WDW Half Marathon Race Report - January 12, 2013

Pre-race
Months before the race, Jon decided that it'd be a great idea to run the WDW half marathon as his first half marathon. Our triathlon team made it an "A" race, so it'd be a big trip.

Note: I gave him a bunch of outs!

Fast forward to December. My longest training run was a 5.75 mile trail run. Jon's longest training run was 4 miles on a treadmill. Yea... not great training for either one of us! At least I had done this before so I knew what I was getting myself into.

So, we headed to Disney and got going. We arrived Thursday and had dinner at Ohana. Friday morning, we headed to the race expo to get our race bibs and packets. It was CRAZY!

Our race bibs

Craziest race expo ever

Me, Jon, & Nadia at the race expo

We headed to Animal Kingdom to tool around for a little bit. After we were done there, we headed to Downtown Disney to have dinner at Earl of Sandwich and do some shopping. (YAY!) We had a 2am wake up call on race morning, so we headed back at a decent time and got settled in for some sleep... or trying to sleep at least.

Race day
The alarm started going off at 2:00AM. The "bad" thing about Disney races is that they start insanely early... at least this one does. Jon had a small fit because I was putting off getting ready, but I know how long it takes me to get ready, so I wasn't worried. We decided the night before that we needed to be out of the room by 2:50am to be to the bus stop by 2:55. The busses were supposed to start at 3am. Apparently, several people had the same idea, because we were pretty far back in line. We chatted with 2 guys in line around us and waited and waited and waited. Around 3:15, the bus finally showed up. Disney's normally on time with everything, so I was a bit surprised (and having a Type-A personality breakdown) that the bus was running late.

We got to the EPCOT parking lot and were dropped off about a 5 -10 minute walk from the family meet up area. We walked over to where Team Z was supposed to be, but couldn't find any of them. We finally found one of our teammates and chatted with her for a bit. I ran to the port-a-potty and then came back to hang out. A couple more of our teammates found us after a while.

A few of the Z'ers who made the trip to Disney. 3 of these guys were doing the Goofy Challenge!

Around 4:15 or so, we were all told to go to the other side of the bag check tents to head down to the corrals. At 4:30, we went through the tents and were greeted by a mass of people. Basically, a corral before the corrals. It was nuts. No one really knew what was going on and what exactly we were all doing standing around. Apparently, Disney has decided that it's efficient to make everyone walk to the corrals all at once. (I don't really think it was.)

Around 4:40/4:45, they opened the gates and we were allowed down the road towards the corrals. We said goodbye and good luck to Nadia, as she headed to her corral. Then, when we got closer to the corrals, I gave Jon a quick kiss, wished him luck, and hoped he'd make it through the run. It was 5:15 by the time I reached corral B. I sat and stretched out a little bit. Mostly, I just sat. I knew I needed to give my legs a few minutes of a break. I should note that at this point, I needed to use the bathroom again and there were no port-a-potties. What I'd give to be a guy sometimes!

The National Anthem was sung, and then the wheelchair race was started. Not too long after, the Elite race started. You could feel the energy rising with each start. Corral A was sent off and our corral started making it's way to the start line. Before I knew it, we were sent off. The temperature at start was in the mid-to-high 60s, with a crazy high humidity of 94% or so.

The first couple of miles went by pretty quickly. I found the 2:15 pace group and decided I was going to hang with them. 2:15:00 comes out to a 10:18 pace per mile, which I'm totally capable of. Anyhow... around mile 3, I decided that I really REALLY needed to use the bathroom, so I stopped at the port-a-potties that didn't have a line. Funny thing, I glanced at my watch for mile 3 and I did an 11:08... even with the stop! I lost the pace group by making the pit stop, so I just ran on and did my thing.

The water stops were CRAZY! There was no real way to run through them. I ran past the Powerade part of the stops as best as I could since I was carrying my Infinit and just wanted to get to the water.

Around mile 5, just before we entered the Magic Kingdom, I decided to walk just a minute. The humidity was getting to me, as was my lack of real training. This started my mental break down. Whenever I've told myself it's ok to walk, I let myself off the hook easier and more often than I should. I ran through the Magic Kingdom. It was so great to see the castle all lit up and glittery. I thought to myself that when I ran this race in 2008, I didn't get to see the MK and castle this way because I was so slow that the sun had already come up by the time I got to the MK. The crowds were so much bigger than I remembered them from 2008. After getting out of the MK, we headed behind the Grand Floridian and it was packed with people! That was definitely a nice change.

Around mile 8, one of the Team Zers ran up behind me and we chatted for a few minutes. Around this time, we also heard the "call of the Z" so, we looked for them and smiled and waved for the camera.

Maureen and I answering the "call of the Z"

Miles 8 - 10 were pretty uneventful. Just before mile 11, my left Achilles (the one I pulled in 2009) started to bother me, so I stopped to stretch it out a little bit. Then, my right knee started to twitch, so I stopped to massage that out a little. Needless to say miles 10-11 weren't my best. Ah well. I got it done. Miles 11.5 to the end were great. There was so much crowd support heading into EPCOT. Once in EPCOT, the cast members were awesome.

Around this time, I realized that not only was I going to finish (I've learned that it's never a given in any race!), but I was going to set a PR. My previous best for this distance was 2:42:xx. I was really hoping to go 2:15:xx, but knew with the warmer temps and the humidity that it may not happen. I kept running the calculations based on my current pacing and knew I'd beat 2:42 if I just kept moving at the current pace.

There was a REALLY cranky guy who was just behind me around mile 12.8. He said some not so nice things, and you could just tell he was having a bad day. I knew we were getting close and refused to let his bad mood have any affect on me.

Around mile 13, Disney has a gospel choir set up. They're literally just before you can see the finish line. I had wondered if they'd be there like they were in 2008. I almost started crying when I saw them. I knew the finish line was close and I was just happy to be there. It seems silly that I still get emotional over finishing distance races, but I do. To throw down a 5k is nothing these days... but there's still something a little crazy about going out and putting down a half marathon.

As I crossed the finish line, I fist bumped Minnie Mouse and smiled for the camera. It was awesome to be done! I got my medal, missed the mylar blankets, grabbed a couple of waters and some food, and made my way to the family meet up area to see the other Zers... and started my wait for Jon and Nadia.

Side note: My watch said I went 13.31 miles. That extra .2 miles? Weaving in and out of "traffic"... and the pit stop for the potty. My 13.1 time was more like 2:31:xx, but that's unofficial, so I'll leave it at that.

I was so nervous for both of them. I KNEW Jon could do it if he got his head in a good place. Nadia's been recovering from an injury, so I wasn't sure about her. I was so excited when I got the email that Jon had crossed the finish line.

Jon & I post race

I was happy when I got the email that Nadia had finished too! The one bad part about finishing the race was that there really wasn't a way for me to get back to the finish line to see them both cross. I wish I had been able to.

Nadia & I post race

Then we waited in the crazy line to get on the bus to our hotel. It actually didn't take nearly as long as I thought it might.

Post race
After getting back to the hotel, we all showered and then went over to the food court for lunch. We all decided to have "make your own pasta", which took forever, but was good. It was a ton of food!

Nadia was having problems with her foot, so she decided to head back to the room and stay off of it for the day. Jon & I headed to EPCOT and met up a couple of our Team Z friends. We thought about Test Track until we saw that the wait was 100 minutes for standby and 40 minutes for single rider. No thanks! We then decided to head to Mexico and grab some margaritas. Yum!

Mmmm, margaritas!

After a while, we met up with a few other Zers and headed to the Italy pavilion for some wine... right after waiting for the Friendship boat to be let into the lake.

Bridge opening

Wine!

After the wine, it was time to meet the team for dinner at Downtown Disney. So, we headed down and it was good to see everyone. We headed back to the hotel after dinner to catch up with Nadia and get some sleep. I kept reminding Jon & Nadia that the next day would be hard, but as long as they moved around, it'd get better.

The next morning, we woke up and were kind of sore. I knew it was best to massage out what I could and just keep moving. I woke Jon up by massaging his shoulders, legs, and feet. Basically, everything that hurt. We had decided to head to the Magic Kingdom in order to avoid the marathon (since it had already gone through the MK by the time we were up & moving). As the day progressed, both of them were fading pretty fast, so we decided to head out before Wishes! (darn!). I think they were both happy to not be walking around any more.

Tuesday, everyone felt a good bit better. We headed to MGM/DHS before we had to leave. It was a good ending to the trip.

Official Results
5k split - 33:38
10k split - 1:07:49
15k split - 1:46:20
Overall time - 2:33:32
Pace per mile - 11:43

Overall place - 9614 out of 23126
Division place - 730 out of 2090
Gender place - 4193 out of 13138

Things Learned
It really is better to actually train for a half marathon!
It's hard to run in 30-40 degrees more than you are used to.
Humidity still kicks my butt.
Disney puts on a great race. Yes, it's expensive, but man do they keep you entertained on the run.
Sticking to my nutrition plan was a good idea, especially in the heat/humidity.