I can finally change the title of this thread to "Couch to Goofy in 18 months!".
I am sitting in bed, with a nice coffee, and my 5 year old snuggled up beside me. My legs are achy, my toes are still swollen and sore, and I am wearing my marathon shirt.
MY MARATHON SHIRT. That I earned running a MARATHON. Me = Marathoner. I cannot believe I did it.
18 months ago I decided that I was DONE being significantly overweight. I was on the verge of 40, and feeling that my body was hindering me. So I changed. I picked myself up, dusted myself off, told everyone I was a work in progress (I like public accountability - it works for me), and started my journey.
One foot in front of the other, one day at a time, one honoured commitment at a time, and lots of support and love from people around me. And some joined me!
And now I have conquered my first marathon, and my Goofy Challenge!
TRIP REPORT:
My sister Sharon and I flew down from Buffalo. Our flight was delayed from a 6pm departure to one just before 10pm. Jet Blue was nice about it, and gave free headphones and movies, comped me my meal box, and gave a $12 airport food credit in addition to a $75 flight credit (flight was only $220 so that was good). We arrived at ME around midnight and the lines were packed!!! We got put on a bus that went to Caribbean Beach, POP, Coronado Springs, and one other hotel before we got dropped off at AKL. We were in our rooms by 2am.
I had asked for a room as close to the lobby as possible. We got 5th floor, 3rd from the last section. Yep, nice and close
We headed pretty much straight to bed. Our plan was for breakfast out, but we had groceries from Garden Grocer so decided to sleep in a bit and eat them instead. In the morning we got up and headed to the expo for about 930. It was already super crowded. We made our way to pick up my Goofy bib, then my sister's Donald bib, got our corrals changed to D, picked up my necklace (the pins were with my Goofy bib but not the necklace), got our race retreat bracelets and then hit the official merchandise tent. Even on Friday at around 1030 many things were sold out or had restricted sizes. I got my oldest son a marathon vinylmation and my youngest son a marathon stuffed Mickey. I got a Goofy warm-up jacket, a Goofy t-shirt and some car magnets.
Then we went across the the other building to get our t-shirts and browse. I bought a few little things, but not very much.
We headed back to the resorts on the very prompt bus and decided to spend the day at the resort rather than go to the parks. We got some food from The Mara and sat on our balcony watching the animals and sipping a Chardonnay. I had a lovely nap in the room with the door wide open and the sun and warm breeze pouring in. Bliss. My sister found her own bliss in a poolside lounger and napped too.
Dinner was at Boma and it was good. I ate a bit too much to be honest but I chose mostly healthy stuff. Then we headed back to the room and got our stuff ready for the next day.
0300 the alarm went off and I got my Stitch wake-up call. We were up and out by 0330, and brought food from our room for the bus. We were excited!
We headed to the Race Retreat:
We headed to the starting corrals and the crowds were horrible. I had to pee so bad it was all I could think about but there was not enough privacy for using the bushes like the guys did, but eventually we all made our ways to the corrals and there were blessed POPs. We had next to no time in the corral at the walk from the staging area to the corrals had been so slow and crowded and soon we were off!
My sister and I stayed together until mile 10. She was slowing down more than I wanted to run and I lost sight of her when she stopped for a gel. I was a bit disappointed, but decided to finish on my own. I walked a bit around mile 11 and then finished strong. I finished 30 minutes slower than my last half. I was concerned about going out too fast in the heat, and wanting to avoid any muscle strain, so I took it easy. I finished in 3:16:33 Not a time I am particularly proud of, but I am proud of the finish.
We loved the Race Retreat tent afterwards. We both enjoyed sitting and recovering, and the food. I also liked the commemorative socks and the golf towel.
My sister with her FIRST HALF-MARATHON finish:
After enjoying the Race Retreat we headed back to the room for showers and some rest. Dinner was at Saratoga Springs at the Turf Club meeting the Ducks. It was really great to meet folks I had been talking with online, and great to share the experience with other folks doing the same thing. Nice, nice dinner.
We took a cab back to AKL ($20) and I got my stuff out for the next day. I was in bed by 830pm and asleep by 9pm.
To be continued...