Poor Unfortunate Soles: Marathon Weekend 2013 (5K, Half and Full Marathon)-COMPLETE!!

[camandjacksmom]

Mary,Bert and the penguin were my second favorite of the race!! We stopped and it was the shortest of the race for us. It's crazy how a few minutes during the race can change how long the lines are!!

 

[tehvalerie]

2013 Walt Disney World Half Marathon! Final Thoughts...but of the 5 Disney races I've run I think this is the most frustrating race experience I've had, and that is completely because of how crowded it was and the lack of runner etiquette on the course.

A friend of mine ran the half this year and said that night that she'd never do another Disney race because of this. Of course, we've since discussed going back next year!

 

[steph0808]

I just want to say thanks for the push - I finally started my trip report on my blog!

Love reading yours! Can't wait to hear about the marathon!

 

[JessM]

Congrats on beating your princess time! I think you have convinced me to do the princess next year as my first half! Now to convince the BF... Haha. Can't wait to hear all about the marathon! Thank you for taking the time to put this together it's fun reading about your experiences!

 

[Ariel484]

I also wished I'd stopped for Mary Poppins, but I was actually practically passed them before I realized who it was and the line was really long so I passed on it. Oh well, maybe next time.

DH and I are talking also about going Goofy in 2015 for the anniversary.

I think Mary and Bert have been out on the race courses in the past, so I'm sure you'll get another shot at them.

WOOHOO Goofy 2015! I haven't run that by the husband yet but I am hoping that it will work out.

Thanks for the great info! Especially the link to your running skirt and I love the story of the company. I'm also a sucker for anything with the word Sparkle in the title. I'll definitely be ordering a skirt from there for the half!

Looking forward to reading more about how the rest of your day went. I hope you took a nap!

You're welcome! SparkleSkirts does come to the Disney race expos...EXCEPT for the Marathon Weekend one, because I think it's too expensive for them to get a booth. The skirts are pricey but they are AWESOME - the shorts don't ride up at all and the pockets are great. Really good customer service too...I cannot recommend them enough. Even though they don't come to the WDW Marathon Weekend expo they hand-delivered skirts to people at their Disney resorts. They are awesome!

Yep, I did take a nap. It was awesome!

Mary,Bert and the penguin were my second favorite of the race!! We stopped and it was the shortest of the race for us. It's crazy how a few minutes during the race can change how long the lines are!!

I think I would have stopped if the penguin was out...when I ran by I think he was just waddling away for a break. Darn!

A friend of mine ran the half this year and said that night that she'd never do another Disney race because of this. Of course, we've since discussed going back next year!

Yep, runDisney sucks you in! After last year's marathon I thought I was done, and, well...we know how that worked out.

I just want to say thanks for the push - I finally started my trip report on my blog!

Love reading yours! Can't wait to hear about the marathon!

Oh yay! I am going to read it after I post this update! And hey - love the new avatar!

Congrats on beating your princess time! I think you have convinced me to do the princess next year as my first half! Now to convince the BF... Haha. Can't wait to hear all about the marathon! Thank you for taking the time to put this together it's fun reading about your experiences!

Thank you! The Princess is a great first half marathon. Tell your BF to DO IT...he'll be surrounded by ladies (I think the women:men ratio is 30:1 ) but it's SO much fun...and I think they have men's cut tech shirts now!

 

[Ariel484]

16.2 down, 26.2 to go...FEED ME!

We didn't hang around the finish area very long (and didn't get a picture together with our medals! Darn! ). Princess C headed back to the CBR bus stop and I made my way back to the monorail station at the entrance to Epcot, weird little runDisney snack box in hand. They were making runners that wanted to get to the monorail go through security along with the park guests that were arriving just after Epcot had opened for the day. I'm sure they didn't appreciate having to share the security line with the sweaty runners.

Waiting for the monorail and looking back toward the starting area...

I think I got on a monorail at about 9:15 and was en route back to the Grand.

It was a Simpsons kind of weekend.

Will met me at the monorail platform and we quickly headed back to the room. Now remember how I mentioned earlier that I didn't want to hear people talking about the heat and freak myself out over it? One other thing I didn't want to overthink was recovery between the half and full marathons. I read up a bit online and people were talking about ratios of macronutrients and drink this just after the race, do these stretches, walk for at least 15 minutes each hour, etc. Eventually I stopped reading about it and stuck with what the method that worked best for me, which I'd figured out during training - as awful as it sounds, take an ice bath after the race, followed by a glorious bit of sleep.

I felt GREAT after the half - no soreness at all - but I didn't want to take any chances with the marathon the next morning. I took about a 5-6 minute ice bath (probably should have been longer but I was in a hurry), showered and rolled my quads a bit with The Stick. I also very carefully removed my Goofy bib and laid it out for the marathon the next morning. Goofy runners use the same bib for both races and if it gets bent the bib tags won't properly record the race times...I definitely didn't want that to happen.

We headed over to the Polynesian (I think we took the boat) and checked in a few minutes early for our 10:40 ADR at Kona Café...which was totally SWAMPED. Seriously, that place was a mad house. My best guess is that lots of runners stay at the monorail resorts for the race and Kona is right there...and it's a great place for a celebratory breakfast.

My mom's friend was joining us for this meal and no one was there yet. We took our pager and waited.

We got seated after about 10 minutes and the rest of our party arrived. This was our first time eating at Kona for breakfast and I was SO excited - I love breakfast food!

Will and I ordered the Kona pressed pot to share. SO GOOD.

(Please note my giant glass of ice water. Still gotta hydrate!)

Will ordered the Samoa I think (?) and everyone else ordered some kind of eggs...I know my brother got steak and eggs. I got...

...any ideas???...

TONGA TOAST!

Now, certain food things (yep, food things...food items? ) at Disney are so overhyped that by the time I get to try them I am disappointed (i.e. - and flame me all you want for saying this - Dole whips and Boma)...but OMG. This stuff totally lives up to the hype. It was soooooo good. I think it flirts with being a little too sweet (especially with the strawberry sauce) but wow, it was awesome. I think the key for my liking it is that the banana flavor isn't too over-powering, because I don't normally like bananas mixed with other things...but this was incredibly delicious. On a normal day I don't know that I would be able to finish the entire portion by myself, but after the half I wolfed it down, no problem. And this is a weird thing to say, but I was quite excited about the bacon. I feel like most bacon on Disney property is thin and, well, kind of crappy...but the Kona bacon was thick and quite good!

Everyone agreed that the food at Kona was fantastic, but the meal took a long time. I really think Kona was caught off-guard with the post-race crowds and wasn't prepared to handle it, so everything was just a little slow. And my family was being a little, well...difficult ...so Will and I decided that we needed an afternoon alone.

We paid the check, said TTFN to the fam (who were planning on heading to the Magic Kingdom for the day) and headed out to the Polynesian bus stop. To the Studios!

Continued in Next Post

 

[Ariel484]

A short Studios afternoon

After our long brunch we arrived at the Studios at about 1:15.

The Studios is our least-favorite park (we're determined to explore it more fully on our next trip because we're sure there's more to love that we just haven't yet discovered) but we had a couple of things we wanted to do here that wouldn't take very long, so it seemed like a good pick for the afternoon in between the races.

First on the list, one of our favorite things to do at WDW...drawing class!

We got in line right before being let in to the class. The animator was one we've had before (she helped us draw Minnie in June 2011) and I think she's just so darn cute. She makes a big speech before the class about how everyone's drawings are good and there's no eraser on the pencil so don't get frustrated and how we want to make a messy, sloppy sketch, etc. It's adorable and makes me want to hug her. She'd make a great kindergarten teacher.

Just like last year, she had the character we were going to draw picked out ahead of time and wanted us to start drawing without knowing who it was. Whoever guessed the character would get the animator's drawing once class was over. One girl right in the front of the room was NOT happy about having a pre-picked character. For whatever reason she thought that SHE should be able to pick who we draw. Um...how about shut up and let the class get started?! Eventually the animator whispered the character to the girl and she was like, "Oh, thats a good one...I approve!" So obnoxious.

So then the animator draws one line on the sheet of paper and the guy next to me yells out, "STITCH!" like he's able to guess who the character is already. He wasn't right...yet he continued to guess STITCH every few minutes. Seriously, 5-6 times. It went from being funny the first time to making me want to stick my pencil - with no eraser! - right into my eye.

I ended up using my pencil for drawing only and I present to you...Dale!

And I came away from class asking myself the same question I have after each drawing class I've attended...why is it so hard to draw a circle?? WHY??

So far in class we've drawn Pluto, Minnie, and now Dale. I think this class is such a fun activity and really a perfect example of something you can only get at Disney. It's really one of the highlights of the trip for us each time we participate.

After class we checked the wait for Toy Story Mania (too long...shocker! ) and headed to Sunset Boulevard for the best ride EVER...the Tower of Terror. I think we waited about 15 minutes. It was awesome as usual, but I am ashamed to admit that after that one ride I was DONE. I needed a nap, pronto.

We made one last stop before leaving the Studios - Starring Rolls to purchase our third and final cupcake of the weekend - and caught a bus back to the Grand Floridian. Before going back to the room I showed Will where the race course passed the Grand Floridian in case he wanted to watch part of the marathon. When we got to the room I took a glorious nap. Ahhhh. I think Will alternated between playing on his phone and dozing off as well during this little break.

Continued in Next Post

 

[Ariel484]

Welcome, Cousins!

I think I got up from my nap at about 5PM and made a bee-line for that cupcake I'd gotten from Starring Rolls.

Red Velvet Cupcake:

Of the 3 cupcakes I had that weekend, this one was by far my favorite. The cake was super moist, and in my book you really can't go wrong with cream cheese icing. I had about 3/4 of it and Will had the rest.

After the cupcake I took a few more photos from our windows...

We had an awkward amount of time to kill before dinner, so just like after the 5K we popped into the Magic Kingdom for a bit!

And now for a mini-rant...I thought I'd finally picked the correct race shirt size this year (small instead of medium) but they seem to run larger now. I can definitely see that in the above picture. RUN DISNEY, IF YOU'RE READING THIS (psssshhhhh HAHA yeah right): Throughout the entire weekend - at the expo, at the races, even on your blog and Facebook page you kept mentioning how over half of the runners participating in the races were women...would it kill you to start producing women's-cut race shirts?? Men get men's-cut shirts for the Princess Half and Tinkerbell Half...where's the love for the ladies???

Also, runDisney, if youre reading this...HIRE ME! /rant over.

Anyway, this was pretty much an exact repeat of what I did after the 5K - just a leisurely stroll along Main Street. Except the Magic Kingdom was SUPER crowded on this day, so it wasn't quite as relaxing as we would have liked.

No more Dreamlights:

We didn't stick around very long - just a little over an hour I think. It was time for dinner!

We left the Magic Kingdom and caught the resort monorail back to the Polynesian. Our reservations for 'Ohana were for 7:05 and we checked in at about 6:50. I'd been texting with my mom and they were making their way over from the Boardwalk. She said it would only take a "5 minutes" for them to drive over. Right...

This reservation was...challenging. Way back in July I woke up at the crack of dawn to get our ADRs set and this 'Ohana dinner was the first one I made. That was back when the trip was going to just be me, Will, Craig and my mom. On December 29 - exactly 2 weeks before our 'Ohana dinner - my mom texted me that her friend was coming on the trip, and could I add her to this reservation? This stressed me out more than it should have - at the time the only reservation available for 5 was at 9:40...not happening - but I knew all I could do was make a back-up reservation for them and keep hoping for a cancellation. It sounds callous, but I made a reservation for 2 at the Grand Floridian Café for mom and friend. I had been very deliberate about the restaurants I picked for the pre-race dinners - they had to be places both the bro and I had eaten at that had NOT made us sick, and they also had to be places I thought people would like. Via Napoli and 'Ohana fit the bill. I'd done the work to get the reservation and 'Ohana is awesome - I was NOT going to give it up. I checked the dining system a few times per day and on New Year's Eve there it was - a reservation for 5 at 7:05PM! I snatched it up, canceled GF Café, and all was well...and then my aunt decided to come on the trip 3 days before check-in day. Luckily I was able to just call Disney Reservations and make the switch (going from 5 to 6 is a lot easier than 4 to 5). My mom thanked me profusely - she knew everything I'd done to plan the trip and the dinners. I was happy to do it, of course, but I'd be lying if I said it hadn't stressed me out a bit.

So Will and I checked in at 'Ohana, got our pager and waited. We were called to be seated pretty quickly...but the rest of our party wasn't there yet. They wouldn't seat us until everyone had arrived, so we were put back into the queue. Meanwhile my brother is texting me that the GPS is steering them in the wrong direction AGAIN and they've already made 3-4 u-turns. At this point Will was livid - I'd had to change the reservation so many times and now they were late?! I was mad too and was starting to get what Will and I call "panicky-hungry" - where you're so hungry you start to feel a little ill and, well, panicky - but eventually I decided (and told Will pretty firmly) that we would NOT be angry about this. They'd get there, we'd eat, and we'd just go about the day. Because the way the weekend was going I had already had the stressful arrival day, the full-of-complaints day at Epcot, and now this. This was not how I was going to remember this trip. We both calmed down pretty quickly, and I don't remember what time everyone else arrived, but I think we ended up getting seated at about 7:30.

We were seated at a table for 8 and ended up configured in such a way that Will and I were sitting together sort of facing everyone else. Oddly appropriate given how the weekend had been going up to that point ...anyway, this was the one instance where there were NO complaints at all. Shocking! Everyone was very impressed by the food (for the most part), but I'd like to think they also reigned it in a bit because they felt bad about being late. Who knows.

The one downside of eating at 'Ohana the night before the race was that I felt the need to eat less dessert than I normally do, thus I didn't gorge myself on the amazing bread pudding quite as much as I wanted to. So sad. I did get wild and order a Coke to go along with my water (hydrate, hydrate, hydrate!) though.

Despite the fact that I tried not to stuff too much food into my face the night before the marathon I still felt like my stomach looked like this guy's when I was done:

No food pictures - it was way too dark for anything to come out. But everything was great and the service was really good. Love that place.

We finished dinner at about 8:30 (I'd heard the soundtrack to Wishes! being piped in but we were too far away from the windows to see the fireworks) and Will and I were outta there in record time. We headed back to the Grand and took a stroll around the lobby before heading back to the room.

Once we were back in Conch Key I checked all of my stuff for the marathon again and was in bed between 9:30 and 10. My same 3 alarms were set: phone at 2:45, wake-up call at 2:55 and iHome at 3:00. Third and final race report coming up next!

Continued in Next Post

 

[jwgm2012]

Hi Shannon! Thanks for more great TR updates! Oh and thanks for waving the running wand and granting me "runner" status! LOL...

I think it's awesome how well you felt coming off of the 1/2 portion.

Looking forward to reading the rest

gina

 

[pxefig]

And this concludes your extensive six-week training program!
Now that song is in my head. Thanks (I'm not sure if I'm being sarcastic or not... "But Main Street's still all cracked and broken/Sorry Mom, the mob has spoken)
I love your shot of Mickey at the crossroads of the world. I want to steal it and make it my Facebook cover photo!
In the Delicious Disney Cookbook there is a recipe for the Ohana bread pudding that tastes exactly like Disney's version. Which impresses me, because I rarely have that good of a result when I try Disney recipes at home.
Starring Rolls will always have a special place in my heart. I went to WDW when I was pregnant with my third pretty much because I wanted grapefruit cake. That's why I boarded a plane and saw the mouse- for that cake. But they didn't have any at Starring Rolls and I hadn't been able to get an ADR at BD. The poor cashier was slightly freaked out by a hungry pregnant woman dealing with no cake disappointment and he walked over to BD and stole a piece of grapefruit cake for me. And it was everything I had hoped it would be.

 

[nnjamison]

Love love following along! And you and the hubs are adorbs!

 

[Ariel484]

Hi Shannon! Thanks for more great TR updates! Oh and thanks for waving the running wand and granting me "runner" status! LOL...

I think it's awesome how well you felt coming off of the 1/2 portion.

Looking forward to reading the rest

gina

Haha, you're welcome!

Yeah, except for feeling tired from...you know...the 3AM wake-up call I really felt pretty good!

Thanks for reading!

And this concludes your extensive six-week training program!
Now that song is in my head. Thanks (I'm not sure if I'm being sarcastic or not... "But Main Street's still all cracked and broken/Sorry Mom, the mob has spoken)
I love your shot of Mickey at the crossroads of the world. I want to steal it and make it my Facebook cover photo!
In the Delicious Disney Cookbook there is a recipe for the Ohana bread pudding that tastes exactly like Disney's version. Which impresses me, because I rarely have that good of a result when I try Disney recipes at home.
Starring Rolls will always have a special place in my heart. I went to WDW when I was pregnant with my third pretty much because I wanted grapefruit cake. That's why I boarded a plane and saw the mouse- for that cake. But they didn't have any at Starring Rolls and I hadn't been able to get an ADR at BD. The poor cashier was slightly freaked out by a hungry pregnant woman dealing with no cake disappointment and he walked over to BD and stole a piece of grapefruit cake for me. And it was everything I had hoped it would be.

You're welcome.

"True or false: You can get mono from riding the monorail."
"False...no wait! True."

Whenever we take the monorail at Disney we always sing "Monoraaaaail, monoraaaaaail, monorail...monorail! Mono-d'oh!" And since we stayed on the monorail this time we sang it a lot more than normal...we're cool kids.

Thanks for the compliment on the photo...steal away!

Congrats on recreating the bread pudding! The only Disney recipe I've tried at home was the Jiko mac and cheese...3 attempts, 3 spectacular failures. My Disney cooking confidence is shot.

So funny about the grapefruit cake! I'm glad the CM got it for you, sounds like it was turning into a dire situtation...

Love love following along! And you and the hubs are adorbs!

Thank you! And thanks for reading!!

 

[BigEeyore]

I am with you on the shirt sizing. My "small" shirt is enormous on me - it really wouldn't be that hard to do women's fit shirts. I forgot that the men had their own separate fit shirt for the Princess. Not cool Disney!
Your tonga toast and that cupcake both look amazing! I might try cooking up the tonga toast sometime. We have actually had pretty good success replicating disney food at home.
Love the animation academy too! For some reason, we keep getting either Minnie or Donald. Love them, but I really want to draw somebody else sometime
So glad your reservation at Ohana worked out. It must have been hard to hold back and not stuff yourself too much!

 

[DancinDaisyDuck]

MMMMM, Kona and 'Ohana all in the same day! Glad you got that nap in and had some leisurely time in Hollywood Studios. A good way to wind down after the morning.

Excited to read about the full marathon next!

 

[leopardmickeyears]

First, LOVE the title.. FEED ME! Those are precisely my thoughts after a long run

And the Poly! YES!

TONGA TOAST!! I love that picture too! It's PERFECT


Those first two pictures going to DHS are gorgeous too

I knew it had to be the red velvet cupcake. This was a good day of food (in my opinion) and well deserved

that being said...AND 'OHANA!?!

panicky-hungry...I know exactly that feeling..just never saw a name for it

Aww no food pics :/

 

[DisneyParrothead]

Oh I definitely know that panic-hungry feeling. I have low blood sugar so when I start feeling that way, I'm stressed and worried.

I'm loving all these pictures. I did the Princess half last year and am planning on the half next year.

 

[Ariel484]

I am with you on the shirt sizing. My "small" shirt is enormous on me - it really wouldn't be that hard to do women's fit shirts. I forgot that the men had their own separate fit shirt for the Princess. Not cool Disney!
Your tonga toast and that cupcake both look amazing! I might try cooking up the tonga toast sometime. We have actually had pretty good success replicating disney food at home.
Love the animation academy too! For some reason, we keep getting either Minnie or Donald. Love them, but I really want to draw somebody else sometime
So glad your reservation at Ohana worked out. It must have been hard to hold back and not stuff yourself too much!

Yeah, I think I definitely could have gone with an XS. Oh well.

The Tonga Toast and cupcake WERE amazing! For a shorter trip we managed to get lots of good food.

So far at Animation Academy we have gotten Pluto, Minnie and Chip. I have heard that sometimes they will do a really obscure character, i.e. Ray from Princess and the Frog. Sounds like you haven't gotten much variety though!

I'm glad we got to 'Ohana too...it's not our top favorite but it's up there. It was SOOOO hard not to inhale everything!

MMMMM, Kona and 'Ohana all in the same day! Glad you got that nap in and had some leisurely time in Hollywood Studios. A good way to wind down after the morning.

Excited to read about the full marathon next!

Originally when we booked this trip we were staying at the Polynesian and I was so excited to have great restaurants RIGHT THERE...so at least with the resort move they were only a monorail/boat ride away. And the nap was a must...I just hit the wall after ToT!

First, LOVE the title.. FEED ME! Those are precisely my thoughts after a long run

And the Poly! YES!

TONGA TOAST!! I love that picture too! It's PERFECT


Those first two pictures going to DHS are gorgeous too

I knew it had to be the red velvet cupcake. This was a good day of food (in my opinion) and well deserved

that being said...AND 'OHANA!?!

panicky-hungry...I know exactly that feeling..just never saw a name for it

Aww no food pics :/

Thanks for the kind words on the pictures.

You know, you're right...that WAS a good day of food. I don't know if we'll ever top that one! YUM. I want to do it again.

Oh I definitely know that panic-hungry feeling. I have low blood sugar so when I start feeling that way, I'm stressed and worried.

I'm loving all these pictures. I did the Princess half last year and am planning on the half next year.

Panicky hunger is the worst. I got that a lot in the latter weeks of marathon training...

Didn't you LOVE the Princess Half? I think that one still ranks as the most fun race I have done. You'll like the half too...same course!

 

[Ariel484]

Day 4: Sunday, January 13, 2013

2013 Walt Disney World Marathon! Arrival and Start

In the weeks leading up to Marathon Weekend I can truthfully say that I wasn't ever nervous about completing all of the races. No, the thing that freaked me out was knowing that I would have to wake up at insane times of the "morning" three days in a row. So it was quite a relief to wake up on time on Sunday and not have to worry about it anymore.

Once I was up I did the same routine as the previous 2 days - turned off alarms, took the wake-up call, got dressed, sunscreen'd up, etc. - and left the room by 3:15. Now that the waking up part was over, for the first time I started to get really nervous about actually completing the marathon. Physically I felt fine (no soreness or anything) and I think I knew I could do it...but despite how many times I told myself, "it's just running...it's just running..." I couldn't calm myself down.

It sounds ridiculous - because seriously IT'S JUST RUNNING - but by the time I caught the monorail to the TTC (3:20) I was actually shaking a little bit. I kept trying to figure out what exactly I was scared of...running alone? Hitting the wall? Feeling sore at some point? The heat (which wasn't a big deal during the half because I'd finished by 9AM...but today I'd probably be out there until noon and it was already 63 degrees with 98% humidity at the start)? - but I could never really pinpoint exactly what it was so that I could talk myself down.

We switched monorails and I was on the second one by 3:30 (luckily it was another quiet ride). Again I saw the Magic Kingdom lit up, the pirate ship, and mile marker 26 in Epcot. This was really happening.

Our monorail arrived at Epcot by 3:40. I made a *REAL* bathroom stop again and headed to the start area. Walking helped calm my nerves a little bit, but just like before the 5K I had trouble getting part of my breakfast (a granola bar) down. It actually almost came right back up at one point. Ugh.

I got to the starting area and immediately headed to the lettered tents for a 4AM meet-up with some folks from another message board that I belong to...fun!

We waited around for about 20 minutes to try to catch any other board members, but after the weirdness with getting people to the corrals the previous morning I decided I wanted to start heading over. I also decided that being alone wasn't going to help my nerves any, so I asked a couple of my new board friends if I could tag along like a little lost puppy since they were in Corral C as well. They kindly allowed me to hang out with them!

We parted ways with the other board members and made our way to the corrals. The Fairy Godmother was out for pictures along the way, which was different...I'd never seen a character out before the race NOT in the holding/Family Reunion area.

The three of us made it to Corral C at about 5:10.

Once we were in the corrals and the start was getting closer the nerves were starting to kick in a bit more. By now I found that the best way to get that nervous energy out was to "dance" (which for me is just bouncing up and down and pumping my arms stupidly) and sort of babble. Kind of awkward considering that I was hanging out with people I'd just met in person for the first time, but that's how it goes.

Just before the race start at 5:30, another Disney vocalist sang the National Anthem...I think he was the best of the 3 over the weekend. The wheelchair racers started, then Corral A, then Corral B. We inched closer to the start.

Finally it was our turn to start running at 5:47. 3 2 1 GOOOOO!

Continued in Next Post

 

[Ariel484]

2013 Walt Disney World Marathon! Mile 1-5

Just like the half, the first couple of miles were crowded and humid.

And when I say that the first portion of the course was exactly the same as the half, I don't just mean the route...lots of the character meets (Jack and Sally, pirates, etc...I don't think Chip and Dale were out at the Speedway) and entertainment (flags) were identical to the previous day's, which I had kind of expected...but it was a bit of a letdown.

I don't remember much about those first few miles. I'd seen it all the previous day and for the most part I think my mind just went blank. But what I do remember was feeling surprisingly lonely. Normally I am super independent but I missed running with my brother...wahhhh!

There were lots of spectators at the TTC again...and just like the previous day the *real* bathroom lines were too long. Boo!

Mile Marker 4 was in the TTC...time for half a bag of Gu Chomps.

And back under the Contemporary water bridge. Poorly lit and narrow here, just like during the half.

Almost to the MK!

The splits are a little different for the marathon compared to the half...here my first split was sent out: 5 miles in 59:27, average pace of 11:53/mile. Estimated finish time of 5:11:41 (11:02AM). Gee, that would be a somewhat decent finish time, wouldn't it?

Wheeeee!

(This is the one official photo I purchased from the weekend...not impressed with the photos overall but this one makes me laugh!)

Continued in Next Post

 

[BigEeyore]

Sorry I missed seeing you in corral C before the marathon. It definitely helps to pass the time and take your mind off things to chat with people before the race. I randomly ran into some people that I knew from the gym and it really helped eased my nerves to talk with them waiting for the race to start.