Arriving in Orlando was fun – it was so much warmer than NoVA! I got here on Friday and originally planned on getting my race packet on Saturday, but I was way too excited and did it right away. Well, ‘right away’ isn’t quite the phrase – they were surprisingly poorly organized. Getting to the expo itself turned out to be challenging, as somehow the staff at Disney Springs had problems telling me how to get to the ESPN Center without a car. There is a bus from Disney Springs… it’s a free Disney bus that runs on a regular schedule… not that hard… I should have taken it as an omen for what was about to come! The whole expo was horribly labeled with people stumbling around, trying to figure out where to go. Fortunately, what they lacked in signage, they made up for in number of volunteers. They admitted that they were having problems with figuring things out themselves. Happily, I managed to get all my stuff. I put on my shirt and happily visited the expo. It was great! I loved seeing all the little runner things. One fabulous upgrade from the usual: Disney-themed merchandise. A lot of cute stuff!
And yes, another photo op! I have to say that my bib number made me really happy. I know it’s silly, but having consecutive digits made some little ocd part of me smile wide.
I really enjoyed the walk between buildings, too! These stands were so nice! For all the organizational issues, photo ops are to notch at Disney! If you want a race to make memories (on Facebook and Instagram in particular), this race is the way to go!
Sadly, in the Disney race merchandise store I was disappointed. They had kid runs during the weekend as well and I really wanted to score something cute for my daughter. Sadly, there was no kids stuff. I ended up buying a sweatshirt in smallest size they had. It was too small for me, so that’s a good sign. I guess she will get to grow into it 😉. I will say this once, so I don’t repeat myself later on: I understand that Disney is all about princesses, but I was sorely disappointed by lack of strong girl items. The only option I saw was Rey (Star Wars) shirt (which was not that cute). They even started to have strong role models in movies, like Mulan and Mereida. Can we please promote it? Why can’t a girl be cute, smart and strong?
Then came this email on Saturday evening. I always say that ‘I’m of northern people’, meaning that I prefer cold weather and do poorly in heat. Humidity is just a ‘bonus’. I did worry about it and took every precaution against chafing I could think of, including for areas of low likelihood of chafing. Spoiler alert: I chafed in a lot of places, some of which I am to embarrassed to talk about.
Now we are entering the world of great organization 🙂. My hotel was one of Disney hotels (not Disney resort hotels though – that will be important later) and it had morning shuttles to the race. I had to pay $10, but they took care of everything and I got to hang out with some other runners. We arrived at Epcott around 4:30am and there were fluorescent cones marking the way. There was a huge line of volunteers and it was a happy place, despite the ungodly hour. Here, organization and signage was so great that volunteers were basically camera people: everybody wanted a pre-race picture! (Me too 😉). It was already nice and warm there, live entertainment waking people up, bananas for the hungry crowds and a tent for people who wanted breakfast with characters (I wasn’t going to pay for that though).
After some chatting with other racers, I headed to the starting line. There were volunteers checking people entering corrals. It was still dark, so it was nice that it was all labeled with big lanterns. We got Mickey & gang to welcome us and then the race was on. Like Philly, they did the awesome thing of staggered starts with 5 minute breaks between corrals. And these guys required proof of time for anything under 5 hours! Sadly, I was towards the back of my corral (my own fault – I preferred sitting for a while before heading to the starting line). Maybe it wasn’t that hot yet, but humidity was crazy – I was sweating just standing there! Since it was still dark, starting each corral with fireworks made for spectacular view 😊. Surprise right at the beginning: there was already people walking on mile one. I have heard that I am not the only one who gets bothered by this. But the crowd started to stretch quickly and off we went!
Very quickly after the start, there were photo ops with characters, but the lines were absolutely crazy! I wasn’t going to stop – it was already warm and I knew that the heat would go crazy once the sun comes up, so I wanted to get as far as I could before that happened (sun rise happened around 8th-9th mile for me). I did, however, try some selfies with Cinderella Castle. Here they are for your enjoyment 😆
Fortunately, I later found plenty of volunteers to take pictures for me.
Also, further down the road there were plenty of characters without insane lines, frequently even without lines. Around mile 8 my knee hurt for a while, but then it started to get so hot and humid that it became the least of my concerns. I am actually not sure if it stopped hurting or if the heat started getting to me. Either way, I just kept plowing forward. I did run out of steam though and pushing was hard. At least views were great! On the other hand, there were areas of running circles around parking lots. For anybody who hasn’t done that in full sun: you get heat beating on you from above and below. Basically what I would imagine hell to feel like. So I started to stop and take pictures with characters:
I got to see some spectacular views, like the lit up castle (I never expected to see it on the morning side of the night, empty attractions, animals from the Animal Kingdom and we got cheered by cast members. We also got to see some of the logistical side of the parks, like nursery for all the beautiful plants they put in the park and water treatment plant (it didn’t smell great and wasn’t pretty, but I like knowing that they don’t leave it to the government and the public to deal with. I actually learned afterwards that they compost banana peels from the race – kudos for that! Then there was A LOT of construction. I guess at least they maintain the roads?
Back to the race: around mile 20, I was totally dying there! It was hot, little shade and well, I already ran 20 miles. Here is another kudos to runDisney: since they knew the weather was going to be bad, they put water, energy drinks and medic tents every mile. I stopped at all of them once I finished bottle I brought with me. I would also like to apologize to people who got offended by my moaning when I poured cold water on myself 😉. I did some walking at this part and I was continuing mostly by shear stubbornness. Around mile 22/23, I turned on my ‘second wind’ youtube playlist. It worked on all four marathons before and it worked on this one. I turned it on so loud I couldn’t hear my own thoughts, but that was the point. I don’t really remember pretty much anything until I saw the finish line, where I screamed in joy ‘FINISH LINE!!!’ (Sorry poor guy who was next to me – I was probably really loud).
When I looked at my watch on the other side of the finish line, I knew I was just at about the same time as my first ever marathon. My time ended up a couple of seconds faster than Baltimore and, with 4:36:07, it’s my second fastest marathon to date (after Philly):
This picture was done by a man who made my day. As I was standing by a table sorting out through my stuff, he approached me and said he was hoping to find me and thank me. Why, you ask? He was running out of steam and then he noticed me during my final push. He saw me a lot throughout the race and knew I was running at ‘his’ pace, so he decided to just follow me and try to keep up. I was happy I helped somebody 😊. And here is the kicker: he told me he is an ultra runner!
And now we are back to the same organization level as the expo… I asked for a bus to Disney Springs. Finally, somebody told me to go to Saratoga Springs and catch a ferry from there. No problem, it’s all sitting down with AC, I can do that! Well, not so fast… After waiting for the ferry from Saratoga Springs for good 20 minutes in full sun, I decided to go back (uphill) to the bus stop and wait for the bus. By this point, I really had to pee. It took a while, but I finally got on. Bus does take longer since it goes around (it’s like a mile, but I think it’s obvious why walking was not an option), but it did show up. Let me tell you: by the time I got off the bus, I went straight for the bathroom. I considered eating before shower, but I was grossing myself out, so I opted for showering first. At this point, snails were passing me… I also had this to conquer on my way back:
At the hotel, another disappointment: the key wouldn’t work, so I had to waddle back to the front desk, so they could fix it. Their first reaction was that check out was at 11. That’s great, but I wasn’t leaving for another day! They did sort of fix it – the issue repeated that night. I did feel really bad for a guy who did Dopey Challenge (4 days, 4 races: 5k, 10k, half and full): he was checking out and they told him he must vacate room immediately and best they can do for him is let him shower at the hotel gym. What a nightmare!
Since I want to end on a happy note, quickly on the afternoon: I have never felt this sick after a marathon. And it wasn’t the throwing up kind. I was just unwell and everything hurt. After lunch I actually stopped by the Disney store and felt so tired that I sat down. After about 10 minutes, I tried to get up. I must have looked really miserable – at first, I couldn’t get my body to move at all. When I did, I still had a hard time getting up. Huge thank you a random man who came up and asked if I need help. He gave me a hand and pulled me up. I hope he knows how grateful I am for that small act for kindness. It meant a lot to me. I spent the rest of the day napping, then lunch, then dinner and sleep.
Happy ending: lunch at The Polite Pig:
