All I can say is that once again WISHers have proven to be one of the best groups in the world! The support, encouragement, and comaraderie were amazing, which is pretty much SOP for our team. The CDC was a blast!!
DH and I had the privilege of hosting Anne, her DH, and Lily at our home about an hour sw of Chicago. My XSIL just registered for ToT so she joined us for dinner Friday night and we had a delightful evening of gabbing and just sharing our stories. She loved having the opportunity to meet a few WISHers in person (she has heard ALOT about them) and now is even more excited about ToT - her first event ever!
The expo itself on Saturday started off great with John Bingham himself checking my chip and if possible things only got better from there. We ran into a whole contingent of WISHers and it was like a great big family reunion! It really is something how the internet has brought such a diverse group together, and how much of a community we have become!
Once we had gathered together we headed to Gino's East for pizza. Carrie and Scott had gotten there earlier (they had gone for an early morning run, cleaned up and headed over beforehand) and had the pizza already ordered before we arrived. I have to say that Gino's was very accommodating of our large group and treated us very well. The pizza was delicious!! We spent lunch munching on pizza and laughing! And, we didn't scare the newbies away!
After lunch we split up - DH and I were with the Wicked group, and I was very impressed with the show! After that we met up with Anne, Robert, and Lily and headed back home to prepare for an early morning.
That early morning rolled around very quickly. Fortunately the 3:30AM thunderstorm blew over quickly! When we got to the race area the glowing WISH shirts made it easy to find the rest of our teammates and we chatted and took pictures until it was time to line up for the start of the race. DH and I discovered that the 3:30 pacer was the same woman as last year. She is an absolute hoot and acted as a tour guide, pointing out all the buildings of interest as we walked along.
We all settled into our own pace and DH and I found ourselves walking with Maggie, doing her very first half ever! One thing that was very lacking this year was port-a-potties and DH decided he needed to forge ahead and scout one out. At this point we were ahead of the 3:30 group, between mile 3 and 4. Maggie and I traveled along, passing the time talking about our previous WDW trips, trading opinions about various resorts and restaurants and park touring strategies. I was in heaven - if there is anything that will help time pass quickly for me it is talking about WDW! Unfortunately for me, this CDC I developed a blister on my left foot (last year I got a really bad one on my right) and was a nagging annoyance! Ouch! We didn't see DH until under McCormick place, he had finally gone into a building to use the facilities and then waited for us to catch up. We walked together for a short while crossing over Lake Shore Dr, only to be diverted to the walking path instead of continuing on the road. We were well ahead of the 3:30 group and pointed that out to the people diverting us, but they just shook their heads and pointed us to the path. At this point DH was just a little miffed that we had to do the walk of shame, sharing the path with the participants headed in the other direction!! Actually I was ok with that because it gave us the chance to see a few WISHers that were ahead of us!! DH surged ahead again and Maggie and I continued at our steady pace. DH saw some workers taking down mile marker 8 and said - "hey it's way too early!" The response - "I don't care"
Just to jump ahead at this point --at the end of the race Sallie the 3:30 pacer came up to us and apologized for the diversion. She had phoned Coach Jennie from the course to get workers to stop taking down everything before the race was officially over. She said that this was not JBR, but LaSalle Bank's doing, and that she was sure John would strongly address the issue with them.
Anyway, Maggie made a pitstop at about mile 8 (not exactly sure since the mile marker was down) and quickly caught up with me. Personally I was a little disappointed with the lakeshore view. It was much hazier than last year - still beautiful, but not as breathtaking as before. For a long time Maggie and I saw Karen and John's shirts calling to us from up ahead and we managed to catch up with them at maybe mile 10. You might have noticed that I haven't mentioned the heat - well it was HOT, much hotter than last year (honest - it really, really, really was a lot hotter this year). We trudged along and caught up to Lily and Cam at maybe mile 11. John had dropped back a little and us 5 ladies continued on. A very nice lady from TNT offered to take a pic of us as we were walking - our shirts again received alot of compliments from our fellow racers. Our faster fellow WISHers offered us cheers of support as we headed into the home stretch - Carrie and Scott, Maggie's DH and adorable boys, Howard, and well, honestly I don't remember it all clearly (apologies to my fellow teammates if I have left you out!!). As always it is an amazing feeling to cross the finish line and receive a well-deserved medal.
Afterwards we gathered for pictures, chatted for a few minutes, traded hugs and promises to see each other soon (ToT is something like 75 days away) and headed our separate ways.
Thanks to my fellow WISHers for another great experience, especially Maggie. Your company was greatly appreciated! Cam, Lily, and Karen it was great to travel the last couple of miles together!
In the words of John Bingham, until we meet again "Waddle on!!"
PS - I'll try to post some pictures soon!
GO! WISH TEAM GO!
Have a great time--be with ya'll in spirit
