About 4 weeks ago, I walked - and DNF'd - Celebration 1/2 Marathon. I was waylaid by Plantar Fasciitis and just gnarly calf & foot pain all the way around. I was devastated, and I felt like such a quitter. Once I got past that little spiral of depression, I had to figure out what to do about Gasparilla, which was just a few short weeks away. I visited my massage lady, who did a lot of work on my legs. I stretched out my calves every day. I went balls-to-the-wall at the gym, using the Elliptical, so as to not have more trauma to my feet or calves. And during non-exercise time, I babied them at work, and stayed off of them when I didn't have to be standing. All in all, I think this helped, because I was able to finish both races this weekend!
On Friday, we packed up and got to our VRBO around 3 or so. The neighborhood looked a little sketchy, but the house is cute as hell! Huge points to the Property Owner who left me some Pepsi and hot chocolate (we'd chatted beforehand and I told her that we don't do coffee).
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| She even put a few of the cans in the fridge to chill beforehand |
I left hubby there to settle in while I went over to the expo. The table where I picked up all of my shirts ran out of 3x shirts so I had to take 2x instead. Now, they fit, but they were a smidge tight. I could have kept them and hoped I'd fit in to them again at some point, but honestly, life doesn't seem to be working that way right now, so I moseyed over to the 'regular' shirt table (for people who were only doing one race) and sweet talked them into trading shirt for shirt, even tough they weren't supposed to (big thanks to the awesome supervisor guy who gave them the OK to do so!)
I walked around the expo, got lots of swag and such, didn't need to pick up any goo or chews, no good sneaker deals in my size, and eventually headed back to VRBO, noting that my foot was hurting more than expected... Probably because I was walking in flip flops.
We went to a place called Trip's Diner for dinner, a local place that's been in business since 2012, and named after the owner's triplet children. Inside, the place looked so cool and vintage and fun, I knew immediately I was going to love it! And I was not disappointed, either. We would definitely come back here again (and we tried to, but it was so busy then!)
I ordered French Toast with scrambled eggs and bacon, and it was fabulous. I can't even put my finger on WHY it was so good, it just was... and it reminded me of the way that Buc-ee's smells when they're candying nuts.
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| Don't be deceived by the looks... this was one of the best French Toast meals ever! |
Hubby got fried chicken breast with mashed potatoes and gravy. The chicken was amazing, but he had to deduct a star because the taters were skin-on. He also picked up a slice of Peanut Butter Pie to go, which he ate later as a bedtime snack.
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| Hand-breaded chicken and hand-mashed potatoes |
Back at the house, I tried to have a bath, but their plumbing was wonky, and the hot water would only come out in a trickle, so the water never got really hot and steamy... I gave up after about 5-10 minutes. I set out my clothing for the morning, set the alarms, then futzed around in bed until it was time to sleep.
Saturday morning, I got dressed, KT taped my feet, put on my ankle braces and then my Zensah leg sleeves. I also had some juice and took two Aleve to get me through the morning.
As we walked to the start line, I was feeling positive that I'd be able to finish this - my foot felt like it was about 60% okay, but there was no nasty sharp pain like there was at Celebration. I did a little bit of running during the 15k, which actually felt kind of good, but I didn't want to push it, so I tried to keep myself at a walk. Nothing really memorable happened during this race (thank God), so there's not much to this recap!
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| Just me and thousands of my friends |
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| Good morning, Sunshine |
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| It's lonely back here |
From the Halfway There! sign until about Mile 6, it was an absolute slog... it's very quiet here, with not a lot of people, probably fewer than two dozen at this point, and I'm just drained. My left foot felt heavy like a cement block; I took the two Advil that Hubby gave me before we left the house.
At Mile 6, I had a little more pep in my step because Mile 7 meant that I "officially/unofficially" finished the remaining mileage from Celebration, and I could finally wear my medal. I got here around 2:15.
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| Celebration 1/2 Marathon is unofficially officially completed |
Mile 7 until the area that we rejoin the 5k course is an even worse slog... It's so quiet, people are giving you the pity "ooh, you're doing your best, sweetie" looks... I kept my eyes open to see the 5k runners, but it just took forever to get there.
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| Regular Bayshore Blvd exercisers just kind of stare at you as they pass by |
However, once you finally join them, the atmosphere is so much more energizing, because of the people running, and everyone cheering. But it also makes me feel like an absolute slow blob... I get bumped by the fast people who are so in the zone they either don't see you or don't care, I get ignored by the folks cheering on the sides, and I get wet from the water stop volunteers.
When I got to Mile 9, there was a lady on the right who cheered me on. I have her the "thanks, whatever" wave, but she walked over to me and said that she was checking on 'her 15k people' to make sure that they were really okay. We chatted for a moment as I walked and I left her with my head a little higher, feeling a little bit better. So, thank you 15k Woman, I really was okay after talking to you.
I finished with a firm walk, with a perfectly acceptable time of 3:00:21 (there were only twelve finishers behind me!) I wasn't mad about that at all because I only wanted to finish and I DID! I met up with Hubby at the fence, then got my towel, water, snack, and medal, then took a few photos before limping my way back to the car. Now that I wasn't moving, my brick of a foot was just throbbing in my shoe. I began to wonder if I'd done some damage today.
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| 15k Medal and Celebration Medal |
At home I attempted a bath again; it was better but still sucky... took 30 minutes to fill the tub and it never got lobster-pot hot (the way I like it). So I gave up. No baths for me this weekend. I curled up in bed for awhile then we headed out to lunch. Thought about going to Nebraska Mini-Mart, but it was crazy busy. We went over to Three Coins Diner instead. Despite great reviews on Yelp, it was just okay for us. It didn't feel like a diner, but a regular local fast-food place (I think the building must've been something else before, like a Burger King or something, it just looked that way, you know?) Tables were old and wobbly. Waitress was a million years old with blue eyeshadow. It was both claustrophobic and too open at the same time. I really can't put my finger on why I didn't like the atmosphere, lol, no matter how I type this up. Anyway, we both ordered basic cheeseburgers and fries, and they were definitely basic. The burger was too rare for my taste, the cheese looked like Kraft Singles, and the bun seemed room-temp, right from the bag. The fries were nice and hot, at least. I'd give it 2/5 stars. Trip's was definitely better.
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| Basic Cheeseburger w/Ketchup and Mustard, and fries |
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| Old School Cool Bucs Flag |
Sunday morning, I juiced, taped, braced, and dressed, then we headed back to the race area. He went over to Publix while I made my way to the start line. I did some light calf stretching, and then we were off. I did nothing but walking again, to take it easy on my foot. It was hotter than yesterday (but we also start later too). Again, a very chill, uneventful race. There wasn't any new foot pain; still just the soreness and numbness around the outer edge (outstep?) of my foot. No sharp pain at my heels, and not as "cinderblock" numb as it was yesterday.
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| Cheez-It, please stop trying to be cool |
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| My feet feel huge with so many layers! |
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| You heard Bon Jovi, too? |
Near the finish, a woman on the other side of the chute cheered me on for doing the 15k/8k challenge, said I was awesome, stuff like that. The chute was being dismantled as I walked through it... I kinda wanted to ask the volunteers if I could carry one of the flags through the finish line, but thought that was a bit too much, so I kept going. I walked right up the middle of the road with no one in front of me and I could see Hubby standing in the middle of the road right behind the finish line like he owned the place (see, perks of being {almost} last!)
As I came toward the finish, Fitz announced me as she came over to me, and we danced across the finish line holding hands. I gave her hand a squeeze and let go, but she called me back and gave me the biggest hug and damn, it felt so good! She's a tiny lady, but bless her heart, she knew I needed that hug!
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| Shamelessly copied from FinisherPix website |
I finished with a time of 1:38:35, with 37 people behind me. I'm in THIS video, coming in at 5:30 or so.
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| (Hubby's the guy with the blue bag) |
Fitz handed me off to Hubby, and we went to get my towel, water, medals, and snacks (so many Cheez-Its!) I felt okay-ish as we walked to the car. I wasn't worried about my foot, but I was aware of my foot.
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| Look what I did! |
Back at the house, I tried to nap, but after 10 minutes, my body wanted food instead. I decided we should head over to La Segunda to get my first taste of a real Tampa Cuban sandwich. On the way, I hit up a nearby Dollar Tree for some new reading glasses (left mine at home, whoops), as well as some Band-aids and stretchy gauze for the massive blisters on my heels.
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| The camera doesn't do it justice - it's probably 2-3 inches long! |
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| Protected with cheap adhesive bandages |
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| Wrapped with Curad Self-Stick Gauze (like what you get at the Bloodmobile) |
We got lost and turned around a few times when we got in Ybor City, but we made it to La Segunda, and wow, it was so busy! The inside lobby - which was much smaller than I was expecting - was pack jammed full of people, about 20 folks waiting for their orders, and about 10 more waiting to order. We waited in line for about 5 minutes without the line moving before deciding that it might be a better idea to come back later, when my feet didn't hurt so much. We headed over to Nebraska Mini-Mart again, but holy cow, it was busier than yesterday! There was probably 25 people in line, or milling around waiting to order. So... let's go back to Trips? Nope! It was probably three times as busy as NMM, with people parking blocks and blocks away on residential side streets. We apparently didn't take into account Sunday Church Crowd + Gasparilla Tourists! We cut our losses and pulled up Garmin to find a "basic bitch" chain place (like an Olive Garden or TGIFridays) since I was getting hangry at this point. We headed over toward Dale Mabry (home of Titties & Bitches™) and just drove for a while, thinking that we'd hit the busy part of the area, where lots of restaurants were. Unfortunately, we were driving away from Titties & Bitches™, all the way over toward Lutz. We finally settled on that Runner-Up Old People place, Bob Evans. And it turned out to be a pretty good choice, because at 2pm on a Sunday, outside the city center, there was practically no one there - seriously, I think there were only two or three occupied tables. Hubby and I both got chicken fingers with fries and mashed potatoes.
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| Tenders, Mashed & Gravy, Fries, Ranch, and Wildfire BBQ (eww) |
The tenders sucked (why were they so rubbery?) but the mashed potatoes and gravy were sinful, and those biscuits were positively heavenly. All of it hit that yummy, yummy, comfort food spot that needed to be filled, and we took home the extra biscuit and roll to eat at home.
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| Yeah, they probably come from a box, but they're good! |
With full bellies, we returned home for naps and snuggles. My foot still hurt pretty bad, especially when I stood up and put weight on it after sitting for a few hours.
We slept in on Monday until around 9, then cuddled and talked about what we were going to do for the day. My foot was feeling a bit better this morning, even without pain meds (I had slept in the ankle braces), but I didn't want to go walk around somewhere and hurt it more. So we thought the best idea would be to go back to La Segunda to pick up pastries and a Cuban sandwich to bring home with me for dinner, then get on the road. We cleaned up the house and packed up our stuff in the car. As a thank you to the cleaner (who had originally rearranged her schedule to allow us late checkout at 1pm, lord I feel bad now), I made a small basket of snacks for her with some of our uneaten snacks (Cheez-Its, Chili Cheese Fritos, granola bars) and a note of appreciation (the property owner said later that the gesture made the cleaner smile and they loved it).
We got to La Segunda around 11 and the difference between yesterday and today was dramatic! There were only two or three people there. There was plenty of room for us to walk around and look at the pastry cases. While we were deciding what treats we wanted, I overheard the cashier tell another customer that they were out of ham! Ham is a very important ingredient in a Cuban, so this is terrible news! Okay, no worries, there's other locations! From this location, we picked up a few treats to try, as well as two cupcakes to eat for breakfast. They were tasty, the frosting was a little lardy and oversweet, but the cake was good. We also got cinnamon buns, an oatmeal raisin cookie, a pound cake, a five-layer chocolate cake slice, and a quesito (which never did make it into the bag... sad face). We did a quick video of the cupcakes in the car, and the rest when we got home. You can watch this video below, or over on YouTube.
The second La Segunda was a much bigger location, with indoor seating, so we decided to eat lunch there. I also peer-pressured myself - after seeing basically everyone leaving La Segunda with a long, thin package of what I assumed to be Cuban bread, I knew I had to get one too! For about $4, I got a three-foot long loaf of bread. I ordered a half-size Cuban sandwich (minus pickle) and Hubby got the 1915 Club sandwich.
I wasn't sure what to expect because Genoa Salami doesn't sound like it would make sense, but one bite told me that it made absolute sense!
It added a greasy/salty element that a Publix Cuban was missing. This pork was slow-cooked until it fell apart, shredded not sliced. The press was a little underwhelming (but that's personal preference, as I like my bread pressed to be crunchier), but overall, this sandwich was a revelation of what a good Cuban could taste like. Hubby was fully in love with his sandwich as well - it was on regular bread, and pressed. Both of us could only finish half of our sandwiches, so we grabbed to-go boxes. (I'm happy to report that both sandwiches travelled well, and were just as good the next day!)
Anyway, after Hubby rolled me out of there, we piled in the car for the long ride home. We took the long way home, through Brooksville and Ocala. We stopped by Grandpa Joe's for more sodas to try.
I hit up the nearby RaceTrac for a potty break and a soda, then we finally made it home a little before dinner time. We unpacked and all that jazz, then I pressed the other half of my Cuban and ate it in bed. I was probably asleep by 9! Unfortunately, I have to go back to work tomorrow.
So... I'm sure you're wondering... How is my foot? Well, it hurts. It's not as bad as it was in January. But it's not pain-free. Am I going to do Gate River Run? I don't know yet. I'm going to email them tomorrow and see what options they have for virtual, or deferrals, etc. I guess you'll have to come back and check the GRR post next week!
