At 2:30 AM the alarm clock went off.  Unfortunately I hadn’t slept much that evening.  I was woken up at 12 AM and just couldn’t get back to sleep.  I actually ended up spending the wee hours of the morning on the DisneyRunning.com website talking to the folks who were still up on the west coast.  Luckily time flew by and it was time to get ready for the race.  One thing about Disney races is that because of Road Closures you need to be there early.  The race doesn’t start till 5:45, but you need to be in the parking lot by 4:00 AM if you want to ensure that you won’t get stuck in traffic.  My father’s best friend Mike had flown in for the Full marathon, so we came with us to spectate the race.  On the way to the parking lot we picked up Mr. Dave. 

At the lot we made our way to the “R” tent to meet up with the folks from DisneyRunning.com.  This day I wore my orange shirt so that I matched the DisneyRunning.com folks.  It was awesome being able to meet up with everyone at the start.  Before we arrived in Disney Andi and I had decided to run together.  As her first Goofy she knew she was going to need to run at a conservative pace.  I had had some strong training and wished to push my pace.   We decided to meet in the middle and run together with a goal pace of 2:45.  Once again the time flew by at the race start.  Before we knew it we were headed towards the corrals.  Andi, Gina, Kelly, Grace and myself decided to stick together.  Unfortunately Mr. Dave was in the corral behind us.  I was unhappy with this, but I think he was afraid to get caught up with us and push his pace too hard in the half, which would jeopardize his full the next day.  I certainly would have done the same in his position.  Before the race started I set up my Virtual Partner (VP) on my Garmin for a 2:45 Half Marathon.

The count down began and the fireworks exploded as the first wave took off.  We were in the front of the second wave so after 10 minutes we got our own fireworks and send off.  We were careful not to get caught up in the excitement of the start and go off too fast and the VP was a great help for that.  We quickly lost Kelly and Grace, but Gina, Andi and I stuck together.  Andi and I both realized we had to pee, but decided to wait until Mr. Dave’s favorite spot in the Magic Kingdom before stopping.  And snapped some shots of Gina and I as we ran through the gate to the Magic Kingdom.  Mom, Dad, and Mr. Mike waited for us at the end of Main Street.  It is always great to see them during my races.  Andi and I didn’t stop long, but kept on running up Main Street because our bathroom break was coming soon.  As we entered Tomorrowland we realized that the bathrooms we had set our sights on were closed, so we ended up having to take our break in Frontiertown instead.

The trip to Magic Kingdom was all too short and before we knew it we were heading back to EPCOT.  I was keeping an eye on the VP and we hadn’t strayed more than 300 feet off our pace.  I stopped at every water stop and took in some Shot Bloks about every 3 miles as I had trained, whether I felt like I needed it or not.  As we neared Mile 11 I started feeling pretty speant.  Andi is a talker and she helped keep me distracted and helped keep me moving towards the finished.  I took more walk breaks than I care to admit in the last two miles, but before we knew it we were heading up the final ramp towards the finish.  We entered EPCOT and made our way down the out and back on the promenade.  I knew the promenade was right around the corner so I started running.  I could hear the gospel choir as we made our way towards the final turn. 

Andi was behind me as we headed toward the finish but pulled in right next to me as we spotted Mr. Mike the Mom and Dad at the top of the bleachers.  We crossed the finish line side by side in just over 2:50.  I was very happy with my race because I knew I gave it my ALL.  Thanks to Andi I stayed on pace and challenged myself.  We both gladly recieved our Donald medals and made our way to congratulate our fellow DisneyRunning.com folks and thank my parents for their support. 

That evening we headed to Ms. Peggy’s to cheer on the Ravens and eat some pizza and pasta before heading to bed to prep for another early day on Sunday.

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