My First WDW Half Marathon
Marathon weekend started for me at 0845 am on Friday, January 7, when I lined up
in front of the main building at Wide World of Sports, waiting for the doors to
open at 0900 am. There were already about 50 people in front of me, so I did not
get in until around 0915. It took merely 5 minutes to get my race package (chip,
number and information) and after that I went straight to the bottom floor where
there were close to 50 booths of race equipment vendors, marathon information,
Disney’s official merchandise, etc.
Bought a race number belt, and Hal Higdon’s book “Marathon: The Ultimate
Training Guide”, which he personally signed for me. Before I knew it was
1015 am already, so I had to leave (had to pick up a friend and her daughter at
the airport). Sadly I had a busy weekend ahead of me, so this was my first and
last visit to the expo.
In preparation for this race I joined two different Internet lists (teampenguin -
Disney and Disney Deads). In both of these groups I “met” wonderful
friends who provided me with advice and encouragement throughout the painful, at
times, months of training. I had planned to finally meet some of them at two
separate encounters. I was to attend the teampenguin’s pasta dinner on
Saturday afternoon at Fort Wilderness’ Trail’s End Cafeteria and the
Deads’ post race Bragathon at the Whispering Canyon Café, at the Wilderness
Lodge. Unfortunately I could only make it to one of these encounters.
Saturday afternoon, after a long day at Magic Kingdom I left my family and friends
at the park and took the boat from MK to Fort Wilderness. At the Trail’s
End cafeteria I had a great time with some 15 other members of the teampenguin group.
The buffet was excellent as well as the service. Made it back to Magic Kingdom
on time to watch Wishes from the town plaza with my family at 8 pm. Back at the
hotel I set up everything, from race number to time chip, as suggested, and finally
went to sleep at 1100 pm (despite what was suggested – go to bed early!), not
without setting up 2 alarms and a wake up call for 3 am.
The original plan was for me to leave for the race before 4am by bus from Old Key
West resort, and my wife would leave later, in time to make it to Main Street
around 7:15 – 7:30 am. At the last minute she decided she would better go
with me on the bus, just to make sure she would have enough time to see me in
more than one place…and because she was afraid she would get lost. So there
we were, at 3:45 am, waiting for a bus with other 10 runners and so happy with
the weather that I decided to wear only my long sleeve running shirt with a t-shirt
on top and long sweat pants, which I took off (the t-shirt and the pants) before
starting the long walk to the starting point.
At 5:15 am we split, my wife disappeared into EPCOT’s parking lot and I
followed the mass of runners, slowly walking to the starting point. Five minutes
into that walk and I felt the urge to pee! I just did 5 minutes ago! What’s
wrong with me! Anyway, not knowing if there would be more portable toilets further
ahead, I just did what a lot of people were doing already…straight into the
bushes…
Alright, done with that, I walked for another five minutes and finally found my
corral (J), walked up about half way to the front of the corral until I found a
nice spot to sit. It was around 5:30 am. About 5 minutes before the start
everybody started moving slowly towards the starting line, and at 6 am fireworks
went off and the race started. Had been waiting for this for the last 6 months…
It took me 2 minutes to reach the starting line and actually start a slow jog and
eventually run.
I could see the full marathoners far on our right and some spectators lined up on
the left side of the road. I checked my pace at the mile 1 mark and it was around
10 minutes… hmmm… a full 2 minutes faster than I had planned… maybe
I should slow down… but why should I if I was feeling great! So I decided
to maintain that pace for as long as I could.
Through the back roads of EPCOT I was lost, but all the sudden we entered the World
Showcase, and the magic began. It was still dark and all the countries were lighted.
It was a very emotional moment…and it didn’t last long enough. Before I
knew it we were out of EPCOT and meeting the full marathoners. It got a little
crowded but manageable.
Out of EPCOT and into the open roads. I checked my pace every time I could, and
it was holding steady at 10 minutes per mile… no pain at all! Around mile 7
I met a familiar face from the penguin runners group (Lani Teshima), said “Hi”,
stayed with her for about 2-3 minutes, waived “good bye” and reassumed
my pace. What amazed me was how well I could maintain the same pace. I knew I
could run faster, and could certainly run slower, but I chose to run at a certain
pace and did.
Around 7:15 am I’m getting close to the MK… the highlight of the race
for me! At the underpass at the ticket and transportation center I saw two ladies
holding a big Panama flag. I was carrying a flag myself, so I waived my little
flag, smiled at them, screamed “Panama”… they screamed back at me,
jumped and waived their flag… They were there for somebody else from
Panama…but were, as most spectators and volunteers did, cheering up all runners.
Entering Main Street was the most magical experience I’ve had in my short
running career. I waived at people, made sure I had a good view of the Castle
all the time and cried while turning into FutureWorld. Magic Kingdom went by too
fast. While leaving MK I checked my pace again at the 10 miles clock, 1:39 hrs.
Since that was the official time, and I was 2 minutes behind that I knew I was
making a bit better than 10 minutes per mile (now that I think about all this,
it’s amazing that I could do all these mental calculations after running the
longest I had ever run in my life).
I guess leaving the MK was too much for me, and here’s when I went crazy!
I was feeling well… actually, so well I even considered not stopping at the
half marathon and just keep running the full (I know, go ahead and laugh. But I
really thought about it, even if only for a few seconds). Back to the half marathon,
my next thought was: If I’m feeling so well, why do I have to maintain this pace?
Is not like I’ve never ran 3 miles before! So I decided to run faster with
about 2.5 miles still to go. The road was narrow so, what did I do? Forget the
road, let’s use the shoulder…but that too got too narrow for me! So…
that grass looked nice, here I go cross-country at mile 11 like a mad man!
You probably know what comes next… my well behaved body could not take more
of this abuse. At mile 12 I started feeling pain in my right knee, so I slowed
down a bit to about 10 min per mile. About 3 minutes later I started feeling pain
on my other knee too, so I slowed down a bit more. The last mile was as painful
as it could be, but I finished at 2:07 (official) and 2:05 (chip).
My finish line photo was awful. I’m behind somebody else…but I know I
crossed the finish line, and I’ve got a medal to prove it. Got my chip removed,
got another picture taken and grabbed all I could from the food table (bananas, coke,
powerade, water, banana cakes, etc). Met my wife after that and had a couple of
pictures taken with her. We took the bus back to Old Key West and got there around
9:30 am. Took a shower, had breakfast again, and drove to an off-site hotel to
pick up some friends who were going with us to Sea World. Around 2:30 pm had the
biggest lunch I could find in the park (ribs, BBQ chicken, steak, fries, corn bread
and a beer). After that all I could think of was going back to the hotel and sleep,
which I did after dropping off our friends at the airport around 5 pm.
Disney was my first big race and my first half marathon. Like most things in life,
there is room for improvement in the future, but I must admit I was impressed with
the organization.
Lessons learned:
I never saw my wife during the race (she needs a bigger flag), but she saw me in
Main Street. She did not see me on time (need a bigger flag for me too) and could
only take a picture of me from behind. Spectators need to find a good spot early
and stay there…and actually “fight” for your spot. Maybe if they
would rope off the area that would prevent spectators showing up at the last minute
from positioning themselves in front of those who were there early.
I need to get more sleep before the race. The only way to accomplish this would
be not to schedule any parks the day before the race (went to MK on Saturday).
Had very little sleep on Friday night, and even less on Saturday night.
Water stations are important. I alternated water and powerade and actually got
one or the other in all stations (with the exception of the one leaving MK).
For fruit I chose banana. I had also brought a power gel with me, which I had
about half way into the race.
I had as much fun running this race as I did going to the parks, maybe even more.
The only regret is that it went by too fast. Everything happened so fast, like
the first time you go to Magic Kingdom…you just have to go back again, and
again, and again…
I don’t know about other races, but this is one I want to go back for as
long as I can… I want my Mickey medal now!!!
Alvaro
Proud holder of a 2005 Donald medal
