, and prior during training, leading practice runs and keeping us on board with our documents, registration and overall race preparations.

However, when it comes to me individually my performance sucked. My best time running so far has been 20:38 or so. Which is very good considering I don't run that much.

But on race day things didn't go according to plan. My goal was to finish this race in a record time for me of under 20 minutes. That would mean that in order for me to finish in that time I would have to run every mile in about 6:20 minutes or so.

I started out my first mile at 6:21.. So I was like YEAH!!! I got this BABY! But then I got greedy and thought I could further improve that time in the following 2.1 miles.

So I followed the crowd that started running through the median, trying to avoid some of the people in the way. Big mistake cause first of all it was like trail running and I wasn't ready for it, second when I realized I was hurting my time came off the median I bumped into someone and landed badly in my right knee which was already recovering from an injury. I had my headphones on, so I didn't hear all the !@$!@%!%!56$#&* I screamed out loud from the pain I experienced, very likely those around me did.

I knew I was down, but not out... never out! After that I tried running but I had to unfortunately run/walk the rest of the way. On top of that for some reason I drank like 2 full cups of water (everyone knows you can't gulp down that much while your running cause it will have a bad effect and it did). Then I underestimated the heat. The day started out nice, breezy and cool; but it quickly went to over 80 with a heat index close to 90.

I didn't think of all these things and kept committing mistake after mistake. I ended up way over my desire goal and way above my regular time.

I can't deny I'm disappointed with my overall performance. As an athlete this is something that stays with you for a while and hurts your pride.

I've dealt with injuries before and this one though painful at the moment was more of a scare than something very serious. I'll proceed with caution these next several days getting back into my training program and trying to avoid anything that would aggravate me even more.

This experience made me reflect on my clients. Many of whom have some minor injuries and/or physical limitations, yet they still show up every day and do their best. It is not an easy task but they endure and as a result they are getting better as time goes by. I always put myself in my client shoes and try to understand to the best of my ability their circumstances, but this particular experience as an athlete and being so competitive I could understand the frustration that goes through my clients mind.

That being said there is nothing wrong with having to modify a particular exercise or your training program to meet your current needs. Especially if the purpose is to help you get better, more mobile, stronger and ready for the next stage. Sure there is something to be said about training hard, and training intensity, but it has to be done in a SMART way.

From my experience it is more of a mindset thing than physical. Once you overcome that obstacle, you will find yourself getting leaner, stronger and better.

As for me, I'll admit I'm still disappointed with my overall performance. I now have a chip on my shoulder and I'll need to run again to get over this. I know I'll have another chance in the next several weeks, so I'm cool.

Today it is my pride that hurts more than my knee.