It was a fun trip. Everything about the race was great. The expo was very nicely ran. There were about 60,000 people participating in the events this weekend so, needless to say, the expo was packed. Yet, Disney did a nice job of managing the people and keeping us spread out. Of course, that means there was a lot of walking the day before the race. Luckily, the weather was beautiful.
The races were beautifully organized, well supported, and the courses were amazing! The starts were separated by corrals and staggered. Of course, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy were there at the start. It made me smile. For the half-marathon, we ran through part of the Magic Kingdom and Epcot. Along the way, we saw a ton of Disney characters and other entertainment. Runners stopped to take photos with the characters. I almost stopped at Jack Skeleton and Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas but decided I should keep running. I did stop several times and took photos and tweeted them to Mike. I finished it in 2:15 which was fine for me because I wanted to take it easy on the half-marathon.
It was a bit harder start at the marathon the next morning. Mike and I tried to walk to the course start based on a tip from someone at the hotel, but we had to cross a 7-lane road without a crosswalk and crazy busy traffic. We did it, and then were told no spectators were allowed the rest of the way so Mike had to go back. He had planned to just walk me across the road anyway, so no big deal. I was also a little tired at the beginning and the newness of the event was gone. By the time we started, the magic had returned. I ran the first few miles with a mom and son from Ohio and that was nice and made the miles go by quickly. At the half-marathon, I slightly regretted not stopping in the Magic Kingdom and getting my picture taken with the lit castle behind me. It was still dark and the castle was beautiful. I decided that was my only stop at the marathon. The marathon followed nearly the same course but then broke away at the Speedway. We actually ran on the race car track and it was packed with tons of old, fancy, and just weird cars. It was so cool! Sometime between the Speedway and Animal Kingdom, I’m 99% sure I ran by Jeff Galloway. I also ran by a fireman in full gear carrying an oxygen tank and running in the race. It was very inspirational. We ran through Animal Kingdom about miles 12-13. At that time, I decided I was feeling good and would just run based on feel and not worry about my time. I had started slow and decided to run it all slow because of the heat and I would be more tired. When the marathon started, it was 63 degrees and about 73 degrees when we finished. I drank water at every water station and, about half-way through, decided to walk briefly at each station to drop my core temperature. Something worked. I finished the last half faster than the first. My first half was 2:18 and I finished at 4:29 – 7 minutes faster. I finished feeling strong, sore and tired but strong. Mile 24 was about 9 minutes and I was passing people. I underestimated myself. Mike met me at the end with my race shirt, which I refused to wear until after the race. We tried to walk back to the resort, but a Disney employee told us we couldn’t and gave us a ride to where the sidewalk began, on the other side of the 7-lane road. That was nice of him.
We decided I would do the Disneyworld marathon because I was unmotivated after running the Eugene Marathon and not interested in running. I showed Mike an ad for the Disneyworld Marathon, and he encouraged it because he knew the Disney aspect would be good motivation, as well as the Goofy challenge. He was right and it worked. I’m excited to continue running, and I think I will register for Eugene and try to break 4 hours again. I’m definitely strong right now. The Hal Higdon Intermediate 2 training schedule upped my mileage but made me strong with the back-back weekend runs.
Our other time here was fine. We didn’t do much before and between races, mostly a lot of work for Mike and dinking around on my IPad for me. We also took many naps. The parks today were fun though we pushed it too much. After Hollywood Disney, we went to Epcot. The first ride was did was a spinning one and I felt bad afterwards. We tried to fix me with ice-cream, which usually cures any ailment, but I was still ill’n. We walked around the World Showcase, rode the Norwegian boat tour (nice but short), scarfed down some fast Mexican food, and ran to catch the shuttle. We decided that my ill’n was most likely exhaustion. It was a good day.
The worse part of the whole trip was the food. The food at the resort wasn’t very good at all. We ended up eating poorly most of the trip, but I suppose it can’t all be great. We are looking forward to cooking our own meals and actually eating something fresh. Overall, it was a very good trip.
