Race Day Morning!
In the last two races, I was up early and I
had no reason to believe that this year would be any different. I set my watch alarm to 2:45 and went to
bed. The difference this year is that I
had my own bed, not the floor as in the past.
My alarm went off at the appointed time and I rolled over and went to
sleep. At 3:40 I awoke and flew out of
bed. I was not sure that I would make
the race. As I changed into my running
clothes, I was contemplating taking the car.
I thought about it for a while and decided to take the bus as
planned. Since we were at Barbados this
trip, we were in NO MANS land as far as loading out on busses during peak
flow. Fortunately, just as I walked up,
a supervisor had just driven up and issued a command on the radio to send and
EMPTY bus to our stop. Within 2 minutes,
our trusty and empty coach arrived. I
learned that about twice as many folks had just left to go to the Jamaica stop
about 3-5 minutes before I walked up.
Whew. That was all I needed was
bus issues. I drank a pint of water on
the bus and ate a Luna Bar. The trip
took about 30 minutes and then we arrived.
I walked around for a few moments pausing in a large tent. The temperatures would be great, if the wind
would just die. We were waiting for the
Half Marathon clothing busses to get there.
I was not too worried, as I knew I would have all my clothes until those
busses arrived. About 5:10, I wondered
over to the clothes drop area and shed my warm up suit. I traded that for a trash bag. I did not put on my long sleeved throw away
shirt as the temps ere no that cold.
However the wind-chill was kind of bad.
I went through the security point and they were already letting folks
down to the starting line. I just
followed the crowd. We made our way
about a half-mile and the full marathoners went left while we went right. I found my corral. It was closer to the front than I thought! I found three big guys and parked myself
downwind. It was apparent that these
guys did not shower, but I was cold and needed the wind break.
About 5-10 minutes before 6, Mickey and
Donald showed up. The wheel chairs were
started on time and before you knew it, the fireworks went off.
An instant rush of adrenaline surged
through the body and I was off. I
thought that I started my watch, but I did something else. Therefore, I had no idea when my splits
were. I did manage to get the timer
started and was going to run 8 minutes/walk 1 minute. I missed my first walk break.
There were just too many folks and I was on the center of the road. I moved over to the side of the rode in
anticipation of the next walk break. We
passed the one-mile mark. My time was
9:45. I shook my head and thought. Whoa
Partner. You got to slow down or you
will bonk before mile 4! I pulled over
to the side for a nature call. I came
back up on the road with a guy in a north Texas something r other shirt. I asked him where he was from and we chatted
for what seemed like a few moments.
Before I knew it, we were at the couple of sharp corners where we merge
with the full marathon at Mile 3.3.
Time had flown. I met back up
with my newfound friend and we chatted some more. He graduated from A&M a year or two after I did and was very
familiar with environmental work. We
kept on chatting. I told him at the
4-mile water stop that I needed to walk the stops and he agreed, thinking that
he should conserve energy a little also.
We picked it back up and before I knew it we were at mile 6’s stop. This continued on along World Drive. I recall hearing the monorails flying
by. I also remember thinking that it
was darker than I remember the last couple of years. At the mile seven I could see clouds on the horizon. They were dark and I thought I could smell
rain. We turned along the racetrack and
I looked to my left. I did not see the
throng of folks I normal see turning onto the full marathon course (Mile
13.3). At some point along the course,
I had shut m timer off and just went with the feel. Before long, we were at mile 9.
I told my pal that I needed to look for Mary. At that point I noticed on the timer and saw 1:28. My immediate thoughts were that the timer
was incorrect. No way could I run 9
miles that quickly. I knew Mary would
not be there for at least another 30 minutes so I ran on. However, since my buddy was not there, I had
no distraction and began to feel tired and wasted. Just before Mile 10, where the course goes under the lake and
then comes back up. I thought about
quitting just because I knew I couldn’t make it up the hill. Once up the hill, I saw my friend off on the
horizon and focused on catching him. I
did not walk the water stop behind Main Street taking water and two
Poweraides. (I wanted two waters and
one Poweraide, more on that later) I
slowed to high five a few characters and make the turns in the park. I also knew form past experiences that I
could really blow the run if I allowed the adrenaline to kick it up too
much. I ran through the castle and
looked up making sure to smile. Dang,
the Photographer was looking down at his camera. I took off through Frontierland and winked at Pocahontas and then
I was out of the park. I did not walk
the water stop behind Splash Mountain taking water and two Poweraides. (I wanted two waters and one Poweraide, more
on that in about 5 minutes). I made the
left turn onto Florida Way. I did not
see my friend at all. All of a sudden,
I got this terrible side stitch. I
stopped and walked for a minute and then headed to the bushes. Two Poweraides were not needed at the last
stop. But after urping, I felt better
and ran back out onto the road. I ended
up doing that a couple more times. I
was ready to walk when I saw the split on the horizon for the half and full
thons. I new there was a camera there
and so I mustered all the strength I could to run and smile. After passing the photographers, it was just
a short trip to the finish. I looked up
at the finish line and did not see the clock working. It had rained a little just before I arrived and was about to
rain again. These clocks do not like
water. Anyway, I went through the line,
got my medal and picked up some water and food. I was hungry.
A chill set in. I looked for Mary and then went to pick up my clothes. I pulled on my worm ups and then headed back
to the Monorail station at Mile 9.
Somehow, Mary and I missed each other.
I was cold so I hopped the first monorail and went back to the CBR. I found the kids still getting ready. I lounged around for about 30 minutes as I
waited for bathrooms to free up and hoping that Mary would soon be home. I took a shower and got dressed. I was feeling fine so I thought I would head
for the parks. I was hungry for some
buffalo wings from the Boardwalk ESPN Club.
I decided that I would leave a message on the room phone telling Mary
where I went and took the car. Just as
I opened the car door, I saw Mary getting off the Marathon bus. Boy, we were glad to see each other.
Mary had waited at Mile 9 until she thought
that I was definitely past. Little did
she know that I was by there 30 minutes early.
Some how we past each other between the parking lot and the Monorail
station. She said that as she got to
the finish line area, the clouds burst open.
She ran to the “W” family meeting tent waiting for me to show. As I recall I was leaving the monorail
station on a train just as the skies opened.
She waited there until around 9:30.
She decided that either I got sick or that we missed one another. It was an interesting miss. I apologized for being quicker than expected
and we went off to eat.
As you have just read 4 times, I was
hungry. We arrived at the Boardwalk
around 10:20. we waddled through the
hotel and onto the boardwalk. The marathon
runners were still going by. It was
still misty and I really felt sorry for some of these folks. They had been out there for 4 ˝ hours and
still had a mile to go. Without the
rain, I would assume that most of these folks would be finished by then. ESPN was not opening until 11:15. I was still hungry. The mist let up so I went to the course and
started yelling for the runners. I had
the duck head on and was mustering up all the energy I could to make sure these
guys were at pumped up at least for the next few moments. I ended up gathering a 3 or 4 others who
joined me and we formed an ad hoc Hoopla Section. I looked over at the ESPN Club and Mary was kind of embarrassed and
amazed. It felt great to see the
smiles, albeit some were weak as these guys passed us. I had several spectators stop to look at the
duck head. A couple was chatting with
each other indicating that they would train and run in 2003.
I was getting hoarse from the yelling and I
was still hungry. Mary was yelling at
me as the ESPN Club was opening. I was
sorry that the ting opened. I know that
those who were passing me at that time would be the same runners I was running
with, has I run the full this year. Anyway,
we ordered buffalo wings and I had a beer and a salad. All in all, a good day.
After eating, we went to Epcot. The rain was gone and the day was heating
up. Then we toured some of the
countries, making sure to yell for the remaining runners. We met the kids for dinner at the Teppanyaki
Dinning Room in Japan.
Mary
and I went back to the room. I had my
lap top and logged in to see my finish time.
I was thinking 2:30-2:40. I knew
that I was at a faster pace early, but lost track of time. I looked up my name and saw that my official
clock time was 2:02:19. Whoa! I did not think the time to be
accurate. Even in May as I set here
compiling the web page, I believe the time to be 30 minutes slower. I do not think that the last 3 miles would
have been at the pace needed to carry me in at around 2 hours. But I will never know. I wondered if the chip that was originally assigned
to me (the loaner) was given to someone else and then not properly recorded in
the computer. EMMI had not other
complaints about timing. So, I will
list the time as a PR, with an asterisk noting my confusion.
