here it is... the long awaited race reports
Friday we went to the Disney Safari Fun Run 5K at Animal Kingdom. It was a little cool out but not too bad, it was funny to see all the runners in jackets, gloves & hats when the temps were barely below 60, I was a little cold but warmed right up once we started running. It was really neat to run through the Animal Kingdom park, I had never been there before and the sights were all new to me. I was a little bummed that a good portion of the race was on a back service road but we also got to see all the runners who were ahead of us as they ran past... that was fun! I ran the whole race with my cousin Stephanie and it was fun to see her husband as he passed us and then my husband as we passed him. The whole race was so much fun - lots of costumes and scenery to see and I couldn't believe it when the race was over, it just didn't seem to last long enough! I was so proud of DH - this was his first 5K! We got our medals & pictures and then boarded the bus back to the hotel. After cleaning up we took off for Animal Kingdom to visit the park. We had a great time & I highly recommend the Dinosaur & Mt. Everest rides if you go there! We also loved the safari jeep ride where animals are roaming in open areas and we saw more animals than ever before... the rhinos were a little too close for comfort though! LOL
Here's a pic of the four of us at the race start. We were wearing our Miles for Mike shirts in memory of our uncle Mike. I have the lion mask on, 2nd from the right next to my husband (just have to point out how cool my Firefly shoelaces are... they are made with reflective material)
Me & hubby after the race
now on to the BIG race!
The morning started early at 3am - yes, that is THREE IN THE MORNING! we had to be on the bus by 4am & it was a good thing that we were early because they were boarding 2 buses at a time & keeping the lines moving - there were so many people and that was just at our hotel. We arrived at Epcot and made our way to the port-o-lets, didn't have to wait but a few minutes as there wasn't any lines. Then off to the staging area & into a sea of people and loud music playing - everyone was standing around waiting for the announcement to head to the corrals. They started announcing the waves shortly after we arrived and that's when we moved to the area where there was even more people and I think over half of them in line for the port-o-lets! I was so glad we stopped at the first ones!
We walked a ways to our corral and got settled in a good spot close to the edge - we had an hour before our start time. The weather was a little warmer than the previous morning and I felt comfortable which was nice. They were playing great music and it was fun talking to some of the other runners, reading all the shirts and seeing more men pee on the side of the road than I have ever seen before in my life! LOL There was quite a few women heading off into the wetland area too! We were in the third wave and when the countdown & fireworks went off the mass of people barely moved! It took us over 5 minutes to reach the start line.
so, off we went at a nice pace - I was sticking to Stephanie's pace which is a little slower than mine, so it was easy going for me... I was happy to talk, sing, holler, etc. The biggest drawback of being in the last wave is that it is also the wave with all of the walkers... we spent nearly all of the race trying to get around people walking or suddenly walking after a bout of running. I don't have anything against the walkers but boy, it was so frustrating trying to make our way around them. They would walk as a group 5-6 across and there was no getting through them, you'd have to run in the grass to get in front of them only to find yourself behind more walkers... that went on for nearly the whole 13.1 miles.
The best parts of the race were when we passed by people playing music, this was my longest run ever without my ipod, so I was missing my constant stream of favorite music. There were several people set up along the course with huge speakers and blasting music, getting everyone pumped up and it was so much fun. There was also a high school band and a steel drum band. We had a few "hills" on our course which were a little rough on this Florida flatlands girl, but it wasn't too bad. I thought of Bodacious when a few women behind me started chanting "we can do this, we can do this" and I turned to them & said "no, it's I love hills! I love hills!" and so I chanted that the rest of the way up the steepest of the inclines. Most of the hilly area was the on & off ramps on the Interstate and were difficult because not only did they go up (or down) they also sloped to the side which was something I've never encountered when running.
We got into the Magic Kingdom around mile 5 and it was so cool to run through the streets of that magical place. Characters and staff were cheering us on as we ran through Main Street, Tomorrowland, right through Cinderella's castle and through the colonial & western areas - music was playing, people were cheering, it was so much fun! Then we were on a very quiet stretch of service road with trees all around us and it was so quiet. Stephanie made a comment that it felt like a death march & several people around us agreed. There was one lone guy standing on the side of the road clapping as we went by... so nice of him to come out & support us! I couldn't stand the quiet and started hollering but no one else joined in - we were around mile 7 at this point and I was still feeling great.
At mile 8 Stephanie's IT band started acting up and she was really trying to push through the pain. We stopped so that I could take a bathroom break & she could have a chance to stretch her leg. When we started back up, her leg felt a little better but was still giving her a hard time. She would run for a bit and then fast walk... the funny thing is that her fast walk was WAY faster than I could walk, so I just slowly ran next to her when she had to walk. She did great though and really pushed through it, I kept telling her we could stop but she didn't want to do that. The last 4 miles seem to fly by for me. As we approached Epcot & the finish line, we could hear the crowds yelling and that was a great incentive. I kept encouraging Stef who was having a lot of pain, I don't know how she managed to run those last few miles. Running through Epcot was so much fun, lots of people, cheering and things to look at. I kept trying to find familiar faces but it was impossible with all the crowds. As we approached the finish line there was a woman with a bullhorn yelling out encouragements & would say the runner's name if she could see it... so we heard Way to Go Melanie & Stephanie! Then she says "Way to Go Stephanie *&@#$" (that's her last name, just didn't want to share it here
) the woman on the bullhorn was from Stef's YMCA & recognized her! so cool! We crossed the finish line at the same time and had our Donald Duck medals placed around our necks. I couldn't believe the race was over... it didn't feel like I ran that far, I was having such a good time and enjoyed the nearly 3 hour run so much! my time was 2:51:53
Now the race was over and we grabbed our water/food and started looking for Stephanie's husband. He was in the race too & he usually does a run/walk but he got in front of us and the last time we saw him was around mile 5. So, we are thinking that he must have finished before us and we were watching for him. What we didn't know was that he had stopped to use the bathroom and we passed him. When he rejoined the race, he never caught up to us. When he crossed the finish line 11 minutes after us & didn't see us right at the finish line, he thought we might still be running. Stef & I didn't know what to do because we couldn't find him, didn't have a cell phone, didn't have his bib number to check if he had finished or was with a medic or what. It was a bit stressful. I decided to go & look for my husband, parents & sister in the family reunion area (and make myself available if Trina came too!) So I walked around the family area for about 20 minutes and couldn't find anyone that I knew and decided to return to Stephanie. She & I returned to the area where the runners were coming in & kept searching for her husband. Finally we asked a volunteer if there was a phone somewhere so that I could call my husband & see if he knew where Stef's husband might be... the volunteer was so nice & offered his personal cell phone. I called hubby and he was on the bus back to the hotel (DH & I had planned to meet back at the hotel if we couldn't find one another) but he knew that Stef's husband had crossed the finish line because he saw him come in after us. whew! at least we knew he was ok. We started looking around some more for him and there he was - just 50 ft from where we had been standing! I'm telling you... there was so many people there! In fact, my parents & sister never made it to the HM, they were having a hard time getting into the Epcot parking lot. They had 12,288 finishers for the HM - not sure how many more that were not official finishers because they came in after the 3.5 hour time limit but I heard that there was 15,000 registered people. Now here's the cool part... of the registered finishers, there was 4,961 males and 7,327 females! I think it's awesome that there was a lot more women than men!
We headed back to the hotel where I hopped into a hot shower, got ready and DH & I left for Epcot to meet up with my parents, sister & her husband. I barely sat down for 10 minutes, just long enough to use my new The Stick I got at the expo (check it out at www.thestick.com it's wonderful!) which is probably why my legs started to get very sore quickly, I really should have rested longer. I ended up walking Epcot the rest of the day & then going to a late dinner till 11pm (remember, I had been up since 3am!) I was so exhausted and my poor body needed rest. My legs were killing me especially if I sat down & had to get back up or had to attempt stairs. I had pain in areas on my legs that are not usually sore, possibly due to the weaving around walkers and running at a different gait than usual. By the way Epcot has way too many stairs! It felt so good to sleep that night, I was out cold till 8am and my legs were a little achy in the morning but nothing too bad. We got home Sunday afternoon and I managed a nap and used my stick some more - today I feel really good and I'm ready to loosen up these muscles tomorrow on my first day of HM training for my next race in March. A nice & easy 2 miles are planned for the morning.
Here are a pic from after the HM... will have more when I order them from ASI-
Stephanie & I had a GREAT time, so great in fact that we both signed up today for the full marathon on January 11, 2009 at Disney!!! Anyone want to join us?!
Also... saw so many cool slogans & sayings, one of my favorites was "Count your blessings, not your problems" good night! Melanie
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The forecast for today's workout is highly unlikely.
It sounds like we have a lot in common, LOL.
) I've eaten Sushi 3 of the last 5 nights and did even more shopping today.
