Walt Disney World Marathon - Run


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Orlando, Florida
United States
Disney
35F / 2C
Sunny
Total Time = 4h 38m 24s
Overall Rank = 3492/10131
Age Group = 35-39
Age Group Rank = 489/960
Pre-race routine:

From another post of mine you can see that I have been fighting some inflamation in my achiles (sp) tendon. For the last week I haven't been running at all. I've been icing religiously. And hoping that I wouldn't have any flareups at the race. The night before I tried to go to bed early but tossed and turned until about 11:30. Woke up at 2:00, ate some kashi cereal. Had a giant cup of coffee. One of my friends who was also running picked me up at 3:30. We got to Disney about 4:15. I found a full size trash bag to keep warm, lubed up with bio-freeze, and walked out to the start.
Run
  • 4h 38m 24s
  • 26.2 miles
  • 10m 38s  min/mile
Comments:

Overall I was a little dissapointed with my tendons, but very happy with the rest of my conditioning. Marathon + 1 day I'm barely able to go up and down stairs. I'm back at work (took the AM off).

This was my first Marathon and a good experience. If you haven't done it before, I would recomend it to anyone.
What would you do differently?:

I did what I was physicaly able to do. I wish I could have run without injury. That said, don't run too fast when you taper or this could happen to you.
Post race
Warm down:

walk to med tent. Ice and checkout by doc. Massage for 15 min. It was good. Had lunch in EPCOT and a frozen Margarita while waiting for some friends to finish. My son wanted to go see Nemo (The living Seas) so we went there walking around the world again. Then went home ate again and fell asleep for 13 hours.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Achilies Tendon was seriously inflamed. Kept under HR goal. I couldn't physically keep my legs as fast as my lungs and heart could have gone. I will be spending more time in the weight room over the next few months to make sure this doesn't happen again.

Event comments:

I can't complain about anything except my tendonitis. This was a great experience. I can't believe I actually mentioned doing the Goofy Challenge next year. My wife thinks I'm completely insane.




Last updated: 2005-09-23 12:00 AM
Running
04:38:24 | 26.2 miles | 10m 38s  min/mile
Age Group: 489/960
Overall: 3492/10131
Performance: Average
Mile 1 -- 8:38 hr 145 Mile 2 -- 8:34 hr 164 I was aiming at keeping 160-165 hr throughout the race. I was feeling very good at this point. Mile 3 -- 8:50 hr 164 took off my throwaway long sleeve shirt. Mile 4 -- 8:43 hr 165 feeling good Mile 5 -- 9:15 hr 161 peed in the woods on the side of the road Mile 6 -- 10:32 hr 165 stopped at med tent for a blister pad, felt a little chafing on my right foot. took this opportunity to eat a gu Mile 7 -- 9:01 hr 157 felt good getting back on the road Mile 8 -- 9:12 hr 164 left achilies (sp) starts burn Mile 9 -- 9:15 hr 160 Mile 10 - 9:36 hr 159 Ate a gel at the enterance to Magic Kingdom Mile 11 - 9:47 hr 156 hurting a little but still only stopping for water / powerade Mile 12 - 9:54 hr 159 Mile 13 - 9:38 hr 160 burning becomming worse but bearable 13.2 split official 2:02 10 min more than my last half my 4 hr goal was out the window as I had been running between over 9:00 miles for a while. At that point survival and finishing were my goals. Mile 14 - 10:36 hr 145 med tent for bio freeze and a bandage for my chaffing arm Mile 15 - 10:04 hr 149 pain getting bad but I cant let myself walk yet Mile 16 - 11:55 hr 145 limping a little tried to concentrate on form to get through pain Mile 17 - 12:09 hr 143 Mile 18 - 13:37 hr 135 ran / walked Mile 19 - 12:11 hr 149 tried to run the whole mile Mile 20 - 12:00 hr 140 the only hill (realy an overpass) Mile 21 - 11:59 hr 140 I'm only realy shuffling at this point not running Mile 22 - 12:09 hr 142 Mile 23 - 13:02 hr 142 Stopped for bio-freeze right after the mile marker. The people at the aid station were massaging it in, I DIDN'T WANT TO LEAVE Mile 24 - 11:33 hr 138 through the end of MGM feeling horrible but I saw the ball at EPCOT off in the distance Mile 25 - 12:50 hr 152 walked some but ran most of the mile fans were very encouraging Mile 26 - 11:04 hr 154 ran hard through the pain when I saw the marker for 26 I knew that I had made it 26.2 -- 4:38:24 I was able to kick in the last 200M.
Course: Course was great. Some of the roads were slightly banked. I didn't notice that in any other races that I ran there before. Start to mile 2.5 very well organized I was in pen "E" This probably made my start easier. They split the start into 2 sides A-D and E-H. I was in the front pen of the E-H side. Mile 2.5 - 3.5 through EPCOT this was wierd running through an empty park. You get to see the back side of some of the park. Mile 3.5 to 10 roads between the parks and parking lots Mile 10 - 11 Magic Kingdom lots of people to get you going Mile 11 - 15 road between parks we ran past some of the golf courses, there was still frost on the ground. Mile 15 -16 back stage of animal kingdom -- stink -- Mile 16-18 weaving in and out of the park was nice lots of people were out by the front gate Mile 18-21 Osceola Pkway lined with people someone was giving beer after the water station had to have some of that Mile 21-22 world drive and entrance to MGM. A couple of ramps. Who would think 35 ft vertical would kill you? Mile 22.5 -24 through MGM good crowd everyone yelling your name and encouragement Mile 24-25 by dolphin & swan past the boardwalk people from the hotels were lining the course by now Mile 26 back through EPCOT -- At this point I was very happy to be almost done. I have done this portion of the run as a pub crawl. Start in Mexico Drink around to Canada. I think I felt about the same at the end of this mile. Mile 26 to finish
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %-2
Overall: Good
Mental exertion [1-5] 4
Physical exertion [1-5] 3
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: Good
Race evaluation [1-5] 5