For the first installment from WDW Marathon Weekend, head here.

Our alarm went off at 2am, to begin with. (sorry, subtle homage to Dickens there;). I have to get up several hours before a race start so I can eat and get things moving (I won’t say more than that but my stomach is one of the things I need to get moving . . .) For Disney races, I like to be on the bus no later than 3:15 as I’ve had friends who have cut it short and almost missed the start. The official info says all runners must be on the bus by 4am but if you head down just before 4, I’ve heard there is quite a line.

Woke up, ate my yogurt, had my coffee. Said a prayer and thanked God for a great morning and a body that works. We had hydrated like crazy the day before so I felt really good about that. I’m not always good about it (especially at Disney) and all day yesterday Scott and I kept asking each other “what color is your pee?” Lovely, I know, but it’s a sure sign of hydrating properly (or not). In fact, while at Epcot, Scott ran out of the bathroom and said “my pee is so light you could barely tell I went!” And the family of five that overheard him seemed confused and disgusted. Runners are weird;).

Where was I? Oh yeah, so we head to the bus stop and had a lovely ride there. Sadly, none of our friends were on our bus but we still enjoyed our time. Scott was still concerned about finishing but what are you gonna do? We’re here, we feel good, we look amazing (haha) and we’re ready to run a marathon!!

The staging area is in the Epcot parking lot and from there you have to take a mile long hike to get to the start. My friend Andy over at www.andybox.com did a good job of describing all that on his blog, but the bottom line is it’s long, it’s dark, it’s crowded. And every time I HATE it. But it is what it is.

We gathered with our friends for our traditional shoe picture and it was great to catch up with everyone. I wasn’t too sad that we didn’t get to chat long as we’ll all be back next month for the Princess. Before we knew it we were headed to the corrals – Scott and I kissed and I sent him on his way. He was starting in E and I was in C. I was kind of bummed we wouldn’t be starting together (especially since our times ended up being similar!) but I felt great about the day.

I am THE WORST about taking photos during a race. I just can’t bring myself to mess with it. But you can watch this vide on youtube to get a very real sense of the whole coure. The castle was absolutely gorgeous all lit up since it was still dark during that portion of the race.

I won’t go through mile by miles but I can tell you the general gist of it. The first third I felt great, the second third I felt great, the last third I started getting really nauseous and dizzy so I slowed way down but still felt great, I finished and I felt great. There you go. Truly, the heat made it really hard for me and I really am done with full marathons. I’m just not very good at the distance. I like 15K’s and love half’s but fulls just aren’t for me. I have no doubt that if I trained harder I’d do better but my life doesn’t have space for that right now and anything longer than 12 miles I just don’t enjoy during training runs. And I run because I love it.

Having said that, I had the goofiest smile on my face for most of the race. I just had fun and it made me happy. I chatted along the way with different folks (like always) and was just so amazed at all the hard work and dedication!! And also worried because so many were struggling with the temps. So much so that during the last third I saw WAY more people walking than running. It was clear that it was a problem and with every minute the sun was getting hotter. It didn’t help that most of the course had zero shade and the stretch through Wide World of Sports was particularly brutal.

Oh, and the mile 20 surprise we were all so excited about? Just some puppets and a hot air balloon. Very cool puppets, I’ll grant you, but certainly not worthy of the word “spectacular”. My friend, Lynn, is calling it the “20 mile craptacular” and if you add in how hot it was I’d have to agree!! LOL!

I finished and headed back to the room by walking through Epcot which was hard but fun as there were still runners on the course and I got to cheer them on! I met a great man on the way who had just finished as well. He was meeting his wife for a beer and we were both so  tired that we decided to chat on our way to pass the time. I think I literally said “Dude, would you mind just talking to me for awhile to take my mind off my feet?” Again, these are not things I do in real life, I promise!!

Finally got a call from Scott from mile 24! He was almost done!! I have an amazing husband.

I cannot begin to express how proud I am of him! His times were great, too (way better than I think he thought they’d be) and yes, he’s already planning on doing Goofy next year. Who would have thought??

 It was hard for both of us but before we knew it we were back at the room, showered and ready to celebrate (um, I think I slept for about an hour or so as well – it’s a bit blurry, go figure).

Our dear friends met us at Ohana and despite getting the phone call that our house had flooded, we still had a wonderful meal!! God has blessed us with great running friends and it’s so fun to be able to celebrate together.

Wow, that’s a lot of marathon medals!!!!!

After dinner, I headed to Jellyrolls (amazing piano bar at Disney that happened to be located at our resort) to deal with some of the stress from thinking about the flood and what was waiting for me at home (oh, flood was caused by exploded hot water heater not a natural disaster). My dear friends bought my drinks and I sang Billy Joel at the top of my lungs.
(sorry this pics kind of blurry but check out all those medals on Deb! She’s amazing)

Scott headed out the next morning and I was on a plane not long after. It was such a great trip!!

Up next: final thoughts and why this will be my last marathon for awhile