2007 Marathon Weekend Race Reports

[sap1227]

Now that you mention it, there was no Candy when I went by either (and I did notice the Tylenol packages on the ground and no one was passing them out either). Neither of those was a big deal to me, but being out of water seems crazy especially in that heat!!

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Hi Everyone!

I have to ditto Matt and say that you should not run a marathon when you are sick.

I either got a stomach bug or food poisoning on friday and spent most of saturday night throwing up. So much for all the hydrating I had done the last two weeks. I was able to catch a little sleep during the night though and by 2 am Sunday morning, I was feeling better.

T

Holy Cow--your time was sooooooooo much better than mine but otherwise your story practically replicates mine. However by the time I got to EPCOT, I coudl not inhale the air--the food smells fromt eh restaurants were positively sickening. My coaches allowed me to run---all seemed well when I started and they just didn't realize how bad along I was. I was doing TNT as well at the time.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Wow Judy--I am glad you are okay. I wonder if that happened b/c you stopped moving maybe? I have always been told to not dead stop after such a workout---b/c it can freak your body out. Glad everything was okay with you and that you got your medal.

 

[sap1227]

These stories are so inspiring! So many of us had bigger issues than just the race and you pushed through them to complete your goal!!

That is GREAT!!

 

[Maherae]

I am going to do two race reports..Before and After and then The Race.
BEFORE
We drove 7 hours on Thursday and got in around 4 at the Expo. Heading towards the Milkhouse, we see a HUGE line snaking out of the Milkhouse, along the side, back down and through the other building! I see a sign that says, "Marathon Volunteers Check In" and think that's what all of these people are doing...until it dawns on me that THIS is the line to get into the Expo!!! Fortunately, it moved pretty fast.

Once inside, we got into line for our bib # and chip. Looking around, there was Kristi1357/Kristi and her DH Chad! It was soooo good to see a familiar face! We got our stuff, then went to stand in ANOTHER line to activate the chip. We had not had to do this at other Disney races last year. FINALLY, we got to go downstairs to the Expo. I just love the Expo...all those people interested in walking/running, and lots of stuff...siiiggghhhh But we were not there for the Expo, just to get our goodie bag. So, off to the back of the room to pick it up.

Once out of the Expo, we headed for our 8 p.m. ADR's at Mama Melrose's restaurant. We were able to stroll around and see the Osbourne lights again just a little bit before time to eat. The food was wonderful and good sizex portions! I took half of my wood grilled chicken back to the hotel to eat after the race...

Check in at the Poly was smooth and quick. While DH was dealing with that, xterratri/Lynne came walking by! I am always amazed when I see this petite woman and remember all of the tri's, medical school and army stuff she does!! Simply amazing!! Our room was on the first floor and right outside the door. What a beautiful room it was, too!! We looked out to a lush green area..no pool or walkway..yea!! Unpacked and off to bed.

Friday morning we let ourselves sleep late before returning to the Expo. Someone here (Lisa?) said that the two nights sleep before the race was really important, so I didn't want to rush. This time, when we got to the Milkhouse...NO LINE AT ALL!!! I thought that by going on Thursday, we would be ahead of the game... There at the entrance was Chimera/Mel and Jen117/Jen coming out. We got to spend all kinds of time at the Expo. The most surprising thing was when we went by Danny Dwyer's Chi Walking/Running booth. DH was debating on buying the Chi Running video when a Jamaican couple asked us if we knew anything about it. DH started telling them of his experiences with it. I finally left after 15 minutes of standing there. 1/2 hour later, he was still there and I had to make him leave!! You would think he was getting a commission or something!! I wanted to check on the rumor about the Minnie medal changing, so headed for the medals table. Yes, it will be a new medal!! A smaller Mickey head with a fluffy bow! I'll be signing up for that race! Soooo much to see, people to talk to about other half marathons...it was just wonderful.

We did have to finally leave, though. Thought about getting some food at All Stars Cafe, but the line was toooo long for us. Found the on site McDonald's and ate there. Paid about 1/2 more than we would have at one right down the road! No dollar menues here, folks! I know, we were meeting at a food court, so why didn't we wait? Well, wasn't sure how long DH was going to let us stay.

Oh, my goodness! Oh, my goodness!!! The meet was just fantabulous!! We had over 50 people show up!! Like everyone else has said, it was great to put faces to screen names. It was so funny to try and introduce people..you HAD to start out with their screen name! If you did IRL name first, you got a polite look..then when their screen name was said, the face lit up with excitement!!

We finally left to go to DD's house for dinner and a late Christmas. Unfortunately, DH drank almost a whole pitcher of tea. He was tossing and turning most of the night. We did get back to the room and in bed by 11.

AFTER
Saturday night, we had reservations at Le Cellier. Unbelievably, melt-in-your-mouth good! The cheese soup, the bread, the cream cheese mashed potatoes, the filet, the chocolate mousse....YUMMMMM!!!

Sunday morning, I got up to cheer for the full WISHers. I checked the map, and saw that I could walk over to mile 9 from the Poly. Just to make sure, I asked the bellman who pointed me in the direction to go. Sure enough, you could hear people cheering, so I hurried over. I was amazed to see elite runners..you know the double digit ones go by! I'm yelling for 'em. "You're over a third of the way!" After about 10 minutes someone tells me that this is mile 13!! Turns out, the bellman directed me to the other side of the Poly, which was a closer walk to the course. I got to see everyone!! I hope I brought a smile to your face when you watched me try and run ahead of you to catch your picture!! You were absolutely A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!! I was standing almost where my race had ended yesterday(milewise), and these people still had that much to go!! I waited until the very last guy passed by with the sweeper bikes behind hime. I told him to read my shirt, and ran in front of him. He said, "Thanks! That's exactly what I'm believing!!"

I returned to the Poly and met up with DH. We then got to eat breakfast at the Kona Cafe where I tried Tonga Toast! What a treat!! After that, we headed to the Boardwalk to cheer some more. Unfortunately, we decided to take a bus and had to wait for 30 minutes before we got one! But we did meet up with Chimera/Mel and cheered some more!! We just missed Honeibee/Judy, but did see Kareneast/Karen.

Back to the Poly to shower and change, and it was off to Epcot! We wanted to do Finding Nemo at the Living Seas and Soarin'. Finding Nemo was so cute! We got to see the fish feeding also before we hustled out for a try at a FP. We did manage to get one with a great time for us, as we were to meet our DD and her friend outside Epcot so they could join us for the Illuminations Dessert Party. When we got there, wdwfan9/Pat and her daughter were there, also!

It was another great time with everyone at the patio of the Rose and Crown pub. It tried to rain on us, but we prayed it away!! What a wonderful place to view the fireworks! Too soon, though, it was over. We said our good byes and headed to the monorail where we met kareneast/karen and her DH. Not over yet!! They were staying at the Poly and we walked from TTC over to the hotel together.

Thanks for the wonderful memories, WISH team! Each and everyone of you are so inspiring!

 

[thndrmatt]

Did you guys see this?

"Also, Mary Peters, of St. Augustine, Fla., became the 100,000th finisher in the event's history, finishing with a time of 4:50:19.

As Peters crossed the finish line, race officials surprised her with a special award ceremony, replete with confetti and celebratory music. She was presented a one-of-a-kind, oversized marathon medal and commemorative Mickey Mouse Ears. In addition, Peters was awarded a complete 2008 Disney Marathon vacation package, including airfare, accommodations at a Disney hotel, meals, Disney theme park tickets, a VIP party and entry into both the 2008 Walt Disney World Half Marathon and 2008 Walt Disney World Marathon races."

Talk about right place right time!

 

[princessmomma]

I got to see everyone!! I hope I brought a smile to your face when you watched me try and run ahead of you to catch your picture!!

Oh, yes, Anne, you are a riot!!

We were so excited anytime we saw WISHers out there. We, MelR (Melissa) and I, loved it that you ran ahead to get our picture!

We (MelR, Steve and Dave) saw a bunch of WISHers on the top of the first overpass as we were going under. We couldn't see faces, but we were really waving and screaming for each other!!

Colleen

 

[sugaswim]

great job everyone!


(sorry i disappeared close to the end of the year... i got a new job and we were getting ready to go on vacations and training for the marathon i didn't have much time to post beforehand!)

i've already signed up for next year i can't wait!

 

[sugaswim]

Oh my goodness, I am so glad they found some more for you! That would be really upsetting!

i heard about that. i was in the coca cola station cool after the race on sunday talking to one of the cms and he was saying they had run out of medals the day before. i don't see how that's possible. because they know how many people have entered they should have enough medals. i can understand maybe them accounting for some people not showing up or finishing, but still, they've been paid for they should have had them. and then he was also asking if i got enough water because people were complaining about that too. actually at the airport last night some people i was talking to said they had run out of water and powerade by the time they got to certain stations!

 

[wfloyd]

I will split this up into several posts since they seem to be getting a little long right now.

Part 1

Expo

We arrived to WDW around 1:00 and checked in and found our room wasn’t quite ready. We had lunch and wandered around the resort until we could go to our room. Around 3:00 we headed over to WWoS for the Expo. It seems that everyone else had the same idea and the line reached outside the turnstiles. Billy and Lynnda went off to get registered for the kids race and I waited for the marathon. They went off to the expo afterwards to see what shirts and stuff they had that I might want.

My line moved fairly quickly and before long I was in the registration area. I went to the Goofy areas and got all my bibs, chips, and wristband. I headed down to the expo and found Lynnda who had selected several nice things for me. After giving Disney more money, we wandered around the rest of the expo. Our impression was there weren’t as many deals by the vendors as in past years. The discounts weren’t that great from what we could tell.

We talked to a few of the people and figured that Billy had almost had his fill. On the way out we happened to be spotted by Lynne and Cathy. We talked briefly and then we headed out and stopped at the All Star Café for dinner. It was good but the service was extremely slow. When we were leaving, there was a huge line so we couldn’t figure out why the service was slow. We headed back to the hotel for the night and started getting ready for the next day.

Kids Race

Billy was signed up to do the kids race even though we were wondering if we should with all the problems the year before. We got to WWoS early so we could find where we were to go and found it was nicely laid out. We walked around on the track a little to get Billy used to it and then watched a Hip Hop group for entertainment. They were good but I thought they went a little long for kids. It seemed most of the kids weren’t paying attention towards the end and were getting restless.

At 10 they started moving us towards the start areas depending on the age of the kid. We headed over and watched the first sets of runners go by. They split the ages up and let 15-20 kids run at a time. Billy’s time came and we headed off. I was thinking that he would run ahead of me but before the start, he informed me that he wanted to hold my finger the entire race and finish with me.

The races were much better this year. I think they got the idea that people weren’t happy last year and fixed it for the better. Having it spread out over two days was also nice in that it cut down on the crowds a little bit.

Afterwards we got our pictures and drinks then headed back to the Expo for one last look around. It was just as crowded so we didn’t spend much time there.

The Half Marathon will be next...

Bill

 

[sugaswim]

Did you guys see this?

"Also, Mary Peters, of St. Augustine, Fla., became the 100,000th finisher in the event's history, finishing with a time of 4:50:19.

As Peters crossed the finish line, race officials surprised her with a special award ceremony, replete with confetti and celebratory music. She was presented a one-of-a-kind, oversized marathon medal and commemorative Mickey Mouse Ears. In addition, Peters was awarded a complete 2008 Disney Marathon vacation package, including airfare, accommodations at a Disney hotel, meals, Disney theme park tickets, a VIP party and entry into both the 2008 Walt Disney World Half Marathon and 2008 Walt Disney World Marathon races."

Talk about right place right time!

that was almost me! i saw it happen. i was right behind it... all of a sudden i heard them say 'and here she is!' and confetti shot everywhere i had no idea what was going on at first.

 

[sugaswim]

i need to show my mom all the pictures that you all took with the characters. i was telling her the ones i stopped and got pictures with. she said... i can't believe you stopped in the middle of the marathon to get your picture taken with the characters... i told her everyone else was doing it

 

[taz4disney]

Thank you to the WISH crew that helped me stay calm in the holding pen before we walked out to corrals. You guys were great. The first 13 miles were right on (3:10). Shortly there after, I slowed to a walk. Not sure if it was the heat or the fact that I could feel the toe nail on my left pinkie toe being ripped off. Somewhere between the GF and AK, I had decided to give up. But every time, I thought about walking off the course, I would come upon a fellow WISHer encouraging me from the sidelines. You are all angels sent from God to help me. THANK YOU for staying out there to the very end! I was shocked to learn my chip time was 7:00. Happy to say I completed my first (and last) marathon. I'm glad I did it, but I think I'll stick to the half from now on.

It was a little discouraging that those in the back of the pack, that so desperately needed the aid stations were out of luck (I guess, that should be out of water, biofreeze, etc.) We could have really used it. I was surprised that Disney didn't run things better, especially with the heat being such a factor.

I am glad to know that so many of you made it. Good job congratulations YOU DID IT!!!!!! Hoping all have a quick recovery.

CJ - Fishers, IN (Christina)
1k @ a time

 

[princessmomma]

The Half Marathon will be next...

Bill

Hey Bill,

So great to meet you, Lynnda and Billy (what a wonderful little boy, he is so articulate for a 3 year old) on the weekend. I really enjoyed spending time with your family.

Can't wait to hear the rest of your report!

Colleen

 

[Cruella de mom]

Did you guys see this?

"Also, Mary Peters, of St. Augustine, Fla., became the 100,000th finisher in the event's history, finishing with a time of 4:50:19.

As Peters crossed the finish line, race officials surprised her with a special award ceremony, replete with confetti and celebratory music. She was presented a one-of-a-kind, oversized marathon medal and commemorative Mickey Mouse Ears. In addition, Peters was awarded a complete 2008 Disney Marathon vacation package, including airfare, accommodations at a Disney hotel, meals, Disney theme park tickets, a VIP party and entry into both the 2008 Walt Disney World Half Marathon and 2008 Walt Disney World Marathon races."

Talk about right place right time!

She ran with TNT and we got to see her after the race. Her medal was huge! By the way, she lives less than an hour from Disney so air fare is a little ridiculus. also when told that her prize was automatic entry into next years race her response was "thats the prize?!" Probably not the best time to present that one....

 

[windwalker]

Here is the link to Erica's post we only have limited access to net till we get back home so I just posted the link.

http://p206.************/fthewalkingsitefrm25.showMessage?topicID=84.topic

Hope this works.

Dave

 

[RunningLilo]

Keep the reports coming!!! I've been sitting here eating them up all day. Some make me cry. Some make me laugh. But they all show me just what a wonderful team of people I've found.

 

[gatorphipps]

WOW! All these reports are AWESOME!

1st, let me say if this was your 1st marathon...do another! The heat was KILLER and this was the hardest marathon I have ever done!
Real quick report!
Saw lots of WISHers and this was AWESOME! B/c I lost my DH and BIL when I went to the port-a-jons.
Right b/4 we started I met up with Melissa, Dave, and some others...I ran to the woods and showed several girls how to pee...sorry TMI!
Then lined up with Phil (Melissa's DH!).

Melissa, your DH was awesome to run with....he is a riot!
Anyway...started off and the miles started flying past. Some things I remember:
1. A man said 22 more 1 milers...that gave me no comfort! I told Phil that was not a good thing to say at mile 4.
2. I was WET all over! Even the brim of my hat.....
3. I was thirsty the whole race even though I drank at every station....and I never had to stop to pee. again!
4. I HATE GELS NOW!
5. Everyone was yelling my name so I told Phil I was famous and would autograph his shoes at the end of the race!
6. I could see the moisture in the air!
7. At mile 14 the sun came out!
8. In MK, I saw Bullseye and Phill and I agreed that the person inside that costume was worse off than we were.
9. At mile 20 Phill looked at me and said Lets pick up the pace. I and said he could go on. He took off like a rocket and I did not see him again until the finish...THAT BOY IS FAST!
10. I LOVED all the WISH scream team! You guys at the BCV do not know how you got me through that last mile! I knew you would be there, so I ran to you!
11. Even though I felt like CRAP, when I saw a camra I waved my hands and smiled like I was crazy!
12. It is not good when IBS hits you on a race course! But I did not stop!
13. Mile 20 is where the real marathon starts! I was fine and then MILE 20!
14. I did the best I could with the race I was given! And I finished in 4:12

I think that is all! to everyone recovering!
I LOVED seeing everyone at the Board Walk WISH meet on Mon morning!

 

[plutosmyfav]

12. It is not good when IBS hits you on a race course! But I did not stop!

I totally agree! IBS + Port-john - Purell is not an enjoyable experience I'm sorry, TMI for sure.

Congrats on an outstanding race. 4:12 in those conditions is beyond AWSOME!

 

[monte]

I wonder why Disney was so unprepared this year? I did the half in 06 and I don't recall any problems with medals, lack of water, etc... I hope 08 runs smoother.

Forgive me for this stupid question, but what does eating salt packages do for you? Make you sweat?