Up until this point I had not worn my fitletic belt for any of the races. There was plenty of water and my sparkle skirts provided plenty of pocket space for the things I might need. I was debating if I wanted it for the marathon or not. The weather forecast was hot and humid. In the end I decided to bring my belt. I only carried one bottle on it, but it gave me the extra space for snacks, and muscle rub cream. Plus I could keep my spare phone charger in the pocket as I know the phone won't make a full marathon on one charge if I am using it to take pictures.
So I got up and got dressed and ready to go.
Today was Team Shenanigans Day. No costume for the full marathon
Yes it is mirror image but my shirt says I am not fast. #TeamShenanigans. Baymax and I have a lot in common.
Once I was dressed and ready to go I hopped on Facebook and had my first of many breakdowns of the day. Marine Corps and New York were starting to haunt me. I was definitely questioning if I could do this and if I had it in me to run this marathon. I'd been working towards this goal for 3 years and that fact suddenly hit me.
I packed up my gear and headed out to the car for the final drive to the corrals. I made it in plenty of time and for the first time in 4 days I got parking closer to the runners entrance. (I had been losing the parking lottery all week getting to park at clost to the furthest end of the row each time I got to a park)
With my belt, I did have to go through the bag check line today, but it wasn't long at all. Either I was early or they were more efficient for the full than they had been for the half the day before.
Walking into the the runners area I ran into Jay again. It was good to see him.
Jay had Race Retreat so when we got to that split point I left him to head toward the T-Z flag again to meet up with Team Shenanigans.
As I was walking in, I had my second break down of the morning. I couldn't completely believe how emotional I was. But here I was walking through the runners village choked up and crying.
I found the TZ flag and set up my seat on the trash bag I brought with me.
I made it to the Mickey Miler meet up and then found my way to meet up with my friends from the Houston Galloway Program
When I made it back to T-Z flag Jennifer was there waiting on Bill but the rest of the crew had headed to the corral.
We started that way. I was curious how long of a walk it was to the corral so decided to turn on my GPS. This was a mistake I would regret later. If you want to know it is 1 mile
It is more of a slow shuffle to the corral so be sure to give yourself plenty of time to get out there.
And if you want to do this yourself try it on a half marathon day not a full marathon day. Your Garmin battery will thank you for it.
Walking to the corrals I had another breakdown at some point. I was really doubting myself at this point. I needed a good marathon. My knee was feeling a little achy. I had no strategy for the race. And was convinced I was going to get swept and would not get that Mickey, Goofy and Dopey medal. I was a mess. But looking at the corral pictures I hid it pretty well. :)
The fireworks started and so did my 4th breakdown of the morning.
As much fun as I had with my friends from Team Shenanigans the day before on the half I knew it would not be wise for me to try to do the full with them today. They are faster than I am and I was afraid I would go out too fast and burn out in the end. The extreme challenge that was Marine Corps Marathon was making me doubt my abilities and my training. Fortunately Jennifer dropped back a corral to start in I with the rest of us and she and Bill were running their first marathon. They were planning to run a 30:30 pace and I decided to start off with them.
It turned out to be the best decision I could have made.
Today there will be much less Shenanigans from me today on the full marathon. It was time to get serious and just get this done.
So finally Corral I started and we were off.
The first part of the marathon course feels like deja vu from the half marathon the day before. You follow the exact same course all the way to the Magic Kingdom with the same stops and the same music.
We passed the stilt guys again and again Pumpin' up the Party was playing. And then it repeated again. I think I would lose my mind if I was a stilt guy and had to listen to Pumpin' up the Party on a continuous loop for 2 days.
So the Dopey Challenge is 48.6 miles. 5k (3.1 miles), 10k (6.2 miles), Half marathon (13.1 miles) and the full marathon (26.2 miles). So when you start day 3 you are 1.9 miles short of halfway. So when you get to mile marker 2 you can finally celebrate being more than halfway there.
'
As you can see the Balloon was out again.
And then we entered the Magic Kingdom Parking Lot again
The did add one character stop in this section. Chicken Little was out. Then you had Wreck it Ralph and when we passed instead of Oogie Boogie was Jack Skeleton and Sally. We didn't stop for any of the characters. We were just trying to keep a steady pace. It was hard to do at times due to the crowds but we were plugging along.
The miles kinda blend together some through here.
Around mile 5 as we approached the Magic Kingdom and Space Mountain, I saw a fellow GT Yellow Jacket, but I lost him in the crowd before I got up close enough to yell. So GO JACKETS!
Bill had dropped back at the TTC to find a restroom and fortunately caught back up with us right before we got to Main Street
And now you get an example of my tremendous race time photography. Note - you have to actually stop moving if you want a picture that isn't blurry and you need to clean the sweat off the lens if you don't want all your pictures to be foggy.
Entering Main Street and the Christmas Tree is still up.
Running down Main Street
Jennifer on Main St with the Castle
Jennifer, Bill and I in front of the Castle in the central Hub
Jennifer and Bill
Me.
We ran through Tomorrowland.
As we exited Tomorrowland the course changed for the first time from the half marathon course. At the Tea Cups instead of heading around it and straight to the castle, we turned right running towards Storybook Circus
And then the course turned into New Fantasyland. It was lots of fun running through New Fantasyland. There were several new characters out and it's just such a neat place to look at.
We ran past Gaston's and then back to the Castle. And in a stark contrast to the day before the, Castle crowd was actually moving. I was so excited I was actually able to run through the castle for the first time ever. It wasn't the claustrophobic nightmare it had been.
Being able to actually run through the Castle gave me a huge boost of energy.
We left the Central Hub towards adventureland. Again there was a small change from the half marathon course. We made a slight loop down to Big Thunder Mountain before leaving the park through the exit by Splash Mountain.
Today they had the dragon float out
I had to take a minute to sip some water in the splash mountain log (or well maybe just next to it)
Speaking of water. Disney really stepped up their game on water today. With the projected temps getting to the low 80's and the high humidity at the start they added several water stops. There was water at least every mile. When we started out I wasn't planning to skip any water stops knowing it was going to be hot and humid, but there came a time when I decided I needed to skip the water station as I had so much water I thought I would float away. I've had a lot of races where water was a problem but this was definitely not the case here. I also found they had all the flavors of the cliffshots or whatever available. I don't use them but by the time I get there, variety is often limited.
As we were heading out the backstage exit from the Magic Kingdom I yelled Good Bye to the Magic Kingdom - Next Stop Cone Alley. This was met with a loud groan from the people around me.
Cone Alley was still congested. I was hoping it might not be as bad as the half, but it was still pretty tight.
In the Marathon Weekend Preview on the Team Shenanigans Podcast Chris mentioned mentally breaking the race into shorter segments. It really did work. So instead of thinking I had 17 miles to go, I thought I have 5 miles to get to the Animal Kingdom.
After we left Cone Alley (which was pretty much exactly the same as the half marathon minus having friends outside the Poly) the course was completely different from the half marathon course and we would be heading into new territory for me. Just before we got to the Car Care Center we took a right on Bear Island Road which would take us towards Animal Kingdom.
The stretch to the Animal Kingdom actually pretty nice. Lots of green trees, the road seemed to open up some (we had more than one lane of traffic). There were lots of characters along the route. Many of them characters you never see out and about on a normal basis such as the Evil Queen from Snow White as the Old Hag and Hades. There were many others but it all blends together.
Of course I'm always facinated by transmissionlines, so I had to take a picture of the one paralleling the road.
So I decided to get a picture of Bill and Jennifer to make it look like I was taking their picture and not just the transmission structures (Yes I'm crazy)
Finally we reached the Reedy Creek Improvement District Utilities area. Here we are fortunate enough to run by the garbage and recycling center, the waste water treatment center, the compost center etc. I had been warned that it smells really bad, but either we were lucky with the direction of the wind or they had done something to prevent it today but there was really not a bad smell through here.
There was a little out and back section when we left the Reedy Creek area on Western Way that was annoying for just being an out and back. Out and Backs are really not my thing. Fortunately it was only about 3/4 of a mile total in the loop. And we ran into some friends we knew in this section.
Finally we were here - the backstage entrance to Animal Kingdom
I was facinated by the number of greenhouses in the back stage area. It makes sense but I never really thought about the need to grow the food for the animals.
Somewhere in the backstage area there were a bunch of cast members with animals you could stop and take pictures with. From Snakes (why did there have to be snakes) to sheep, falcons and goats. As we got closer to the main part of Animal Kingdom I decided to try to run ahead a bit to see if I could ride Expedition Everest.
We came into Animal Kingdom near the Rafiki Conservation station. (a part of Animal Kingdom I've actually never visited). I ran through Animal Kingdom to Expedition Everest. It had been a goal of mine to ride the roller coaster during the race. When I got there they changed the single rider wait time from 20min to 30 min. The main entrance had a similar time. I decided I couldn't wait 30 minutes. I was really afraid I would not be able to start back up running again if I did.
I should have waited to run. Bill decided after me to go do it and he said the line wasn't as long as it said. It just means I will have to do this again sometime.
I wasn't sure if Bill and Jennifer were ahead of me or behind me. I assumed they were behind me so I went slowly through Animal Kingdom. I found Jennifer when we were in Dinoland and she told me Bill decided to ride Everest.
We exited the park towards the parking lot after Dinoland. As we ran around the entrance we came fellow Milers Jennifer and Sandy complete with hugs and candy!
The next 4 miles were pretty brutal. Osceola Parkway is a long stretch of nothingness. Bill caught back up with us in this section. My IT band was really tight so I put some muscle cream on it here. When I went to massage it in, it felt like a piano wire. The sports cream seemed to help loosen it up. I also remembered to take my electrolyte tables here. Sports drinks don't sit well in my stomach when I run but I have learned to use electrolye tablets on long humid runs. I'm sure there was something in this section but I think I've blocked it out. These miles really did blur together. I think the grave diggers might have been in this section. It really was just a long stretch of nothingness.
Right before we got to ESPN Wide World of Sports we could see Laura the Chicken Hat Cheerer at the mile 20.5 spectacular. Knowing she would be there in 3-1/2 miles was definitely exciting. Of course that meant we had 3-1/2 miles to do inside the WW of Sports first.
When we got into the WW of Sports the DJ was there and had us all doing the YMCA when we ran by. We got to the track around mile 18. I amused myself by trying to convince everyone it was time to get that speed work in. The people around me did not seem amused.
Football Goofy was out.
After we left the track and did a couple loops around a few fields I figured out what the problem in ESPN is . . . you feel like you are running around in circles. It feels like you are repeating yourself because you keep seeing the people in front and behind you and you really don't know which is which.
I lost Jennifer and Bill for a bit when they stopped for a restroom break. I decided to walk until they caught up, so I walked a lot of WWoS including around the stadium.
I started to get a little nervous that I might not be able to start up running again when they caught up but that turnes out to not be a problem.
Finally we were headed back out of ESPN and back to Osceola Parkway. Just before we were turning onto Osceola Parkway we saw the sweepers coming in the opposite direction on Victory Way. I knew we had a 3 mile cushion at this point so I felt confident in my ability to stay ahead of the sweepers.
Finally we made it to mile 20.5 and Laura.
Thank you Thank you Laura. She had oranges and cookies and pretzels. It was just what I needed right then. And just having her there with her smile and her hugs made a lot of difference.
Our other friend Fun Sized Jenn caught up with us just after we left Laura and ran with us for a little bit. From here we were headed to Hollywood Studios and we had less than a 10k to go. Both of those were very encouraging thoughts.
On the way to Hollywood Studios were the Green Army Men again. I tried to get them to give me pushups to do but the one guy was too busy trying to get one guy to stop to take notice. So I just kept going.
We got to Hollywood Studios around Mile 22. We came in behind Tower of Terror
If I look at little out of it here, I was.
And of course I had to stop and pose with another power substation. It's what I do.
There is a section in Hollywood Studios where you run through a tunnel. It is part of the old Back Lot Tour and they attempt to turn it into a disco. The flashing lights and loud music were not what I needed right then. I found myself mesmerized by the lights.
Fortunately shortly after we came out of the tunnel Disney had the Dove Chocolates station
Wonderful wonderful chocolates (This is my friend Kim - I am borrowing her picture for this).
And right after the chocolates were Kelly and Terri and their wonderful cold towels and twizzlers.
I had my final breakdown moment of the day when I left Kelly with my cold towel in hand as it finally hit me that I was going to finish this.
And Marathon Foto caught this breakdown on camera.
I actually had to stop for a moment and regroup. Then we came out in front of the Chinese Theater and the crowds were huge.
But now I knew that I had this, I would finish this race. It was all mine.
We left Hollywood Studios and headed towards the Boardwalk. When we passed the end of the parking lot I knew we were safe as we passed the last of the "Parade" Buses that could pick you up.
Suddenly all the sugar kicked in and I got a burst of energy. I was ready to finish this. I knew Jennifer and Bill were safe now so I told them I was just going to run. My Garmin had been giving me low battery warnings for a while now and it finally gave up. Like I said it was a bad idea to have turned it on early this morning.
I ran through the Boardwalk and had to stop for a picture with the Genie.
Suddenly I felt invincible.
Right before I entered Epcot I found the Fairy Godmother. I had to stop for another picture.
Shortly after this Carlye and Celeste yelled my name. I ran with them into Epcot but they were stopping to wait for some other people and I just wanted to be done at this point. I didn't want to stop, I wanted to use that spurt of extra energy to get to the finish line.
As I ran around the World Showcase I was just soaking it in. The people, the energy, the crowds. There were quite a few characters I could have stopped for but I was in a groove and wanted to run. I saw Anita with her wonderful Caramels. I found Kim and Jen in Mexico with the best Margarita I've ever had. I can't thank them enough for that.
I'd been thinking about this Margarita for probably 6 miles, maybe longer. And it was better than I could have imagined.
I ran to the back stage exit for the 4th and final time this week, past the choir and towards the finish line. Jennifer and Sandy were there in the finish line shoot area taking pictures. They called out my name and it was so great to have so many people out that I knew.
I ran to the finish line. I got a shout out by name from Carissa and then for Team Shenanigans from all three. I finished feeling triumphant.
I finished feeling strong!
When I came up to get my Goofy and Dopey Medals I found Donna who after giving me a huge hug, directed me to the tent where Dale and Michelle were giving out the medals. I got my Goofy Medal from Michelle and My Dopey Medal from Dale. And I wasn't with it enough to remember to take pictures. It was so great to get these medals from friends and have them there at the finish line.
After I got my medals I grabbed my snack box and found a seat where I could watch the exit for the rest of the team to come through. I knew they couldn't be too far behind me and I wanted to be there when Jennifer and Bill crossed.
I was tired but felt great and very accomplished.
All the medals including the kids races.
It was an amazing experience. Before Sunday started I would have said I would never do it again because I didn't want to train for another marathon again. After it ended I felt like I could do anything. I have to run Dopey again.
Bill created a wonderful video of his and Jennifer's first marathon weekend. There is wonderful footage of the cheering team at mile 7.5 on the half and our marathon run together. It was so nice to run the marathon with them. Having company on the full was wonderful. Here is a link to his video.
https://vimeo.com/153071085
