This past weekend, Jay and I made our first ever journey to Chicago. WHY didn't somebody tell me sooner how awesome that city is? It's beautiful, it's clean, the people are friendly, it's not overcrowded, the hot dogs are heavenly, and it has beaches IN the city. If it weren't for what I hear are absolutely unbearable winters, I'd be the hell outta dirty, mean, suffocatingly crowded NYC in a New York milisecond.
LAKE Michigan?! More like OCEAN Michigan
Saturday morning I woke up around 7:15am (Central Time) to get in a 7-8 mile training run. Now, last time I had an "away" running situation, things didn't go great for me. I took a work trip to Beverly Hills, CA at the end of April, and attempted a 12 miler. It wasn't spectacular. I didn't know that there are few to no sidewalks in LA, didn't know that there is SERIOUS traffic on Sunset Boulevard, and didn't know (but should've guessed) that Beverly HILLS ain't flat. I ultimately ended up getting VERY lost, VERY tired, and, after a VERY large nosedive onto the sidewalk in front of a multi-million dollar mansion, slightly bloodied:
Woops.
Chicago was a different story entirely. Aside from my Garmin's inability to pick up a GPS signal, it was one of the best runs I've had in a long long time. The trail along Lake Michigan has some seriously awesome views and a magnificent breeze (a welcome relief from the 150% humidity in the NY-metro area these days). There was no sign of the leg pain I've been experiencing off and on since the marathon, I kept up a <10 minute mile pace the whole time, and I saw this lady, who was awesome:
Her son was running a few yards ahead in a Batman cape.
When I was approaching the end of my run, I snapped this picture and decided that running really is one of the best ways to explore somewhere new.
Add to that great run an incredibly fun weekend of beautiful weather, being touristy, eating Chicago style hot dogs and deep dish pizza, and cruising along on the El Train... it is safe to say that we had a pretty fabulous first trip to The Windy City.
So much awesomeness is right on the horizon for me running-wise that I have to revive the blog.
To start off, though, I'll need to take it back a bit. On Cinco de Mayo, Alison and I ran the Long Branch Half Marathon in Long Branch, NJ. It was pretty awesome. The course was interesting, the weather was perfect, Alison KILLED it with her first ever sub-2 hour half, and I finished with an acceptable time of 2:06:27 (I'm always happy with a sub-2:10 half). Also, the medals were pretty sweet:
Immediately post-Long Branch, I had to start gearing up for the NJ Liberty Run Half Marathon on Memorial Day weekend. Or at least I THOUGHT I had to. 9 days before the race, it was cancelled. The race organizers tried to blame the city of Jersey City for the cancellation, but the city called them out and made it clear that the race organizers were being scheisters who were just trying to cover up their poor planning. So, Liberty Run Half organizers, YOU CAN SUCK IT. Your race wasn't cheap, and I'm STILL waiting on my refund. You should all take a very long and expensive flight to Australia (in coach), find a kangaroo, and let it kick you in the nuts. I hate you. But I digress... on May 25th, I ran 13.1 miles anyway, and wouldn't ya know it, I PR'ed.
My very first sub-2 hour half marathon, and it's not freaking official because some JACKWAGONS decided to poon out of what could've been a really great race. So, I'll repeat: Liberty Run Half Marathon organizers, kindly leap from a tall building.
After the race that never was, I fell off the wagon a bit. I ran a grand total of four times the entire month of June. One of those times was a race in Central Park: the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge, in which I did a crappy job of representing my company. I took the bib of work friend Karen, who was planning on walking the 3.5miles, so to start off, I was in the walker's corral at the very back. Also, the race consisted of somewhere around 25 THOUSAND people. So, suffice it to say I spent the entire 3 and a half miles weaving in and out of people who were clearly not runners. My time bit (35:07). Thankfully, however, it's not on my record as a runner since I was running as someone else. Sorry, Karen. But hey, I got a sweet purple company tshirt out of it.
Where's Waldo?
I'm happy to report now that I'm back on the wagon, and on track training-wise for the Disneyland Half Marathon, which is in 6 short weeks! And between now and then there is so much to look forward to. This weekend I'm heading to the Windy City with Jay for a fun couple of days of being touristy. We will eat deep dish pizza, take a picture of our reflection in that big bean thing, check out the Skydeck at Willis Tower, and I will run 7 miles along the shores of Lake Michigan. Pictures will be coming. On August 1st I leave for vacation in Seaside, where several long runs will be followed up by jumping into the Atlantic, and on August 10th, I'll be participating in the wedding of one of my very best friends, Steph "Mex" Peirce. Worry not, all will be reported blog-style. God I love the summer. I'M SO EXCITED!
Hashtag hashtag hashtag. I hate them if they're used anywhere but Twitter and Instagram (where they belong), but used properly, they're pretty great. I'm on a mission to use the one in the title of this post at LEAST once a week on Instagram. I got this beaut to show for this past weekend's 8 mile run:
In other (and much more important) news, I've signed up for the 2014 Walt Disney World Marathon. They officially have my insane amount of money, so here we go again. After my poor showing at 2013's race, all I'm hoping for is a sub-5 hour marathon and no injuries. Oh, and a cool, pleasant morning would be nice too. None of that 80+ degree crap, Florida. I'm already excited.
Well, I feel better now. A week of religiously sticking to the training schedule INCLUDING cross training by way of picking things up and putting things down and capped off with a really great 7+ mile run yesterday makes me feel 100% more prepared for this half marathon.
What also helps is the brand new kicks I just bought! I've decided that the Nike Frees I've been running in aren't gonna cut it for me if I wanna keep running these distances. They're a light shoe good for fast people who run short to medium distances. Neither of those things are me. Soooo I've decided to give these bad boys a try:
Brooks Ghost 5.... ooooooooohhhhhhhh scary.
I spent all day yesterday reading a zillion shoe reviews, and these came out on top. It also helped that they come in wide width, because I have ridiculous duck feet (thanks, mom). Sooo they should be arriving somewhere in the realm of tomorrow-Thursday and I CAN'T WAIT. They're still a fairly light shoe, but they are way more supportive and cushioned than my formerly trusty Frees. I'll be sure to post my own review of these shoes when I actually run in them. Maybe they'll be injury preventative.
This morning, reality slapped my freckled face. Every weekday morning I ride the NJ Transit 126 bus eastward into Manhattan; it's a quick 15ish minute ride that mainly consists of the Lincoln Tunnel. I use this 15 minutes to catch up on my social networking. Same routine every day. Headphones in, Pandora on (today I went with Dolly Parton radio as I watched about three quarters of 9 to 5 (1980) this weekend... that movie is WHACKED OUT), catch up on Instagram, then Facebook. The first thing I saw on Facebook on this morning's ride was this:
SIX WEEKS?!??!? Aw crap. While Alison and I aren't running the full NJ Marathon, we ARE running the Long Branch Half Marathon (part of the NJ Marathon weekend), and I am nowhere near where I should be 6 weeks out from a half marathon. My longest run since the marathon has been 6 miles, and that was at the end of January. Two weeks ago, I did a 2 mile run on Monday, 3 miles on Wednesday, and 5 on Saturday. I felt good and was ready to get back into my pre-marathon routine of 3 runs a week and 2 days of cross training, but the ride on that wagon was embarassingly short. Last Monday night came around and I sat on my butt. Tuesday-Friday were the same. Oh and Saturday/Sunday, too. I had a 6 miler scheduled for this weekend that I bailed on for ABSOLUTELY NO REASON WHATSOEVER. Literally. Zero reasons.
So, I guess it's time to get serious. And the best way to do that is to jump right in. The forecast calls for a "wintery mix" (worst term ever) all day and night, but I deserve to be punished. Here goes (again).
So now that I'm through talking about the race itself, it's time to tell you about what happened after. I ate. I ate a lot. And I'm not sorry.
Come, journey with me as I recount the deliciousness, using this post from back in July as a point of reference...
#10: Frozen Banana with Nuts
I chowed down on one of these babies in Epcot as you can see above. Got it from the nicest little old lady who was manning the ice cream stand on the walkway heading toward The Land pavilion from Innoventions West. It was the perfect snack to have whilst searching for Finding Nemo underoos for the nephew. (Unfortuantely, no such underoos exist. Sorry, Grant :( )
#9: Hot Dog from Casey's Corner
This ended up being our final meal of the trip and it was a delight. I went with the Chili Cheese version and armed myself with two cups of molten cheese for my fries. Only part of this meal that wasn't great was the roll, but a true WDW veteran will know that that's what you're gonna get wherever you go for a hot dog. Apparently once you cross the border onto Disney property soft and fresh hot dog rolls cease to exist. Oh well, the hot dog, toppings, fries, and copious amounts of lava cheese made up for it.
#8: Grey Goose Lemon Citron Slush
I was in a bit of a time crunch when it came to this one. We had dinner reservations at LeCellier about 20 minutes from the time I got in line for this bad boy, so I kinda had to run/walk (stop for this glorious picture) and chug it on the way from France to Canada. But it was still awesome. Luckily it was my first drink of the day, so the run/drinking didn't bother me too much. Also, I had this in hand when a passing Daisy Duck, clad in what I think was ambiguously Canadian duds, pointed at me and gave me a thumbs up. I thought she was complimenting my drink. She was pointing at my medal. Oh well.
#7: Mickey Premium Ice Cream Bar
This, fittingly, was the last thing I consumed before leaving WDW to head back to NJ. It's just so iconic. It's made by Nestle, so I'm sure I can get the same sort of thing outside of the World, but what the hell is the point if it doesn't have ears?!?! There isn't one.
#6: Egg Roll at Animal Kingdom
I wasn't even SLIGHTLY hungry when I ate this. I just had to have it. Seriously, we had eaten a large breakfast less than an hour before, but this was my only chance. As usual (and shamefully), we only spent a few hours in Animal Kingdom. It just always seems like there's not all that much to do there, so you can knock it out quickly. This can't actually be true though. There must be things we just don't know exist. Next time we go, I'm exploring that place IN DEPTH for a full day. Maybe then I can have multiple egg rolls, cuz one is really not enough.
#5: Turkey Leg
Good God. These things are absolutely absurd. Although I'm glad I tried it and can say I had one once, ONCE IS ENOUGH. I probably took about 10 bites of this thing before I had to give up. The first few bites were actually really tasty, as I love salt so much I have to make myself give it up for Lent almost yearly. But for a normal person who doesn't keep a salt lick on their nightstand (I swear I don't really do that, it was just for emphasis), it can be overwhelming. I ate this at around 5pm intending to eat actual dinner much later, but, not surprisingly, 'twas the last thing I ate all day. The Turkey Leg defeated me.
#4: Tonga Toast
This picture may speak for itself, but you're not shutting me up that easily. Alison and I both ordered this monstrosity from Captain Cook's at the Polynesian for breakfast Tuesday morning. I promise you we both were only able to eat half before throwing in the towel. It is SO SO DELICIOUS, but so so much and so so indulgent. Those facts were reinforced when the older couple at the table next to us widened their eyes and dropped their jaws in SHEER DISGUST when we brought them to our table. The phrase "That is just ridiculous" was said several times by the lady. And after we reassured them that it was ok to be eating them because we had just run a marathon, her husband retorted "well you better run another one now." Burrrnnnnnnnn, old man, BURN.
#3: Giant Peanut Butter Oreo Cookie
DEVASTATION. Ughhh I'm still upset about this. Alison and I had big plans to hit The Main Street Confectionary on the way out of the Magic Kingdom and purchase these as on-the-way-to-the-airport treats that would soothe our sadness to be leaving. It was not to be. They were nowhere to be found. And a kind soul behind the counter regretfully told us that they stopped making them after 2011. OH UNKNOWABLE UNIVERSEEEEEEEEEEE. Please, if there is anyone out there who can help me get one of these... I will sell you my soul.
#2: Fried Chicken at The Hoop Dee Doo Musical Revue
Well, I knew from the beginning that I wouldn't be getting this, but it merits a sad face nonetheless. Maybe next time, Hoop Dee Doo, maybe next time.
#1: Canadian Cheddar Cheese Soup
And, lo, on the 8th day, the Lord heldeth out His hand (which was full of sharp cheddar) and proclaimed "By My power almighty, may Moosehead Lager raineth down from the Heavens and coat this Great Cheddar with glory. And though you may haveth anger now, you will soon be at peace, for I have bestowed unto you the very essence of wondrousness. THIS FREAKING SOUP."
Amen.
So, that takes care of the list. There was only one actual disappointment. I couldn't have asked for better results from the rest. But if you think I stopped there, you are sadly mistaken. Here are some other notable items consumed:
Left: Breakfast at the Kona Cafe. In the foreground is my meal, "The Samoan". 2 poached eggs and hollandaise sauce over a pile of PULLED PORK HASH. Amazing. In front of Alison is gigantic pancakes and a ham steak. And we can't forget about the delicious french press Kona coffee and Lilikoi juice. Would absolutely go back.
Top Center: Lapu Lapu from Tambu Lounge. Some sort of mixture of booze and pineapple juice. Delicious. And, lets face it, the entire reason for getting it is to drink out of a pineapple. Mission accomplished.
Center 2nd from Top: Pineapple Bread Pudding from 'Ohana. There are no words. Get on a plane and go to Florida if only for this. You'll thank me.
Center 2nd from Bottom: Mickey's Premium Ice Cream Sandwich. I didn't eat one, but, as you can see, Al sure did. Cookies and cream ice cream sandwiched between Mickey's chocolatey mug.
Bottom Center: Raspberry Pinacolava from Tambu Lounge. This was Alison's choice of beverage from Tambu. Prettiest drink ever, but good God is it sweet. We sipped our Lapu Lapu and Pina Colava whilst watching the evening fireworks on the beach. Not bad for January.
Top Right: Imperial Sampler from Rose and Crown. Left to right in the picture it's Guinness, Boddingtons, Strongbow, Harp, and Bass. Perfect lunchtime treat for a beer lover like muhself. Although pairing this with a stop in France for some sort of French beer that I never found out the name of made for a dizzy boatride from Epcot to Hollywood Studios. But, when in Rome.... orrrrr fake France and fake United Kingdom...
Center Right: Scotch Egg from Rose and Crown. Al and I shared this as our appetizer, and subsequently had this godawful ditty stuck in our heads for the remainder of the trip.
But that song didn't make the egg any less delicious.
Bottom Right: Citrus Swirl from Sunshine Tree Terrace. This is frozen orange juice swirled with vanilla softserve ice cream. Kind of a slightly more tart creamcicle that you eat with a spoon. I loved it. Most Disney folks go with the fan-favorite Dole Whip (which I did have on this trip as well), but the Citrus Swirl was better in my opinion. Most refreshing.
There you have it, guys. Food Tour = complete. I hope you enjoyed it. I'll undoubtedly have a whole new list of must eats and drinks for next year's marathon AND for Disneyland late this summer. Until then I guess I'll just have to settle for New York City food... which I guess is ok, but the guy at the Halal cart on 53rd ain't gonna shape my lamb kebab into Mickey Mouse. Travesty.
So. It happened. The race has come and gone, and now I have ahead of me the incredibly daunting task of giving a blow by blow description and analysis of the entire trip, which I will first sum up in one word: GOODSWEETLORDBABYJESUSMARATHONSARENOJOKE.
The trip itself started out on an interesting foot the night before we even left the Garden State. Alison came over to spend the night at me and Jay's place since we were leaving at 4:45 the next morning. We had big plans to pick up some delicious mexican cuisine from Chipotle and bring it back to the apartment to feast. Plans were derailed a bit when I left my keys dangling on the key rack INSIDE of my locked apartment on the way out. Fast forward to about a half hour later, and Alison and I are in her car. I'm gnawing on a burrito and she is using the lid of a guacamole cup as a spoon to shovel her burrito bowl into her maw (since we didn't think we'd need silverware as we were supposed to be eating in the comfort of my home) while we wait for Jay to step off the PATH train from work with his set of keys. Oh also, it was monsooning outside. So that was really a great way to start this "vacation".
Aside from that, getting to Orlando went off without a hitch. No real line at security, pleasant flight, arrived on time, Disney was wonderful as always at getting our bags, yadda yadda. But on to the running....
At around 9pm Saturday night, after a quick jaunt to the race expo to pick up our bibs and a specatcular dinner consisting almost solely of stuff that used to have a face (next time, more carbs, less meat), we went straight to bed. I awoke to my sister's alarm at 2:45am Sunday morning. TWO FORTY FIVE AM. You gotta be some kind of insane to want to wake up that early (or late?) just to run 26.2 miles. Lucky for us, we're certified whackadoos.
Alison and I dressed and headed out into a glorious 65 degree Orlando night (more about the temperature later) to board Monorail Orange to the starting line at Epcot. I was scared, as depicted here:
After a short ride, some waiting around at the pre-race tents for our corral to be called, and then a loooongggg walk to the official starting line, we finally were ready for the gun (and fireworks, and enthusiastic Mickey Mouse countdown) to go off. Right as all of that happened, Alison lost her iPhone. LOST IT. Couldn't find it anywhere. We were scrambling around the very dark ground for any sign of it as the corrals kept moving forward around us until I got a text message from Alison's phone saying it was found. We met our heroes, the finders of the phone (which included a Brazilian man in a tutu), by the giant balloon designating the E Corral for the handoff. Crisis averted. Race officially underway.
The first 3 miles were fine. They were dark, a bit crowded, and without much to look at aside from an occasional passing monorail and a giant pirate ship photo op with Captain Barbosa/Jack Sparrow (which Alison and I didn't take advantage of), but they were good nonetheless. Then, as sky started getting lighter behind us, we came upon the second character photo op of the race: Jack Skellington and Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Now, if you refer to this post, Jack and Sally are nowhere to be found in my list of acceptable characters to stop running a marathon for. But....
We had to do it. The Nightmare Before Christmas is one of Alison's FAVORITE movies, and you almost never see it's characters hanging out around Walt Disney World (Disneyland, yes, but not WDW). It was here that we decided "F that character list, we're in Disney World." Yes, we were running a marathon, but we knew we could still run it in a respectable amount of time even including three minute breaks here and there for the opportunity to be immortalized in snapshots with some of the most beloved (by us anyway) movie and tv characters of all time. And we absolutely COULD'VE if it werent for the events that transpired later in the race. I'll get to that.
Soon after our brief conversation with The King of Halloween and his poorly constructed girlfriend, we made a few turns and found ourselves on Main Street USA. This part of the race (miles 4-6ish) was INCREDIBLE. There is nothing better than doing something you love (running) in a place that you love (The Magic Kingdom). Alison and I were all smiles throughout this portion. We ran up Main Street toward the castle:
hung a right into Tomorrowland, then a wide left into Fantasyland where we saw my favorite man slash bear/lion/bull and yours, THE BEAST. Oh, and the #1 Disney Princess in my book, Belle (personally I perfer blue dress and white apron Belle to big yellow ballgown Belle, but I wasn't trying to be picky). Unfortunately, the line to meet these glorious specimens was INSANELY long. Like, peace out respectable time long. And while we still had that respecatble time in mind at that point, we settled for a driveby shot of Beauty and the Beast and some strangers.
Soon after this we exited the Magic Kingdom through a backstage area, and headed past the fancypants Grand Floridian where we had a jolly holiday with these guys:
then continued on past the Polynesian (at which I looked longingly when I realized my bed was in there and I still had roughly 16 miles to run) and into The Walt Disney World Speedway. This part of the race is pretty cool, as we ran a circle around an ACTUAL car racing track. But it's also where things started to go down hill for me, I think. By this time, it was about 8am and my GOD the sun was making itself known. As there is no tree cover on a race track, this was the first part of the course that was really exposed to the elements. I was HOT. Sweating profusely, but somehow I still had a smile on my face.
After the speedway, there was a fair amount of boredom. It is a looooong way from the speedway to Animal Kingdom. And that way included an open road with lots of sun, a sewage treatment plant (really, Disney?), and the first inkling of pain from my knee, but nothing unbearable. Speaking of bears, thankfully these guys showed up to break the monotony of the long road to AK:
In the days leading up to the race, I was very excited about getting to Animal Kingdom. I figured that as it was the halfway point, I'd be feeling great knowing I'd soon have more running behind me than I'd have ahead of me. I was so. Wrong. We got through Animal Kingdom without a hitch. I got my picture taken with this lady and her owl on the way in:
And on the way out, we had yet another sighting of our lone fan, Jay, who snapped this picture of us together:
Ladies and gentlemen, this picture is a lie. Well half of it anyway. Alison wasn't lying. But my right hand curled into a fist with my thumb pointed toward the sky is huge and shaming lie. I remember stopping seconds after this picture was taken to exchange a few words with Jay. They were the following: "God, I feel like shit.". It was at this point that my left leg started to feel really crappy. I'd been having knee/IT band problems in the weeks leading up to the race, but this felt a bit different. It was like my entire left leg was giving up on this endeavor WAY before the rest of me. My breathing was fine, my head was still in it, I had eaten a banana about a mile and a half back so I had some energy, I was hydrated (I think, hard to tell through the heat and sweating)... but my DAMN left leg. We ran on for another half mile or so before I had to stop and try to do something about it. I stretched it on the pole of a road sign that was painted to look like some sort of animal (not unike the one behind us and to the left in the picture above). I've replayed this stop in my head about a hundred times since. This, my friends, is where everything came to a sudden and forceful halt in my mind. If I hadn't stopped, I probably could've kept going for the next 12 miles and ignored the pain. But I think stopping made me realize how much it hurt, and how far 12 miles is. From that point I ran about a mile, then had to stop and walk. This pattern of run/walking continued on for the rest of the race. And I am ashamed. I wanted nothing more than to RUN a marathon. The occasional walk to take a drink or stop to take a leak was perfectly acceptable in my mind, but having to walk due to pain was NOT on my agenda. Thankfully, Alison, just showing how worthy she is of her title of Greatest Sister in the World, stuck by me. She was feeling great. Before this stop we were on pace to finish WELL under our goal time of 4:45, and if it wasn't for me, she would've DESTROYED that time, as the entire race she had a bounce in her step and I was borderline positive that she took some kind of upper or steroid before the start (I'm COMPLETELY joking, she was just having a VERY good running day). But instead of forging ahead solo, she stayed with her feeble little sister. THANK GOD. You da best, Al.
Now, it's not to say I didn't have fun the rest of the race, because I did. I was happy in a way that only running through the greatest place on earth can make you happy, but my stupid leg really put a damper on things. As I said, that run/walk pattern continued for the remainder of the race. We would run about a half mile, walk a quarter mile, run a quarter mile, walk a tenth of a mile... and so on and so forth. It wasn't great. But this was a Disney race, and dammit if there weren't some things here and there to keep my mind of the pain. Most notably, spotting the terror that flaps in the night himself, DARKWING DUCK. This was more than a suitable alternative to Launchpad McQuack. Thanks, DW, for helping me through a rough patch:
Continuing on through the course, we ran down yet another stretch of highway toward Disney's Wide World of Sports. This area took up miles 17-20 of the course, but it felt like 40 miles instead of three. I hated it. WWoS is, as it sounds, a very large sports complex. Baseball diamonds, soccer fields, tracks, stadiums, and football fields abound. So essentially, we were running on sidewalks between these spaces, making a RIDICULOUS amount of turns, and there was little to no entertainment. There was some music as we ran into the Atlanta Braves Spring Training stadium, and, as it turns out, a turtle wandered onto the track that was used as part of the course, but I was neither there for that nor do I think it was on purpose.
I was complaining like mad. I was hot, my leg hurt really badly, there were too many turns, I was hungry, the miles seemed too long, We had to run by WAY too many volunteers trying to give us a cup of powerade before we finally got to the water we wanted. The list was endless. To sum up, I was being a weak pansy JERK. And I just wanted to get to the finish line.
We left WWoS and continued on to yet ANOTHER fairly long stretch of highway on our way to Disney's Hollywood Studios. Just before entering DHS, we passed mile marker 22. At this point (much to Alison's relief, I'm sure) my mood picked up. 4 miles is nothing. And as Neil Diamond's Sweet Caroline blasted over the speakers we happened to be passing, we made the turn into DHS. We looped around the back of The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, were handed mini hershey bars by smiling volunteers (shoveled a Mr. Goodbar into my gob like it was the last thing I'd ever eat), cut through the Pixar section of the park, down the Streets of America, through a tunnel (Lord, bless that shade) that gives a behind the scenes look at the costume/prop workshops, down past the big Sorcerer Mickey hat, and then up Hollywood Boulevard. toward the front of the park. Now, don't get me wrong, I was still in agonizing pain and running/walking at a snail's pace, but I was getting excited because the finish line was now only about 2 and a half miles away, as is evident by the look on my face here:
FINALLY we were on the road to the last park, Epcot, and the finish line. We ran by Crescent Lake past the Boardwalk Inn, the Yacht Club, and the Beach Club before turning into Epcot's World Showcase via the International Gateway. (Still in pain... stil in a LOT of pain). If you don't know what The World Showcase is, it's a promenade of 11 pavillions representing different countries around the world situated on the banks of a very large lagoon. The course looped us around past every last country, and it was pretty awesome. It was as we were passing between the America and Italy and pavillions that, much to Alison's delight, we found the king of the swingers, the jungle VIP, King Louie:
What the hell he was doing in between America and Italy, though, I will never know. He's from Asia. But whatever. We were but a mile and change from the finish! After running past the rest of the countries of the World Showcase, we crossed into the front of Epcot (Future World), past Spaceship Earth (the big golf ball) and out the side exit into the parking lot to the finish line. Words can not describe the feeling I had when I turned the corner and saw the finish line only YARDS away. I was so happy, so relieved, and so damn excited to sit down for a second that I (along with Alison) picked up the pace for the last hundred yards or so. As our shoes crossed over the timing sensor that was the finish line, we heard the announcer say our names and were greeted by this saucy minx:
FINALLY. We were done. We slowed to a walk, and were presented with what is now my most prized posession, our race medals.
Alison and I are marathoners. It was a VERY ugly race on my part. WAY too much pain and walking than is acceptable, and a HORRIFIC time to show for it (6:04, if you MUST know). But despite all that, it was awesome. By far one of the best experiences of my life. So great, in fact, that we're doing it again. If for no other reason but than to redeem myself and give myself a chance to finish with a respectable time. I will be back, Walt Disney World Marathon (presented by Cigna). I WILL BE BACK. And I'm not gonna hurt myself this time.
In the meantime though, Alison and I have already registered and booked our trip for the 2013 Disneyland Half Marathon in Anaheim, CA. Disney offers a special "Coast to Coast" medal for runners who complete a half marathon-distance or farther race in both Disney World and Disneyland within one calendar year. SO WE'RE GETTING THAT MEDAL. You beter believe it.
I am exausted just from recounting that experience. So I will save the rest of the trip details (the fun part) for later. Cuz considering my plans for the upcoming year (Disneyland Half Marathon plus a few other halves to run that I know of so far... see sidebar) and training for WDW 2014, this blog is FAR from over. You're stuck with me. Deal with it.
Miraculously of sound mind and body (although the body part took a while),
Ladies and Gentlemen, I've just received some terrible news. The King of Halloween has been blown to smithereens... No, not really. The bad news is that my favorite ride of all time, Splash Mountain, will be closed for refurbishment while we're in Disney World. This was my reaction:
My hopes of making a collage of all on-ride pictures of me holding up my marathon medal have been dashed, as now I won't have the crowned jewel of ride pics. Maybe I'll just shove this poor quality MS paint version in there.
Back in the early '00s (I think), Walt Disney World had a commercial that exactly described my feelings right about now. Here is an excerpt:
The marathon is 11 days away. We're leaving for Disney in 10 days. My knee is still not great, but I honestly couldn't care less (I am, however, seeing a doctor and going to PT... looks like it's my IT band). I need to get to Orlando. I need to see this sight:
I need to hear this sentence: "Please stand clear of the doors. Por favor mantengase alejado de las puertas.". I need to eat some beer cheese soup. I need to sprint through Hollywood Studios to get to the Toy Story Midway Mania Fastpass dispenser before everyone else gets their grubby paws on them. I need to ride Splash Mountain even if it's barely above 65 degrees. I need to get on a lineless Maelstrom 3 times in a row because most people are batshit crazy and think it's not that great of a ride. I need to walk right by Mission Space, cuz that ish makes me wanna vomit. Oh and I guess I need to run these 26.2 miles.
I can do it. I ran 20 miles a few days before Christmas and felt great. I DEFINITELY could've tacked another 6.2 on. Sister Alison did not fare so well, as her knee is also starting to give her problems, but with all those characters to high five, I think we'll both be able to endure the pain. So now to just get through the next 9.79 days. 235 hours. 14,102 minutes. 846,130 seconds. This is gonna be a long week and a half.
