Race Reports/Encouragement/Kudos - October 25th and 26th

[nucpharm29]

Hey all! Yep, I did the "Soaring Wings" race along with Susie on Saturday morning. What a wonderful morning for a race. 45 degrees and sunny! Anyway, Susie summed up the race particulars very well. And BTW, Susie, I do think I saw you before the start inside the McGhee Center on the bleachers, but we had a diaper emergency that needed my immediate attention. By the time I got back you were gone and I didn't see the lime green again. You probably didn't see me b/c I don't have any long sleeved WISH gear, and much to my dismay I couldn't locate my WISH visor that morning. Of course now I found it, but that was one of my many technical difficulties of the morning!

Anyway, I started out with a couple running buddies of mine. Started out way too fast for a half. First mile in 8:0something. Finally got into my groove around mile 4--was between the 1:50 and 1:55 pace group. Around mile 9-10 I started hurting pretty bad (been having issues with my right hamstring). Heard a large group approaching and knew it was the 1:55 group. No biggie, I just wanted to finish under 2hrs., so I just started calculating how much time I had left for the next 3.1 miles. I saw my dad and sis right after the 11 mile mark and I was about to throw in the towel--but after some encouraging words, I kept going. Also, another runner befriended me at the same time and we vowed to get each other to the finish. Which I am happy to say that we did! I finished in 1:57:08, which is a PR for me. And I'm very happy with it.

Susie--yes, I saw the shirts--did they have a school bus on them as well? Glad you had a good race and finished! It was a fun race and well supported, especially for a 1st time event. LOVED the food afterward! Can't beat free spectator food for my kids--hot dogs at 10am, they were in heaven!

 

[mkymsehi]

There is an official Deb sighting at the ToT 13K.

Look at this photo closely, taken by a Disneyrunning team member. Can't miss that lime green anywhere!

 

[WDWFAN9]

A couple of pictures from ToT:

from left to right - my DD Sarah's hubby Steve, Erin, Craig, and me:

a few WISHers:

Overall this year was a huge improvement over last year and the kids and I had a great time. Afterwards we waited in line at Toy Story Mania with Joey Fatone.

 

[DisneyFan06]

A couple of pictures from ToT:

from left to right - my DD Sarah's hubby Steve, Erin, Craig, and me:

a few WISHers:

Overall this year was a huge improvement over last year and the kids and I had a great time. Afterwards we waited in line at Toy Story Mania with Joey Fatone.

Your the one I met outside of Epcot on Saturday morning We had a nice chat! Glad to see you made it back safely.

 

[amykab]

My TOT report...

I loved doing this race. Beautiful weather. Loved running at night (a first for me) especially through DHS. I went in with a goal to try to maintain 12 minute miles for the duration and did VERY well with this goal until about Mile 6.5. Major cramps in my right leg that I couldn't get rid of. So I had to walk way more than I wanted to the last couple miles. Up until then I had only walked the water stops. Ugh. Finished in 1:45 even (according to Garmin), about 5-10 minutes slower than I had hoped. I got my medal, picture taken, etc, etc, rode TOT and headed back to CSR. I was tired. Post Race party looked great, and I walked right onto TOT. LONG line at the booze cart.

My only frustration with was that prior to the race I got hung up waiting for some friends one of whom I had picked up a packet for (they ended up being late... ) so I didn't get to meet up with any WISH'ers prior to the race. Also got caught up in port a potty lines. I overdid it with the G2. I saw one WISH team member during the race, in front of me. Based on the picture in this thread, I think it was Debra. Not sure though. I kept trying to catch up, but you were way TOO speedy, Debra! I think she finished a few minutes before me...Also saw a guy WISH'er who must have been SUPER SUPER fast because he was already hanging out on the main Street in DHS, when I was just coming in. I can't wait to FINALLY meet everyone in January!

Also, Tracy, if you are reading this, I copied you and painted my nails like you did for the DL 1/2!!!

 

[WDWFAN9]

Your the one I met outside of Epcot on Saturday morning We had a nice chat! Glad to see you made it back safely.

Hey! It's a Small World After All!

 

[getnthinr]

OK, I am so impressed by the huge weekend the WISH team had at their various races! I am also so envious of those of you who enjoyed WISH gatherings at your events. I miss my fellow WISHers so much during the year!

As you are no doubt getting tired of hearing, I am working my way back from an Achilles injury. I'm still not pain-free, but at least I've been cleared to get back out there. Sunday I managed two 5Ks. I "raced" the first ("race" being used loosely here, considering my pace). It was the Second Empire 5K Classic in Raleigh. I did my first minute there in 13:03, according to the kind man calling out splits -- which was not too bad for walking my comeback first mile. It's a pretty course up and down Hillsborough Street in front of the elegant Second Empire restaurant. My final finish time was 40:27, so I slowed considerably after that first mile but I was still happy.

Next up was the Monster Dash in Raleigh -- a family race in Raleigh I'd planned to run in costume with my DS, but he ended up in a swim meet that day. Undaunted, I donned my costume and off I went. The costume -- and the earlier 5K, no doubt -- slowed me down considerably, but I still managed to win... the costume contest, that is, not the 5K. Here's my photo.

I got a $25 gift certificate from Cameron Village and a nice little string backpack (always need another one of those). All-in-all a fun day (and I still managed early service and evening Bible study at church -- You can't do better with race scheduling than that, I think. )

 

[Kristi1357]

Wendy - that costume is AWESOME!!!

 

[monte]

Wendy, I LOVE that costume, it's great! Did you make it? Congrats on a well planned day.

 

[dsnyfan21]

Wendy, Wendy, OH Wendy (It's windy here in South Florida) I have to say....

I LOVE THAT COSTUME!!!! Very cool.

Tracy

 

[goofyinohio]

Great, Great Costume. Congrats on both 5k's. Glad to hear you are back at it.

I saw you had to cancel the OBX marathon. Have you run that one in the past? I'm looking at that one as a possibility for next year or the year after. Thanks

 

[getnthinr]

Chris, I have done the OBX half 2-3 times, but never the full. I was really looking forward to it before my injury. I probably should have switched my registration to the half, but it's a 5-hour drive and frankly there are a lot of half marathons closer to home. I enjoy the half there, but my favorite part of the trip by far is the area -- the lighthouses, aquarium, museums, historical areas, and -- lest we forget -- outlet shopping. The races are sort of low-key and last year's medal were quite small, but the race is very well-supported and, as I said, in a great area for your family to enjoy. I hope you get to try it sometime. This year was going to be pirate-themed and I had my costume all ready to go... Bummer.

 

[getnthinr]

Kristi, Monte, and Tracy -- Thanks! I just happened across the costume on the Internet when I was looking for a pirate costume for the OBX Marathon. Definitely wouldn't want to run a marathon in this one, but it was fine for a 5K. I had a lot of fun.

 

[jbucci]

Wendy: I loved the costume, super cute (tough to run in, but super cute )

Here is my 2 cents on the ToT race. I did not do this last year, but after reading reports on the 2007 race, this one seemed to run much more smoothly. We drove tot he Studios for the race start at about 8:45 and had no trouble with traffic. The theming was cute, it was set up like you were checking into the Hollywood Tower Hotel. You got there and signed the "guest registry," then they gave out cute little cardboard keys (not good for much other than scrap booking, but cute), next you wandered to "baggage check-in." They were also giving out Tower of Terror temporary tattoos-- both DH and I got one. We even saw one guy put the tattoo on the back of his bald head

I managed to find a few WISHers before the race and hung out a bit before making to the start. They had DJ's dressed as the bellhops from ToT announcing before the race start and played lots of great 80's music, starting the race with the song "The Final Countdown". The race itself was good, nice weather and well lit. There were plenty of fog machines, DJs and dancers along the course to keep it interesting. They even had a photo op with the villains at around mile 4ish. The first several mile I was doing well, but walking around Disney for a week carrying my DD5 caught up with my legs at mile 5 and I had to slow down significantly. I managed to finish in 1:41 which wasn't too bad for me.

The post race party was fun. They had a DJ at the Sorcerer's hat playing classics like Michael Jackson's Thriller. Many of the rides were open with minimal wait times, there we also a few food places and a cart selling beer, etc. My DH and I rode Toy Story several times, ToT and RnR coaster, then had a mickey bar and headed to our hotel at about 2am. I'm still tired from the trip, but we had lots of fun

 

[jeanneg]

OK, I am so impressed by the huge weekend the WISH team had at their various races! I am also so envious of those of you who enjoyed WISH gatherings at your events. I miss my fellow WISHers so much during the year!

As you are no doubt getting tired of hearing, I am working my way back from an Achilles injury. I'm still not pain-free, but at least I've been cleared to get back out there. Sunday I managed two 5Ks. I "raced" the first ("race" being used loosely here, considering my pace). It was the Second Empire 5K Classic in Raleigh. I did my first minute there in 13:03, according to the kind man calling out splits -- which was not too bad for walking my comeback first mile. It's a pretty course up and down Hillsborough Street in front of the elegant Second Empire restaurant. My final finish time was 40:27, so I slowed considerably after that first mile but I was still happy.

Next up was the Monster Dash in Raleigh -- a family race in Raleigh I'd planned to run in costume with my DS, but he ended up in a swim meet that day. Undaunted, I donned my costume and off I went. The costume -- and the earlier 5K, no doubt -- slowed me down considerably, but I still managed to win... the costume contest, that is, not the 5K. Here's my photo.

I got a $25 gift certificate from Cameron Village and a nice little string backpack (always need another one of those). All-in-all a fun day (and I still managed early service and evening Bible study at church -- You can't do better with race scheduling than that, I think. )

I DO NOT KNOW THAT WOMAN! OMG, the costume is hilarious.......so glad you won!

 

[jeanneg]

Not a full TofT race report, but just a few comments and photos:

Basically, the event was much better organized than last year. Packet pick-up at CSR was a breeze. The whole process took less than 10 minutes. The race began on time and there was no confusion at the start line. Participants self-seeded themselves into open corrals by lining up near the post indicating their pace (as in the Minnie). One big improvement was the placement of electronic timing clocks at nearly all of the mile markers. (I think Mile 2 was the only one without a clock.) That said, I think last year's event was a whole lot more fun. I really missed the insane asylum people from last year. Quite frankly, I am not surprised since the whole concept was not very Disney-like, but I loved it anyway! I guess someone must have accused them of not being very PC. This year there were fewer workers on the course......just some DJs, dancers (passed the same ones twice) and boom boxes piping in music. Another disappointment was the fact that the medal was virtually identical to last year's except the 6.5k engraving was removed.

Here's a few photos:

 

[mkymsehi]

Jean,

I'm laughing out loud looking at your first photo. The guy in the orange shirt and Dream Ears is Panda Dave in his Disneyrunning team shirt.

Over on the Disneyrunning site, there is a photo, and Deb is in her WISH team shirt in the background.

Funny that someone from each team caught someone in their photo, with the other teams shirt on.

Can't miss us either way.

 

[jeanneg]

Jeff: it's not surprising since many of us are are both boards and we all kinda hung together. In fact, I wore my orange shirt to the mini-golf, but as Ohana team captain, I felt it was important to wear WISH at the race itself. That's why I jokingly accused Robert of not posting any pictures of Nancy and me on the other board......we wore the wrong color! Both Dave and Erica managed to cleverly attach their Mickey ears to their caps so they wouldn't blow off. I wish I had done the same with my witch hat. Nancy's stayed on, but I was chasing mine all night!

 

[KeenHo]

My MCM Trip report…

Cam and I drove down to the MCM Race Expo and managed to find our way inside. We then learned that the tent outside was the first place we needed to go so I could get my race number. We then went to pick up the goodie bag and long sleeve mock turtleneck shirt (which I love). We looked a round the expo for a few minutes and found our way to the Disney booth (where Cam collected her Tiara).

We were soon met by Cindy and Matt, Denny and M’Lisse. Some of us enjoyed some “carb-loading” with the free beer being given out at one of the booths. We waited for a few minutes chatting and heard from Stephen and Krista that they were on their way, but would be delayed. Denny & M’Lisse left to go to their hotel and Cindy and Matt looked around the Expo. Cam and I did the same.

We expected to see Stephen at some point in the goodie bag line and we walked over there to look for him. A few minutes later, there he was! We walked with him through the line and walked with him to the front where we met up with Krista, (the adorable) Carter and Brenda (Stephen’s sister). We hung around cuddling Carter for a while; we then had to run to our hotel to check in.

From there we went to pick up Denny & M’Lisse for dinner. We drove to Tyson’s Corner to Magganio’s a great Italian restaurant where we carb-loaded and enjoyed some wonderful company. We dropped them off at their hotel and headed back to ours for the night.

We stayed at the Sheraton National in Arlington. They were very unwilling to offer us a later than usual check out. They gave us, but couldn’t guarantee a 1 PM check out. I knew it wouldn’t work for us so we decided to just leave our luggage in the car during the race. The hotel room was nice, but it didn’t have a clock (wall clock, clock radio, etc.). There was no way to set an alarm which was key for any marathoner. We called in a wake up call for 5:15 AM.

All through the night, Cam and I tossed and turned, I barely slept. I was up several times checking our cell phone to check the time. At one point, I thought I overslept and it was only 1:15 AM. So, getting a good night’s sleep wasn’t in the cards for us. We made it to the hotel shuttle, as planned, at 6AM. It was standing room only over to the nearby Pentagon City Metro station. We followed everyone on to the Metro and out of the Pentagon Metro stop which was our destination.

The walk from the Metro was long, cold and dark. We were in good company though as we walked among a huge group of runners and support people. We got to the race village and looked for the bag drop trucks where we were going to meet up with everyone. The trucks were not there. So, we waited around for them to show up and then went over to meet everyone. We met Stephen on the way and then saw Kathy and Mike waiting there for us. We were soon joined by Cindy and Matt. Denny and M’Lisse were delayed getting there. We didn’t see Denny or M’Lisse until after the race. Denny had forgotten his knee brace and had to go back to the hotel and pick it up. Cindy and Matt left to go to the 10K start area and Kathy and Cam left to go scream team for us. Stephen, Mike and I walked to the port-a-potties and then to the start. We all started in the area close to the 4:00 – 4:15 pace marker. Stephen had held back a bit, and then moved up to where we were once the “surge” took place.

After the cannon went off, Mike and I crossed the start together and waved to Kathy (and Cam) as we crossed. The first part of the course was crowded. I kept focusing on where I could make my move and get around people. I mostly stayed left and passed as many people as possible to get up to the pace I was looking for to finish around 4 hours.

I am sorry to say I never looked back to see where Mike or Stephen were. I assumed that they were close behind. I never saw Mike until after the run. At one point he said he passed me, but I never saw him. I never saw Stephen finish or after the race because he got picked up by Krista and Brenda near the finish. I ran hard and quick, watching the 4 hour pacing band I wore at each mile marker. I was happy that I was building up a cushion of about a minute per mile through mile 9. At one point, I was 8 minutes ahead of pace. By mile 20 I was slowing down a bit and realized I needed some fuel. I missed Cam, M’Lisse, Kathy and Krista along the course but later saw them and picked up some sustenance and a new water bottle.

I finished as strong as possible, but found myself needing to walk from time to time, then surge ahead to the finish. The course was challenging as most marathon courses are. The hills were more than I expected, however, I trained on hills and they didn’t give me many problems. The final push to the finish was tough; the hill there is enough to test the strongest competitor. I walked up the steepest part as I was being cheered on by U.S. Marines. Once I made the turn, I ran it in to the finish. I crossed the finish line at 4:10:39 knowing that I crushed my marathon PR by over a half hour. I was happy, tired, sore and elated.

The finish area was a mass of humanity, crowds, Marines, fences, food, craziness, and no where to go. It seemed unorganized and unnecessary. I managed to get some food and drink and get my photo taken by the U.S. Marine Memorial. I then called Cam and met her at the top of the hill. We made our way over to the village. The village set up in Rosslyn was huge and it completely took over several city blocks. We made our way to the “W” family meeting area where we caught up with Kathy and Mike. We made our way to the free beer area and waited for Denny & M’Lisse to join up with us.

We swapped some war stories, took some photos and drank a beer together. We said farewell to Denny & M’Lisse, who were lucky enough to get a late check out walked to their nearby hotel. Mike, Kathy, Cam and I decided to walk up hill almost a mile to 5 Guys for a lunch of burgers and fries (they were so good). The restaurant was close to the Metro stop where Kathy and Mike had to catch their ride. Cam and I hailed a cab and we were back at our hotel in about 10 minutes. I decided to bag the shower in the fitness center and hit the road. We packed up and we drove home.

Some race specific items for those who might want to run this race in the future:

1. Stay in a hotel close to the Metro and/or close to the finish line.
2. Great crowd support along most (but not all of the) course.
3. Train for the hills so that they are not a big issue for you.
4. Tough up hill finish, but do-able.
5. If you don't mind crowds after a race, this one's for you.
6. Beautiful course along the Potomac River, on the Mall in Washington, and through Georgetown.


It was a great experience, one that won’t soon be forgotten.

 

[Tiger Lily 03]

Great race reports everyone! I am thoroughly enjoying them AND the pics too!

Wendy, OMG I love your costume. Perfect!

ToT, I enjoyed it. Everyone already has described the event and I really don't have much more to add. It was fun to meet everyone, the weather was much better for me than last year. I like that it was at least a bit cooler. I decided to use this event as one of my training LRs and have been feeling a bit undertrained. As it turned out I ended up walking it, not my usual wogging style. Erica (Princess Panda) and I--wearing orange and lime respectively--hooked up and it made for a fun time for me. DH and I actually had time to enjoy the rides too. Fun!