Disney Fantasy Maiden Voyage

Disney Fantasy Maiden Voyage
Through the porthole on the Fantasy with the Disney Magic in the background

Thursday, August 9, 2012

My first marathon… Walt Disney World Marathon, January 2007


Our first trip to WDW was a quick one, arriving Friday and leaving Monday.  We stayed at Shades of Green, which turned out to be wonderful.  Race transportation was great, both to the expo and to the starting line.  Had a moment of jealousy when we walked out of the resort Saturday morning and saw the half marathoners running by.  At that point, I knew that we had to come back to do Goofy, and I hadn’t even done my first marathon yet.

So here we are at the starting line.  The reality of it all has started setting in and I realize that I might be a touch undertrained.  My long run was a half I completed the first weekend of November 2006… at which, I broke 2 hours for the first time with a 1:57.  Based on this, I had told Greg that I could see myself finishing in 4:00 to 4:15.  HA!!! 

I did great for the first half.  I was right around 2 hours.  GREAT!  And then the lack of training kicked in.  I ended up walking most of the second half of the race.  I could really tell where my long runs ended.  It hurt!  BAD!!  But despite the pain and being very undertrained, I kept a smile on my face.  No matter what, it was still Disney.  Oh, and there was a beer stop on the out & back.  (Sadly, that was the last year there has been beer on the course at a WDW race.)  I finally crossed the finish line at 5 hours and 18 minutes.  Got my medal, collected my food & my gear bag, and wandered out to the family reunion area to find Greg.  Apparently I surprised him by grinning from ear to ear when I came in to view.  He thought for sure that I would want to hang my shoes up when I missed my goal time by so much.  Nope!  I was ready for another (which is a great thing since I was already signed up for my 2nd in Little Rock 2 months later).

So this is where the addiction began… I’ve now completed 34 marathons (or longer).

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