I Just Wanted To Be Athletic - And Now, I Am! (comments welcome)

[corinnak]

Aw, thanks Kim! The pics are uploaded for the first part of the half-marathon, BUT I haven't actually written anything yet. Soon! Very soon.

Allyson, yes, Childcare is definitely challenging. And a race weekend is not the kind of thing that is really fun for the kids to be along for, either. I had my kids along for the Minnie and it was OK, but I did feel like I had to be ON for the races and ON for the touring the kids through the parks, both. This was the second time I've traveled for a race without the family and it does work out really well as a solo trip. There's plenty of WISH friends around, even when you've never met them before! And there's definitely less of a balancing act. I've got a bunch of local travel companions lined up for next year, but once again, the kids and husband are staying home. This trip was a little FAST, as I was only gone 2 nights. Next year, it is going to be 3 nights, I think.

 

[bubba73]

So Corinna, you are in for next year? Are you going to run with me or blow by me like I was sitting still?? Knowing a little about your determination, I have a feeling it will be the latter but that's ok. I know I will not finish first. But I will come back faster and stronger and a little smarter than I was this year so I expect to do a lot better. (No more cuts please!!!)

Whatever happens just keep training and keep your focus. You will achieve all of your goals!!

Bryan

 

[corinnak]

Bryan, I have been in for 2010 since sometime last fall. It's mostly been a question of which race, but after the challenge of getting to the Start line of the 2009 race, I want another crack at the WDW half.

Does this mean you are definitely in for 2010??

As for pacing - there are no guarantees on that, ever, as we both have recently learned. Time alone will tell. I would like to get a little more practice in on the longer racing distance - I ran this one at a comfortable pace. My feet and legs were the limiting factor, really. I am not sure how far beyond that comfortable pace would be realistic for the Half Marathon distance. I know how hard I can push for a 5K, but I don't know that I could ever run that hard for 2-3 hours! I am not sure if the key is more speedwork (I did SO little for this race) to get that "Happy pace" lower or to run harder on race day or, most likely some combination of the two. I know we could both obliterate our 2009 finish times with some more training and a little more luck in 2010. As you say, "No more cuts!"

 

[bubba73]

Corinna,

I don't remember. What was your time for the Half? I think you beat me as it was anyway, which is cool. A loooot of people beat me. I know I won't ever win a race but it would be nice to be in the upper half and not the lower half just once.

I haven't signed up for 2010 just yet. I am waiting on income tax money and to see what kind of rate I can get on a room. I am planning on being there. I guess right now I am at 95% confirmed. But I am very sure that I will be there with you, Liz and all of the WISH Board Princesses!

As far as your time, it isn't about the time. It is about the finish. My biggest problem is that I have an extreme competitive sense that makes it where I hate it when anyone passes me. I know it is going to happen but I really don't like it. I got passed by the same WISH duo twice in the same race. Now that is really bad. That's the only reason why I said anything about time. I had a wonderful experience, even with my toe. It's that experience that is making me train and comeback next year. Well, that and all of you!

Have a GREAT one!
Bryan

 

[corinnak]

Bryan,
I finished in 2:59 and change. I did not have a foot injury in the middle of the course, though! A lot of people finished ahead of me as well, but that's not really the important thing, is it? I've been in the top half once or twice (just barely) and I gotta tell you, it's not that different - you still wish you were faster! As for this race, I figure that I got much better value out of it than people who finished in 1:29 - twice as much time on the course! Think of it this way: This was your second race of many, many potential races over the course of your life. If you really want to improve your speed, I can heartily recommend doing some speedwork - yes, it's not fun in the slightest, but it took me from a 38 minute 5K to a sub-30 minute 5K at one point. I need to do some more myself, though it is definitely work!

As for being passed, I think trading back and forth with people is pretty common, whether you are at the back or front of the pack. Especially towards the back, there are a lot of people doing run-walk intervals. This happens to me a LOT - their run is faster than mine, but their walk is slower than my run. I traded the lead with CarolA about 10 times in the first half of the half. The fact that you were passed by the same people twice does kind of mean that you were faster than them sometimes!

Glad to hear you had a great experience in spite of the setbacks. Thanks for propping me up a little as regards my own time. It really is not the most important thing, all in all.

 

[laughinplace199]

Hello cousin Corinna!

I just came over to read the beginning of your race report. You have a great way with words. I'm looking forward to reading more!

 

[corinnak]

Hi Julie! Welcome to my little journal. Sorry I don't have the race report yet - how did the weekend go by SO fast? I'm not really sure. I have the photos all loaded and ready to go - it is just a matter of getting the show on the road.

 

[bubba73]

Bryan,
I finished in 2:59 and change. I did not have a foot injury in the middle of the course, though! A lot of people finished ahead of me as well, but that's not really the important thing, is it? I've been in the top half once or twice (just barely) and I gotta tell you, it's not that different - you still wish you were faster! As for this race, I figure that I got much better value out of it than people who finished in 1:29 - twice as much time on the course! Think of it this way: This was your second race of many, many potential races over the course of your life. If you really want to improve your speed, I can heartily recommend doing some speedwork - yes, it's not fun in the slightest, but it took me from a 38 minute 5K to a sub-30 minute 5K at one point. I need to do some more myself, though it is definitely work!

Oh I know and I will say that you are right. I really do feel like I got more money's worth out of it than the guy who won the thing. I was able to see the parks in daylight, no tstill nighttime. I could enjoy the people out there cheering us on and offering us something to drink. We live in a fast paced world enough everyday while we are at our jobs. We don't have to make everything so fast paced.

I will say that I am very impressed with your sub-30 minute mark for the 5k. My best time has been just under 35 minutes and I have only done that once (my first race). But on the otherhand, I know what I need to do to make it better for me and now I will do it. I can leave the "speed" races for any of the others that I decide to do. While at Disney, we need to enjoy Disney!

Thanks Corinna! Your awesome!
Bryan

 

[corinnak]

All right - let's get this race on the road. I woke up bright and early, having set the alarm clock and also the wake-up call. Very important to have back-ups on race day, obviously. So upon Debra's advice and my own consideration, I started the middle of the night with a POP food court bagel with some peanut butter and jelly and some milk. I figured I had hours to go before the race and did not want to end up ravenous.

I don't remember exactly, but I got myself put together and headed out to the bus by around 3:20. The creepy Boardwalk chairs eyeballed me as I passed, but they didn't move or say anything, so I just kept on going. They did not pursue.

I rode on the bus with a woman who had walked many marathons but had been out for a while because of an injury, and had never done the WDW marathon weekend before. We pulled up to the drop-point in the Epcot parking lot, way far away from the entrance. I joked to the woman "Oh, they don't mention this, but you have to do about a 5K before they start the half." It was alarmingly close to accurate when all was said and done! I took a photo of the people walking from the busses. There was a problem with my camera, but it is clear that there were a lot of people and that it was still very dark and very early.

I could kick myself for the photos I didn't take. Once I got inside what would later be the finish area, I found Matt of the Sorcerer's hat and omnipresent cheering. He was hanging around by the W tent and pointed me in the direction of bag check and more WISHers further in. Thanks Matt! I would have had a much harder time finding people without that tip! I checked my bag (with my jacket and makeshift scarf. Oh well!) and found a growing group of WISHers in the Port-a-potty holding area. It was early. I'm going to say I remember seeing Mel and I met Laurie....and there were others, but it was so early, and I think I am still having some memory issues, so moving on...we waited around. I had two garbage bag and sat on one and wore the other as a poncho. I wished I hadn't poked arm holes. Note to self. There were some people with nothing to keep warm, though - It was kind of chilly! We waited. We visited the local port-a's. The closest one had only one roll of paper and no sanitizer. Two doors down, there was lots of sanitizer, but the floor of it was being used as storage for signage. Just piles of signs. Kind of strange!

My back was already feeling a little hinky and I hadn't even done anything yet - I checked, but the massage tent was only for AFTER. Oh well. Woulda been nice.

Laurie and I discover that we are in the same corral, and somehow we managed to walk all the way from the holding area to the corrals together, in spite of stopping at the port-a's on the way, too! Here's Corral C.

We ended up kind of towards the front for a while! We waited and waited. Met another WISH teammate, Carol. Met a crazy guy who said he hadn't trained at all since his last marathon (and he was FAST!) because "More training = more pain" (??!!!???) He was signed up for the Goofy, too. Eventually, he realized he was in the wrong corral. He moved up to B or A!

In Corral C, we had our own giant screen. By some miracle, this turned out!

Before we knew it, it was time for the first wave to start. There were fireworks - woosh! And away they went. And then we, in corral C, got to move up. And we were at the start of the 2nd wave.

We could even see the characters for realz!

I decided to shed my extra layer of pants at this point. I kept the sweatery thing and gloves, though. Not for long. We got our own fireworks to start, and then we were away, too!

Carol and I jockied for position a few times - she was doing Galloway intervals and her run was faster than my run, but I could catch her on her walks - barely sometimes!

I have some sort of questionable photos - dark, moving, weird lens issue with the camera. They were bound to be questionable at best.

Mile 1 - Hooray! And somewhere between here and mile 2, I think was Matt, the sorcerer of the scream team. Wish I'd taken a photo but it was so dark, it would have been as bad as the others, for sure.

There was a water stop as well. I wasn't really that thirsty yet, but I knew Debra (DeeKayPee) would be at this water stop, so I looked for her, and there, towards the end of a line of probably 40 water-holding volunteers, was Debra! I ran up to her and brilliantly said "I saved myself for you!" And she gave me some water, and then apparently, I was the source of much laughter, but I was already gone, so I didn't even know until later!

I don't really remember when, but at some point, I got rid of the "sweatery thing" and gloves. I definitely got warm enough in the first mile or two that I didn't want them anymore. My only concern was if I had had to start walking at some point that I might get cold. I ended up tossing them off to the side in a pile with someone else's sweatshirt. Gotta be careful how you do that, though. A lot of people pass on the side and I didn't want to hit anyone.


There goes the monorail. Really. In the dark back there. You can kind of see it:

Approaching the MK toll booths....there's probably a better name for them, but that is what they remind me of. That's Carol taking a picture in front of me! Great minds think alike. Watch out for the speed bumps!

I must have missed mile 2 somehow. Here is mile 3.

On the left, there, is the Richard Petty Driving experience. It looks more like a prison in this photo.

And here you can kind of see, in a blur, the guy running with the American Flag. I tell you, I would not be up to that!

Mile 4 and a guy's head. I'm not sure why I took photos of every mile marker. Not much else of note this early in the morning I guess. Except that this is about the point at which we were running through the MK parking lot. Which is just VAST.

And now, it's the part of the race that I, unaccountably, had imagined hundreds of times in training runs. The part where we get to run under the waterway! It was pretty neat, but probably not worth building up that much anticipation over. I'll just show these in silence.

And then it was over and the race marshall was telling us to stay off the sidewalk because there were specatators ahead. OK - fine. And the sun was coming up, and we could see Space Mountain! Well, sorta.

There was another mysterious smeary mile marker, but I am going to spare you.
And suddenly we ran under the WDW railroad bridge into the backstage entrance for the Magic Kingdom!

to be continued.....
and I swear, the pictures get 1000% better once the sun is up.

 

[laughinplace199]

Corinna, great report so far! I love the way you write, especially when you use technical terms, like "sweatery thing."

 

[Twingle]

OMG! That is a WHOLE LOT of people racing. Yikes. I knew there were like 12,000 runners, but seeing the pics - WHOA. As someone that's just now planning on thinking of running the half in 2010, seeing all those people is overwhelming, to say the least.

Thank you so much for sharing your photos and your story - I'm really enjoying it. Looking forward to more.

And - those chairs are super creepy.

 

[corinnak]

Yikes- can you believe I forgot to put in a few pictures? I bet you can. And I can too, since I posted this so late in the evening yesterday. All better now, though. It was a mile marker and the entrance to the TTC - or what I think was the entrance to the TTC, anyhow.

Bryan - I had to work pretty hard for that sub-30. I couldn't do it today, but hopefully I'll do it again sometime. Seems like the stars had to align! And I think you're 100% correct - Disney is not the place to worry about speed - if I want to run fast, I can do so for a lot less money closer to home.

Julie - Thank you for the compliment. I call it "Modern Ridiculous Style"

Twingle - to my little journal plus bonus exclusive race report! It was certainly a lot of people - I don't think I even got a photo to do it justice because it was so dark. Don't get scared off by the lots of people aspect - it's an incredible, thrilling experience to run in such a group. The energy is palpable and contagious. There is nothing like it, really! Have you done other races before or are you just starting?

 

[deekaypee]

Popping in over hear to read your RR, and catch up with all your news. I'm always so impressed by the amount of details you can remember. It's all a blur to me, and I haven't figured out the race/picture-taking pattern.

Btw, our water stop loved seeing you, and not because of your "I saved myself for you" line (much appreciated). We hadn't been getting a lot of traffic, as we placed ourself a little too far down the end, so it was very, VERY cool to have a WISHer come our way. You were looking great, too!

Oh, about the socks. I think it was MS Dave who gave away those goodies. Ain't he a sweetie?

Keep the RR coming. I always learn so much from them. (For instance, I'm loving the creepy-eye chairs and your cold-weather tips. I'm also tempted to do a solo race trip sometime; too bad DOOD is a runner and would give me the stink eye, I think.)

 

[corinnak]

Wait - Debra, what cold weather tips? I don't remember that at all. Was that recent? Is my concussion showing?

You're lucky to have someone to travel to races with. I was very concerned about travelling solo for this race. What if I'd gotten injured. Injured worse, that is. There were a million what-if's in my head on this trip. I was lucky it all went smoothly and I enjoyed my solo travel, but I did stress about it beforehand!

I can not believe all the photos I got wrong in this report! Next time I will double-check better. I love it when I said that we could see the characters "for realz" and just threw in another of Donald on the screen. I've fixed that as well now. And I forgot to say when I ditched the sweatery thing and gloves! It was after the first water stop sometime. I don't really remember. I definitely got warm enough in the first mile or two, though, that I didn't want it anymore. I ended up tossing them off to the side with someone else's sweatshirt. Gotta be careful how you do that, though. A lot of people pass on the side and I didn't want to hit anyone. I'll go back and add it in for posterity, I guess...

 

[MomofCKJ]

Great report Corinna! It is hard to get good pics when A. It is dark out and B. You are zipping along!

Debra, I looked for you, I did! I so wanted to say HI! I checked all the water stops for LIME green, were you in WISH clothes? I was so bummed to not get to say Hi to you and Panda at the water stop.

Sorry for the hijack Corinna! Waiting for more!

Allyson

 

[deekaypee]

Wait - Debra, what cold weather tips? I don't remember that at all. Was that recent? Is my concussion showing?

You're lucky to have someone to travel to races with. I was very concerned about travelling solo for this race. What if I'd gotten injured. Injured worse, that is. There were a million what-if's in my head on this trip. I was lucky it all went smoothly and I enjoyed my solo travel, but I did stress about it beforehand!

Cold Weather Tips. I was thinking of the garbage bags--one to wear, one to sit on, don't poke holes in them. I never think of such things. Cheap, easy, convenient. I bough a sweatshirt at Goodwill, which was cheap but yet another errand to run and bulky item to pack. I couldn't sit on it, either.

I actually like traveling solo. DOOD and I regularly spend time away from another. (That's why he's still with me.) But not for racing, not yet. That's still kind of his thing.

Allyson, so sorry I didn't see you! As it turns out, Panda Dave and Erica didn't show up for the volunteer stop. They must have pulled out of volunteering. Too bad, because they missed the fabulous Corinna. (Whose RR we now return you to!)

 

[MomofCKJ]

Chiming in with a cold weather tip. I bought the silver emergency blankets from the camping section of Walmart for $2 and we used those pre-race to keep warm. They really, really worked and then we just tossed them.

Back to you Corinna!

Allyson

 

[corinnak]

Debra - Ohhhhhhh - the trash bags! Right! I guess I wasn't thinking of that as "cold weather" gear, but it was certainly a good pre-race strategy. I don't even remember where I got that tip!


Allyson - I kept intending to get a silver blanket, but that errand along with the buying something at goodwill just kind of got away from me somehow. Maybe next year I won't go in trashbag. OTOH, it was workable, convenient and cheap, if a little trashy....

OK - don't anyone get too excited about the rest of the report. I'll get to it soon, but don't hold your breath! Cabaret opens in 3 weeks!

 

[bubba73]

Corinna: Even if the pictures are blury at least you have some. I don't have a single picture of the races or any of the WISHers. My camera is big and bulky and there was no way I would even attempt to run with it. I do have a camera on my phone but I don't run with it either. (Just makes me feel like my shorts are about to fall and no one wants to see that !)

I do wish that we would have had a chance to get a picture of you, Liz and myself at JellyRolls that night. At least that would have been a memory. But, alas, I didn't even make one of Jeff's pictures and I think he takes a picture of everything. Se La Ve.

Keep writing when you can. The report is great!
Bryan

 

[kimwim8]

GREAT report so far, C! I agree with the others on your memory....recent concussion and all. You are great with remembering the details that most of us don't, but wish we could.

Blurry or not...LOVE the pics and the fact that you even take them! Someday I'll be brave enough to try!

I know you're really busy IRL...but don't forget we're hanging out here waiting for more!!