Date: January 7, 2012
Location: Orlando, FL
I’m not sure how it happened. One minute my sister and I were chatting about how fun it would be to do the Disney half marathon, and the next thing I knew we were actually there, two bodies in a sea of 28,000 people at the start line. Along the way, I’d developed a nueroma in one of my toes and had to get a cortisone shot. I’d run 10 miles in the snow. I’d put in my long runs dutifully, week after week, even going for a 10 miler on Christmas Eve day. Somehow I had managed to get through it all, and here we were, getting on a bus filled with our fellow runners at 4 am.
Disney official information had informed us that all runners needed to be at the start and in their corrals by 5 am. But by 4:30 am we were still firmly in the bus, trying to make it to Epcot — along with what looked like several thousand other cars and buses. At 4:45 we were still on the bus, this time idling only yards away from the entrance. The bus driver failed to inform us of much, but we managed to figure out that the bus’ brakes were out (so that’s why it smelled like a rubber plan the whole way here!) – and we were eventually escorted off the bus onto another, and shuttled the remaining feet to the race entrance area.
My sister and I followed the throng of runners through the bag check and down a long road to the start. When we finally made it to the corral area, we both decided we had to pee. And while I was in the porta-pottie I stupidly missed the start of the race, which, I’m told began with a fireworks display. By the time we made it to our corral, the wave before us was starting and we finally crossed the start line around 5:30 am.
In our original plan, my sister and I were going to run the entire race together. But by the week before the race, we’d both decided our paces were too different for that to work. So we discussed running the first few miles together and going out on our own after that. However, only a half a mile in, she took off. “Sorry,” she said, “this is way too slow for me.” And so I began my lonely 12.6 mile journey to the finish.
We couldn’t have asked for better weather. It was about 50 degrees the entire time I was running. Since the sun didn’t really rise until mile 8, and then it was cloudy, I didn’t even need the sunglasses I had perched on my head.
Along the route, Disney had done it’s best to provide us with visual and auditory entertainment. At mile 2 I saw Dark Wing Duck At mile 3, a great display of classic cars. At mile 5, actors on giant stilts gave us high fives. Every mile was marked clearly with a clock showing the official time.
I felt great at mile 6 when we finally entered the Magic Kingdom. All along the route, I had been dodging slow runners and walkers, and as the course narrowed through the main entrance to Disney, I had to slow to practically a crawl. The Magic Kingdom was still decorated for Christmas, and in the early morning light, with the crowds and music, and Disney characters around every corner, it was practically magical.
I stopped a few times for pictures and approached Cinderella’s castle at mile 7. Here the running crowd went wild. As we passed under the castle, a runner threw his hands in the air and let out a celebratory holler. It was contagious and pretty soon everyone was hooting and hollering in Cinderella’s echo-chamber of a castle.
Nearly out of the Magic Kingdom, I ran past Princess Tatiana, a Chipmunk, and Captain Jack Sparrow before the course dumped us out the back door and onto the (relatively) empty road. I’d made it 8 miles and still felt good, but as I started calculating, I could feel my spirit start to fall a little bit. I still had 5 miles yet to go, and even though we were on our way back to Epco, it felt like these last 5 miles could be an eternity.
By mile 9, the excitement of the whole thing had worn off. I could feel blisters forming on what seemed like all of my toes, and my legs were getting tired. I could feel myself slowing down, but I knew I only had 3 miles left – or a 5K – or 30 minutes – whichever way you looked at it, it wasn’t much longer. And I’d already done 9. I could easily do 3.
Near mile 10, we were running on the highway outside of the Disney campus. As I rounded a corner, I saw a stream of people running on an overpass ABOVE the highway. How the hell were we supposed to get up there? By taking the exit ramp, obviously. You don’t realize how steep those things are until you’re on foot. I trudged up the hill, gave up half way, and walked to the top. A Team in Training coach at the crest of the hill shouted, “Great job! It’s all downhill from here!” And so I felt a little better about my achy legs and increasingly painful toes, and picked up the pace for a bit. At mile 12, an announcer was asking the runners where they were from. I heard shout outs from people from all over the world and from every state in the naion.
And that’s when I saw it.
Another hill!
At mile 12!
That woman had lied to us!
I wasn’t about to go back and correct her, and so at my breakneck speed of a thirteen minute mile, I made it to the top What goes up, must come down, and at the bottom of the hill we were greeted by a band singing, “I could run 500 miles, and I would run 500 more…” At mile 12.5, as we re-entered Epcot, a gospel choir in sunshine yellow robes re-energized me. Only a half a mile to go!
I ran faster through a throng of people, most of whom were shouting, “You’re almost there!” We made a loop around the Epcot ball, rounded another corner, and there it was, the finish. Disney had pulled out all the stops for this. A large grand stand on the left allowed for spectator viewing, and a giant jumbo-tron showed everyone crossing the finish.
I admit – I was tired as hell, and I went over the finish line more relieved than anything else. When I watched the video of myself crossing the finish line, which was made available online a few days after the vent, I was one of only a handful of people not raising my arms in the air and cheering.
I was immediately presented with a giant Donald Duck-shaped medal and gratefully accepted a space blanket, before being funneled through the food station, and dumped back out into the parking lot, where I immediately texted my husband and sister to try to find them. All around me, people were reuniting with their loved ones; collapsing, exhausted on the ground; sighing in satisfaction for having completed an amazing feat; and I felt AMAZING.
My finish time might not have been ideal – I was shooting for a 2:30 finish and actually came in at 2:44:56 – but I had just run 13.1 miles. And that was an eternity for me. A little over a year ago I could barely finish 4 miles in tact. A before that… I would have laughed at you had you suggested I get up off the couch and go for a run.
I’ve accomplished a lot. And I have so much more yet to do.
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I bought good shoes, a good bra, and a some nice workout clothes. And then I vowed to never skip a day of my training. I knew that if I made one excuse it would turn into three excuses, which would turn into 20 excuses and me looking in the mirror in December realizing another year had passed and I hadn’t even gotten around to doing that triathlon thingy.
sprinkles on top 