Sunday, January 12th – Disney Marathon Recap, Magic Kingdom, and DHS
Finally, the day had arrived. Over a year + of training solely focused on this singular race. Countless hours spent on the road and the indoor trainer. A significant amount of resources spent in training and getting to this race. As Steph repeated many times during the early portion of the Disney trip, “You get the BQ, or you don’t get on the plane home.” She wasn’t being serious, but what she truly meant is, “Don’t let any negative thoughts get in your head. You WILL do this.”
The big question for the week leading into the race was surrounding the unpredictable Florida weather. Well except this time around… The weather was essentially forecasted as warm from the beginning of the 10-day and really never moved. The conditions were not ideal. Based on the T+D of 135-141 from start to finish, it would end up being the hottest marathon I’ve ever run. So the odds of sub-3 were already low, but in these conditions it was going to be darn near impossible. But I had done heat acclimation training for the last three weeks to prep for this. So I was going to just see what happened on race day.
The alarm went off at 1:30am, and I was up and adam. So maybe 4-5 hours of sleep in total. But I didn’t feel overly tired. The adrenaline was flowing. I showered and got ready for the race. Ate my bagel/PB/honey and banana at 2:00am. I also drank 16oz of Liquid IV in prep for the warm conditions. I was out the door at 2:20am and at the bus by 2:30am. I got on the second bus to leave for the morning from POP. I saw
@Disney at Heart and DH and chatted with them on the bus. It was an uneventful ride and we were there around 3:00am. But given what I learned post-race about the traffic, I’m glad I had an uneventful trip to the start.
I made my way through security and to the meeting spot. I put on my DIS sign and my lighted hat. Let’s see who I can remember from the meetup:
@Disney at Heart,
@camaker,
@MissLiss279,
@dtrain, Joshua from Canada, ughhh I’m blanking. I know there were more there… Forgive my lack of memory. I almost approached several Captain Marvels because that’s what
@Nightriders19 was wearing since she was also in Corral A. But after seeing three different ones, I realized I probably wasn’t going to guess correctly.
At about 3:35am they opened up the walk to the corrals and I headed towards the portas outside Corral A.
@dtrain and I continued our conversation and strategy about the race. He made some comment about how finding people interested in Disney and running was a hard combo. So it was nice to find people who had such a unique combined interest. A Captain Marvel made a comment about how her local running group had many runDisney racers. I would find out after the race this Captain Marvel was actually
@Nightriders19!
I made it to the portas right around 4am which was right on time. Headed into Corral A and found a nice spot up near the front. Saw some familiar faces like guy running as Minnie, RunArnoRun, Hilton, and Martins to name a few.
@dtrain and I sat and chatted some more in anticipation of the race. Around 4:45am the activity started to pick up. I did some quick stretching in the corral, and then drank Maurten 320 at about 4:50am (10 min prior to start). And then a few minutes past 5am, Carissa announced the race would be slightly delayed. There were apparently issues with traffic and since the new race course crossed the EPCOT parking lot it was going to be a problem. Not great news right after consuming the Maurten and having my bladder timed out so there wouldn’t be any issues. All I could do was cross my fingers. But the time kept clicking by until we finally got started at 5:22am. Thankfully, the delayed start didn’t cause any problems for my bladder. Game time!
Conditions - ☁ Mostly Cloudy, Wind 5mph to 15mph
Start: Temp+Dew = 68°F + 67°F; FL - 69°F
End: Temp+Dew = 72°F + 69°F; FL - 69°F
Marathon PR to beat – 3:14:05
BQ time to beat – 3:05:00
MILE – SPLIT
Mile 1 – 7:05
And we’re off. And almost immediately my left and right quad right above the knees were screaming. I was completely thrown off by the signals my body was sending me. It felt so unusual to feel so off and in pain so immediately soon in the race. I chalked it up to a stagnant body and once it was warmed up everything would feel smooth again. So I just kept at it and tried to be honest with the pacing. I had originally considered setting a HR limit of 153 for a single lap (mile), but late on Saturday had decided I wasn’t going to do it. I would run purely by pace and what felt right. So, while the quads were hurting, I was happy with the first split coming in at 7:05. I knew today was going to be hard. I carried 5 oz of Liquid IV and drank little bits of it until I hit the first aid station.
Mile 2 – 7:01
Well the good news is that the ~7:05 pace felt right, but the bad news is that the pain in my quad wasn’t feeling any better. But the goal was to continue to hold the effort and see whether the pain would subside. Still holding good. Post-race analysis shows the HR of this mile was a 153. So even without the watch feedback I was essentially right where I wanted to be (at the top end of what I’ve shown to be physically capable). It also shows that it would have been unrealistic to expect anything faster than this pace (at least this early on).
Mile 3 – 7:05
Now with two consecutive miles at even paces, I was feeling more confident that today’s pace was going to be around the 7 min/mile barrier. This would put my finish in the 3:07 – 3:14 area which was nearly spot on to what I would have assumed going into it. I was actually feeling comfortable in the T+D and lack of sun. But it was only going to get hotter and sunnier as the race went on. Entered the backside of EPCOT and was seeing a consistent 7:05 pace still. HR of 153 again and right on target.
Mile 4 – 7:06
Ran through EPCOT in this mile. Pretty sure I remember something Figment related. Then a fairly tight path that wasn’t too bad since there weren’t that many runners around me. Then I saw Phineas (or was it Ferb?). And just as soon as we entered EPCOT, we were out. As I was just starting to make my way on the pathway, we previously used to get to the corrals I could see a group of people still heading to the corrals. Then as I got to the corral area, they were on either the last or second to last corral release. I was hugging the tangent as much as possible. I was hurting but holding on. The starting line crowd was kind of nice right here because they were so close to the running path in this year’s edition. So, I could feed off the energy. But nothing was making the quad feel any better. HR of 151 and still right where I expected to be.
Mile 5 – 7:11
It was becoming evident during this long turn that my left quad was not going to improve. The right one still hurt too, but not nearly as bad as the left one. But with a lack of improvement it was going to become a goal of do what you can to finish and keep on trying hard. Other than the band, I’m not sure I remember anything in this area. With the slight drop in pace came a slight drop in HR as well to 150.
Mile 6 – 7:15
Ran through the EPCOT parking stalls and then made our way to yet another large turn. Had 2oz of my Tailwind during this mile. Keep on trucking. HR of 148 now. Now we’re venturing into average marathon HR.
Mile 7 – 7:16
Now I was making the large turn again and the slant of the road wasn’t doing me any favors. I felt like it was really slamming my leg hard. It was interesting to run on the opposite side of the road here. HR still falling now down to 146. This is the low end of marathon HR.
Mile 8 – 7:18
Alright, I can hold on to a ~7:15 pace. This can work. I can tolerate this level of pain for this payoff. Well, actually maybe I can’t. Why can’t the pain go away… Ugh… I’m never doing another marathon. HR of 145 which is pretty low now. In retrospect, given the HR the aerobic conditioning even in this T+D was quite good. Something in the 3:07-3:14 area seemed completely reasonable even in these conditions. But clearly was something wrong with the non-aerobic part of the equation. Had my Maurten Caff gel during this mile.
Mile 9 – 7:19
I promised myself if I saw Lightning McQueen that I would stop for a picture. Given I had bib #95 it felt like an obligation. So when I saw him during Mile 9, I knew I had to stop for a quick pic.
So I finally accomplished something I hadn’t done in a runDisney race yet – get a character pic during a race. Checked that one off. J For a moment, I started feeling better and maybe the quad would finally loosen up and feel normal again. But alas, it must have just been adrenaline, because the pain returned soon enough. HR of 146.
Mile 10 – 7:25
Making the final stretch towards Magic Kingdom. Through TTC and past the Contemporary. The uphill and downhill was killing my quad here. I was really feeling the slow down now. Doing whatever I could to make my quad feel more comfortable. Came to the realization in this mile that the goal needed to change from any time goal to just finishing. Today was not going to be my day. HR of 145.
Mile 11 – 7:29
Magic Kingdom and running down Main Street!
@disneygpa and let me know that his DW would be cheering from there. So I kept my eyes open. When I was making the turn towards Tomorrowland I heard, “Billy” and turned to see
@disneygpa DW. It was a pleasure seeing a friendly face and it gave me a momentary boost. Running through MK was nice, but it was kind of hard to enjoy it because of the quad. HR of 145.
Mile 12 – 7:37
And now that we’re out of MK and heading into Cone Alley, things weren’t feeling as good anymore. The pace continued to fall in order to maintain a tolerable pain in the quad. Seemed like the cone alley area was a little different, but I couldn’t put my finger on how. HR of 141.
Mile 13 – 7:52
Making the last stretch of cone alley past the GF and Poly. The crowd was nice, but I was really feeling it. Everything else felt so comfortable and easy. I was barely breathing and the effort was relatively low. But the leg just wasn’t holding up. HR of 139. Now we’re moving into the high end of long run pace.
Mile 14 – 7:57
Crossed the HM point around 1:36 if memory serves correctly. That’s in line with when I’ve run a 3:14 and 3:16. So, despite the quad pain, things were going ok. I had no expectations on finishing time anymore. It was nice entering the area where the waste treatment plant is because the trees made it super cool in there. A nice relief from the T+D elsewhere. Granted the T+D was still manageable and I don’t even think I was even sweating that aggressively anymore since my effort felt so low. HR of 137.
Mile 15 – 8:05
Temps still feeling great back here. I was literally counting down the miles to finishing now. It was just a goal of forward momentum now. HR of 136.
Mile 16 – 8:09
Only 10ish miles to go. I can do this. Almost to Animal Kingdom. Pretty sure this was where the out/back portion was. I got to see a few runners on the other side. They looked like some of the top runners. Then I saw Martins and a group of guys around her. Kind of cool to run opposite the female leader. Then I saw
@dtrain not far behind Martins and he was still looking strong. HR of 136.
Mile 17 – 8:19
Entered Animal Kingdom. It was around this time that I was really REALLY starting to hurt. I was worried I had done some serious damage. I wasn’t positive exactly what the problem was, but the quad felt horrendous. I wasn’t positive at this point that I could finish. I wasn’t thinking about mile 20 or 25 anymore at this point. At this point I was more concerned about mile 17.1 or 17.2. The HR had now dropped to 134 which was a low-end long run pace from this training cycle. Passed Everest and was ready for the run back.
Mile 18 – 8:24
Just keep running. I was on my way back to the turnpoint. HR of 133.
Mile 19 – 8:26
Hooray, made it to the out/back section! Thought I saw
@Jason Bryer in this section.
@huskies90 was in this section as well. The nutrition was still on point. The effort was low, but the leg just literally hurt with every step. HR of 133.
Mile 20 – 8:44
This was an interesting stretch of road towards Cornando. Although, admittedly I don’t remember a ton about this section. HR of 132.
Mile 21 – 9:06
Now I’m really hurting even more. It’s becoming a will of just getting to the finish. I never honestly felt like quitting, but man did this experience suck big time. I’m pretty sure this is where
@Nightriders19 passed me. Headed towards Blizzard Beach and was interested to see how it would be designed. HR of 130. Falling HR into easy zone now.
Mile 22 – 9:18
Blizzard Beach was an interesting loop. I don’t know how I’d feel about it if I were trying to run full speed. A lot of tiny twists and turns. I ran through some bubbles and even muscled out a smile for the cameras. I was hurting on the inside, but I could still manage a smile on the outside. HR of 130.
Mile 23 – 9:17
Hey, look at that. The first mile that was faster than the proceeding one since Mile 2! LOL! I didn’t know in the moment that I was running a near perfect slowing progression run. Now quite the right direction… Just a nice and easy ascent on one of the only true hills in the run. Still on 12 feet though. Jaime Dawes finally passed me here. She didn’t recognize me at first, but I was keeping an eye out for her since I knew she was aiming for around a 3:25-3:30 marathon. She said I should follow her in to the finish, but I let her know that I felt seriously injured and couldn’t possibly increase the pace. Just need to make it to the finish. HR of 130.
Mile 24 – 9:21
Home stretch! Once you get to DHS it’s all easy street from there. So many things to look at and enjoy. So now I could just sit back and coast into the finish. Passed through DHS (that was quick!) and then past the Skyliner. On to the path towards the Boardwalk. HR of 129.
Mile 25 – 9:20
It’s the Boardwalk! Hey there’s
@MommaoffherRocker. She offered me an ice bag, but I knew at this point I couldn’t stop running. If I stop, I may never start back up again. Through the Boardwalk. Hey there’s
@Wendy98! She was yelling for me to keep going. There was also another girl’s family yelling for her to keep going and she started to push it. By the time we were clear of ESPN she started walking again. But when the 3:30 pacer came up to us she started to push again and run with him. That downhill towards the International Gateway was absolutely horrendous. I was having to swing my left leg outwards because it couldn’t take the force head-on normally. HR of 129 as I entered the back of EPCOT.
Mile 26 – 9:22
At this point I knew I could finish. I just kept continuing to coast to the finish. Saw some princesses and some guests walking around. Passed the Norwegian girls and knew the finish line was within striking distance. Alright, only about 2-4 min to go. HR of 130.
Mile 26.34 – 17:22 min/mile
Almost as soon as I passed the 26-mile marker, the leg just completely gave up. It was completely locked up and in just absolutely killing me. I got approached by several medics asking me if I wanted to continue. I said I made it this far, I was going to finish. Whether that’s running or simply walking to the finish. I was ugly crying like a beast at this point. This last portion of the race took me almost 6 minutes. The leg just had nothing left to give me. So, I just dragged it behind me to the finish line. It certainly hurt my pride as soon as I turned the corner and saw the crowd. I wanted to run, but I knew my leg was not going to hold up for much longer. So, I waited until I hit the straightaway to the finish to give my last little bit. As I got started back up again, the crowd got louder. It probably wasn’t for me, but it felt like it. Then Creigh Kelly called me out. Said, “We’ve all been like that guy in the yellow singlet. That’s William Blaser from Cottage Grove giving his all to the finish. You’re a marathoner William!” And then we gave each other a high-five. And finally, it was over. So many tears. Crossed the line in 3:35:00.
Overall Place – 236th/14106th
Gender Place – 208th/6577th
Age Group Place – 40th/971st
I continued through the finisher’s chute. A medic asked me if I was ok, and whether I needed help. I just motioned towards the medals and kept walking. After I got the medal, I saw Steph and family and mouthed that I needed ice. So, I shuffled back over towards the medics and said I needed ice on my quad. So, I sat down and they strapped the bag of ice to my leg. They told me to drink an entire bottle of water and I was like, I’m fine really. This isn’t heat related, my leg is just killing me. As soon as they turned their back I got up off the bench and shuffled through the rest of the finish chute. Got my hat and handed another bottle of water. Really, no, I’m fine. The ice was slipping so I had to walk with one hand on my leg. Got through the whole thing and saw Steph and family. G had a special surprise for me. A GIANT DOUGHNUT! YUM!
I went and got re-taped and then demolished the doughnut. We decided just to head back to the resort. We met “Flashlight” at the POP bus stop and he said he works all the runDisney weekends. So maybe we’ll see him again in the future. I got on the bus. Slowly. And sat down in the first seat. The leg was still killing me, but the ice was helping. We eventually made it back to POP and I just shuffled my way back to the room.
LINK – My thoughts on the race.
No rest for the worry. I got cleaned up and showered and then it was time to head to Magic Kingdom. My waistband was all cut up by my Nike shorts. Glad I didn’t realize this until after the race was over. Yikes!
Shuffled to the Magic Kingdom bus stop. Holy crow it was hard to sit down. May never stand up again once I sat down. I actually don’t remember a ton about what we did at MK. I know we ate at Skipper Canteens (first time). It was decent and the server was funny. We met Mickey on Main Street. Other than that, it’s a blur.
After MK, we headed over to DHS. G really wanted to do Alien Saucer Swirls at night. We did the Ariel show. Then, we did Star Tours (G’s first time). She’ll never do that again. She was screaming the whole time, “Why did you make me do this!!!” LOL! We made our way through Star Wars land. It was cool and we were really hopeful we could swing a ROTR boarding group on either Monday or Tuesday morning. We also met Chewie (first time), Vamparina, and Fancy Nancy. Fancy Nancy went crazy for G because she was wearing her jacket and had a stuffed dog that looked like Frenchie.
Made it over to Aliens and rode that. G liked that a lot better. Then I’m pretty sure we called it a night not long after that. Headed back to POP on the Skyliner (did I mention that this is so convenient!) I’m pretty sure we ate dinner at the cafeteria that night. Hit a step record 59,000 and estimated distance of 37 miles. The leg actually held up fine for the day. Which makes the experience during the race only that much more confusing. It surely wasn’t torn as I had originally thought. I actually didn’t even know if anything was actually seriously wrong with it at all. So why the bizarre feelings. Ugh! Finally made it to bed at 8:30pm. No rest for the wary though because we’ve got a ROTR boarding group to get tomorrow!
Next Post:
Monday, January 13th – DHS, Swimming, and Animal Kingdom