Let's See Oprah Do THIS!

 

By Jim Adcock

It was a dark and stormy night...Okay, so it was a freezing freakin'morning, but it was dark.  I had set three alarms :-) to wake me at 3:00am Saturday morning (obsessive?...nah, thorough).  I went to bed at 8:00pm Friday and slept pretty well considering.  I ended up waking on my own at 2:50am and went ahead and got ready.  Ate some cinammon poptarts right away and some gummies (mistake 1...actually let's make that mistake 2...1 was eating a cheeseburger with onions and ketchup the night before) and a Clif bar on the bus ride. I also drank some COLD bottled water (mistake 3).

Despite being dressed pretty warmly (bogan, short sleeved running shirt, half marathon long sleeved shirt, nice thick sweat shirt, shorts, sweat pants, and gloves) I ended up freezing waiting for the race start.  Caught the bus outside the hotel around 3:30am (mistake 4).  Met a cool older guy on the bus ride from Charleston running the Goofy along with the 5k...nut.

Got to the start area and although it wasn't nearly as windy as two years ago there was a 5 to 10 mph breeze that didn't help the 34 degree temps feel any warmer.  Walked around some, hit the porta potty, and stood in the lee of the baggage tents trying to avoid the breeze along with most of the other runners.  They finally herded us out of the staging area and sent us on about a 3/4 mile walk to the start area (interesting setup they do there).

Got to the start area and found my corral which was in the front which is cool, but necessitated an even longer walk.  Stood around there for about an hour (mistake 5).  Every year they improve things at this race which I like about it.  They have a stage set up in the staging/finish area where the families/spectators can wait and watch videos, a live band, and see live broadcasts from the start area.  In the start area they have a stage with a man and woman hosts who talk to runners and organizers in between videos to keep your attention. 

The race was finally ready to begin and they brought out Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, and Goofy to talk a little and start the race.  When they finish the count down they shoot off some fireworks which seemed a lot better this year than in the past.  We start out fairly slowly which is fine with me since I don't want to over do it.  There are a good many spectators for a while, but then next few miles are pretty much in the middle of nothing which is good for everyone to make some visits to the bushes in peace.  I concentrated on ignoring all the people passing me since I was focused on the whole weekend and not just the half.  They had one totally dark stretch that I don't remember from past years where I swear I could barely see the runners 5 feet away from me.  Don't know what was up with that, but they need to address it for safety sake I would think.  I tossed off my sweat shirt around 1.5 miles or so.  Nothing really notable going on except that I wasn't feeling great.  Not bad, but not in a rhythym.  I also started feeling hungry way sooner than I should have...see mistake 2...I'd eaten too early.  I had a gel, but wasn't in the mood for it, so just kept going.  Made it to the Magic Kingdom and it's always fun going down Main Street.  The only thing really notable was some guy I happened to be right behind near mile 10 who was obviously hitting on every darn half way attractive female around him.  He was probably a little older than me (I'm 43...he was a pretty young guy now that I think about it!).   Anyway, noticed him when these two fairly attractive girls probably in their mid 20s passed us and he goes "Hey, how are you today?!!  I'm doing GREAT!  Where are you from???"...blah, blah, blah.  They didn't hang around long.  A few minutes later a guy passed him and he didn't say a word.  More females and he starts the gab again.  Finally I passed him and again not a word.  It was mildly amusing, but irritating to listen to him too.  Also around mile 8 my stomach started gurgling...I needed a potty break, but wasn't about to stop in the middle of the race unless I couldn't help it.  That made the rest of the run a bit uncomfortable. :-) (see mistake 1).

Finished up the race in 2:03 and was pleased that I was on target with my goal for it, but also discouraged that it had been so uncomfortable.  One thing they need to fix and maybe they already did based on the marathon the next day was a log jam at the finish.  The way they did the Goofy Challenge they gave you a plastic wrist band at the expo that they put on you and instructed you to not remove until after the half.  Fair enough.  When you finished the half they directed you immediately to a small tent right around the corner after chip removal and BEFORE water, food, anything else.  They had tables set up with the alphabet broken up on signs.  Problem was there seemed to be way more people with last names beginning with A-E than the other letters, so we had to stand there for at least 20 mins. waiting. Finally, when I got near the entrance someone working the area had a flash of inspiration and they told us that we could use any of the lettered areas. I jumped over and you had to verify your name and they removed the wrist band and put a new one with a different color on you.  The lady was very nice and offered the old one to me as a souvenir, so I said thank you and took it...what the heck.  Finally made it to the picture area and got one taken, got some water and Powerade and then some food.  I was hot as heck when I'd finished, but by the time I'd stood in the Goofy line, gotten my Donald medal, gotten the picture taken, gotten some food and drinks, and found my bus I was very glad to have the mylar blanket on me because I was freezing again.  Got on the bus and we had to tell the drivier how to get to our hotel since he wasn't a WDW driver, but a rental guy just there for the day. 

Took it easy for the rest of the day and had a few very nice phone calls from family and friends which made me feel much better.  I made the trip alone, so sitting around a hotel room alone after a long race with the full looming the next day was pretty tough.  It's always nice to know that people are thinking of you.  Had a room service cheeseburger again, but this time without the onions and ketchup.   Got all my stuff ready and laid out on the couch.  Invented toeless socks...slit the ends of some non-running crew length socks and pulled them up to cover as much of my lower legs as possible.  Also had the inspiration to use the coffee maker in the room to heat water to take in some empty water bottles I had lying around.  Hey, I may be dense at times, but I do try to learn from my mistakes. 

Sunday morning I woke up on my own around 2:30am So I put on my bogan, my convertible mitten/glove things I found at Target which are much warmer than my other gloves, my nice white high tech running shirt, marathon long sleeved shirt, toeless socks, and sweatshirt.  Reversed the order of my eating and saved the poptarts for the bus ride so that I wouldn't be hungry so early in the race.  Didn't go down to catch the bus until around 4:00am.

They say that the last bus leaves the hotels at 4am, but that's not quite true since they were still pulling in when I left.  I went down and there was no bus immediately, but a lot of runners hanging out inside in a coffee shop waiting on it.  Some went outside, but I stayed in the nice warm indoors as long as possible.  Got on the bus around 4 or so and made it to the staging area.  Fortunately, although it was about the same temp as Sat., there was no breeze at all.  I had my hot water in two bottles under my sweatshirt and they helped a lot keeping me warm on the outside and on the inside when I drank some of it.  Oh, I also took my mlyar blanket from Sat. and had that around me.  Since I'd waited to leave a bit later I probably had 20-30 mins. less time to wait in the cold and the get up I'd rigged actually had me feeling pretty comfortable.  Again learning from my mistakes from the day before, I sat on the ground until about 5 mins. before the start to save my legs the strain of standing on the asphalt for that long.

I think this helped a lot. 

We had basically the same start procedure as for the half with the characters and fireworks again.  I started out thinking that my legs would probably give out before too long and I was resigned to not doing that well, but I also determined that no matter what I'd take short 1 min. walk breaks at every water station and I stuck to it.  Went through EPCOT a bit and then back out to the lonely dark strectches.  I tossed the blanket and sweat pants right away (I'd cut slits in the lower legs and tacked them to hold them together temporarily, but make them easy to rip off) and then the sweat shirt around mile 1 and also pushed my toeless socks down as far as possible.  I ate the one gel I'd brought with me around mile 6 and some gummies around mile 8 maybe.  Usually I'll carry 3 gels, but they usually have the same brand and I end up not eating mine.  This year although I had more in the hotel I'd only brought one.  Oh, I wore raceready shorts for the first time in both races and they worked great. 

Made it to the Magic Kingdom and I had the biggest sense of deja vu not surprisingly a few times right through there since I'd just run it the day before.  Down Main Street and amazed that I wasn't feeling worse than I was.

I was trying to do 11 min. miles and was actually averaging 10.5 min. miles I think.  My pics may not bear this up, but after being disappointed with my pics the last few years I made a bit more of an effort to let the cameras have a clear shot at me and to wave or something when I passed them.  I also made a conscious effort to notice more - like when going through Cinderella's castle.  When I've run this before I'll try to recall things and can't because I'd been so tunnel visioned about the running.  This time I tried to remember to make an effort to notice things and enjoy the experience and it worked. 

Run, drink, walk...you come in the back side of the Animal Kingdom and unfortunately you pass by a waste water treatment facility which can be smelly, but with the cooler weather wasn't too bad.  Every year they add more distractions though and it's not nearly as boring along the lonely stretches as it was just a few years ago.  Ran through the AK past the new roller coaster (can't wait for it to open this spring) and a key point here is that they have wet sponges for you because I was really getting hot at this point.  The sun was up and it was probably around 50 degrees or more.

I kept squeezing the sponge out on my head and it felt so good.   After leaving the park I took off the long sleeved shirt and then the short sleeved shirt.  I wanted to keep it, but I was getting tired and knew I couldn't carry it for 8 - 9 more miles.  I couldn't tie it around my waist either, so I reluctantly threw it to the side of the road ($35 more gone) and put the long sleeved shirt back on.  Right after that I took off my mitten/gloves and since they are too bulky I had to throw them to the side too.  After the AK is the loneliest toughest part of the course.  The sun was totally up by then and there are a few overpasses which seem pretty high by this point in the race.  You go down this straight road and there is a hairpin turn around basically switching you from one lane to the one right next to it.  You have to keep passing these people ahead of you for probably half a mile, but it seems like longer because you can't wait to be headed back the other way.  That's around mile 21 or so.  I started feeling it by then and by the time I hit 22 I was in the run 1 min. walk 1 min. survival mode.  By this time despite being in survival mode I pretty well knew that I could finish and I was doing the calculations in my mind and figured I could get close to my 5 hour goal if I could do no worse than 15 min. miles...pretty sad, but that's how I came up with a 1 min./1 min. deal.  I figured if I was running around 10 min. miles and could walk 20 min. miles then splitting the difference should get me there. 

Oh, if you are ever tempted to try Clif gels don't!  Around mile 16 I was starving and would have eaten about anything.  I was even eyeing gel packs on the ground to see if anyone had dropped one without opening it!  At the aid station they gave us the Clif gels instead of the usual Powergels.  I figured they couldn't be that different and grabbed a strawberry flavored pack...it was one of the most awful tasting things I've ever tried.

Fortunately, they had banana halves and Hershey's kisses at the next station.  I had to peel my own banana there which was fine and normal, but at one of the later stations a guy had a container of pre-peeled banana halves :-) which about made my day.  I gave him a big "you da man!" for that...dorky, but it was the first thing that came to mind.    It's amazing how good some fruit can taste when you are that hungry.  I had some of the best oranges ever right after the race too.  Oh, they were also handing out beer around mile 20 which didn't interest me at all.  I like beer, but at that point I didn't want to risk screwing up the whole weekend for one beer, so I passed on it.

Like I think I said earlier, they had many more distractions this year than in the past: some high school bands, cheerleaders, Central Florida and a choir at mile 26 (they are somewhere on the course every year and I like to kind of say thanks by raising my arms and yelling to them which they really seem to like).   There were some great volunteers along the course.  There was a group from Fort Lauderdale who were all around 60-70 years old and dressed in grass skirts and wearing leis (men and women) who were at two spots on the course dancing and all happy...it was cool.  I told them they seemed to be the party crowd and they loved that.  I passed a guy in a lonely part of the back lot of EPCOT near the finish around mile 24 who was picking up cups that everyone had tossed all over.  I was on one of my 1 min. walk breaks and told him "Thank you for picking up after us".  He turned around and had a real big smile on his face so that made me feel good.  These people are all voluteers out there in the early morning cold, so I always try to make sure they get some love.  I felt bad for one voluteer lady around mile 25.5.  She was on the side of the course picking up discarded clothes and someone right in front of me threw a shirt over and hit her in the head.  I'm sure they were just trying to get it near her to make it easy for her to get, but they nailed her and she gave them a irritated look which I can't blame her for.

It felt great to make the turn at 26.1 miles.  You exit EPCOT and using a side entrance for the cast members you go out on a short side road, make this turn, and you see a lane of trees open up with the finish line just ahead and bleachers on each side and all these people cheering for you.  I had my 5 hours in the bag and could feel the Goofy medal already and it felt great knowing that I'd met those goals.  I high fived Chip and Pluto right before the finish and raised my arms so the picture would hopefully look a little better, crossed the finish line and said "Thank God!"  Sunday, as opposed to the day before, they had you get your chip removed, get your mylar blanket, get your Mickey medal, get food and water, and THEN go to the Goofy tent to verify that you had your wristband and give you your medal.

The line here was non-existent either because the setup was better or because everyone else had already finished...I'll go with the better setup to save my ego.  Got my picture taken with all three medals (which unfortunately I can't find on the picture website) and headed for the bus and a nice hot shower and clean dry clothes!

"Goofy" Jim