Back home and officially a marathoner!
We stayed in WDW the week after the marathon, and already the race itself is blurring. I'm glad I took lots of pictures!
Here's my recap:
My plan going in was to have a fun race - high five spectators, cheer on others, stop for photos, run/walk at a good pace for me but not all out. Also, I was running with a good friend from home, "C", but we had never trained together. She is a slow runner and I am a moderately fast walker - she trains at faster paces but I have faster race times - so we were hoping it would kind of even out. Thought we could do a 6:10 including photos, but wasn't aiming for time really.
The day before I was a little nervous that we had spent too much time on our feet at the expo, kids race, and parks. But I think I was less anxious for this than I was for some of the halfs I've done. I put in the training, I had a plan for eating and pacing, my mentality was pretty much "ready or not, it's race time". The one other thing I was nervous about was how long we'd be awake before starting. Being in Corral F, I would be awake for 3.5 hours before starting the race - I was nervous I might be tired.
On race morning, I had no trouble getting up and getting ready. DH and I got on a bus somewhere around 3:30am. We met up with our friend "C" and were happy to see photographers in the pre-race area. DH went off to Corral B and we followed thru bag check shortly after. C and I sat in our corral until everyone started standing up. Best thing I brought was a throwaway towel - I think it was $3 on clearance. I sat on it for a while, then wore it around my shoulders until it was our corral's turn. I was a little chilly at the start and C reminded me how hot we'd be later.
My pace and C's pace didn't quite line up as well as we'd hoped, but we were determined to do this together. Feet started to get a little sore earlier than expected (mile 12?) but didn't get worse. Legs didn't want to go any faster about that same point, so it was just a focus on putting one foot in front of the other. I feel so fortunate that I never hit a wall. There were challenging spots, but I never felt so miserable or like I couldn't finish. If it's possible, I feel like I got stronger after mile 20. After that, the course was so enjoyable, the finish was nearing, and I had become a coach. C was really feeling the heat, so I was encouraging her and helping her as much as I could. I think it was helpful in a way, since it took me out of my own head. We found the energy for some silly photos in Epcot and managed to run in to the finish with a time of 6:52. 9 days later and I still can't believe I'm a marathoner!
I said this would be my only marathon, but I'm thinking I might do one again - just not in the next year!
Overall highlights:
Someone in our corral reminded us that as first timers, we'd be setting a PR no matter what the time!
On the way to MK, a little girl spectator yelled out "Go Little Mermaid!" (my costume)
Running through the castle
WISHers - you guys were amazing! Pretzels, Twizzlers, and salt packets!
Overall misses:
They were out of Clif shots at the first stop
Running by the waste area - pew!
No balloon for the back of the back at mile 20
And the infamous 20-mile surprise...I actually liked it and recognized the giant puppets as from DL, but it was less than I had imagined. It wasn't a let down during the race per se, but later when I was thinking about it, the mile 20 surprise was a factor in me registering!
Beating the heat - the heat wasn't great, but it didn't bother me nearly as much as others. I had pre-hydrated the whole week prior to the race, and took water or Powerade at every stop - sometimes 2 cups. I wore sunscreen and sunglasses as well. It may have helped me that I've been going to hot yoga 2x a week for the past 3 months - so even though my training runs have been in the winter, I'm still used to exerting myself in the heat. We used some imagery from our MN winters - "can't you just feel your snot freezing right now?!"
And I'll leave any hopeful 2014 or 2015 marathoners with this quote:
"Go as far as your dreams."
(It's from a Cinderella II song lyric of all places)
Anyone know where I can get the "pumped up" Disney classics they were playing before/during the races? I asked at several stores but the cast members were less than helpful...
TIA
If you go on iTunes and look at the Disney Mania CDs - that's what most of mine are from.