Where were we....? Ah yes, starting the race. Well, I'm going to make the whole race recap part pretty short (or, at least, I'm going to try to make it pretty short...you all know by now how wordy I can be.) Anyway, the race started at 5:30 am for the elite runners, of which I was surprisingly not one! I know! Can you believe it?!? They don't consider a 13' or so mile "elite"? The nerve! As I said before, this year at the starting corral, I was a nervous nelly. I was unsure of my performance since I had, idiotically, not been training like I was supposed to. I just tried to really pay attention to my surroundings which, unfortunately, seemed to include the stench of poop. That's right, (and my Team ASPCA partner, S, can back me up on this!) it VERY MUCH smelled like someone took a nice pre-race dump next to our corral (and there was nary a port-o-let in sight, so it wasn't simply drifting over from one of them). Whatever it was, it was icky! Luckily, Disney does a great job of providing pre-race entertainment and distraction, as well as the on-course entertainment! I didn't realize it but apparently Drew Carey ran the race with us, as well as Allison Sweeney (host of The Biggest Loser and former Days of Our Lives alum) and Joey Fatone from N'Sync and a slew of other celebrities and celebrity athletes.
My favorite is the start of the race. As soon as Donald Duck counts it down, a huge display of fireworks goes off! This year, it seemed even bigger than at last year's Princess and Wine and Dine halfs (Halves? Whatever.). My husband helpfully reminded me that this was probably because they were celebrating 20 years of the event. (Thanks, Rob!) This year, I had to turn around to be able to see the spectacular display that runDisney sets up on the overpass. At last year's Princess, because I was in the last corral (Corral H), I got a great straightforward view of the action. However, I also had to wait an extra hour to even start the race! So once we finally made it up and started the race, I was running alongside my partner, S. As we had been talking prior to the race about pace times and everything, I learned that she hoped to finish the race in 2.5 hours (Which she totally did, by the way! She's a running beast!), and I figured my time would be closer to 3 hours, at best. I ran the first mile with her (foolishly not taking any walking breaks, as I did faithfully for last year's Wine and Dine) before stopping to walk. It had been so long since I had run that I forgot my run/walk splits initially and accidentally ended up doing a few 2 minute running, 2 minute walking splits before realizing that this isn't really helping me to get anywhere since it's a 1:1 ratio instead of the 2:1 that I usually tend to strive for. Oh, and by the time we got just past the Mile 2 marker, the winner was already on his way back. I looked across World Drive and saw him out there with just the bicycle pacer and a wheelchair 'runner' or two keeping him company. I watched in awe as the elite runners passed us ordinary folks on the other side of the median. I kept my eyes peeled for the first female runner. I always love seeing the really kick ass ladies and noting that, in this particular case, the first female was only about in 6th or 7th place overall (at most) and she was handily kicking the men's butts who were behind her! A very inspiring sight indeed! It wasn't very long after this that I met my first couple of Team ASPCA participants. As they passed, the guy yelled "Go Team ASPCA!" and I smiled. Turns out, we ended up going back and forth throughout the race. Sometimes I would pass them, sometimes they would pass me. It was fun to have a team to be a part of during the race! I really felt like I was running for something important, more than just for myself and for that medal!
I kept up my 2:1 run/walk ratio as I made my way through the Magic Kingdom. I got to see the new roller coaster they're working on in the new and improved Fantasyland and had the perfect timing approaching the castle as I was greeted with a flourish of trumpets from above. I stayed to the left going into the castle so I would have the best chance of having my picture taken. Unfortunately, there were lots of people stopping completely to pose for the cameramen and they had to be told by the guys to "keep moving, keep going, there are plenty of chances to get your picture taken." This fact, and the narrowed passageway in front of the castle, made it impossible to actually run so everyone ended up slowing to a walk until you get to the bottom and the course widens again. This year, I stopped at the bottom to get my picture taken in front of the castle since there were a bank of cameramen and very little line. As I continued, I decided to stop for a bathroom break in Frontierland, since they had actual restrooms and not port-o-lets. That ended up being my only bathroom break the whole race, which was fine. I think I actually managed to get my fluid balance right this time! (Unlike at the Wine and Dine where I drank far too much Powerade AND water and ended up possibly causing hyponatremia, which yielded a significant amount of nausea, a really nasty headache and little enjoyment of the Food and Wine Festival at Epcot afterwards since I didn't actually want to eat any of the food that they had there.)
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| Trumpeters above the entrance to Cinderella castle |
Continuing on through Frontierland and out the back of the MK, I think you end up just shy of the 7 mile mark. At this point, the newness of the race had worn off for me and I was still staring at the next 6.75ish miles to go. This is precisely where I began to slow down and think to myself: 'It's a good thing that this will be my last half for a while, these are not fun.' At that point, realizing that I hadn't had any additional fuel since the start of the race, I pulled out another Gu gel and started sucking on it a little bit at a time. Then this guy next to me started asking me questions, 'How ya feelin'? Feeling pretty good still, strong? Any aches and pains at all?' I look over to see Team ASPCA's Coach Spencer talking to me, seeing how I'm doing so far. I feel bad because I was mostly focusing on finishing the Gu so that I could get going again and didn't really answer many of the questions he asked. I tried to be conversational a bit, but I probably wasn't the most sociable little butterfly out there. After a little bit, he moved on and I got back to remembering that I still had about 5 miles left to go. The stretch between the exit from Magic Kingdom and the main part of World Drive is the worst, in my opinion. The course is narrowed significantly a good portion of the way so that you can easily get stuck behind walkers when you're trying to run (even as slowly as I was) with little way to get around them and you come around this bend just as the sun is rising above the treeline and are greeted with blinding sunlight right in your face! I didn't wear sunglasses this year, so it was particularly painful. Plus, you're also running next to a golf course for part of the way and it smells a little like sulfur. Ick.
I think one of my favorites on-course this year were all of the marching bands! I freaking love marching bands, hands down! Towards the beginning of the race, I passed a marching band playing "Apache (Jump On It)" complete with the kick ass drum section going crazy and I laughed so hard. I then proceeded to do my best impression of the dance that's supposed to accompany the song while running....I got a few titters from people behind me. That's satisfying. :-)
I got into a little trouble around Mile 9. My hamstrings were starting to cramp up and my right calf was a little tight so I stopped along the side of the road to send Rob a quick text message letting him know that I was probably just going to walk out the remainder of the race (since he was meeting me at the end) while stretching my hammies and my calf. When I got back on the course, I walked for a bit and then ran some so that my time wouldn't be absolutely horrid. It was probably about Mile 8 that my run to walk ratio drastically declined. At that point, I had stopped being faithful to the ratio I set for myself and kind of just figured I'd wing it based upon how I was feeling. Though I hadn't been paying attention to my splits during the race, when I checked my times afterward, I somehow ended up keeping my pace pretty consistent. I don't really know how, but as Rob reminded me later, I am a fast walker. I mean, FAST. Like speed walker almost, but without the crazy swinging arms. So, even with mostly walking the last 4 miles (with just a few running breaks mixed in), I managed to keep about a 13:30' per mile pace.
The last few miles were relatively unremarkable, except for some of the cars passing honking to encourage us, which was nice. Being familiar with the course from running the exact same one for last year's Princess, I started to get exited as the miles ticked by and I approached the finish line. As I entered Epcot, I saw a fellow Team ASPCA participant who was going at about the same pace as myself and introduced myself. We ran together a little bit through Epcot before I eventually pulled away. I finished the race with a time of 3:04:17, which put my overall pace at 14' per mile. This ended up being just a minute beyond my time for the Wine and Dine half marathon that I had, for the most part, diligently prepared for. I was incredibly happy about this revelation since I figured my time would be closer to the Princess finish of 3:18:07 or worse. Still, I'm really looking to see if I can get my time down to 2:30, but I know that will take a lot of training and hard work to get there!
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| An armful of post-race goodies! |
Usually, as I approach the finish line, Rob will be there and will take a little video of me finishing and I'll be able to find him pretty easily after I cross the line and grab my medal. This time, there were just so many people that it was almost impossible. I tried calling him, but he didn't hear his phone. Thankfully, he kept a keen eye on me and he ended up finding me a little after I got into the finish area. He also, smartly, brought his Mickey ears to put on so that I would be able to pick him out from a distance since he was the only person in a bright orange shirt wearing Mickey ears! (At the Wine and Dine, I gave him an obnoxiously flashing LED necklace to wear and that worked remarkably well to help me pick him out, since it was night time!) Once I gathered all of my post-race goodies provided by Disney (Powerade, water, runDisney snack box) and had my photo taken with my medal on, I met Rob and we headed over to the Team ASPCA tent to reunite with my partner, S, and the rest of the team members who had finished.
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| Reuniting with my running partner and teammate, S |
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| Team ASPCA running buddies! |
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| My partner, S, and I celebrating our finish |
Once at the tent, I sat down and iced my knees a little bit. My ever-familiar left knee pain was back at about Mile 5, so I knew the end of the race would be no picnic. I was just hoping that the bags of ice that I picked up would help to reduce the inflammation and pain a little bit until we got back to the room and I took an ice bath. Team ASPCA provided us with some post-race snacks to help our nutrition. I had a bagel dipped into chocolate peanut butter. Now, I had never had chocolate peanut butter before and, frankly, never even heard of it. But, let me just tell you, it was damn delicious! Especially post-race, it just hit the spot! At the end of this race, I was starving and ready to replace a lot of those carbs I had used up during the race! After I ate the bagel/peanut butter combo and drank a bunch of water, I was ready to head to the car and go back to the hotel. Thankfully, Rob drove our car to the end of the race so that we wouldn't have to take the bus back to the hotel since it can take a while to wait for it and then, finally, arrive back at the hotel. My partner, S, was grateful as well since she had to get showered up and checked out of the hotel before heading back home and, due to my late finish, she was running out of time.
Once we got back to the hotel, S and I parted ways, congratulating each other and I headed up to Rob's and my room. I immediately proceeded to foam roll a little bit and do some stretching while Rob was sweet enough to make me an ice bath. The man is a perfectionist when it comes to ice baths and this was no different!! He took great care preparing it for me, it was adorable! When it was time for me to get in, I had a little trouble since, well, it was so cold! I finally got in and sat there for about 20 minutes before getting out. I put on his hooded sweatshirt and sat in a towel and sweatshirt on our balcony in the sun, watching the animals outside, it was marvelous! A little bit later, after Rob got in the ice bath for a little bit, Rob was - again - awesome and he picked up some soup from Olive Garden as well as a guilty pleasure: breadsticks with alfredo dipping sauce!! I figured I had just run a long race, so I deserved it! I can't even describe how delicious it all was. It was almost like I hadn't eaten in years. I'm sure the enormous amount of fat is probably not the most optimal thing right after a race but, oh well! I loved every minute of it!
After we enjoyed our lunch and uploaded the photos we had taken so far, we got changed and headed down to the pool at the resort. Apparently, this was where all the action was. There were a bunch of runners wearing their medals or their bright yellow race shirts poolside. The whole scene seemed a little funny to me! I figured swimming a little bit would be good for me, helping to work my muscles a little bit with little impact (especially for my knee). We also went down the waterslide and hung out in the hot tub for a little while. Once we were sufficiently relaxed, we headed back up to our room to watch the Ravens/Broncos game and have some cocktails. Thanks to the amazing Ravens win in double OT, I was a happy camper! I sat there, reflecting on the day and thinking just how amazing it had been! The whole weekend was absolutely amazing and something both of us needed following a somewhat stressful holiday season!
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| Egg white ham and cheese omelet, bacon and their spectacular jungle juice, YUM!! |
The next day, Rob and I went to Boma at AKL. Boma has one of the best buffet brunches I have ever had. (It's right up there with the buffet brunch at the Bellagio in Vegas and the Mission Inn here in the Central Florida area.) It's spectacular! Afterward, we started seeing some of the marathoners come back to the hotel with their big ass spinning Mickey medals that I so coveted (and still do, to be honest). Seeing them really inspired me and got me thinking that I would really like to train for a marathon in the future. As I told Rob, I'm pretty sure the marathon would be a one-and-done type of thing since it takes such a training commitment, but it's on my bucket list! I'm fairly certain that once PA school is over, I'll make half marathons part of my regular routine as I have this past year. I really enjoy them and they are a lot of fun to participate in! Another observation I have from this weekend is that I really love staying on Disney property during a race event. I know the WDW Marathon Weekend in particular is a little different than, say, the Princess since there are two running events and a whole bunch of runners that turn out for it. But, because of this, it was really fun to be surrounded by fellow runners and feel that sense of camaraderie! Everyone getting ice at the same time for their ice baths. Everyone walking around wearing their medals or shirts. We all know what we went through and that's a pretty cool feeling that I haven't been able to experience before! If I do another WDW Marathon Weekend event, which I almost certainly will, that's how I'm going to do it! And I will probably also try to be a part of a fundraising team too! This entire experience, from beginning to end, was one of the best I have had with half marathons so far and certainly something I will always remember!!
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| My Donald medal |
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