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A long but fun day - a marathon in itself!
Taxi pickup at 3:30 AM with the dodgy local taxi mob was not a great start. After many panicked calls they turned up 30 minutes late. Why stress? If you're not on the start grid by 5 you cant start, and due to road closures it was going to be close. I didn't fancy forfeiting the $250 entry fee!
Arrived in time to join the other 20,000 Marathon Runners! It was insane! Portaloo city. A zillion volunteers. Everything was brilliantly organised and we all swarmed through the 20 minute walk to the start line. No spectators at that point, but there was no room. Spirits were high, the runners were friendly and the atmosphere electric! The only downside was that when the MC called out for all the 'Goofy Challengers', it must have been 75% of the crowd (In my start grid) that cheered. The Goofy Challenge is to run a Half Mararhon on the Saturday, then a Full Marathon on the Sunday. First time I've felt like a second class citizen running a marathon!
The race started, then 20% of the field ran straight over the start line, then into the bushes on the right. It had been some time since we left Portaloo town, and we'd all been taking on water. It was quite comical, really, and for the rest of the course, that was a common pattern - women included! It was dark for the couple of hours, and it was mostly bush, so no harm done!
The course wound through backroads and joining roads, across bridges etc and lead us straight into the heart of each of the theme parks. We ran right through Cinderella's castle - woo hoo! It was an awesome experience and no Marathon will ever compare. Running through the sets in Hollywood, along the dimly lit streets of New York etc - brilliant. Along the way they had DJ's, music, bands, characters (You could stop and have a photo every couple of miles). Great course, great crowd - The crowds along the course were thick (Except in the joining bits) and loud! It was magic! For a while I ran near a guy with Paul on his Bib, so got cheered on by the crowd for a good chunk of the course. These crazy Americans know how to motivate their 'elite' atheletes! ;-).... awesome experience....
As to my race plan, I had a goal of finishing - ideally under 4 hours. Given my intermittent, icy cold and short training, that was all I could hope for. My strategy was to use my GPS watch to enforce a maximum speed - dashing off would end up in pain and suffering!
About 1/3rd through I realized my watch enforced pace was matching a pace group - a few experienced runners committed to running the course...in my target time of 4 hours. Commonly called a bus - I caught the 4 hour bus. Stick with them and you should make the cut. To start with there was maybe 400 of us, but it gradually dwindled..... until when we were making the final dash to the finish line to post a 3:58ish, there was about 10 of us left. Waiting at the finish line was an awesome Mickey Mouse Medal and a big pile of drinks and snacks. As I'd managed to finish the race before the girls could get to the park I stretched, rested and ate - then wandered over to meet them at the monorail. A quick wash and change and off into the park for the day.
When I met up with the crew it was evident that Yvonne had caught some dreaded cold/flu thing. She figured she'd stay for a while (Probably till I collapsed in exhaustion), but she was to be disappointed. I've never run a marathon and felt better afterwards - sure each time we got off a ride it took me 30 seconds to get back to normal, but I did OK. This day was around Epcot, the technology theme, and we dragged Yvonne around all the major rides, finally allowing her to have a rest around 5 while we taxied back to some shops for supplies, then we caught a hop/on, hop/off shuttle we've been using to get home. Yvonne slept. D and I cooked, then D & I did the washing......Sadly the machine took forwever and the clothes were still soggy so a Chinese laundry was created in the room.
The rides at Epcot were great, the race was great, the only bummer was that Yvonne was laid low. Still - considering the cold weather etc that we've been through, we did well to make it this far unscathed. Oh, and I got to walk around with a giant Mickey Mouse medal around my neck (Along with 20,000 others) and had to cope with 'Congratulations' from random strangers and 'cast'( Disney staff) all day. Tough, hey!
- comments
Miki Delayed by more than a week but still: well done on the marathon front!