Walt Disney World Marathon
-
No new posts
Walt Disney World Marathon - RunMarathon
View Member's Race Log View other race reports
Run
Comments: Alright... here goes... The whole fireworks and pyrotechnics at the start was pretty cool. Maybe I'm easily amused by all the "magic" surrounding Disney (before that day, I had never been to Disney World before - ha!) Mile breakdown: 1-9:29 2-10:14 3-9:29 4-9:29 5-9:20 6-9:12 7-9:34 8-9:25 9-9:29 10-9:29 11-9:40 12-9:34 13-9:32 14-9:29 15-9:30 16-9:57 17-10:35 18-10:02 19-10:35 20-13:03 21-11:03 22-12:46 23-13:45 24-12:43 25-15:17 26-13:41 0.2-2:09 I think it's incredibly clear what happened. So suffice it to say that the first 16 miles were spent yo-yo'ing with my girls from college. We were the obnoxious ones singing our way along. I loved the parks, I hated the long stretches of boring pavement (especially when they wound around to the mechanical plant regions). The one long stretch that I enjoyed was the portion that had all the flashback songs from the 90's. We had great fun rockin out to those. Going through Animal Kingdom is where I think I got my last burst of energy, and mistakenly thought that I would have a breeze making it 10 more miles. Dancing and singing our way through, all of a sudden, my legs didn't quite feel as strong. Then before I knew it, I was DEAD. My legs simply said "no." I wasn't even breathing hard! I was talking the whole way no problem. I simply needed new legs. My misery continued as I struggled through intervals of walking that progressively got more painful than running. This baffled me, but my solution was to do this hybrid run/walk shuffle thing. I quickly realized at mile 22 that being comfortable was not an option from here on out. I started to get emotional - for no reason other than I think it's my way of reacting to falling apart. I fought back actual tears, but it wasn't easy. Honestly, I'm not sure why I wanted to cry? Walking is so damn depressing. Especially when it's extended lengths of it. I did my best to run for the spectators so as not to feel like a loser, but it got harder and harder to get the desire to run. The miles seemed to drag on FOREVER. By far the worst part of the entire race for me was going through MGM. I can't tell you how badly I wanted to see the finish line around EVERY corner. I wanted to punch everyone who yelled, "Only x miles left! Almost there!" No I'm not f'ing almost there - I have 3,2,1,less than 1 miles left to struggle through. Plus everyone who tried to yell the distance remaining was clearly wrong. I think I was just grumpy at this point. Thomas and his parents didn't make it out to see me on the course other than right before the finish line. It was too difficult for them to navigate through the traffic, and although I was bummed at first, I'm so glad in retrospect. I think had I seen them anywhere between 21 and the end, I might have succumb to temptation and quit. It really was THAT miserable during those last 5ish miles. I was cursing myself for signing up for such a stupid race. At the end, I was overcome with pride and disbelief that I had made it. Crossing the finish line, suddenly the struggle and all the miles seemed so long ago. I crossed the finish, got my medal, and found my friends. I vowed to only do another marathon when hell freezes over. Maybe it'll be sooner than that, but I would sooner gouge my eyes out with spoons than do an Ironman. I have an amazing amount of respect for anyone who does an Ironman now. I simply can't fathom doing one. What would you do differently?: Ha! Train more? I seriously think I had a GREAT pace set that would have resulted in an enjoyable and comfortable marathon had I put more miles on my legs prior to race day. Other than that, I had great fun out there for as long as I could, so maybe the singing and dancing hurt my energy supplies, but it was worth it. Post race
Warm down: Uh, I sat down. Ate a banana. Walked another 2 miles to the car (probably not that far, but it sure seemed like it). What limited your ability to perform faster: Inadequate training volume. I'm sure I could have probably used a few more long runs - but honestly, I'm not sure if I would have needed anything over 18. Last updated: 2007-09-30 12:00 AM
|
|
{postbutton}
2008-01-17 9:26 PM |
|
2008-01-17 9:44 PM in reply to: #1163079 |
2008-01-18 11:14 AM in reply to: #1163079 |
2008-01-18 11:28 AM in reply to: #1163079 |
2008-01-18 11:29 AM in reply to: #1163079 |
2008-01-18 12:33 PM in reply to: #1163079 |
|
2008-01-18 4:55 PM in reply to: #1164226 |
2008-01-18 5:08 PM in reply to: #1163079 |
General Discussion-> Race Reports! |
{postbutton}
United States
Disney
64F / 18C
Overcast
Overall Rank = 1191/6204
Age Group = 25-29
Age Group Rank = 214/1018
As a preface, I entered this race because a bunch of my college friends from Georgia Tech convinced me that it would be a great idea. Once I signed up and paid, I realized that, wait a minute... all of them either ran XC in college or ran in high school. Doh! Since I had to sign up back in July/August, I started plotting my training plan so that I wouldn't be the last one across the finish line (or at least not by much). Then Longhorn happened, and it was such a fun culmination of tri season that I somehow forgot (or chose to ignore) that I had a formidable distance event looming in the future. After hemming and hawing about whether or not to go through with it, I adopted a "what the hell" attitude and decided to simply have fun, no matter how long it took me. My boyfriend's parents live in Orlando, so the intent was to make a mini-vacation of it anyway. Since the race info said that all athletes needed to be at Epcot by 4:30, I had arranged to stay with my friends in their rental condo the night before to prevent my boyfriend or his family from having to get up at 3:30 to take me to a race that I wasn't all that enthused to be at anyway.
Fast forward to the night before the race. Ends up that there was a very large couch in the condo, so I didn't have to use the air mattress I had brought from TX. We all went to bed very early (to the tune of 8:30pm EST), and it wasn't until my head hit the pillow that I got nervous. Tomorrow, I was going to attempt to run 26.2 miles... in a row.
I took the same approach to this marathon that I took for the half Iron triathlon I did in October. I figure it's freaking 26.2 miles, surely somewhere within the first 6 miles, I'll get warmed up. I'm not going for a WR or even BQ, so I figured the minimum energy I could expend before the gun went off, the better. (Not to mention that I was sorely undertrained for this thing - to the tune of my longest run only being 15 miles back in November).