Event: Walt Disney World Marathon
Date: January 9, 2005
Pre-race routine:
Terri and I arrived at the Old Key West Resort on Saturday on our way to packet pickup, which was held at Disney’s Wide World of Sports. Terri had been sick (and still was) although she looked pretty good except for that sore red nose! After checking into the condo that my mom had at Disney (she’s since sold it…how dare she!!) we took a ride over to Wide World to get our packets. With our vouchers and waivers in hand, we arrived at the packet pickup area inside the complex. I’d never seen so many people in line to pick up packets before. What a crowd! Unfortunately, we had to wait in a bunch of lines because I had recently run a half marathon in Orlando (1:47:35) that qualified me to move up from the 7th (and last) marathon corral to the 2nd, just behind the elites and pros. Terri had run a 10K that moved her from the last half-marathon corral to the third. So we needed to see the runner relations people to get our corral numbers changed. This being my first marathon and Terri’s first half, we were excited to be in the presence of so many awesome people. Another thing that gave us a rush was the race countdown clock. I was going to run 26 miles tomorrow!! After getting our packets and corral-change assignments, we walked around the expo for a while and looked for some souvenirs. Upon finding a few things we thought we might like to have, we decided to purchase them after the race. We left the expo and went back to the condo to prepare our packets and get some food. Our search for pasta was futile as every restaurant had a two to three hour wait, and it was getting late. We needed rest. So we settled on buying pasta and sauce to cook at the condo. We headed to bed at 10pm.
Terri coughed a lot but got some sleep, I stayed awake, nervous, excited, anxious, until about 1230am. The alarm went off at 215am and we wound up snoozing til about 230. Upon waking, we got dressed, got our numbers on, and took a picture of ourselves. We were nervous because the year before it had been very cold and we were unsure if the weather would cooperate with us.
Event warmup:
We were at the bus stop at 3am when the bus picked us up and brought us down to the race site. Man was it crazy crowded!!! We made our way down through the crowds to our respective areas. We tried to hang out as long as possible together until it was time to separate. The full marathoners split off and walked towards one area of corrals while the half marathoners went another way.
At the split we gave each other big hugs and big smiles and headed out. I walked down to Corral B (I thought, wow I’m in Corral B!!) and took my place among the other runners there. It was 5am and we had an hour to wait for the start. Luckily, Mickey Mouse puts on a good pre-race show and the hour went quickly…music, dancing, performances, video, you name it. I got a little chilly but I stretched and walked around until I felt comfortable again. Then, it was time to go.
Event comments:
The 30,000 people combined in the half and full marathon counted down from ten to zero as a whole. It was awesome. When the gun went off, there were fireworks, loud music, lights, and cheers. I thought to myself, this is the most awesome thing I’ve ever done. The beginning of the race went through Epcot, and would return there later. As I made my way through the first few miles, I felt great. I had my music with me, I was making good time and my pace was acceptable, about 8:20 per mile. I figured I could keep that up as long as I needed to. I had figured on a 3:30 to 3:45 finish time. Boy was I naïve!! I made sure I took water at all the water stations and Gatorade when I felt I needed it. My first goal was to look great at the halfway point, where my mom, brother, and a friend were waiting, because both Terri and I would pass that point. At mile 8, while passing the marker and clock, my knee cramped up. I had been dealing with a cramping knee and calf for a little over a month before the race, but for the entire week prior, it had been almost non-existent. Unfortunately at this point it reared its ugly head with a vengeance! I pulled over to the side of the road (we were just passing the WDW speedway) and I bent over to massage my leg and pray that this wasn’t as far as I was able to go. After about a minute of stretching, it relaxed and I got on my way again. I ran through the pain over the next two miles and miraculously, the pain disappeared and I felt good again. Whew!! As I passed Mile 10, I felt great. The aid station at that point had offered PowerGel. I had never eaten one before, but I decided to try it. Luckily my stomach tolerates most things I throw at it. I enjoyed the rush I got from the gel. We were just behind Space Mountain at this time. As we ran through the Magic Kingdom, I thought again, this is the most awesome thing ever! It was such a rush to run right through Cinderella’s Castle and come down the ramp to cheering Cast Members. I got a few pictures snapped at that point too. I knew I’d be seeing my family and my friend soon. I had taken off the long sleeve shirt I was wearing so I was anxious to give that up too. As I neared the 13 mile mark, I ran across the grass to hug my friend and give my sweaty smelly shirt to her. My mom and brother were waving pompoms and cheering too. As I ran past I told them to watch for Terri. On I went.
As I passed the half marathon mark, I felt great, but knew that my fuel was dwindling. The ensuing few miles were very difficult. I took my first walk break of the race at mile 14. This was the furthest I’d ever run, so I was ok with walking for a little while. I walked to an aid station and then ran again all the way to Mile 16 where we entered Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The run thru this park was agony. I was bonking. I had to walk a lot of the path through DAK. Upon exiting the park at Mile 17 I knew I was in trouble. I ran/walked that entire mile and it took roughly 12 minutes. Definitely a far cry from my 8:20 pace that I kept up for the entire first 13 miles! By the time I reached Mile 18, I thought that was it. Miles 18 through 20 are on a very unattractive, non-beautified stretch of Osceola Parkway between DAK and Wide World. There was nothing to keep me occupied, my music was not inspiring me and my legs were absolutely screaming. I was thirsty. I knew at this point that my expected finish time of 3:30 was a dream. Upon reaching Mile 20, I saw a man lying on the ground next to an ambulance, with EMT’s feverishly working on him. I promptly got terrified! Was that gonna be me? I was so tired and in some nasty pain. Would I be reduced to this? I was already at 3:30 on the race clock. Somehow that incident scared me into running again and I made it to the Mile 21 turnaround point a little later, at which point I was headed to the Disney/MGM Studios.
There was an aid station at Mile 21 and I made sure I walked and took in as much fluid as I could to keep me going. There was also candy at this station so I took that too. As we ran through the studios, I began to think that maybe I was not going to die. My strength had somewhat returned and my spirits began to lift. Then, as we ran past a backstage area, there were some Cast Members dressed as the “Green Army Men” from Toy Story and they were acting like drill sergeants. They kept yelling “you guys stink!” and “you’re weak!” I was dumbfounded. All I could think was…hey, fuck you! But I quickly realized it was motivation, not insult. So I let it motivate me. Soon I ran under the big wizard hat and out of the park, on the final 3 mile stretch. I probably wasn’t going any faster than 10:30 per mile at this point. With 2 miles to go, I ran past the Swan/Dolphin, through the Yacht/Beach/Boardwalk resort area, and into the back of Epcot. I was almost done! As I came down around Spaceship Earth, I thought of all the memories I’d had in the park, the year that I worked in the park, the fun I had opening the Mouse Gear store, the friends I made there, and…oh wait…mile 26!!! Hallelujah! For real. There was a Hallelujah Choir there, swaying, clapping, singing that very word over and over as I ran past. The finish was in sight!! I ran as fast as I could (probably no more than an 11 minute pace at that point) and raised my arms high above my head and crossed that finish line proud and happy. I was an hour over my expected finish time, due to my lack of understanding of what goes into running a successful marathon, serious underestimation of the effects of 26 miles of road racing, serious overestimation of my abilities, and a severe naïveté.
After going through the finish chute, I got my medal, posed for a picture, and walked toward the main area where food and drink was being distributed. It took a while of walking around before I got my wits about me, found my way through the end of the chute, and got a few bites of food in me. I also took a mylar blanket so I wasn’t too cold. But at that point I was so sweaty that I don’t think it mattered much. I went out into the meeting area to meet up with Terri, my mom, my brother, and my friend Leigh.
Cooldown:
A little while after that, Terri found me (she finished her race in 2:53, not bad for a first half marathon while having the flu), but my mom, brother, and friend were nowhere to be found. It turns out that they got lost in a shuffle and just decided to return to the resort where we’d meet them later. We looked around for them for about 40 minutes. Terri and I were both in lots of pain and wanted to get back to the resort as soon as possible. My feet were swollen, painful, and blistered. Stupidly, upon returning to the resort, I jumped—yes, jumped—off the bus and when the bottoms of my feet hit the pavement I nearly collapsed from the pain in both my feet and my knees. Wow, that was stupid. Terri and I slowly made our way back to the condo where we were greeted with hugs (and apologies for not seeing either of our finishes). We both made bags of ice to put on our knees and feet, and just relaxed for the rest of the day.
