Happy Disney Half Marathon Day!
Today was Brad’s first half marathon ever! I’m so proud of him for successfully get through all of his training. He worked so hard to accomplish his goal of finishing his first half marathon.
The day began super early. Try 3 am early. The race starts at 5:30 and you have to be in your corral by 5 am. Because traffic is cer-razy, we had to give ourselves at least an hour of travel time, even though we’re staying only 5 miles from the park. We did a couple of things that actually helped us in the long run but were completely by chance. We took the wrong exit to the park and missed Epcot, but when we did a U-turn and headed back in the correct directly we actually bypassed a lot of traffic. We turned into the second parking entrance, which actually put us closer to the race start.
We were full of luck this morning!
Also luckily, I remembered reading on Meghann’s tips for the Disney Marathon, that you should not go to the first set of port-a-potties. They were very crowded, just like she said, and I suggested that Brad wait because there would be others. And there was! 🙂
It was chilly this morning, but nothing like last year’s race, so I’ve heard. I kissed Brad goodbye, told him good luck, and went off to find a place to cheer on the crowd.
While standing there, I learned how to use my camera in the dark when objects are too far away for it to focus. I never saw Brad in the crowd, but I had a plan to find him around mile 12.
I set off in search of mile 12 and finally found it. It was still dark and apparently no one else was as eager as I was to stand at mile 12, 20 minutes into the race.
Confession: this is my first time as a race spectator. Shocking, I know. I’m always racing, so this whole “spectating” thing is new to me. I should have taken an hour nap in the car to kill time.
I stood there all alone in the dark for quite a while shivering. I walked around the parking, reading blogs on my Google reader on the iPhone, to stay warm and pass the time. At some point it occurred to me that I could possibly trip over the cement parking blocks, reading and walking at the same time, and injure myself before my marathon tomorrow. How ironic would that have been?
Between 3-9 am, I also ate two different bars (Clif Mint Chocolate Builders at 3:30 and Clif Carrot Cake bar at 7). Apparently lack of sleep (I coughed all night, poor Brad) and wandering around in the dark works up an appetite.
Soon the sun came out and so did the other spectators.
I loved that some of the runners dressed up in Disney costumes.
Before I knew it, Brad was right in front of me. I dropped my phone on the ground, grabbed my camera, and snapped a shot as he whizzed by. He looked to be in good spirits.
We had originally planned to meet at mile marker 12, but I thought Brad would have trouble finding me, so I decided to go find him. We missed each other but eventually met back up again.
Brad had a great first half marathon. His time was around 2 hours, 3 minutes which I think is awesome! He was a little disappointed in the course because much of it was on service roads and not inside the actual parks, about which we already been warned. The corrals were very full so he had trouble running as fast as he would have liked at the beginning. This remained an issue up until mile 8. Disney is a well attended race!
He is really looking forward to his next race, wherever and whenever that might be. He is even thinking about doing a full marathon if he is up for the training.
Overall, I think he had a great half marathon experience. Every race has it’s quirks. You have to weigh the good with the bad and overall the Disney half marathon came out on top.
We returned to our hotel and showered. Brad took a nap while I snacked some more (so hungry today!) and read People magazine.
We lunched and used internet at Panera. I got the French onion soup and the smoke ham and swiss on honey wheat.
A nap is definitely in my future…