Going the distance
There are many success stories among those who ran the Disney Marathon.
Erin Sullivan
Sentinel Staff Writer
January 9, 2006
When Lynnette Fellenbaum was a little girl, her doctors told her never to
run.
She has asthma. Her parents were overprotective. In 1996, as an adult
training to be a police officer, Fellenbaum began running, slowly,
cautiously at first. Then she began to like it. She felt it helped her
asthma, made her stronger.
On Sunday, she ran in the Walt Disney World Marathon, ending the annual
weekend of events at the theme park. On Saturday, 16,000 people ran in a
half-marathon. Fellenbaum ran with more than 10,000 others on Sunday.
Adriano Bastos, a 27-year-old from Sao Paulo, Brazil, won with a time of
2:19:44. This is his third win at the Disney marathon -- the first to do
that in the race's 13-year history. His wife pulled his long, dark hair into
a dozen or more tiny ponytails and then braided them. He likes to do things
for shock value, he said through an interpreter. (He speaks Portuguese.) As
he crossed the finish line, he pulled out two small flags -- one for Brazil,
one for America -- and waved them. He said he thanks this race for making
him a star in his home country.
Success comes quickly
Paige Higgins, a 23-year-old from Littleton, Colo., was the women's champion
with a time of 2:51:38. This is Higgins' first marathon, though she competed
in long-distance running on the University of Kansas team. Higgins majored
in printmaking and illustration. When she was 9 years old, she decided she
wanted to become an animator for Disney. She cried when she found out
recently that Disney doesn't do animation any more (or, very little of it.)
Everything is done by computers.
"I think animation will come back, though," she said. "People will
appreciate its beauty."
She felt OK in the race until around mile 18. Her legs stopped moving well.
Small rises in the pavement felt like mountains.
"I've always heard of 'hitting the wall,' " she said. "It hurts."
Michael Mollod, a 41-year-old from Sarasota, won the master's division (for
people ages 40 and up) in 2:42:54. Lynn Leonard, a 40-year-old from Ocala,
won the women's master's division with a time of 3:04:23.
Renzo Martinez, a 41-year-old from Boca Raton, won first place in the men's
wheelchair division. Kristen Messer, an 18-year-old from Austin, Texas, won
first place in the women's wheelchair group.
She also won Saturday's half-marathon. She wheeled 39.3 miles in two days.
"My back hurts a little bit," Messer said. "But I feel fine."
Messer has cerebral palsy, a disorder caused by brain damage at or before
birth. She competed in Disney's half-marathon last year and saw the trophies
given to marathon winners -- they have a large Mickey Mouse on the top.
"I thought they were cute," Messer said. "I wanted one."
At the finish line -- the bleachers full of cheering people -- Pluto did the
Macarena, his red tongue hanging out, his booty shaking. When "Whip It" came
on, Chip and Dale got down.
"Whip it good, Chip and Dale," the announcer said.
A small girl in the stands held a sign that read "BELIEVE." Spectators weren
t just at the end -- they lined the 26.2-mile course. At mile 22, the
Poinciana High School band played songs along a street median.
At the finish line, the announcer, his voice raspy from hours of cheering,
said runners' names and hometowns like a professional wrestling announcer. A
woman wasn't from Texas. She was from TEXAAAAAAAS.
"If you can hear us, you are almost to the finish line," the announcer said
to runners still on the course. "You can do it."
Several runners crossed the finish line wearing tall, green Goofy hats, big
black ears flopping. One man spread his arms out like an airplane, zooming
and zagging. He ran to Pluto and they jumped, giving each other a two-handed
high five and a belly bump. Another man had huge Goofy slippers over his
tennis shoes. Several women wore Minnie Mouse costumes. Several women (and
allegedly one man) wore Tinkerbell wings. One woman wore a Cinderella ball
gown. Another, Tigger.
Many people put their hearts on their bodies -- names of deceased loved ones
or charities on their T-shirts, inked on their arms in magic marker.
"There is a story for almost every marathoner here," one announcer said to
the crowd. "They are good people. Really good."
When Dave Goonen -- a 55-year-old airplane pilot from Orlando who also ran
the half-marathon on Saturday -- crossed the line, he unfurled a green sign
that read:
"To hell and back -- 39.3 miles."
On the back of his shirt was a photo of his granddaughter, Julie Brantley,
who died a year ago. She had lived for 21 days after being born with one
lung.
When he was running and he was tired and his feet aching with blisters, he
thought of Julie -- how she gasped for air -- and he kept on going. On the
picture on his back, he also put, "This one is for Julie -- and her mom and
dad."
Refusing to quit
Fellenbaum, the woman with asthma, was one of the last to cross the finish
line -- if not the absolute last. She had injured herself two weeks ago
while training (she fell and hurt both knees) and wasn't going to run. She
came from Jackson with her boyfriend to support him. But when he picked up
his number on Saturday, she couldn't stand the idea of not finishing what
she started. To her, it meant defying those doctors years ago who told her
not to run and defying the disease itself.
She ran until mile 6. Her knees hurt so badly, she walked the rest of the
way -- with a few spurts of jogging. Toward the end, people behind her were
being rounded into carts -- if you can't finish the marathon in 7 hours,
then you can't finish. She gritted her teeth and pushed her body to go
faster. When she rounded the corner and saw the finish line she started
crying.
After the race, the 32-year-old sat on the ground -- huge ice packs strapped
around both knees, a medal around her neck. She said she's going to do the
marathon again. She struggled to get up and another marathoner walked past
her.
"That is going to go away," he said, pointing to her legs.
Then he pointed to her medal.
"But that won't," he said.
She smiled and steadied herself and said she's going to do the marathon again.
She's going to show her parents -- who live in St. Petersburg and didn't know
she was running in the marathon -- the gold medal she earned, to prove to them
that their little girl can run.
Reprinted with permission from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel
