The Princess Diaries, part 2: Race!
In which my brain might have slightly exploded
I set my alarm for 2:15. Having fallen asleep fairly easily, I was even more impressed when I woke up and saw what looked like 2:08 on the clock. Then I squinted a bit more and made out the "1" in front. Drat! I was two hours early. I tried to go back to sleep, but only managed to drift off after another hour or so. Then I dragged myself out of bed a few minutes after my alarm started chirping at me.
I got all ready and left my baffled pupper a little before 3. Believe it or not, there was very little traffic, at least until I got to WDW. Even that was moving consistently, if slowly. In the parking lot, as I was turning down my designated row, I realized I'd left my soft flasks filled with Skratch in the fridge.
Argh! I was really annoyed at myself. I briefly considered asking my parents to bring them over, but it was already almost 3:30, and I didn't think they would get there before the parking lot closed at 4. I tried to set my annoyance aside, since there was nothing I could do about it. At least I'd had nuun on the way there, it was fairly cool, and Disney has a lot of water stops. But ugh.
After eating breakfast in the car, I grabbed my stuff, hopped out, and headed for the security line. Halfway there, I turned around and went back for my phone.
Really just off to a great start.
When I finally got to security around 3:50, the line was long-ish but moved pretty quickly. I made the long walk to the staging area and headed straight for gear check. I hit up the portas, changed into my race shoes, and dropped my stuff off before making my way to what I've decided to call the warm-up area, over by the post-race bus stop. I did a quick warmup with a few strides before turning towards the corrals.
Always an entertaining map
I hit up the portas one more time, filled a cup from the water station since I had no liquids of my own
, and got into A around 4:35. I made my way up a bit where there was space, but shoving through the crowd is just not worth it to me, so I ended up a few rows back from the front of the second wave as designated by the ribbon.
Twenty or so minutes into standing around, drinking water, and eventually eating my pre-race stroopwafel (at least I didn't forget my nutrition), it felt like the pre-show shifted quite abruptly from "filling time" to "starting time." It was basically, "Hey chair athletes, you ready? Okay, 3-2-1, go!" and then a minute later the same for the first wave of A. I expected to wait a few minutes after that as usual, but instead they sent the second wave off only a minute after the first. Everyone started moving - except one woman in front of me who I guess dropped something and tried to run back to pick it up, which created a bit of a mess at the start. But I managed to dodge her without stepping on anyone else. And then we were off.
With so little time between waves, the first wave was still pretty bunched up a few minutes later when we caught up to them. Fortunately there just weren't enough of them to present too much of a problem. And then it was pretty open highway miles. And miles. This course has a lot of highway miles.
I wasn't stopping for characters, but I did appreciate seeing them out, especially when they waved at us as we went by. It was a nice break from the monotony of running on a highway in the dark. I also appreciated the water stops. Not being very good at drinking out of a cup while running, I only managed a couple of sips at each stop, but it was better than nothing.
And the race was going pretty well so far. The miles were ticking by well under my main goal of <1:40 (7:37 per mile), and I was feeling like I was working but not like I was going to crash and burn. I came through the first 5K in about 22:30, which was quite respectable considering my PR of 21:56. I also had my first gel, a Precision caff gel, around then.
Was this where the construction was? At one point we passed by an area where they had work going on, and I could not see the road AT ALL. Visibility wasn't that great for most of the race - the sun was only just coming up by the time I finished - but this was running on pure trust that I wasn't going to trip over a pothole or something. It was a little unsettling.
Anyway, some time before or after that, we finally got to MK, which was great. The screaming crowds on Main Street were amazing - I glanced down at my watch and I was running at like 6:30 pace. Way too fast, but I couldn't help it.
This actually would have been a decent photo if I hadn't chosen that particular moment to adjust my glasses!
Wound through the park, waved to some more characters, etc. We hit 10K and my watch said about 44:30, so the day was really already a success.
Arbitrary numerical benchmark #4: sub-45 10K. 2025 achievability: low (officially) to medium-low (unofficially).
Yeah, turns out that was more achievable than I thought. I feel like I should get credit for "officially" because my official 10K split is 44:30.
And then, castle.
It looks like I am hunting down this random woman. 
It was confusing turning left out of the castle. I started to go the wrong way, following the person in front of me, until a CM redirected us towards Tomorrowland.
Oh look, I caught her. Victory is mine!
After MK, we got a little bit of crowd support through the TTC, but then it was a bunch more highway miles in the dark. I was definitely starting to feel the pace. This side of MK was also harder because by then everyone was spread out enough that there were fewer
targets er, people to pass. I was still passing people, though, which I felt good about. As good as I felt about anything, anyway. I think I had a second gel, a UCAN, around mile 7.
Don't you just love it when they take the photo right as your leg hits the ground? Anyway, I'm not even sure where this is - probably the background is more recognizable when it's light out.
Although I was getting tired, I wasn't getting tired enough to slow down. In fact, I ran (I'm pretty sure) my first sub-7 race miles in mile 9, 10, 12, and 13.
I had another gel in there somewhere too.
But why not mile 11? Because mile 11 sucked. It felt so hard, and then it ended in a hill. I looked at the elevation afterwards and basically the whole mile was a very slight incline, which explains a lot. Specifically, it explains how much I hated mile 11.
Around this point was also where my left hand started to feel really cold, probably because I happened to take most of the water from the left side and then spilled a bunch on my hand while trying to drink it. So I pulled my glove on, having stuffed them into my belt before the race. It is surprisingly difficult to get a glove onto a mostly numb hand while running at HM pace. The things you learn. Anyway, that's why I'm wearing a glove on my left hand in all of the Epcot photos.
Speaking of Epcot...we were finally almost done! I felt very relieved turning into the park because it meant that I could stop soon. In the meantime, I did what I could with what I had left.
Yeah, that expression seems pretty accurate. Also why does my hamstring look like it has a tumor??
Before long, we did something even better than entering Epcot: we exited Epcot. SO CLOSE. I was very much in "just keep running" mode. I always forget how many turns there are at this point, though. But at last I passed the choir (who were not even pretending to sing, lol) and made the final turn for the finish.
I actually like this one, even if it does look like there's a hunk of flesh just missing above my knee.
I thought I sped up at this point, even if Strava does not agree. I was running as fast as I could, anyway.
One of the things that happens if you finish early enough in the race is that Carissa will almost certainly call your name because there is no one else finishing for at least 10 seconds on either side. So I got to hear my name as I crossed the line!
Coming through!
I apparently looked like I was struggling enough as I slowed to a shuffle that one of the medical staff came over to make sure I was okay.
Everything hurt, but in a good way. I high-fived Jeff Galloway, who was standing at the finish line, and slowly headed to where I could get water and stuff. I didn't know exactly what my time was, but my watch said something like 1:33:20 and I was still a little stunned.
The rest, I think, will have to wait...
1:33:11
F15 (but 5th in my AG, which 
)
):
congratulations 
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I got there a little after 1, and while there were a lot of people, the lines weren't bad at all. I walked straight up to get my bib and then headed over to the Health & Fitness Expo to meet 
