Our Journey to Donald - Disney Half Marathon 2011

I'm trying to figure out where to start. Last year, when Boyce said that he would like to do the Disney Half Marathon with me, I knew that it would touch my heart. I was so excited that we would be spending all of this time training together, I never really thought much about the race itself! And so now the time has come for the race.

I picked him up from school so that we could head over before Grandma, Grandpa, Matt and Hannah came so we could go to the Expo. It was packed but well organized. It took no time at all to get our registration completed and head over to pick up the tshirt & goodies from the expo. Wow, it was very busy in there! We ran right into Holly while buying new pouch with new drink containers to fit on it and a couple of cliff bars, and I made a sign to hold up for the marathoners on Sunday. I was hurried out by the impatient one though...in the most affectionate way :) Afterwards, we went to downtown Disney to meet up with my friend Bekka and her family, Sueann, Holly, and some other sparkies that I have never met before! I instantly made friends with Bekka's baby boy - He is SOOO SWEET!

After that we ate at Kona, at the hotel, it was DELICIOUS, I had a spicy tuna roll, 1/2 glass of wine, and asian noodles for dinner. I stuffed myself. Boyce had a steak and chicken wings.

I was so tired that we left before dessert was over to return to the rooms and get ready for bed. We were all tucked in and Boy was snoozing by 9:30. I never slept. I laid in bed until 2:50 without ever going to sleep. I could feel my heart racing - and thought - WHAT IN THE WORLD?!?!? Did I set my phone alarm right? Did I set the wake up call right? Should I set a third alarm? Why does the A/C sound like that? I wish the people [upstairs, downstairs, beside of us] would be quiet. OMG, the bathroom door squeaks so loud, does anybody else have to go, do it now so I can sleep! Matthew, are you awake? UGH... Time to get up. Boy is a goofball! Nerves? Excited? Tired and Delusional? Not sure...but he looked pretty ready to go!
So we get to the race, and my mind is in a good place - I'm ready to have FUN! I decided to skip anything for breakfast because those overnight jitters were still with me and I felt a little woosie. We caught the monorail at 3:30 and landed at Epcot around 3:40am. Bag check was quick and we ended up just standing around for ...a really long time! I went to the portapotty while we waited, twice. You know how important these pre-race stops are :) I was determined to NOT get stickers in my breeches!

Finally they opened the gate to let the wheelchair bikes pass, and then we headed toward the start line and our corrals. I was placed in corral B, but hung back with Boy in Corral H. While we waited my sciatic nerve problem started up (it hurts most when I stand still - which I did - for what seemed like forever!) I ended up taking an Ibuprofen. 10 minutes later I was throwing up (as inconspicuously as possible) on the side of the road! My boy felt so bad for me that he didn't want me to start the race. But I knew I would be fine as soon as I got started! In-between stomach spasms, my mind was still wanting to have fun because I really was pumped and wanted to have a good time! the DJ was awesome and the energy out there was unbelievable. I took a little video, but Boy was being a punk so I didn't get much!


Next thing you know, they are counting down and fireworks are going off... But we were so far back, that we got to watch fireworks go off 4 times (Corrals A-D) and wait for nearly an hour before our corral actually made it to the start line! In the meantime, Boy and I discussed our strategy. I told him to run his own pace or run with me. It didn't matter. He was concerned about running out of steam, so we decided to walk through the water stops and run between. I knew there was a water stop around every mile. He said it, but it was actually ME worried about running out of steam as he had already left me before mile 1!

He had already weaved his way threw people and out of my site. I looked for him for the whole race. Before I knew it, we were crossing the first 5K mark. Pretty sure I was shedding my jacket around this time. I didn't realize where I was at and missed the family cheering section around mile 4. They missed me and boy too.

I had a great time coming threw magic kingdom, mostly thought back to last year and wished Jeanine was there to take pictures with. This time, I had to depend on the photographer and hope he did a good job because I was NOT waiting in the long line at the bottom of the bridge. I was feeling pretty darn fantastic at this point! Only later would I realize I felt so good because I was jogging a 12 minute mile ;) Boy is in this crowd, can you find him?

Around miles 8-10, I saw the peeps (I had to scream at them to see me again! haha), there was an awesome singer belting out Sweet Caroline which got everybody on the course singing! LOL, and Chip N Dale came out (*my favs*) right as I was passing with NO LINE! Yippie!

There were some cool bands and DJs playing. Popular songs for the race seemed to be Boom Boom Pow (Black Eyed Peas), Firework (Katy Perry), and from Disney the Winnie the Pooh song and Its a Small World. There was cool stuff all along the race course like people riding high wheel bicycles, the epcot hot air balloons, stilt walkers, of course many characters, and so much more.

Somewhere in here our support staff snapped a couple pictures of Boy in action. Apparently he was still zigzagging his way down the road! Mile 11 was the toughest for me, I just wanted to be done. I was somewhere between the last big resort passing and coming back into Epcot. Mile 12 was leading us back into Epcot so the crowd picked back up, one last water stop, then I saw Boy on his way back from the bridge to the World Showcase so I knew he was only minutes ahead of me! I cranked it up, hoping to slim the distance between us (I didn't realize I was this close to him!!) but it was too late to close the distance - I got to the finish as soon as I could but there was still a huge crowd of runners that I couldn't get past! I grabbed my mylar, medal, banana, mini cliff and water as I headed toward bag claim, trying to find him! Did I mention how many people were there?!? I couldn't find him! I laid down on my blanket, ate my first food of the day, stretched, text'd the fam. Finally found him and we agree to leave immediately, we were whipped! On the bus ride I started feeling sick. I contemplated running to the front and making them let me off but I managed to make it all the way to the front steps of our hotel before throwing up all over myself and the beautiful landscaping :-( I was so thankful that nobody acted like the saw me sitting on the ground while Boy ran in to get paper towels to clean me off!
We had a breakfast reservation shortly after I thought we would return (I did good with the estimation!!) so I showered and we headed out to that, not caring what I looked like. However, we were all dressed in our Half Shirts, so I wanted to share it with you. Aren't we CUTE!?!

Just so I don't end this on a negative note, because I really did have an awesome time on the course and felt the best WHILE I was running! And after my non-breakfast, we took a 3.5 hr nap and I woke up feeling FANTASTIC! We had a wonderful rest-of-the-weekend enjoying Epcot and Magic Kingdom. Boy teetered between "I'm never doing that again!" to "Next time...." hahaha ;) He's already planning to start training again!


Final Results

47420 BOY- 14M MEN 14 THOUGH 17 /45.2% 2:25:05

26377 CC- 36F WOMEN 35 THROUGH 39 /45.2% 2:28:11