So Disney has come and gone. It has been two days and I am still recovering. My legs are sore, mostly when I sit for a while or try to walk up the stairs. But race day was fantastic and honestly the marathon at Disney is one that you should try to get to if you ever plan to do a marathon!

Ready!

So I got up at 3:45 that morning. I slept well the night before, considering, getting about five hours. I had everything laid out on the kitchen table in the condo where we were staying and I dressed in about 5 minutes flat. I grabbed breakfast (a muffin, a bagel and a banana) and headed out the door.

Set!

I got to the park in no time, as we were only five miles away and traffic was nowhere as bad as I thought it would be. The morning was nice and brisk, so I wore the marathon shirt they gave out on top of a longer sports bra. I knew i’d warm up when we got moving but wanted to be warm until then. I stood in line at the porta potties first thing. I met a few girls who were doing their first marathon and one high schooler who had done her twenty mile training run on a treadmill – at a 7:35 pace (are you KIDDING me?!)

We went down to the corrals about twenty minutes prior to the race and I peed again! While waiting we watched the full moon, which was pretty awesome. At 5:50 the marathon began. Here’s a shot from the start line:

Go!

And off we went! Mile three found me hanging out with Sleeping Beauty:

What a great sport all of the characters were considering we were a sweaty disgusting crew!

I stopped along the route to take tons of pictures for my daughters. Going into this race I knew I just wanted my time to be around 4:30. Anything under that and I would have been amazed as much as i stopped and anything over 5 hours I knew would upset me.

For the first eight miles I did really well, averaging about a 9:20 pace. For me in a long race this is really good. From miles 8 to about 16 I slowed down some. I stopped for a few more pictures, like this one:

and this one:

I knew my girls would love this shot as our favorite movie ever is Mary Poppins!

Then at mile 18 I went to step down in stride and my leg totally froze up. Don’t ask me what happened. I only know that I couldn’t straighten it out and had to get over ont he side of the course. Luckily I always run on the side of the pact so that was easily done. I massaged it out, tried to stretch, and tried to recover. I stopped at a station for tylenol and Biofreeze. I’d never tried the latter before, but they say it helps soothe sore muscles. For my issue it didn’t work though; in fact, by mile 20 my leg was freezing up every half mile or so. I would ahve to stop, rub and stretch, walk a littl e(I was fast walking at about a 14 minute mile pace) and then I would try to jog again. Sometimes it worked and I could jog for half a mile or so, and sometimes it was just too painful or my leg would not straighten completely and I would have to keep walking.

At mile 26 I snapped this shot:

I was in quite a bit of pain at this point and didn’t think I’d be able to jog across the finish line. I was actually hoping I would simply make it there, walking even. But then of course I started to cry. The emotions and the fatigue and the frustration with my leg got to me.

It is hard to explain,t he marathon experience. You put so much time and effort into training-months and months-and then the day comes and you are totally prepared for just about everything until something like this happens.

My mom was waiting at the finish line, as were my husband and children. I tried to explain my disappointment to my mom and she said, “My Lord, you went 26.2 miles, that’s more than many people will ever do.” I understood that, but I also understood that I was over 5 miles and in looking back at my Garmin I found this:

At mile 20 I was at 3 hours, 29 minutes, which means i could have made my goal of 4:30 if my knee hadn’t frozen up.

I still averaged 11 minute miles, but this was the time I was actually moving. I had to stop and my Garmin turned off, so it was actually more if you count the entire race.

I had trained really well for this. I know I put in the miles and preparation, and so the knee issue was a disappointment.

But today I feel differently. I finished my second marathon, even though I had to walk. I did it! Number two is down. I feel good, my knee appears to be doing okay. I am sore, but that is to be considered, and not really any more sore than I was after my first marathon.

In terms of the entire experience I was much more prepared and refreshed this time. I knew what I was doing and I had put the miles behind me for the training runs. I knew how to handle the mental exhaustion of the race as well, whereas last time it was a bit tough. I didn’t use the porta potties more than twice on the course, woo hoo! Last time I stopped at least six times and my stomach was a wrenching mess.

Here are a few finishing shots:

Me at the finish line with my medal

My mom and me

The girls meet Minnie Mouse!

I have a few posts to do about the marathon. It was a fantastic one and I highly recommend Disney for a marathon stop if you are going to run one. I would like to do it again next year and enjoy the parks after the race. In the meantime I’m going to try to ice up the knee some more and get back into shape. I need to figure out what went wrong this time, why my ;leg did what it did, and make some changes so that it doesn’t happen again.

After:

So the past few days I have been recovering. I was really super tired the night of the race and slept about ten hours. I slept on the way home, too. I didn’t end up nauseous much, and  I didn’t overheat or dehydrate, which were my greatest concerns. I’ve just been really hungry and thirsty the last few days, and sore of course! I plan to go out on my first walk tomorrow morning and will try to jog a few paces but don’t know about the knee or my muscles. It may take a few more days to get into the groove. Last time I ran two days after the marathon but I didn’t hurt my leg during the race so I was in a better position.

I’ll post more soon!

So we leave tomorrow for Orlando. We’re staying at a place a few miles from the entrance of the park, so I should be able to get there fairly easily. Everyone says leave the room at 4. 4! Gosh, so early! I always run around 5, but I’ll get up at 4, leave right away and have to wait until 6 to race. Still not too bad. My husband will drive my mom and the kids over; I’ll take her car to the race.

This training period was not bad. Since I was running 10-13 on Saturdays I only had to increase to 19, which was 6 miles. I did this in about 8 weeks. Slowly, to make sure my knees held out. I do have some knee pain that started yesterday, which is weird since I have been tapering. I think it is associated with bike riding, but my next goal is a triathlon so I hope that it goes away. Maybe just too much with the high running distances.

I only lost one and a half pounds during training this time! I’m really proud of myself. It’s a lot to keep on when you are doing these high mileage runs and I have posted before that I have a tendency to get too thin. My metabolism must be through the roof, and while I know for some people this would be a blessing, for me I have always been a little self concious about being too thin.   I’m glad i was able to maintain my weight this time around. I’m not sure how I did it, but I do know the scale helped. When I dipped down, I ate more. This past week I think I’ve taken in 54,090 calories! I can’t stop eating!

I’m pretty much packed up for the race. I am taking:

• 2 shirts depending on weather (one long sleeved, one short)
• a long sports bra I can wear as a top if it gets hot
• sunscreen (small bottle)
• Ipod with music (which reminds me, have to get that finished today!)
• Garmin forerunner
• 2 power bars, one carb, one protein. I’ll do the carb one first, then the protein one later in the run (I eat when I run; I was famished last time!)
• some fig bars if I can fit them in my waist belt
• 2 water bottles filled with gatorade
• my health waiver, in case I croak on the course (don’t laugh, this is my biggest fear: becoming overly dehydrated like I did when I did the training run when we were house hunting last fall)
• a disposable camera to take pictures around the park as I run. This I am looking forward to most as I have never done this during a race before. However, if I want to do the fifty marathons in fifty states, I sure will see a lot of cool stuff over the years! I think eventually I’d like to get a really, really small digital camera to carry though.

My mom and my sister in law and her boyfriend are all coming to the suite the night before. I’m carbo loading them with spaghetti and texas toast! Then I plan to get into bed at 8 when my kids go down, just as I did last night and will do tonight. I will read my Obama book Dreams of my Father. I haven’t started it yet. I just finished To Kill a Mockingbird, which the entire town I live in is reading.  It was good if not a bit sad! I was asleep by 9:30 last night, and I’m hoping to have a great night’s sleep tonight since I don’t know how well I will sleep tomorrow.

The other night I dreamt that I was participating in a triathlon and then realized the next day was the marathon. Stressed? I think not lol! (Ok, perhaps a little!)

And this is insane, but it is forecasting rain! Same as my last marathon! I thought for sure I’d be battling heat, not wetness. I can’t believe this! It must be my marathon curse lol. Well as long as there is no thunder and as long as my kids and mom and husband can come see me at the finish line I guess I’ll be okay.

So, I’m off for now. I will post pictures once I survive the run. I’m nervous, but I just keep thinking, “I’ll do as much as I can do.” Last time I said I’d do a half, I knew I could do that, and I did the full, even in the torrential downpour.

So, let’s just hope the skies are friendly and the 26.2 is not too brutal!

Happy Running!

So today I did 16, and then next week will be 19 and then two weeks off before the big 26.2.

I’m feeling a bit like I did last time at this point-how in the hell am I going to add 10 miles on to my long runs?! I should have done 16.5 today but I stopped at 16. When I told my husband that he laughed and said, “You mean you ran for sixteen miles and couldn’t finish up that last half mile? Doesnt’ that seem funny?”

So funny I almost turned around and did it-but I didn’t. My feet were hurting and I was hungry. Ravenous.

I had to order my new running shoes from a store online. I hope they come in okay. They were actually cheaper there than they would have been at the store, and there are no running stores around here! I miss LA for the shopping. Not that I’m a big shopper, but when I need a specific thing, like my running shoes, then I want that specific thing easily. But, I just have to be more prepared and order them in advance next time. This gives me one week, a long run, a few weeks of easier runs before the big race. I hope they come in today!

Some crazy random thoughts on this morning’s run:

1. If you are running and you pass someone one time you generally say hello. What if you pass them a second time? Do you say hello again. or do you say something else, like, “Wow, it’s really cold out today!” Or do you just nod? If you pass that person a third time (hey, it happens out here because I’m doing the same loop over and over and over and over and over and over . . . ) is that when you nod? Or do you ignore them because you have already spoken or nodded a few times?
2. Why does running distances make you have to go to the bathroom? Is there something you can take before a run that will stop that need? I recall my first marathon and the time I spent in several of the porta potties. I don’t want that to happen again. Any suggestions would be great!
3. How do deer get cooled down in the hot summer months? I’ve heard it can hit 115 here with the humidity factored in. Deer like cold weather, right? I see them out in the morning when it is cool, looking for food and running around. But what do they do when it is hot?  Do they hide in the bushes and cool themselves off?
4. Why does it always seem that when you add a few miles on it is really much longer and harder than the previous run? I added up to 14 before. Today I went 16. It was only two additional miles, but those two additional miles were tough. Next week when I go to 19, I bet 16 won’t seem so bad. 14 didn’t seem so bad today. Maybe it was because I had already done it. Maybe it is like driving someplace new. The first time seems extra long; the second time, not so much.

Before the end of my run I saw this guy come out of a street running. I’d been running for over two hours, so I knew he was just starting since I hadn’t seen him previously. He wore shorts and no gloves. I know he was extra cold, but he was super fast. He tore up that road at a clip that made me amazed.

I got frustrated. I thought, shit, here I am running, running, running and not going so fast. In my weekly runs I’m averaging about 9:22 but on these long runs I’m hitting the upper 9’s, low 10s per mile. That’s ok with me, until I see someone flying by like that.

Then I thought, I’ve been running for two hours. Two! Maybe he just started. Maybe he’s fresh.

Then, about twenty minutes later, I see him coming back my way. Going sideways. Yes, running sideways. I’m not kidding. Sideways running.

Have you seen this before? What is this? Is it new?

He was a happy runner. Maybe running sideways is a lot of fun. I don’t think I’ll try it, but who knows?

Four weeks until Disney Marathon! See you there!