It's Gobbles Time!: WDW Marathon Trip Part 2: Race Day

Sunday, January 11, 2015, 3am. The alarm on my phone goes off and though I've been up for awhile laying there wondering why I'm sleeping. Time to start the day I've been preparing for and worrying about for over a year. Marathon Day.

In my last post, I discussed the series of downfalls leading up to the race, and still, six months later as I write this, I want to kick myself for spending so much time training for it all to fall apart in just 4 hours and 45 minutes. Like I mentioned long ago before we left, I had a goal of 4 hours, and it was not unrealistic. My marathon playlist even had some extra songs in there to get to 4:20, in case I needed it. So, hubs and I woke up that morning eager to get moving and got dressed and headed to the monorail.

The race was scheduled to start at 5:30 am, runners to be in corrals by 5. We arrived at the entrance to Epcot a little after 4am and after a porta-potty stop, began the almost mile-long walk to the start lines. We stopped again at the potties near the corrals and made our way to our starting spot. My stomach turned to knots as Mickey got on stage with the race announcers and sent off the elite seeded runners with fireworks and fanfare. Before we knew it, our corral was off.

The first 5 miles was a straight shot up World Drive towards the Magic Kingdom. Every mile was lined with characters, and subsequently lines of people waiting for a photo with the character. Not me though, I had my music on and eyes straight ahead, determined to get where I needed to be and already thinking about our buffet lunch scheduled for later that day. The course was very crowded and we spent a lot of time weaving in and out of people in order to keep up with our pace. Hubs, wearing the GPS, reminded me every so often to speed up or slow down. Somewhere around mile 4, the giant Magic Kingdom arch came into view, and I stopped for a quick blurry pic. Hubs reminded me that we were behind our pace so we should keep on going. The five mile marker was just outside our hotel on the path to the park. I looked up towards our room window and imagined how happy and snug the kids and my parents were while we pounded the pavement. I worried that we would not make it back to change rooms for our checkout but pushed the thoughts aside- nothing I could do about it but keep on running. Our 5 mile split was just over 45 minutes, a 9 minute mile, about 15 seconds shy of the pace we wanted to be going this early in the race.

As When will my Life Begin from the Tangled Soundtrack blared in my ears, we entered Magic Kingdom from a side entrance behind Tony's Town Square, and proceeded up Main Street USA with crowds of cheerers lining the course and Cinderella's Castle shimmering straight ahead. I took a second to breathe it all in before we turned off into Tomorrowland, but did not want to stop to take a picture (at this point the field was packed with runners, so stopping probably would have been hazardous). We looped through Tomorrowland and Fantasyland (listening to It's a Small World), waving to the characters and saw Elsa and Anna perched atop the castle as we ran through. Down the ramp and out through Adventureland to a backlot area of the park, Magic Kindgdom was done in less than a mile. Again they had some decent and rare characters lining the paths to make up for the flash that was "Running through Disney World" and the sun started coming up.

The course narrowed again for mile 7, and we had to resume weaving in and out of people. Looking back, I would definitely not have done this, as I think it depleted my energy early on. If I'd just been a little more patient and stuck with the slower pace to start, I probably wouldn't have bonked so hard at the end. Because of all this jostling for position, hubs' GPS read almost 27 miles by the end of the race.

We continued on, past the Grand Floridian (our engagement spot!!) and the Polynesian, while Hawaiian Rollercoaster Ride from Lilo and Stitch came through my headphones. We were still going strong when we entered the Wide World of Sports to complete mile 9. Hubs was pulling away a little bit and during one crowded turn I saw him pretty far ahead of me. I texted him to just keep going, he looked back and I waved him on. After he vanished I was somewhat relieved and settled into my own pace. That's when I got my first Happy Birthday from a passerby. I had completely forgotten about the shirt I made that said on the back Celebrating my 35th Birthday with 26.2. I probably got birthday wishes from one out of every five people that passed me the rest of the race, way too many to keep track of. I thanked them each time, and chuckled to myself Look at all these people who are faster than me! I hit the 10 mile split at 1:32, almost a 9.5 minute mile for the split. At this point I realized that I was not hitting 4 hours, but I was still hoping to be somewhere in the 4:10 range.

I zoned out somewhere around mile 11 until I got a text from hubs Where are you? Want to run with U. He told me he was stopped by Expedition Everest just hanging out waiting. When I got to him I asked if he was ok, genuinely worried. As he fell into pace with me he explained, well this is really boring, like REALLY boring, so since you wanted to do this race I'd run with you. The thought was so sweet of him, and I appreciated it a lot as we exited Animal Kingdom crossed the halfway point together, at 2 hours, 4 minutes. That 3 mile split had taken me over 30 minutes, and it was the beginning of a long hard second half.

There is a 3 mile stretch on the Osceola Parkway in Orlando where there is nothing of interest. It's a highway peppered with those cute Disney wayfinder signs that the buses drive from resorts to parks and back. There were of course characters and water stations out along here, but at this point I was still trying to finish this race somewhere in the realm of my goal. I would settle into a doable pace and hubs would be trotting beside me (seriously I don't think he even broke a sweat), uh sweets? you're running a 12 minute mile, you really might want to pick it up. So I would, until I just couldn't anymore, and I would drop again. This happened a few times over this long boring stretch of hellish highway that by the time we got to the Wide World of Sports at mile 17, I was pooped. As we were entering the complex, runners were exiting having just completed mile 20. I lost my soul somewhere inside there and only just recently got it back when I PR'd at Broad Street two weeks ago, kicking my 27 year old, no kids, svelte body'd ass to the curb by a whole 90 seconds. But I digress.

Inside the Wide World of Sports, you're comforted by a quarter mile lap around the nice soft track, a vacation for your feet, before you begin weaving in and out of paths and sidewalks around fields and buildings. After you feel like it's about time to leave (the mileage spent inside this complex is more than all the theme parks combined), you get to take a lap around the warning track of Champion Stadium. For some, it's glorious, there's an announcer calling out the names of people running and you can see yourself on the jumbotron as you pass a certain point. I just remember that stadium being the point where I turned from running, racing, exercising, having fun, to pure survival mode with more than 6 miles to go. My running, walking, stopping, walking, running pattern yielded us a 20 mile split of 3:24, so the 2nd 10 miles had taken me 20 minutes longer than the 1st 10. My pace for miles 14-20 was a 12 minute mile.

Upon exiting the sports complex, I was mentally ~~in the home stretch~~ done. Over it. I knew I wasn't going to be the best at exercising, or even close to pretending. But there was still 6 miles to go in this godforsaken race, and 2 more miles of boring highway with a steep hill at the end until the next landmark. As we trudged (ok I trudged, hubs jogged backwards, still encouraging me) I got more birthday wishes and even had some guy sing me the whole song down on one knee and all (I must have been walking REALLY slowly for that to happen, jeez). Anyway, since I realized I wasn't going to hit my goal or anywhere close, we decided to have some fun, stopping for pictures with some characters (though the green army man yelled at me for walking). Then hubs decided he had to pee, so he stopped at a porta potty and I kept moving, knowing he'd catch up. A little while up the road they had a medical tent where I decided to spread some ice gel on my shins (my whole body was hurting by now, but my lower shins were the absolute worst). As I was doing this, I saw hubs jog right on by, looking for me but not seeing me. That's when I lost it, totally emotional breakdown.

The tears started streaming as I texted Wait! Stop! Please! no! don't leave me! WAIT! (because you know, all caps over a text is sure to get someones attention more than lowercase...). This was my memory of entering Hollywood Studios, just pure urgency to find hubs. I think that half mile I spent running to catch up to him was the fastest of the second half of the race. He finally texted back that he was waiting at the next drink station, having realized that he must have passed me because no way would I have gotten that far. When I caught up to him he patted my back, apologized, and reassured me, knowing that I had fallen off the deep end. We slowly jogged up the artificial movie set streets and the now-dismantled giant sorcerer's hat came into view. The rain started slowly falling as we began mile number 24. We exited Hollywood Studios and made a hard left to that all too familiar walkway to the boardwalk. One I walked a dozen times during our 2010 Gobbles' birthday trip. At this point I was just putting one leg in front of the other hoping they would carry me somewhere. Each step became more arduous as it felt like my shoes were filling with lead.

Less than two miles to go! came the shouts from the crowds as I thought to myself Dear God! Two miles! Holy crap I'm not going to make it. I had been doing a little run / walk thing for awhile but decided to totally walk when the rain came down harder and the wooden boardwalk in front of the beach club became slick. Hubs tried encouraging me but I knew if I slipped I'd never get back up. After what seemed like ages the back entrance to Epcot came into view. I embraced the downhill in front of me and ran down, only to tire myself for the need to walk through the International Gateway and over the bridge into Canada. The rain soon let up and we knew we were within a mile of the finish. I still could not bring my pace back to a full run, as I was already mentally defeated. I had short spurts of running followed by walking, forgoing any character stops in the park just wanting to be done! As we left the countries, came into future world, and rounded the ball, we saw some familiar faces.

Some of Gobbles' former teachers were there cheering on another former teacher and friend of ours. They held up the sign they made for hubs' and I and we jogged over to greet them. They told me I could just go, go ahead and finish. I replied that I'd already blown my time so bad that another minute wouldn't hurt, so we took some pics. One of them said to me, "I've been tracking you, your half time was awesome!" My reply was but sadly it didn't last long... We said our goodbyes and got back to it, less than a quarter mile to the finish line.

I mentioned earlier that I had my playlist timed to the minute of where we'd be on the course, which park, etc. My song for the finish line was to be Let it Go, and I would cross with tears streaming down my face with a triumphant yet svelte victory leap with my arms in the air. I'd envisioned the moment multiple times during every long run in my training. And as if I needed something like this to remind myself "things do not always go as planned", that is far from what happened. I forced myself to "run" the last hundred yards of the race, gave Donald a desperate high five as I passed, and uneventfully crossed the finish line of my first marathon at 4 hours 45 minutes and 18 seconds. 5054 out of 20092 total, 1776/10360 females and 317/1831 for my age group. Not bad on paper, but still as I look back six months later I have a bitter taste in my mouth that I could have done better. Maybe it was that I broke the first rule of marathoning (don't set a time goal for your first one) maybe it was all of those mistakes I made in preparation, but I just want to kick myself. Afterthought gave me the perspective that the only thing I can do is run another to redeem myself. I'm just hesitant to put in the effort training right now, but I'm sure I'll do it someday.

Meanwhile, after we somehow peeled ourselves off the ground and walked at least a mile to the monorail to return to the hotel, we had the rest of our vacation to enjoy...but that will have to wait for another post!

These pictures are a great evolution of the race...