So going Goofy with Howard(Keenho) and Kevin(kzmarathon) was so much fun in 2007 I immediately signed up to do it again in 2008. Unfortunately things didn't go as planned.
Drove down to Portland the night before for my early flight to BWI where I was meeting up with Mom and sis(NYcpa and StitchloverSith). Called as soon as we hit the ground and Mom told me they would be shutting the plane doors of the connector to Orlando at 0841. It was 0828 at that point and we were taxi'ing. So we hit the gate and I did my warm up sprint to the next plane and made it with about 3 minutes to spare. Traveled uneventfully to MCO, got checked in at OKW and found out we were down by Turtle Pond rather than up by Hospitality House
Went to the expo and got the cool dark blue Goofy shirt. Yeah for separate Goofy shirts this year! Then discovered my personal chip number had been entered wrong so stood in the runner services line. Didn't take as long as I expected and headed downstairs to engage in some quality shopping. Was a little disappointed with the official merchandise short sleeve wise so only got the Goofy technical tank for me and a really nice jacket for Mom(no need for heavy jacket in Hawaii). Did get a pair of the Asics DS Trainer 13s that I wanted at a good price. Our local Fleet Feet doesn't carry the DS Trainer, a lightweight trainer/racer in the same line as the 21## series. Saw some WISHers at the expo- it is unbelieveably neat to travel the distance and to a race the size of WDW marathon weekend and see people you know
Went to the Pop WISH meet where we got re-acquintated with more WISHers plus met some who had only been screen-names in the past. Lots of fun and still think that Pop is a good location.
Half- saw lots of WISHers before the start and lined up with Howard and Kevin at the front of Corral B with SilverE(Steve), solotraveler(Kevin) and another whose name I didn't catch and yet I know I've read her report for the weekend. Our trio started out at an okay pace but my right hamstring tendon/knee was hurting. Stopped for a potty break at mile 5 and then it felt better- heavens knows what the connection there is. Maybe the squat to sit? Ran through MK and by then the thrice operated knee was hurting. What's up with that- it never bugs me running. Anyway never really felt good and then by mile 10ish felt really bad. The guys stayed back with me and I felt really bad about that. We ended up running in the 2:24 range which was 18 min slower than I did the very hilly Run to Victory half in Dec. Lil sis and Jeff(Chimera's husband) finished in an incredible sub 3 hr time considering the last time sis had done any training was ToT.
So then Disney dropped the ball big time again- they know how many entrants, they even order enough freaking medals, why can't they have them at the darned finish line??? I gave mine to a first time 1/2 finisher and made sure another WISHer used it to get her picture taken. Grrr. Sure I wanted the medal but I think it means more to someone on their first half that they worked and sweated for. Disney found the rest later that day and I got the Donald back but I would have gladly let the other person keep it. So I spent the afternoon with a swollen achy knee off my feet and dosing the advil. I was worried about the full the next day after my less than optimal performance on the half. I didn't want to hold the guys back and I was worried about how my body was going to hold up so I made the decision to do the race with my Mom.
Full- another disgustingly humid and warmer than desired morning which would become an important factor for many people later on. Moved back to corral G and lined up with bunches of WISHers. Mom and I started out and did the first 2 miles completely walking at 16 min miles. We then stopped for a potty stop at one with a line and had a 19 min mile. We started moving faster and by mile 13 were at 3:24 which matched Mom's time from the Donald in 2006. Kept moving at a reasonable clip to AK and but the sun decided to come out. Remember the heat and humidity mentioned earlier, it hit with a vengeance. We slowed and by mile 21 were racing the sweeps. They told us 30 sec to the checkpoint but it was really like 2 min by there clock and we got through 21. Then made it through 22 by the same margin and I though we were safe. I thought once you made it into the parks and off the roads it improved. No, the evil sweepers keep harassing you! Then to add insult to injury they were out of candy at mile 23 like they had been out of bananas at mile 14.
I was worried about not getting my Goofy medal if I didn't make it in before the 7 hour time limit so I was a bad daughter and abandoned my Mom a bit after 23 miles to a TnT coach. It was 6:18 into the day by my watch and I knew it had taken us a bit over 6 min to start so I figured I had about 42 min to go 5 K. I then took off running- my mantra became "on your left, thank you" over and over again as I ran through MGM, down the path to Epcot and through Epcot. It's a little odd to be running at a relatively faster clip through so many people. It took me about 33 min to do the last 5 K and I finished at clock time 6:57, chip 6:51. I had felt great all day, chatting along, walking backwards or dancing at times and didn't really stress my system until the last three miles and not really even then as I knew I had over 40 min. Could I have ran 5:18 with the boys
But it really doesn't matter because my job became to cajole and save people from the sweepers. Never really been in that position before and it provides a different perspective.
Got my medals and then the most excruciating part of the day began. I heard thunder rumbles while running through Epcot. Uh oh! Scott and I crept in as close as we could to the medal givers and watched the final WISHers come through. He was there to make sure than Cam got a medal whether the Disney folks ran out of them or not and I wanted to make sure Mom made it in and got hers too. My sister showed up with Cam and had done the last 2+ miles with her- amazingly the race people let her and also surprising because I knew she was a hurting kid after the no training 1/2 the day before. Cam got her medal and then Mom came though and got hers. Mom said the mats had been pulled so she knew she wasn't official(7:07 Garmin time) but WHO CARES? She did 26.2 miles under tough conditions. She did her 20 in 5:02 but it was 30 and that makes a difference for Northerners. I was and still am extremely proud of her.
She and all the other 'unoffical' finishers definitely earned their medals.
The best part of the marathon- seeing the WISH scream teamers. They were everywhere and I particularly liked the red licorice.
The worst- Disney's magic math. We started in corral G and crosses the start line a little over 6 min in. Another person we talked to also in G crossed 11 min in plus there was all of corral H. What was Disney using for the sweep time? It seemed to be about the 6 min we had crossed in but was definitely less than 10. Not fair, not fair at all.
Tried going to Adventurer's Club but it was closed to a private party until 9 pm so we went back to the villa. Saw many of the WISHers at Boardwalk Bakery Mon morning and then flew back north Mon evening. I had did a park-sleep-fly thing at a hotel in Portland and had to dig out the snow they had plowed in around it. 11 inches in Portland that day and it was only about 20 degrees out when I was shoveling at 11 pm at night. I really, really wanted to be back in Disney. I keep reminding myself that I move to Hawaii in June and this is my last winter for a while. Alas it was also likely my last WDW Marathon weekend for a while
Maybe the 20th Anniv.?
Drove down to Portland the night before for my early flight to BWI where I was meeting up with Mom and sis(NYcpa and StitchloverSith). Called as soon as we hit the ground and Mom told me they would be shutting the plane doors of the connector to Orlando at 0841. It was 0828 at that point and we were taxi'ing. So we hit the gate and I did my warm up sprint to the next plane and made it with about 3 minutes to spare. Traveled uneventfully to MCO, got checked in at OKW and found out we were down by Turtle Pond rather than up by Hospitality House
Went to the expo and got the cool dark blue Goofy shirt. Yeah for separate Goofy shirts this year! Then discovered my personal chip number had been entered wrong so stood in the runner services line. Didn't take as long as I expected and headed downstairs to engage in some quality shopping. Was a little disappointed with the official merchandise short sleeve wise so only got the Goofy technical tank for me and a really nice jacket for Mom(no need for heavy jacket in Hawaii). Did get a pair of the Asics DS Trainer 13s that I wanted at a good price. Our local Fleet Feet doesn't carry the DS Trainer, a lightweight trainer/racer in the same line as the 21## series. Saw some WISHers at the expo- it is unbelieveably neat to travel the distance and to a race the size of WDW marathon weekend and see people you know
Went to the Pop WISH meet where we got re-acquintated with more WISHers plus met some who had only been screen-names in the past. Lots of fun and still think that Pop is a good location.
Half- saw lots of WISHers before the start and lined up with Howard and Kevin at the front of Corral B with SilverE(Steve), solotraveler(Kevin) and another whose name I didn't catch and yet I know I've read her report for the weekend. Our trio started out at an okay pace but my right hamstring tendon/knee was hurting. Stopped for a potty break at mile 5 and then it felt better- heavens knows what the connection there is. Maybe the squat to sit? Ran through MK and by then the thrice operated knee was hurting. What's up with that- it never bugs me running. Anyway never really felt good and then by mile 10ish felt really bad. The guys stayed back with me and I felt really bad about that. We ended up running in the 2:24 range which was 18 min slower than I did the very hilly Run to Victory half in Dec. Lil sis and Jeff(Chimera's husband) finished in an incredible sub 3 hr time considering the last time sis had done any training was ToT.
So then Disney dropped the ball big time again- they know how many entrants, they even order enough freaking medals, why can't they have them at the darned finish line??? I gave mine to a first time 1/2 finisher and made sure another WISHer used it to get her picture taken. Grrr. Sure I wanted the medal but I think it means more to someone on their first half that they worked and sweated for. Disney found the rest later that day and I got the Donald back but I would have gladly let the other person keep it. So I spent the afternoon with a swollen achy knee off my feet and dosing the advil. I was worried about the full the next day after my less than optimal performance on the half. I didn't want to hold the guys back and I was worried about how my body was going to hold up so I made the decision to do the race with my Mom.
Full- another disgustingly humid and warmer than desired morning which would become an important factor for many people later on. Moved back to corral G and lined up with bunches of WISHers. Mom and I started out and did the first 2 miles completely walking at 16 min miles. We then stopped for a potty stop at one with a line and had a 19 min mile. We started moving faster and by mile 13 were at 3:24 which matched Mom's time from the Donald in 2006. Kept moving at a reasonable clip to AK and but the sun decided to come out. Remember the heat and humidity mentioned earlier, it hit with a vengeance. We slowed and by mile 21 were racing the sweeps. They told us 30 sec to the checkpoint but it was really like 2 min by there clock and we got through 21. Then made it through 22 by the same margin and I though we were safe. I thought once you made it into the parks and off the roads it improved. No, the evil sweepers keep harassing you! Then to add insult to injury they were out of candy at mile 23 like they had been out of bananas at mile 14.
I was worried about not getting my Goofy medal if I didn't make it in before the 7 hour time limit so I was a bad daughter and abandoned my Mom a bit after 23 miles to a TnT coach. It was 6:18 into the day by my watch and I knew it had taken us a bit over 6 min to start so I figured I had about 42 min to go 5 K. I then took off running- my mantra became "on your left, thank you" over and over again as I ran through MGM, down the path to Epcot and through Epcot. It's a little odd to be running at a relatively faster clip through so many people. It took me about 33 min to do the last 5 K and I finished at clock time 6:57, chip 6:51. I had felt great all day, chatting along, walking backwards or dancing at times and didn't really stress my system until the last three miles and not really even then as I knew I had over 40 min. Could I have ran 5:18 with the boys
But it really doesn't matter because my job became to cajole and save people from the sweepers. Never really been in that position before and it provides a different perspective.Got my medals and then the most excruciating part of the day began. I heard thunder rumbles while running through Epcot. Uh oh! Scott and I crept in as close as we could to the medal givers and watched the final WISHers come through. He was there to make sure than Cam got a medal whether the Disney folks ran out of them or not and I wanted to make sure Mom made it in and got hers too. My sister showed up with Cam and had done the last 2+ miles with her- amazingly the race people let her and also surprising because I knew she was a hurting kid after the no training 1/2 the day before. Cam got her medal and then Mom came though and got hers. Mom said the mats had been pulled so she knew she wasn't official(7:07 Garmin time) but WHO CARES? She did 26.2 miles under tough conditions. She did her 20 in 5:02 but it was 30 and that makes a difference for Northerners. I was and still am extremely proud of her.
She and all the other 'unoffical' finishers definitely earned their medals.The best part of the marathon- seeing the WISH scream teamers. They were everywhere and I particularly liked the red licorice.
The worst- Disney's magic math. We started in corral G and crosses the start line a little over 6 min in. Another person we talked to also in G crossed 11 min in plus there was all of corral H. What was Disney using for the sweep time? It seemed to be about the 6 min we had crossed in but was definitely less than 10. Not fair, not fair at all.
Tried going to Adventurer's Club but it was closed to a private party until 9 pm so we went back to the villa. Saw many of the WISHers at Boardwalk Bakery Mon morning and then flew back north Mon evening. I had did a park-sleep-fly thing at a hotel in Portland and had to dig out the snow they had plowed in around it. 11 inches in Portland that day and it was only about 20 degrees out when I was shoveling at 11 pm at night. I really, really wanted to be back in Disney. I keep reminding myself that I move to Hawaii in June and this is my last winter for a while. Alas it was also likely my last WDW Marathon weekend for a while
Maybe the 20th Anniv.?
That was a lonely 13 miles. I did manage to see Denny, Martha, Bill, Chad, AmyBeth and others along the way. It helped pass the time and the miles for sure as did the WISHer Scream Team members along the route. 
Congratulations to you, Erin, and Kathy!!!! And thank you again for taking me to get the picture! 
