Disney - The Day After

I'm walking absolutely fine now, but it wasn't so pretty the day of and day after Disney. The family units who have never seen me after a marathon were momentarily alarmed, and did not exactly buy my explanation that this was completely "normal", to wit:

I still need to post about the 2nd half of Disney, but I couldn't resist this little snippet.

Disney - The 1st Half

When I hit the half-mary mats at 1:58 and change, I wasn’t sure which emotion would take over. There was relief that less miles lay ahead than were already behind me. Unfortunately, there was disbelief that it had taken this much gas out of my tank to get this far.

It all started as well as well can be:

04:10 Left hotel
04:35 Pull into EPCOT parking spot, barely 100 yards from finish area
05:00 Leave car and walk to finish area
05:05 Marvel at people buying hot dogs from concessions, must still be carbo loading
05:10 Realize it’s a FINISH area, not a START area – ah so
05:30 Complete ½ mile walk to the START area
05:35 Wander into Corral A – stake position at back-most spot
05:40 Visit edge of tropical forest for 1-1 nature time
05:41 Wander back into Corral A
05:45 Speedoman enters corral – boo hiss eeww
05:50 Obligatory speeches begin
05:58 Barriers between corrals are removed, crowd surges forward
05:59 Fireworks overhead
06:00 GO!

When the crowd surged forward, the 4:00 pace group from Corral B moved up and I pretty much started with them. The first 6 miles were uneventful, running in the dark, a loop around EPCOT, just keeping up. The pace seemed fast, and Garmin said I was averaging 8:50's instead of 9:09. I was also drenched immediately from the humidity. A storm passed through the previous night, and it was still foggy and misty. I'm not sure when this pic was taken, but can you see my clothes sticking to me? Good thing I remembered nip guards!

The next 6 miles took me towards and through the Magic Kingdom. The pace team was still in sight, but creeping further and further ahead. We pretty much ran through all the major areas, Main Street USA, Tomorrowland, Fantasyland, Adventureland, and Frontierland. The highlight of course is the signature run through Cinderella's Castle. Disney cast characters were everywhere, and several people stopped to take their pictures with them - must not be trying to PR. If you really want to mess with some runners, next time stop and do a little shopping in the gift shops along the way - that will psych them out!

Once we left Frontierland, I knew I was in for a lonely 5 mile stretch of highway to the Animal Kingdom. It was approaching 2 hours and my 3rd GU. From this point on, it would be a GU-fest every 30 mins.

It was also along this stretch that I hit the half-mary mats. I was lost in my relief vs. disbelief debate with myself, trying to muscle down that 3rd GU pack, when someone pulled in behind me and to the right, and said "how're you doing?". A bit startled, but too tired to react instantly, I must've turned my head in slow motion and lo and behold it was David grinning from ear to ear! I wasn't expecting him, but it sure was good to see him. That's how I felt, but not what I said - I barely mustered 10 words total - pretty sure "tired", "tough", and "hard" were in there somewhere! David said something about see you at the end or something, and then he was off.

2:00 and change in the bag, still on pace, but I could sense trouble lay ahead. All the parts were still working, although the engine was beginning to lose power. One thing I knew I absolutely positively did not want to do, above all else, was ... walk. That, was a mighty battle. Next time up, the 2nd half.

That Was No Mickey Mouse Run

4:17:23 was not exactly what I had in mind, but I'll look at every finish as a gift not to be rejected. For the record, here are the splits according to Garmin. I'll post a report later, but if anyone knows how I picked up an extra 0.4 miles, please let me know!

Mile 1: 9:18
Mile 2: 9:02
Mile 3: 8:37
Mile 4: 8:38
Mile 5: 8:40
Mile 6: 8:50
Mile 7: 8:42
Mile 8: 8:50
Mile 9: 8:55
Mile 10: 8:55
Mile 11: 9:05
Mile 12: 9:02
Mile 13: 9:21
Mile 14: 9:30
Mile 15: 9:33
Mile 16: 9:20
Mile 17: 9:44
Mile 18: 10:02
Mile 19: 10:30
Mile 20: 11:07
Mile 21: 11:06
Mile 22: 11:06
Mile 23: 11:39
Mile 24: 11:08
Mile 25: 10:59
Mile 26: 10:12
Mile 26.6: 5:28

It's Disney Time

It’s the night before Disney. Got a ton of sleep last night, getting up close to 10 am. It was a beautiful Central Florida morning outside, and b-i-l R. took me on a tour of their lake. R said he’s hardly seen 4 or 5 gators in the year or so they’ve been on this lake, and I was glad we didn’t see #6. I’m a runner, not a swimmer.

After lunch, I met up with David at the Orlando Ale House. It was good to catch up since our last meetup at MCM 2006. David brought son C., a sophomore in college here in town - intelligent, articulate, engaging – good thing for Mrs. T’s genes!

From there we headed over to Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex for the marathon expo. We missed the crowds and waltzed right on in to registration. Got my bib and chip in 10 mins; #1565, Corral A. Hmm, A? That’s does. not. sound. right.

I head over to David and Mr. Big-Man-Around-Town introduces me to B., who along with her husband founded and owns Track Shack here in town, and is also the race director for Disney! I told her my goal time and asked her about my corral placing. She confirmed that 4:00 is beyond the first corral, and that I lucked out to get in there (which I’m not yet sure is a good thing). She also said there would be 4000 runners in the corral, and I mentally pictured 3999 runners quickly emptying the chute in front of me, disappearing fast into the distance!

We cruised the expo for a while and then headed out around 5:00. On the way to the parking lot, Mr. Connected introduces me to D., who is the race chaplain and will also be manning the mile 22 food stop.

I checked into my hotel near Disney, and turned right around to head out for dinner. Randomly picking out Chilli's, I bump into D. again standing outside the restaurant, which I take as a sign that someone's watching over me, or is it that someone thinks I need a lot of help? If I do, it sure isn't in the food department. That Caesar's salad and Cajun Chicken Pasta didn't last long before I demolished it. Disney, here I come!

Jinx

Ever since I hit "publish" on my last post, I feel like I've swallowed a frog and it's stuck in my throat. No amount of hacking or ahem-ing has shoo-ed it away, but I've been feeding it Airborne like there's no tomorrow. The jinx is on.

I'm slowly making my way to Orlando. Detour via Washington DC. With an unexpected hour to kill before a carbo loading dinner here, I ran 2 miles from Dupont Circle to the White House and 2 miles back. Last run before race day. It was easy peasy. There's the jinx again. I laugh in the face of danger. HA HA HA HA HA!

23 down, 1 to go

July 31st, 2007 was the first step of my first run for marathon training. 23 weeks and 1 marathon later, I'm finally staring at the end goal. Disney, you've been a loooonng time coming.

The last 5 weeks since Memphis have been relatively easy running. I hope I'm not jinxing myself by saying I've exceeded almost all the goal paces for all my runs, whereas that was always a struggle leading up to Memphis. I feel physically strong, but mentally my mind's been drifting - just so many runs and so many miles to cover ...

I was back at work last Wednesday. Ugh. On the bright side, my incomprehensible cross country trip to Seattle next week ... CANCELLED! However, I now have to be in Washington DC, so I'll fly in Wednesday night for that, and leave Thursday directly to Orlando. I'll work remotely from Orlando on Friday, expo on Saturday, race on Sunday, and fly home.

After Disney, I'll post my New Year running resolutions. There's a chance it may include something about wanting to wake up in the city that never sleeps ...

Seasons Change

The house is quiet now. All the little creatures are back in their rooms fast asleep. The Wii (courtesy of Secret Santa) and Nintendo DS (that's as far as their old man would go) are finally shut off. Dear old Daisy wandered out a moment ago and found a spot under the Christmas tree, to keep me company late into the night.

With age and progress, gone are the days spent assembling a bike or two, building something new out of Lego, or opening up packages of Barbies and Polly Pockets each with 75 minuscule accessories. Instead, you just plug it in, switch it on, and turn it up. As I write this, there are chargers galore going full tilt all over the house, prepping for tomorrow's onslaught. Bah Humbug!

Yet even while I wax nostalgic, one of those charges is for, um, me. My old school $24.95 Timex Ironman watch with it's resin strap will still work for every occasion no matter what the dress code is, but S. got me this for my running. I took it out for a spin today, and it's a keeper. The 5-mile loop around the neighborhood that I marked out using my car's odometer ... Garmin measured it down to the last crack in the sidewalk marking the end of my route ... exactly 5:00 miles. I'm hooked.

Merry Christmas everyone, and Happy New Year!

27F Perfect

Sunday morning. 7:45am. 27F. No wind. Feels like 27F. Sunrise. 12 miles. 1:59:23. Feels good to be alive.

The first pic is looking out our bedroom window just before my run. The second pic is a mile and a half away where the fancy homes begin; we live back amongst the cheap seats.

Life In The B.D. Lane - Surely Make You Lose Your Mind

As in "Before Disney".

I'm not sure what my goals are for Disney anymore. I don't need to PR, but it would be nice to not exceed my worst time (what's the opposite of PR?). I've got a beat on a new plan to boost my running hopefully, which will be revealed in due course, but I gotta get beyond Disney first.

In the meantime, just supposing you had to travel from Dallas to Orlando for a marathon, and wanted to give yourself ample time to get there, get situated, get expo'd, get RBF'd, get coffee, get sleep, and wake up for a 6:00 AM start (what the?), what's the quickest route to get there?

Answer? You make your flight reservations months in advance to fly in Thursday, rest up Friday and Saturday, and race Sunday, right?

WRONG!

The right answer - you get scheduled for a meeting all the way over in f***ing SEATTLE from 3-5PM PST on f***ing FRIDAY so you can take the f***ing RED-EYE to Miami and hop over to Orlando by f***ing lunchtime Saturday!

I gotta stop taking speech therapy from Bex.

Going With Plan B

I was layered and bundled from head to toe when I stepped outside this morning at 5:50am. I had an 8-miler to make up from last weekend. Immediately, I felt a bone chilling cold descend on me. Decision time.

Do it now, get it over with, stay on course with my training plan, and come back a frozen tuna. Or ...

Wait till later in the day, maybe it'll warm up a touch. OK, I did, and it didn't. Worse, it started drizzling a slow mist all day.

At 6:00pm, I drove over to the new rec center, literally across the street from me, and signed up. Hello, dreadmill, I thought I saw the last of ye.