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.