Congratulations to all who participated on Sunday. What an experience!!
My race went better than I expected. Finished in 5:09:08 which is slower
than last year but I still finished and with a smile on my face. Had a
wonderful time...met a lot of great people, and here it is Wednesday
night the pain is gone and I am ready to go again......who could ask for
more?
The week before the race I was very nervous. Jan and I went to the
Friday night encounter and after that I didn't feel nervous again. Had a
wonderful time meeting new people and talking to old friends. Saw Bart
and his wife Isabelle and their son Kurt. Also got a chance to see Bill
and Ellen McDonough again meet their family. Such wonderful people we
have in this group...we are very fortunate. After the Friday night
encounter we drove back to Melbourne because Saturday night my work was
having a going away dinner for the General Manager who is going up to
Davenport Iowa to our corporate head quarters to take a new job. After
dinner drove from Vero Beach to Melbourne to pick up Jan and our
daughter Angela and son in law Rick and our granddaughter Jordan and
then on to Orlando. Got to the motel about 9. It is right next to Old
Town on 192 so we went and walked around for awhile hoping to tire out
Jordan our almost 2 year old granddaughter. We went back to the motel
and Jordan was having no part in the sleep thing. About midnight she
started to settle in and go to bed. About 2 I woke up and could not go
back to sleep. Who says I was ready to get going and tired of all the
waiting? Everyone got up about 3 and we were out the door at 3:30.
There seemed to be more traffic this year then last but we still made
the drive in about 15 min. Got out of the car and started following the
masses to the waiting area. When my family left to go find a spot to
watch the race I went into the staging area to wait. Ran into Kris and
Bart. Had a great time waiting for the start of the race talking to them
but all to soon it was time to go to our respective starting points and
we were off.
For once in my life I did not start out too fast. I was going at the
pace I wanted to run. There were a lot of people passing me but I kept
to my own pace. I am really happy about that because I always start out
too fast. If I had tried to keep up I never would have made it to mile
26. Another thing different about this race was the number of bath room
breaks I took. I bet I made about 10 pit stops along the way. The day
before I drank a lot of water and each water stop I drank at least two
glasses of water and I drank about 56 oz if Gatorade which I carried
with me. Guess I will have to adjust that to find a happy medium.
Carried a throw away camera with me and stopped along the way to have my
picture taken with several Disney characters.
When I got to Main Street USA I ran into my cheering section! Stopped
and said hello exchanged my empty Gatorade bottle for a full one talked
a bit to see how they were doing and then it was off to the races
again!! Along the way I saw many of the villain signs. At first I
thought it funny. Like the old Burma Shave signs along side the road
when I was a kid (am I dating myself...do any of the younger deads know
Burma Shave?) But when it became a recurring theme all along the course
it became old and a little over kill. Less is more. The worst part about
the rain was I wear glasses. Between the water spots and the steaming
glasses it became very difficult to see for a while. Jan had a great
idea to help remedy this for next time. Buy the glass cleaner that helps
to prevent the fogging and makes the rain drops just run off..DA!! why
didn't I think of that before the race???? Did not run into anyone that
I knew but talked to several people along the way. But I tell you I was
never so glad to see the Space Ship Earth of Epcot. It was a great
thrill running under it and on to the finish line. The finish clock was
off. It said I finishedat 6 and a half hours. I was beginning to think I
must have blacked out between mile 26 and the finish line and lost some
time when the told me the clock was wrong! All in all last year was my
first Disney...but I think I enjoyed this years Disney better than last
year.
It was great seeing everyone and I hope everyone had a safe trip home
and is recuperating well. This morning when I left for work at 6am the
temp was 31 degrees!!! Thank God we didn't have that on Sunday!!!
Bob Chapman
Who will be "treadmill man" until the warm weather comes back to
Florida!!
