1/12/10-WDW Half Marathon race report

Being a native Floridian, I’m used to the crazy Florida weather-raining in the front yard but not the back yard, “sun showers”, temperatures climbing into the 90s in November and humidity constantly so high that even the most expensive hair products are useless. But never in my wildest thoughts when I hit the submit button to register for the WDW Half Marathon last March did I ever, ever think that on race day I would be running with snow flurries in the sky and sleet pelting my face. Yes, you read that correctly.

I started my “official” training plan 14 weeks prior to race day, training in temperatures up to the 90s-with humidity just as high. On my longest run (12 miles), it was in the low 60s with almost no clouds and a nice light breeze which for me was the perfect weather to run in. Once race day was within the 15-day window where we could start to get an idea of what the weather might be like at the start, I began to wonder about the outfit I was planning to wear (running skirt and tank with a throwaway sweatshirt on top, maybe a pair of throwaway gloves depending on starting temps). Rain in the forecast-no biggie, been there-done that. But as the forecasted temperature kept dropping...then I dug in my drawer and pulled out a pair of Nike dri-fit stretch pants I had bought to use at the gym and tried them out on the “coldest” day we’d had so far before the race (it was in the 50s the Tuesday before I left for WDW).

Race day. Awoke to freezing temperatures so I put those pants on with my running skirt on top, long sleeved wicking top with a sleeveless tank over it and my sweatshirt on top...and of course my kids’ knit gloves I picked up for fifty cents (2 pair for $1) at Target. Loaded up my Spibelt with my gels, phone and camera and went down to the lobby to meet up with friends from Running of the Ears. We headed to the bus pickup at about 3:30am. Once we arrived in the Epcot parking lot, we headed over to the “H” tent to meet up with others from our forum. Announcements were being made that everyone needed to head over to the start in five minutes so I went over to check my bag. They wouldn’t let us back over to the tent area after that so I got separated from all the ROTE people...so I headed over to the start by myself.

I was in Corral G, the last corral but I was able to maneuver myself to the front. It was only about 5am so we still had almost an hour to wait before our corral would be able to start. It was freezing-and then we started to get light sleet with snow flurries mixed in. I fired up my Garmin around 5:30 and waited. Finally the wheelchairs started and each wave went off with a countdown and fireworks. Ours was the last group to start. Started my Garmin and off I went for my first half marathon! Started out jogging for the first two minutes before switching over to a walk. I started my iPod shuffle with my playlist of favorite songs over which my fantastic husband had overlaid a voice to tell me when to walk and when to run (I was doing a 3-minute walk, 2-minute run).

The first mile was a little tough since I was starting out in unfamiliar weather territory, but after that I got used to it. The sleet pelting my face was a bit annoying but hey, I was at Disney World and wasn’t going to let it bother me. We headed out on the roads from Epcot toward the Magic Kingdom. It was neat seeing the characters from time to time-I didn’t want to stop though as I wanted to make sure I was staying ahead of the sweepers. My Garmin showed I was doing okay but I didn’t want to risk anything. A little before getting to the Magic Kingdom parking lot I finally couldn’t hold out for the bathroom so I trotted over to the port-a-potties, wasting about 2-3 minutes waiting for a turn. I’m glad I did though as I didn’t want to interrupt my run through MK with a potty break...plus I didn’t have to go the rest of the race.

Entered the MK parking lot, then down past the Contemporary hotel and finally over to MK itself, entering onto Main Street. Down Main Street I went running, waving at the ROTE cheering section before turning into Tomorrowland. Walked through there and part of Fantasyland before running again near the carousel and through Cinderella Castle into Frontierland. Finally we were backstage again and headed back out to the roads taking us toward Epcot again. I took pictures of as many of the mile marker signs as I could and some of the characters. Once I hit mile 10 I started to flag a little bit...then I saw the green army men with only a couple of people in line so I finally stopped for a picture. After that I was smiling and energized again. Even the few “hills” toward then end from climbing the overpasses didn’t faze me (although I did walk them---but at faster than the 16 mile/minute pace!). Unfortunately, the sleet had changed over to rain---I say “unfortunately” because even though the sleet was gone, now it felt colder then it had before! During the last 3 miles I did walk through several of my run intervals, but rarely throughout the entire race did I go slower than the 16 mile/minute pace.

Finally entered Epcot Center itself and the final mile. Once I made the turn out of Epcot toward the finish, I started my final run interval (it was funny to me that every time I was at “key” points where there would be ASI photographers or special places on the course like Main Street, the Castle and the finish area my special playlist was on a “run” section-it just coincidentally worked out like that). I was smiling the whole way through the grandstand section and across the finish. I had done it! My first half marathon was over...and I had done it with no problems at all. I even felt like I could have gone a few miles farther!

Got my mylar blanket and wrapped myself up (those things really do help!) and walked over to get my medal-with a huge grin on my face! Grabbed a muffin, banana and some water before heading to the bag check tent. The line for my section was huge and I had to wait almost 20 minutes to get my bag, during which time I kept getting colder and colder, shivering in my wet clothes. After I finally got my bag, I exited the tent to find my best friend, her husband and my godson waiting for me. I was way too cold to stay to meet up with anyone at the H tent so we went to the car so I could start to warm up. It wasn’t until I was back in the hotel room for quite a while-like almost an hour-before the shivering stopped.

All in all it was a unique experience for my first half marathon. I mean, who thinks they are going to do their first half in “sunny” Florida at Disney World in freezing temperatures with sleet and snow flurries? But overall I had a great time...and later that day once the results were posted I found out my official time was 3:22:13, a 15:26 pace. I was hoping for 3:15 but considering the conditions (and the mildly hypothermic condition I was in at the end), I was happy with the time. My Garmin showed 3:17:43, but I had forgotten to switch off the auto-pause feature that stops the timer when you are stopped, so it had stopped timing when I was waiting to potty and to take the picture with the green army men.

Now to look forward to next year...and wonder whether I should try for the full in 2010. Hmmm.....decisions, decisions.

Carra

1/5/10-Oh my, it's almost here!

Today is Tuesday, January 5th...tomorrow I will be working a half day (getting off at 12), then stopping at WalMart/Target to hopefully pick up a couple of long sleeved tops before coming home, packing up the car and driving up to Disney! Tomorrow night I'm staying off property (using a free night reward), then will be checking into Pop Century at WDW Thursday morning. Then on to the expo at Wide World of Sports to be there when it opens at noon. I'll get to meet up with many other people from the Running of the Ears (ROTE) website (I'll be wearing my bright red ROTE hat!), some I've already met once at the Royal Family 5K back in March at WDW (Princess 1/2 weekend). They might not recognize me though, I've lost weight since then plus I was dressed horribly that morning...I knew nothing about dressing properly for running and was wearing an oversized cotton tshirt and running skirt that day-once I saw my pics i just cringed as I kinda looked like a big boxy thing. Now I know better...although I'll be bundled up that morning anyway. The low marathon morning is supposed to be in the upper 20s! Yes, here in Florida!

I tested out a pair of stretchy Nike Dri-Fit legging-type workout pants on my run today and it seems like they will keep my legs warm so I'll most likely be wearing those with my running skirt on top of them. Then either a long-sleeved (if I luck out and find out tomorrow after work) or short sleeved top with the ROTE red tank top over it. If our ROTE tops don't come in on time then I have another tank to use. I got a sweatshirt to wear over those until I get too hot, then can toss it. Also got kids knit gloves from Target (2 pair for $1.00, such a deal)...might hold on to those though, they will probably fit in my Spibelt especially once I start eating my gels. And of course my red ROTE headsweats hat!

Since I'll be wearing the sweatshirt, I plan on picking up some "toggles" for my Spiblelt at the expo---they clip onto the race number bib so you can attach it to your Spibelt...then I won't have to worry about my number being hidden by the sweatshirt so I won't have to dredge through tons of pics on the ASI photo site afterward trying to find myself.

Anyway, I'm about 2/3 of the way packed, just have bathroom stuff and then my electronic stuff left. Will probably do most of that when I get home from work tomorrow. Going to hit the sack shortly...next blog will be my race report!

Walt Disney World Half Marathon, here I come!!!

12/27/09-Less than 2 weeks until WDW Half Marathon!

12 weeks of half marathon training are now in the books. Just under 2 weeks until the half itself! 12/19 I completed my longest training run (12.2 miles) with the 3 min walk/1 min run intervals. I finished within pace requirements even with 5 stoplights that I had to wait for. I also tried out my new fuelbelt during that run (A 4-bottle Helium Fuelbelt). Yes, I know I really should have tried it on a shorter run first but everything worked out fine---and I LOVE the belt. It worked out great, no movement and my arms didn't hit the bottles. I used 2 bottles for G2 and the other 2 for plain water (to have with my gels). Even with all four bottles full I didn't feel the weight on my waist/hips at all.

Now for Christmas---DH got me some AWESOME presents. A set of Klipsch earbuds that work with my iPod shuffle (man do these things sound great!)...a Nikon Coolpix 10MP digital camera with a 4GB SD card (OMG this camera is so light it feels like I'm holding a feather, will be perfect to have along to take pics during the half!)...and finally........a Garmin Forerunner 305! Now, I've heard plenty of running friends online talk about the 305 and how much they like it. I tried it out on my 10.2 miler yesterday (more on that in a bit) and WOW! This is the absolute coolest gadget I've ever had. I set it up Friday night...had the screen set up to show time elapsed, distance traveled and current pace (plus it showed my heart rate in tiny numbers up in the corner). It was so cool to be able to look at all that information during my run. I think it helped me to go faster since if I looked at it and it showed my pace was lower than what the pace requirements are for the race, I picked up my pace. Another cool feature-I turned on the "Autopause" which stops the timer when you stop moving like for stoplights! When I got back to the house, I hooked it up to my computer (which BTW is now a Macbook Pro---DH bought a new one so I got his old one) and it uploaded the info from my run. It displayed all the info for me---time, distance, pace, avg heart rate, max heart rate, avg speed, max speed...plus it had charts showing the change in speed over time, elevation and heart rate over time (for all of those, picture a printout from an EKG, that's what those looked like). So I'm totally in love with my 305! I'm still keeping my Polar F11 HRM for gym workouts and as a backup "just in case" but for any walks/runs it's the 305 all the way!

Back to yesterday's run. After doing 12.2 miles the prior week, now I am tapering until the half so yesterday was 10.2 miles...but doing 3 min walk/2 min run intervals instead of the 3/1's. As I mentioned earlier, when I would look at my 305 and see my pace slowing a bit, I would go faster and I think that is what helped me lower my pace. My overall pace for the entire 10.2 miles (including a 10 minute warm up walk and 5 minute cool down walk) was 15:13 min/mile---my fastest pace yet for a LR. And I'm not even going at race pace. So I'm more confident now about my ability to stay ahead of the sweepers during the half.

Weekday training runs are now getting shorter plus my next LR on Saturday will be only 7 miles. The Saturday after that is the race! I'm getting really excited, I can't wait to get up there! I've got my packing list started and am making my final meal reservations. Not much longer to go!

12/8/09-Weight update

Just wanted to add an update on my weight. Last week I lost.........3 pounds! Yes, that's right, 3 pounds! So now I've lost 43.2 pounds and I'm down to 209.0. Pretty happy with that; this Sunday though I'll probably have a visit from TOM so I'm not holding my breath for a big number (or even an average number). I'll keep up my training, went to Bally's this afternoon but every single elliptical was in use the entire time (BOO!!! I have started looking forward to using that darn machine...) so just did the bike and some strength on the machines. Tomorrow is a rest day.

12/5/09-9 weeks done-really feeling it now!

Just let me say oy vey! Today was the last day of my 9th week of half marathon training. I completed 10.1 miles today under massively humid conditions (started out with 100% humidity and stayed within 85-100% the whole time I was out there). I was soaking with sweat after just a couple of miles. Wasn't hot, started at 75 and ended at 80...and the sun was only out for a little while, then it was overcast the rest of the time. But let me tell you, the humidity REALLY can drain you. I did bring enough fluids (G2 and plain water) to hydrate with plus I had 3 GU gels. Hydrated every 20 minutes...on the 40 minute marks took gel plus plain water; the other ones had G2.

My legs were perfect the entire time, no shin pain of any kind. My back though-mid to upper back was sore about halfway thru and stayed like that the rest of the way. I think that was from my drooping posture from the humidity draining my body. I kept trying to pull my shoulders back so I stood/walked/ran straighter but they kept falling forward on me.

Wound up going much slower (especially the 2nd half) then I wanted and it took me about 2 hrs and 50 minutes to cover the 10 miles. Yes, I was not at race speed and yes, the humidity really did a number on me but still, the time is a little worrying. I'm not going to let it get to me though, I'll be at the half with a fabulous group of people from Running of the Ears and I know they won't let me get swept :-)

Going to go relax for a while as I really do have to get out of the house today to go shopping---how in the heck did I run out of body wash? Weigh in is tomorrow...can't remember if I posted that my previous weigh in was 212.0 so 40.2 pounds lost at that point. Fingers crossed for tomorrow's number........