I've been home from Orlando for a couple of days now, and I feel like it was all a DREAM.

  I barely remember even being in the Donald*1/2  Marathon at all!

Ain't it GRAND?

  To begin, I was NOT looking forward to this weekend. After all my training, all my planning, I managed to develop a head cold just before my trip. I slept badly all week before the events - just stupidly staying up too late a few times, then kept up by husband's snoring up a storm on Tuesday, then with slight nasal congestion on Wednesday. Suddenly on Thursday, at about 7 pm, my head CLOGGED UP.

Absolutely. No breathing through my nose, ears plugged like I was swimming underwater, head stuffed full of cotton. How can this be???? I was an anxious wreck that night (NIGHT? ha-ha-ha...I was getting up at 3:30 to get to the airport for a 6:25 am flight to Orlando. Some NIGHT.) Paid for and trained for, unless I was DEAD, I was getting on that plane to Disney. Please don't let me make Nancy, my Goofy room-mate, sick.

  I have it ALL with me. Throw away clothing for these cold corralled mornings, gels, and vitamins. Hot pot and coffee grounds, teabags and hot cocoas. Odwalla protein drink, muffins and instant oatmeal packages. And some canned Campbell's Chicken Soup. Two pairs of running shoes, and several different race-wear options for both Goofy days. My official packet from Walt Disney World, so I can pick up my bibs and chips, the final entry ticket into The Inaugural GOOFY Challenge.

  DON'T get a fever. DON'T get worse.

  I met Nancy at the Orlando airport, wearing my tall Goofy hat so she'd spot me in the crowd. It worked! I have our Magical Express tickets, and we are on our way to the Resort. Drop the bags in the room (which smells HORRIBLY of cigarette smoke, but there's no other room available until AFTER the marathon on Sunday, too late to help

us) we're off to find the Expo. This was NOT user-friendly, for those who don't know Disney World. It took us over an hour to get there, even staying at The Polynesian on Disney property. We got all our race necessities in several different locations throughout the Expo. Bibs, tech shirts for both the Half and Full, orange wristbands to wear as a Goofy starters. Nancy left me to go get her Chicken Little packet, I wandered around looking for free stuff, and colored some "GO Goofy" placards to cheer us. I refrained from spending all my money on souvenirs...I brought only enough cash to EAT and to pay for post-race massages for BOTH days.

  A slight detour on the way back to the room, as Nancy cajoles me to join her at the Chicken Little 5K. She even offers to PAY the race fee for me, just so I'd be there to keep her company between the races tomorrow. I get so far as filling out the entry form, when what little COMMON SENSE I have stops me. If I make myself sick tomorrow, and cannot finish the marathon on Sunday, I'll be GOOFY indeed. It's not the extra 5K that worries me so much, but the extra time hanging around in the cold, waiting for the second start. It's COLD down here in Florida this weekend. We've somehow brought the winter South with us. I back out. Better not do this one. I don't need it.

  We get back to the room just in time to do a bit of setting up for tomorrow's early rising. Then we're off to meet friends for pre-race dinner. FABULOUS food, GREAT company of Linae and Molly, Tory and Roy, Marsha, and Nancy and me. We laugh and have a wonderful meal. I am feeling pretty good, all considered, but NERVOUS. What if we CAN'T finish this challenge? Go with the flow, do what you can. We laugh and eat, then disperse early to get ready for bed.

  The alarm goes off. We'[re up and getting ready. Clockwork. All set up beforehand. I'm feeling OK!!! Still congested, but not bad, and not WORSE! Half a dose of cold remedy. I don't want the drugs in my system for the race. I follow Nancy to the monorail, to the heated Epcot bathrooms before we go toward the baggage-check tents.

Nancy has nothing to check, but I have warm clothes for after the Half. She disappears, free, I hope. I find myself trapped in the most chaotic, dense mass of runners, trying to follow the directions of Sarge, the Toy Story character who is BLARING non-stop drill instructions at us. Over-amplified. I now see I've been bottle- necked into the wrong line before I could see the tent I needed to enter. It's ALL THE WAY down. (This kind of crowd is why I never went to see the Ball drop at Times Square on New Year's Eve, although I lived in NYC for over 20 years.) It's hot in the crowd. I put my gloves into my bag-to-be-checked. I don't need them today.

  Through the baggage check it's better. Quieter away from Sarge's loudspeakers, and MANY port-o-pots, water, and room to BREATHE. Ah, I feel better about everything now. I have my cell phone for the race! TOTALLY unlike me, but an acquaintance from a running club back in Maryland has left a message on my cell phone he'll be here with HIS phone. I call him, and we manage to meet. Then I do a pot- stop, and head out into the darkness with thousands of runners to find the start corrals.

  Here, it's COLD. I pull my fingers inside my sleeves because GOOFY me checked my gloves with my race-bag!!! I pull up the hood on the sweatshirt. I stay away from the loudspeakers as much as possible once I find my corral. It's just TOO loud. I wander up the outside of our corral. looking for Nancy. I don't find her, but meet Slow Twin Bill. He's huddled toward the front of the corral, trying to keep warm. We chat briefly, but he's aiming for a MUCH faster half than I am today. I have on a 6:15 marathon pace-band for this half.

I want to save my energy and my HEALTH for tomorrow. EASY EASY for today.

  Finally, time to get ready. I can't fit back in the corral, there's no room, so I join the line outside it. I'm taking off my throw-away sweatpants when the National Anthem begins. Oh, well.

Can't help it. It's a lovely pop rendition of the song. Countdown.

Some fireworks WAY up ahead. And we're finally moving, slowly, in a pack, toward the Start.

  

  Then suddenly I'm smiling. I'm grinning. I see characters at the start, right NEXT to me! I'm INTO it now! I'm laughing, I'm SO READY TO GO GOOFY!

  The run starts, and I leave my throw away sweatshirt on. It is COLD. Bitter, dark, cold and I am SO glad to be here, doing this!

What an adventure is just beginning.

  I remember meeting Kay, waiting along the side on the grass, looking for a friend of hers. I spontaneously give her a big hug, this surprise  friend from last year's PT Cruiser Challenge in Tampa, a fellow penguin. we run along together for awhile, but Kay wants simply to beat the cut-off, and I want to be ahead of that by about 45 minutes.

  I throw away my sweatshirt, too hot already.

  I just run. I can't see my watch in the dark. I can't see my pace- band, even when I see the mile markers (I miss Mile One, somehow!) So I just go easy easy easy. I run on the grass along the roadside as much as I can, hoping to ease the pounding I'll be subjecting myself to in these 39.3 miles. I bet I'll be grateful tomorrow for this grass today.

  Now I'm sorry I threw away my sweatshirt. I'm way too cold in the breeze. I see a jacket some other runner has tossed off, and I put it on. It looks light blue and dull in the pre-dawn. I don't CARE, I'm freezing. I feel immediately better. I find some gloves, also cast off. They are ON. Newly adopted. Thank you gloves, thank you warmer, faster runner. I am happy again.

  I don't know where we are, but the light finally arrives. I am running slowly and easily. I see Mile Four, and remember I am carrying my cellphone when I see the runner ahead of me talking on hers. I call my husband. "I'm running the Half Marathon!" I laugh!

We talk a bit, and I I am having the time of my life!

  Then we're INSIDE Disney World! I'm INSTANTLY a complete child, laughing, taking pictures, seeing the Characters, and Disney cast members out waving to us! I love this! I love this! I love this!

STITCH! I stop and take a picture of STITCH! Other characters! A man takes a pic of me with a Character, and I in turn take his! So many Characters! I don't know how many I see, I can't remember which ones! But I am LOVING this!!!

  I'm running through Disney, and it is SO MUCH FUN! Cinderella's Castle! The dancing MICE!!! I stop when I see the photographer! WHAT KIND OF IDIOT AM I? There are people behind me! I make a vow to myself NOT to get so carried away again that I'll forget people are running all around me! I know better than THAT!

  It's VERY bright, running into the dawn. I am a FOOL to have left my sunglasses in the room, and not to have worn my Baltimore Marathon cap. I find a bright orange baseball cap tossed away. I put it on, pull it so it shades my eyes. Ah, thank you, unknown runner, thank you baseball cap! I am totally reborn in cast-off clothing!

  The Half is such an easy distance for me right now. This race just sped by, as I hear less distance-trained runners struggling around me. Floridian flat runners gasping about the hills that Baltimore- running me doesn't even notice. I continue to run along the grass whenever I can, because I am worried by TOMORROW all this flatness is going to be killing my rolling-hills-trained body. Like at Tampa last year.

  Mile 11. Then it's over. Clock reads JUST past 3:00:00 as I cross.

I join the Finishing throng. I ask a Disney staffer what The Goofies need to do. I'm told to stay right. I take off my chip, which is tied firmly into my shoelace (I didn't trust those plastic thingies they gave us). I carry it until I find someone to give it to, and she takes it, cuts off my orange Goofy band. But I don't have a medal yet? I thought I would trade the chip for a medal? She points me left. I line up for my Donald medal. My medal-giver doesn't put it over my head, like the other ones are doing, and I'm sad about it, so I turn around and take the medal from the woman behind me, and I put hers on her, and say "CONGRATULATIONS! You DID IT!" She thanks me! Heading along the line, they are queued up for Finisher's pics. It's warm in the sun, and I line up for mine. After, I continue out, looking for the massage tents.

  WAIT! I didn't get my BLUE Goofy band! I turn and look at the people all around me, asking "Are you Goofy? Are you Goofy?" Finally a man IS, and he is WEARING his blue band! I have no CHIP! No ORANGE band! No BLUE band! I'm going to be DISQUALIFIED from Goofy!!!! He tells me he got blued at the same place he was

  de-oranged. I quickly head back! I'm PETRIFIED that I've blown my Challenge!!!

  I show the woman with the blue bands that they already cut my orange band off, but that they didn't give me a blue one. She says, "WHY didn't they?". I'm FLIPPING out. I BLEW the Challenge! I hold up my Donald to prove I finished, WAY before cut-off! I guess she was joking, but I was in a panic! I tell her if I don't get my Goofy medal, I'll burn the place down, then I realize somebody might take that seriously! I say, "JOKING! JOKING! I'm just JOKING!" and we both laugh, as she puts on my blue band. I'm Goofy again!

  Back to massage tent-quest. I get in the line. It's FREEZING in the shade, in the wind, but I don't want to lose my place in line. I pull my space blanket around me, and huddle in the line. Nice 10- minute massage, but I should have used the port-o-pots FIRST. Good lessons for tomorrow. MEDALS FIRST! Race-bag SECOND, then pee, grab water,THEN massage tent.

  I'm very flexible, and amazingly unsore during the massage.

Nothing hurts but the blisters, and it's warm in the tent. I get my bag and DRESS, all layers on, wool beret, gloves, sweats, all ON.

Then I use the port-o-pot, and look for FOOD. By now it's about 10:15, and Chicken Little runs at 11:00am! I feel FINE! I could've run this with Nancy! I go to look for the start, so I can cheer her on.

  I wander around a bit. This Finish area is HUGE, but I find someone to direct me to the Start line, where I seek Nancy. It's cold. It's windy. Suddenly, I'm FREEZING. I'm TIRED. My head hurts.

I want OUT. I ask directions to the monorail, and finally find it.

Other Disney-goers help me find my way. Once off, I circle stupidly around trying to figure out the signs pointing to the Walkway to the Polynesian, which keep getting me in dead-ends because the gates are only unlocked at Park closure time, for mass exit! I'm so tired and cold now, and need to pee again. I make it back to the room. My head congestion has returned, but no worse. NOT worse.

  

  Fall asleep in the warm bathtub, with my ankles resting on a bag of ice along the side of the tub. Ah......

  

  After I had drowsed and reheated, drowsed and re-heated the bath water several times, I thought about how LATE it must be. WHY wasn't Nancy BACK??? I hadn't seen her since the BAGGAGE tent separation before CORRALLING!!! What if she had sprained an ankle or something in the DARK! What if she wasn't OK??! Just then, Nancy came home! :-)

  We Goofy Gals have finished Day One's exertions. DOPEY Nancy has FINISHED the chaotic Chicken Little 5K, and she's calmly doing her preps for TOMORROW's Mmmmaaaaarrathhhhhon!

  Go, Goofies!!!!!!!!

  *jeanne in chesapeake beach*