I finally made it back to Belgium after spending lots of dollars in Florida.
I flew back in yesterday but due to a horrible jetlag I was only able to
write you my report today.
First of all we arrived in Orlando on Jan 6th at 1.30 AM, our plane was
cancelled and we needed to get on another plane. I was so tired. The next
day I woke up at 9.30, this meant we had missed our appointment with Stan
and Sheila to visit the Magic Kingdom together. We got dressed and went to
MGM before heading to the Expo around 2 PM to get my race number and other
stuff. After the expo we went to the APD.
Marathon day : I woke up around 3 Am after a short night, I didn't sleep
that well (I guess I was nervous for that first marathon). I went to the
starting area together with Stan and Sheila (two very nice people). They
were able to give me the latest information about this event. It was cold
and I was just wearing a sweater with a singlet and a short. We had to wait
there for a long time before heading to the startboxes. I was in the last
box of the red course with race number 10695. The start was great and I know
I was ready to go and finish my first marathon ever. After 4 miles I took
the sweater off, my hands were still cold but everything else was ok.
The first few miles I couldn't run my own pace due to slower traffic but I
enjoyed every minute of it. Spaceship Earth was beautiful to see that
morning, I was sure it would be even better when I saw it again, just before
I finished.
I took Powerade every two waterstops and followed this untill the end. I was
feeling great with this and because I never trained with Powergel I never
tried them on race day. When you arrive on Main Street at Magic Kingdom you
feel great, seeing all those people out there, it was a blast. I came
through the 13 miles point at 1.51 Hr. It wasn't really what I expected so I
tried to run a little faster and it worked. I was still feeling good enough
to run a little faster and tried to finish around 3.30.
The long part between Animal Kingdom and Wide World of Sports seemed a never
ending story to me, wow that was really long. The road going up before
arriving at MGM was even worse, I was feeling pretty bad after this part and
my knees started to hurt. I knew I was pretty close to the end and didn't
wanted to stop running, just take some more pain before it was over. Before
hitting the last straight line to the finish I saw Ellen McDonough, yelling
my name, a wonderful feeling. I finished in 3.31 Hr (chip time) and I was
really happy with the result. I have been training for 18 weeks for this
event and now everything was over, but it was sure worth it.
I want to thank Holly for everything she did, I had the opportunity to talk
with her at the APD and she is a great person, I really hope she will be
able to continue this for at least a few years. The APD was also a succes,
the food was great and the people I had the opportunity to talk with were
very nice too.
Thank you also for the nice polo-shirts, they really look nice!
I will try to attend the next WDW Marathon but coming from Belgium is a long
and expensive trip. If I come next year, Isabelle and my little boy Kurt
need to be there with me. I missed them a lot for my first marathon. I will
try to attend another marathon in April and a 20k race in May where I hope
to meet Andy COOGAN.
Greetings to everybody.
Bart from Belgium
