2012 Walt Disney World Marathon Recap: Part III

Okay, it's taken 4 months, two posts and now a captive seat at 33,000 feet for me to finish this marathon report (a marathon, itself).

Sunday morning, race day! I was up way earlier than needed, but c'mon who really sleeps the night before their first marathon? Devin's coughing fits subsided enough for about 3 restful hours and she was out cold (thanks, codeine!) I took a quick shower and tried to eat something, but I'm not much of a breakfast person and my body was really fighting my attempts to get some food in it. So I downed a Powerade, ate some performance jelly beans and grabbed a bag of mini Chips-A-Hoy from our snack bag and headed out the door. It was early, like 3:05, early and like yesterday, the Wilderness Lodge lobby was devoid of any and all human life, save a few runners who had the same idea I did which was to get to the race early. We hopped on a somewhat full, but very quiet bus. Sensing the tension, the bus driver shut the door and said, "Off to the airport!" We all sat up in our seats and he said, "Just kidding!"

The trip to the race was very quiet, so much the voice in my head was screaming for me to hop out the emergency window and steal off into the night so as not to have to run. In a bit of a panic, I sent off (as I was expecting due to the hour of the morning) a feeble post on ROTE asking for "some love." To my surprise, a good many of ROTErs were online and shot right back with motivation (love you guys).

Got to the race, but there were just so many people, I couldn't find any ROTE folk, which bummed me out, but in the line for the bathroom found some nice folk from Chicago so spent some time with them. When it was time, I made the death march with everyone else to the starting line and noticed just the sheer amount of people running as I made my way to Corral A. The anticipation and excitement was simply too much and I just wanted to start the race immediately. No fanfare, no DJ chatter, just start the race!

Finally, the time had come and after seeing the fireworks shoot up into the air I was off, hoping the lack of training wouldn't lead the paramedics on a 500 foot trail of poop to a frozen corpse on the side of the road. My goal was to run a steady, easy pace for the 1st half of the race and then bump it up for the second half, but I was about 1 mile in and at that point, anything was possible. As we hit about Mile 2, I ran into Fundulidae and DeltaPilot (from ROTE) who were humming along at a good pace. We hung out a bit and then parted ways (Thanks for the kind words, guys).

The course led us into Epcot through the auto toll, where I encountered a wheelchair athlete in a standard wheelchair struggling. I wasn't sure what to do so I told one of the race people as I headed into Epcot. The course took us through Future World and backstage through Mexico, heading back around to where we started the race. After making the loop, we turned onto World Drive towards the Magic Kingdom through the TTC. I absolutely loved this part of the race, since it was really the first chance to get close to the folks who were cheering us on. Seeing them was more than inspirational, and quite frankly, I don't think there is a word in the English dictionary to describe the feeling a runner gets when first encountering a group of people cheering them on. So, I'll establish a word: Motivationarunneralabalous! Yes, seeing the people was Motivationarunneralabalous! It was so cool, I sped up to a 8:30 mile. "Holy shit!" I exclaimed, scaring the runner next to me , "I gotta slow down." As I motored through the TTC, I felt great and headed towards the Contemporary. Heading down the incline underneath the boat crossover, I started running backwards and sticking out my thumb to the passing cars, getting a bunch of laughs from all the other runners.

We were reaching Mile 11 and the point everyone single runner was anticipating, the magical run down Main Street towards the castle, and let me tell you, I was not disappointed. Making the turn onto Main Street and seeing all the people cheering, with the castle, I would be lying if I said I didn't well up with a tremendous feeling. And then it got better, running through Main Street, I caught eyes with the most gorgeous looking woman in the crowd and low and behold, it was my wife! She was there with my mom, and her parents. Let me tell you, that moment was über-Motivationarunneralabalous!!!!!!!!!!  At that, moment I felt like was I was going to shoot right into the lead and win this sucker (a fleeting thought for sure).

We headed to the right, through Tomorrowland, Fanatsyland and then that magical trip through the castle (which was amazing). We rounded out our Magic Kingdom visit through Frontierland, backstage through Gate 6, and left towards the Grand Floridan. I knew this would be the last place for awhile where there would be onlookers so I drank it in as much as I could. I knew right ahead of me was dreaded Mile 13 and the dark forest of nothingness.

Mile 13 was near the Hess station and banana distribution. I absolutely hate bananas, but knew I had to eat something, so I muscled it down and prepared to shift into the second piece of my strategy. My Garmin beeped Mile 13 and my mind shifted towards a new focus, "Speed. I am pure speed." I got a hungry look in my eye and looked to up my game. One problem, my legs never seemed to have gotten the memo. I was still running, but my run was something akin to your first car where it could never seem to cleanly find second gear. Grinding, straining, and with the occasional backfire, I was stuck in neutral and slowly losing time. Worse yet, we were at the sewage treatment plan, no man's land. So, I immediately came to grips with not hitting my goal time and figured I'd just do my best and leave it at that. Making out way though the back areas, Disney had some signs up to keep us occupied, the funniest of which being a sign that read, "If you believe in telekinesis,  raise MY hand." Clever.

The second half of the race was rough, and I was wrought with emotion. Sadness, anger, denial, depression, all the emotions every runner feels as they attack a marathon, but I kept moving forward.  It also helped that a few runners patted me on the back when I had to walk,  cementing my belief that runners are the most compassionate athletes. 

Passing through Animal Kingdom which the course layout was "meh" at best, we turned onto Osceola Parkway which was built for the sole reason of making runners die.  After being on OP for what seemed an eternity, we headed through the Studios, past the Boardwalk, Yacht & Beach and back into  Epcot. Running through World Showcase, it was just a mere 4.5 hours before I was jamming along feeling great. I motored through the Finish in a sad, but I guess respectable 5 hours, 1 hour past my goal time. Who cares, though? I did it! Adding to my 13.1 membership, I had just been inducted into the 26.2 club, and man, is that Motivationarunneralabalous!

Never been so tired and happy!

Highlights:
Running through the castle. Amazing!
Seeing my family along the route
Running into ROTErs
Course entertainment

Downsides:
Osceola Parkway

2012 Shamrock Shuffle 8k Race Recap

Don't worry, we'll get to Part III of my Walt Disney Marathon in a day or two. But in the meantime, I wanted to talk about my most recent race.

Last Sunday, I had the opportunity to try the Bank of America Shamrock Shuffle 8k in Chicago. Touted, the “world’s largest timed 8k,” the race certainly was my firs t experience in what I’m calling a “real race.” Mind you, I’ve run big races at Disney and the Hot Chocolate series, but the Shamrock had a veritable “who’s who” in today’s running. Names like Delilah DiCrescenzo and 2012 Olympian, Abdi Abdirahman would lead the pack and look for a victory after traversing the Chicago city streets in glorious running weather. The other races I had run were big, but not really big name. Plus the Elite Corral was jam packed with sub 25:00 runners, so you know this race was serious.

This was to be my third race of the season, but first major one.

Expo

First, let’s start back at the Expo. My wife and I went on Saturday to pick up our packets. I was glad to have submitted a qualifying time to move me up since there would be 40,000 runners in this monster. However,  I could only muster up a Corral B, which was kinda sad, since this was the first race in a long time I wasn’t seeded in Corral A, but as of late, an old stress fracture injury started to rear its ugly head, so I planned to take it easy anyway.

Overall, the Expo was well done and easy to navigate. Packet pickup was a breeze, as were the lines to get our shirts (seriously, red shirts for the Shamrock Shuffle? Very much a fail (even if they do look kinda cool)). Afterwards, we decided to check out all the goodies being offered at the Expo (I love running expos!). It was the usual same ole “I run for beer” bumper stickers, GU gels and apparel. But, there were a few highlights. First, the Motorola Motoactv running watch which is really cool. It remembers the songs that are playing when you show a jump in performance, effectively learning what works for you (beats all the Excel spreadsheets I do manually). I wasn’t really looking for myself, since I use a Garmin 610 & Nike + (more on that later), but more for my wife who recently asked about getting an iPod shuffle to use Nike + (she is currently using a Garmin 210).  We played with it for awhile and felt it’s a really neat device, and may pick up once one of our devices craps out.

The other neat booth was the Newton running shoe booth. I had heard about Newtons before, but didn’t know much until after reading about them in the April Runner’s World. I was curious to check them out since my stress fracture was due to my running style and Newtons had strategic rubber placements to help combat these issues. I tried out the Newton Distance which were really comfy and light! Because of the extra layer of rubber on the midsole of the shoe it would definitely take some getting used to, but a very cool feeling shoe. Since I already have about 4 pairs of running shoes in rotation (and a few still sitting in boxes), I couldn’t really justify the cost just yet (but, they are on the horizon).

Race Day

It was a slightly cool, breezy Sunday, perfect for running. My wife and I got to the race about 7:30 for an 8:30 start. I always like it when races are slated to have wave starts, even more when organizers police the corrals guaranteeing the correct runners are in the correct places. Both my wife and I were in Wave 1 which was helpful (since Wave 2 wouldn’t start for 45 minutes until after Wave 1). Bag check was a breeze, so after checking my bag I wished my wife good luck and headed over to the B Corral. According to the official guide, Corral B was to have about 3,000 runners but it felt more like 1,000 meaning space was abundant. Since I got there early I had plenty of room to stretch and prepare. Once warm, I threw in my ear buds and visualized the course in my head knowing there were 8 turns from Start to Finish.

Once the National Anthem was complete (sung by the incomparable Wayne Messmer), the horn blew and we were off. My game plan was to manage a safe 8:00 pace for the first 2 miles and then turn up the last 3. Well, that plan was shot the minute I crossed the Start line. Getting caught up in the excitement (I know better); Mile 1 rang out on my Garmin at 7:23, Mile 2: 6:49. Holy crap! I had to slow down! I was risk of either dying out early, aggravating my injury, or both!

Sidebar

Lemme just take a minute here and note how much I love my Garmin 610. It stayed true even after running under a bridge at Mile 1 to which the Nike + on my iPhone completely scrambled itself (It said I ran a 1:43 mile and did a 5k in 19:00 – I blame AT&T for its crappy service in the city). Suddenly, that MotoActv started to look pretty good.

Okay, we’re back

Anyways, filing past Mile 2, I was way under pace and I knew I wouldn’t be able to manage that time consistently for the length of the race. Problem was, I couldn’t slow down. Every time I tried to cut back to a 7:55/8:00 I felt like my body was working harder. So, I did the only damage control I could think of, I stopped. At Mile 2.whatever, I moved to the right, put my hand up, and stopped running.  I walked for about 30 seconds and managed to get control of myself and started back up. I felt much better at my planned 8:00 pace, but the damage was already done, I was pretty winded so any chance of speeding up in the last mile was all but lost.

The final stretch was pretty wide and flat (after just running over a somewhat sizeable hill). I gave it all my might and finished at a respectable 39:06, about 20 seconds short of a PR. My wife rocked her race and set a new PR for the 8k, so there was cause for celebration on her accomplishment.

The Course

I really enjoyed the set up. It was somewhat similar to last year’s Hot Chocolate race, taking us north to Grand, than pretty far west, south on Michigan Ave, and then finishing on Columbus (same as the Chicago Marathon Finish line). Since the roads were closed, everyone had the chance to make a notch for themselves and get into a rhythm without having to bunch up. I really enjoyed running over the bridges and looking down at the water. The other thing I enjoyed was just the sheer amount of people all along the route (especially, the perplexed tourists trying to get out of their hotels). There were also some great signs along the course such as “Do epic shit!” & “Worst. Parade. Ever!” I love this city.

Overall, this was a great race. It was well organized and a terrific route through the heart of the city. I’m really looking forward to next year, where I WILL get in Corral A.