WDW Marathon (and 5K and Trip) Recap Part 2
Friday, January 11 2019:
Magic Kingdom! We were running a bit late but managed to make our Be Our Guest reservation at 8:00am. We were a bit underwhelmed by the food and felt it was a bit overpriced.
We set out to do a lot of the things we hadn’t done before at MK. We got Pirates of the Caribbean done early (practically walked on) and did old favourites the Tiki Room and rode the Aladdin Flying Carpets. Highlights:
-Space Ranger Spin was fun!
-My wife loved exploring Tom Sawyer Island which was closed last time we were there. My feet were killing me and I sat in a rocking chair while she explored.
-We always love Splash Mountain and Mickey’s Philharmagic but lines were too long for Big Thunder Mountain.
-Fireworks were amazing.
-Getting back took a lot of time as the monorail line was huge and so we went to the ferry to go back to the TTC. We also had to go to
Walmart to get breakfast foods for Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday, January 12 2019:
Animal Kingdom! We got there early and my mission was to stand in as few lines as possible. With the early extra magic hour, and us getting there a little later than 8:00am, there was not way to avoid an hour wait for Flight of Passage. Fortunately we had a FP+ for it. We walked on to Navi River Journey and loved it and rode it again with about a 10 minute wait for the second time.
I decided to use our extra morning time to ride the other rides we had FP+s for (Everest and Kilimanjaro) so that we could FP+ Lion King and Nemo so that we could spend less time standing. It worked out well as we rode Everest twice with barely a wait (and we enjoyed the queue for the first time since we had FP+ed it before). Then we stood in line for 15-20 minutes for Kilimanjaro. I was successfully able to get new FP+s for Nemo and Festival of the Lion King and we were able to stay awake for Nemo this time. Last time we went, we were both so exhausted that we were drifting in and out and we loved the show!
We had some time to kill before the Lion King started and so we went to Dino Land. I love the new Donald’s Dino-Bash overlay, it makes it even more “carny” with more things to do. We rode the Triceratops Spin and after we got off, my wife realized that she had lost her magic band. We went back to the ride and the Cms couldn’t find it. We went back to Nemo and they hadn’t seen it or it hadn’t been turned in. So we went all the way back to the park entrance and stood in line for guest relations for about 30 minutes. They gave my wife a ticket card to use for the rest of the day until we could get a new magic band at the resort.
I got another FP+ for Lion King to a later show (since we missed our first one thanks to the lost magic band) and saw the show. Then we saw the UP bird show and had a dinner at the Yak and Yeti QS and both my wife and I were really happy with the food (I had the Teriyaki Beef and she had the Vegetable Tikka Masala). Both were really flavourful and well cooked.
Finally I managed to get a FP+ for Primeval Whirl, which is one of my wife's favourites, and we went before going to Rivers of Light which was beautiful. We got back to the resort and I prepared for the coming marathon. I was in bed by 8:30 and was out quickly.
Sunday, January 13 2019:
Wakeup was around 2:30. I got up, ate a peanut butter sandwich and headed out the door to the bus. Our bus driver didn’t seem to know which way to get to the drop off point but I wasn’t going to begrudge more time on the bus in a sitting position.
I checked my bag and used the porta potty and then sat, eating a power bar and watched the Green Army Man make people do pushups and jumping jacks. They were asking people to go to the corrals at this point and went to Corral E. I found a spot about 1/3 of the way back and sat down. I didn’t have to get up until about 10 minutes before they started the race.
For me, the temperature was perfect. I was wearing my running tshirt and shorts and didn’t need any throw away clothes or mylar blankets to keep warm. I was actually quite comfortable.
They started the race! I was excited and felt confident but shortly after our corral started (about 19-20 minutes after the official start), I felt some strain in my hips. I also needed to use a restroom and didn’t think I could wait so I ran down the ditch to the edge of the trees to take care of things there (yes, there are bonuses to being a guy). According to my garmin, my first mile was 12:23 (all mile intervals are via Garmin GPS so they're not the actual miles posted in the race). Slower than what I wanted to run but not too bad. I throttled up in mile 2 to right around my pace and ran an 11:22 mile which was almost exactly where I wanted to be. Mile 3 was 11:23 and mile 4 was 11:21. I was really comfortable at this point with the pace and didn’t feel like I was straining. I was trying to keep my heart rate in the mid-130s into the low 140s.
Running into Magic Kingdom while it was still dark was breathtaking! But I was needing a bathroom and took about a 2-minute washroom break in Fantasyland. Mile 5 was 11:51 and Mile 6 was 11:47.
At Mile 7 I was really cruising, running 10:58 and 11:07 for mile 8 although I noticed that I was having trouble monitoring my effort level and pace. I was starting to feel tired but was still going strong. I knew that I could keep a solid pace when tired for a half marathon, dating back to the half I ran at the end of September.
Mile 9 was still strong at 11:17 and Mile 10 came in at 11:23. Here I was starting to really feel fatigue and the feeling that things just weren’t right, while my times were still holding steady, I knew something would have to give and that my legs weren't feeling as good as they should be at this point in the race. Mile 11 was 11:36 and mile 12 was 11:14 with Mile 13 at 11:33.
When I hit the halfway point, at 2:33:41, I knew things were going downhill. I was having fairly bad pain in both feet, right where the ball of the foot meets the toes, around the middle three toes, on every stride. I knew a 5-hour marathon was out of the question at this point and I was ready to slow down and just get through it. Someone in Animal Kingdom or in the parking lot had a sign that said “Embrace the Suck” and that was just what I was going to have to do.
Mile 14: 11:51
Mile 15: 11:49
Then I started walking more. I took a couple of Tylenol from the medical tent I think around Mile 14.
Mile 16: 12:50
Mile 17: 12:12
ESPN WWOS – Here is where my legs really started to go. I was started to cramp in my quads. I remember this feeling from 2017 but that happened around mile 24 or 25, not mile 17. I was also chafing pretty badly in my inner thighs. That left a mark.
Mile 18: 12:14
Mile 19: 13:10
I was walking more and more. I remember saying to myself that I would run the entire distance of the track and then the baseball field, but I was finding it hard to muster the strength to run more than .33 miles at a time.
Mile 20: 14:26
Mile 21: 13:43
Mile 22: 14:24
Things were getting bad. By now, I was just walking to get through most of the race. I had gotten some Biofreeze on my quads and they were feeling a little better but now it was just about getting through the race upright. I also got some vaseline from the medical tent for my inner thighs. I also got some sunscreen. I didn't burn, so that was a good choice.
Mile 23: 16:29
Mile 24: 16:22
I did stop in Hollywood Studios to use the restroom again. Noting that it was a good sign that I had to pee, meaning that I wasn’t severely dehydrated. I also texted my wife saying where I was and how I was feeling.
Mile 25: 14:53
Mile 26: 15:27
Mile 26.75 (according to my Garmin): 13:39/mile pace
Yeah, I was trying to run the last bit through Epcot but it was tough. I felt awful. My legs felt like they’d just give out and there were times that I thought that I would just fall at a couple of points through the last few miles because my legs couldn’t support me.
At certain points, I was actually running not because I had the energy to but because I knew my feet would hurt for less time the more I ran.
I finished. Final time 5:39:24 (Official). That time is about 11 minutes worse than my 2017 time. My third marathon and my worst one.
Where did things go wrong? I trained to run a 5:00-5:15 marathon and felt confident. I was running tempo runs with 11:15 miles for 8 miles at a time and felt fine.
Well, my first inclination is to blame all the park touring in the week before, plus a lot of walking even the days we didn’t go to the parks. It was a lot of standing and a lot of walking. It didn’t really feel like a “taper” and I definitely wasn’t feeling my best early in the race.
I also think that I wasn’t completely ready for the Hansons Marathon Method training that started after my half marathon on September 30. While I had a built a base, it wasn’t enough and as the speed work and tempo work added up, I had trouble keeping up the mileage/timings for the easier runs, especially the Saturday runs that were designed to add fatigue for the long runs and my long runs suffered even though I didn't really add enough fatigue.
That said, I’m disappointed in the result but not disheartened. I’m actually raring to go to begin running and training again and am planning a local marathon in October. I’m going to spend the winter time recovering, training for shorter races while trying to maintain a 30-40 mile per week base. I plan on running a 10k in May and will shoot for breaking an hour. The fact that I could maintain a 11:15 pace in 8-mile tempo runs (plus warmup and cool down) and hold under 11:00/mile for up to 2 miles at a time in strength work with 3 intervals, has me convinced that the 1-hour flat time is in within reach.
After mid-May, I’ll go back to marathon training for the Toronto Waterfront Marathon in October, looking to build a complete Hansons training schedule with the base to be able to handle the training.
That said, 3 days after the race, I feel like there are no structural injuries. The legs are still sore and will likely continue to be so for another day or two and my back muscles are a bit sore. But my joints are fine (knock on wood). I’ll hold off running for two weeks but will get to the gym tonight to swim a bit or use the recumbent bike and probably just warm up and then stretch. I’m also planning to re-introduce more resistance training, at least until mid-May.
