Running

UT alumnus wins Gasparilla 15K

Elias Gonzalez overcomes strong winds, cold weather and the 2002 race champion.

By SCOTT PURKS
Published February 6, 2005

TAMPA - Covered in everything from garbage bags to Philadelphia Eagles' jerseys, 4,011 chilly runners began trudging from downtown Tampa at 7:30 a.m.

Seconds later, Tampa's Elias Gonzalez and Oldsmar's Tony Teats were at the front.

Over the Hillsborough River and around a corner to Bayshore Boulevard the leaders took off, the thousands behind puffing steam in the 50-degree air.

For the first five miles of the 15K Gasparilla Distance Classic, a 10-15 mph wind would push at their backs.

"The bad news," Teats said, "was the wind was in our face all the way to the finish."

At the turnaround, Teats and Gonzalez, both 28, were shoulder to shoulder, Teats making a surge here and there, Gonzalez fighting back with surges of his own.

Tightening in the wind, Gonzalez pushed ahead at mile 7 to take the lead for good.

"The first few moves I made I thought he wasn't going to hang with me, but he kept coming back and coming back," said Gonzalez, a University of Tampa alumnus. "I started to think maybe he was in great shape."

Teats, the 15K post-prize-money record holder with a 46:36 in 2002, had only trained for a month and a half, running about 10 miles a day after working his day job. In the five months prior, he barely ran while nursing a strained right knee.

"I did all I could do today," Teats said. "I was feeling pretty good and I thought the fact that I kept coming at him might play on his mind. That's what I was hoping."

Gonzalez, who has been training to qualify for the Army's World Class running program and the U.S. Olympic trials in 2008, said all he was thinking about, "was winning the race."

"I wasn't worried about my time or my (mile splits)," said Gonzalez, who is putting in 70- to 80-mile weekly training sessions. "I was going to run however fast I needed to finish first."

Gonzalez broke the tape in 48 minutes, 23 seconds, earning him $2,000. Teats crossed the line 14 seconds later and took home $1,500.

"I actually wish I could have run a little harder," said Gonzalez, who stocks shelves at Publix. "But winning was the objective and the money will be nice."

The women's race was less eventful as 24-year-old Vicky Gill of Tallahassee led from beginning to end, finishing in 54:00, more than a minute ahead of Gulfport's Maria Ghizzoni.

"I just got out and followed the lead car (for women)," said Gill, a Florida State graduate who suffered with a high fever and the flu all week. "For the pace I was running I was working a lot harder than usual. But I really didn't see anyone around me. I just kept running as well as I could."

The masters winners for ages 40 and over included Clearwater's Keith Batten (49:57) and Luanne G. Coulter (55:46). Batten was seventh overall and Coulter was third overall in the women's division.

[Last modified February 6, 2005, 00:23:11]