This is a lot longer than it probably needs to be. I'm sorry. I really don't know how to be brief LOL I have highlighted the part about getting swept so you dont have to read the whole thing if youre not interested in reading a novel!
We arrived in WDW on Thursday in the early afternoon. We were travelling, as we normally do, with our friends and their son. We being, my husband, our daughter and myself. Our friends son was running in the kids races. We had nothing planned for Thursday so after checking in at Animal Kingdom and getting our room around 4pm we went to dinner at a restaurant at Swan and Dolphin. I had a salad with vinaigrette dressing and grilled salmon, sparkling water to drink and no dessert. It had been a long day of travelling so we decided to head back to the hotel to relax and turn in early.
Friday morning I had a bowl of oatmeal and a banana for breakfast with a cup of coffee. Then it was off to the expo. I thought the packet pickup was well organized and the volunteers/staff were really friendly and helpful. I activated my bib tracker thingy and then we went over to the expo part. I was REALLY disappointed that all the D&B purses were gone since it was barely 1pm but glad I wasnt there for the near riot that they apparently had to get them. My daughter and I enjoyed wandering around and checking out all the vendors. Then we sat outside in the shade and warmth for a bit while out fellow princess continued to shop. I had my pedometer on that day, and in total for the entire day, we walked barely 4 miles. That included walking to the Mexican pavilion at Epcot for our dinner reservations.
We 3 princesses were afraid of doing too much pre-race so we didnt do a lot of walking Friday, but we did use our walk from the gate at Epcot, around World Showcase through UK, Canada, USA etc over to Mexico to walk at top pace (the park was oddly quiet). We even beat the boys there and had time to stop for a photo op with Donald!
I ordered a chicken dish for dinner, with club soda to drink, no appetizer and no dessert. Following dinner we strolled back to the parking lot, and back to the hotel. Since it was still early, we used the time to take a swim. No hot tub. Saturday was kid race day so after another breakfast of oatmeal and coffee we headed back over to ESPN. I LOVED the kid races! They were SO well organized. The kids seemed to have a blast! Lots of cheering for all the kids. What a great day! It started to really build our excitement for our big day. It was sunny and hot on Saturday so I made sure to drink a lot of water. Following the kid races, we went to Downtown Disney for a late lunch/early dinner. We went to Portobello and I had a salad and a pasta dish. Then back to the hotel to organize our race costumes, bibs, emergency info etc. The boys went off to MK for the evening. Daughter and I were turned in and ready to sleep by around 8pm. I was surprised at how easily we both fell asleep. Come 11pm or so, something woke me and I tossed and turned from that point until about 2:30 when I finally gave up and just started getting ready. I had a half a bagel with peanut butter and brought a banana and protein bar with me to the race. It was so exciting! We got the bus with no problem, again, easy peasy, and well organized. I thought the walk from the bus drop off to the staging area, and then the corrals seemed a bit long, but with all the time we had, the nerves really settled down! By our start, I was wide awake, and ready to go.
We were pretty close to the front of our corral and it was wall to wall people. So when we started, I felt I had to run it just to get out of the way. We jogged for a bit, and moved over to the right and began walking. I couldnt find my pace. People were passing me so fast, and that was playing on my mind a bit. Then Meg came up, called out to me from behind. It was SO great to actually meet, even if it was brief. I felt like I was really booking it, and Meg blew on by like the wind so she was REALLY going. Like I said, I was having trouble finding my pace and getting in to a comfortable stride, getting my breathing right. During my training, that first mile was always like that, so I just tried to keep up with my daughter and ignore whatever confusing and discomfort I was feeling. By the time we hit the Mile 1 marker, I calculated roughly that we were doing about a 14m/m. I was afraid of not being able to maintain that pace, so I slowed it down a little bit, just to where it felt more comfortable, and where it felt more like my stride. My daughter was about 3 to 5 paces ahead of me. My bib tracker thingy hadnt picked up my start, and it wasnt registering any updates so I dont really know what my split times were. I can tell you though, something felt off. I dont know what it was. Thats why Ive told you what I ate, how I slept. I am not making any excuses, but I do want to learn from the experience.
One thing I found really difficult was the swelling in my hands! My fingers got really swollen and my wedding rings were uncomfortably tight. My hands felt numb and cold. I had experienced that while walking outside at home, but I thought it was due to the cold weather. Anyway, I ignored it and pushed on. Just before Mile 2 I saw the leader of the race, heading back to the finish line. What a sight! She made it look effortless and she inspired me to push on. I dont think I ever really found my groove. Either the crowd slowed down and I couldnt get around people, or my shoe came undone, or I tripped, or I was jogging to catch up to my daughter. I was never really very far behind her. I couldnt believe how quickly we got to the gates of Magic Kingdom. It seemed to come up faster than I expected. I didnt wear my Micoach pedometer because I thought it would just be something else to distract me. I wish I had worn it because I dont know how my pace was (not that I really could have gone any faster) but at least Id know for next time what I did wrong (if anything) or what I need to do better for next time.
We stopped for 2 seconds for a picture of each of us with the Magic Kingdom sign in the back ground. As we were walking towards the castle, I saw a bus with a number 111 on it. Thats a special number to my daughter and I, so I pointed it out to her. A lady beside me thought I was pointing out the sweep bus and told us it was just an ordinary bus. I explained the special number thing to her and when I looked at her, I could see she was or had been crying. I asked her if she was ok. She told me that she had been talked in to the race by a friend and they had trained for a 16 m/m but in the corral, the friends daughters told her she had to do a 14m/m to keep up with them because they didnt want to get swept. Early in to the start, her 3 companions abandoned her. She told me she had asthma and had had surgery on her knee. She was so hurt. She said that her longest walk in training was 4 miles and she felt so lonely walking alone. She was crying and really struggling and it broke my heart. So my daughter and I introduced ourselves. I offered her my puffer (she had forgotten hers) but she didnt need it. We 3 walked side by side for a bit, and then she and my daughter pulled ahead. I didnt feel like I had slowed down at all
but they really pulled ahead. They kept looking back for me, and I shouted to my daughter to keep going, that Id catch up. I tried to run for a bit, but hitting the ground was SO jarring! So I just kept going as best I could. I came around a corner, knowing I was getting very close to the castle, and my daughter was standing off to the side, alone, waiting for me. I asked her if she was ok, and she said she was waiting for me to go through the castle together. I started sobbing! Im so proud of my girl!
I really needed a potty break (it was hurting to walk) so we popped in to one of the restrooms in Tomorrowland. There was no waiting. When we were washing up, a race official came in and said we were behind pace and needed to pick it up. So we left there and ran (for our lives) toward the castle. Jarring be damned! I was not going to fall behind and get swept! We ran all the way to the castle, holding hands, crying and laughing. What a sight! When we got TO the castle, it was a bit crowded and there was no room to get around the people already there, so we stopped running and walked. We made the turn toward Frontierland. My daughter (Jessie) spotted Jessie with no line, and jumped in for a photo, I kept going. She caught up and a race official came from goodness knows where and said we were 3 minutes off pace. THREE??? So we tried to run but I just couldnt do it. So I told my daughter to just go and keep going. If I didnt catch up, Id find her in the reunion area. She didnt want to leave me, but I told her she had to just go, it would be fine. Id catch up when I could. I thought maybe I was hitting a wall because my longest walk was 7 miles and I just needed a bit of time, to actually FIND my stride, get in my groove and get back on pace. There were runners and walkers behind me but no balloon ladies, no bus, no warning of a sweep anywhere, other than a few medical people on bikes, and pacer people on bikes telling me we were 3 minutes off pace. Somewhere along the line I struck up a conversation with a lady who turned out to be LotusLady but I dont remember where that happened. It too was brief, and Im pretty sure she left me in her dust too 
I hit the train tracks and turned the corner. There didnt seem to be a soul around. I caught a glimpse of what I think might have been my daughters blue tutu just turning the next corner. Another pace bike person told me at that point I was about a minute and a half off pace. I tried go faster, but there was just no way I could go any faster. I felt like I was going faster than any of my training walks, but it didnt feel right. I cant put my finger on it. The best way to describe it is to say that it felt like someone was hanging off the back of me slowing me down. I tried to jog, but my emotions got the better of me, and I couldnt catch my breath, for all my crying. I went back to walking, stopped to fix my shoelace, composed myself, and adjusted my stride. If the pace people were honest, I had picked up a minute and a half, and since I didnt see any sweep people behind me, I felt I had time to get back on pace. So I quieted my thoughts, and FINALLY found MY pace. Then I rounded that stupid corner and coming up on my left was the pace bike and orange vest guy who said to me Youre a minute behind pace. You HAVE TO pick it up. I nodded and just kept going. I looked back straight ahead and then I saw it
a bus
pulling across the road. I couldnt see beyond the bus and it was clear what it was. I had NO intention of getting on that bus. There was enough room at the front of it to go around it. I just kept walking full speed ahead until I got close enough to the bus to realize that there was no going around it. My race was done. It was over
and the tears were streaming. My heart was SO crushed. Never once did I imagine the possibility of not finishing the race. I never imagined what getting swept would look like. To see that bus pull across the road, blocking my path, ending my day
. was just so devastating. I dont remember how many people were around me. There seemed to be a ton of people coming toward us. There were maybe 6 or 8 people in line waiting to get on the bus. They pulled up another bus from somewhere, but I dont know where it came from. I was instructed to get on that bus. As I passed by someone, a race official or volunteer, I heard him say I know I know
were so mean. It seemed a bit condescending to me. But perhaps he was just trying to lighten the mood. I dont think Ive ever cried so hard in my life. I had to wait at the door of the bus while someone wrote down my bib number on a paper on the clip board. He asked if I needed medical attention. I dont remember answering him.
Once on the bus, they offered us water and/or gaterade, but nothing else. I could NOT stop crying. I was doing that really super ugly cry. I felt like such a baby but I couldnt get a hold of myself. There were a lot of women on the bus. They all seemed happy with being on the bus. Someone asked for champagne. They guy who took my bib number came back on the bus and said wed be leaving in a minute, going back to the reunion area and that our medals would be waiting for us as we got off the bus. To be honest, that just made me feel worse. In that moment I just didnt feel like I
deserved?
earned? a medal. Im still of two minds on that, but definitely glad I have one.
It felt like the longest bus ride of my life. I have no idea where we went. I know we drove past the Grand Floridian, but thats all I remember seeing in the way of a landmark. We got dropped off right in front of the medical tent, which was right near the area where we went through leaving the staging area to the corrals earlier in the morning. Getting off the bus, no one said a word. There was a woman standing near the front door of the bus with medals hanging on her arm. She took one off and handed it to me without a word. There were no blankets, no goody boxes, no snacks, no directions, nothing. It was very unceremonious and it felt as awful as it sounds. Reliving it just breaks my heart all over again!
I wrapped the ribbon of the medal up in my hand and went to the tent my daughter and friend and I had agreed to meet at. I was looking everywhere for my daughter. I didnt know if she had made it past the bus or not. I couldnt see her, so I assumed she was still out on the course. I was cold and watching the jumbo screen like a hawk trying to see my daughter cross the line. My friends husband found me, standing there, shivering, sobbing, staring at the screen. What a sight I must have been! He gave me his jacket and told me that my time never registered so as far as they (he and my husband) could tell, I never started the race. He asked me what happened, was I injured? I told him I was fine, but got swept at Mile 8.2 (I forget who told me it was that distance and I dont remember seeing a mile marker after #4). I asked him to go back to the finish line where my husband was, and tell him to wait for our daughter. He did, and came back with the bag my husband had that had my rain jacket in it (we didnt check our bags). By then, it had started raining and I was frozen.
Shortly after that, my husband found me, and told me that our daughter had just finished. She came round to the area shortly behind him. She was crying. When I saw her, I was so unbelievably proud of her. She is 16 years old, has panic attacks and anxiety. She had waited for me before the castle, and didnt want to leave me, when I sent her on without me. She had finished the race alone! She was running towards me, and taking off her medal, saying I got this for YOU Mom! and it was in that moment that I remembered that I had thrown my medal in my canvas bag when I pulled out my jacket. I couldnt explain to my husband why I had been swept, partly because I didnt understand it myself, and partly because I couldnt stop crying long enough to make an audible sentence! So I went back to my bag, grabbed my medal and showed it to my daughter... and we hugged, and cried and hugged some more.
My daughter said she never saw a bus. She ran for what she thinks was 5 minutes (but she has no real sense of time so who knows how long it really was) and finally found balloon ladies. She asked them if she was ok, they told her that as long as she stayed ahead or with them she was fine but if she fell behind she was in risk of getting picked up. Even Jess said that was the first time she saw them. They did NOT pass us unless it happened when we were in the restroom. I had not one time looked back, but my daughter said she was looking back all the time to make sure I was still in her sight. She says she never saw the balloon ladies. Anyway, she stayed on pace with them or ahead of them. She said there were tons of women behind her still. She started to have a bit of a panic attack and thought she was going to be sick so she went to the side of the road. A medic came to her and asked if she needed help. She told him she was having a panic attack and he talked her through it, got her walking again, and then stayed somewhat close to her the rest of the race. She felt a bit over whelmed when she hit Epcot and thought another attack was creeping up, but she worked through it. Im SO so so so proud of her. You have no idea how much this event has changed her! She ran and walked the remainder of the race, saw the finish line, and ran across. Her dad was waiting for her and yelling for her. She saw him, started crying, got her medal and bee-lined it to the reunion area to give me her medal. She now admits to being a little miffed when she found out she didnt HAVE to do it for me, but shes super proud of what she did do! She has found a confidence and inner strength she didnt know she had! I know in my heart that if I had finished the race with her, her experience would be different. So for that Im grateful to have been swept.
Like I said at the start, Im not making any excuses. In hindsight, I know that I was ill-prepared for the race. Training on the elliptical didnt prepare me for the jarring of hitting the ground. Perhaps the hardness of the ground took more out of me than I was prepared for. I trained for a 16m/m but something didnt feel right. Because my bib timer wasnt working, I have no idea if my pace was right or not. Although, if I take my daughters times, I was within the 16m/m minimum for the whole time. I honestly dont think its factual for the race documents to say its a 16min/mile minimum. In reality it seems that we needed to be past a certain point, by a certain hour or wed be swept. There were finishers who, based on their finish times, walked or ran at 17 or 18 minutes and still were able to finish. Whether thats because they were slow, or because they stopped for pictures etc it seems to not matter. They made it past mile 8 before the right time and were able to complete the race.
I hate that it sounds like sour grapes because all in all it was a fantastic event and I have no regrets. It went how it needed to go. But I think its important to know for other first timers, that it may not be a pace minimum as much as it is a get to a certain point in a certain time. Had I known we needed to get to mile 8 in 2 hours or whatever it was, I would not have made that potty stop. I seriously would have just held it as long as I could and wet myself if necessary! That one stop was the difference between being allowed to finish and not. I certainly am not complaining. I knew there was a time limit. I knew there was always the very real possibility of being swept. BUT, next time I will train better, and different. I need to try to figure out why I couldnt get my stride right if I can. Unfortunately, there is clearly some benefit to padding your time and starting in an earlier corral to give you a jump on being at mile 8 before the cut off (if thats where the sweep is going to happen next time). The problem with that strategy for me would be that the number of faster princesses passing me would really mess with my head!
So for all of you that finished, Im so proud of you! LotusLady, you and I have nothing to be ashamed of, and everything to be proud of! What we did accomplish was amazing in and of itself. Crossing the finish line would have been that much better. But all the other experiences of the weekend and the days following the race were so much fun. Having a medal to show for the effort I did make, will be the motivator to keep me going until I can try again!
For other first timers reading this, train hard, go fast, walk or run makes no difference if you just give it all you can. Take nothing for granted, but go for it! Do not let fear stop you! This was a life changing event for me, from start to finish. It was equally as life changing for my daughter. I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. I will take what I have learned and put it to good use for next time! I will do try again, maybe in 2013 but for sure by 2014!
Thank you everyone for the encouragement all along the way. I have enjoyed getting to know you all and appreciate your support more than you know!
