I remember complaining about having to pay $100 and sign up a year in advance to run this thing, which makes me laugh now, but back in 2003 we were still signing up for marathons on the fly, even the larger ones, and easily paying less than $100...my how things have changed! Even so, the 4 of us signed up for the full marathon a year in advance, Toby, me, and Kathy and Mike Murgas, AKA the Murgi. We all had different reasons: Mike Murgas looked up to Walt Disney the man, and really loved the parks, Kathy was already working on her 50 state plan, and this was the most obvious choice for Florida, Toby wanted to qualify for Boston, and me, I just wanted the medal. The Disney mickey mouse medal was notoriously large and yes, magical.
About the event: It is an EVENT, not just a marathon. In 2003 there was a half marathon, whose participants received a Donald Duck medal. Over the years they added a 5K, 10K, and challenges for a Goofy medal (run the full and half), and a Dopey medal (run all 4 races). Wearing costumes is the norm. It was considered somewhat large in 2003, with about 10,000 finishers, but that has since doubled! The current course layout looks similar to the one we ran, traveling from theme park to theme park in a counter-clockwise circle, finishing up in what they call "The Wonder Lot". Leave it to Disney to put a magical spin on a lackluster parking lot finish!
Race day morning: The marathon started before sunrise, at 6:00 AM, and all participants were bused into the park, starting at 3:00 AM and ENDING at 4:00 AM! Needless to say, we were on the very last bus that departed our "Walt Disney World Resort Hotel ®". We arrived to an endless horizon of porta-potties, which, for some weird reason, amazed the three of us. Toby was not so impressed, and somewhat in a hurry to venture off to his starting corral. Since he was starting in a different corral than us we said good-bye and wished him good luck on qualifying for Boston. He would have to run a 3:15 time, which was do-able on paper, since his first and only other marathon was a 3:16. The problem was he had been injured and didn't train much at all, so we were doubtful. Anyhow, back to the porta-potties. We actually had porta potties with the paper tape on them--UNUSED! I think we even took pictures of them! I am not sure how this happened, but we suddenly looked around and wondered where did everyone go? The place was deserted. We heard Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck blasting on a microphone in the distance, so we decided it must be time to head to our corral.So we started walking...and walking...and walking...oh CRAP! The starting corrals were nearly a mile away! As we approached a giant field with the corrals in the distance we took off running and tearing off our warm ups the National Anthem started playing. Another friend of ours told us later that she saw us running across the field like idiots! We hopped over the barricade into the rear of our corral, which was a disaster because we were trapped behind an endless sea of slower runners and walkers. Yeah, we made a lot of "friends" during those first few miles, as we tried to get up to our normal marathon pace. Whew, what a start though! Even though it was still dark there were fireworks in the sky as we ran through Epcot, which was lit up with pretty colored lights.
We headed towards Magic Kingdom as the sun started rising. The theme park was lined with Disney characters cheering us on. It was definitely surreal! Kathy and I were still running together as we passed through Cinderella's castle and got this picture taken:
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| Notice that the era of headbands has ended |
The stretch between Magic Kingdom and the Animal Kingdom was a little boring, but Disney had distractions along the way, such as Jumbotrons and yes, more Disney characters. Our short jaunt through the Animal Kingdom was lined with various exotic animals. We exited Animal Kingdom somewhere past mile 17, and by then I am pretty sure I was on my own, as I was not having the best run. My legs felt pretty dead, and the only thing I could attribute it to was all the pre-race walking! Lesson learned! Hopefully they have changed the route since then, but we were routed out to the Sports Complex and back, which was painfully boring. We didn't enter the MGM Studio park (now Hollywood Studios) until nearly mile 23, but from here on out the marathon was full of activity and fun again. The Tower of Terror is behind me in this picture, which was one of my favorite rides:
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| Happy that the urge to throat-punch a Disney character has abated |
Lastly, it was a short run through Epcot's World showcase, with the very underwhelming finish in the "Wonder lot". As I was in the finish line queue I saw Toby still standing in the finish area wrapped in a mylar sheet and my heart sank. With my nearly 4 hour time he should have been done 45 minutes ago if he qualified for Boston, so I'll turn over the story to him..
Wow, I get to be a guest blogger!!!
“I’m not a runner”, at least not until 2005. My thing was
(competitive) cycling with the occasional run. Disney® sounded like fun, WALLY
WORLD! Teresa was running Boston 2003 (Kathy too), so hey, I'll just qualify
for Boston too! (Back then it was possible to run a marathon in January and
enter Boston). You also got 59 seconds, thus I needed a 3:15:59. Like I said,
I was cyclist, so I was clueless about running, marathon training, etc., In my
one other marathon, I ran a 3:16:17, so knocking off 18 seconds seemed easy
enough. (Don’t dislike me too much for being blessed with natural talent,
find other reason(s).
Simple training plan, increase my long run by 2 miles; 10,
12, 14, 16 & 18, that's close enough to 26.2 (right?) Even this remedial
(i.e. stupid) training plan failed. About 8 weeks to Disney and my training log
comment was, "Slow, out of commission". I limped along the next several weeks,
did a fairly painful (and ugly) 13 miles two weeks later. Finally saw a doctor…
x-rays revealed I had been dealing with stress fracture in the left leg
(tibia). Due to my low mileage approach, (see pure genius) it was showing signs
of healing, so I didn't attempt another run until two weeks to go. Time for a make it or break it 18 miler, I didn’t
break, but pretty darn sore and didn't run another step until
marathon morning. I was still cycling during and rode 150 miles in December, so cardio-wise I was staying in shape.
If I knew then what I know now, doubt I would have attempted the marathon, much less try to qualify for Boston. It was good to be naïve and
not knowing I doing something fairly stupid.
And speaking of stupid… what’s a good way to rest for a
marathon?? Spend two days visiting Disney World®!!! Yep, we walked around for
8+ hours a day, (perfect way to rest the legs, sarcasm). Race morning out into
the darkness, race start @ 6a (sunrise not until 7a). I don't recall much drama
in my world, lined up near front and off I go. Maybe I should have admired the
porta potties like Teresa and Murgi, had to stop for a #1 nature break around
mile 6, not helping my 3:15:59 cause. It was possible to bail around mile 12
and do the half (unofficially). By mile 11, I had pretty much convinced myself
to do that. I was struggling and apparently my impressive ~ 18 miles per week
training plan wasn’t paying off. While I might have been a marathon idiot, I
could still do math, 15 miles is a long ways to go, but I was still on 3:15:59
pace and I feared the wrath of Mickey Mouse for “banditing” the half, so onward I went!
Mile 18 and entering "The Unknown". Last time I ran
farther than 18 miles was in October… of 1999. The amusement and adventure of
running through the parks did help the (struggling) miles tick away, until the
last few miles, when I had the strange urge to punch a Disney character. Flat course and good weather was a blessing, hills or heat would have done me
in. Mile 24, still on pace and I remember thinking I’m going to make my
time! Being marathon stupid I didn't know that things can go dramatically wrong those last couple of miles. And with that, I return you to Little T...
So there he was, still standing in the finish area. I made eye contact and he gave me a thumbs up! He ran a 3:15:27 and qualified for Boston! When I approached him I asked him why he was still standing there. He said he couldn't move!
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| Check out the medals! |
In summary, I loved this marathon, and even now I would recommend it, knowing that it's huge and it's expensive. I would HIGHLY recommend resting your legs the day before the marathon instead of visiting one of the theme parks, but with time constraints on visiting all the parks it's pretty hard to do. It's truly a unique marathon! And for Toby of the (12) marathons he has been blessed to run he considers Disney his biggest running accomplishment. I may be wrong about this, but I think Mike Murgas ran a PR that day as well.
