Date: 1/13/2013
Time: 5:30 AM
Weather: 63 degrees at start, probably 73 at finish
Time: 3:38:46
Overall:659/20679
Division: 74/988 (25-29)
Forewarning, this post may contain Disney verbage, sorry, you'll have to deal with it, if you must know what I'm talking about, either ask me, or search the interwebs for "Disney + <insert verbage here>".
THE COURSE
Upon leaving the track we took a service road south through the swamp/forest. During this stretch we passed the WDW sewage treatment facility, I am very happy I ran past there prior to the sun getting above the tree line... Continuing south we made our way into Animal Kingdom (sadly we did not get to run through the safari wildlife area, but I can understand why... lions, rhinos, big antlered animals...). The AK portion of our journey was both short and incredibly long. We didn't spend much time in the park, maybe 4/10s of a mile, but we left through a service entrance on the far southeast side of the park, then looped around the top of the parking lot and past the bus area, before running through the parking lot to Osceola Parkway.
At this point of the race (upon getting to Osceola), had this been my first marathon or any warmer than it was, the next 2 1/2 miles would have been the absolute worst part of this course. Really there is nothing that can be done about this though. A marathon is 26.2 miles, those miles need to take place somewhere, and when you can only run so much in the parks and need to get between the six major things on the course, blah mileage is going to happen somewhere. Anyways, think of it as running on a 3 lane interstate for 2 1/2 miles with nothing but trees, a McDonalds, and two overpasses (you get to run on the over).
Eventually you make it out to ESPN's Wide World of Sports. WWOS is a large athletic facility that is used for AAU events, Atlanta Braves spring training, and countless other tournaments/sporting events (the Badgers Men's Basketball team played in a tournament there a few years ago around Thanksgiving). This part of the course did actually turn into the worst part of the course... All of this area was new this year, and had been hyped up at every point the people at Run Disney could. Sure some of it was cool, we ran around the track they have (I haven't ran on a composite track since college, and this one was definitely nicer than UW's) and ran through Champion Stadium, where the Braves games are held. During the lap of the stadium they put us up on the Jumbotron and called out our names, and if you had family that made it out to WWOS, they could come into the stadium and see you there. The bad part was this was about three miles that would never end. You were sent back and forth with numerous tight corners with not much room. For me the narrowness wasn't an issue, but I'm guessing that an hour later when there were many more people on the course, that became an issue.
Upon leaving WWOS you make the couple of mile trip along Osceola and World Dr up to Hollywood Studios. Fitting for the smallest park, this was also likely the least amount of time we spent in a park. We came in through a service entrance on the north side of the park, but stayed backstage while running the entire north/south length of the park, you then make a couple of quick turns, run north through the park, and then out near the actual entrance.
At this point you are at approximately mile 23.5, you can see Spaceship Earth, and know you are going to finish. The next 1.5 miles of this course I have actually traversed many times, so as tired as I was, this area was comforting (through all of the pain in my quads). (We have stayed at three of the hotels that are situated between DHS and EPCOT, so the path that we ran on between the two parks I have ran on numerous times. Basically, you follow a canal between DHS and the resorts closer to EPCOT, then follow the north side of a lake past the Yacht Club and Beach Club resorts before heading into EPCOT through another service entrance where you hit mile 25 and get your last aid station.
Upon entering EPCOT you find yourself in the UK Pavilion headed counterclockwise around the International Showcase. You then run past France, Morocco, Japan, the American Adventure, Italy, Germany, China, Norway, and Mexico before getting to Future World. At this point you follow the same path at the end of the half marathon, straight north until Spaceship Earth, quick turn to the right through a service entrance, couple of quick turns before you are out in the parking lot with nothing more than 150 yards between you and the finish.
WHAT WAS GREAT ABOUT THIS RACE
For the half marathon I talked about the organization and pizzaz, which both still apply to the marathon, but this race report becomes a lot shorter if I just point you back to what I said before...
So... I'm going to talk about the comradery amongst not only the participants, but the spectators as well. (All of this applies to the half marathon as well, but just being the shorter distance, it didn't stick out quite as much, maybe I can explain why, maybe I can't...)
Marathoners have a special bond. It is usually an unspoken bond based on the common goal of putting your body through hell for hours at a time. Whether it is the winner who finishes in just over 2:21 minutes, or the guy we saw come through EPCOT at 1:30 in the afternoon, over 7 hours after starting (they were picking up the cones lining the course right behind him), we all know (or learn) the mental doubts that pop up throughout the marathon and the lactic acid burn that sticks around for days afterwards.
A lot of people come to Disney to do their first half (like my sister Kendra) or their first full marathon. They may do it because of the on course entertainment, but for the most part here, I think it is done because of a love for Disney. Whether that love started generations ago with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, or 20-odd years ago with the Little Mermaid. Along with the participants come family members and friends, of which I'm guessing most share at least one of two things (though I would hope both), either that same love for Disney, or they love that family member or friend and want to see them accomplish the goals they have set out to achieve.
But because that love for Disney is present in a vast majority of the participants (and spectators), there is a bond between the two people running next to each other who know nothing about the other. Small jokes are passed back and forth, smiles are on faces far longer than they would normally be, and cheers are given for people that you don't know and will never see again.
WHAT WASN'T SO GREAT ABOUT THIS RACE
My biggest gripe with the marathon was something that was hyped up as the "Mile 20 Spectacular". There weren't any real clues about what it would be. The only thing the runners really knew was that we were going to make a lap around Champion Stadium (which from discussion with other runners, was almost universally panned due to the warning track being basically pea gravel, where as places like Miller Park are actual dirt, but maybe that's a southern thing...).
Anyways, we hit the mile 19 marker and I start looking ahead to see if I can see anything cool... Nothing immediately jumps out, we're still running through WWOS... They did have the Mickey hot air balloon out in one field... The only other things were a stage that had Mickey, Donald, and Goofy on it that you could stop in front of and have your picture taken at (with you standing below them) and some large overgrown characters... Really, I wasn't expecting much (there isn't much you can do to impress me at mile 20 of a marathon), but Run Disney had a major fail on this one.
The only other thing I'd like to complain about was the food spread (this applies to the half as well). I've seen worse, but for the premium price that everyone pays, they should be able to do slightly better. Basically we got a bottle of Dasani and a bottle of Powerade (that were sitting out on a table, not cold), a banana, a bag of gummy snacks, and a box that contained a snack size protein bar, tiny bag of crackers, tiny package of cheese spread, tiny bag of trail mix, and two other tiny things I can't remember. Not terrible, but honestly, it may be the worst post-race spread out of the five I've done. Tim would need to let me know what they have at GB, I started to go foggy a few minutes after finishing, but I know it was worse than Chicago and Flying Pig, and Madison is too far back to remember, but what I do recall, I was happy with it at the time. There are so many things that they could do that would scream Special Disney Magic, but they don't even try, which considering the lengths they go to for everything else, is somewhat depressing. (Mickey head shaped cookies is the simplest thing I can come up with off the top of my head, really, it can't be that hard, not with the number of restaurants you operate...)
OVERALL RACE THOUGHTS
I hope to god the next time I have back-to-back 2:30 AM alarms is in five years... (I have tentative plans with at least three people to do this again (one would be in for Goofy's, two for just the full, but hey, maybe they'd surprise me)). The only thing worse that getting up at 2:30 two days in a row is when on the second day, no one else is getting up with you.
After getting ready and saying goodbye to Vanessa, I made my way via bus over to EPCOT as I had 24 hours prior. Once there, the atmosphere seemed more somber, whereas Saturday morning there was laughter and jovial banter amongst the participants, Sunday had quiet in anticipation of the unknown. After delays getting people out to the corrals for the half (which I didn't know about), they sent us out to the corrals earlier on Sunday. Even with my mile walk through the woods, I was still sitting in my corral by 4:30. Though the temperature didn't read any different, it seemed noticeably colder than Saturday, which made the hour wait all that much longer and gave me time to realize how sore the front of my quads were.
I'll skip over the pointless interviews with Mickey, Goofy, Jeff Galloway, Joey Fatone, and others I likely ignored, because I don't want to waste time typing about them, and you don't want to waste time reading them...
Eventually we were off (looking at the tracking emails I set up, I crossed the start at 5:35 AM). The first mile was actually worse than it was during the half as to how crowded it was. I probably ran close to a 9:00 mile as I couldn't really go anywhere, and there was no point in sprinting or bobbing and weaving. The first five miles were pretty uneventful. Looking back at my race photos, which can be found here, I didn't stop for any characters during this time, mostly because there weren't any good ones that I could get to (Captain Jack Sparrow and Barbosa were on the other side of four lanes of solid runners).
Once inside the Magic Kingdom, I stopped for quick (five seconds give or take) pictures with the Beast and Belle, and in front of Cinderella's Castle. It was by this time though that I was able to settle into a comfortable pace that (the best I can tell right now without my watch) hovered around 8:10. Our lap around the Walt Disney World Speedway was pretty cool, a local car club parked their cars around the track and cheered on the runners (as much as they could, they were trying to drink as much coffee as they could to wake up).
Heading south towards Animal Kingdom was about the first point I safely felt that I was going to have a good day. I was bouncing along behind the 3:35 pace group (which I used as a "slow down" barrier, if I caught up to them, I would stop for a character or force myself to follow one of the people so I didn't speed up too much). I stopped to have a picture with Captain Hook and Smee during this stretch in which I made a hook with my index finger (my fellow UW alums may remember the Homecoming where the theme somehow revolved around pirates, and Bucky was doing that to the student section, and we all yelled out "ARGGHHHHHHH"), which is one of my better pictures.
Upon leaving AK, I almost turned my good day into a terrible one. Jungle Mickey was stationed along the side of the road for pictures, and since I was early in the race, there wasn't a line. So I decided to stop since it was convenient. Unfortunately, what I didn't notice was the two inch drop on the side of the road that I then rolled my ankle on a tiny bit. Thankfully it didn't affect my running, but it did give me quite a shock when it happened.
The long lonely road between AK and WWOS was the start of people breaking down (for lack of a better vocabulary). I passed numerous people during this stretch who were walking, which seemed early to me, but the heat and humidity were definitely starting to take an effect on people. This stretch was pretty barren of entertainment, which made it all the longer. There were a couple of DJs and some people jumping on a big trampoline, but beyond that, the only thing was a character I've never seen at Disney (and honestly I can't believe they even have a costume for him), Launchpad McQuack, I was a big Duck Tales fan growing up, so I had to get a picture.
Once at WWOS (mile 17), I accidentally passed the 3:35 pace group while trying to do math in my head, I looked back and tried to slow down, but it felt too difficult to slow down, so I kept on my pace and pulled ahead of them by about 20-25 seconds over the next couple of miles. Upon hitting the Mile 20 Un-Spectacular, I began to realize that I wasn't going to be able to run the rest of the race straight through. My quads were reaching their breaking point (33 miles in, not too bad I'd say), and the heat was starting to get to me even though I drank water at every aid station on the course. At mile 21 I decided I'd walk the first minute of each mile as long as I could, which did last two more miles, but getting to Hollywood Studios and a candy aid station threw that plan off and I ended up missing a walk break, which probably cost me a bit in the last few miles.
I saw Kendra and Vanessa upon leaving DHS, I think they were more excited than I was, as I was just looking for those last 2.7 miles or so to be done with. After passing them the walk breaks got longer and more frequent, which didn't disappoint me that much, sure it would have been great to keep up the one minute walk breaks, but really, none of this was about time, so I joked with spectators as I walked and tried to psych myself up to start running again.
The last couple of miles were about as uneventful as the first five, just without a mass of runners around me. EPCOT was essentially barren as I ran through. The World Showcase wasn't open yet and the only people in Future World were spectators waiting for family and friends (all of the non-marathon weekend related guests were smart enough to stay away that morning!), which at that point wasn't a very large contingent.
Upon exiting EPCOT, the pain temporarily subsided upon hearing the cheers and yells of the people lining the course. I smiled and took it all in as much as I could. I gave Donald a high five before crossing the finish line to finish my two day, 39.3 mile journey. (Also, I gave Bart Yasso a high five after finishing, most of you won't know who that is, but a couple may be jealous.)
In the end, the races were a hell of a lot less eventful than my training was. Five months ago I set up a training plan, only to have that be scrapped by the end of the first week. I ran a half marathon on less than two weeks of training, and then three weeks later set a PR in another half. I thought I was healthy as I hit my taper period, but then realized I had both foot and knee issues, which bothered me up until the day before the half. Somehow neither my foot or knee bothered me a bit while running, and as I type this feel just fine. Maybe there's something in the water at Disney...
BLING
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| 2013 Walt Disney World Marathon medal (inner ring and Mickey face both spin) |
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| 2013 Walt Disney World Goofy's Race and a Half Challenge medal |
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| Kendra, myself, and Vanessa after the Marathon |
