Day 3: Sunday, January 8 - Marathon Aftermath
My final time was 6:20:09, a 14:30 pace. I’d finished the race at 12:09 PM and had been awake for almost 10 hours.
Looking at my Garmin made me a little sick…when mapping a course race directors measure the roads so that the shortest path taken = 26.2 miles. Clearly I had not taken the shortest path.
After crossing the finish line, I continued on through the chute with one thing on my mind…give me my freaking Mickey medal! I turned the corner and there they were!!
You are mine!
After getting my official finisher picture, I grabbed a banana, a bottle of both water and Powerade, and ICE. Two glorious bags of ice. The pain I’d felt in my butt earlier was completely gone (and never came back), but my quads were on fire and even though my knees felt okay, I wanted to ice them just to be safe.
I made my way through bag check and was back in the staging area. I hobbled to the merchandise area hoping to buy the marathon sweatshirt I’d passed up at the expo, but the line was way too long. Pluto and Scrooge were still out meeting and greeting, which was disappointing. I was really hoping for a picture with Mickey and Minnie in their track suits.
By now I decided it was time to return to the resort and let the recovery begin. Of course, I’d walked all the way to one end of the staging area to look at the merch, and now the buses were at the other end. The walk seemed like it took eons to complete, but finally I made it to the bus. The CMs beckoned me forward to board, but all I could do was look at how steep the steps were and mumble “Sweet Jesus.” I had a heck of a time navigating those stairs…my quads were screaming at me. Good thing there were railings so that I could pull myself up.
The bus driver announced the order of the stops: Boardwalk, Swan, Dolphin, Yacht Club and Beach Club, and we were off. While riding I chatted with the girl across the aisle from me, a much more experienced marathoner than myself. She advised me to keep moving all day and eat whatever I wanted. Not a problem!
The bus stopped at the Boardwalk and I hopped off. By far the worst I’d felt during the weekend of the Princess Half Marathon was in the moments immediately following the bus ride back to POR after the race, as my knees had tightened up during the ride. I wasn’t taking any chances this time; the walk from the Boardwalk to the Beach Club couldn’t be that bad.
I slowly made my way around the lake, hobbling the entire way, and realized that the race was still going on! I cheered on the runners as I made my way to the Beach Club lobby, and was surprised to see that the sweepers were following closely behind them. It’s funny, when preparing for a Disney race you always hear about getting swept (runners must maintain a 16 minute/mile pace, otherwise they’ll be picked up and transported to the finish line), but the sweepers themselves always seemed to me like some mystical beings that may or may not really exist.
But here they were, in the flesh, on their bicycles, wearing reflective orange vests. It was anti-climactic in a way to actually see them.
When I got back to my room (after stopping in the Beach Club Marketplace for some Chip and Dale pretzels, yummy yummy) I dropped my stuff on the ground and got more ice from the vending machine. At this point I was exhausted, sore, and hungry, so I’ll admit that despite having finished the marathon, I was feeling a little down in the dumps. It had been an overwhelming couple of days up until this point, and I was starting to feel sorry for myself again about being alone and sore.
That’s it, I thought. No more marathons for me.
I grabbed my phone and my mood lifted immediately – along with my text splits from the race I had a congratulatory text waiting from Will as well as some messages from other friends of mine! Technology is a beautiful thing.
Before I forget, here are some close-ups of the bling:
I love that the ribbons on the Disney medals are so detailed. One side has the marathon logo, while the other has the 4 park icons along with the date of the race.
After checking the phone, I took an ice bath for about as long as I could stand it (10-15 minutes) followed by a heavenly shower, and then headed off to LUNCH!
I met Craig for a post-race lunch at Beaches and Cream…mom had gone to Animal Kingdom.
We had about a 30-45 minute wait for a table. At one point Craig decided to check with the podium to see how long we had left to wait, and another marathon finisher struck up a conversation with him. When Craig returned to the table, he had a funny look on his face. Here’s an idea of how the conversation went:
Dude: “Was this your first marathon?”
Craig: “Yes.”
Dude: “How long did it take you?”
Craig: “A little over 6 hours.” (his time was 6:10 or something)
Dude: “Wow…that’s a long walk.” Chuckle chuckle.
Craig: “…well, have a great day.” *Walks away*
Ahem. Pardon my French, but...really, d-bag? First of all, I don’t get why you’d ask a complete stranger what their time is, especially for their first marathon. Most first-timers run just to finish. (Craig guessed that the guy wanted to be asked his time so that Craig could be OMGSOIMPRESSED. Nice try, jerk). Secondly, it’s always said how friendly and welcoming the running community is, and I really believe that’s true. It’s especially evident at Disney events, which draw such a diverse crowd of runners that are there to do their best and have fun. It’s such a positive environment. During the race I saw runners of all ages, shapes, abilities, and others with shirts declaring that they were cancer survivors, heart transplant recipients, blind, checking a marathon off of their bucket list for their 80th birthday, etc. But I guess there’s a jerk in every bunch, right? People like this guy just make runners look bad and attitudes like his unnecessarily make other runners insecure. And does our finish time really matter? We covered 26.2 miles (and then some, according to my Garmin
), we worked our a---- off during training and the race itself, and we did it without being swept. BOO! Oops, tangent! Sorry about that!
And please let me make this clear to anyone that has never run a race before and is thinking of doing so in the future - people like this guy are RARE. I've done 16 races and never once have I encountered someone so condescending and negative. 99.9% of other runners are encouraging and very positive...we just met the one that wasn't that day.
Anyhoo, we got seated at the bar-type area and quickly put in our orders: a double cheeseburger with grilled onions for Princess C and single bacon cheeseburger for me.
To be honest, I don’t even remember how the thing tasted. I just inhaled it.
By the time we got done with lunch it was about 3PM…naptime!
And it was awesome.
Continued in Next Post
) before slowly making my way over to the Yacht Club. I took a couple of so-so pictures along the way.
This was Craig’s first time on the ride in years, and I just laughed and laughed as it threw him around and he involuntarily made hilarious noises in the seat behind mine.
Loved your race report!
That is fantastic! 
I hope she got a second wind too. I have heard that the sweepers will give you a warning before you're swept... "you have xx minutes to make it to the next mile marker" or something like that. I've also heard that once you make it to DHS they stop sweeping, but I'm not sure if that is true. I hope she finished and get her medal!!
love you guys but…really it was a no-brainer – no thanks. I got my stuff packed and checked out of BCV at about 10:30AM. Destination: Magic Kingdom! 
(and yes, I was gross and wore my tech shirt for the second day in a row).
Hopefully they won’t get mad at me for not having a Chip & Dale relay medal!
Way to expand my horizons, right? The CM thought I’d waited too long to get my order (maybe 5-7 minutes, not a big deal at all) and gave me free dessert. Score!
