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Goofy: Day 1

There was to be a Half Marathon completed the day before the Marathon, and then all three golden medals would be ours. THE GOOFY CHALLENGE 2011. 
39.3 Miles

We spent the week prior to Marathon weekend in Orlando doing Disney, swimming, laying in the sun, and avoiding alligators and large snakes. On Thursday we visited ESPN Wide World of Sports to hit up the race expo. 
Angie texting, live from the Wide World of Sports
overstimulation.

Friday we stayed off our feet and loaded up on the carbs. I took one more dip in the pool and then layed out our supplies to ration for the weekend. 
gu, gu, and more gu.
And then here we are at Saturday morning. 2:45 am, actually, because the cab is coming about 3, and traffic is supposed to be backed up and horrible, and if you're not in your corral by 5 YOU CAN'T RUN.

We got there. We got a cup of coffee and tried to loosen up despite the chilly early morning. At about 4:30 they opened the gate and 27,000 of us marched a quarter mile to the start with 13.1 miles ahead of us to run. Energetic announcers were playing music to pump us up. It was dark, five in the morning cold, and everyone around me was singing Don't Stop Believin'. AWESOME.
Oh yeah, and Al Roker and Meredith Viera were running. 
The National Anthem was played and then there were giant beautiful fireworks, and the first group took off. We were the second to last group, so by the time we started, the first finishers were coming in as we approached the first mile. Normally in a race you don't get to see the finish, but we actually got to clap and cheer for them as they ran past us in the opposite direction. 
The first 4 or 5 miles led into the Magic Kingdom as the sun was coming up. We were running a relaxed pace and sandwiched in with everyone else, so it was pretty easy going. 
And then I learned that my sister likes racecars a lot?

And then I saw MY dream car...
Entering the Magic Kingdom, the course was packed with people. We turned the corner onto Main Street and the castle was directly in front of us.
We veered to the right around the side of the castle, and look who we found!!
 And then here's me, clearly ecstatic. 
Before I knew it, we were heading out of the park and along a beautiful golf course with the sun blazing in front of us. There were people and music and more water/food/medical stations along the way than I've seen in any other race. It seemed like it was over too quickly. We finished around two and a half hours. I had to keep reminding myself about the next day. The BIG next day. 
At the finish we wrapped ourselves in foil and a very nice guy wrapped both of my knees with ice. We got our medals and people gave us bananas and diet coke. Somebody took our picture, and then we made our way to the taxis. The thing about running a race at Disney is...it's the happiest race on Earth. Everyone is there to help you along the way, cheer for you, and take care of you at the end. 

13.1 down....26.2 to go.




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Comments

  1. KT80February 24, 2011 at 7:22 PM

    Way to go! I was there too, but for the 5k. Would you run another big race at Disney?

    ReplyDelete
  2. LiaFebruary 25, 2011 at 8:03 PM

    I definitely would! It was a great first marathon, because every moment of it was a grand experience, and with all that's going on, it feels like it goes by really fast.

    ReplyDelete

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