Walt Disney World Marathon - RunMarathon


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Orlando, Florida
United States
Disney
Total Time = 3h 52m 28s
Overall Rank = 973/12964
Age Group = m25-29
Age Group Rank = 83/620
Pre-race routine:

A little back story. I know... you've heard this a million times but I don't care, this is my race report, go get your own if you don't like it. I was training for IMFL and on 0ctober 3rd and got hit by a car. I broke 7 bones including my L2 lumbra and couldnt run for 6 weeks. This race was suppose to be a layup coming after IMFL and I thought having that experience would definitely make qualifying for boston possible. That of course changed. After 10 weeks off I had 2 months to get back in running shape for race day. I was worried, to say the least.
Event warmup:

Woke up at the ass crack of dawn… that being 3:15 am. Drank my boost, did my routine, put all my stuff on, tried to decide what to wear or what not to wear, ate half a clif bar, then set off for departure.

The weather was only a little chilly. I was more than comfortable in my throw away long sleeve tee shirt. It was foggy and misty in the upper sixties. We walk over to the bus stop, the bus “magically” shows up right when we get there. We have a “magical” short ride from our hotel, the carribean beach resort, over to the start area. As we are sitting there in bus traffic waiting to be dropped off we could only begin to fathom the amount of stress we dodged by staying in Disney and taking the “magical” bus when we looked out the window and saw the miles of traffic of cars waiting to get in the park. We get off the bus and begin the “magical” ' I cant believe its only 4 in the morning' zombie march with about 10,000 other people to the gear bag drop off area in the epcot parking lot. There is a DJ playing music. We drop of our gear and head into the coliseum of porto potties located behind gear check in and wait to be herded out to our corals. We have about 2 hours until the race so I decide to lay on the cold and damp ground while being misted upon.

The time has come, move the cattle out to their coral. We walk another ½ mile to where the corals are located. Ailene has to pee so I wait and watch about a hundred guys running in the wet grass and peeing in the bushes while 200 girls wait in line for the last stop porto potties. I can imagine the only guys in the porto potty lines must HAVE to do #2. She finishes up and we head out, we separate into our corrals, me A and she B. I walk over and sit on the ground in my coral again and wait.

As I am sitting there I do the ultimate time waster while you are in florida, people watch. There is this one guy that really stuck out. Why did he stick out you ask? Because he was wearing a white speedo that was probably about 3 sizes too small for him. I see a guy dressed up like super girl, a guy dressed up like Minnie, quite the pre-event show. The whole Disney gang, Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy start their count down. 9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1, GO! I am in coral A so I can see the start line, a ton of fireworks are shot up, I turn behind me and take a look at the masses of people, fireworks are also being shot off farther down the coral line. We start running.


Run
  • 00m
  • 26.2 miles
  •  min/mile
Comments:

My initial goal for this race was 3:05 or to qualify for boston with at least a 3:10:59. My ultimate goal would be to just run sevens flat the entire race, pretty much what I did in training and a pace that is comfortable and not over exerting. I start off and I feel magical. Ha ha ha, if you haven’t been , EVERYTHING in Disney is magical. Really though, I feel very good. I pass the 3:20 pace group. I am moving along pretty well. It is still dark and misty and we are running on a highway type access road. I look to my right and see thousands of other people on the other road where the marathon split is. Pretty cool.

The first aid station comes up. I run through, grab some powerade and keep going. I was planning on drinking at least one cup of powerade at each aid staion, 2 gus that I brought at mile 10 and 13, then eat wherever else there was for food. We make it into epcot and I am flying. I feel light on my feet and full of energy. At the entrance to epcot I pass the 3:10 pace group like they are standing still. We circle through the parkt, around the lake, and through the back lot. Maintenece people cheer for us. We dodge large puddles. There are ten people in my little running pack. We run solidly back to the access roads. Finally we come to the first mile marker I have seen, I still don’t know how I missed the others, mile 4. I look at my watch 27:40, a 6:50 pace for the first 4 miles, a little faster than planned but that’s ok, I still feel great.

Me and this blond german kid break away from the pack at one of the overpasses. Don’t be fooled when they say there are no hills in florida, they are all liars. There are hills, they may be man made but they are still a bitch to climb. I reach the top and start my descent. Mile 5. 7:01, perfect. My breathing is calm, legs still feel good. Keep running along the terribly exciting access road… in the dark. Mile 6. 6:51 pretty good. Mile 7, 6:59, perfect, still on an access road. 8, 6:57, still perfect, still on an access road, the sky is starting to brighten up and I feel pretty warm. At this time I notice my tummy is really warm, kind of like you get when you are waiting for dinner and it seems like it will never come out kind of warm. This is when I start to see buildings and start to prepare myself for the magical Magic Kingdom.

I am now running with that Japanese guy who dressed up like Minnie. This rouses the crowd into a frenzy as we enter tomorrowland. Everyone is laughing and cheering and this would be the beginning of the end. We come around a bend and I realize I don’t feel as zippy as I did before. Miles 9 and 10 are at a 7:05 pace, a little above my pace but I can spare the extra 10 seconds. We run through the castle, which was cool, I take my gu and prepare for more access roads.

We come out of the back of the Magic Kingdom. This is now the 5 mile stretch of purely access roads, mostly straight and very flat. I am 10 miles into my run, I have run much longer runs than this with no issues whatsoever at the very same pace I am now. Those other runs are not today. Mile 11, 7:26. Way off pace and not controlled. It is HOT! I decided to take off my shirt at this point. I felt like I was overheating and my shirt was soaked and weighed an extra 5 pounds. It happened all of a sudden. I couldn't run anymore. I took some water and a banana as I walked through the aid station. This was the first time I ever walked in a race. I was completely drained. I had no enery, it was difficult to even walk. The thought of even jogging made me sick to my stomach. I then came to the realization that I had 15 miles to go. 15 miles. The distance all at once seemed impossible. I continued walking. I finished the banana. I ate my other gu that was for mile 13. I drank powerade. I begged for my energy to come back. It didnt. I decided to jog a little more. I jogged for as long as I could, the mile 12 marker. I walked. People passed me. At this point I was thinking I seriously might not make it. I was still running though. At mile 13 (10:30 per mile pace) I gave up the thought of any goals I had hoped for and was totally humbled. The 3:10 pace group passed me as I walked.

At first I was really upset wirh myself. I continued walking, going over in my head what I think might have happened. I bonked, I didnt do my nutrition right, I went out too fast. The worst part was this was my training pace, I actually RAN this pace in training. I did a 16 miler at this pace and was fine. After an 1/8th of a mile of this, I kind of came to terms with the fact that my goals had run by me and had a new determination just to finish... faster than Katie Holmes.

I knew there was no way I was running the rest of the race so I started making short term goals. I will run to that overpass, then I'll walk. I'll walk to that yield sign then I'll run, I'll walk to that bend then I'll run. I won't walk passed those spectators. This was my hell. The race kind of changed for me at mile 16.

This was where we entered the animal kingdom. We came out of the hot sun into a tropical tunnel of bamboo walls and green canopy. It was cooler, I was walking of course, and I saw that huge freakin tree. I started realizing that now that my goals were completely out of sight that I was free to just run and walk and enjoy the course and the event in general. It didnt matter that I wasn't running fast just that I was still running. It was eye opening. I smiled as I walked passed this HUGE yellow dinosaur. We came around the bend, I was walking again, The guy on this announcer platform goes... Just think, most people aren't even awake yet, go get em. I seriously thought about picking up a rock and throwing it at him. We eventually run out to thte parking lot and out of animal kingdom.

I may seem happy but at this point I am still dying. I can't run more than a quarter of a mile without walking. When I do walk I am just catching my breath not wanting to run again, but I do... at the next corner, or that underpass, or that aid station. The sun is really hot and it feels like its above 80 and very humid. I start to notice my chest is really red, I figure I should probably stop and get sunscreen. I am in bad enough shape already I don't need sunburn. i stop at the medical tent and ask for it. They start running into the tent like a nascar pitcrew. She comes out with a snowball sized handfull of sunscreen and splashes it all over my chest and says go. I laughed and said, I'm not in that much of a hurry, look at me. She laughed and I started walking some more rubbing the sunscreen in. I walk, I run. It's hot and we are back on access roads and coming to the turn around, I notice. I turn around and walk some more. On the way back from the turn around I notice my toes on my left foot hurt kind of bad. I start to run again.

We come out of the area where the sports complex turn around was and merge back onto the access road that takes us to MGM. Oh sorry... HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS. We do this via an access road ramp that is like a huge hill, I decide to walk up it, of course. As I do this a woman runs up next to me. "How you doin?" She asks. I look at my watch it says 3 hours and 5 minutes. I laugh. "Well I hoped to be done right now." She laughs back. " Ha I'm suppose to be done in 25 minutes, looks like both our goals are shot, come on lets run a little" I agree and we run for a while. She stopped to walk but I really appreciated her little pep talk. It was this point my energy started to come back a little.

I was still walking alot when we got into MGM. There was a lot of crowd support here. I was still walking and running but I got into a kind of rythym. I was running between 9:50 and 11 minute miles. I think I peaked once at 12:30 when I stopped at the med tent. I have yet to pee. Some highlights here were running through the costume sewing building. What are they really making in there. You know its not costumes! This is the best part of the race.... THE END!!! just kidding.

We come out of MGM and down to a nice river area that goes passed the swan and into the boardwalk resort area. I, in my small run goals run, see the yellow haired german kid I was running with for the first 13 miles. It looks like he blew up to. I run up next to him and start walking, he looks over at me and shakes his head. I was starting to get some more energy so I ran some more.

We finish through boardwalk seeing all of the families coming out of thier resorts like bears out of a hibernation cave, watching the idiot humans run 26.2 miles. We cross a little bridge. Some kid yells at me, "you're doing great, you're almost there!" I look to my left at a guy who is also in pain. I say "We are NOT almost there, we still have 1.5 miles!!! Someone throw that kid off the bridge." We come into Epcot and I notice we are tracing part of the first part of the course. I remember back, 4 hours ago when I felt great. I run through all the countries and I start walking right before the finish. I come out to a HUGE crowd screaming and yelling and it's great. I am suddenly not in pain anymore. I run across the finish line. I start laughing for no reason. I get my medal. I get my nasa blanket. I drink the best can of coke I have ever had in my life. I start to develop neck problems because this freakin medal must weigh ten pounds.


What would you do differently?:

I guess looking back I should have had a bigger breakfast. I should have run slower in the beginning and negative splitted. Wear a pair of sneakers that are 1/2 size bigger.
Post race
Warm down:

Stood around waiting to meet Ailene and Carla. Took off my shoe to find that I am definitely losing 3 toe nails. my toe was black and nasty and hurt pretty bad. I limp to the bus back to the hotel, the huge disney medal clanging and swinging throwing me off balance. I ran my first marathon. Imagine that!

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Only 2 months of training and 10 weeks off from running before that.

Event comments:

The volunteers at this race we unbelievably good. The course was fun. i would do this again, I think.


Profile Album


Last updated: 2007-07-30 12:00 AM
Running
00:00:00 | 26.2 miles |  min/mile
Age Group: 0/620
Overall: 0/12964
Performance:
27:40 ( 6:50 x 4) - 7:01 - 6:51 - 6:59 - 6:57 - 14:15 (7:07 x2) - 14:52 (7:26 x 2)- 20:21 (10:10 x2) - 30:03 (10:01 x 3) - 10:30- -10:59 - 11:15 - 9:27 - 10:38 - 9:57 - 10:41 - 11:08 - 10:33 - 2:10
Course:
Keeping cool Drinking
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Bad
Mental exertion [1-5] 5
Physical exertion [1-5]
Good race?
Evaluation
Course challenge
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Below average
Race evaluation [1-5] 5