Benton Gives Field 6 Min. Head Start

TAMPA - Christa Benton knew something was wrong when she heard the announcement of a race beginning and she wasn't even wearing running shoes yet.

"At first, I thought it must be the wheelchair race, but I ran back inside the convention hall and no one was in there," Benton said.

So without a second to spare, Benton, last year's Publix Super Markets Gasparilla Distance Classic 15-kilometer winner, grabbed her race number and sped across the Platt Street Bridge to the starting line of the 15k.

To her horror, the race had already started some six minutes earlier.

"I didn't have time to think about it, instinct just took over and I tried to get through the crowd without running anyone over," Benton said. "It was a different perspective; I'm used to starting up front, and this time I took off late.

"I feel badly that I wasn't at the right spot at the right time, especially since I was invited to the race. I should have double-checked."

Although the 23-year-old University of South Florida All-American distance runner was initially behind, she made up for her tardiness and quickly caught up with the front-runners.

Benton, who resides in St. Petersburg, finished with a gun time of 1:01:33, but a chip time of 59:49 (her actual time) was good enough to move her from 18th place to 11th in the standings, the highest such spot allowed by road racing rules.

"You can't be upset when you know you did your best," Benton said. "Looking back on it, I'll probably be laughing at it."

The winner of Saturday's 15k, Annie Cooper-Gasway from Gurnee, Ill., wasn't used to the humidity that Tampa presented Saturday. But she wasn't complaining either, because of the cold conditions she had just departed.

"The first half of the race I felt great, the second half I felt overheated," Cooper-Gasway, 29, said. "The hydration is kind of tricky, but I did come from 14 inches of snow."

Cooper-Gasway, who was coming off a hamstring injury sustained during a trail race in Indiana, had only recently heard of the Gasparilla event from her coach, who encouraged her to participate.

"I knew there was a pirate festival because my in-laws live in St. Pete Beach, but I did not know there was a race," Cooper-Gasway said, who was a distance runner at Indiana State University. "I wish I would have come down for a week to acclimate. But this is so much better, I don't want to go home."

Cooper-Gasway won the race in 56 minutes flat, with Lindsay Hattendorf of Bloomington, Ind., right behind at 56:08.

The top local finisher was 37-year-old Heather Gollnick of Bradenton in 56:58.

The mother of three is a professional triathlete who recently won first place in a half-iron man competition in Chile. She was pleasantly surprised with how she placed during Saturday's event.

"I'm a triathlete, not a runner," Gollnick said. "But it was fun to go hard and see what I could do."

Gollnick was awarded $2,000 for being the top local female runner. She also placed third in last year's 15k.