This seemed like a good idea at the time..A Princess Half Marathon-The Aftermath 4/11

[annabanna]

Hello! This will be my first trip report, so I hope you all bear with me. I wanted to do one for our last trip, but it just never came together. So this will be my attempt to capture our trip memories. We are a family of four from Rapid City, SD. I'll give the intros later.

The purpose of this trip was to run the Princess Half Marathon, which then turned into a full blown family trip. It started with a hair-brained idea by yours truely, and turned into a great trip. Sure, there were moments, but hey - we were in Disney, it can't be all bad, right?

So please, follow me and I will do my best to bring you along with us!

Into: http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=47687945&postcount=2
Training: http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=47701964&postcount=4
Travel Day Part 1: http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=47702077&postcount=5
Travel Day Part 2: http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=47702222&postcount=6
Expo Morning: http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=47713435&postcount=9
Epcot Afternoon Part 1: http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=47761673&postcount=12
Epcot Afternoon Part 2: http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=47761772&postcount=13
Epcot Afternoon Part 3: http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=47792865&postcount=18
PMH start and Miles 1-3: http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=47803551&postcount=19
Miles 4 & 5 and storming the castle: http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=47840559&postcount=20
Miles 6-9: http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=47900327&postcount=23
Miles 10 & 11: http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=47922205&postcount=32
The Finish!!: http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=48012289&postcount=34
The Aftermath: http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=48081526&postcount=43

 

[annabanna]

On to the history of how this trip came to be, and formal introductions.

So, first will be the why. Well, as my title suggests, it seemed like a good idea. The moment our plane left the ground headed for home on our last trip, I started planning the next. I had thought about going in September of 2012, but the daughter-of-a-teacher guilt got to me and I just couldn't take my kindergartner out of school two weeks after he started. Knowing that the holidays were out of the question this year, I turned my sights to the beginning of 2013. So, like any good Diser, I started my research. I was looking for ride closures, crowd info, weather, ect. And then it happened, I kept coming across trip reports talking about the Princess Half Marathon. I was intrigued. I had just finished the Coach to 5K program and had run a handful of 5K's, but was having a hard time staying motivated to keep going. This was just what I needed, and what better than a Disney race to keep my running shoes on?
But, I needed a running partner. So I called my sister. She lives in Kansas City with her family. I called her and asked. I think all she heard was "Princess" and "Disney" because she screamed yes and then had to hang up. A couple minutes later I got a text that said "Did you know that's 13.1 miles?"

So, we had the why. The when was pretty well set in stone, or at least the race was. I wrestled with whether to make the majority of trip before or after the PHM. I knew that I didn't want to spend 4 or 5 days on my feet before we ran, but I also was worried about getting injured and spending the trip on a scooter. But, I figured that I would trust my training to get me through the race and settled on arriving the Friday before the race and leaving the following Friday. Feb. 22- Mar. 1

So now we had the why and the when. Next up was the where. I went rounds with myself on whether to rent points, use the runDisney discount, wait for public discounts or pray for a pin code. Not being patient enough to wait for anything, and not wanting to rent points for fear that the rest of my family wouldn't be able to get the same resort, I had settled on Port Orleans Riverside. It is our favorite standby, and affordable for us. Until I started reading about the new resort, Art of Animation. I was in love with it, and convinced my family. (Honestly though, they could care less. They let me plan and just go along for the ride) We are only a family of four though, so I didn't really feel the need for a suite, so we settled on the Little Mermaid rooms and I just waited for runDisney to open up registration.

I have already touched on who, but I will expand on that now. First up is me, by day I am a design engineer for a manufacturer of large machine tools, by night I am an obsessive Disney planner, a mother, a runner and I also have horses.

Then there is my DH. He is head of testing and assembly for the same company - I design them, he makes sure they work! He also loves to camp and fish.

Then we have our son, he's 5 going on 40. He is very much a thinker, always sitting back taking it all in. And he shares my total Disney obsession.

Last for my family is our daughter. She turned 3 right before we left, she loves Minnie mouse and can name every single Disney Princess.

As I mentioned, my sister and her family came too. She is much younger than me, and is a stay at home mom. Her husband works for the railroad and had never been to Disney before this trip. They have a 5 year old daughter (2 weeks younger than my son) who loves everything sparkly and princess, and they have a 6 month olddaughter. It was her first trip too. This is my sister and niece, with my daughter on our last trip.

Also along for the ride were our parents. They took us to Disney when we were kids a few times, enough to spark our Disney obsession.

 

[TangledUp]

Count me in! I'm planning on running the Princess Half next year so I can't wait to hear all about your experience.

 

[annabanna]

A little bit about the training leading up to the marathon. Sorry, there are no photos in this post.

As I mentioned at the beginning, I had just finished with the Couch to 5K program when I found out about the half marathon. I started running really because it was the only thing that I could fit into my busy schedule. I could do it late at night after the kids were in bed. When I first started I could barely make it 1 minute of full running, but as promised by the program, pretty soon I could run a full 20 minutes without even really feeling tired. To keep up the motivation, I did a few local 5K's. I also signed up for a half, but didn't end up running because I got sick right before it.

Everything that I read about marathon training, including the PHM thread on these boards, said be serious about your training and have fun on race day. So that was my goal. Well, that, and to finish in the upright position and be able to make it through a week of park touring. I took a training plan from runDisney's Jeff Galloway and modified it to fit my schedule of traveling for work and the holidays. I am proud to say that I didn't miss one scheduled run, although I did have to adjust here and there.
On Christmas Eve morning I went out for a quick run. It was a beautiful morning with light snow falling, but no wind - odd for South Dakota. I guess I wasn't paying much attention to my surroundings, because I stepped on a rock under the snow and rolled my ankle, hard. I had to hobble my way back to the house and was out for a week. I was lucky it was only that though, it could have been much worse. On my very last long run, an old injury started to bother me. I broke my leg some years ago in a 4-wheeling accident and of course 2 weeks before I head to Disney it started to bother me. But with a dedicated chiropractor and some KT tape, I felt ready.

I had done a 10K in September that gave me a time of 1:18:32, under a 12 minute mile. I held on to it though since I wasn't sure if my sis was going to be able to get a time to submit.
When the corrals and bib numbers came out, we were both in corral E. I know that I could have moved up, but I wanted to stay with my sister. I knew that we could both finish in plenty of time, so I left it alone.

I really felt ready for the race. I had put in the miles, I had my race strategy down. I kept waiting to feel nervous, but I never really did - maybe ignorance really is bliss? I did worry about the humidity though, but since it can't be helped, I just put it out of my mind.
So, did we survive the race?

 

[annabanna]

Prep and Travel, Day 1, Part 1

I left work early on Thursday to finish up some last minute errands. After dropping the dog off at the kennel and picking up my son's coat from the embroidery shop, I went home. My parents live about 3 hours away and we have the closest bigger airport, so they were going to fly out with us. They were there when I got home, with dinner! One less thing to worry about! I finished up our last minute packing, we loaded the car and then turned on the TV to the weather channel. That's when I got the first text from my sister telling me that their flight was cancelled. The second worst blizzard to hit Kansas City and it happens on the day before they were to fly out. They ended up getting on a flight on Saturday, not getting in until 1 am that night. Keep in mind my sister was going to run the PHM with me. Plus, she has a 6 month old. This put a damper on the beginning of our trip. But, what do you do? So we set the alarms for 4 am and went to bed.

I have discovered that if you want kids to jump out of bed and immediately get ready without any fight, tell them that they are going to Disney World. My kids were up and ready in no time. Our goal was to leave at 5 am. At exactly 5:01 we pulled out of the driveway! We arrived at the airport, parked in long term parking and schlepped all of our suitcases and carry-ons to the building. We got in line to check our bags. I managed to get all of our clothes for an entire week for a family of four into one suitcase, plus all of our shoes and my running gear into a carry on. The checked bag weighed 49 pounds, just barely made it! It's a good thing that I threw in an extra duffle bag for the way back!
We walked right through security and waited for our flight. I realized as we were boarding that we were the only people on the packed flight that had kids. This was going to be fun. But, our kids are pretty seasoned travelers and they did fine, better than some adults, I might add.

Our flights connected in Dallas, where we fed the kids some lunch and waited with the masses. I saw a lot of princesses getting on that flight - I even talked to one that had a tutu in her carryon! The flight was uneventful and before we knew it, we were in Orlando!

This was where my first family frustration occurred. I told everyone that after we got off the fake monorail we had to go to B side, level one. So, of course everyone took off towards A side. We were on the elevator while I was telling them that we were in the wrong side. But, my dad kept saying that they all go to the same place. So after wandering level one on the wrong side for a while, my dad looked at me and said "I think we need to be on the other side" So went back up and over to B side. I was getting frustrated because I just wanted to be on that bus so badly! I had waited a long time fot it! Once we finally got in the correct side, we walked right up to the bus and got on. We were home. Finally.

 

[annabanna]

Travel Day 1, Part 2

After months and months of waiting, we were finally on the bus! The bus was pretty full already, so we did't good seats. At that point I didn't care though. They started the movie, which my kids loved. I tried not to tear up at the surprise part, but I really couldn't help it. I was in Disney! I didn't even try for the picture driving under the gates because I knew it wouldn't turn out. But the whole bus did errupt in applause when we passed, so that was pretty neat even without the pic.

We were the first stop, which was good because I don't think I could contain DS any longer. (Or myself for that matter) As we pulled up I was just in awe. The pictures of Art of Animation don't do it justice. It's incredible. I have my favorite Disney Resorts for various reasons, but this one hands-down wins for theming. It's just amazing, the colors are so bright and vibrant! My kids loved pointing out all of the characters, and the feel was just so upbeat and positive.

We had done online check-in, so we just walked right up and were helped right away. They had everything ready, even our celebration buttons! My parents hadn't done on line check in, so they had to wait a little while, but it wasn't too long. We had all requested building 7 or 9, ground floor and to be together. I wasn't going to push for us to be next to them all though. I figured that if anyone needed them close by, it was my sister. So, they did what they could. But remember, my sister was supposed to be checking in with us but because of the storm they wouldn't arrive until the following night.
While we were waiting, I overheard a very irate lady yelling at a cast member about not being placed next to her family. The CM kept telling her that every room was full because of the PHM and that there were no available rooms. But the lady wouldn't have it. I felt so bad for that poor CM. There is also a little foreshadowing there for you.

I did get all of my requests though, we were in building 7, ground floor, room 7537. After everyone got their room keys, we headed off. I was just so excited to be there, to watch how excited my kids were and couldn't wait to get the trip really started. First thing was first though, we wanted to see "Ariel's room". We found our room quickly and I couldn't believe it! We had a perfect view of the lake and Pop Century.
These pics aren't the greatest since it was getting dark out, but they show the view at least.

View out the door looking to the right:

Straight ahead:

To the left:

 

[JessM]

I want to run the Princess Half next year, I can't wait to hear about your experience!

 

[wiigirl]

Love your pics....can't wait to hear more!

 

[annabanna]

I left off with us just getting to our room.

Before we left, I ordered some items from Garden Grocer. When people talk about long runs and races, they all say to not change anything up on race day, including your food. So, I wanted to have my usual bagels, peanut butter and Gatorade. I also wanted to get some juice boxes and other snacks for the kids, plus some diapers for my niece and diet pepsi for my mom (she refuses to touch coke, and since that's the Disney drink, I bought some for her) When we walked into our room, our food was there, and cold items were put in the fridge.
I had also planned ahead and brought all of our PJ's and swimsuits in the carryon so we didn't have to wait for our luggage to come from ME.

After we got settled it, it was time to hit the pool. I couldn't believe it, we were swimming in February! It was perfect weather.

After getting some fin time, we headed out to Landscape of Flavors for dinner.
A lot of the reviews say that Landscape of Flavors is slow and unorganized. After experiencing it for a week, I don't think I disagree with them. We joked about it being organized chaos. It seemed like the process was okay, but the execution not so much. Everything we had throughout the week was good, but it really took a lot of out of you to get it!

That first night the place was a madhouse, by far the busiest of our stay. But we fought our way through and got our food. I had a burger with fries, and I got one for the kids to split. DH had a pepperoni pizza, and I honestly don't know what my parents had (this will be a common thread through the trip). We also bought 2 refillable mugs. I do think that it's a bit of a racket, but we do use the mugs at home a lot, so I guess it's worth it in the end. I got a cupcake for us to share too. It was all pretty good, better than I expected actually.

Yeah, I know. Terrible picture. But, we were starving by then and I that was all I could get of our dinner before it was gone. I did get a nice one of the cupcake though, and really, that's the most important thing, right?

After dinner we got our plan together for the next day and headed back to our rooms. Our checked suitcase was waiting for us when we got back. I finished unpacking, got everyone bathed and ready for bed, wrote in my journal a little and then fell asleep.

 

[annabanna]

I had planned to go to the expo for packet pickup this morning. Knowing how my DH loves these types of things , I suggested that he stay at the resort with the kids and take them swimming while I went to the expo with my mother. My sister was supposed to go, but since they were still stuck in Kansas City because of the storm I asked my mom to come. It worked out okay because she wants to stay at Coronado Springs when her and my dad go back in the summer and the expo had been moved from WWOS because of a scheduling conflict. My mom had hoped to check out the resort.

So, I met my mom at Ursula at 8:30 am and headed to the bus stop for event transport. I am not a huge breakfast eater, so I just grabbed a granola bar. The bus ride was quick and before long we pulled up into the parking lot. And then we saw the line. I have never seen anything like it. It went all the way around the building.

This picture doesn't even do it justice, but you might notice that you can't even see the building. I figured that it was because the expo just opened at 9, and it was still about 5 'till. But, I heard later from people that the line was like that most of the morning. It probably took us 20-25 minutes to get into the building and then we just followed the signs.

I went straight to packet pick up and got mine and my sisters. I had printed my waiver ahead of time, plus my sister and I faxed and scanned back and forth so that we both had the ability to pick up each other's packets if for some reason one of us missed the expo. I was glad we did it and I had no problems getting them. The line for that was non-existent, so I had hope. Until I turned the corner and saw the line for the Official Merchandise. Talk about crazy! But I wanted that "I Did It" T-shirt, so I waited. And waited for about 20 more minutes. But, once we finally got in, I breezed through in about 10 minutes. I purchased the T-shirt, a pin and a bumper sticker and then my mom bought the same for my sister. We split up to make our purchases and were going to meet at the exit of the booth. It was at this point that I lost her. She wasn't at the exit, and was nowhere to be found.
But, it actually ended up being okay. I was standing outside of the booth, trying to call her and getting annoyed because the call wouldn't go through. I saw some commotion out of the corner of my eye and looked over to my right to see none other than Sean Astin standing less than a foot from me!!! He was waiting to walk on stage for his meet and greet, and he was talking to someone about why he started running. It was so cool, if I wasn't so darn star-struck, I would have asked for a picture with him. I am kicking myself now. But, at least I saw him!

After the official merch booth, I wanted to get my KT tape fixed on my ankle, but after seeing the line, I opted to just buy some and do it myself. I did end up getting another sports bra and more body glide. At that point I just wanted to get out of there. It was just too crazy for me.

So we took this opportunity to look around the resort a little. I really liked the Pepper Market, it was really neat theming and the menu looked really good!

We wandered around a bit more and found the gift shop. My mom bought some pins and a cute backpack. Then I went up to check-in to see if I could find Disneyfreak508, she's doing the DCP and is at CSR. But, I didn't see her up front and it was getting late, so we headed back. We tried to walk back the way we came, but the CMs in the middle of the hallway ushered us outside. We found ourselves back in the line to get into the expo. After trying to break out of that unsuccessfully a few times, we finally made it back inside. Once inside, a CM asked us where we were going. I told him that we heading for the buses back to AoA. He told us that we had to take a bus to DTD to get back, that there were no direct buses. I knew that wasn't correct in this situation because runDisney was providing transportation for all the resorts. I told him that and then he told me that I obviously knew more than him and to just go where we needed to! It was pretty funny. Anyway, we eventually got on a bus and back to AoA. Once I reconnected with my family, we headed over to Epcot. They had spent the morning wandering the resort and swimming.

 

[kastoney]

Joining in. We r thinking about going at the same time next year (though not for the race) so I'm looking forward to hearing your experiences.

 

[annabanna]

When I last left off, my mom and I had just returned to AoA from the Expo and I had met up with my family.

The plan was to spend the rest of the day at Epcot. I wanted to get everything done in Future World that we wanted to so that we could spend our second full Epcot day at World Showcase. So, we headed over there. We went through bag check, got our tickets activated and headed in the park.

On the way, my DS was having shoe issues. He didn't want to wear his tennis shoes because they make his feet too hot. I had packed flip flops for the pool, but I wasn't going to let him wear those for a whole week in the parks. So mission #1 was to find some better sandals. I had wanted crocs, but he wanted nothing to do with them. Knowing when to pick my battles, we settled on some velcro Mickey sandals. Mission accomplished, we headed towards the Land Pavilion. The sandals worked out okay, except that they gave him blisters on his little toes, which I had to attend to every morning.

We were all hungry and just wanted to get lunch, but DS just had to get on a ride first. So, we sent DH over to get FPs for Soarin', and then got on Living with the Land. I like to garden, I am not very good at and I think I end up with more weeds than anything, but I try. So I always enjoy this ride. The greenhouses are so neat, and the 9 pound lemon is always a highlight!

Any one else see the hidden Mickey in this pic?

When we were done with that ride, we headed down to Sunshine Seasons. This was new for us, we had never eaten here before. I got the fish and rice, as did my dad. DH got the chicken and my mom had a salad. I also got a cold chicken wrap for the kids to split along with some grapes and apples. The fish was so good. It was perfectly cooked and so tasty! Everyone else seemed to enjoy their food too. I again was surprised, it didn't seem to get the best reviews so I wasn't expecting much. We also hit the place just at the right time, the lunch crowd had passed through so we didn't have to wait long at all and had no problem finding tables.

At some point, I promise, I do get better at taking pictures before the food is gone

DH's chicken:

DD having part of the wrap:

 

[annabanna]

After this we headed over Nemo. DD loved this ride, and still talks about it. After finding Nemo, we went over to talk with Crush for a while. We had perfect timing for this because as soon as we walked into the waiting area, they moved us into the theater. When that was over, we headed up to the aquariums and explored around there for a while. I wanted to be a marine biologist when I was younger, so this is always of special interest for me.

On our way out, we stopped at the dump shop where DS traded his first pin:

Coincidentally, he traded for Chip n Dale pin. Something that these guys loved!

When we were done hanging with the fishes, we went over for a spaceship ride. We walked right onto Spaceship Earth. DH hadn't done this one before, and even though I know he's done it, my dad swears he hasn't either. They all seemed to really enjoy it, especially when our future is predicted. I rode with my dad:

We decided to do a little shopping after Spaceship Earth so we headed down to one of my favorite Disney stores, Mouse Gears. I ended up buying a cookbook that I had been eyeing for a while, and then bought a keychain. Which, incidentally, I can't seem to find anywhere. I think it got thrown away in a bag.

At this point, the kids were pretty much done. They were tired, getting hungry, complaining of the heat and were over stimulated. So, like any good, responsible parents, we purchased them suckers and those ridiculously overpriced fan sprayers that hang on lanyards. Breakdown averted, we headed over to Club Cool. Because more sugar after sugar is always a good thing. I tried to get people to drink the Beverly, but for some reason they didn't seem to like it

My dad had peeked his head over into the meet and greet for Mickey and Friends and found that there was no line, so we headed over there. Minnie really loved my handmade autograph books. Then Pluto danced to Gangman Style with some girls, it was too cute and my DD loved it!

By then it was FP time for Soarin', so we headed back to the Land Pavilion. Now that our children were given the proper amount of sugar to ensure good behavior, we left our youngest with my parents and hit Soarin'. DH had never done it before and he loved it. Success! DS remembered it from last time and also enjoyed it. I just love how you can even smell the oranges! But, I do wish they would fix that movie! Come on Disney, you are better than that!

When we got back, it was my parents turn (we used rider switch). At this point, all the good parenting efforts of sugar and annoying toys had worn off, so it was time to head back to AoA. I sent my mom a text letting her know that we were going back and we headed over to the buses.

 

[annabanna]

Count me in! I'm planning on running the Princess Half next year so I can't wait to hear all about your experience.

You will love it! I had so much fun!

 

[annabanna]

I want to run the Princess Half next year, I can't wait to hear about your experience!

Definitely sign up, it was so much fun. I would do it again in a heartbeat!

 

[annabanna]

Love your pics....can't wait to hear more!

Thank you! I actually didn't take a whole lot with my camera, most of them are from my iphone. I am pretty impressed with it!

 

[annabanna]

Joining in. We r thinking about going at the same time next year (though not for the race) so I'm looking forward to hearing your experiences.

This was a great time of year to go. We had perfect weather and the crowds were very manageable. It was crowded around the half marathon weekend, but the week was great!

 

[annabanna]

When I left off we were just heading back to the resort.

When we got back, we went straight to LoF for dinner. Since it was the night before the marathon, I wanted to eat something light that I knew wouldn't bothered my stomach. DH headed for the grill and got a burger for himself. And I waited in line to get pasta. And I waited. And waited. See a pattern here? I am not joking when I tell you that my parents rode Soarin', shopped at Mouse Gears again, rode the bus back and walked in just as I was getting my pasta. Organized chaos. I grabbed a kids pizza too, with grapes and yogurt.

I will say that the pasta I had this night was the worst thing I had all week. I was hoping for something light and easy on my stomach so I ordered pasta with alfredo, grilled red peppers, broccoli and mushrooms. They forgot the broccoli but there was no way I was waiting in that line any longer for them to correct it, so I just went with it. The pasta was over-cooked, and the sauce and peppers were just dripping in grease. It was way too heavy and I only ended up eating about half of it. But, the bread was good.

Hubby enjoyed his burger and the kids gobbled down their pizza so I am guessing they liked it. All day long I had being getting messages from runDisney about the heat advisory they had posted for the next day, so I had been drinking water all day long, along with a few Gatorades, so I felt that I was as hydrated as I could be. I so badly wanted to share an alcoholic with DH, but I knew I shouldn't so I settled for my 8th bottle of water.
The spot under the lights kind of became our go-to place over the week, I just loved the detail.

After dinner, we headed back to our room. I really took my time walking back to our room and just tried to take in the resort. It really is incredible, the details are so great. Disney got it right with this one - not that they have had it wrong before, but it is so great.

We came across theses drawings on the sidewalk. The kids were so excited and loved naming the characters.

I talked to my sister who was in between flights, but so far on time. We planned on our meeting time/place, I told her what she needed to put together for the race and said goodnight. My mom had planned on meeting them in the lobby when they got there so that she could give my sister her PMH bag, so I left it with her. Then I gathered all of my running gear and laid it out for the morning. I attached my bib to my shirt, got my bag ready and put out my bagel and water. I set all of my alarms - my phone for 2:40, the room alarm for 2:42 and set the wake-up call for 2:45. The only nightmares I had ever had of the marathon were of me oversleeping and missing it, so I made sure that I would be on time. Then I got ready for bed, caught up on my trip journal and was asleep by 8:45 pm.

Up next, the Princess Half

 

[annabanna]

I woke up on my own around 2:15 am. I couldn't get back to sleep, so I just decided to get up and take my time getting ready. I was ready to go before the wakeup call, so as soon as it rang I answered it and let Stitch tell me "No sleeping!" and headed out.

Ready to go!

My sister and I planned to meet at Ursula at 3:15 so I just walked around the lake a little but until it was time to head that direction. It was so peaceful and quiet that early in the morning, I really enjoyed it. I was so excited to see my sister. We live pretty far away from each other and only get to see each other a couple of times a year, so I always look forward to it. I found her at Ursula, we hugged each other and headed to the buses. We walked right up to the bus which was only about half full. We found our seats and I helped my sister get all of her race gear set up. Her family had gotten to the resort at about 12:30 am, and didn't even get to their room until almost 1 am. By the time she got everyone settled in and she fell asleep, her alarm went off 20 minutes later. I felt so bad for her. She hadn't really trained much for this run, plus she hadn't slept in over 20 hours! But, we were going to finish together, we were determined.

Anyway, back to the bus ride. It seems like we stopped at Pop Century, but I really can't be sure. Honestly, it was kind of a blur. At some point though, we pulled up to the race drop off. Now, I heard some horror stories of some buses that got lost and ended up dropping runners off on the street right by the corrals, and that some people waited for a very long time just to get on the bus. I had been told to get on the bus before 3:30, and I think that was the best advice I got because we had no issues.
Once we got off the bus, we headed towards the bag check. We both checked our bags and then just sat around for a while. We talked to a couple of other runners that were sitting down next us.

There was a lot of entertainment, and I am sure that there were plenty of people that were really into it, but for some reason, it really didn't pump me up. Maybe it was just too early, or it was my way of dealing with nerves, even though I didn't feel nervous. After a while, they started calling corrals. Eventually they called ours and we headed that way. People had talked a lot about the walk to the corrals and how long it is, but I honestly didn't think that it was bad. We stopped to use the port a potties before we turned the corner to the road. A lot of people also said to wait for the port a potties at the corrals instead of the ones at the start because the line is shorter, but I found them all be about the same. We had a guy dressed up like tinkerbell in line for the bathrooms, he was pretty entertaining.

When we got to our corrals, we claimed a spot about half way up and just sat down and waited. This is where all the music and entertainment did finally start to affect me. It was finally starting to feel real and there was a definite vibe of excitement and anticipation. I think that everyone just really wanted to get this thing started already! I know that I did. I was so ready to put my training to the test. I finished off my bagel, drank some more water and just caught up with my sister. They interviewed a couple people, including Sean Astin. They also interviewed the girl that finished last in the Tink. It was really neat to hear her story - she is such an inspiration. If you get a chance, go to You Tube and search for Jenna Boyd.

Pretty soon they were ready to start and people started pushing closer together and moving closer to the front of the corrals. I saw a lot of people getting out of cars, and even a couple of buses that were stopping along the side of the road and letting people out. I felt bad for them, a lot of them were in corral A and B! They were jumping out of vehicles and jumping the fences to get to their corrals. Then after what seemed like forever, the Fairy Godmother said her magic words and off went the wheelchair racer. Then came corral A. It didn't seem like anyone in our corral really started moving forward until Corral C went. I am not sure why that was.

Here we go!

I had planned on taking my fuel (Gu gels) at the start and then every 3 miles. So, I took my first one at about the start of corral B. Eventually it was our turn, and off we went. We really didn't get to run much at first, it was so packed. We had planned on running intervals of 3 min run/1 walk for the first 6 miles. Then we would run the first 1/4 of each mile and walk the rest of that mile. This was not how I trained, but I was hoping that it would help my sister. As I mentioned, she hadn't really trained for this. At all. But, I knew she wanted to finish more than anything, so I had hoped that this strategy would work for us. I had kept my training at running 3/1 intervals, so I knew that at least for the first part of the race I would be fine. I had also banked on the fact that as long as we could maintain at least at 13:30 m/m for the first 6 miles, we would bank more minutes and be able to run over a 19 m/m for the last half and still be fine.

The first mile went by pretty quickly. At mile 2 is when I really started to realize just how hot and humid it really was. I think that everyone was pretty drenched in sweat by mile 2. It was also around mile 2 that things started to open up a little bit. There were still a ton of people and we spent as much time weaving in out of people as we did running straight. I also spent a lot of time running on the grass, which I didn't like because I was so worried that I was going to step wrong and twist my ankle. Somewhere in this area was the first character, the Pirates and the ship. We weren't going to stop for characters until the Magic Kingdom, so I made note of how cool the ship was and kept on going. It was also at this point that I saw my first person getting sick on the side of the road. This started to become a pretty common occurrence - a nod to how hot and humid it was and the sun wasn't even up yet!

So, I had this goal to get pictures of every single mile marker. But I somehow missed a couple. Including the first one.
But, I did get the second one!

Around 2.5 miles in, I had to go to the bathroom badly. All that hydrating had to go somewhere, right? But the port a potties that we were passing had such long lines, I just did not want to stop. So I became one of those people. You know, the people darting in and out of the bushes? I am outdoor kind of girl, I camp, I hike, I go on 8 hour trail rides. I wasn't too concerned about doing getting familiar with a tree if it meant I didn't have to take up precious minutes waiting for a port a potty. Until I started reading about all the native wildlife in the PHM thread on WISH. I was okay with a tree, but I didn't want to get familiar with a snake or spiders. But, I had to go. So, I just put it out of mind and made a break for it. I ran into a stand of trees where there were a few other girls, targeted my own tree and walked right into a guy! Awkward! But, he laughed it off, said that's what he gets for running with a bunch of girls and headed back to the road! Call of nature answered, we were back on the road and heading towards the toll booths.

We passed mile 3 and got our first 5K split. We were right on target running a 13:10 m/m and we both felt good. Drenched and hot, but feeling good.

Soon, we were coming up to the speedway and another water stop. I had never trained with drinking anything but water, but all the advisories had talked about making sure you got enough electrolytes with the heat. So, I took a gamble and drank both powerade and water at each stop. It seemed to work out for me okay though. They had the Cars characters out at the speedway, that was pretty neat to see. I know I got some pictures of them, but I can't find them.

 

[annabanna]

When I last off where we were passing the speedway.

Mile 4 came and went pretty quickly.

It was in this area that two things happened. First the course was really narrowing and it was getting really hard to do much else but walk. It was crowded and people must not have really heeded the final race instructions telling us to stay far to the side to allow others to pass. There were people walking 4 and 5 across! The second thing that happened was that I realized that at some point in the last 5 minutes I had somehow hit pause on my runkeeper app. I was beginning to think that the last walk break was never going to end. And when I finally checked the time I realized what had happened. So now I had to figure out what to do. I could just hit resume and start running when it came time or I could reset it and basically start the time over. I was concerned because either way our minute per mile would be off now. However, with so many people crowded in the course, we found that there were times that we couldn't run at all, and times when we could run but we were on our walk interval. So we decided to against the standard race rule of not doing anything different on race day than you do in training: We just ran when we could and walked when we could. I reset my app to keep an eye on our pace and we went for it.

Soon enough we were going by the water bridge by the Contemporary. People had talked a lot about this hill on the WISH forum, it seemed that people either thought it was terrible or not an issue. I live in the Black Hills - I thought that the hill was nothing. My sister lives in flat Missouri - she thought she was going to die. So, again it really is a case of what you consider a hill.
At any rate, when we came back up the hill to find the odd puppets that they had for the Disneyworld Marathon 20th mile surprise. I will admit, I did think that there were pretty neat, but I really feel like the Marathon runners kind of got jipped since this was supposed to be their big surprise and they were just hanging out between miles 4 and 5 for us.

My mile marker 5 ended up being a video for some reason, so I don't have a picture of it, but trust me, we went by it. After that it was the most beautiful site - the Magic Kingdom. You could feel the anticipation in the crowd through this area. I think everyone just really wanted to turn down Main Street and see the Castle. I am sure that I wasn't the only one who just wanted to get to that point. From the beginning I had always felt that this was what the race was about - well that and obviously the finisher medal. But for some reason, I had always pictured turning down Main Street, seeing the Castle and feeling like I had done it, i could relax now. Everything after that was just icing on the cake.

I aksed my sis if she was happy to be in the Magic Kingdom:

The spectators through here were just awesome. Complete strangers cheering you on, it really couldn't get better than that. I loved some of the signs we saw too. "I don't know you, but you inspire me" - that one made me tear up a little. I think the best one though was the guy with a sign that read "You are almost there, you can do it!", and the girl standing next to him with a sign pointing to him that read "Bad at math". Too funny!

And then, there it was:

We quickly found ourselves in Tomorrowland

Then we headed into Fanstayland.

We hadn't seen the expansion yet and the last time we were there Belle's castle was still just rebar, so it was really neat to see that. Then we came upon the castle. I loved the trumpeters that were here. They seemed so happy to see us

But this is where people were starting to get frustrated with the crowds. There were people pushing through others, but I am really not sure what they thought they were going to accomplish. There were just too many people and nowhere to go. But it didn't stop some of them. I was especially annoyed with the princess Belle who pushed through a bunch of people, still trying to run. She tripped the poor lady in front of us and then didn't even apologize. Not very Princess-like.