The Morning - Disney World Marathon 2006

Well I have to say that getting up that early was tough. I boarded the bus after getting a good cup of coffee, a bagel, and water. I was loaded up with my e-gels and running shoes and sweat suit.

From the busses we got to Epcot about 3:45 am. IT was so cold, I waited as long as I could to check all of my bags and sweat suit, leaving me with the chemical suit I purchased from work. (They said it was $2.38 and the people we using other throw aways at $15-18 hmmmm money to be made there.) Mine was really cool because Robia and Sierra decorated it. It had all kinds of cools slogans and saying and designs. It felt special and I had about 20 different people staring at me. Well I think they were reading me, or rather my suit! I put my email address on it when i shed it at about mile 3, so if anyone finds it, send it back and I will return the postage. Anyhow the last half hour seemed to last forever. People were streaming out of the corrals to pee freely in the open field next to the start. I joined them. Did I mention it was cold. Like 35 degrees farenheit cold? Anyhow, I climbed back over the fence and into the corral. The wheelchair racers took off, five minutes to go, I was so excited, I was going to run a marathon....5,4,3,2,1, go. Then I just stood there. after about 1 minute the shuffle toward the start began. I crossed the start line at 2:11 and began my trek. the first few miles there was lots of fun and laughter and two separate tracks which was cool, it kept the numbers down while natural selection thinned the crowd. Once around the Epcot, the backthrough Epcot, where we merged with the other Marathon. I was in the Red group, corral F. Anyhow at about 4 miles I hit my stride and I realized that I was gaining on my goal time on the clocks on the roadside. I decided that I had selected a good pace to make 4:30 a reasonable goal for time. I told myself that to finish would be enough, but I wanted a time goal too. So I realized that I was picking up about 15 seconds per mile on the goal, By mile 8 I had built a 2 minute buffer between 4:30 and my pace! I was stoked. Then I started to goof off. I took lots of pictures. Running through tomorrowland and into fantasyland was so exciting, I was like a little kid. (Disney holds many fond memories for me, both as a parent and as a child.) Through the castle and out the other side to Adventure land and out of that park. Lots of Characters and such. Bands people cheering and all, it was great. by this time the cold was bearable except for my right thumb, which seems more prone to the cold than the rest of me??? Anyhow, I kept pushing and had nice splits for my pace, I maintained the 2:00 gap on 4:30 through the first 10 miles actual chip time was 1:42:22, The half was 2:13:18. 20 Miles was 3:24:25 and the finish was 4:23:21. So there it isI had a negative split 2:10:03 for the second half of the marathon. I don't know what that means but I know it is supposed to be good.

THE WALL - Never happened. Like I said before I was looking for it, waiting on it, preparing for it. Dreading it, but it never happened! Holy smokes, I remember 15 years ago, the feeling of wanting to run, but absolutely nothing happening! I believe that I was more prepared and the e-gels are fabulous. By the way, I went on a rant about clif shots and how awful I thought they were. It turn out that the Strawberry is just gross. The other flavors are OK. In fact the creme flavors were pretty good!

Anyhow, I will write about the last few miles tomorrow as these were for me a celebration.

Vaya con Dios

Curtai