2012 Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend Part 1

Here we are in mid-March and I still haven’t gotten my 2012 Disney Marathon recap posted. I was kind of hoping I would forget about this, but Jenn over at Eat, Sleep, Run Disney just posted hers, so I guess I better get mine out on the ole Interwebs. I may break this up into multiple posts since there is a lot to talk about.

So, before we get to the “big race,” let’s take a few steps back to Christmas. My wife and I decided to visit my brother and his family in San Francisco over the holiday break. We had an amazing trip and left with many souvenirs, the biggest of which was from my nephew, a chest cold. So, my wife and I were about 10 days out from the biggest races of our lives and couldn’t breathe more than 5 minutes without going into deep coughing fits. My wife took it much rougher as she was coughing frantically up to (and right through) her Donald Half Marathon. She was in such rough shape, she even skipped the 3 Caballeros 5k at Epcot (she’s still apologizing for keeping me up with her coughing fits). I had my own problems, specifically IT Band issues. In November, I ran a 10 miler and destroyed my previous 10 mile time, but in the process jacked my legs. This prohibited me from any serious mileage over the holiday break (my longest run was 13.1 miles), so I was thinking “I am literally going to die. I’m literally going to either poop myself or die.” This was going to be fun.

                         Disney 3 Caballeros 5k at Epcot

The day we got in, we decided to stay with my Mom in a nearby town and visit a bit. The next morning, I got up early and checked in on my wife, who for all intents & purposes was out of the 5k lineup due to her chest cold (yep, she was coughing all night!). So, I hopped in the car and headed the back roads to Epcot. I had driven this way well over a million times, but it was so dark and foggy I thought I was going to get into an accident. Worse still, it was about 28 degrees out, 10 degrees COLDER than Chicago! Luckily, I got there fine and hung out in my car to stay warm until race start. I had run “fun runs” at Epcot before so I knew what to expect – cheesy DJ, lots of folks who look like they run once a year, folks in costumes, and the “hardcore, serious runners.” It was all in good fun, but I had a reason to get out there, I had to see how my legs were feeling since not running for over a week. This time the setup a little different, Disney had wave starts to organize the runners, by pace to maximize the overall experience. I lined up in Wave 1 hoping to keep a steady 8:00 mile and since this was honor system, everyone else lined up in this corral, I spent the first 5 minutes dodging walkers (C’mon walkers, back of the line!!!!!)

Off I went and quite frankly, felt great! I love running through Epcot, it’s so wide you can really get into a groove and stay there. I knew I’d have some stamina issues, which I petered out at around mile 2.98. So, I walked for about 15 seconds and then pushed a kick to the finish. All in all a good race and I was pretty happy with my performance.The medallion, as per usual, a dinky, rubber keychain, certainly not worthy of the cost of admission.

I crossed the Start Line at about :15 into the race

After the race, I went back to my mom’s and picked up my wife. We headed over to the Wilderness Lodge & checked in (God, I love that resort) My wife was running the Donald the next day, so she wanted to rest up.

I think this is a good place to stop for now (I have a St. Patty’s 5k in 8 hours and need to get some sleep.)

Next post: Devin’s Donald