Race Reports for 5/3, 5, 6 and Encouragement/Kudos!

[aladdinsgirl]

Dave--Awesome pictures!!!!!! I'm completely stealing them!!

Great job Minnie runners!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Mouse Skywalker]

Dave--Awesome pictures!!!!!! I'm completely stealing them!!

You're welcome to them! Let me know if they don't turn out for you, and I can e-mail you copies of the files.

 

[katerkat]

Diane – it was my first race, ever. I did the Couch-to-5K training program and thought 5K meant 12K.

Steve – it was pretty cool! The official stats say just over 39,000 people finished (not counting the kids in strollers or the person pushing an assisted wheelchair – and I have to say, I don’t envy them for pushing something up Doomsday Hill!)

Jackie – I’m starting to feel better about the time. It wasn’t great but it was a start.

Disnutt – they can, but it’s hard! The runners had to do a lot of ducking around the walkers. Even with the walkers staying to the side, there wasn’t that much room, and the crowds never really spread out.

I got my official stats and I’m starting to feel better. I finished in the top half, did better than the averages for my age and gender. I was #71 from the base to cross the finish line, and my best friend (who I ran the first mile with) finished four minutes earlier at #70 from the base.

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/bloomsday/2007/photos/ - if you scan forward to about photo #54, you can see how the packs of people looked at the start!

 

[Jusacuz]

Katerkat~ I don't normally post here, but wanted to say congrats for doing so well in Bloomsday. My daughter (she's 14) and I were there, but walking it. We were happy to place something like 29,000th. lol. I'd love to train for it seriously and finish in an hour. Maybe next year.

 

[Cindylou]

Hi Everyone,

I'm so happy to be reading all these race reports. Keep them coming.

Mike/Optimator: Terrific job on your race. What a speedy time!! You are right 26.2 is a LONG WAY to run.

Scoolover: Good job on your race. I'm sure the adrenaline was pumping right from the start. Glad you made it to the start on time.

Krista: Great job on meeting both your goals. It would have been a shame had you missed the start because you were chatting with the other Wishers.

Matt: Great job on your 26th place finish in the 5K. That's terrific. Another Wisher who almost didn't make it to the start of a race. Seems to be a lot of that in these reports.

KaterKat: Nice job on finishing your race. Sorry there were so many hills.

Kelley: Terrific pace. Just think what you could do if you add a bit more running in.

Diane: Good job on your 10K. You're so funny - trying to sneak around with the Wish giving you away. Sounds like you had a great time.

Steve: Nice race report. Congrats on meeting your time goal.

Mel: Nice job on your race. Good for your DD too.

Christy: Congrats on taking 20 min off last year's time. That's great. Good wishes to your DH in fighting the fires.

hoosmi: Great report. Glad you had such a fun time. I hope you'll post your pictures.

blueroses: Nice job for running despite not having trained much. I'm glad your DH came through at the finish line.

Dave: Thanks for the pictures. Very nice time for your race.

Cindy

 

[Dennyha]

I apologize in advance for hijacking this thread, but I took a bunch of pics for a race report, and dang it, I've got to post them.

As I posted earlier, on Saturday, M'Lisse and I ran the 5K. We met Diane, Susan, Cathy, and Barb, and they pointed us in the direction of Wendy. So, we went and met Wendy. Unfortunately, we forgot our camera, so we have no pics. We then headed toward the start for the 5K, and met Erica and Dave. After the 5K, we headed back to our hotel for a short rest before our WISH meet at Buca di Beppo. While there, we received a surprise phone call from Anne, wishing luck to all of the "Pig" runners from the Minnies. How cool was that?
We went to dinner, and here was the whole crew. From bottom left clockwise, it's Erica, M'Lisse, Steve, Dave (mouseskywalker), Krisa, Denny, and Dave (windwalker)

The next morning, we were up at 4:15am, to be downtown Cincinnati by 5:30. We met Steve, Krista, and Dave at Paul Brown Stadium.

Like Steve said, we barely made it down for race start. As we worked our way down, we got packed like sardines.

As I was fiddling with my camera, I got separated from Dave, Steve, and Krista, but I was finally able to see them. Here they are in the bottom of the photo.

More to come:

 

[Dennyha]

For the start, a cannon, no..no.. A CANNON goes off. The crowd slowly shuffles forward. Finally after some dodging and weaving, I see the starting line coming up.

Again, I am separated from the other WISHers. Soon, I feel a tap on my shoulder, and it's Dave and Steve. We exchange hellos and they head off. This is the last I will see of any running WISHers until the end. Here's Dave in lime green, and Steve in blue.

We ran across three bridges to cross from Cincy into Kentucky and back to Cincy. Here's the stampede across one of them.

Here's the procession towards the bridge back to Ohio. Note the serious uphill. This would be a common, no, a continual theme of this run.

More to come:

 

[aladdinsgirl]

Denny--Post faster!!!!!!!!!!!! I love the pics, wow, the course was REALLY crowded. I have to explain the horrible face I'm making in the picture before the start, Stephen and I were having a "heated" discussion!!!

 

[angietuck2]

WHAT A WEEKEND!!!!

Thank you guys so much for all of the congratulations, it was so sweet!!!

Then at the race Sunday morning all the WISHers hugging me and congratulating me. YOU GUYS ROCK!!!

I want to post a couple of pics from that first if you guys don't mind, then I will get to the details on the MINNIE

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This one is very special to me because this is me receiving my Engineer's ring and being inducted into the Order of the Engineer

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This one is even more important because I am surrounded by my precious, supportive family after it is all over. They were so proud of me!!!

I will now do a seperate post about the MNNIE

angie

 

[angietuck2]

Ok now for the MINNIE.

Got up at 3:30 (I am a little OCD about race mornings!!)

Met jen and leana in the lobby. Turns out leana has a ring just like the one I just got on Saturday cause she's an engineer in Canada!! Anyway, VERY HUMID, I felt a repeat of January coming on!!!!

Got to the start and the sea of lime green was so comforting. And everyone was so sweet offering me congratulations!!

Took lot's of pictures and while we were taking pictures lots of people were watching us (we were such a big group and very entertaining evidently) but the funniest part was when someone in the group (I think Lily said, "look at everyone watching us take pictures- they probably think we are a charity, if they knew we knew each other from the internet, they would all think we were crazy!!!! ")


So we went to line up in our "self corrals" and I ambitiously went to the first corral 6 -9 minute pace with Stephanie and Scott!! - There were not many people up there (Stephanie made that observation )

So we started out and I thought right away I would never be able to keep up with them!! That's ok, Stephanie's bright shirt will be like a goal to follow!!

So they duck out to use the bathroom at mile 1 and because I was struggling to keep up with them, I decided I would keep going and they would pass me shortly.

Well I REALLY pushed myself the whole race and at the turn around between mile 3 and 4 I saw them right behind me, so I thought, "It won't be long now and they will pass me".

I really surprised myself because I kept pushing myself, the heat was really hard for me and I have been struggling with back problems the last couple of months (I have a compressed disk in my back that is causing major numbness and pain- very severly in the last couple of weeks).

When I left Gasparilla in February, my goal for the MINNIE was an 8:30 pace, well LTO, I mean SCHOOL took over, and then the back problems and I did not get to train the way I would have liked.

I am happy to report though that I finished with a chip time of

1:22:54 for an overall 8:55 pace.

Thank you so much to everyone for all of the support and encouragement the last couple of months. Unfortunately because I am the one to usually take pictures and my DS and kids and sis were there after the race and they were anxious to go, I did not get many pictures and I was not able to hang around after race (I AM SOOO SORRY!!!) You guys have all been so supportive. I have 1 beautiful picture of me DS 11 took after race

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We did go to Jellyrolls that night and had a great time. Cam has WAYYYY more pics, but from the few I have you will see that everyone was VERY well behaved!!

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I have to unpack, but will catch up with everyone else's reports later!!

angie

 

[disnutt]

Angie- Congratulations on graduation and the great Minnie time!


Denny- Great pictures!!

Krista- You look fine in the picture! If my DH and I were having a 'heated' discussion the people around us would be looking uncomfortable in the picture!

 

[wfloyd]

My thoughts and observations from Minnie.

Good
-Meeting everyone at EOS. Timmy was well loved but for some reason no one volunteered to help with the early morning feedings.
-Lynnda volunteering to do the early feedings so that I could try to sleep. Thanks honey.
-Meeting and running with all the Wishers.
-Actually feeling good the last 9 miles of the marathon and actually seeing what is on the course.
-Staying on pace with what I had planned on even though I left the Garmin at home (see below). I finished right in between my two goals.
-Getting the Minnie medal before Lynnda , although she did seem to get all the expo stuff so maybe it was a nice trade off.

Not so Good
-Leaving the Garmin at home on the kitchen counter. I did get all the stuff for the baby which was what my primary concern was. Realized I left the Garmin at home during the expo and didn't want to drive back to get it.
-Humidity, did some not so nice things with cheap bandaids.

Interesting facts
-The refrigerators in the moderates and possibly deluxes aren't really refrigerators. They are glorified coolers that can freeze up easily. We had a nice discussion with the maintenance guy who absolutely hates them. Even though Disney says there is nothing wrong with them, they are replacing some of the resorts in October. Most of the night calls are due to the refrigerators not being cool enough and they have to scrape the ice off the back. Refrigerators seem to be important item when trying to store milk for babies.

That is all I can think of now.

Bill

 

[Dennyha]

Sorry for the delay. Had some responsibilities to take care of.

Anyway, before I pick up where I left off, I have to say CONGRATULATIONS to Angie. First on your graduation, and then a distant second, on your race at the Minnie. Not to diminish the race, but you only get to graduate with a BS once (usually). Now I know there are already more than a few engineers on the WISH team, even though they won't admit it. I'm sure your children picked up a valuable life lesson when they watched their mom complete her goal and walk up there for her degree. Sometimes the lessons we teach our children unintentionally are more valuable than those that are intentional.

Back to "The Pig".
After crossing back into Ohio, we turned to run east on Third St. Now we've already run over three bridges, each with a significant crest. Now Third St. was a slight, but steady unhill run. At the end of Third St., we make a jog to the left, and a jog to the right, and we see this.....

It's tough to tell in the picture, but this run is going up, no... it's REALLY going up!
As I'm looking for the nearest elevator to provide some aid, I'm thinking "You have to be crazy to pay good money for the right to run up a hill". Then, to prove my point, two escaped patients from the mental hospital pass me.

Now, I'm thinking of all of the places I could be. And then I think of all of the members of WISH Team - North thoughout this course, and the members of WISH Team - South down enduring the heat to conquer the Minnie, and now I'm thinking there's noplace I'd rather be (although Disney World is a pretty close second ). When we hit Eden Park, we were at Mile 7, and I thought that we finally hit the top of the hill (I thought wrong.)

Although there was more hill to climb, there was a nice sight over the Ohio River from the park.

More to come:

 

[Dennyha]

And a men's choir to make us forget about the hills.

And then we climbed another hill. The first 5 miles was a series of bridges (with hills), and 3rd Street (which was a slight hill), and starting at Mile 5, and running until about Mile 8.5, was an almost continuous hill. I actually think it was a series of hills placed on top of another hill. Anyway, about Mile 8.5 or so, we finally hit level ground. This is where the 1/2marathoners split from the full marathoners.

And then, the real payoff for climbing from 480 feet above sea level (the starting line) to over 800 feet above sea level (Mile 8.5) presented itself.

Downhill....

While downhill is nice, and believe me, I savored every second of it, it doesn't seem to equally offset the pain and suffering of the uphill. But you all know that already.

As I'm heading back into town for the homestretch, I notice a group of bikers, with Boss Hog, rooting us on.

I'll take all the help I can get.
Finally the Finish Swine is in sight.

After collecting my medal, I found Steve and Dave . Shortly, Krista joined us. Walking out of the food corral, we found M'Lisse waving the WISH sign so that we would see her.

M'Lisse took a picture of Steve, Krista, Dave, and I with our medals.

I wish we could have hooked up with Dave, Erica and Wendy, but we were in a time crunch. We had to get back to check out of the hotel, and drive back to Canton to pick up the dogs from the kennel.

This was a fun 1/2 Marathon, and I had a blast, despite its being tough. I finished in 2:13:29, which is my longest time for a running 1/2M, but when I was climbing that 3-1/2 mile long hill, I would have taken anything under 4 hours. The team was great company, and it turned out to be a great weekend.

As we climbed back into the car for the drive north, I noticed a text message on my phone. It was from the WISH team -South Division, again extending good wishes to the WISH Team-North Division. I texted back, hoping they did well. I don't know if I said it before, but HOW COOL IS THAT?

Congratulations to all of the WISH Teamers (North Division, South Division, and all of the Satellite Offices) who got out there this weekend.

P.S. If any of the Piggers want higher res copies of any of these pics, just PM me with what you want along with your e-mail, and I'll forward it on.

 

[nucpharm29]

Hey all! Just wanted to shout out CONGRATS to all who raced this weekend!

All those flying pigs--ya'll did great!!!!

Mike--WTG on your marathon time! Super speedy!

katerkat--good job on your race!

To all my Minnie buddies--What a great race and great support! We had the best time!

So, race report from me. Was really glad that I went to the meet on Sat. so I was comfortable chatting it up with the group Sunday morning. We apparently didn't have Matt's bus driver, so we got to AK in plenty of time--probably 4:45 or so. Saw the lime green glow and made our way over to the rest of the bunch. Spent more time chatting than stretching and warming up--probably not the best option.

DH and I were shooting for a 1:20 finish time. We lined up in the pink section with Angie--and we were off. Right before the start DH asks me if he has time for a potty break--unfortunately no. So, after he put the idea in my head, I realized I needed a potty break too. So right after the 1st mile we hit the porta-potties. Angie kept running--and our goal was to be able to catch back up to her--never happened. We got close at the turnaround point, but we ate her dust none the less. The first 5 miles are very boring--especially b/c there were very few spectators. I did enjoy all the music on the course, though. On our way into MGM, I really started tofeel the heat and humidity. I was dripping with sweat--ICK! Enjoyed our trek through MGM until one of the CMs, who I think was trying to cheer us on, said "Hurry Up!" Like I wouldn't be going faster if I could! I really liked the tour of BW, Yacht and Beach club. I hadn't been over there before, so it was really nice. Once we got into EPCOT I just wanted to finish--I never realized how LONG World Showcase is, until I ran it! Then around Space ship earth to the finish! Chip time of 1:23:50--a little longer than our goal, but that includes the potty stop and the heat.

It was great meeting everyone--DH is now wanting to head back for RFTT--and then we'll definitely be there in January.

 

[getnthinr]

First, Denny, I love your photos!!!!! I had a great time at the Pig -- and I did manage a few WISH sightings, mostly because they were kind enough to come out and find me (You gotta love those WISH shirts! And, once again, I got so many positive comments on the course on the saying on the shirt's back!).

I did the 10K on Saturday and the Half on Sunday. (I am so envious of you folks that can remember everyone's names. I have to know someone about a year before I get those down! ) I remember seeing racewalker Dave and the lovely (and speedy) Erica before/during/after the Half (Thanks for the big hugs, guys!) and Denny and M'Lisse after the Half. I met a ton of WISHers before the 10K -- and for the life of me, I can only add Susie's name to the list of WISHers I met there. It's heck being old and forgetful.

I confess I don’t remember much about the 10K, except that it had something to do with crossing bridges multiple times. As Denny's photos indicate, though, the Half was spectacularly beautiful! From the sunrise over the river – complete with paddleboats docked along the shore – to the lovely old buildings with their stately turrets in the historic part of town, the massive stone churches and beautiful cathedrals, the gigantic Freedom Bell, the glorious view from Eden Park – It is a beautiful course! I wish I had been doing better time-wise, because I would have loved to have stopped and taken some photos. I finished in 3:13, which pretty much illustrates I was taking a scenic tour through Cincinnati rather than racing. I had done the marathon in 2000, but I remembered virtually nothing about the course – except that I’d had fun and it was hilly.

I missed the post-marathon breakfast (that I'd paid for) afterwards and the chance to see Steve, Krista, and MouseSkywalker Dave because my Cincy hosts were gracious enough to feed me before I hit the road on Sunday. I am so fortunate that in the almost 10 years I've been doing this silly walking, I've made so many wonderful friends and sometimes I have a tough time visiting with everyone -- but I'm so glad to be able to count many fine WISHers as my new friends (even if I can't remember all your names yet! ) and I'm looking forward to getting to know you better at ToT in October and Disney in January!

Great job, WISH team!

 

[Cindylou]

Thanks for all the reports. I'm really enjoying them.

Denny: Great pics!! Thanks for posting them. I'm glad you enjoyed your race despite all the hills.

Angie: Congrats on a good race. You must be flying high with pride over all you've accomplished.

Bill: Glad you enjoyed your race. Forgetting the Garmin was unfortunate, but having all the baby stuff is far more important.

Stephanie: Nice job on your race.

Wendy: Good job on racing both the 10K and half. It's great that you were able to appreciate the beautiful scenery.

Cindy

 

[jeanneg]

CONGRATULATIONS to everyone who raced this past weekend (too many to mention individually) and a big THANK-YOU to those who shared photos with those of us stuck back home.

You guys are all amazing!

 

[Goofyin08forErica]

ANGIE: Congratulations on your graduation!!!!!!

Congratulations to all the WISHER's who raced this past weekend!!!!!

Got to meet alot of new WISH friends plus a few that I had already met. We had fun cheering our WISH friends during the 10K and 5K.
Dinner with Steve, Krista, Dave, Denny, M'Lisse and my Dave was tons of fun.

Got to spend a little time with Wendy prior to the start of the Half on Sun morning.

With the lack of training since mid March, I had just planned to do my best. I knew that this course was challenging as there are some mean up hills and
bridges.
We had one Potty break that ended up being for 15 min. How long can it take 3 people to use the facility, before I get my chance?
The view from Eden Park is really beautiful, but getting there...all up hill!
I knew that somewhere around 9 miles the course would start a long steep downhill, so that really helped. We made up the potty break time on the downhill as we were flying. In fact, the last 4.1 miles were really fast.
We high 5'd Dave and waved at Steve at around 5 miles as we were heading up and they down. We also, got to speak to Wendy as we passed her at mile 11ish. Our time chip time was 3:11:18, not too bad considering.
When we got done, I was really surprised as I wasn't tired at all and felt like I could have done this again! Next year I plan on doing the 10th anniversary Pig Full.

Thanks for reading this.

Erica

 

[Cindylou]

Congratulations Erica on a good race. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Cindy