My first marathon (Disney World)...
This is a long story. I would apologize for the long thread but I wanted to share.
Just over a little over 5 years ago, I was 340 pounds and 50 years old, and undergoing gastric bypass surgery. My reasons at that time were to get healthy and try to live another year. Never in my wildest dreams did I envision that I would be standing at the starting line on January 12th 2009 for the start of the Disney World Marathon.
Even two years ago when I was goaded into attempting a 5k at the Kelley Logan House did I think I would ever attempt a longer run.
But somehow, reading all the exploits of all the athletes on the Exercise and Fitness Obesity Help board started to play tricks with my mind. The continued nudging and encouragement from my running friend, partner and coach, also got me running longer and better. So last year, after better completing my first half marathon, I knew that I had achieved the ultimate goal and distance for my body. I still don’t really remember why I signed up to participate in the 2009 Disney World Marathon. It might have been the blogs from Mary, Scott or Cassie, or the running stories from our compatriots down in Baltimore and Virginia. It could have been the constant pressure from Susan, my running partner, who had already done two Disney marathons. I have never ever been to Disney or felt a need to go down to Disney. I hate crowds and don’t really like rides. I guess I’m an old fuddy duddy.
So the pressure was on. I started my training with Susan pacing me along the way. We started in earnest in early August. I ran the Virginia Beach Rock n’ Roll on my 55th birthday. We continued training along the Brandywine River in Delaware and Boat House row in Philadelphia. The last big run of 20 miles was done the weekend before Christmas, and then two short 10 and 12 mile runs during the taper. Susan was both my pacer and cheerleaders during all of my training runs. Knowing that she would not be by my side during the marathon was a constant worry.
So my wife (Kerri) and I headed down to Disney World on Thursday January 8th to enjoy a short vacation prior to the marathon. Getting off the plane and getting into the line for the Disney Magical Express was my first realization that this was a big event. The line was long (real long) and it took a while to check in and get to the line for our shuttle to the hotel. The good thing was that we met a bunch of people in line who were marathon veterans and they were just thrilled to share the total experience, give me tips on racing, and Kerri on spectating. From eating to showing up at the corral, there are so many things that you can only learn from people who have been there. We met a really nice web couple who were doing the marathon for eight or ninth time. Another couple from Erie, PA had done over 70 marathon between them. So when we finally got on the shuttle we were feeling invigorated and excited.
The shuttle dropped us off at the Port Orleans – French Quarter. This is where we finally found out how great the Disney folks are taking care of their guests. Our room was great, and there were towel animals scattered all around the room. All right so it appears we would have to act a little like kids. We headed over to the Wide World of Sports to pick up my race packet and to meet Cassie and her husband. When the bus arrived, I was amazed with how many people were there. This is one big event scattered over three days. I picked up my number and chip and headed over to the Expo. I bought a sweat shirt and new 26.2 magnet for my car (just in case I completed the marathon). It was a big expo, and we got real excited by the presenter for the Quebec marathon. My wife definitely wants me to run this one so we can go see Quebec. The other booths were interesting but really crowded. I had no idea how Cassie was going to find us, but she did. It was great to meet her and her husband. I was really happy that she able to run the marathon after having all the problems earlier in the year. She is one of the true success stories of RNY surgery. After dinner it was back on the bus, a quick dip in the pool and hot tub and off to bed.
Friday morning we got up early and headed up to the Grand Floridian for breakfast (our favorite meal of the day). It was wonderful. Our waiter was from Birmingham, England and he took good care of us. My wife had a stuffed crepe and I had eggs and toast. It was great. From there we spent the rest of the morning at the Magic Kingdom. Since there were absolutely no lines, we did much more than we had originally intended. We spent the afternoon at Hollywood Studios. The only line was at the Buzz Lighyear ride, but we endured the line and enjoyed it. We ate dinner at the Sci Fi Dine In theatre. The food was adequate, but the show was entertaining. We didn’t stay for the light show since we decided we would rather get to bed early.
Saturday morning we decided to spend at Epcot. We had a great breakfast at BoatsRight Café. We opened the café and had to ring the bell to announce the opening. My wife had sweet potato pancakes and I had eggs benedicts. The pancakes were phenoms, and we got the recipe to try at home. The bus ride to Epcot was difficult because we did not realize the impact of the crowds at the half marathon. It took us more than an hour to arrive at Epcot, but we did get to see the last couple of thousand runners (walkers) finishing up the half through Epcot. Again there were no lines at Epcot, so we spent much more time doing everything than we had anticipated. Every time we finished a ride, we would go outside and see a steady stream of people plodding to the finish line.
We spent the afternoon at Canada, Britain, and France (lunch) before deciding to head back to the room. The big mistake was planning to have dinner at a place called Flying Fish Café on the Boardwalk. Although the meal was great, it took a long time to catch a couple of shuttle to get over there. But the meal was worth the ride and the wait. I had the WDW marathon pasta meal, and my wife had potato wrapped red snapper. The manager actually gave us a free dessert (I don’t eat dessert) but my wife enjoyed it, because he thought they took to long for our meal to be served. We hadn’t noticed, so we were pleasantly surprised. We met a couple of high school girls who had completed the half that morning, and they gave me some advice on finding available port-a-potties at the starting line. We got back to the room at 9pm, I gathered my running stuff and tried to sleep, but it wasn’t meant to be. I guess I was more anxious than I anticipated. I barely got a wink. The alarm went off at 2:50am. I hopped up and grabbed a quick shower, dressed, gathered up cold gear and headed out to the bus. The first thing I noticed is that unlike the previous mornings, Sunday morning was warm and humid. Very sticky. They filled up the bus and headed out to the Epcot starting area. There was an incredible crowd at the starting area and it was only 3:30am. I walked over to the staging area and waited to see if Scott, Curt, or Cassie would show up. I was disappointed that I never found them but I needed to make sure that I had time to use the facilities. This was my first dramatic moment. After leaving the port-a-potties I proceed over to a fence area where I was applying some suntan lotion (for later) when I realized the top had rolled over the fence and so the lotion bottle was useless. I also realized that my portable micro camera was missing. More on that later. But no pictures with the Disney characters. They started walking us over to the starting corrals from the staging area. A long walk, but I took my last potty break for the day, and proceeded into the Corral H. Corral H is the last corral. The corral for all those who have never officially finished a marathon. The lost corral. I got to the start of the corral and sat down and waited for about an hour for the start. Nice people and conversations helped the time to pass by quickly. So about 5:45am the wheelchair participants took off, 5:50 the elite runners, 6:00am the rest of the marathon 6:10am coral H tookoff. There were fireworks and plenty of spectators even at that hour of the morning. I started off at a good pace, but immediately realized that there were a lot of walkers and had to run on the grass a lot to keep up a decent pace. But the grass in Florida is not very comfortable for running, so I had to keep finding spots on the road to run. The first five miles was basically a loop around Epcot before we proceeded up to the Magic Kingdom. There is one overpass where you can see all the runners ahead of you, and all the runners behind you. It is just amazing. My wife got the first page alert at 5 miles indicating that I would finish in just over five hours. Yeah! The next five miles I still kept a good pace, and actually caught up with the 5’30" Clif pace team around mile 6 or 7. About every mile there were water and Power Ade stations. I decided to take a couple of ounces of Power Ade and wa**** down with water. Just as we entered the Magic Kingdom, around mile 8-9, the crowds got real big, and we basically came to a near standstill as people funneled into the park. I lost track of the pace team at this point, and never did catch up to them again. We raced through the park and through Cinderella’s Castle. It was easy to get caught up in the spectator’s cheering and all the cast members out to greet us. I finally realized that my name was on my number at this point, because everyone kept shouting out my name with encouragement. As we left the park, things started getting hotter. Mile twelve to eighteen were really bad. We were running down toward Animal Kingdom but it was desolate and smelly. I started to develop a problem with my toes and I figured my toenails were goners. At the halfway point I was still at a 5’20" pace. Too fast for this old guy… All the way down I was grabbing Powerade and pouring water down my back to keep cool. I was definitely falling off the pace. The entry to Animal Kingdom at mile 16 gave me some relief with the Disney staff and characters shouting encouragement. I also planned a new strategy of looking for the photographer so I made sure I was running and smiling. When we exited the park I started to use the BioFreeze and they had great ice sponges. After I tossed mine, the woman running next to me told me I should have hung onto it and just poured water on it at the nex****er stop. I said thanks for the late advice since there was no way I was going back to retrieve it. I was surviving this race with Sport Beans and bananas. Mile eighteen to twenty-one were long. There was a long uphill for part or the way, and the rest of the trek to Wide World of Sport was just long and tiring. My feet were really killing me and I really missed my running partner during this stretch. I also really wished that they had more sponges later in the race. I took advantage of the Bio Freeze but since most of my pain was in my feet, I’m not sure how much impact it was having. When I got close to Wide World of Sport, they send you down a road and loop you back and then head you up to Hollywood. I was at a slow pace at this time but still running at a half mile on, 100 yard walk. As I went through Hollywood Studios, I actually envisioned finished this marathon for the first time. Yeah, a bit premature, but you have to dream. The Disney characters and staff, and thousands of spectators were cheering though every stretch of the park. My legs were just plodding along, not really following any of my instructions but I was still having fun. As we left the park, I started to notice a lot of people were off to the side weeping and in pain. I couldn’t imagine being in the last miles and not being able to finish. At mile 23, I realized that all I had left was a 5k. I have run many 5ks in the past two years, so how difficult could this be. My two goals were still in reach. One, finish. Two, finish in under 6 hours. As I entered Epcot through the back entrance of the British exhibit all I could smell were Fish and Chips. This is where everyone kept telling me that I had a half-mile to the finish. I went by China, again a half –mile. Mexico, a half-mile. This is where I wanted to proceed to tell spectators to stop making up how far away it was to the finish line. I tried to call my wife several times to tell her where I was, but couldn’t reach her. So I proceeded to the finish line. She actually got to see me finish the race for the first time. I saw the finish line. Tried to make sure no one was in my way and crossed the line with my hands waved high. Nothing really registered except I finished in 5 hours 57 minutes. I was actually now officially a marathoner! As they cut the chip off my shoe, I proceeded to tell myself that I was a marathoner. I got a phone call from my running partner congratulating me on my finish. I kept walking and got a hug and a medal from a volunteer. Got my picture taken with my medal, and then went to the refreshment tent for the best orange I’ve ever had in my life. I couldn’t believe the number of people laying on the ground. If I layed down on the ground, I would not have been able to get up. I downed some water and then met my wife at the reunion area. It was great. I felt great. We headed back in the bus, and it was amazing to see all the bling everyone was wearing. I should have been tired and sore. I grabbed a quick meal at the hotel. Remember the camera. As I sat on a chair to eat lunch, I felt something on my butt area. I reached into my shorts, and came out with a camera. I guess it had fallen from my fanny pack into my shorts during my first potty break. So now we not only have a one-sock story, but we also have the butt camera story. After lunch, I took a quic**** bath (thanks, Cassie). Actually it was only an ankle ice bath since that was the only pain I could feel. My compressions socks worked great and kept my legs from cramping. But when my wife helped to pull them off, I was surprised that I hadn’t lost any toenails. I did have a massive blood blister on my big toe and a blister on one other toe. Not bad since I expected the worst. After a quick nap, we headed back to Epcot for dinner. We had an early dinner at the Royal Crowne Pub in Britain. I still craved those Fish and Chips so that was my dinner. I was wearing my Mickey medal so everyone was congratulating me along the way. We called it an early night and proceed back to the hotel. I was asleep about five minutes after hitting the bed. Since we had an afternoon flight back to Philly, we decided to hit the Animal Kingdom before leaving Disney. We had breakfast at the Rainforest Café and then did the “It’s Tough to be a Bug". After that we had about thirty minutes to kill, so we walked down to Africa to listen to some good music. I was surprised, when the African dancers pulled me on the stage to dance with them. I should have told them I had just run a marathon and maybe they would have taken pity on me. Well, my wife got a kick out it, and took pictures to share with my kids so I can be embarrassed for years to come. We left Disney and headed to the airport. It was so neat that so many of the passengers were wearing their bling. People were so happy to talk about their runs. It was really neat that so many families do this event. Some do the 5k, some the half, or the marathon. Some crazy people actually do all the events. But when you leave Disney you come back to reality. We got back to the parking lot and found a car with a dead battery. Luckily a nice attendant jumped our car and we got home without too much of a delay. Tuesday morning my legs were sore and my body was tired. But now I AM A MARATHONER. Rob
We spent the afternoon at Canada, Britain, and France (lunch) before deciding to head back to the room. The big mistake was planning to have dinner at a place called Flying Fish Café on the Boardwalk. Although the meal was great, it took a long time to catch a couple of shuttle to get over there. But the meal was worth the ride and the wait. I had the WDW marathon pasta meal, and my wife had potato wrapped red snapper. The manager actually gave us a free dessert (I don’t eat dessert) but my wife enjoyed it, because he thought they took to long for our meal to be served. We hadn’t noticed, so we were pleasantly surprised. We met a couple of high school girls who had completed the half that morning, and they gave me some advice on finding available port-a-potties at the starting line. We got back to the room at 9pm, I gathered my running stuff and tried to sleep, but it wasn’t meant to be. I guess I was more anxious than I anticipated. I barely got a wink. The alarm went off at 2:50am. I hopped up and grabbed a quick shower, dressed, gathered up cold gear and headed out to the bus. The first thing I noticed is that unlike the previous mornings, Sunday morning was warm and humid. Very sticky. They filled up the bus and headed out to the Epcot starting area. There was an incredible crowd at the starting area and it was only 3:30am. I walked over to the staging area and waited to see if Scott, Curt, or Cassie would show up. I was disappointed that I never found them but I needed to make sure that I had time to use the facilities. This was my first dramatic moment. After leaving the port-a-potties I proceed over to a fence area where I was applying some suntan lotion (for later) when I realized the top had rolled over the fence and so the lotion bottle was useless. I also realized that my portable micro camera was missing. More on that later. But no pictures with the Disney characters. They started walking us over to the starting corrals from the staging area. A long walk, but I took my last potty break for the day, and proceeded into the Corral H. Corral H is the last corral. The corral for all those who have never officially finished a marathon. The lost corral. I got to the start of the corral and sat down and waited for about an hour for the start. Nice people and conversations helped the time to pass by quickly. So about 5:45am the wheelchair participants took off, 5:50 the elite runners, 6:00am the rest of the marathon 6:10am coral H tookoff. There were fireworks and plenty of spectators even at that hour of the morning. I started off at a good pace, but immediately realized that there were a lot of walkers and had to run on the grass a lot to keep up a decent pace. But the grass in Florida is not very comfortable for running, so I had to keep finding spots on the road to run. The first five miles was basically a loop around Epcot before we proceeded up to the Magic Kingdom. There is one overpass where you can see all the runners ahead of you, and all the runners behind you. It is just amazing. My wife got the first page alert at 5 miles indicating that I would finish in just over five hours. Yeah! The next five miles I still kept a good pace, and actually caught up with the 5’30" Clif pace team around mile 6 or 7. About every mile there were water and Power Ade stations. I decided to take a couple of ounces of Power Ade and wa**** down with water. Just as we entered the Magic Kingdom, around mile 8-9, the crowds got real big, and we basically came to a near standstill as people funneled into the park. I lost track of the pace team at this point, and never did catch up to them again. We raced through the park and through Cinderella’s Castle. It was easy to get caught up in the spectator’s cheering and all the cast members out to greet us. I finally realized that my name was on my number at this point, because everyone kept shouting out my name with encouragement. As we left the park, things started getting hotter. Mile twelve to eighteen were really bad. We were running down toward Animal Kingdom but it was desolate and smelly. I started to develop a problem with my toes and I figured my toenails were goners. At the halfway point I was still at a 5’20" pace. Too fast for this old guy… All the way down I was grabbing Powerade and pouring water down my back to keep cool. I was definitely falling off the pace. The entry to Animal Kingdom at mile 16 gave me some relief with the Disney staff and characters shouting encouragement. I also planned a new strategy of looking for the photographer so I made sure I was running and smiling. When we exited the park I started to use the BioFreeze and they had great ice sponges. After I tossed mine, the woman running next to me told me I should have hung onto it and just poured water on it at the nex****er stop. I said thanks for the late advice since there was no way I was going back to retrieve it. I was surviving this race with Sport Beans and bananas. Mile eighteen to twenty-one were long. There was a long uphill for part or the way, and the rest of the trek to Wide World of Sport was just long and tiring. My feet were really killing me and I really missed my running partner during this stretch. I also really wished that they had more sponges later in the race. I took advantage of the Bio Freeze but since most of my pain was in my feet, I’m not sure how much impact it was having. When I got close to Wide World of Sport, they send you down a road and loop you back and then head you up to Hollywood. I was at a slow pace at this time but still running at a half mile on, 100 yard walk. As I went through Hollywood Studios, I actually envisioned finished this marathon for the first time. Yeah, a bit premature, but you have to dream. The Disney characters and staff, and thousands of spectators were cheering though every stretch of the park. My legs were just plodding along, not really following any of my instructions but I was still having fun. As we left the park, I started to notice a lot of people were off to the side weeping and in pain. I couldn’t imagine being in the last miles and not being able to finish. At mile 23, I realized that all I had left was a 5k. I have run many 5ks in the past two years, so how difficult could this be. My two goals were still in reach. One, finish. Two, finish in under 6 hours. As I entered Epcot through the back entrance of the British exhibit all I could smell were Fish and Chips. This is where everyone kept telling me that I had a half-mile to the finish. I went by China, again a half –mile. Mexico, a half-mile. This is where I wanted to proceed to tell spectators to stop making up how far away it was to the finish line. I tried to call my wife several times to tell her where I was, but couldn’t reach her. So I proceeded to the finish line. She actually got to see me finish the race for the first time. I saw the finish line. Tried to make sure no one was in my way and crossed the line with my hands waved high. Nothing really registered except I finished in 5 hours 57 minutes. I was actually now officially a marathoner! As they cut the chip off my shoe, I proceeded to tell myself that I was a marathoner. I got a phone call from my running partner congratulating me on my finish. I kept walking and got a hug and a medal from a volunteer. Got my picture taken with my medal, and then went to the refreshment tent for the best orange I’ve ever had in my life. I couldn’t believe the number of people laying on the ground. If I layed down on the ground, I would not have been able to get up. I downed some water and then met my wife at the reunion area. It was great. I felt great. We headed back in the bus, and it was amazing to see all the bling everyone was wearing. I should have been tired and sore. I grabbed a quick meal at the hotel. Remember the camera. As I sat on a chair to eat lunch, I felt something on my butt area. I reached into my shorts, and came out with a camera. I guess it had fallen from my fanny pack into my shorts during my first potty break. So now we not only have a one-sock story, but we also have the butt camera story. After lunch, I took a quic**** bath (thanks, Cassie). Actually it was only an ankle ice bath since that was the only pain I could feel. My compressions socks worked great and kept my legs from cramping. But when my wife helped to pull them off, I was surprised that I hadn’t lost any toenails. I did have a massive blood blister on my big toe and a blister on one other toe. Not bad since I expected the worst. After a quick nap, we headed back to Epcot for dinner. We had an early dinner at the Royal Crowne Pub in Britain. I still craved those Fish and Chips so that was my dinner. I was wearing my Mickey medal so everyone was congratulating me along the way. We called it an early night and proceed back to the hotel. I was asleep about five minutes after hitting the bed. Since we had an afternoon flight back to Philly, we decided to hit the Animal Kingdom before leaving Disney. We had breakfast at the Rainforest Café and then did the “It’s Tough to be a Bug". After that we had about thirty minutes to kill, so we walked down to Africa to listen to some good music. I was surprised, when the African dancers pulled me on the stage to dance with them. I should have told them I had just run a marathon and maybe they would have taken pity on me. Well, my wife got a kick out it, and took pictures to share with my kids so I can be embarrassed for years to come. We left Disney and headed to the airport. It was so neat that so many of the passengers were wearing their bling. People were so happy to talk about their runs. It was really neat that so many families do this event. Some do the 5k, some the half, or the marathon. Some crazy people actually do all the events. But when you leave Disney you come back to reality. We got back to the parking lot and found a car with a dead battery. Luckily a nice attendant jumped our car and we got home without too much of a delay. Tuesday morning my legs were sore and my body was tired. But now I AM A MARATHONER. Rob
Congratulations! I really enjoyed your report, as always. 
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