THE DISNEY MARATHON

HOORAY!!  I did it!!  A week ago Sunday I ran the Disney Marathon.....all TWENTY SIX POINT TWO MILES!!!

 

Here's me with me medal:

 

                       

 

The whole experience was AWESOME!!  I would highly recommend it!!

To catch you up, I went to Orlando with 4 other running friends and my husband.....well, I guess he's a running friend, too.  Anyway, Scarlett and Fida ran the HALF MARATHON on Saturday and then Juliette, Meredith and I ran the FULL MARATHON on Sunday.  David was there to be our support team!! Also, David and I were celebrating our 20th Anniversary! 

 

                  

We all stayed at the Grand Floridian and it was beautiful and wonderful and right on the monorail!

 

You may be wondering why I didn't post sooner.....I was a little slow all last week (tired) and also was thrust back into our somewhat frenzied lifestyle....all the while trying to get our family back on track after a trip and all four of my children staying various places while we were gone.  Quite a backlog of laundry!

 

Also, I wanted to post the Disney pictures....which I just got last night....the one above was taken as I exitted the long line of things you go through after you cross the finish line: walk, get your medal, walk, get your silver blanket (to ward off chills), walk, get your chip taken off your shoe - I skipped this as I bought a Disney chip to keep, walk, get your water or gatorade in the drink tent, walk, get your carbohydrate snack in the snack tent, walk, get a can of soda at the Coca Cola table, walk, get your icepacks and EXTRA STRENGTH TYLENOL at the medical tent, walk, get your picture taken, walk, get your bag at the bag check, walk to your meeting place and AHHHHH---LIE DOWN!!!!!

 

So that was the end of the race....here's the "blow by blow" account of the BEFORE AND DURING:

 

Arrived at Disney Friday afternoon with David.  Checked in at the Grand Floridian, went to the Race Expo to pick up my race packet and t-shirt, then David and I went to the Rain Forest Cafe in Downtown Disney for dinner.  Met up with our friends for dessert that night back at the hotel. Had trouble sleeping both nights before....nerves and excitement.  Went on Saturday morning to watch Fida and Scarlett run the half.....good practice in knowing where to go and how long it took to get there on the monorail......they did GREAT!!!  They ran the whole way.....only walking through to get water at the water stops.

 

Was careful about what I ate and drank all day Saturday.  Especially tried to drink water every hour.....we were going to be running in warmer temps than we were used to.

 

Sunday my alarm went off at 3:15am (after quite a few clock checks through the night).  Had everything all ready so just slipped it on.  Grabbed my cold oatmeal I bought on Saturday and was out the door.  Met Meredith and Juliette in front of their building for pictures taken by Fida and Scarlett (how DID they get up so early?)  Took monorail to the start.....DARK out....but lots of Disney lights. Tired, but kept getting constant shocks of adrenalin in my arms!

 

Ate my cold oatmeal (rather choked it down...it was awful and I had no appetite....but forced t down...ate a half of a granola bar, too.  Used the port-o-potty, sat about 15 minutes then we were off to the start....quite a walk to the start.....huge staging area(i.e starting line--there were actually 2 starting lines).  Did I mention that there were over 12,000 runners?!?! We all got into corral C.....I was a B, so I went back, which was okaywith Juliette and Meredith.  Sat about 30 minutes, then suddenly we were surprised by fireworks, the national anthem and we  started moving forward. We crossed the starting line after about 4 minutes.  VERY CROWDED.  (It was pretty crowded the whole way) A bit too slow....we wanted to do 10's the first 5 miles.....but we weaved and worked our way up the sides to stay on pace..... Ran on the freeway a while, then through Epcot.....great lights....got crowded and we slowed when the two starts merged at mile 3.......back by the start again and off toward the Magic Kingdom.....started getting a little light.  We had one potty stop around mile 7. 

 

We skipped the first water stop, but got sips of water at almost every other water stop (there were 22 water stops).  We generally jogged up to get the water, walk as we drank and then resumed running.  We passed the motor speedway and the Contemporary hotel .......it started get warm just before the Magic Kingdom.  Lots of people there....that was great.....ran up MAIN STREET, through Tomorrowland, through the castle.......waved to the Cinderella.  We were constantly struggling to stay together....Juliette got a cramp. 

 

Are you still with me??  Then over to the Grand Floridian where we saw David, Scarlett and Fida...that was great...they gave us some sport beans and water.  Tried to eat a pack of Sport Beans......That was mile 12...by Mile 13 we decided to each go at our own pace.......next 5 miles were fairly boring.... and the sun came out.....getting warmer......although they had a few signs to read, an occasional character grouping and speakers along the way with the music.....you never went too long without music.

 

Finally we got to Animal Kingdom....mile 17.....at this point I started getting two cups of water-one to drink and one to pour on my head and neck to cool off.......I was feeling pretty good and was passing tons of people......pretty much hit almost every mile marker on a 10 minute mile pace except the last 2 miles.....kept drinking water and eating a few Sport Beans before each water stop....  Long stretch that got very hot before and after Animal Kingdom.....Ate a granola bar around Mile 19.........thankfully, we got some cloud and it cooled slightly for the last 6 miles (at least my last 6 miles).

 

Suddenly there were only three miles to go going through MGM, along the Boardwalk and back around Epcot.....lots of people cheering along this whole stretch.

 

                          

I got emotional in MGM thinking that I was nearly finished and that I knew my brothers and sisters would be proud of me.....a couple tears ran down my cheeks....got though that pretty quickly.......with about 2 miles to go my right hip suddenly started hurting a LOT and I could feel my left calf about to cramp up with every step.  I'd run about a 1/3 of a mile, then stop and stretch my hip....it was rough....probably lost about 5 minutes here.....my breathing was fine......and then at Mile 26 there was this huge Gospel Choir which was highly inspiring and then cheering all the way to the finish!  I finished strong and it was grand!!!!!!!!!!

 

                        

 

                        

Could barely walk, however, to get my blanket, food, medal, photo, etc.....it's this big assembly line to get out.....I made a pit stop at the medical tent and got 2 Extra Strength Tylenol and 2 bags of ice....then limped over to our meeting area. 

 

                 

Emotional reunion with Juliette, Meredith, Fida, Scarlett and and David.......running Marathons is much more fun with friends.......

 

 

             

It was really an awesome experience, and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to take part, especially with friends and with David there.  Took lots of photos when we all got back together......and there you have it.  Thanks for hanging in there.

 

Chip Time:  4:27:53

Clock time 4:32

Placed 2866 out of 12,964 total runners

Placed 873 out of 6,204 female runners

Division Place 148  of 1018 (Women 40-44)

Half Split 2:13 (2 hours 13 minutes at 13.1 miles)

 

Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape in the new year.

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