What a PERFECT weekend!
This is my third Disney (I ran the half in '98 and the full marathon last year). 1998 was the first year for the half-marathon, and the medals were these little ugly rectangular things... not much to look at. (It was my very first half though, so it still hangs proudly with my other souvenirs, of course!)
When I saw that Donald Duck head last year, I KNEW that I would have to come back and run the half to get one. And then something wonderful happened that I really and truly never expected -- my wife, Margie, decided to start running. So way back in April she decided that she would sign up with me and we would run the half together.
You could charitably describe our training as "minimalist" for this race. Breaking my toe at the beginning of October put me off the roads for 8 full weeks. And at the same time Margie came down with some kind of lower GI ugliness that kept HER from doing any training for almost as long. My longest training run for this race was SEVEN miles, and I hurt like heck after that one. Margie did a little better, she got in nine miles once. But I at least had some experience with longer distances... Margie's nine-miler was the longest run of her entire life. She had never run a race longer than 5K!
So as you might guess we were a little nervous at the start. OK, I was a little nervous, she was REALLY nervous. She confessed to me during the race that she had very nearly pulled the plug on the whole thing earlier in the week. She said "I almost told you the cancel the reservations because I was afraid I couldn't make it."
But at 4:30 Sunday morning there we were! We found a few Penguins there... I saw Sue, and we talked to Marce for a while (I like her penguin tattoo as much as mine!) The start was inspiring as always... I love the start of this race. I do a lot of my running in the dark anyway, and to start with the fireworks in this hugendous crowd, well, it's incredible. It had Margie in tears, but they were the good kind.
She says that it took her about five miles to relax, but it sure didn't seem that long to me. She was perfect... she did all the things that make the race fun. She waved to all the spectators, she thanked all the volunteers, she sang, she joked... she just generally had a blast. And of course I was right there, so I had a blast too. By mile five she realized that she really was going to finish, and from then on it was just a party. It got hot later on, but the weather for the half was perfect. I felt bad for the 5- and 6-hour marathoners though. It must have really been rough that last couple of hours.
Speaking of Cruella, we played tag with her just about the whole race. I mean to tell you, she was done up. She had the black and silver hair, she had the flowing red gown, she had the loooong cigarette holder. What a trip! And she was surrounded by Dalmatians of course. And we got our pictures with quite a few characters... Buzz Lightyear was my favorite, and unlike a lot of other people we DID run into Mickey in the Magic Kingdom, so we got our pictures with him, too!
As we approached the finish line Margie teared up a little once again. Then 20 yards from the end, there were her parents with our two kids... what perfect timing! Kissing my kids at the Disney finish line is a tradition I like. They were about 10 feet beyond the Scream Team, but I didn't have my pink hat with me... danged thing is too small for my big old head, anyway. We crossed the finish line with our upraised hands clasped in victory. At 3:15 it was my slowest half by far, but it was far, far and away my best and most enjoyable one. And as for Margie, she is still walking around with that great big "I-am-a-distance-runner-DAMN!" grin on her face. It is the greatest!
When I first started to really get into running I wished that I could share it with my best and truest friend, but at the time she was in the "I could never be a runner" frame of mind. So I relegated it to the realm of fantasy. Now it has come true, and it is better than in my fantasy. Seen in that light, what better place than Disney World to make it come true?
Sean
P.S. And we weren't even too sore afterwards! Spent the rest of the day Sunday at Disney Quest with the kids, then went to the Magic Kingdom all day Monday. I can't believe I'm not sore... something tells me that I am still training TOO FAST. I'll have to work on that one.
