Walt Disney World Marathon - RunMarathon

Woke up with sore quads and tight I-T bands (never had either problems). Legs were sore from the start. Didn't feel my calves past 5 miles, upper legs pain was too much I think. From 5 to 10 miles I kept having to pull my running shorts up cause they were so heavy with sweat they were falling really low (probably gave some people a quarter moon ;-) I think cuz they were put in the dryer the night before on really hot, and band lost elasticity. Had no problem in the half the day before. At mile 10 I walked 10 seconds so I could tie them. It was alright from there on out. I started right at the front of corral A, and had no problem with slow people in front of me. I always made sure I never got in anyone's way. The 3:10 pace group was about 5 rows of people behind me. My goal was 3:15, so I wanted to stay in front of the 3:10 group for the first half, then I'd have 2.5 minutes to slack off in the second half. The 3:10 group past me around mile 8, and I hung with them til mile 9, and when I past the half point at a 3:11:44 pace, I couldn't see the 3:10 group anymore. Upper legs (quads and hams) were getting super sore, and had to slow the pace down. Stopped at 4 medical tents. Each time I got a big squirt of bio-freeze and twice took a Tylenol. The bio-freeze gave me immediate pain relief for about a quarter mile. I didn't take any past 21 miles because I heard of the girl that died last year and they said it was due to pain relief ointment, and I didn't want to over do it. I don't think I walked til after I met my support crew (Dale) at around 17.5 just outside Animal Kingdom. It was great. Dale took out my empty fuel bottles from my belt and put in fresh bottles while I "sticked" my legs. I also took a 20-oz bottle that I premade up with fuel.after that, the carmping of the quads and hams became so unbearable I had to walk. I walked as short as I could until I could bear the pain and run again. I did that for a while until the quad pain was worse while walking then running. I took bananas twice, once around 16, once around 19. I never trained with eating bananas, but I was going so slow at that point it didn't hurt me. After mile 5 I did walk some of the water stops briefly. Every water stop I splashed 2 cups of water on my head. After I started slowing down I wasn't hot any more where I needed to do it, and started drinking powerade at the stops. My fuel belt contained 6 X 8oz bottles. 4 had a thick Hammer perpetuem mix (carb/protein) and 2 had 2oz hammergel and one of those also had 5 drops of creatine which I planned on taking at mile 10, but forgot til after mile 11. One of my pitstop bottles also had this hammergel/5-drops of creatine mixture which I took after mile 20. At the 23 mile mark, I decided not to walk anymore in hopes of breaking 3:40. Mile 25 I did walk around 15 seconds on an uphill section, but I did manage to run the last 3.2 miles, actually doing the last 2/10 at a 7:34 pace.
It seemed like there were either live bands or spearkers pumping loud pre-mixed music every half mile. There was one 1/2 mile stretch where there were tons of highschool cheerleaders cheering you on :-) In the parks, and many other stretches of the course, there were plenty of spectators cheering every single runner going by. I bet I heard "Go Joe" or "Good Job Joe" or "keep it up Joe" at least 400 times (our first names were on our race number bibs).
I took 14 Hammer enduralytes that day. 2 before I left for the race, 3 around mile 5, and 3ea 3 other times during the race, but I still had bad leg cramps.
Complaint: One of the early water stops, I think in EPCOT, the volunteer was saying "Water" when handing out the cups, and I was about to splash it on me, when I realized it was blue powerade. Well, I got pissed off and started cussing her out, she probably didn't hear me, but everyone around me did, because there was no more water to get once I passed that stop until the next water stop. I was just so hot, and I guess literally hot under the collar. I feel bad now for doing it. But it would've really sucked if I had to run the rest of the race with sticky blue stuff all over me!
There were plenty of photographers. I tried to raise my arms or give a thumbs up at each one. Plenty of Disney characters to stop & have fun with... I just hi-5'd a few, but didn't wanna stop.
Since around mile 12, My feet were so soaked from sweat, it felt like a huge blister was forming in the middle/front/bottom of my right foot. I couldn't believe it since I body-glided so well. It never got painful, but it was an uncomfortable feeling for the rest of the race. I had dry socks at my pitstop after 17, but I figured since it wasn't real painful, I wouldn't change socks then.

Not walk around 10 miles thru Disney parks on Friday, and run a 1:49 half marathon the day before a marathon I'd hope to BQ in (especially since it's my first marathon!) I guess.