DYING.
1/2 Marathon Recap and random updates
By now everyone who reads this blog knows I finished the Disney Princess Half. My time was 3:34:06. Overall I’m ok with the time. Like Oprah says, you get out of running what you put into to it. First let me say I highly recommend a vacay to a warm clime in the dead of winter. We all needed it and it was the best vacation we’ve had as a family.
Onto the race itself. In the six or seven weeks leading up to the half I tore one of my calves mildly and then strained the other while rehabbing the first. The weather was awful, two blizzards and several feet of snow. So I thought it would be a good idea to run on the indoor track and the treadmill. Up until that point, I had never done either. It turned out to be a big mistake. Here’s the reaction of the sports medicine doc I finally broke down and saw after hobbling around for two weeks: “Oooohhh, that was not a good idea.” She explained that running on the street or pavement is a lot harder than running on an indoor track or treadmill because the track is padded or cushioned and the treadmill has springs. There is no give on the street (although she said it’s better to run on the street or asphalt rather than the sidewalk which is typically made of concrete). Several stretching and rehabbing exercises later, I was able to run, just not a long distance. The doc cleared me to run/walk the 1/2 and to stop if I felt my calf pulling.
The Florida weather was beautiful, in fact, unseasonably warm at 86 degrees and humid when we landed. It was 59 degrees warmer than when we left Boston. That proved to be a problem for me on race day. I had been training in 28 degree or colder weather for over two months. Race day came and I woke up after a fitful sleep at 2:00am. It was already in the high 60’s and I could feel the humidity as I walked to the food court to grab some breakfast. The previous evening they had run out of runner’s boxes which contained a bagel, granola bar, peanut butter water and other goodies. It was the first time I heard rumblings that maybe they had oversold the 1/2 and there were going to be ALOT of people. I grabbed some toast (they were out of bagels) with PB, Powerade, banana and water. Grabbed the first bus and we were off to Epcot.
I was nervous and had to keep hitting the porto potties from all the water and powerade. I made the decision - a smart one - to check my long sleeve shirt and everything else and run only with my running skirt and short sleeve shirt. Thank God I did because as soon as the sun came up, it was hot and humid and unrelenting. They lined the corrals up and at 5:43am the first runners took off. I started at about 6:35am and stayed at the back until I realized I was literally in the last group of runners with the sweepers and street cleaners behind me cleaning up as we started out. I quickly meandered my way to the middle of the pack and started running about a 1/4 mile out. The sea of humanity began to spread out after the first mile and I struggled to find my groove.
It took until mile 4 for me to find it. And I attribute that to the fact that 1) there were ridiculously long lines at all the porto potties and 2) the Parade buses. What are the Parade buses you ask? They are Disney’s cute little way of telling you you’re headed back to the Start. They were lurking everywhere near the Magic Kingdom so that they could open the park. I and one other runner made it into the real bathrooms at the Transportation Ticket Center. I ran out first and shortly after the other runner came running out, the pacers on bikes chasing her, yelling “run run run! they’re gonna grab us!” We hightailed it to the intersection at the Contemporary Resort and the back maintenance entrance of the Magic Kingdom. We were diverted behind Main Street and could not run down Main Street because they were about to open the park.
We ran throughout the Magic Kingdom and thru Cinderella’s Castle (awesome) and then out the back side of the MK heading towards the Grand Floridian. My pace was off and I struggled mightly with the heat and humidity. I ran out of water and powerade and had to rely on the water stops. They only had mocha GU shots at the food station (YUCK!) and ran out of food. At times I struggled to keep up with the pacers and loved and hated them at the same time. They were helpful with tips regarding the humidity and the swelling of my hands and arms (hold them over your head and do jazz hands for as long as you can stand it!) as well as the sometimes numbing of my feet and lower back pain (march like you’re in the army!). By mile 12 these ladies could barely speak from all the yelling they did along the way. I made the decision to not take any photos because I was so worried about my pace. I did get some good photos, but was not able to take any with the characters along the route. And pacers would yell to runners in line for photos “you have 30 seconds or you will be picked up!” at every single photo op, with the exception of the photos in the Magic Kingdom itself. On the back side of the MK I caught up with my runner friend from the ‘real’ bathrooms at Transportation Ticket Center. She looked over at me and said she felt like we were running from the cops. It was true! There was this desperation to our running. We then chatted how the weather change was really affecting both of us. She ended up being my own personal pacer for the rest of the race. I would catch up to her every now and then, and she me.
Finally we made our way over the overpasses to Epcot and we could see the finish. Overall it was a great experience. I caught up to my friend at the finsh line to get our medals and I gave her a hug and we chatted about our times, etc. Then it was off to find the hubster and bub. Shortly afterwards, on the bus back to the hotel I started to feel God awful. I told hubbie to take bub and get something to eat, etc while I showered. Heat stroke and a killer sun burn on the back of my neck. I spent the rest of the day in bed and finally started to feel better around 8:00pm.
The next two days we enjoyed Disney and each other. We ate when we wanted, slept when we wanted and did whatever we wanted without regard for our usual routines or schedules. It was perfect! I would totally do it again, I would prepare a little better for it. Thanks for all the congrats, emails and voice mails!
