disney marathon (goofy challenge) recap

sunday began at 2:45 am, just like saturday, although thanks to running a hard 13.1 miles i slept soundly at least. jess texted me expressing how glad she was to be getting up so early. i offered to share my ibuprofen with her but she declined, she has stronger stuff for her plantar. i was kind of jealous.

we left to pick up jess and her dad at 3:45. the guard to their resort was being lame and called their room, waking up jess's mom, to make sure it was ok to let us in. so lame rent-a-cop. it's 3:45 in the morning. i'm dressed in my running clothes with my race bib on. where else would we be going.

anyway, we made it over to epcot again, took a trip to the port-a-potties, and stood around for a bit feeling tired and sore. around 4:30 we decided we should probably go ahead over to the start area since there were so many more people than the half had. i felt kind of bad for making j go hang out alone already, especially since he had been a real trooper getting up pre-3:00am, being our race chauffer, standing around alone for hours on saturday and now sunday while we ran, and trying to make it to the few spectating spots he could actually access to see us. he is super supportive of my obsession with running and even encourages me to stick with it. on top of all that, it was his birthday weekend. when we woke up at 2:45 i said i bet you'd rather just now be getting home from the bars instead of getting up. he was a real trooper and great 'fan' throughout this goofy weekend. :)

ok back to the race... jess, her dad, and i made the mile walk to the start line and hung out in our corral (b! for bad idea to run 39.3 miles) stretching and talking with other random people until the race started. my legs were stiff and sore, nothing too bad, but sore, and i was developing a headache. because we headed over to the start so early, i missed a text from denise (rundmt), so i didn't get to see her again. (sorry again denise!) i sure could've used some of her energetic aura. i thought all the stretching would loosen up my legs but it didn't. mickey, minnie, donald and goofy climbed back up on stage and counted us down to another firework sendoff, and we were off.

jess and i started out taking it easy, aiming to keep our mile splits under 10:00, hold off letting her dad pass us for as long as possible and just survive. within a few minutes of running, we reached the area where spectators could watch the start of the marathon and mile 4. we kept an eye out for j, which was tough with all the spectators, but we found him. the first 4 or 5 miles sucked. my legs were sore, my head hurt, and i kinda wanted to just call it quits. (obviously i wouldn't really, but i just was not in the mood to run 26.2 after saturday's 13.1.) the first 4 miles wound us through epcot, and we stopped for pictures with the characters we encountered along the way. around mile 2, jess's dad passed us already. what a bummer. i was hoping we could at least hold him off until the double-digit miles. we were warming up already so when we passed j again at mile 4 we gave him our long-sleeved shirts.

i took my first gu roctane somewhere around mile 5 or 6, mostly in hopes that it would help with my headache that was really sucking. it seemed to do the trick, and my headache faded. we continued running sub-10:00 miles overall, although some of our photo stops put us over our target mile pace at times. a pit stop around mile 7 or 8 made for a really long mile split, but didn't set us back on our time as a whole. i took a second gu around mile 10 or 11, i'm guessing, i really can't remember. they handed out bananas near mile 16-ish and clif shots at mile 18. i took the clif shot around mile 20 and my third gu at mile 22 to carry me home. as with the half, the gu roctanes gave me a boost in confidence and energy throughout the race.


jess and i kept running, stopping for a quick picture with characters and usually taking a brief walk-break through the water stops. we didn't stop or walk at all otherwise, which was pretty amazing since we ran so hard saturday. i guess i just thought i'd be really tired and hurting, but my training paid off more than i could have expected. i know you're not supposed to try anything new on race day, but when jess wanted to stop for some biofreeze at one of the med tents i decided i'd try it out. it felt pretty good on my legs, and my quads seemed to loosen up a little and felt less sore.


once we hit mile 21, we passed jess's dad back and i picked up my pace. i pulled away from jess a little but she was only a few minutes behind me at the finish. i felt strong; i had no aches or pains; i ran hard for the last five miles and it felt great. i'm still in shock over how well i felt in the marathon overall and how strong i was able to finish after having ran so hard on saturday. (maybe i should've ran harder in the half?)

in the last mile of the race, i picked up my pace even more. i was hurting some, but i told myself "this is the last mile i am running for the next few days, let's make it worth it." i had my super killer kick and j just barely happened to look up in time to see me finish. he had been getting the "tracking" update text messages which gave him an estimated finishing time so he wasn't expecting me. the last update was provided around mile 20, and he figured i'd continue to hold the same pace i'd been running the whole time, mostly because i just raced the day before (so he claims). well i tore up the last 5 miles, put everything i had into the last 5k, and put even more into the last mile. my average pace for the whole race went from a 9:43-ish to a 9:19 because of 5 little miles! (i was really ready to be done already.) i think i finished about 8 minutes sooner than the tracking updates were predicting.

just like the half, the marathon was well organized and tons of fun. it was even more enjoyable to get to stop and take quick photos with the characters. racing saturday helped use up most of my competitive brain cells and allowed me to pull back, take it easy, and have fun for 26.2 miles. the disney marathon is definitely the funnest marathon in my book - i highly recommend it!

clock time - 4:05:53
chip time - 4:04:26
overall - 2335/14953
gender - 579/7144
age group - 60/706

mile splits and hr
mile 1 - 9:38, 168
mile 2 -9:31, 141
mile 3 - 10:23, 143 *multiple photo stops
mile 4 - 9:21, 145
mile 5 - 9:37, 146
mile 6 - 9:13, 146
mile 7 - 9:23, 144
mile 8 - 11:47, 139 *port-a-potty stop
mile 9 - 9:27, 146
mile 10 - 9:20, 148
mile 11 - 10:20, 152 *multiple photo stops
mile 12 - 9:29, 154
mile 13 - 9:03, 153
mile 14 - 9:14, 153
mile 15 - 9:18, 152
mile 16 - 10:16, 150 *ate a banana
mile 17 - 9:59, 152
mile 18 - 9:45, 152
mile 19 - 10:05, 154 *had to wait on some dude with camera issues to get a pic with cap'n hook
mile 20 - 9:16, 161
mile 21 - 8:56, 162
mile 22 - 8:32, 167
mile 23 - 8:12, 172
mile 24 - 7:30, 177
mile 25 - 7:57, 179
mile 26.2 - 8:46, 183 *missed the mile 26 sign