Race Reports, Kudos, and Encouragement for Oct. 27th and 28th

[Maherae]

This is an FULL weekend for the WISH team! Have a WONDERFUL time at your events!!

ps..so very sorry this is late..this is the fifth time today I've tried to post!!

Saturday, 27th

gsu1988 (Ken) Silver Comet Trail Half Marathon

Twilight Zone Tower of Terror Event

acourtwdw
acourtwdw2
aladdinsgirl (Krista)
andromedaslove (Dana)
Big Vic (Vic)
Calcio (Craig)
cdn_gal_eeyore (Leana) with DM
cobbler and DS
corinak (Corrina)
Crzy4pooh (Lynnda)
Dennyha (Denny) & DW
DianeL (Diane)
disney25 and DB
disnutt (Kiena)
disneybelle (Darcey) with DD12 (Kayla) and DS11 (Joseph)
duanerice (duane)
escape (Susie)
getnthinr (Wendy)
goldcupmom (Julie) and DD15 (Rebekah)
goofyinohio (and buddy)
goulishgirl and DM
Goofyin08forErica (Erica)
goofyguy1958 (Mike) with DW, DD, and DS
HMHunters (Renee) with DH and (DD)
Hockeychic (Kim) and DBF (Mike)
Honeibee (Judy) and DH (Charlie)
ironz (& friend)
jeanneg (Jeanne) & DH (John)
kareneast (Karen)
katerkat (Kate)
katwalks
keenercam (Cam)
KeenHo (Howard)
kimickey (Kim)
Kristi1357 (Kristi) and DH (Chad)
Lan
Lexxiefern (Becky)
Maherae (Anne) & DH (Bob)
mickeyroslyn
Moonie
mousemgr (Susan)
mrstropicana (Cheryl) [thundermatt's DW]
nepatsfan73
nicolita3
Nokraden (Rob)
nucpharm29 (Stephanie) and DH (Scott)
NYcpa (Kathy)
padisneyfan (Nancy) & DH (Norm)
pdrph (Phil) and (Evelen)
poppinspal (Megan)
princessrunner
RedDragon (Martha)
Scott H (Scott) and (Lynn)
Scuba Diver (Jim)
Scuba Matt (Matt)
skfulkers (Steve)
Space Ranger (John)
Stitch_lovr_sith (Erin)
Steffwalks
sunshine girl (Laura)
TigerFreak
Tiger Lily 03 (Lily) & DH (Ted)
Tinks (Vicki) & DS1, DS2, and DS3
TnTsParty (Tricia)
TriMom (Mary Kathryn)
TWyn (Tammy) and DD14 (Jessica)
ultramickeymouse (Robert) and DW (Linda)
WDWFAN9 (Pat) and DSIL Deb
Valentine (Kathy)
wfloyd (Bill)
windwalker (Dave)
wtpclc (Carrie) & DH Scott
xterratri (Lynne)

Sunday, 28th

littlegreydonkey (Helen) Auckland Half Marathon, Auckland, NZ
tiberius (Richard) Houston Half, Houston, TX

Marine Corps Marathon

CynthiaCindy (Cindy)
Jodi (Jodi)
Mouse Skywalker (Dave)
msblrobs (Sara)
Optimator (Mike)
rKyDex (Chester)

 

[Jodi]

Thanks for the wellWISHes, Anne. Good luck to all of you @ TOT Sat. night, I'll be thinking about you guys! Should be a great time! There's a serious WISH contingency on hand for that race

Be safe all, & have fun!

Jodi

 

[TnTsParty]

Good luck to all WISHers this weekend. Good luck to those in the Marine Corps Marathon and to Helen and Richard on your half marathons. And GOOD LUCK to all in the TOT event - I can not wait even though I am getting nervous about actually doing 8.1 miles in a race!!!! Leaving on Saturday morning and heading straight to Downtown Disney (after a 3 hour drive) then off to All Star Sports to check in (oh how I wish I was checking into the BCV but I will be there the next night and the night after that)

GOOD LUCK WISHers

 

[Moonie]

ooh, what do the different colors mean?

 

[Maherae]

Moonie..congratulations..you're the first to ask! I usually PM people to find out if they are male or female..but didn't have time. So, orange is for unknown or both (as in "friends").

Have a FANTASTIC weekend, TEAM..rain or shine!!

 

[SilverE]

Good Luck WISH Team!

 

[CynthiaCindy]

Good luck to everyone racing this weekend!! I'm very excited/nervous/anxious to be running my first marathon, but I must admit I'm a bit jealous of all of you running the ToT. Have a great time in WDW!!

 

[nicolita3]

You can take off the DFs part, 2 of my friends decided not to do it and the one friend who was suppose to go with me now has a kidney infection, so it will be just me running by myself, its no biggie though, I have you guys! . Also DH will be waiting for me at the finish.

 

[Moonie]

oh, whoops, in that case...you've got me colored wrong I'm a pretty princess too!

 

[SeeDisney]

WOW!!! What a list!!! Go races, dissers and wishers!!!


We're just doing a local halloween 5K run along with your costume!!! My husband, my 11 year old son and my daughter and my 5 year old will do the kiddie K.



I'll check back later!!!

 

[Mouse Skywalker]

Thanks for the well-wishes Anne. We had a great WISH meet last night with Sara, Jodi, Mike, Chester, and families. Colleen was with us in spirit too.

 

[Villains_Rock]

Good luck for those of us that are at the ToT!!! I wish I was there!!

 

[Big Vic]

Good luck everyone!!

 

[ggeorgiagirl]

Hey Anne and everybody else!

I ran my 2nd ever 5k (the first being the Minnie 5k in May). I did better on time by about 3 minutes. My time still sucks compared to y'all...but beware!! It will be even better in January!

Thanks for all the support on the boards! All of you really motivate me!

Love,
Beth

Anne...do you remember my son, Pierce, cheering me on in May? Today's 5K went right by my front yard...and both kids came out running and cheering for me today! IT ROCKED!

 

[nicolita3]

Here is my report for TOT:
So DH and I left our apartment about 1 1/2 hours early even though it only usually takes us half an hour to get there (I am very paranoid so I insisted we leave early!) Thank goodness we did because the traffic was horrible! We almost didnt make it on time. I actually had to get out of our truck on walk while he was stuck in traffic, because I didnt think we would make it (it was about 9:05 at that point) so I finally make it to the starting line and I just sit back in the corner since I was doing the 6.5. Thank goodness my DH is so tall because I was actually able to see him wondering through the crowd looking for me about 20 minutes later. Then they announced since traffic was so bad the start would be postponed for about 20 minutes and wouldnt start until 9:50, that actually got quite a bit of boos out of everyone. Well once it started everyone for the 6.5 lined up all excited and we were off! It was a good race crowds cheering us on the whole time we were in the park. I finished in about 65 minutes. I was happy with that. After the race we decided to head to the rides. We walked right on TOT which was awesome, my medal almost flew off my head. Then we went again with zero wait. We also did star tours which was walk on. The longest wait we had was for the great movie ride which we only waited about 5 minutes for. At that point we were getting tired it was 1am but we had one more ride, rockin rollercoaster which we walked right on to. After that we were both so tired we decided to go home. We had a blast.

 

[swandiverpatt]

I had WISHer's in front of me, WISHER's in back of me, and WISHER's beside me many times.

Towards the end, walking behind the ToT I spoke with a tall, thin gentleman WISHer who told me he had run every once in a while and how much better it felt.

Having not trained for this, and only walking about 2 miles when I do walk (and poor DH, who hasn't been walking at all due to job constraints - -and who'd been up since 6:00 that morning), I think we did amazingly well.

We finished the 13K with chip time around 2:12 and we were happy about that. (being old folks over 50, we patted ourselves on our backs, too).

I'll do this one again.

 

[JimB.]

First race since my college days. Had a great time. Will be back (but the traffic engineers better do some homework.)

 

[Optimator]

The Marine Corps Marathon weekend was a whirlwind of fun and excitement for our whole family.

It began Friday afternoon with a trip to the expo. Very comparable to the Disney Marathon expo (with the added bonus of free beer!).

A quick Metro (subway) ride to Crystal City, VA for a great WISH meet with Jodi, Chester, SWDave, Sara and their associated spouses, father, and 2 of the best behaved kids in the world (all who remain unnamed to protect the innocent). Special thanks to Colleen for arranging the dinner for us prior to her race ending injury. We missed you!!

Saturday AM led us to the Pentagon parking lot for the 1 mile kids run. Our 2 oldest DD's had a great time chatting and running with Sara's above mentions angels. Seeing our DD7 cross the start line holding hands with Sara's DD was definitely one of the day's highlights.

O.K., did I mention that we were running a marathon this weekend?

Beautiful day for running. 50's to start, highs in the low 60's, sunny with a nice breeze!

DW and I were lucky enough to catch the rest of the group in the Metro station prior to getting to porta-pot city. DW and Chester's DW left us at that point to stake out a good spot to view the start. The rest of us had a nice long walk that eventually ended at the staging area for the start.

Side note: If you ever have the need, be sure to let Jodi pick the porta-pot line. She appears to enter a Zen like trance and then picks the fastest line of the bunch!

We got a nice call from Colleen to WISH us luck.

Off to the start. We all lined up in the the 4:10-4:30 area which seemed to be about in the middle of 30,000 of our closest friends. Quite amazingly, it only took about 5 minutes to cross the starting line. I stayed with my fellow WISHers for the first 2 miles or so then we kind of got a bit spread out.

Lots of great sites to see around our Nation's capital (although I tend to see only what's 20 feet in front of me): Arlington Cemetery, Georgetown University, C&O Canal, Kennedy Center, Lincoln and Jefferson Memorial, The National Mall, The Capital Building, etc., etc. with the route running up the hill (ughh!!) and finishing at the Iwo Jima Memorial.

Race observations:

The course was crowded the entire way. It took until almost mile 8 to be able to run a pace other than the pack's (and that freedom came and went throughout the event). I'm not real sure if how it affected my overall time but I definitely ran the first half of the race slower than I planned.

The water stops were often in very narrow sections and a couple actually ground the pace to a halt until you passed through.

The crowd support was great through most of the course. Saw lots of folks passing out their own goodies along the way. DW was actually able to cheer me on at 5 different points on the course (Thanks, Love ) and just missed me finished by 2 minutes due to the Tokyo-like double-sardine packing of the Metro. She wore her Garmin and ended up putting in over 6.6 miles (not counting subway riding) running after me.

The race seemed to me to be well organized (maybe could have used an extra water stop or two) and the constant presence of Marines was quite inspiring. It's gotta be a huge undertaking to deal with 30,000 runners and all their scream teams.

I'd been flirting with the 4:00 pace the whole second half of the race and ended up really having to gut it out at the end to beat it but finished with a chip time of 3:56 (which matched my Garmin time exactly, but Garmin measured 26.59 miles ). I'll take it, all things considered.

The post-race area went pretty smoothly for me but kept getting more and more crowded as the finishers and their families tried to meet up. One really nice thing was a tent with a bunch of laptops to check results. I was able to look at my own official finishing time immediately and then used them to figure out how all the other WISHers had done.

We had a nice little post-race WISH meet with SWDave, his dad, Chester, and his DW Tracy. They seemed, rightfully so, pleased with their performances. Jodi and Sara, sorry we missed you at the end. Can't wait to see you again in Jan.

The lines for the Metro and Shuttle buses were INCREDIBLY long so DW and I hiked about a mile up the road, had a fabulous hamburger and caught the Metro at the next stop. Smooth trip home from there.

Had a great time, got to meet some good friends, and got a great big medal. Not a bad weekend in my book!

Now if I can get my sore legs to lift my big behind from the chair and get up the stairs I'm going to bed!

 

[MouseDogMom]

Beth - Congrats on your 5K. 3 minutes is an awesome improvement!

Mike - Great job at MCM! Thanks for the report. This one is definitely on my "To Do" list, although the crowds sound a little scary.

ToTers - Lovin' the reports. Keep 'em coming!

Jackie

 

[princessmomma]

Side note: If you ever have the need, be sure to let Jodi pick the porta-pot line. She appears to enter a Zen like trance and then picks the fastest line of the bunch!

Why does this not surprise me? She will be by side at the Disney Marathon!

Congratulations Mike! Thanks for a great marathon report.