Disney Half Marathon Race Report

Sometimes, the races we train and plan for don’t turn out as we had anticipated. Other races, we expect to struggle and they turn out better than we ever could have hoped. Let’s start with a picture of the ending and you can figure out which kind of race I had:

Three months before this race, I had surgery. The afternoon before the race, I went to the local clinic for a bladder infection. I woke up at 2:00 a.m. Saturday morning to get ready for the 5:30 a.m. start expecting a day full of potty stops and ill effects from antibiotics. Instead, I ran my best time since August, 2008 and my second best time ever.

Here are Mike and I getting ready to head to the start line. Mike was doing the Goofy, which meant he ran the half marathon on Saturday and the marathon on Sunday. He did this in 2009 and wanted to beat his combined time. I was hoping to finish the half in 2:10.

I love this race. Every aspect of it is well planned and executed. The strict corral system requires proof of a previous race time. I was assigned to the second corral, which meant I didn’t have to pass a single walker or any groups that were going slower. I finished with many of the people that started near me. We ran the first four or five miles in the dark so I couldn’t see my Garmin, but it was nice to settle into the group and go with the flow. I had planned to negative split, so I just concentrated on going a comfortably hard pace that I thought I would be able to pick up a little bit during the second half.

While the course does go through the Magic Kingdom and Epcot, there is a lot of running on the highway between the parks. I had my music and enjoyed the flat course. Each mile was marked with a clock and an enthusiastic water station. Even though it was in the 50’s, it was still 50 degrees warmer than what I’ve been training in and I had fears of cramping from the antibiotics. I stopped at every water stop except for the one at mile 13. Luckily for me, it worked. I had a negative split by about two minutes, with mile 13 being my fastest of the race at 9:08. I finished in 2:06:27. Mike finished in 1:51:06. Here we are after the race.

Mike went on to finish the marathon with his fastest marathon time ever. He finished in 3:36:04 and easily beat his combined time from two years ago by over 12 minutes. He’s very happy.

To say that I’m thankful to have been able to run is an understatement. I’m thankful for all of the support and encouragement I’ve received over the last few months. I felt it during the race and celebrated every step. I may not be the same physically as I was before, but I am healing and feel like myself again.