Dear friends,
First off all, Dave, sorry to hear your father in law passed away. We will
be thinking about you all.
Disney was great, as always. The weather was a little hot this year but that
couldn’t hold us from having a good time.
We arrived Thursday evening at 11 PM at the All Star Sports, checked in and
went to bed. For us, Belgian people, it was already 6 hours later and we
were tired. On Friday morning we went to Animal Kingdom where Stan and
Sheila got soaked again at the Khali River Rapids ride. I was sitting next
to Stan and got a little water but Stan wanted all and got a good part of
it. I told them we had good seats available for that ride :-).
We left Animal Kingdom at 3 Pm and went to the Expo to pick up our race
numbers. I liked the name on the numbers. I bought new running shoes from
Saucony since my other pair needed to be replaced. Of course I couldn’t
break them in anymore and I had to run the marathon on my old shoes. I
listened to Jeff GALLOWAY as he was talking about water stops, over
hydration and weather issues for the race. It was very interesting and I can
only recommend these speakers to long distance runners. After the expo we
went over to the first meeting. It was good to see all the friends again. We
ate something, handed out Belgian chocolate and went back to our hotel.
Thanks Kris for the ride !
On Saturday we were supposed to meet a friend at the Caribbean Beach Resort.
We just would meet at the main building. We didn’t imagine that the resort
was that big, with 7 bus stops. We actually missed each other and we went
back to the hotel after wandering around that resort for a while. By the
time we got back to the hotel we had messages from her and we got to see
each other in the afternoon at our resort. We met at 3.45 PM with Yvonne to
go to the APD. The Macaroni Grill didn’t do a great job and I would rather
go somewhere else next time. The food wasn’t to bad but it seemed like they
weren’t really about us being there. I did have a great time talking to all
the friends.
We went back to the hotel and we went to bed by 8 PM. This is so easy for
Belgian people. We woke up at 3.15 AM and went to the bus around 3.45. There
was a long line and we happened to meet Kris Kozuch there. We even rode the
same bus to the Epcot Parking lot. We met some friends at the D-tent,
chatted for a while and went to the corrals. That is were Isabelle had to
separate. She went to the J corral for the half. I went to the A corral for
the marathon. I met Jeremy Worthing in the corral, he was walking around to
stay warm. I thought it was already a little warm at that early moment
The race :
We headed out at a good pace, fantastic moment to run through Epcot when the
lights and music are on. The volunteers did a great job at water stops. The
music bands made it all even more magical. I passed the half marathon point
at 1 hr 38 minutes, still feeling very good. The part from Magic Kingdom to
Animal Kingdom was boring but still I was able to run at a reasonable pace.
The sun was shining in my face when I entered the Animal Kingdom. It was
getting warmer pretty fast. I knew that this would probably be difficult for
me. After leaving the Animal Kingdom I knew there was the long, even more
boring part to Wide World of Sports. I didn’t really like the different
course in Animal Kingdom. We ran most of it around the park and just a very
small part in the park. At mile 19 I got a painful feeling in my knees and I
had to walk for a while. A runner from Boston came next to me and was able
to get me going again. The first name on the numbers are really a great
thing. I was glad to see that we didn’t have to go all the way to Wide World
of Sports anymore. The course in MGM is great, I love to run through the
tunnel with the costumes. The last few miles to Epcot are ok, it was
painful, I had to walk / run all the time and met a runner from Canada. I
was able to get him back to running and we stayed together until the last
turn in Epcot, close to mile 26. The gospel choir was great. I really loved
that so close to the finish. I finished in 3 hr 39 minutes. I wasn’t to
happy about the result, I knew I could do better but I guess the warm
weather really made it difficult for me this year.
Once finished I walked over to the D-tent. After a while, Isabelle and
Yvonne came from the finish of the half marathon. Isabelle finished her
first ½ marathon in 3 hr 12 minutes (Chip Time). She had 4 blue nails on her
foot and was feeling very sore. We went back to the hotel, took a shower and
went to the pool for a while. It was great to see all the runners coming
back to the hotel, some walking, some crawling.
In the afternoon we went to the meeting in the Wilderness Lodge. We took the
wrong bus to Fort Wilderness and ended up with a weird, creepy guy, talking
to us about romantic moments in a camper with his wife while his friend was
driving. This was just too much information, why us? The meeting was nice,
we made some great pictures there. Mark Druckenmiller really looked bad, he
was feeling very sore but finished the marathon, good job !
We went to Downtown Disney to have diner with Yvonne and went to bed early
again. On Monday we ended the Marathon weekend with two laps around the lake
at the Boardwalk resort and some nice pictures. We enjoyed it very much and
we will be back next year. I don’t know yet if Isabelle will participate
again but I will !
Thanks to Kris and Yvonne for the great gifts, thanks to all of you for
sharing all this information on the list. I am really looking forward to see
you again next year.
Bart & Isabelle.
