Scenes from the Disney World Marathon

After the previous day's half marathon, I was pretty bummed out. Not because of my performance, but because of the pain that came back and what that might mean for the Marathon. I knew that I was going to get through this race, but I didn't train all that time to "just get through it".  Even if I was in pain, there was no way I was going to walk this marathon. That is not what I came to do!

Even though the weather for the marathon was much warmer then the day before, I still decided to wear compression pants. The pair I had on the day before kind of helped keep my knee strap in place, so I thought I would try that again. I don't really feel like the strap helped me the day before, but I DID get through the first 3 miles with out any pain. Weather or not that was contributed to the strap or not, I don't know but it was worth wearing if it would let me run pain free for only the first 3 miles.  I had not really counted on wearing pants to race in so I only brought one pair of black ones and one pair of gray ones. Today I had to wear the gray ones. Pairing those along with my hot pink calf sleeves, I totally wasn't making any fashion statements today!

When I was in the medical tent the day before, the nurse had asked me if the pain is more or less when I run faster. Sure enough, it is less painful when I sprint and more painful when I am trying to take it slow. She said that made sense. She told me that I should try to just try to get by with doing little sprints throughout the race.

My sister was nice enough to move back to a further corral so she could run with me. We had a little hiccup in the beginning because we went to use the potty before we got in the corral. The corrals had already started moving up and we ended up getting into a corral even further back. It all worked out okay anyway but word of advice, unless you are in the very last corral, make sure you are in your corral by the time the National Anthem is playing!

When the race started, I started off with a power walk, then a gallop, then a full out sprint.  I did this for the first few miles. I even discovered that if I skipped, I had no pain. Believe it or not I found that skipping took more energy out of me than actually running. I didn't do the skipping thing anymore after the first few miles because other runners were starting to make fun of me.  During this time I was so excited to see that we ran into our friend Lois and the girls she was running with. They were doing a run-walk method and I loved how she was calling out when it was time to either "run" or "walk".  We tried to stick with them for a little while but because I was doing a walk-sprint, our rhythms weren't syncing up and we lost them.

The first several miles were the same as the half marathon course the day before. Of course we stopped in Magic Kingdom for a few pictures.  For the sake of this post, we will be borrowing some photos from Marathon foto until we decided which ones we want to purchase.

As we left MK, we headed on to the Disney Speedway.

On the Disney Speedway

 After the speedway it was about another 3 miles till we hit another park, which was Animal Kingdom. Before we actually entered the park there were some animals standing along the road ( with handlers of course) and some runners were stopping for pictures.  Once we got into Animal Kingdom, we thought that was a good time for a bathroom break. There wasn't even anyone in the restroom we went to so we were able to get right in and right out.  As we left Animal Kingdom, we approached the half way mark!

After Animal Kingdom it was a pretty long stretch of road until we got to ESPN wide world of sports. It wasn't until we passed mile 15 that I turned to my sister and said "Ya know what, I might do this again".  Of course I had 11.2 more miles to go, but I admit I may have been too quick to say that this marathon was a "one and done".   As we were approaching mile 17, the announcer was telling runners that they were already at mile 20! Of course he was talking to the runners that were on the other side of the highway from us!

Running through the baseball stadium at wide world of sports.

I liked all the different surfaces we got to run on at wide world of sports. I actually picked up a little speed on my sprints as we were running around the baseball field.  Chip and Dale were spotted up at wide world of sports and I thought it might have been nice to get a picture but it started to rain and I didn't feel like getting my camera out. In fact, we really slacked on taking pictures during this race. I know I didn't even make an attempt to look happy in the photos that marathon foto was taking. I was in pain when I was running but at least I was trying to manage it slightly. We stopped again for a potty break at wide world of sports. It turned out that the hydration belt that I was wearing kept pushing on my bladder and falsely kept making me think I had to go. We solved this problem by letting Lacey wear the belt the rest of the way. We didn't stop for anymore bathroom breaks after that!

After leaving wide world of sports, we headed to Hollywood Studios, then the boardwalk, and then finally to Epcot.  I know I really slowed down in Epcot because it started to rain and it was making the surface slippery. I really didn't want to wipe out when I was so close to the finish!

A somewhat wet and rainy finish

We decided that we were going to hold hands as we crossed the finish line. I totally expected to breakdown and sob after getting through this marathon in this much pain, but I didn't. I was just so happy that I did it. We did it!  Yea, it wasn't the finish time that I had trained for, but who cares. Considering that I was in pain, we stopped for pictures in MK, and we made two bathroom stops, I was pretty darn pleased!

I was a volunteer the year that Lacey ran her first marathon, so I was able to present her with her first marathon medal. Of course it would only be right for her to present me with mine!

I am very thankful that my sister put her own PR aside and ran with me at my pace. I know this was hard for her. She was actually starting to get tired. She is not use to being out on the course this long...lol.

I am glad that it worked out that THIS was my first marathon. Disney was my sister's first marathon when she ran it a few years ago too! Now, this was her 10th marathon and the 10th anniversary of the Goofy Challenge which we both did. How fitting.

We kid that we really got our monies worth out of this race. After we finished we got a few character pictures, went back to the finish line and waited for some of our friends to finish , then went to go get a massage. After that we watched the rest of the runners come in. We literally stayed till the end.

 Check out the group of runners who were dressed as chimney sweeps. They were literally doing a little dance before they crossed the finish line!

 The medals we earned. Top left is the marathon medal. Top right is the half marathon medal. Center is the 10th anniversary Goofy challenge medal.

I would absolutely consider running this marathon again! (Gasp, I can't believe I just said that). The only thing that would hold me back is the training. The training is a huge commitment.  Plus, whose to say that after all the training that I put in  that I still won't end up injured at the end of it?   -M

How did you feel after your biggest race?

Click HERE to read about the Disney World Half Marathon that we ran the day before.
Click HERE if you would like to read about the Runner Cook off with Chef Mickey.