Hi Gang,
It was great to read all the stories of the fun you/we all had last week. I'm
happy to report that although my race time was a personal worst (4:07:52), the
time I spent racing was a personal best.
I was very happy to have finally met Tom Laux. Three years ago, after my 1st
Disney marathon, I was having real motivation problems with my training. Tom
(and Beth and Kris) answered my call to the List for virtual training partners.
I've been emailing with them multiple times daily ever since! I spotted him and
his wife coming out of the Buzz Lightyear ride (I sorta recognized him from pics
he had posted--though I thought he had a full beard, rather than the goatee). He's
also much taller in person! ;-) I was a little disappointed that there wasn't
enough time to sit down and have a cold one together. Maybe next year!
My buddy, Kurt, running his first marathon, went to the APD and met many of you.
So, I'm only one degree of separation away now. :-) He reports that you're all
very nice, and that I'm an idiot for not going! I wish I had met the rest of you
on this trip.
Due to a new baby in the family with an early wake-up schedule, I lost my usual
early-morning training schedule. It was very hard to figure out when to train at
all and I ended up taking off all of October. I finally settled in on 3-day
schedule and managed to get in 4 or so long runs. But the long runs ended badly
several times, with major bonking after 18 miles, in spite of gels and gatorade.
So although I had some good workouts over the fall, I wasn't sure what I could do.
I kept the idea in the back of my mind to just have a fun run. I brought along a
disposable camera just to encourage that thought.
Due to some good fortune at races during my Ironman training, I was able to get
into the first corral, which meant I avoided the crowds my buddies in Corral E
had reported. I started the race doing 9:22, 9:20, 9:33, and 9:46. I decided at
that point that today's goal would be to do a negative split (I was off to a good
start!) and to finish the race strong and happy. I had a sub-goal of "defeating"
miles 18 to 22 where I had collapsed the first time in 2001.
All went basically as planned. I hovered around the 9:20 pace all through the race.
I picked things up around the 13 mile mark, but only by a little. At Animal
Kingdom my wife and sons, and the families of my buddies, were all out in front
cheering us on with their signs. It was a great lift! I stopped to kiss my wife
and pose for pics. It was also a good tune up for the miles to come. During the
Wide World of Sports section I focused hard and kept the pace up, throwing off
the demons of the past.
And I got some great pics along the way! The best was encountering Cruella De Ville
at MGM. My oldest son and I had decided that I would give her a big "raspberry"
if I saw her. So after the obligatory normal pose, I told her I had to do another
pose for my son. She put on a great show of disgust, and then, to my surprise, she
started chasing me through MGM!! I thought she would stop after a few feet, but
she kept coming! I turned and got another shot of this. I was cracking up!
Coming around Epcot I started to tie up a bit, but still kept things under 10:00
pace.
I missed the negative split (2:03, 2:04) but ran pretty evenly throughout. I felt
fine at the end of the race, and had a great time getting pics and playing with
the characters. All in all, a fun race. The PR will wait for another time!
Dave Jalajas
Long Island, NY
