Race recap | WDW Marathon
January 8, 2023
In which I finally run a marathon
Buckle up, folks, it's gonna be a long one!
In my defense, it was a long race.
Far too early in the morning
I went to bed around 7:30 on Saturday but didn't fall asleep until sometime after 9. Then I kept waking up in the throughout the night and finally stayed awake at 1:30, half an hour before my alarm went off at 2. Yay. My poor pup was so confused that I was getting up in the middle of the night and leaving him! No way am I doing this to myself four days in a row; one day was bad enough.
My dad and I left a little before 2:30 and he dropped me off at Epcot just before 3. I had a muffin and some coffee in the car and then grabbed another coffee once I got to the pre-race milling-around area. I walked around a bit but didn't feel like waiting in the character lines. Eventually I found the DIS sign and got to hang out with everyone there for a while before we all broke off to head for the corrals.
The walk to the corrals was indeed quite long. I stopped at the port-a-potties and ended up in the middle of A, just behind where they cut the corral for the second wave. I could have hopped the ribbon - plenty of people did - but I was fine being not at the front. It was nice that they had clothing bins set up on the sides - I was able to dump my sweatpants and sweatshirt just before the race without just throwing them on the ground. I started with just my jacket and gloves to toss later.
Every mile is magic?
My wave set off at 5:03. Since I hadn't run more than 18 miles before, I wanted to take it easy, especially at the beginning. So I found a pace that felt comfortable and then slowed down, at least until I got to MK. I slowed to take pictures of all the mile markers, and after I ended up with water up my nose trying to drink from a cup while running, walked through the water stations.
The first few miles were exciting just because the race was starting. I looped back around to the start line just after the balloon ladies crossed, which they announced from the stage. Then came the highway to MK. That part was not very exciting but still not bad because it was still pretty early in the race and it was still dark. I ditched my improvised jacket and gloves sometime in there.
Running through MK was awesome. I think I stopped for all the characters there, took my favorite mile marker photo at mile 10 (although why they put a stormtrooper there I don't quite understand). Even at 6:30 in the morning, there were enthusiastic crowds outside and on Main Street. I forget most of the signs I saw, but there were some good ones.
ID: The mile 10 marker (stormtrooper) with Main Street and the castle in the background and runners passing by.
The sun was coming up as I left MK, but somehow it was getting colder. I regretted tossing my gloves. I kept shaking out my hands to try to warm them up. This was the first really boring part - I think we had about six miles just on the highway. And as the sun started coming up, it got worse because a lot of the time the sun was directly in my eyes. Mile after mile into the sun, ugh. The visor didn't even help because the sun was so close to the horizon. I spent that time mostly staring at the ground five feet in front of me because it was the only thing I could see without being blinded.
I was very happy to finally get to DAK, which was a lot of fun. Lots of pics from there, and it was interesting to be there while the park was actually open not just for spectators. I wonder how many non-runners were very confused yesterday!
Then the trek out of DAK to DHS was the worst. It was exciting to hit mile 18, which was my previous longest run. However, the sun was still in my eyes for much of that portion, and when we got to the u-turn to get into the BB parking lot loop, I finally yelled out, "This mile is not magic, Disney!" I felt okay physically, but mentally I was frustrated with the interminable tedium of the highway and not being able to see where I was going. The only good part about this is that the miles were hitting the 20s and I was not running into any kind of wall or other issues, which was a pleasant surprise.
As soon as we got to the ramp to DHS, the experience became magical again. They were playing Go the Distance right when I got there, which was perfect and got me a little emotional, and then I got chocolate! Happy times. Our DHS time was so short, though - it felt like we were there for barely a second before we headed out again.
Fortunately we were pretty much done with the highway miles at that point. It was great to pass all the people cheering at the boardwalk, and I was kind of surprised to still feel like I had a reasonable amount of energy even at mile 23. So I decided my last 5K should be the fastest 5K. And on the mental side I had been running so long I crossed into a weird state of excited delirium. At that point I didn't see anyone stopping for characters, but I went, "Genie!" like a little kid and ran over.
Those last few miles might actually have been the most fun, in a strange and slightly psychotic way. I really enjoyed the Disney/pop 90s mix in Epcot. Wannabe came on and I started "singing" along (more like yelling, but whatever) which probably the people I was passing thought was pretty weird. But as they did the bridge - "Well here's the story from A to Z..." I ran by someone who was also singing along and we had a magical moment of camaraderie. So yeah, coming back through Epcot was a lot of fun.
When I got to the mile 26 marker, I thought about skipping the picture, but I'd committed to it for 25 markers and stopping there seemed a little ridiculous. So I took a selfie and then headed past the gospel choir and to the finish! I got a little choked up at the end there. If I'd had any moisture remaining in my body that wasn't absolutely essential to my survival there probably would have been tears, but I didn't so there weren't. The finishing chute was long but I eventually got my medal, drinks, and box of snacks.
Officially I finished in 4 hours, 37 minutes, and 4 seconds, which I am quite happy with. Unofficially, Apple Fitness has me running 26.46 miles in 4:20:31, and Strava has me doing 26.59 miles in 4:19:23. (Likely Strava is the most accurate in terms of actual moving time and Apple is the most accurate - though that's not saying much - for the distance covered.) Last three miles: 8:55, 8:19, 8:21. And more importantly, as you might be able to tell from those last splits, I finished feeling a lot better than I expected - no wall, no serious pain, nothing that I had been worried about running 8+ miles more than I ever had before. I'll do a separate post at some point with my thoughts about the training plan I used, but if nothing else I can definitely say that it got me through my first marathon in good shape!
The magical world of Disney
I did well with characters! I stopped for:
- Sebastian
- Meeko
- Tigger/Eeyore
- Beast
- Pluto
- Captain Jack Sparrow
- Mushu
- Rafiki
- Timon
- Genie
- Abu
I also stopped for pics in front of the castle, tree of life, and Everest. Of course, the only one I haven't gotten yet is Mushu!! I keep refreshing my photos to see if it comes up. Hopefully it will soon or I will be writing to Disney to say that I'm missing my most important character stop!
I don't know how it was for later corrals, but I didn't have to wait more than a couple of minutes for anyone, and during the second half of the race I could pretty much just walk right up. There were a couple from the list that I would have liked to get but weren't out when I passed, and I'm a little sad that I didn't see Pain and Panic until after I'd already gone by, but overall the photos I got were great - as long as my Mushu pic comes in!
And well, in summary
Running through the parks was awesome, although it felt like we were only in DHS for about 2 seconds. The spectators and CMs there were great, and I loved having all the characters along the course.
On the other hand, the highway miles were kind of miserable, especially running into the sun. Then there was that very non-magical u-turn leading into the BB parking lot loop. Why???
I don't know if I would do another Disney marathon just because of those long stretches with absolutely nothing, but I'll definitely do another marathon. I was really pleased with how good (I mean, relatively speaking) I felt at the end, and even today I'm a little sore but nothing too serious. I clearly have a lot of room for improvement - I think I could cut 15-20 minutes off of my time just using what I learned from this experience, with no improvement in my fitness at all. So obviously I have to do that now to see what I'm actually capable of
But wait, there's more!
After the race I found my mom and finished my Powerade, water, banana, and the yogurt smoothie she brought for me. I did a little stretching and then felt ready to head to the bathroom to clean up and change. Then we headed into the park and spent a few hours doing a couple of rides, drinks, and snacks. The margarita at La Cava Del Tequila was great, and so was the pretzel in Germany.
I was feeling okay, if slow, for a couple of hours, although my body was having a minor post-race meltdown and flipping all the switches to figure out what went wrong that had resulted in us waking up in the middle of the night and then spending so many hours running, and how to fix it. "Are we cold? Hot? Hungry? Thirsty? Have to pee? All of the above at once???" I was mostly functional, though. Still, after a couple of hours in the park, I was so tired I couldn't think anymore, so I decided it was time to go home.
Today I feel decent, all things considered. I was a little stiff this morning but loosened up quickly enough walking my dog. I could probably even run if I had to, although the idea kind of makes me laugh. I'll get back to it in a week or two. Overall I'm happy I did it and excited to apply what I learned to the next marathon.
Speaking of what I learned
For the benefit of my future self, but hopefully also helpful for other people reading this, here is a somewhat random assortment of things I want to consider for next time.
- I think my outfit was too complicated for me, at least for a full marathon. I just had a skater skirt with tight shorts underneath, but it turns out tight shorts and a skirt are hard to deal with at bathroom breaks when they're all sweaty. Next time I will just wear normal running shorts and probably shave several minutes off my time from that alone.
- On a related note, I think if I'm going to be waiting around for several hours between waking up and actually running, I should eat something more substantial. Then I wouldn't need to pee as often.
- I need to work on my posture. All these pictures have me with my shoulders hunched over! So now I've got to figure out how to pull my shoulders back when I'm running (and probably just in general). That's going to be my running form project for this year - last year I successfully improved my cadence, so now I have a new focus.
- I will have to come up with a better way to track my fueling during the race, because I completely lost track of what I was doing by the time I got about halfway through. After that I just kind of had a gel or a banana whenever it seemed like a good time for it. Fortunately, it worked out okay this time, but I don't think this is a good long-term strategy. Maybe I can start a new lap/segment whenever I fuel so my watch will show how long it's been since the last time.
- I'm also somehow really bad at posing for photos!
I never look like I think I do. I feel like I should just keep things simple and not try to be clever.
- I was okay just using on-course hydration, but if I were going for time I would want to bring my own so I wouldn't have to stop and walk at all the water stations.
- I truly had no idea when to get there, so I ended up being really early. I would have been fine arriving at 3:45/4 rather than 3, grabbing coffee and saying hi to the other DISers, and heading straight to the corrals. I'm thinking about possibly the Princess HM next year, so that's definitely good to remember.
Okay, I'm actually done now! If anyone made it through all of that text, I'm very impressed. Great job to all the MW runners!
until WDW Marathon
At one point at the end of one of the strides, though, my pace read 4:50. So I thought, "Hey, if I flat-out sprinted, I could run at Eliud Kipchoge's marathon pace! For about 10 seconds." 
days since my last run (aka the marathon), work is pretty quiet, and I'm bored. I'm no longer sore and I'm itching to run again, but the consensus from the internet seems to be that it's better to wait at least a few days and preferably a week before getting back to running after a marathon so your body can recover. So here we are, not running but still thinking about running. Seems like a good time to look back at my training plan.
days since my last run. However, I feel a bit more sane after 20 minutes on an ancient stationary bike yesterday (although I think my butt is bruised from the also-ancient seat).
