I Love Frosted Flakes - Gasparilla 2025

Well, folks, for better or worse, I made it to Gasparilla Weekend. No training at all. No walking except for random parkwalking. No gym for weeks. At my heaviest weight. At my least flexible. Yeah, I wasn't looking forward to this, but I paid for it and didn't want to be a quitter. 

Before we left, we had to head over to Hubby's check-in with his nephrologist. His labs continue to be stable, so his Chronic Kidney Disease isn't worse but it isn't better, either. She changed his meds around a little bit, and we'll come back in a few months for a follow-up. 

After that, we came home to pack and relax, then left around 1pm - we weren't able to check in to the VRBO early, so it didn't make sense to leave earlier than necessary. We picked up Chick-fil-A for lunch and had an easy drive down the interstate. We checked in the VRBO (super cute!) then I headed out solo to the Expo for packet pickup. This late in the day, it's much less busy, but some of the vendors had already left, too, which sucked. I got my two shirts, which weren't matchy-matchy, and the final Challenge Jacket (they'll do something new next year), which was more fabric-like than the ones in the past, which were more like rain jackets - I love this one so much more! 

There wasn't a lot of cool swag being given away, and a lot of the booths wanted you to use your phone to register for something or another to get swag. Yeah, no... I'm not into that. I found my name on the big board then made my way back to the car, and then the VRBO. 

For dinner, we went to Trip's Diner again. I don't know if it's because it was busier, or because it wasn't "new to us" but I don't feel like it was as tasty as it was last year. It was still very good, but not "roll my eyes backward" good. 

Back at the VRBO, I laid out my gear for the morning, set my alarms, then filled up the tub for a hot bath. Except it wasn't hot. The bathtub was an old-school cast iron tub, and because it'd been so cold lately, the cast iron was freezing, so all of the hot in the hot water was immediately cooled down, and I ended up stewing in a tepid tub. Boooooo. We relaxed in bed with books and Twitter until I eventually fell asleep. 

Saturday morning, I woke up around 5. Got dressed and tried (unsuccessfully) a few times to poo, then brought a glass of OJ to bed while I read for 10 minutes or so. I woke Hubby up at 5:30 and we were in the car by 6. We were in a parking space by 6:25, which is better (but still not the best). Hubs dropped me at the start line with a kiss, then I got in my corral to stretch and warm up and wait until it was my turn. Over the start line, I met up with Hubs at the 5k tent and walked together to Publix, where he left me. Today was going to be only walking, no running. Of course, this put me pretty far in the back almost immediately. 

Around Mile 2.5, I met up with a woman who looked like she was having a hard time; turned out that she had recently had knee surgery and was cleared to run, but stepped off a curb wrong just a few days before and totally jacked up her knee! She didn't think that she'd be able to finish this, but was hoping to at least make it to the 5k mark before quitting. Because I'd slowed down to check on, and talk to, her, we were really close to the back at this point - I could see the sag wagon and cop car behind us. 

After I left her, I shed my fleece top in front of the Rough Rider truck, hoping that I'd be able to pick it up on the way back. I started getting the gotta potty feeling after that, but skipped the potty at Mile 3, thinking that there was another one near the 8k turn around area. Unfortunately, that entire area was fenced off for construction, so I had to go about another mile to the potty by the Star Wars tent, and it was disgusting. Dribbles all over the seat, and a runny pile of poo on the back corner of the seat. But I had to GO so I just got heaps and heaps of TP to clean off the seat so I could go. Not my best potty experience, but at least I didn't drop my water bottle in there! When I came out a few minutes later, I was last last. Like, the cops and sag wagon were way up there in front of me. Fuck. 

I kept going, assuming at some point that someone would tell me to quit, or get on the sidewalk, or something, but no one ever did. At the Halfway Sign, I talked to someone who looked official who said that they were probably going to open Gandy soon, and I'd probably have to get up on the sidewalk, and I should just turn around there, so I did. I only cut off .4 miles (really, Gandy seems so much longer!), but I apparently missed a timing mat, and mentally, it fucked with me...

Now I'm in front of a good number of people who did that extra .4 miles, and I feel terrible! I decided that I was just going to keep my pace and not freak out about anyone passing me (they're obviously faster than me to begin with). Maybe .25 miles after turning around, this old woman with trek poles walked by me and singsong said cheater, cheater, cheater! Like, bitch, get the fuck away from me before I kick your poles out from under you. You don't know me. 

Anyway... at this point, the sky was darkening and the wind was kicking up and the temperature was dropping and I really thought it was going to storm, but all I had to battle was a heavy, cold, wind. It was blowing right at me, making it feel like I was walking through mud, and it was hard to get a good deep breath. I wished that I hadn't thrown my fleece on the ground! I had about 2 miles to go before I could get it back, and I realized that I was stupid and put it on the wrong side of the Rough Riders truck. See, the 5k course turns around at the Rough Riders truck, so my fleece is now part of the 5k course! And if I didn't get there before the speedy 5k people, there was no way I'd be able to get it back. (For safety reasons, I wouldn't be allowed to cross over to that side of the road). So I picked up a little bit of speed, watching the 5k side of the course the entire time, and I was able to veer over there and grab it, as I saw the Timer Car coming my way. I crossed in front of the Police Motorcycles to get back to my side of the road with just a minute or two to spare before the lead runner came by, whew! I put my fleece back on and got warm, watching the speedy runners go past me.  

I'm ready to finish!

I trudged along the last mile and a half as the super-speedy folks whizzed by me. Some offered encouragement, most just ignored us. Because I missed the timing mat at Gandy, I have no official time, but my Garmin says that I finished 2:57:10, doing 8.9 miles. I met up with Hubby in the finish chute, and he said that my time looked like I did pretty good, and I had to tell him that I didn't complete the entire thing. I didn't tell him about Pole Bitch. I was grumpy and almost cried but kept it back. I got a warm, dry, finisher towel, some water, some Froot Loops with Marshmallows, and some Pringle Mingles (love saying Pringlemingles). Spoiler alert, the Froot Loops were nasty... The loops pulled moisture from the marshmallows, so the loops taste stale, while the marshmallows - which I thought would be crispy like Lucky Charms marbits - were soft and chewy (eta - it might have only been this bag; other bags I munched on at home were perfectly fine). 

Back at the VRBO, I tried again for a hot bath, but this time it was the water heater that failed - the water heater was too small of a capacity to provide enough hot water for a tub that size, so it was running tepid before the tub was halfway full! Boooooooo!! After some doomscrolling, I used my massage gun on my thighs and calves, which was miserably painful, but definitely needed. I also searched Google for lunch options, but my body had no idea what it wanted; I ended up choosing Portillo's. We drove more than 30 minutes to get there, but it was worth it. I was hoping that I could get a hot dog on a regular (non-seeded) bun, but they don't do that, so I got a spicy chicken sandwich, hubby got a burger, and we got a cup of cheese for our fries, drastically underestimating what we thought 4oz cheese would be, lol! We got a huge vat of cheese! 

The food was amazing - the chicken had a good texture and breading; it was super-juicy (actually dripping and squirting when I bit into it), but my body didn't really want to finish it after I ate about half of it. Hubby burger was delicious, the fries were crispy and fresh, and the cheese was as awesome as you think. The restaurant itself was really well-themed and laid out with lots of different eating areas, we'd definitely go back again. 

We walked off our lunch at IKEA; I was on the hunt for a cute basket or box with a lid that would allow me to hide the home phone router on the white shelf in the living room (instead of hiding it under my side table). Plus, I wanted some of the butter sugar cookies from the café. Sadly, I didn't like any of the basket or box options, and the café had no cookies, so we actually left IKEA without spending a single dollar!! Has that ever happened before in the history of ever? 

We scratched our 'dessert' itch at Bo's, with a caramel sundae and a Thick & Chunky in bed. After a few hours, we started talking about dinner, and we realized that we were too damn comfy and snuggly to get out of bed, so we had a dinner of Doritos and Portillo cheese and Little Debbies, and conked out for the night! 

I was feeling pretty... okay... Sunday morning. No pain other than "I walked a 15k yesterday" type pain. I think that the massage gun made a big difference (I'm so thankful for the crazy Black Friday sale last year!). 

Because of the construction near the 8k turn-around, the start line had to be moved backward, so this year, the corrals were on Platt Street, between Publix and Parkside of Bayshore. It's a skinny, two lane road, and it was super claustrophobic! Nobody had any idea where their "wave" or "corral" was, so we all just started shoving in. I ended up with the 12-minute pace people (from what I overheard of random strangers talking), but instead of trying to swim downstream to the slow section, I just stayed where I was and let people move past me as we all moved forward toward the start line. This seemed to work pretty well but I should have waited a little bit more... I took off with the 14-minute people. 

I was also stressing out because the race program warned the 8k walkers in the back that they needed to keep a 16-minute pace, or they may be shunted to the sidewalk at some point - I didn't want that to happen, so I was moving faster than I originally planned. But, you know, yay for me... I was moving faster than originally planned! 

I saw Pole Bitch clack by around the first mile, and I just wanted to trip her, but chose not to; she either didn't recognize me or chose not to attack me, so I let it go. 

Nothing memorable happened along Bayshore, so I just kind of zoned out and walked my race. I pulled out my 15k medal at the bridge like I always do, and at the finish line did a quick video of finishing - I was met at the end again by Fitz, which was so cool! 

My official time was 1:37:25, which (as expected) is my slowest time ever (more than 16 minutes slower than the first time I did it in 2015). Because I missed the timing mat on Gandy, I didn't get an official Challenge time, which technically means I didn't finish the challenge. Oh well... I finished it in my heart, and I have the medals to prove it, so let's just accept that I finished it. 

I got my cold, wet, finisher towel and my two medals, then hit up the snack tables for more Pringlemingles, and then at the Frosted Flakes table, I grabbed two bags (I love Frosted Flakes!), but the volunteer said I could have more, so I kept taking one more at a time, then I slyly asked if I could just take the whole box? She said that she couldn't give me a whole box (wink wink), but she wouldn't stop me if I just took the half-full box in front of her. So I did! She even put three more bags in there for me! I lost count, but I think I ended up with about two dozen bags of Frosted Flakes to snack on. My Run Brain was fixated on these bags, and I was like dancing around with happiness with so many bags of Frosted Flakes, lol!

Back at the house, I skipped the bath, but did lots of massaging, especially on my upper thigh/side butt area (apparently, this is part of my IT Band). I wanted to cuss, it hurt so bad, but in that "oh, fuck yeah" kind of way. I got dressed for lunch and pointed us toward La Segunda in Seminole Heights - who knew this was here so close?! Oh, this one is only a bakery (so many HUGE ovens!) - we picked up a still hot as fuck right out of the oven loaf of Cuban bread, an oatmeal cookie and a pound cake for us to munch on later, then drove over to the La Segunda on Kennedy for actual lunch. Cuban for me, 1915 Club on Cuban Bread for him, delicious as ever. He also picked up a chocolate cake slice to bring back to the VRBO for later. 

We packed up the other halves of our sandwiches to bring them home to eat on Monday, and then for some reason, I got fixated on the idea of finding out if Tampa had a Kroger (of course they don't... this is Publix territory). But he googled around and found two locations that were listed as being Kroger locations (directly on Kroger's website), so we went on an adventure! Sadly, both locations were actually just Shell gas stations... WTF, Kroger? Back at the VRBO, we spent time together; I'm sure we ate dinner, but for the life of me I can't remember what it was... it was probably just junk food (probably pound cake and oatmeal cookies!). 

Monday morning showed up grey and wet, a completely rainy morning. We packed up and left the VRBO, heading back downtown so that we could drive the length of Bayshore Boulevard - Hubby's never seen the course at all, and I've never driven it, so we thought it'd be fun to do. Every mile or so, he'd say wow, this is longer than I thought or when do you turn around? or how much further? Though it was rainy, I pointed to the end of the white Bayshore balustrade (way in the distance) and said that we had to walk all he way to the end of the balustrade line along the water before we turned onto Gandy. We drove down Gandy then turned around and came back, driving over the Platt Street Bridge (where the After Finish area is) and then under the Convention Center. I think driving the entire course gave him a better understanding of how hard this is for me... it's not just a simple 15k... it's mental. It just goes on forever, it's so flat and boring and the same, mile after mile. There's no shade on the way back. It's a deceptively simple course, really. 

After this, we went to the La Segunda Central Bakery in Ybor for pastries to take home (including a quesito, sugar cookie, cinnamon bun, peanut butter cake, and an additional loaf of bread). On our way out of town, I picked up a soda at Circle K then set Google Maps to take us to Wildwood then home, but somehow it planned it out backward, which we didn't realize at first! I was wondering why I was taking such weird roads just to get to US301! So, we got a little inadvertent adventure before we fixed the mapping. In Wildwood, we hit up the Christmas/Valentine's clearance at Russel Stover, though I bought very little since I still had so much Christmas clearance candy from Walmart at home (I got two bags of chocolate Santas, and a few whip cremes). Hubby, on the other hand, replenished his stash of candy - I think we spent about $50 together. We skipped ice cream in favor of actual lunch at Hardee's right down the road. We were the only customers in the entire place, so at least our food was freshly made for us. I got a kid's chicken tender meal AND a small Hot Ham & Cheese sandwich, AND a maple biscuit. Hubby got a cheeseburger meal. All of that food hit just the right spot (though the biscuit was not nearly as good as I'd hoped), and kept my belly happy the whole way home. 

Once unpacked, we jammied ourselves and just relaxed the rest of the night. I plan on working from home tomorrow, and I just know I'm gonna HURT! 

I know you wanted to see my big box of Frosted Flakes!

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Race Notes

Location: Bayshore Blvd, Tampa, FL
Host: Gasparilla Distance Classic Association
Race Fee: $156.98 ($140 Challenge {15k/8k}, Processing Fee $16.98)
Packet Pickup: Easy to find within the Tampa Convention Center; bib pickup first, then shirt/challenge swag/swag bag. Contained within the expo
Parking: Hectic but well-controlled via Tampa Police downtown; we park in Fort Brooke Parking Garage every year ($15 each day, so $30 total, well worth it).
Support: Water and Gatorade on course, very abundant. No fuel for 15k or smaller distances. Community holds up fun signs. No booze (like Gate). Rough Riders hands out donuts from Krispy Kreme.
After Party: I don’t go to the party, but the food option afterward is amazing… Bottled water, cups of Gatorade, bananas, bagged snacks from sponsors (this year was Frosted Flakes, Froot Loops, Pringles, Gatorade Protein Bars). There’s obviously tons of beer, since Michelob is the big sponsor.
Results: https://results2.xacte.com/#/e/2573/placings