Marathon Time....Just make it to the start....
Dear old Baymax said get up again at 2:45am. I really had no problem waking up even though I hadn't really slept much. I had stopped throwing up but still had south end issues, sorry I know it's gross. I just laid on my bed and watched the time on the TV Disney resort station get closer to 3:45 when we needed to leave. I really need to eat, but my stomach was saying no, but managed to eat a couple saltine crackers and drank some coke.
After the Half I felt good and thought "Hey, I think I'll make my full goal 5:00-5:15 or at least beating 2015's full time of 5:12, where I had the flu (Type A) and stopped for more characters. The thing is with that my stomach was fine. In the short term of things running with the flu was easier than running with food illness as I could at least eat/drink, but in the long term I recovered from the food illness in a matter of days where the flu was a month long ordeal. I think I'm jinxed with WDW marathons!
Here's our room , I thought it smelled like feet after the Half, hahaha!
My older brother showed up a little early to our room, very hyper and excited, and I was just a mess. I almost walked out without my bib on, that would have sucked, but at least I got dressed and had on the right shoes. I got a bottle of coke to bring and we made it on a bus and somehow I was in my corral at 5:00am. I had brought a throw away hoodie but stuck it in the gear back right away as it was just too humid for it.
Oh Coke, you got me through this marathon! Water and PowerAde just didn't sit well, but the coke did and at least it had calories and sugar! I got down a couple more saltine crackers too & visited the portopot more, like really not cool. I just sat there at the back of my corral F as I didn't know how I would be starting.
The first corrals went off, the whole thing started about 5-7 minutes late actually today.
Here goes nothing! By golly gee I was starting this thing even though my stomach said no, it was cramping and very empty of actual food and I felt weak. The Orlando Sentinel has a picture of me at the start clutching my coke even, it's quiet pathetic :0
Oh boy Mile 1. I had started off with intervals of 1:00/:30, but that didn't last long as the running just made me start to almost throw up and I knew if I was going to finish I couldn't over do it after first being under fueled. I then turned to more of just a fast walk, staying all the way to the side. It was weird how it would start to get kind of quiet then another corral would pass me, and another, and another.
Oh Magic Kingdom, I think I walked it all. At least I was getting my money's worth of course time today! I saw Sebastian & then Lumiere and so wanted to stop, but couldn't lose time as I was determined to get under 7 hours, the pace requirement.
I really liked how went into New Fantasyland and down by Big Thunder to then loop out of the park in the Full this year. The Half didn't do these things.
After Magic Kingdom, look at all those cups. I would try to drink PowerAde and it cramped up my stomach and I would gag on it as well as the water. Luckily I think I got a little down. At some point I tried a Clif Gu and that was a waste as I only got a teeny bit down. My mouth got so dry between stops, so what I couldn't drink I at least swished around and then spit out. I also started dumping water on myself, like I never do this, hey maybe it would soak into my skin, I don't know. The humidity was crazy at 100% too.
We passed these guys and I guess the waste management plant. It didn't really bother me this year, maybe I was so on auto pilot I didn't notice things. Sometimes a breeze would come through which was nice and I got a few shuffle run spurts in here and there.
We entered Animal Kingdom in Harambe Market area this year which as new and gave us a little more AK time! It smelled like food and that made me almost loose it as my stomach coiled. But it was still cool to run through.
We got to see the Tree this year at least!
Some people were heading to Everest to ride it. Yeah, no I couldn't do that even if I felt good.
Animal Kingdom was my slowest mile, like almost 19 minutes, but my others were all under 16 or right at it, so at the half I was 3:28, woohoo ahead of pace barely! I had my phone texting me our tracking so even though I was doing watch splits, I could look at that too know my actual overall pace without having to calculate in my head, that was a mess anyway.
My mom called on the way to Wide World, that was funny actually as I never would normally talk on the phone in a race, but I guess it helped keep me going. I cried a lot too.
Yeah, I was like in lane 0, hahaha, going around!
I really wanted to stop for Goofy, but nope, I just kept going. I got in some more running here and there and overall didn't mind Wide World at all this year even though we're in there for 3 miles.
We step out on the road for a little while, only to go back into Wide World. My upper back was really hurting at this point and my shins, I think from all the 'fast' walking I was attempting. So, I pulled off a couple times to apply Tiger Balm basically everywhere. Surprisingly my glute injury wasn't too bad.
For some reason I like running or well walking around baseball fields, I like the soft dirt.
Meanwhile, both my brothers had already finished. That was slightly depressing to know as my phone alerted me. My older brother left with his family as we had made an ADR for Garden Grill and while I wasn't going to it for sure, they might as well. My younger brother did wait around for me, poor guy, that as a long wait, so he did a lot of people watching as in below!
Leaving Wide World, and yes I think that is the end of the race. Wow, it was a humbling experience to be farther back, as normally I'm a middle of the pack runner. By starting in F I knew I had a buffer over the sweepers, but I still wanted that under 7 hours or 16mm pace. So onward I went getting some runs in and 'fast' walking oh and crying as my stomach cramped up the whole time.
I only got pictures of a couple markers. I was pretty sure at this point my back was going to snap it hurt so bad and I was really dehydrated and just not normal feeling at all. Like it was other worldy I guess. I knew though if I made it to Studios it was all cool stuff ahead!
Continued in next post....
Talk about terrible timing! Looking forward to the next update
Love the Skyway costume, that was one of my favorites as a kid. But I was glad when they finally built the Rapunzel rest area because the empty building next to Small World always seemed so sad and a reminder of what once was. 
