26.2--Recollections from the Road

It's now been a day since I completed my first marathon (WDW Marathon in Orlando, FL). I'm sore, my legs are shot, I'm completely wiped out from a messed up sleep schedule, and yet I'm thrilled beyond belief. I finished in 4:11:15--my goal (at least publicly) was 4:30, with a personal "I'll be totally psyched if I can hit it" goal of 4:15--all told, I'm amazed at how things went. I owe a HUGE shout out to my friend and training partner Michele--we ended up running the whole race together and, even though I'm sure she could've finished at least a few minutes ahead of me, she stuck with me through my rough patches and helped me through them. I should also add that she ran the 1/2 marathon the day before as well--so she's one of the inaugural Goofy Challenge medal winners (along with Sue, too). The highlights of the whole weekend will follow in a separate post, but here's my recap of the race.

Sunday 4:00 am EST: Sue, Michele, Jeremy and I met up in the lobby area of the Coronado Springs Resort. It was really freaking early, and, no surprise to me, I slept like crap Sautrday night because my brain just wouldn't shut off. We drove to Epcot in lieu of taking the shuttle so we could stay warm in the car until the absolute last possible second. Lots of bodily function talk in the car--good for some laughs and settling some nerves.

5:20 EST: We made our way out to the gathering area decked out in our finest disposable clothing. It was cold--35-ish--but warmer than Saturday morning was. Jeremy opted for shorts while the rest of us went for a tri short/tight combo due to the cool weather. Tyvek painters coveralls and scented trash bags (or, as Jeremy called them, smelly) completed our lovely ensembles and made us look like characters from a bad science fiction movie, but we were warm. Port-a-potty lines were long...guess that's what happens when 11,000 people run a marathon.

5:50 EST: Along with our fellow runners, we made our way to the start. After quick hugs and high fives, Jeremy and Sue peeled off to join the blue corrals (assigned by the good folks at Disney), while Michele and I took off for the red corrals. Michele was supposed to be in the E corral but she ended up joining me back in the F corral so we could run together and attempt to execute our joint race plan. We shed our lovely Tyvek suits and a couple of old long-sleeve t-shirts and got ready to run.

5:58 am EST: Fireworks kicked off the run and we started, crossing the timing mat about 3 1/2 minutes after the fireworks. The race began. The first 3.5 miles were in and around Epcot, then we joined up with the blue corral folks at about mile 3.75. Jeremy passed us shortly thereafter, said hi (we were both visible in our bright yellow Kraft jackets) and kept on flying. I have a picture of his back (I carried a disposable camera with me) to capture the moment.

Michele and I originally had planned to start off slower at ~10 minute miles for about the first 4-5 miles, then evaluate where we were and hopefully adjust our pace down by 5-10 second increments until we hit a comfortable race pace. We had also agreed to run together for maybe the first 10 miles, then split up if one of us felt better than the other or if things weren't going well for us running together. Mile 1 was decent at 10:13, but given the number of people we were manuvering around, we probably should've back off a bit for mile 2, which came in at 9:00. Miles 3-4 were ~9:25-9:30, but 5 and 6 were both sub-9...we kept chastising ourselves for not pacing better according to plan, but somehow managed to not improve at all. We at least made it back over 9-minute miles after mile 6, but our race plan had pretty much flown out the window by that point. The course was pretty cool--by that point, we had run through Epcot and were heading toward Magic Kingdom. At about mile 7, the sun started to come up and we could see beyond the people in front of us. Michele (who ran Disney last year as well) pointed out Cindarella's castle in the distance--the spires were visible over the trees and were beautiful in the dawn light (and that's from a non-Disney person). It was really pretty cool to watch the sun rise over the Disney complex...

At about mile 9, we were at the transportation and ticket center (aka the monorail hub) and we saw my dad and sister in their Iowa State attire (easy to spot)--I have a picture of Kristie taking a photo of me, and a stunning one taken by her of me handing her my gloves and headband (Michele dropped some stuff off as well). Just seemed easier than carrying them the whole way when we didn't need them any longer. It was really cool to see familiar faces in the crowd--I was still feeling awesome at that point, pacing notwithstanding, so I had a big smile for them, too.

Just before we entered Main Street USA, I had a slight equipment malfunction when I got a little excited over hearing one of the Cubs color commentators doing a recorded message for the runners. I was thinking I might ditch my jacket with my sister at mile 13, so I started rearraning gel packets that I had in my jacket pockets. I started jumping up and down with excitement over the Cubs, which casued some gel packs that I had tucked between my tights and tri shorts to fall down my leg and get trapped between my tights and calf. I had to stop to take care of things--Michele helped me rescue the gels and we were on our merry little way. After that debaucle, I went with the safer (though more chafe-inducing) option of sticking the gels inside my tri shorts--worked fine for the remainder of the run, although I ended up keeping my jacket the whole way anyway.

Running onto Main Street USA was one of the coolest things I've experienced (after we were through it I told Michele it was in the top 5 best life experiences I've had)--I'm totally NOT a Disney nut, but it was SO COOL to see all of the people, the Christmas tree, and the whole of Disneyworld in front of us. I had a huge smile on my face the whole way. Michele snapped a quick pic of me with Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl along the way, and I got one of her right before we went under Cindarella's castle. The race photographers were right after the castle--we both smiled big, so hopefully we'll get some good pics from that as well. The Magic Kingdom part of the race was really cool--lots of Disney characters and staff members to cheer us on and, as cheesy as it was, lots of fun Disney music playing over the loud speakers.

We ran out of Magic Kingdom and over a random grated drawbridge--that was a little awkward, but thankfully short--and headed toward Animal Kingdom. We saw a lot of the Disney grounds along the way, including the edge of a golf course where Michele almost got busted by the groundskeepers when she veered off the course to answer nature's call along the way. We saw my dad and sister again at mile 13, gave them a big thumbs up, and kept going. At the half-way point, I felt great--we were at a ~2:05 half pace, which was great and better than I expected. We were also running pretty well together and neither of us seemed anxious to break away, so we kept at it.

At about mile 15, we passed the water treatment facility, which was really not that pleasant. It smelled much like most water treatment places do, which made the gel I was trying to eat taste even worse than it should have. But, such is life...and we were still making good time. We hit Animal Kingdom at around mile 16 or so (can't remember exactly when)--at the entrance, there was a staff member who had a beautiful owl perched on her arm, which was cool. That was the only animal we saw, but, given my HR was already at race pace, it's probably OK that the lions and tigers stayed far away. We ran towards the new Everest exhibit, at which point Michele tried to get me to believe we had to run up the mountain...humor that really wasn't all that funny at mile 16-17.

At about mile 18, we passed Nate and Amy, fellow Kraft teammates who ran the half marathon on Saturday. It was awesome to see familiar faces at an unexpected part along the course--they gave me (and I think Michele, too) a big boost of energy, which was much needed at that point. After Animal Kingdom, we started in on what I found to be the toughest part of the course, which was the long stretch along Osceloa Parkway and into MGM/Grand from mile 18-22. Mentally, this was tough as it was basically a straight shot of highway without the distraction of the parks, spectators, or bands that we had to help us along the way up to that point. Plus, when I hit the 20-mile mark, I started thinking about how I hadn't ever run that far yet, which didn't help. Michele asked me what my real goal was at about mile 19 (we all seem to have goals that we share with others and those that we really want to hit but are afraid to share in case we don't hit them)--I was reluctant to tell her, but finally shared that I really wanted to break 4:15 (my public goal was 4:30). We were well on pace to hit the 4:15 and, at least from what she told me, her goal was just to finish strong in light of her solid half marathon run the day before, so we back off a bit to recover. From mile 20 on, our mile splits slowed a bit--largely due to me and the fact that I really just couldn't keep up the 9:15-9:30 pace we had been hitting. We slowed to 9:30-10:15 for the rest of the run (mile 25 was a whopping 10:52 thanks to a long walk through an aid station), but my HR was still pretty high. At some point along the way, Michele started giving me pep talks and little pieces of advice--how to stretch my quads while running, to relax on the downhills to get my HR back in manageable range, relative distances vs. the trails we trained on, etc. She told me later Sunday afternoon that she could tell I was starting to hurt from my breathing--as I said really early in this post, I owe her a big shout out for keeping me going.

At the mile 21 aid station, there was a DJ playing country music--happened to be Toby Keith's "How Do You Like Me Know" song as we were turning onto the ramp to head to MGM/Grand. That got me thinking about how different my life if now than it was (and it's not even a remotely sappy song), which made me think about my WW group, which got me a little choked up, which made my breathing and HR even worse. So, I resorted to reading the cheesy yet entertaining signs along the road sponsored by Sharpie--things like "What's your favorite Happy Days episode?" (Michele and I agreed that we didn't care as long as the Fonz was there) or "Why do you drive on the parkway and park on the drive way?". At that point, it was distraction, and that was good. The mile markers also had motivational quotes on them--I think it was either mile 20 or 21 that had one of my all-time favorite quotes--"Do or do not. There is no try." from Yoda in "Star Wars".

MGM/Grand was next--I wish I was less focused on putting one foot in front of the other at that point, but I really don't remember too much beyond the costume area (which was cool) and the main city street that we ran down. There was another photo area by the big Mickey Fantasia hat--I plastered a smile on, but it'll probably look more like I'm constipated in the picture. We ran under Buena Vista Drive and into the Boardwalk area from there--otherwise known as the "wall" that I hit.

Just before the aid station at mile 24, I started to unravel a little--I got pretty lightheaded and my legs were seriously fatigued. Again, Michele kept talking me through things--I found out later she was dealing with some abdominal cramping, too, but yet she kept me going--but I was not having much fun. I took both Powerade and water at the aid station and started feeling a little better--still don't remember much about the Boardwalk other than we ran on a wooden sidewalk for most of that area--actually quite a welcome change from the concrete sidewalks in MGM/Grand. But, I kept putting one foot in front of the other and kept running--not as fast as we were at the beginning, but fast enough to break the 4:15 mark.

We crossed under another road and ended up in Epcot again--when I recognized where we were I smiled for the first time in probably 8-9 miles, dug my camera out of my jacket pocket, and started snapping photos as we ran. I kept holding Michele back--she tends to take off when she gets excited--and at one point told her to go on and that I'd meet her at the finish line, but she just looked back at me and said that we were going to hit the finish chute together, end of story. Again, it was awesome having her support along the way--I'm pretty sure I would've resorted to walking if she hadn't kept me going. We wove through Epcot and out into the parking lot area--the finish line loomed ahead, and I knew I just had to keep going. We saw Nate and Amy again--Michele wanted to pose for a quick pic, but I was so wiped I knew I just had to keep plowing ahead, so I trudged on to the finish. We crossed about darn near the same time--I did manage to smile for the camera and raise my arms in triumph before I started to cry. My dad and sister were right at the finish, and I saw them as soon as I had my chip removed and got my medal, which made me cry again.

Michele and I posed for our post-race pics and made our way through the refreshment and gear check areas. The song that was playing when I came out of the gear check tent was "Shake It Up"--fairly obscure and a song that I had only heard previously while on a trip to the Bahamas with some very good friends (Vardo and company). I started crying yet again because the song reminded me of my friends...I think Michele thought I was nuts, but who cares. We met up shortly thereafter with Jeremy, who had an AWESOME run of 3:43, even with a badly jammed pinky toe, and my dad and sister, and Sue came cruising in a short time after with a sub-5 hour race, which blew her goal out of the water, too. All in all, a great day and great weekend for the Kraft team.

As a whole, the race was great--well-run, awesome volunteers , and fun scenery. I wasn't thrilled with the on/off ramps that were part of the course, and the stretch from mile 18-22 was pretty brutal mentally, but I think I'll definitely be doing Disney again at some point in the future. I learned a lot--most importantly that I can do the distance, but also that I have a long way to go mentally to prepare for IM WI. I'll get there, but I'm glad I did this first to help me ID where my weak points are from a mental toughness standpoint.

I'd be an idito to not give credit where credit is due....so BIG HUGE thanks to my dad and sister for making the trek to Orlando to cheer me on; to Sue, Jeremy, and Erin for convincing me that I could do a marathon in the first place; to Vardo and Sparkle for their continued help, advice, and encouragement; to Michele for being an awesome and patient training partner; and to Sue and Michele for the post-run recovery dinners, movies, and friendship. It's been quite a road, and I am totally psyched to start the IM training next week!!!

I'll post more on the rest of the weekend and my musings along the way later, but, frankly, I'm sore, tired, and ready to call it a day...