Tampa native Gonzalez wins Gasparilla Half Marathon

About a year ago, Elias Gonzalez was beginning a tour of duty with the U.S. Army National Guard in Kuwait. Like a lot of soldiers far from home, he found himself homesick and daydreaming. Only in Gonzalez's case, he was thinking about competing in one of his favorite races, the Gasparilla Distance Classic 15-kilometer run, which he has won twice.

Sunday, Gonzalez said it officially became a dream come true as he set an event record for the Gasparilla Half Marathon, covering the 13.1-mile course in 1 hour, 11 minutes and 9 seconds. He bettered the record by 31 seconds.

Even more amazing, though, was the fact Gonzalez had no idea he was doing so well, not even realizing he was about to break the record until he could see the finish line, see the clock and hear the crowd cheering him on.

"I didn't even know I had a chance to break that," Gonzalez said. "It gave me a little bit of energy to finish. It was quite impressive (to me)."

While Gonzalez was stationed overseas, he still was able to train. The idea of coming back to his hometown and competing here drove him, pushing him forward to attain this goal.

"I was training over there (Kuwait) just thinking about this race," Gonzalez said. "It was good that I could finish out like this."

Although the camp where he was living didn't have a track for him to use, Gonzalez used his own intuition and devised a way to assure he was putting in the correct amount of miles each day as an integral part of his training.

"There's not a lot of training ground there but I was able to measure 800 meters and do 800 repeats," said Gonzalez, a former standout for the University of Tampa. "It was like 6 1/2 miles around camp if you went around the perimeter - you had to stay within the wire - I used to do like 1 >1/2 or 2 1/2 laps and that would give me like 9 1/2 miles when I went on my run."

Although Gonzalez was accustomed to the intense heat associated with training in the Sunshine State, not even the hottest summer day in Tampa could compare to running long distances in the middle of a desert.

"It's so hot that it gets up to 120 degrees sometimes," Gonzalez said. "But sometimes if you wake up early in the morning, you can get some cool miles in."

Although Gonzalez trained extensively for Gasparilla during his year abroad in extremely difficult conditions, the seasoned veteran realized that the older he gets, the harder it will be to compete and win races the same he did when he was in his 20s.

"Pretty soon I'll be moving to just half marathons and marathons," Gonzalez said. "I'm getting old, I'm 34, so I've got to step it up to my pace now."

Despite his decision to switch up races according to his age and ability, Gonzalez still entered the 15k on Saturday to evaluate his physical status.

"I usually run the 15k, and I thought, 'Well, I've run marathons before, so let me just double and try it out,'" Gonzalez said, who placed seventh in the 15k at 49:26. "But wow, it was a fast field and I couldn't keep up with those guys."

"But (the race) today was better, it was more comfortable and I told the guys this was most relaxed I felt running in awhile."

Hector Rivera, 40, was the men's runner-up Sunday, crossing the finish line in 1:12:13, while Jon Noland of Tampa, 36, placed third in 1:13:03.