Thursday, January 16, 2014

Unexpected Disney Marathon

Unexpected Disney Marathon


Dopey with TWO Grumpies

Yet again I find myself running in an unexpected marathon.  This time it was the Disney Marathon.  I will not bore you with the details but needless to say at 3 AM I found myself in Corral A.  That is “A” as in Ahh…s*** I don’t belong in this corral!!! 
For those of you who are not familiar with Disney corrals they work like this.  Corral A is for people who finish a marathon in about 02:15.  These are super fit, super human, twenty year old freaks of nature in super skimpy running outfits.  Needless to say one person in the corral did not look like the others.  There was one person sitting down in the VERY BACK of the corral trying to get over a night of too many adult beverages and too little sleep.  You guess which one I was!  I spent the next 2.5 hours being passed by everyone.

The night before the race Bonnie and I stayed with 17 friends at a Disney resort.  We had a blast.  Everyone ate and drank together.  Since I was doing a marathon the next morning I needed to “carb up” so they took me to the bar to consume far too many carbohydrate drinks. I don’t think Galloway would recommend this pre-race routine.
As you expected, I completed the Disney Marathon JUST behind all my newly discoved “Corral A” friends.  I think they were all intimated by my hangover and beer gut so they ran slower than expected times.  I did the Jacksonville Bank Marathon only two weeks before this race so I don’t believe I was fully recovered but I felt great.  I ran my normal race pace and enjoyed being alive and fit enough to complete two marathons in three weeks.  I know I am not a fast runner, I’m just thankful my body can do all that I push it to do.  Four years ago I could not run to my car so I have come a long way in a short period of time.  I'm proud of my slow self!



The view from the 15th story of the Disney resort.
(Space Mountain and the castle are in the background)

The dancing, hula Santa that was in our room.
Doesn't everyone have a dancing,
hula Santa in their hotel room?!


One of the many pre-race trips to the bar.


All 17 people having our dinner together.



The bling

Bling Close-up





2 comments:

  1. Disney was my first marathon a couple years ago!! I love that race, but I was in the back, back, back. It took forever to start, so be glad at least you got to start early and not stand there for 45 mins waiting for everyone else...even if people passed you! Sounds like fun.

    ReplyDelete