Racing the Duck - Finished - 1/27 About This Page:

[DrDolphin]

Savings Summary to date -

Resort Savings - $65.68
Food Savings (DDE) - $16.02
Ticket Discount - $42.00

Total - $123.60

[Tara O'Hara]

Awesome update Terri! I hope you guys get a good night's sleep!

[luvnwdwgal]

Thanks for the update Terri! Your dinner sounds yummy!!

[DopeyGirl]

3:25am?!?!?! HOW do you DO it?!?!?! More power to ya, girlfriend!!!

Looking forward to hearing all about the race . . . and all the fun stuff that happened after that!!!

[Jillybean]

Oooh, you are making my mouth water for 'Ohana! Two more weeks and I'm there, baby!

Sounds like the last half of your day was a lot more relaxing!

Now get some before that early, early morning alarm goes off!

Jill

[Colexis Mom]

What a great dinner Terri! We were in that same section in May, what a great view of the castle How great you timed it right with Wishes

Can't wait to see the pictures! Hurry back

[KimandMark]

Your one to talk!! Where is your race report?

Oooh, and I heard some rumblings about stations running out of powerade, was that forshadowed in your latest addition?

I also heard some complaints of people being swept off the course in what they believed was an unfair accounting of the time. Did you run into information at all?

Hurry up and tell us how it was!!!

[petguru]

Hmmmm. I've always wondered how marathoners do it. Now I know. You're running in your sleep!!!

(Then again, I can remember many an early morning wake up call so that I could get the horses braided and ready for showing. Guess it's called obsession!)

Great report as always, Terri! Looking forward to more!

[DrDolphin]

Sunday - January 9 - Day 2 - Part 1.
The Race

Plans this morning - get up and run 13.1 miles...

Reality -

The wake up call came at 325am - and it felt like I had just fallen asleep. I never sleep really well the night before a race anyway - nervous nelly I guess. I got up, got all my running gear on and were headed out the door by 4am. We were under orders to be at EPCOT no later than 5am. So we got downstairs and waited and waited and waited for the bus. I think it finally arrived around 420am... It didn't take us too long to get to EPCOT - and after getting into the runner's area, and making a potty stop, we started walking toward the start. The race start is on EPCOT Drive, outside of the park and about a 1/2 mile from the runners staging area.

Remember that Cheryl and I had originally registered for the full marathon - and due to my pulled hamstring at Marine Corps Marathon in October - I knew I would have to run the half. Cheryl decided to do the same - but we had to line up with the full marathon runners. We lined up in Corral E (not the total back of the back - but no where near the front). We could not see Mickey, Minnie, daisy or Donald on the stage - and this year they did not raise them up in a crane where they could be seen by everyone. Oh well. At 6am - the gun was fired and... we waited. 8 minutes more to cross the start line. As I ran across the start line, I started my Garmin Forerunner 201 personal running GPS and Cheryl started the timer on her watch too. it was dark, and it was cool (temp) - but it was much warmer than previous years we have run - one year it was 29 degrees at start!!! I was warm enough to be in shorts and a short sleeve shirt (unheard of for me). I wore my blue "Racing Stripes" Tigger baseball cap as well.

The race begins with a loop around EPCOT, then the full enters Future world (passing by Spaceship Earth) and exits out near Mexico. They had the torches lit, music going and the globe in the middle of the lagoon!!! it was really pretty. I took a couple of pictures with my disposable camera (that I need to put in to be developed). After exiting EPCOT, the half meets the full and they run together until the half turns off. Overall the race went well. I was pretty happy with my pace, especially since my goal was just to finish upright and smiling (completely different than marine corps - when I had to leave the course due to the bad hamstring).

Kim - to answer your questions:
1) Yes - they did not have enough powerade on the full course - in fact the first water stop outside EPCOT had NONE. Cheryl and I have learned as back of the packers - carry everything you need - since there may not be anyone to give it to you. However, I know there were alot of unhappy people behind us (and I mean ALOT).

2) I did not hear about the course sweeping being timed badly - we did not have an issue with that).

We made the loop out of EPCOT and Cheryl said she was not doing well. I on the other hand was very happy. I could have run faster - but right then - the Garmin TURNED ITSELF OFF - for no reason -- and we discovered Cheryl's chrono timer on her watch did not start when she pushed it. Ok - now we have NO CLUE how long we've been on the course. Neither of us looked at the clock when we crossed the start to see how much time had elapsed from the official clock - this is NOT GOOD. I remembered back to our first Disney half - when it took us 7 minutes - so we used that as a guage.

We passed through the TTC and under the water bridge on teh way to the Contemporary (try running "under water" while holding your breath!!!), and then past the Contemporary and into the back gates of MK. I expected to exit onto main street - but instead we exited into tomorrowland... huh - I have since learned they close the Main Street course at 845am so the race does not interfere with the guests enjoyment (race director told me that this morning and that they ALWAYS closed the gate at 845 - I told him that was hooey - since I have run through that gate at 9am previous years).... so instead of the castle - we were behind the Galaxy theatre and then on through Fantasyland - through the castle (no one got any pictures of us at that point - even though I saw official race photogs there (I got my race photos today - I won't be buying any). After Cindy's castle - we exited through Adeventureland behind the scenes and out onto the road near the Grand Floridian. This is where my body began to rebell. My hamstrings and quads started to tighten up and they got tighter and tighter and it got more and more difficult to run. My walking became more frequent and by the last mile - 12 - I was completely walking. Then I heard Mickey Mouse saying "Half marathoners to the left, full marathoners just keep going to the right". I was never so happy to hear that mouse. Cheryl and I made the hard left turn into the parking lot and I told her I was done. Then she read the clock time - 3:37:30... Wait a minute??? I am 30 seconds away from getting an official time?? Last time I ran the half I weighed 15 lbs less than I do now - and I ran it in 3:39:43 (I had to time it since I was not given an official time) -- and from somewhere I found the strength to sprint. I have no idea where - but I did. Now, when I crossed that line, I had no idea what my official time was - nor did I have clue since Cheryl's timer was not on and my garmin died... I knew I was close to the official 3:30 limit - but not how I had done.

I also discovered that although they were calling out our names, it does not appear they had photographers at the finish - since there are no photos of my sprint!!! Oh well.

After crossing the line, getting timing chips removed and space blankets, we were directed to the "full marathoners who ran the half marathon" table to get our medals. Fine with me - just give me a donald.

Donald around my neck - we left the runners area, called our families and I called Scott and then we decided to walk to the Polynesian to catch the monorail back to Contemporary to get back to WL. This is when we decided we should have carried money (which we usually do) since we could have stopped and had breakfast at the Kona cafe. - Although I doubt the other diners would have appreciated our aroma-de-jour. I could feel that I had a blister on each foot - and I wanted to get out of my shoes and running clothes and take a shower.

Next - Lunch, EPCOT, Yachtsman's Steakhouse and a Passporter Meet.

[Phoebe_Cates]

OK … This is Cheryl here w/ my perspective … Pre-Disney: I had a heck of a time leaving work at 4pm on Fri to make it to BWI airport w/o hitting rush hour traffic. I finally had to pass the baton back to my co-worker, who had originally passed it on to me. Gotta love the federal government! Once I got out of the office, I had to high tail it to BWI, park the car, catch the shuttle, and wait in line to check my bag (I prefer to carry on a bag, but I just couldn’t swing it w/ all of my Disney gear!) … I was standing in line when I got the “where are you?” phone call from Terri. I told her I was on my way and that I’d call once I landed in JAX, which I did. We met up in baggage claim and then made our way to Scott’s house. First impression of Scott: He’s tall and he seemed half-asleep as I dragged all my junk into his house. I introduced myself as the girl shacking up in his guest bedroom, which is better then sofa city at Terri’s place. A towel was laid out for me w/ my own bottle of complimentary shampoo. Isn’t that cute?! I went to bed and woke up to the sound of Terri laughing in the room next door. I’m glad that he makes her happy! .. The next morning we subjected him to girl-talk and then made our way to the HIT center for my BOD POD test, where I paid $50 to find out that my body fat ratio was the same as it was 3 months ago – a bit disappointing, but then again it could have been worse. It will be interesting to find out what it is next Jan (already registered for 2006 WDW Marathon. Woohoo!) . … After my appointment, we headed to WDW.

Day 1 to follow.

-Cheryl

[Tara O'Hara]

Great update, Terri and nice to hear from you too, Cheryl! You guys did great!! Congratulations!!!

[DrDolphin]

Woo Hoo - Cheryl made her first post!!!! Yeah!!!

[MontiMouse]

Great update Terri and Cheryl!

[Jillybean]

Oh, bless you both!

I'm not worthy . . .

Jill

[Colexis Mom]

Congratulations to Terri and Cheryl for finishing the race (and how great to chime in with your perspective Cheryl )!

I'm glad you both did well! Can't wait to hear about the rest of the day