1/2 marathon recap

Alright. Herself is sleeping, so I have some time to fill you in on my weekend. My good friend Adri is a master at adding loads of details to her emails, so I'm going to attempt to follow her style and give you an in-depth look at Saturday morning.

First off, we had to be on a bus at 3:45am to guarantee that we'd be at the starting line by 5am. Mind you, our wave started at 6am, but it's better early than late, I guess. We got up @ 3 (after getting in bed @ 11pm...a bit later than we had planned!) I expected to toss and turn all night, but I actually slept pretty well, all things considered. I hopped right up when the alarm went off (my cousin set her iPhone to "quack"...apropos since our race's mascot was Donald Duck.) We had set everything out the night before; our running clothes and warm layers to wear while waiting around outside, our bags to check in with drinks, snacks, phones, wallets, etc..., bibs pinned on, plastic dry cleaning bags to wear to keep us warm after we ditched our layers. You know, the usual stuff. After a quick 45 minutes, we walked to the bus stop where the bus was waiting. They started running @ 3am, and before we knew it, we were in the EPCOT parking lot with a swarm of other runner. By swarm, I mean somewhere around 40,000!!! There were about 18,000 running just the 1/2 marathon, and another 25,000 running what Disney calls "The Goofy." They do the 1/2 on Saturday, and then the full marathon on Sunday. I can't even comprehend wanting to do this, but I digress.

Once we got there, we just followed the masses towards a very bright light. No, we weren't walking into the great beyond...just into the pre-race area. There were tents for gear checks, merchandise (Disney being Disney!), and medical attention. And there were porta-potties. Like 200 of them. All in all, between the race area and along the course, I think there had to be 1,000. I'm sure there weren't any available for rent in the whole state of Florida this weekend! If you run this race in the future, don't worry about standing in the mongo-huge line in the first parking lot to use the bathroom...there are PLENTY more along the way before you get to the start! We did make a friend while standing in the aforementioned mongo-huge line. A nice guy from Detroit who was down to run the Goofy. He was alone, and his wife and small daughter were not going to watch the race, so I think he was kind of lonely. He seemed nice enough, but the poor thing was chattering and had blue lips as he was talking to us. I was pretty warm, so I gave him my dry cleaning bag to wear. At first, he was trying to be chivalrous, but then common sense kicked in and he was quite grateful. It was, after all about 45 degrees at 4:30 am!

Then Amy (my cousin) and I checked our gear and started the 15 minute or so walk to the starting area. This was very cool for me as a Disney fan, as it was my first experience being "backstage." We saw the huge white trellis that is up in EPCOT (near the lagoon) at Christmas. We also saw trams from the Studios' Backlot Tour parked alongside the service road that we were on. And all of the booths from the Food and Wine festival are also stored here. I was definitely more excited about this than Amy was!

At this point, there's a surge of nervous energy building up in the crowd. There was a stage set up right at the starting line and live entertainment was being (LOUDLY!) blared from speakers to keep us all pumped. I had known that there would be a long time between getting up and starting the race, and I was pretty worried that my adrenaline would crash and I'd be "down" at race time, but the music and energy was enough to keep me excited and ready. The first wave of athletes were the wheelchair racers, and they left at 5:40. Before the big send off, we sang the National Anthem, and the fab 5 (Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto for you non-Disney types) came onstage to wish us all good luck. Then, with a countdown from 10 and a cluster of fireworks, they were off. Next up were the runners, setting out in 3 waves. We were in wave 2, and tried to get close to the front so as to avoid the bob-and-weave that happens in crowded races. More fireworks popped, and then we were off. Just like that. A year of planning and training, and visualizing, and there we were. Amy and I had a good laugh after running for about 2 minutes...dozens, and I mean DOZENS of men were running off the road into the trees to relieve themselves. WHAT?!?! We were just at the starting area for an hour...couldn't they have gone then!?!?! Gotta love nerves!

Over the last month or so, my right knee has been giving me grief when I run 5 miles or further. In fact, I hardly ran at all during the last 2 weeks to give it a break in the hopes that it would return the favor on race day. No such luck. In fact, it started to bark at me at mile 2, which sent me into a mild panic. I tried to lengthen my stride to stretch it out, which helped, but ultimately, I knew it'd be a battle of will...me VS. my knee.

There were high school bands, people with subwofers wearing costumes, DJ's playing music, funny signs along the road, all kinds of things to keep us entertained as we ran. We headed towards the Magic Kingdom for the first 5 miles or so, which was incentive enough for most people. As we ran through the TTC (that's Transportation and Ticket Center, right Amy?) there had to be 1,000 people cheering us on. And because our names were printed on our race bibs, you'd hear "Way to go Alison!" and "Keep it up, Amy," which was AWESOME!! There was a bit of a hill as we ran under the waterway near the Contemporary, but at that point, the Magic Kingdom was in sight, so we were feeling no pain. As we turned into the service entrance into Tomorrowland, I was literally smiling ear to ear. I just don't have the words to adequately describe the feeling of running through the Magic Kingdom. As I've told anyone who would listen this weekend, I don't think my feet ever hit the pavement on that mile. And to see my mom as well as Amy's husband and daughters there cheering for us, well it's certainly a moment I'll never forget. Right up there with getting married and Emerson's birth. Period. I'm so glad they were willing to get up at the crack of dawn to be there for us!

After we ran up Main Street, we headed right into Tomorrowland, past Stitch's Great Escape and Buzz Lightyear's Spaceranger Spin. There was LOUD techno music blaring from the speakers, which is a far cry from the usual Magic Kingdom music. We ran past the Speedway and turned left into Fantasyland. Dumbo and the Carousel were lit up and on and everything looked so vibrant. I braced for the moment that was ahead...running through the Castle. I wanted to slow down time to make it last. I really tried to take it all in...Cinderella's stepmother and stepsisters waving to us and posing with runners who wanted a picture, the glistening mosaic tiles on the Castle walls, looking down Main Street at the thousands of runners making that magical trip. There were a few photographers on the other side of the castle, so there was a bit of a logjam, but that didn't bother me at all. My mom and cousin Maddie ran over to see us coming out of the castle and even got a few pics. Very cool! Then we were heading towards Liberty Square and Frontierland to make our way out of the Magic Kingdom. We took the parade service road to the left of Splash Mountain and before we knew it, we were out. Boo! But up ahead of us was a giant pirate ship captained by none other that Captain Jack Sparrow. To this day, I SWEAR that was Johnny Depp. Man, did he ever look like it! Loads of people were in line to get their pictures taken, but we just kept running. By this point, my knee was letting me know that it was NOT amused, but I just kept shouting back (literally, shouting at my knee...just ask Amy!) that we were indeed going to keep running, for another 7 miles in fact!

Mentally, I knew that this would be the hardest part of the race. The "high" of the MK was done, and the scenery was not tremendously exciting. The Grand Floridian would come up on the left in a few miles, but now it was me against my body. I did stop and stretch at one point, which helped keep me moving. I know that Amy & I were talking, but I couldn't tell you what about. Anything to keep our minds off the monotony of not being halfway done yet. Writing this now, a few days after the race, I know this was a hard part for me, but I really don't remember what I was thinking. I think my brain was pretty clear and totally focused on just getting to the finish without walking. Miraculously, before I knew it, we were at mile 8, then 9, and then the glory of double digits! With only a 5K to go, I started to relax. I also started to really feel the pain in my knee. Those 800 mg of ibuprofen that I had taken at 3:30 were NOT helping at all. Plus, to compensate for my knee, I was doing something wonky with my stride, so my hip and other knee were feeling it too. There was a long stretch around 10 miles where everyone was in the same, painful boat, and there wasn't much talking on the course. Out of nowhere, a guy near us shouted "HEY! Why is everyone passing me!??!!?" We all had quite a chuckle, and strange as it may sound, that got me through the rest of that hellish mile. In sports, it's often a matter of momentum, and all too often, I've seen momentum shift towards and away from my Hawkeyes in the blink of an eye. This was the same kind of thing...he lightened the mood, and the momentum shifted. Thanks, tall Goofy hat guy!
The last couple of miles involved running up cloverleaf ramps that weren't too bad from an elevation standpoint, but were brutal on the knees. Everyone was feeling it (and moaning about it!) But at one point, an older guy wearing a shirt commemorating the fact that he's run 50 marathons in 50 states told us to look down off the bridge we were on at the the literally 10s of thousands of people who were behind us. Another momentum shift in our favor. That probably rallied me to be able to get into EPCOT.
Pretty soon, we were running into the EPCOT parking lot, and through a service entrance near Spaceship Earth. For the last 12 months, I can't tell you how many times I've envisioned that moment. Whenever I'm dragging or don't want to run, I picture running "by the ball" and it's always picked me up. So when the moment came to really run by the ball, I lost it. Full blown ugly cry. Couple that with lots of pain, 2 hours of running, and a change in my breathing pattern, and I started to hyperventilate. Awesome.
ME: "Am, I...can't...breathe...Can't...catch...my...breath!!"
Amy: "Al, you've run 12.5 miles. Pull it together! Slow down and relax. In and out. In and out. In and out...."
Too bad the photographers didn't catch that one! I quickly got it under control, though. At this point, I knew the knee would hold up, so I was just enjoying the last few minutes of the race. As we ran towards World Showcase Lagoon, Bon Jovi's Livin' on a Prayer was blasting from the speaker. Um, hello...Bon Jovi??? HELL YEAH!!!! So I went from crying and hyperventilating to singing/screaming at the top of my lungs. Nice. I'd like to point out that I was NOT the only one singing, however!
We rounded the turn and ran back towards Spaceship Earth. Then through another Cast Member's only area and past a huge gospel choir. Then just 2o0 yards more, and the finish was in sight. Amy spotted our family waiting for us, cheering their brains out as we ran past towards the finish. And, just like that, after 2 hours and 21 minutes, we were done. The next minutes were a blur. Grab a drink and banana. Someone cut my chip. Someone else placed a medal around my neck. We stopped to stretch and catch our breath, and just smiled and hugged and didn't say much. But WE DID IT! I'm so proud of both of us and so thankful that Amy let me drag her into this crazy thing. She may not believe that she's a runner, but SHE'S A RUNNER!!! And so am I!