Race Day - Saturday, January 7th

The big day is finally here. I woke up at 2 freaking 30 in the morning! No biggie I couldn't sleep anyway. The adrenalin was pumping. I got out of bed, got dressed and had a bagel and a yogurt smoothie for breakfast. Al, who is definitely not a morning person, struggled to wake up. But he's such a trooper. He yawned and growled his way through the morning and we managed to leave the room on time. At the bus stop we met a few other runners. Here is where we were all sure that a bus was coming through the resort to pick us up, but after 20 minutes with no bus in site, we started running to the front of the resort where there were several buses waiting to take people to the starting line. Go Figure.

So Webster defines cold as "having or being a temperature that is uncomfortably low for humans". Well, this morning at the starting area for the 2006 Disney World Half Marathon it wasn't just cold it was UNBELIEVEABLY cold. I know this because as I wondered around the area I heard people saying "I can't believe how cold it is" and "I don't believe it's ever been this cold in January" and "Can you believe they're charging us $2 for hot chocolate. That's cold." Yes, even in the starting area at 4:30 in the morning the Disney money machine was still cranking. But despite the cold, I was ready to get this show on the road. I stretched a little with the Sarge from Disney's Toy Story. Said my farewell's to Al and finally caught up with Laura and Amy (from DCFit) in the baggage claim area. We made the 20 minute walk through the cold to the starting line which had to be at least a half mile deep with people – very, very cold people. I was so glad I wore the Under Armor.

So here I am at the starting line of the 2006 Disney World Half Marathon!!! I was so excited. Here's where months of trainig will finally pay off. I couldn't wait to get started. First we sang the national anthem. "…and the home of the brave." Then we counted down the start for the wheelchair racers. "3-2-1. Yeah!!" They're off. Then the moment we've all been waiting for was upon us. At 6am the fireworks exploded and the 2006 Disney World Half Marathon had officially begun!!! Well, it officially begun for the elite runners up in front. For the rest of us the race didn’t "officially" begin until 17 minutes or so later when we finally crossed the starting line. I'm sure bythis time the elite runners were well past mile 3.

I started the race running along side Amy and Laura, who were doing 3:1 intervals because they were running the full marathon the next day and wanted to reserve their strength. Good for them. Way to plan ahead. But for me this 3:1 stuff was way too slow. So, I wished them good luck and crossed mile 1 alone. In fact, I ran alone for most of the race. Even though there were a bunch of people around me I basically settled into my 5:1 intervals and tried to… I tried to… I tried to figure out why I've been making such a big deal about this race for the last 10 months. Don't get me wrong, I love running and I love Disney World, but once I got out there I realized it was like being in any other race. We spent very little time running inside the theme parks. I saw a few characters along the way, but they weren't like major characters. And I didn't get my picture taken anywhere. Apparently, there were photographers along the course but they all must have been on break when I ran by. Most of the course took us out on long stretches of highway that connected Epcot and the Magic Kingdom. The bright spots were when I saw Al cheering me on in the crowd at not one but two points along the course. Kudos to him for navigating the monorail and the freezing cold so early in the morning to watch me run. And I ran very well, much better then I expected considering the fact that it’s been over 3 months since the last time I ran 13.1 miles.

Here are my race stats.

Times
Start - 6:17:08 AM 10 Mile - 2:27:12 Finish - 2:54:18
Chip Time - 2:54:18 Clock - 3:09:54 Pace - 13:17 min/mile

Placement
Overall - 8432 Gender - 4696 Division - 793

To my surprise I ran the last 3.1 miles in 27 minutes. That's about an 8.7min/mile! I've never ran that fast before. Also keep in mind that the first mile was really slow, I walked through all the water stops and I took a 10 minute bathroom break. So, my average pace would have been under 13 min/mile in ideal conditions. But I wanted to finish in under 3 hours and I did it!!! Yeah me!!!

At the finish line I got my medal. It was Donald Duck. Not the Mickey Mouse one in all the ads. Mickey is only if you finish the full marathon. So, now they tell me. Either way it's pretty cool medal. I also got a bottle of water, a few orange slices and a Mylar blanket to keep me warm. While I waited for Al, Becky called to congratulate me and invited us to her hotel for breakfast. That was really nice of her. After breakfast we went back to Downtown Disney to get a cake. The cake I really wanted was on Main Street in the Magic Kingdom, but I didn't want to pay $63 entrance fee for a cake. So, I ended up with a Banana Fosters from the Rainforest Café. We took it back to the hotel and chowed down. It was soooo good. But it melted pretty quickly and I couldn't force myself to finish it. Once satisfied, Al and I both fell asleep around 2:30 in the afternoon.

That evening we wanted to go to Epcot to see the fireworks, but the $63 entrance fee was making that mission impossible. So, we were on our way to the Boardwalk to watch it from there when we started talking to another couple that ran the half marathon this morning and they invited us to watch the fireworks with them on their boat!! Now that's Disney magic. All-in-all a magical end to a magical journey.

So until next time, this is Run Valerie signing off.