Hey Y'All,
Got back in from Orlando late last night and turned around and headed out to
Pittsburgh first thing this morning for a business trip. We had a great marathon
trip (as usual), saw a lot of old and new friends and got to run our favorite race
of the year.
Arrived late on Friday so we couldn't make the McDonough encounter. Up early
Saturday morning for Nathan to run the 5K. He was tickled clocking a nice 24
minute time on his 10 year old legs. Then off to the expo to donate more $$$ to
Mickey and then the APD at the Mac Grill in the evening. The management didn't
seem real thrilled to have us there this year, but the company was excellent. Met
up with Bart, Yvonne, Jakson and Blain and shared a table with Jeremy and Adam
plus his family (two of the cutest girls around, one giving out used spaghetti :-)
My Nathan spend most of the dinner sitting on Jeremy's lap and I believe the entire
Laux gang (consisting of myself, Colleen, Nathan plus my wife's sister and parents)
are all going to come live at Bart's house and eat his food sometime in the near
future!
Into bed early Sat night for the 3AM wakeup call, we got to Epcot by about 5 and
headed to the corrals. Searched the "A" corral for Bart, Mike Lozano
and Jackson but found none of them. It wouldn't have mattered much though as I
wouldn't be running with anyone today. The APD dinner came back to haunt me and
I ended up make stops to those little grey houses four times in the first 13 miles.
At the split I figured that I'd lost over 10 minutes to my unexpected interruptions,
but after the last one I suddenly felt much better and began picking up the pace.
From mile 13 to the finish I managed to continually pass other runners, clocking
my fastest splits of the day in the final 5 miles, crossing the finish line in 3:39.
A bit slower than I was planning on running but a decent recovery considering the
fist half of the race. After the race I spend about 90 minutes near mile 24 cheering
for the runners and walkers still on the course. Eileen Druckenmiller came by and
I joined her for about a ¼ mile, talking her ear off (whether she wanted it
or not, right Eileen! :-) Shortly there after my wife and her sister came by,
with Colleen having a tough time with the heat and working hard to get to the
finish as she earned her second Mickey medal and her sister completing her first
marathon.
Monday morning we had a great encounter getting to meet up with Kris, Adam,
Kevin Z, Julie, Bart, Jeremy, Ellen and Eileen. (Hopefully I didn't forget anyone.)
We had a great encounter and I'm pretty sure I've convinced the entire group to
come to Cinti in May for the Flying Pig. So ends Disney Marathon number 8 and
marathon number 35. As usual too much fun. See you all next year.
Tom Laux
Cincinnati, OH
