Walt Disney World Marathon - RunMarathon


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Orlando, Florida
United States
Disney
57F / 14C
Sunny
Total Time = 4h 48m 39s
Overall Rank = 5491/13478
Age Group = 40-44
Age Group Rank = 275/958
Pre-race routine:

Learned from yesterday that early is the way to go, so got up at 2:45 and left the hotel just after 3am. I ate only 1 granola bar with PB and had a yogurt. I had woken up at 1am starving so had a yogurt then and wasn't starving. Wore my marathon shorts and bright yellow GB marathon shirt and gloves that I got from Walmart last night. This time I followed the signs to 192 and met minimal traffic. Not sure if it was d/t there being 10,000 fewer runners, the earlier hour, or the road I was on, but I got rock star parking and was the 4th car from the entrance at 3:45! Put my seat back and tried to nap, but the music was loud and lots of people were walking by. Went in at 4:30 and got caught in the bottleneck of people walking in. Ate my Gu and a few bites of banana around 5am. Hit the portapotty by the start and got into Corral D by 5:15.
Event warmup:

Just a little stretching. Calves and especially quads were tight from yesterday's race. I had done an ice bath right after I got back to the hotel, but lack of training for this and going to fast were going to cost me. Today I took off my sweatpants at the gun, but kept my jacket on till around mile 2 when I started to sweat. Tied it around my waist as I wasn't sure if I'd want to put it back on. Ended up ditching it inside magic kingdom just before Cinderella castle once the sun was up--figured I'd be ok by then.
Run
  • 4h 48m 39s
  • 26.2 miles
  • 11m 01s  min/mile
Comments:

Even tho it was 6 degrees warmer at the start than yesterday, I had gloves and kept my jacket on for the first couple of miles. Much easier to run in the crowd today--everyone seemed the same pace, no walkers, no dodging around. Took my coat off when I started to sweat and tied it around my waist, but kept the gloves on my fingertips--actually worked for wiping sweat! Considered putting the coat back on a few times when in the swamps--it was truly about 10 degrees cooler--but just put the gloves on all the way and was fine. Once the sun was up it started to heat up, figured even if I ended up walking I'd still be warm enough so ditched the coat in Magic Kingdom just before Cinderella castle. Quads were screaming the whole way, this was truly a race of mind over matter to keep going and to maintain a decent pace. My initial goal was to finish, my secret goal was to beat 5 hours. Pretty happy with results in light of lack of training!
What would you do differently?:

Uh, train! Was sick most of December with Strep throat and sinus/cold so did very little training other than my fall half marathons and a single 15-mile training run over a month ago. Did nothing over an hour. Truly should have DNS both races d/t lack of training, but since the air, hotel, car, and race were already paid for...I just went for it. Fortunately I did not get injured. The smarter thing would have been to make these fun runs and just jogged and took photos of the characters.
Post race
Warm down:

After crossing the finish line, I went over to 'self medical' and put on some more biofreeze then had them tape bags of ice to my quads. Got my water, my medal, and since there was no line for the Goofy photo, had that taken. Skipped the food line completely--the thought of another banana made me want to puke, and the only other nutritional item was an unpeeled orange which I didn't want to deal with. I had Chocolate milk, V8, hummus, and a healthy choice ravioli meal in the room when I got back. Took a hot shower and tried to stretch, but that was very painful, so did ice bath with 4 buckets of ice. Took a 1 hour nap, packed, went to airport, and took 3-hr flight home. Stuck in the middle seat! Was able to get up once though when the aisle guy went to the BR.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Lack of training. It was stupid of me to do this with no training and I was very lucky I didn't injure myself. Sore muscles--worst ever after any race including Ironman. What I did learn about myself, though, is that I have been being a wus on the marathon part of the Ironman and walking way too much. Now I know I can push it to the extreme on the run and still be able to finish. This will take significant time off my IM this fall!

Event comments:

The medals are amazing, volunteers are great. Surprised that there were fewer water stops for this than the half--they were spaced out farther. Nice that they had medical every few miles. Post-race food is terrible, they need to have something natural...who wants sugar snacks after living on that for the last 4 hours?!




Last updated: 2011-03-30 12:00 AM
Running
04:48:39 | 26.2 miles | 11m 01s  min/mile
Age Group: 275/958
Overall: 5491/13478
Performance: Good
Mile 1---10:39:30 Mile 2---10:30:15 21:09 Mile 3---10:43:45 31:52 Mile 4---10:42:93 42:35 Mile 5---10:34:07 53:09 Mile 6---10:32:90 1:03:42 Mile 7---11:02:56 1:14:45 Had gu, walked thru water stop, stopped at med to apply biofreeze Mile 8---10:13:49 1:24:58 Mile 9---10:38:85 1:35:37 Mile 10--11:08:13 1:46:45 Mile 11--10:28:06 1:57:13 Mile 12--10:16:04 2:07:29 Mile 13--10:21:94 2:17:51 Shot blow Half-----01:09:44 2:19:01 WOW, ONLY 3:15 SLOWER THAN YESTERDAY! Mile 14--11:09:09 2:30:10 med stop for biofreeze Mile 15--10:45:11 2:40:55 Mile 16--11:16:63 2:52:12 Mile 17--10:31:90 3:02:44 GU, biofreeze Mile 18--13:21:77 3:16:05 Mile 19--10:09:78 3:26:15--really? I think the mile markers were off betw 18 & 19 Mile 20--11:34:72 3:37:50 Mile 21--10:58:37 3:48:48 shot blox Mile 22--11:30:57 4:00:19 Mile 23--11:18:99 4:11:57 Mile 24--11:18:99 4:26:16 Gu--most of a bag, walk thru water stop Mile 25--12:16:20 4:35:32 Mile 26--10:53:17 4:46:25 cruising now! 26.2----02:14:33 4:48:40 (watch time)
Course: Flat disney course that went thru all 4 parks fairly extensively. Lots of road camber that took it's toll last few miles. Quads were tight from the start, tried the biofreeze at mile 7. Didn't seem like it was doing much, but stopped every few miles to reapply as I figured it couldn't hurt. Took Tylenol too along the way. At the half started taking a couple bites of banana whenever they offered it, did well in my stomach. Skipped a couple water stops at the beginning and middle but it got up into the 70s by the end so took water at each then, sweating a lot. They didn't have characters at each mile marker, they were randomly placed--concentrated in the parks, so lots of long stretches of nothing. Didn't wear my iPod which was fine.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Below average
Mental exertion [1-5] 5
Physical exertion [1-5] 5
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Average
Race evaluation [1-5] 4