Race Reports/Encouragement/Kudos - 7 and 8 March

[smileyk8]

Matt It was so great seeing you right after i'd finished. I got in a couple of mins after you and the 'high four' really made my morning! ha ha ha. My DDad said 'did he actually run in that?'- yep you did . You did an awesome string of races and i hope you're very proud

 

[thndrmatt]

Jeff already posted one of the youtube Half Marathon videos, here's one for the 5k!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1woOpalZnP0

I was running pretty close to that guy for the first mile or so, so you see all kinds of WISH green. Not sure if I spotted anyone else though...

 

[jeanneg]

Ok, here's my race report: I just cut and pasted from my Ohana posting, so apologies if not all is relevant.
I'm back.........got my medal, but it was oh-so-ugly! For some reason my foot was really acting up last week. Not really sure what sort of problem it was, but it hurt all around my ankle and the whole top of my foot. Sometimes if I placed my weight on it just so, I would get a really sharp piercing pain. It started pretty much after the marathon and has (among other things) kept me from training. Of course when I got to WDW, all the walking around the parks made it worse. I was pretty much convinced that the PH was going to be a non-event for me. I didn't want to be stupid and hurt myself even more by walking injured. And I didn't want to start and not finish. But I also didn't want to give up without trying (DNF>DNS!) I was hoping for a miracle, but pretty much convinced it wasn't going to happen.....and I don't do failure well.
So I literally tossed and turned all Saturday night trying to figure out what to do. Finally at some point, I must have fallen asleep. When I woke up the clock said 3:54am......what happened to my 3:45 wake-up call?!?
So I started running around like crazy and got John up. I couldn't understand what had happened. Finally it occurred to me to check my cellphone, which said the time was 1:59am! I felt like I was in the twilight zone. I watched it change to 2:00am which was the time it was supposed to advance an hour. Then, it jumped to 3:01 so I wasn't late at all! Try getting back to sleep after that happens. Of course, I accused John of mistakingly setting the clock 2 hours ahead! I later found out that via some remote mechanism, Disney was able to advance all the room clocks 1 hour automatically and most people got a message on their phone telling them not to adjust the clocks themselves. For some reason, we never got that message and set it ahead before we went to bed springing us an EXTRA hour forward. So, I rested a little more.....sleep was not coming.....and then got up to do my "preparations".
Now, I do not understand this one bit, but when I put my shoe on, for the first time in a l-o-n-g while, I had no pain! I had finally broken down and taken some NSAIDs the night before which is something I never do because of previous adverse reactions. I don't know if it was the medication.....or the adrenalin......or both, but I was feeling pretty good and figured I would give it a shot and see what happens. If I could get to Mile 1 and still feel good, there was a chance I might finish this thing.
So we get to the race nice and early and the officials walk us over to the actual start line, which was at least a mile away! I'm freaking out because I don't know how many miles I have in me and here I was wasting one of them!
At one point they walk us past what we know as Red water stop #2 and all the tables were set up with tiers of water for the racers. The volunteers are there telling people not to take any because it's for the race, which was REALLY interesting because the course didn't go by that way! ???????? I still can't figure that one out!
Anyway, the race started on time and I made it to mile 1 without any trouble.
I went out pretty fast for me (just a tad over 14 min/mi) because I figured if I started hurting I would need a big cushion. Things were going great until about mile 10 when the pain began. But the really funny thing was that is wasn't my foot! Apparently, my complete lack of training finally caught up with me and both my legs began to cramp up. I had never done the half marathon at WDW before and assumed the second cloverleaf was the last "work" section. Nothing had prepared me for that final overpass just before Mile 12. I saw that and my legs just wanted to shut down. Thankfully, there were alot of WISHers that were near me on the course or scream-teaming on the side and that was enough to get me through. Chester, in his absolutely ridiculous WISH green wig, boa and other garb was like a one-man scream-team in himself! A super shout out to Matt for doing his race and then coming back to cheer on the rest of us. And to Maura for coming to our WISH meet and cheering on the course even though she wasn't able to do the event herself. (at the last moment I almost offered her my bib, but didn't know how to get in touch with her on such short notice) I saw Suzanne cheering for us and another dark-haired lady (whose name I never got) at MK. And even Anne and her husband were there! I was so happy to see her around GF, but truly missed her presence at TTC. Syko was there at the final shute cheering us all even though she was the very first person the cross the finishline and had to have been there for hours. And there were so many WISHers on the course that knew I was hurting and kept encouraging me to go forward: Tiffany and Fiona, Diane and Pat, Wendy, Kim, Liz, Stacey and Ohana newbie, Kathy. And forgive me, because I know I'm leaving lots of people out, but my mind was a blur. And congrats to all the fast people like Mel, JenB and Butch, Tracy, Bill, etc who are so far out of my league I never even saw then on the course after the first mile!
Soooooo.....I hate to admit this, but.......I DIDN'T BEAT THE GREEK!
I ended up with a 3:20:02.....my worst HM ever, but considering that I never even thought I would start, I am eternally grateful! I learned something too: I now know, that for me, no matter what I've done in the past, I cannot expect to finish strong without proper training. And with that in mind, I will NOT be going Goofy!
__________________

 

[SAHDad]

March 7 race report

The race: Jack Kenny 5k

The place: Glen Oak Park, Peoria, IL

The time: 9 am

The numbers: 20:15, 3rd in age division (former PR 22:46)

The report: When I woke up Saturday morning, I knew it wasn't going to be the best race I could do. The weather was fine (cool, cloudy and only a slight blustery wind), but I had spent over 5 hours driving down the night before, and since I am allergic to my father's dog, I was a little conegested. (Nothing wrong, BTW, with combining a family visit and a race.) I didn't bother with breakfast, since it was only a 5k, and I could just eat afterwards.

When I got to the race site, I had to go register. Once that was done, I killed time, wandering a little, taking a couple bio breaks, and a little stretching. Soon enough, it was time to line up.

The course is a simple loop, repeated 3 times. So, while it is a little repetitive, it's also short enough that it's not a mind-numbing ordeal. (I wouldn't want to run a 10k on a 1 mile course though.) I lined up fairly close to the front, but made sure to place myself behind the contingent of high school runners. I knew I wasn't going to beat most (or any) of them, but I wasn't running against them anyway. The way I see it, if you are not in the top 3, you are really only running against the other people in your age/gender bracket.

A brief "Runners, take your marks" and we were off. My first mile was fast, too fast. I think I clicked through it in 6:20, and that includes my efforts to slow down after the first quarter. If I had held my initial pace, I would have managed to come in at about the 18 minute mark!) I had some fading for the second and third laps, although I am sticking by my official story, which is that I dropped down to about the pace I intended to do all along.

Soon enough, I was climbing the final hill the last time. I saw the runner ahead of me, started closing the gap, and finally kicked it into high gear as I approached the finish line. It was not to be be, however - I had started my final kick too late, and he finished 1 second ahead of me. (For the record, he took 2nd in my age group. Grr..)

I stuck around after, and my dad cheered on several runners he knew from work. We waited until the end of the awards ceremony - both to collect my bling, and to congratulate his co-workers, who had taken age group awards as well.

It was a nice race - if I happen to be visiting next year when it is being run, I'd happily run it again. Probably won't beat the high school kids though; I think a couple of them had times in the low 16-minute range.

 

[joan4mickey]

Well, I'll give this race report a try. First I had been at WDW for a week before I ran, first with DH for our 25th anniversary-we had a blast and then he left Thursday and DD's (18 & 20) flew in later that day. We had a blast at MK on Friday. They did all the rides they wanted, never waited more than 10 min. and found 3 paint brushes on Tom Sawyers Island, but only took one for fast pass prize. Jeanneg and Wendy (both Carolina girls) recognized me while I was waiting for my girls to get off Space Mountain and we chatted a minute. Saturday we had a late Character brunch at Cape May. We all loved it and saw Minnie, Goofy and Donald. We went to the Expo, got all our stuff (shirts worked great for us), and Kathy (Momoftwogirls) recognized me. I got pixie dusted which my girls thought was crazy, but it gave them a good laugh at mom. Sorry no meet Sat. as my girls wanted to go to Chick-fil-a and I do love those chocolate milk shakes (all 700 calories). We tried to go to bed early-like 8pm DST, but the girls were very giggly and I'm not sure when they fell off.
RACE DAY
We got up at 4:30 and my girls were still giggly. We were on our way to Epcot by 5 and I'm sure glad as I drove and that traffic looked pretty bad after 5:30. We were right behind the WISHERS in corral B, near the male Snow White-We loved all the male cross dressers. We couldn't hear what they were saying over the PA and I had hoped for fireworks to start, but the line just started to move forward. And did you know that there were runners that had competed in the China Olympics? Of course they finished first, but they probably missed all the characters. We had planned a 10 min. mile followed by a 5 min. walk, but the girls wanted to run so we did for 3 miles and them walked and after that we started our 10 run/5 walk. We used the bathrooms at Tomorrowland and then through the Castle for photo ops. We did ask a spectator to take our pix as we ran up main street. Once out of the MK the characters appeared in force and we had several pixs taken along the way. I had one ecstatic daughter when she spotted Meeko and sprinted to get her pix with him. Somewhere around mile 10 my Laura started to give out. I took her by one hand and her sister took her other and we walked with her for a while and then she would try to run. Now this is the inspiring part-many were encouraging her and called us a real team. I don't know who they were, as I was focused on Laura as she was determined to finish on her own two feet. Her sister even offered her a piggy back ride. If some one reads this that offered those words I thank you. In Epcot on of DD's favorite Disney tunes from the Little Mermaid came on and also helped to inspire her to finish. We started together and finished together. Some how we finished and in good time 2:28:12. I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to do this with my girls-although they said they would be in no hurry to do it again soon-they were glad they had done it. We couldn't stick around as we had time to shower and then get to the airport to fly home. We loved the race and our time together.

 

[deekaypee]

Suzanne: Congrats on your 5K--meeting your goals with style and a stylin' training wall to boot--and for cheering at the 1/2!

JenB: Great details in the RR and congratulations on your PR! The fairy godmother idea--perfect! So, the belly dancer is the motivational equivalent of Speedo guy? Best costume has to go to Chester, though! I'm so glad you and DH had a fun time. (Hope DH's foot is okay.)

Jeff: Thanks for the link!

Steve: I said it on your thread, but what a great race for your running anniversary!

Tracy: Your pictures made me almost feel like I was there!

Matt: Holy Schmoley! I don't even know what to call this event. It's something other than the Dopey. If it were anyone but you, I might call it the Suicidal! Congratulations on two PRs. The Urban Dare sounds tempting. I really love how you remember all these details and bring them back to us so we can savor them. I know I'll "see" you before then, but good luck on IM China!

Maura: Again, I commented on the Goofs thread, but it's worth commenting again. What a great victory and all that speedwork you've been doing really paid off.

Kate: Congrats. You were really flying yourself!

Jeanne: I'm so glad you made it through all the adversity of your race. I worried about the time change for you folks. Thank goodness the foot didn't bother you, but boo for the leg cramps. And you should be proud. You faced up the possibility of DNF, but still went to the start line. You are the epitome of the WISH motto!

SAHD: Lots of details here. Nice! You got a PR--sweet! Plus your AG placement. A good day, even with the 1 second difference between you and #2. I know you're kicking yourself about the final kick, but WOW, you did well!

Joan: First, congrats on your 25th anniversary. I, too, love a good chocolate milkshake myself and now I know to try Chik-Fil-A.

We started together and finished together.

I love this--it sums up the experience for you. And for so many of our WISHers.

And shout-outs to all the people who cheered over the PH weekend: Suzanne, Maura, Anne, Matt, Chester, and anyone I missed. I certainly hope to be there next year! You all made it sound like fun!

 

[joan4mickey]

Forgot the link to our pixs
http://picasaweb.google.com/baumann6/PrincessMarathonTrip?feat=directlink
Hope this works

 

[jmasgat]

I've posted some photos from the half. Apologies in advance for my photographic skills. And also--how could I not get a picture of my SuperGoof Cheermate Suzanne? Sorry, Suzanne.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26346603@N07/sets/72157615008125587/

 

[jbucci]

here's my attempt to post pictures-- I'm new to flickr so this may not work...

 

[jbucci]

told you that might not work, so here's a link to some of my pictures (I'll actually include the link this time...)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/36210132@N07/sets/72157615011099857/

 

[dsnyfan21]

Thanks Jen and Maura for posting photos!! Saw some of me in there.

Maura: CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR RACE!! THAT IS AWESOME!

Tracy

 

[suzannews]

I've posted some photos from the half. Apologies in advance for my photographic skills. And also--how could I not get a picture of my SuperGoof Cheermate Suzanne? Sorry, Suzanne.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26346603@N07/sets/72157615008125587/

Great pictures Maura!! Glad you didn't take a picture of me although we should have taken a picture together!! Theres always next time.

 

[Tiger Lily 03]

Suzanne: Congrats on your 5K--meeting your goals with style and a stylin' training wall to boot--and for cheering at the 1/2!

JenB: Great details in the RR and congratulations on your PR! The fairy godmother idea--perfect! So, the belly dancer is the motivational equivalent of Speedo guy? Best costume has to go to Chester, though! I'm so glad you and DH had a fun time. (Hope DH's foot is okay.)

Jeff: Thanks for the link!

Steve: I said it on your thread, but what a great race for your running anniversary!

Tracy: Your pictures made me almost feel like I was there!

Matt: Holy Schmoley! I don't even know what to call this event. It's something other than the Dopey. If it were anyone but you, I might call it the Suicidal! Congratulations on two PRs. The Urban Dare sounds tempting. I really love how you remember all these details and bring them back to us so we can savor them. I know I'll "see" you before then, but good luck on IM China!

Maura: Again, I commented on the Goofs thread, but it's worth commenting again. What a great victory and all that speedwork you've been doing really paid off.

Kate: Congrats. You were really flying yourself!

Jeanne: I'm so glad you made it through all the adversity of your race. I worried about the time change for you folks. Thank goodness the foot didn't bother you, but boo for the leg cramps. And you should be proud. You faced up the possibility of DNF, but still went to the start line. You are the epitome of the WISH motto!

SAHD: Lots of details here. Nice! You got a PR--sweet! Plus your AG placement. A good day, even with the 1 second difference between you and #2. I know you're kicking yourself about the final kick, but WOW, you did well!

Joan: First, congrats on your 25th anniversary. I, too, love a good chocolate milkshake myself and now I know to try Chik-Fil-A. I love this--it sums up the experience for you. And for so many of our WISHers.

And shout-outs to all the people who cheered over the PH weekend: Suzanne, Maura, Anne, Matt, Chester, and anyone I missed. I certainly hope to be there next year! You all made it sound like fun!

I cannot say it any better.

I love the pics! Thanks for sharing those.

I've been hoping someone got a pic to share of Chester. I've heard so much about his outfit.

What fun!

Great job everyone. Thanks for sharing your events with us. I love reading about them.

 

[Caseydilla]

Congratulations to all the WISHers who raced this weekend. The Princess race looked and sounded so fun. Great job to everyone and look at all those new PR's!

I ran the Red Rock half marathon on Saturday.(just west of Las Vegas) It was pretty cold/windy before the race. I was glad I decided not to wear shorts afterall and go with pants. The course is very challenging with lots of hills. I knew what to expect though since I'd done this course last October. I ended up finishing in 2:05, not a PR but it was 4 minutes faster than the last time I ran this course. I was expecting to finish somewhere between 2:05-2:10, so I was pleased with my time. My husband finished in 1:48. It is a very nice run and I love the scenery of all the Red Rock. I ended up running with a friend most the time and didn't need my music. It was just an overall enjoyable day for me.

A few photos:

My husband and I

A view of Red Rock Canyon

And the race medal

 

[frankenpooh]

Congratulations, Casey! You are one fast girl. Neat medal, too