26.2 Magical Miles

I did not think anything could top the magical feeling that came with running the Walt Disney World Princess Half Marathon.
I also never thought I'd be running 26.2 miles through all four Disney World parks.

I've been struggling with how to begin this recap. Two weeks later the memories are just as fresh as they were the afternoon of the race. The emotions, just as strong. And words still fail me.

As I mentioned in my last post, training went, for the most part, really well. So going into the race, I was more excited than nervous. In fact, the only thing that I felt anxious about was the weather. As soon as I could see the forecast (15 days out) for Orlando I was checking daily. Sometimes multiple times a day. At first it was looking like it would be a little warmer than perfect- my app said low 60's, not for the high for the day, but at race time. Then each day the temperature dropped a degree or two. By race weekend we were looking at some pretty crazy weather. Severe thunderstorms came through which caused the half marathon to be cancelled on Saturday morning.

I need to take a minute to talk about this. I have never seen such a show of good sportsmanship when it came to a race cancellation/change. I felt so bad for the half runners and with the announcement, I fully expected there to be some pretty negative responses. Clearly there was disappointment, but I didn't see one angry response. And even better than that, on Saturday we constantly saw people running with their half marathon bibs. They were doing their distance anyway. Some did it early in the morning in between storms. Some did it in the rain. We saw some late in the afternoon when it was not raining, but the humidity was so high it may as well have been raining. They didn't have to do it. Disney was still giving everyone their medal. (In my opinion the training is just as much of a challenge as the race itself, so the medal is deserved either way, but there is something about doing the distance despite the cancellation.) In addition to that, Disney had four options for the runners. None of which they were required to do. When we registered for the race we signed a waiver. Disney obviously can't control the weather. Every one of those runners was reimbursed one way or another. Apparently 1500+ of them took the option to run in the marathon on Sunday! Anyway, I was just very impressed, and filled with pride at how my fellow runners took to the streets. Add to that the impromptu spectators, cast members, and aid stations that showed up around the Disney World resorts and other areas the runners were able to be. I even heard of some character appearances... in the form of adorable children wearing Disney costumes. :-D I'm so glad so many runners were able to make the best of the situation, and I'm so sorry for the ones that could not, for whatever reason. Hopefully they will be able to take advantage of one of the options they were given.

Back to the marathon... So the storms on Saturday blew in a major cold front. Jenny and I got up just before 3:00am. 45 minutes later as we were walking out the door Jenny grabbed my hand and said a prayer for warmth and safe running. When we arrived at Epcot on Sunday morning the feels like temperature was in the 20's with 14mph winds. Let me tell you, not a single person there that day was prepared for that kind of weather. Florida's one day of winter had impeccable timing. We had spent a majority of Saturday driving around trying to find solar blankets. Every Walmart within a 20-30 minute drive was sold out. We could not even find a basic sweatshirt to toss (donate) when we warmed up. We did end up finding the last two emergency blankets at a Dick's Sporting Goods. We also purchased two inexpensive fleece blankets from Walmart, which would go into the donation boxes before we started. With the fleece and emergency blankets, and a thin old sweatshirt for each of us, on top of the couple thin running layers we had, and also Hot Hands hand warmers, we found Jenny's friends from her running group and sat with them in the runner's prep area. (I'm sure there's an actual name for it, but I don't know what it is. It's after we go through the security line, but before the area we head into where friends and family are not allowed)

At 4:45 we got up to start making our way to our corrals. No matter what corral we are in, everyone is supposed to be in by 5:00. I was in corral H. Jenny was supposed to be in G but moved back to be with me. You can always move back in the corrals, but you're not supposed to move up. We did see people jump the gates to get in a closer corral though. We had about 25 minutes until the race started so we decided to sit back down. The solar blankets held our body heat better when sitting. We figured we had a good half hour after the first corral was sent off before we would get going. Jenny and I struck up conversation with others around us and time passed quickly. It's hard to believe we were in our corral for an hour! Right on time the race began. Each corral was sent off with a countdown from Mickey and a burst of fireworks.

Jenny has been dealing with bursitis in her hip so we decided we would be doing intervals at the race. Early in my training Jenny encouraged me to train with intervals as well, so that I would be prepared not just physically but also mentally. I couldn't quite make myself get down to the smaller intervals we would be doing at the race, but overall, I don't think it affected me much.
So the race began with Jenny and me doing 2:30 run/:45 walk. Well, we actually ran a solid mile so we could try to warm up. Somewhere in the second mile we did a couple intervals and then caught up with Jenny's friend, Diane, and decided to stick with her for a while. Diane's intervals were 1:30/:30. This was interesting for me at first. The shortest interval I had done while training was a 1:30-2min walk at each mile and my running was a faster pace than what we did with Diane. I was not bothered by it at all, it was just something different that I adjusted to. And really, it worked to my advantage quite a bit. There were many photo ops and I didn't want to stand in line for them. So I'd get off to the side out of the way of runners and get the picture I wanted. Then I'd be able to run faster and catch back up with Jenny and Diane. It felt really good to stretch out my legs even if just for a short bit.
At about mile 3 we passed the parking entrance for Magic Kingdom. If I wasn't excited before this point, I certainly got there quickly. Something about those signs make me giddy every time. Just before mile 5 we made a hairpin turn in front of Space Mountain and shortly after reaching mile 5 we officially entered the park! I knew it was coming. From my last experience at the Princess half, but also because I could hear all the spectators. Up to this point there were not many people on the sidelines. The aid stations were wonderful. The volunteers were constantly cheering, but then it would get a little quiet on the sidelines. But I knew that the sidewalks of Main Street USA were going to be packed, loud, and would be an incredible boost.

This part of the course makes me so happy. Of course, at this point I had no idea what the rest of the course would be like, but I think I'd still say I wish there was a way to have Magic Kingdom and the castle be the last park before the final stretch into Epcot and the finish line. Reverse the course maybe? That's just me though. :)
From Main Street we entered Tomorrowland, and then Fantasyland. We looped around the Seven Dwarf's Mine Train ride, another turn or two, and then there it was. Cinderella's Castle! Tears of joy!!

Shortly before we left Magic Kingdom we told Diane that we were going to make a restroom stop while we were still in the park. If you know where they are inside the parks and along the course, you can stop there rather than a port a potty. Much better! We got back on course and decided that we would run straight until we caught back up to Diane, thinking it would not be far. Well, I guess with the popularity of a good bathroom, our stop took a little longer than we thought. We ran almost two miles before we decided to get back to intervals. We must have passed Diane in a congested part of the course because she found us at an aid station just past mile 8. We decided to stick with her from that point on. For the rest of the race we did her 1:30/:30 intervals, with the exception of a few times when we skipped a walk, or walked a little extra.

The next three or so miles were on back roads between Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom. Every so often there would be a character stop and that helped break up the distance. Encouraging texts from my best friend and goofy pictures helped too.

Around mile 12 we entered Animal Kingdom, however, I couldn't really tell until we were about half a mile further. There was a sign as we entered a back lot and then a little later is when I realized we were in the guest area. I have never been to Animal Kingdom before so nothing about it was familiar. We passed the Tree of Life, which from the course was pretty impressive. I'd like to see it up close sometime! Shortly after that we reached the 13 mile marker- HALF WAY DONE!! I couldn't believe we were already half way done. I was still feeling really great. I did have some aches and pains, but they were easy to ignore. Though, I did have an aspirin when Diane offered one to Jenny for her hip. It helped take the edge off for a while. I had been hoping to see Expedition Everest as we passed by. Jenny said she told me as we were passing, but I don't remember that at all. I even have a picture of it. I don't remember taking it though. lol So many people talk about veering off the course and taking a ride on Expedition Everest and then getting right back on and continuing the race. When I first heard about it, I laughed. I thought they were joking! Can you imagine?? So I missed seeing people jump off the course and the rest of our time in Animal Kingdom passed quickly. By mile 15 we were back on a main road and I was still doing great.



Between miles 16 and 17 I found an angel. Okay, so it was actually a spectator dressed as Tigger. She was passing out chocolate chip cookies and it made me so happy I almost cried.

There was not a whole lot happening on the course between mile 15 and near 18 when we entered ESPN Wide World of Sports. I remember some guys, that may or may not have been cast members, with a huge dinosaur skull on the side of the road near some construction. There was also a group of guys doing tricks on a trampoline with some upbeat music. The thing I remember the most is that it felt the most open on this stretch. There are some pretty tight and congested areas on this course. It didn't affect the race for me, but I was constantly surprised that incredible number of runners never thinned out. Anyway, so these couple miles in the last half were pretty nice, even if there was not much to see.
By mile 18 we were in Wide World of Sports. The race information will tell you that you will run through all four Disney parks. I know Wide World of Sports is not a Disney park, but I've decided I'm calling it the bonus park. It breaks up the monotony that comes with 26.2 miles. It comes at a good time in the course (that whole 2-3 miles of nice open stretch can only be nice for so long. ;) ) And it's super fun to run through that property! I saw Minnie and Mickey (but couldn't get a good picture) before turning onto the track where Goofy was waiting. Then we looped some more of the area, I don't even know how many times we turned, I was just following the crowd at this point. The last thing we did was run the inside of a baseball stadium. Sadness and Joy were there to see us all in. The REALLY great thing about this point- We hit 20 miles inside the stadium!! Just a 10k left. That's so doable!

6.2 miles to go... And I was surprised to find that aside from a little pain, I was still feeling pretty great. I wanted to make sure Jenny was also feeling good because I didn't want her to push too much with her hip pain. This girl is wonderfully strong. And I know she won't say anything, but continue to push through whatever pain she's feeling. We would take a little longer for a walk break if needed, especially on the ramps to new roads. Those ones were particularly slanted sideways on an uphill and tended to cause more pain for Jenny. I also was a bit concerned with some knee pain I had experience while training. It seemed to be worse when I'd begin running on any kind of incline. So during the race I was trying to prevent anything from happening with that. All that to say, Jenny did say she had some pain, but was good otherwise. On we went!

About 21 1/2 miles in we caught up with a friend of Diane's. Rabina had started the race with Diane, but early on decided to go on ahead. She said she was glad we caught up to her and planned to stick with us for the rest of the race. Shortly after connecting with Rabina, I knew we would be getting close to Hollywood Studios. Very close to mile 23 that happened. Hollywood studios is a bit of a blur for me. I had many senses tied to emotions that I still feel strongly as I can sort of visualize the course. I saw the backside of the Tower of Terror, a ride that to this day makes my legs shake just thinking about it.



We rounded a corner and there were a ton of people. By this point the parks were open. (I'm pretty sure they were open as we went through Animal Kingdom as well) I always thought the races started super early so they would finish before the parks open. Obviously this can't be true for the marathon. (Maybe the half also? I'm not sure about that.) So the spectators that were cheering us on, were actually park guests. They were taking time out of their time at the park and cheering for the runners. It was pretty stinkin' awesome. So we're running down a main stretch of the park and all I see are runners in front of me and park guests on the side. And then I smell it. Coffee. Oh my goodness, coffee. I can't confirm what actually came out of my mouth. I know I said something. What I feel like I remember saying... shouting actually, was "COFFEE!!!! PLEASE SHARE YOUR COFFEE WITH ME!!". No one did. :( Of course I wasn't serious. I didn't want to drink coffee, but it smelled so amazing and I was quite hungry.
After the coffee smelling the course took a turn, where there was still a ton of people cheering. In fact, I heard my name more in this part of the race, than any other. Spectators are fantastic. So very fantastic. They cheer and shout whether they know the runner or not. Our names are on our bibs, but more often than not I would hear "You're Incredible" or "Go Mrs. Incredible". At first I forgot that my running outfit was Mrs. Incredible inspired. :) Either way it was fun to hear. So in this section of the course in Hollywood Studios I was hearing my actual name repeatedly. It was so encouraging and made me smile so big. I was passing an aid station and every one of the volunteers said something to me. I found myself smiling back tears, thanked the volunteers but told them they were going to make me cry, and then one guy decided to call me out on that. He shouted many encouraging things with my name following each one. It made me laugh, but then it happened. The tears pushed through. Angela, my at home running partner, will tell you that I can't really handle the sweet, proud of you, type of encouragement when I'm in the end of a long run. I love the support I get from family and friends when they say things like that, but it gets me emotional, which then causes me to lose control. It all kind of escalates and I end up not able to breathe. I've mentioned this happening before in past races. Usually it's because I'm frustrated with how things are going. This time I was not at all frustrated. I was so very happy. I had less than three miles left in this marathon and I had not once hit a wall. Jenny and Diane had been just behind me and when the crowd thinned and they were able to be next to me Diane looked surprised and then said, "Happy tears, right? You're happy?" Jenny and I had warned her earlier that I'm a crier, but that it should be happy tears. :) Anyway, so I had my meltdown moment and I'm happy to say it was the only time DURING the race and it was a good meltdown, not because I was not doing well.

By mile 24 we were running on a sidewalk along a beautiful pond. I recognized the area from a time I had been visiting Jenny and we ran around the property. At this point I knew almost exactly where the course would be going and I got giddy. We were so close! All those spectators holding signs and/or shouting "almost there" weren't lying anymore! My dad, always my biggest fan, had been texting me pictures and supportive words off and on from the start of the race, but for the last 3-4 miles it was much more often. It was so fun, and also a great distraction, seeing what he would send next. I tried to send a couple "live" pictures. They weren't always pretty, but it was fun to interact. I know my family would have been right up front along the spectator areas if they could have been there.
The course took us past the Swan and Dolphin Hotel and along the Disney Boardwalk. We made our way around the lake in front of the Yacht Club Resort, where some friends and family of Diane caught a good picture, then passed the Beach Club Resort, and shortly after that, the next thing I knew we had crossed into the World Showcase in Epcot!!

1 1/4 miles to go. That's all. And this was the point where I started to not feel great anymore. It had nothing to do with the normal pain of a marathon. I was feeling a little sick. When I think about it, the only thing I can think of that made me feel that way is either the fact that I was so so so hungry, or the fact that I had some M&M's that were being passed out a couple miles back, which I had hoped would help with the hunger. I love M&M's, but I think they were too sweet for me to have during a race. Or at least, at this point in one. After we had crossed into the World Showcase I asked Jenny what she thought about running the rest without doing the intervals. But then the next time I heard the beep of Diane's watch I stopped to walk. I don't know if it was mental, or if I really needed to walk, but the walks did help the sick feeling subside. So we stuck with Diane and Rabina around the showcase. I tried to take it all in. Each country we passed, the guests who were there cheering on the runners. I saw Spaceship Earth across the water and new once we got there we only had 1/4 of a mile left. I saw Snow White while we were passing Germany. She didn't have any guests in line to say hello and I almost stopped to get a picture with her, but I was truly worried that if I actually stopped moving, I may not get going again. So I took a picture while running and pushed on. I also remember seeing some cast members wearing sombreros when we went through Mexico. :)

I really wanted to make sure I had a picture of Jenny and I from the Disney photographers. I hoped there would be a few from the course, but sometimes it looks like the camera is pointing at you, and it's not. So when we were leaving the World Showcase I saw a photopass guy and made sure he saw Jenny and I together. We ended up getting a fun, but somewhat awkward mid run picture. I'm thankful for the memories. :) Through all this, my dad is still sending texts. It was great! Before I left for Florida I had asked a few people who are in my support system if they would like to receive the runner tracking texts. I had Scott, my parents, my best friend, and my running partner all receiving texts every so often all morning long. In addition, my dad likes to use find my phone to track where I am between check points. Knowing they were tracking me was a good reason to keep going. I had continued to try and reply to Dad for the last few miles, I tried to get a picture for him before the finish line. We were in a walking part of the intervals so I snapped a quick selfie in front of Spaceship Earth and sent one last picture before we ran the last 1/4 mile without walking. Then there was the Gospel Choir. I don't think it matters what your beliefs are, seeing this wonderfully amazing group of singers will get your emotions flowing. For some it might simply be because it's the sure sign that the next turn means you will see the finish line. For me it's all encompassing. Yes, the next "big thing" is the finish line, but I just love that these people are there singing about love and heaven for an estimated 25,000 (registered) runners. So. Much. Love.

This last part of the race replays in slow motion in my head. I was so happy. Happy to be at Disney. Happy to have felt pretty great for almost the whole marathon. Happy I had a fantastic running friend to finish with me. Happy that Jenny and I were finishing with two, new to me, friends- one of which was finishing her first marathon ever, and the other who would be setting a new PR. Happy that the finisher's chute was not very crowded. Happy that when we made that last turn, the finish line was there in all its Disney glory. And happy that there to greet me (us) as I was about to cross was Minnie Mouse. We were running four across as we approached the finish line. (There was no one else close to our sides or behind us, so we weren't blocking anyone.) As I passed Minnie we reached out and high fived each other. MINNIE MOUSE gave me a high five!! I mean really. So awesome. :-D

I heard Diane say to slow down because there was a guy in front of us and we were hoping to get a good finish line picture of the four of us. I think we sped up though because we passed him. There was another guy in front of us, but I thought he was further away. I grabbed Jenny's hand and crossed the finish line with our hands raised in the air. For real this time. When I ran my first marathon, in my head my hands were way above my head celebrating as I finished. In reality I looked a bit like a t-rex with my hands barely above my waist. :)

Unfortunately, the second guy in front of us was closer than we thought so we don't have a finish line picture with all of us together. The line was barely crossed when my phone blew up with texts from every one who had been receiving text alerts through out the race and the four of us fell into a tight group hug. I was sobbing. It came out of nowhere, which is typical. Pride overwhelmed me! We had just run 26.2 miles!! We had done it with smiles on our faces. Rabina finished her first marathon. Diane had PR'd by 13 minutes!! We truly are incredible. :-D And then I realized that we needed to move. lol We were right in front of the finish line and there were people coming towards us. That's also when I remembered our medals. How could I forget about that?! Through tears that I could not get under control I received my medal, and then made sure to get an in the moment, just received our medals, picture with Jenny.

A little more walking and we passed the water and powerade tables. Somewhere around there we also got our food boxes. As far as post race food goes, RunDisney does it pretty good! The box had snack sized packages of chips and cheese dip, dried cranberries, a little Luna bar... and I feel like there were a couple other things, but I can't remember.
Before exiting the runner's area there are many RunDisney backdrops set up for an "official" finisher's photo. We stopped for that and then waited around for Diane. She went through a different way because she was a Dopey Challenge finisher so she was getting her medal for that. We ended up not seeing her so we went out to the main area where family and friends can wait for their runners. We hung out for a bit, going into the merchandise tent to see if they would give us a bag for all our stuff. We didn't do gear check so our arms were full with the food and drinks, and trying to manage the solar blankets we had received at the finish line. As we came out of the tent I saw that there was a short line to get a picture with Chip and Dale. Jenny indulged my silliness and we only waited for a few minutes. It was fun, but much longer may not have been worth it. Only because now that we had stopped running, it was SUPER cold. The sun was out and that had helped on the course while we ran, despite the major wind gusts, but now that we weren't moving, and were sweaty, those wind gusts were pretty awful.

Our goal for this race, first and foremost, was to cross the finish line with genuine smiles. I'd say we met that goal and then some. We had some sub-goals that we had talked about, but decided that really, nothing else mattered. We were having fun and going with the flow. I loved not thinking about my pace or time. I was not using RunKeeper during the race so I could preserve my battery and take more pictures. (Priorities, right?? :-D ) It was pretty freeing to run "unplugged".
However, I was still anxious to see our official time when it was all over.

Official Chip Time-
5:16:05
Average Pace-
12:03/mile
Place-
6787 out of 17,738 total marathon finishers
2670 out of 9345 total women

You would think that was the end of this experience, but it wasn't! Later in the day we decided to prevent muscles from locking up by going for a walk at Disney Springs (formerly Downtown Disney). We wore our medals the whole time, and we weren't the only ones! I've never worn a race medal beyond the time I'm still at the race. I felt silly at first. That didn't last long though, especially when I saw how many other people were also wearing theirs! It was amazing. Not only that, but every time we passed someone with a medal we congratulated each other. Again with the tears. It was just so cool! Jenny and I continued to wear our medals to dinner and even there, there were people also wearing their medals. It was a fun fun fun thing to experience.

You know it was a good race when it hasn't even been 48 hours and you've said you'd like to sign up for next year's race. The whole two days it took to get home I was trying to figure out how I could possibly get to Florida again. It's an anniversary year! Registration is already open for runners who did the race this year, and open registration is in February. It's so tempting!!

People ask me if I regret not running to my potential at this race. I trained hard. There's no doubt in my mind that I could have gone faster. But do I regret it? Not a single bit. I was nervous going into my early training, thinking surely THIS would be my last marathon. I was wrong. I now know what I'm capable of. This will NOT be my last marathon.