chimera
01-15-2006, 02:28 AM
Thursday, Jan 5, 2006.
Arrived at ASSports around 9pm to check-in. We’d added the night late in the game and BCV was booked. Never stayed there before and was pleasantly surprised as ASMusic was not a good experience for us. It was cool seeing all the race people checking in and amazing to see so many people out for a morning jog on Fri as I walked down the football field to the food court.
Friday, Jan 6, 2006.
Up and out for checkout then off to the marathon Expo to pickup my and DD13’s race numbers. The Expo was pretty cool...got my official half Tshirt, timing chip (more about that later) and bought a Tshirt that said “I did it!”. It was neat being one of the ‘athletes’ as we went inside the Milk House at WWOS. I haven’t played organized sports since high school basketball and I’ve NEVER been a runner, so this was all kinda mind-boggling.
Left the Expo to go check-in at BCV. It was about 11am, so our studio wasn’t ready yet. They gave us a card with a number to call to check on our room and we were off to MK for lunch. The park was a bit more crowded than I expected, but not awful. We ate lunch at the NoodleStation in Tomorrowland for the first time. DH didn’t like his chicken salad, but I thought my beef and broccoli very good. Portions are pretty large too. Both DD’s had the mac n cheese kids meals.
After lunch, we rode the WEDway twice. It’s the best roller coaster for 2 year olds in the parks! A bit disappointing though as Buzz is being refurbished and that’s her favorite part of the ride. Off to Adventureland for the flying carpets. We kept calling about the room, but no luck. Around 1:30, decided to leave as I didn’t want to walk too much and had a 4:00 dinner with the WISH team to prepare for.
Arrived at BCV with DD2 asleep in the car at about 2pm. I went to check-in to see if our room could be switched to one that was available because we really wanted to get her in for a nap, change clothes and get over to Trail’s End for dinner. I got the speech from the CM about how it’s in our contract that rooms don’t have to be available until 4pm, etc, etc. I’m like, yeah, I know...so is our room ready? Or can you give us one that is? Miraculously, our room became ready...just like magic. Got in, unloaded the car and got changed for Trail’s End. Because it was already late, went straight to Fort Wilderness.
The Trails End manager was less than happy to see so many of us. We had ressies for 90 and were expecting about 81. We’d made the ressies through WDW dine 90 days in advance, so I can’t imagine that they weren’t aware of the number of guests they’d have. I had a ressie for 30, then others had made ressies for 10 each. We booked the earliest times available so as not to interfere with dinner rush and told them we didn’t expect to eat together so that they could seat us in the easiest manner possible. We ended up in groups of 10ish scattered throughout the restaurant. There were still empty tables available after our groups were seated. In spite of the hassle, it was a nice time getting to know everyone we’d been training with online for a year.
Back to BCV to settle in for the night. I was planning to be on the bus by 3:30am for the half, so wanted to get to sleep by 9pm. We had a good view of Illuminations from our balcony, so I didn’t actually settle in until about 9:30.
Saturday Jan 7--Race Day!
At 12:30am, I was awake....and awake...and still awake. I finally decided to get up at 2:30 and try to catch the 3:00am bus instead since I couldn’t sleep. I cancelled the wakeup call, turned off the alarm clock and the alarm on my watch. One of my biggest fears was oversleeping and not getting to the race at all!
Got ready and went down to the gift shop to buy a disposable camera as our digital is too big to carry in my waist pack that I use for the race. Met some teammates as we waited for the bus. I’d missed the first bus, so we were hanging around waiting for the next...which didn’t come until about 3:40. All of our race materials say you have to be on the bus by 4am or they can’t guarantee you’ll get to the race on time, so I was getting antsy. Finally got to the EPCOT parking lot for the race and got off the bus! One of my teammates turned to me and said, Oh we noticed you don’t have your timing chip on your shoe! OHMIGOD...that’s because it was back in my room! I’d laid everything out so carefully the night before and forgot one of the most important things.
I got back on the bus and headed back for BCV by way of Swan and Dolphin first. I was on my cell to poor DH, who’d finally gotten to sleep when I’d left. He tossed my luggage and found the chip, got dressed, woke up DD13 and told her he was leaving, then ran downstairs to meet the bus so I didn’t have to get off and lose my seat. They were dreadfully unorganized at the bus stops. They were holding buses at Swan and Dolphin when there was no one there to board and letting folks pile up at BC. Unfortunately, the buses were picking up at YC, but the marathon sign was at BC and the CMs seemed kinda clueless about the whole situation.
Well, after all that, I made it back on time to start the race. I made my two potty breaks in portapotties that were already out of TP. Got into the corrals with 16,000 of my closest friends to await the 6am start. It was 44 degrees, but I’d prepared for the forecast 35, so I was feeling positively toasty. I even gave a sweatshirt to a lady from CT who was freezing to death on the walk to the corrals. About 5:50, I took off my sweatpants and added them to the throwaway pile along the course. Volunteers collect the clothes we tossed, cleaned them and donated them to charity. I still had my race tights, a sweatshirt, 2 long-sleeved shirts, my team tshirt, gloves, hat, headband and 2 scarves. Florida girls do NOT do cold weather well!
At 6am, the fireworks kicked off the race and we were off. I was in one of the middle corrals and with so many people, it took about 12 minutes before I actually crossed the start line. It was really crowded and hard to pass people in some of the narrower sections of the course. It took a couple miles to settle in...had to toss one scarf early because it kept falling off. We left the EPCOT parking lot start and headed onto WDW. It was still dark, so I’m not sure of our route, but as the sun came up, we were on our way to the underpass that runs by CR. There were marching bands and fans along the course cheering us on, but nothing compares to running into the ‘backdoor’ near the CR and coming out on Main Street. That was the first time I saw Carrie, but I didn’t realize it was her. I’ve only seen one photo and that was with longer hair.
We went down Main Street, then into Tomorrowland and wound our way through Cinderella’s castle. Then to Frontierland and out the ‘backdoor’ where I got some photos of empty floats from the 3pm parade. The Incredibles and Stitch were in Tomorrowland for photo ops for anyone willing to stop, but I wasn’t confident enough in my time to stop.
Out of MK and down Floridian way, past GF. It was cool to be almost halfway done by that point! I started feeling really tired between miles 8 and 9, so slowed my pace down. I finally started feeling better about my pace when we went over one of the overpasses. I could see back to MK and there were people as far as the eye could see...literally thousands were behind me! One of the coolest parts was coming up the overpass and seeing the SE there in the distance...that was about mile 11. Almost there! We came in a backdoor of EPCOT and I teared up a little when the CM said “Welcome back to EPCOT”. We came into FW, then down the main concourse and turned around at WS. The CMs along the route were great and very encouraging. There was some point where I saw Carrie again and finally realized it was her! Back out of EPCOT where they had a gospel choir in golden robes then onto the finish. My finish time was 3:09:20...I’d hoped to get in under 3 hours, but the potty break and fatigue got to me.
Sunday Jan 8--Full Marathon Race Day
BC just happened to be about mile 24.5 of the full marathon as the runners came back to EPCOT near the Int'l Gateway. Stood outside for a couple hours cheering them on. Having only done half the distance, I can certainly appreciate those doing 26.2 miles. It was a lot of fun and a little weird when some of them congratulated me on finishing the half. Had to head home later that afternoon and back to the real world. :yuck:
So that’s the story of my very first distance event! I’ve never been a runner, since I walked more than ran, I still don’t feel like a runner, but I think I’ve released my ‘inner athlete’. I’m already signed up for 2007...who wants to join me?
Arrived at ASSports around 9pm to check-in. We’d added the night late in the game and BCV was booked. Never stayed there before and was pleasantly surprised as ASMusic was not a good experience for us. It was cool seeing all the race people checking in and amazing to see so many people out for a morning jog on Fri as I walked down the football field to the food court.
Friday, Jan 6, 2006.
Up and out for checkout then off to the marathon Expo to pickup my and DD13’s race numbers. The Expo was pretty cool...got my official half Tshirt, timing chip (more about that later) and bought a Tshirt that said “I did it!”. It was neat being one of the ‘athletes’ as we went inside the Milk House at WWOS. I haven’t played organized sports since high school basketball and I’ve NEVER been a runner, so this was all kinda mind-boggling.
Left the Expo to go check-in at BCV. It was about 11am, so our studio wasn’t ready yet. They gave us a card with a number to call to check on our room and we were off to MK for lunch. The park was a bit more crowded than I expected, but not awful. We ate lunch at the NoodleStation in Tomorrowland for the first time. DH didn’t like his chicken salad, but I thought my beef and broccoli very good. Portions are pretty large too. Both DD’s had the mac n cheese kids meals.
After lunch, we rode the WEDway twice. It’s the best roller coaster for 2 year olds in the parks! A bit disappointing though as Buzz is being refurbished and that’s her favorite part of the ride. Off to Adventureland for the flying carpets. We kept calling about the room, but no luck. Around 1:30, decided to leave as I didn’t want to walk too much and had a 4:00 dinner with the WISH team to prepare for.
Arrived at BCV with DD2 asleep in the car at about 2pm. I went to check-in to see if our room could be switched to one that was available because we really wanted to get her in for a nap, change clothes and get over to Trail’s End for dinner. I got the speech from the CM about how it’s in our contract that rooms don’t have to be available until 4pm, etc, etc. I’m like, yeah, I know...so is our room ready? Or can you give us one that is? Miraculously, our room became ready...just like magic. Got in, unloaded the car and got changed for Trail’s End. Because it was already late, went straight to Fort Wilderness.
The Trails End manager was less than happy to see so many of us. We had ressies for 90 and were expecting about 81. We’d made the ressies through WDW dine 90 days in advance, so I can’t imagine that they weren’t aware of the number of guests they’d have. I had a ressie for 30, then others had made ressies for 10 each. We booked the earliest times available so as not to interfere with dinner rush and told them we didn’t expect to eat together so that they could seat us in the easiest manner possible. We ended up in groups of 10ish scattered throughout the restaurant. There were still empty tables available after our groups were seated. In spite of the hassle, it was a nice time getting to know everyone we’d been training with online for a year.
Back to BCV to settle in for the night. I was planning to be on the bus by 3:30am for the half, so wanted to get to sleep by 9pm. We had a good view of Illuminations from our balcony, so I didn’t actually settle in until about 9:30.
Saturday Jan 7--Race Day!
At 12:30am, I was awake....and awake...and still awake. I finally decided to get up at 2:30 and try to catch the 3:00am bus instead since I couldn’t sleep. I cancelled the wakeup call, turned off the alarm clock and the alarm on my watch. One of my biggest fears was oversleeping and not getting to the race at all!
Got ready and went down to the gift shop to buy a disposable camera as our digital is too big to carry in my waist pack that I use for the race. Met some teammates as we waited for the bus. I’d missed the first bus, so we were hanging around waiting for the next...which didn’t come until about 3:40. All of our race materials say you have to be on the bus by 4am or they can’t guarantee you’ll get to the race on time, so I was getting antsy. Finally got to the EPCOT parking lot for the race and got off the bus! One of my teammates turned to me and said, Oh we noticed you don’t have your timing chip on your shoe! OHMIGOD...that’s because it was back in my room! I’d laid everything out so carefully the night before and forgot one of the most important things.
I got back on the bus and headed back for BCV by way of Swan and Dolphin first. I was on my cell to poor DH, who’d finally gotten to sleep when I’d left. He tossed my luggage and found the chip, got dressed, woke up DD13 and told her he was leaving, then ran downstairs to meet the bus so I didn’t have to get off and lose my seat. They were dreadfully unorganized at the bus stops. They were holding buses at Swan and Dolphin when there was no one there to board and letting folks pile up at BC. Unfortunately, the buses were picking up at YC, but the marathon sign was at BC and the CMs seemed kinda clueless about the whole situation.
Well, after all that, I made it back on time to start the race. I made my two potty breaks in portapotties that were already out of TP. Got into the corrals with 16,000 of my closest friends to await the 6am start. It was 44 degrees, but I’d prepared for the forecast 35, so I was feeling positively toasty. I even gave a sweatshirt to a lady from CT who was freezing to death on the walk to the corrals. About 5:50, I took off my sweatpants and added them to the throwaway pile along the course. Volunteers collect the clothes we tossed, cleaned them and donated them to charity. I still had my race tights, a sweatshirt, 2 long-sleeved shirts, my team tshirt, gloves, hat, headband and 2 scarves. Florida girls do NOT do cold weather well!
At 6am, the fireworks kicked off the race and we were off. I was in one of the middle corrals and with so many people, it took about 12 minutes before I actually crossed the start line. It was really crowded and hard to pass people in some of the narrower sections of the course. It took a couple miles to settle in...had to toss one scarf early because it kept falling off. We left the EPCOT parking lot start and headed onto WDW. It was still dark, so I’m not sure of our route, but as the sun came up, we were on our way to the underpass that runs by CR. There were marching bands and fans along the course cheering us on, but nothing compares to running into the ‘backdoor’ near the CR and coming out on Main Street. That was the first time I saw Carrie, but I didn’t realize it was her. I’ve only seen one photo and that was with longer hair.
We went down Main Street, then into Tomorrowland and wound our way through Cinderella’s castle. Then to Frontierland and out the ‘backdoor’ where I got some photos of empty floats from the 3pm parade. The Incredibles and Stitch were in Tomorrowland for photo ops for anyone willing to stop, but I wasn’t confident enough in my time to stop.
Out of MK and down Floridian way, past GF. It was cool to be almost halfway done by that point! I started feeling really tired between miles 8 and 9, so slowed my pace down. I finally started feeling better about my pace when we went over one of the overpasses. I could see back to MK and there were people as far as the eye could see...literally thousands were behind me! One of the coolest parts was coming up the overpass and seeing the SE there in the distance...that was about mile 11. Almost there! We came in a backdoor of EPCOT and I teared up a little when the CM said “Welcome back to EPCOT”. We came into FW, then down the main concourse and turned around at WS. The CMs along the route were great and very encouraging. There was some point where I saw Carrie again and finally realized it was her! Back out of EPCOT where they had a gospel choir in golden robes then onto the finish. My finish time was 3:09:20...I’d hoped to get in under 3 hours, but the potty break and fatigue got to me.
Sunday Jan 8--Full Marathon Race Day
BC just happened to be about mile 24.5 of the full marathon as the runners came back to EPCOT near the Int'l Gateway. Stood outside for a couple hours cheering them on. Having only done half the distance, I can certainly appreciate those doing 26.2 miles. It was a lot of fun and a little weird when some of them congratulated me on finishing the half. Had to head home later that afternoon and back to the real world. :yuck:
So that’s the story of my very first distance event! I’ve never been a runner, since I walked more than ran, I still don’t feel like a runner, but I think I’ve released my ‘inner athlete’. I’m already signed up for 2007...who wants to join me?