Running Renaissance: Road to Paris 2024

[Sailormoon2]

Totally been lurking here and not posting I am impressed with your dedication to following your plan regardless of travel/life/weather and even pain. Hope the pain stays away and you are ready to rock this Marathon challenge!

 

[GollyGadget]

Hang in there! Almost time to toe the line! Happy to see the pain subsided on the last run. Be prepared for a cold start and a warm finish!

I'm trying to be prepared but I honestly can't remember how to dress for these temps. I know for 30s I prefer pants and long sleeves and 60s I prefer short sleeves and shorts... It's those 30 degrees between I don't know about. At least I've packed enough options to figure something out.

Should be a perfect race day for the full. Start in the mid 40s and finish in the mid 50s.

I hope you're right!

Totally been lurking here and not posting I am impressed with your dedication to following your plan regardless of travel/life/weather and even pain. Hope the pain stays away and you are ready to rock this Marathon challenge!

Thank you so much for the kind words! I do a fair amount of lurking myself. It's so nice to hear some affirmation on all the work I've put in this year. I tend to focus on all the workouts I've missed, but I think now is the time to switch that around and trust the training!

 

[KSellers88]

I've had the same issue with finishing my plan strong. I actually had a complete blonde moment and did a 9 miler the day I was supposed to be doing 16. LOL. Don't feel bad, you've put in the work and you've got this!

 

[FredtheDuck]

So glad to see that the arch pain has faded. Excited to read about your trip!!!

 

[GollyGadget]

I've had the same issue with finishing my plan strong. I actually had a complete blonde moment and did a 9 miler the day I was supposed to be doing 16. LOL. Don't feel bad, you've put in the work and you've got this!

Thanks for the encouragement! I hope your race went as well as mine. I had no idea running a marathon could be so much fun!

So glad to see that the arch pain has faded. Excited to read about your trip!!!

Unfortunately, the arch pain returned. It was nothing painful enough to keep me from the marathon, but I do hope it sorts itself out soon.

I'll have a full recap soonish. Today is my first day at work in 2.5 weeks so I have a lot to catch up there first.

If anyone has any specific questions, let me know. I'll do my best to answer them now or in my recap. For example, if you really want to know how someone can chafe inside their belly button, now is the time to ask. Actually, don't ask that because I have no idea how that happened but if you do, I'd love to know the answer!

 

[Blue Caterpillar]

Looking forward to your recap! I hope the arch pain is better. More of a request, than a question, can we have more Bucky photos?

 

[GollyGadget]

Dec 30-Jan 2 Recap
I was on the fence for a few days of how much recap I would give leading up to the marathon. Honestly, as I type this, I'm still not sure so let's just see how this goes.

Disclaimer: I managed to catch a nasty cold on Wednesday. I'm thankful it was after the race but my brain still isn't firing on all cylinders.

Dec 30
Saturday had two big goals for the day:
1. Drive 4 hours south
2. Cheer the Badgers to an Orange Bowl victory.

Goal #2, meant leaving right after lunch which meant running in the morning. Too much has happened and I don't really remember the specifics, but Fitbit tells me I was active for 30 minutes so I'm guessing that means I made it 3 miles. Unfortunately, the arch pain returned and I had to cut the workout short. At this point I also decided to skip the next couple of runs until I got to WDW.

On a positive note, the other two goals were accomplished. On Wisconsin!

This jersey is a gift from my in laws and I love it. But they were a bit concerned when we opened it because they had just received our Christmas card.

Sorry pup, you can't always get what you want.

Dec 31
No running this day. I was really hoping my foot would be heal by skipping some of these runs, but it also provided a really convenient excuse to not run outside in the subzero temperatures.

To celebrate the New Year, husband and I bounced around from bar to bar but they were all EMPTY. I’m pretty sure because of the cold but it could also just be I don’t know where the cool bars are since I was never of drinking age when I lived there. We finally found one with some other patrons and decided to stick the night out there. It made for really good people watching but wasn't all that exciting.

Now for the real reason I'm sharing about our tame NYE:

At least one of us knows how to party.

Jan 1
Another day not running. We met my dad for lunch and he brought me a copy of the local paper. I'm really not sure why but I did read the entire thing once we got to my mom's, so I guess that's why.

Anyway, I found this One Big Happy comic and found it incredibly timely.


Jan 2
Finally time to head south for warmer weather! We were flying out of a small local airport so I was hoping that meant small security lines. It actually just meant small security staff. From the security line, I could see that my baggage had been set aside to be inspected. This made me a little nervous and I really couldn't think of anything suspicious that I had packed. I was just really glad I had my running shoes in my carry-on! We did see my luggage make it back on the line so that was a relief.

We flew down on Allegiant which meant landing at SFB and riding an Uber to WDW instead of DME. Allegiant isn't really my favorite airline but it can be hard to beat their low prices and nonstop flights. It took just under an hour to get to Pop Century and in that time our room had been assigned so we got dropped off right at our building. Overall, the Uber was really convenient and the cost was still cheaper than flying into MCO.

After we lugged our suitcases to the room, we learned that our magic bands weren't working. We went to the front desk and learned that they weren't "online"... Whatever that means.

Once all that was settled, we headed to HS where we were escorted in by these guys.

I also learned these are bad guys apparently. Clearly, I'm not a big Star Wars fan.

The park was packed as suspected due to the overlap with school holidays. We had fast pass ressies for ToT and RnR so I knew we’d at least get on those and should be able to see a couple of shows before Fantasmic! Without going into too much boring detail, we were able to see The Little Mermaid and Beauty & the Beast before our FP+. We then headed straight for ToT and had a few minutes to kill before RnR. The bonus here is that we got to see the new holiday projections which were a lot of fun.


From RnR, we headed straight for F! and somehow landed in some of the last available seats. That show is always a lot of fun. TSMM is one of my husband’s favorite rides, so the plan was to head straight for it after the show and hope the line was down to a reasonable length. By the time we got out of the theater, it seemed everyone else had the same idea so we grabbed a bite to eat and visited the Muppets. TSMM was literally a walk on after this so that was a nice bonus.

We love the Muppets and even though we’ve seen that show tons of times, it was still one of our favorite parts of the day. I hope the Muppets continue to have a presence. Their sense of humor just gets me.

More to come soon(ish)!

 

[GollyGadget]

Looking forward to your recap! I hope the arch pain is better. More of a request, than a question, can we have more Bucky photos?

I'll do my best to give the people what they want!

 

[rteetz]

Love the dog photos! And of course On Wisconsin!!!

Cool you got to see the holiday projections. I would have loved to see that.

 

[GollyGadget]

Love the dog photos! And of course On Wisconsin!!!

Cool you got to see the holiday projections. I would have loved to see that.

Thanks! I was sternly told not to put my glow glasses on her for a photo but sometimes I'm not a very good listener...

 

[GollyGadget]

Jan 3 Recap
I woke up on Wednesday in WDW which is always a great start to the day. As some of you know, this was the first day of the expo and it was rainy. We weren't going to let a little water get in the way of our fun, so we donned our Frogg Toggs and headed to the Magic Kingdom. (If you haven't already, I highly recommend investing in a pair. They're lightweight, easy to pack, and such a godsend when mother nature tries to ruin your vacation.)

Despite the less than stellar weather, it was quite crowded. We headed straight for our fp at Space Mountain. After that we had lunch reservations at BOG. We had never eaten there and it was really nice to know we had somewhere to sit inside away from the rain.
It took a while to get our order in but after that the food came quickly. My husband was a little creeped out they knew where we were sitting because of our bracelets...

Once we were done eating, the next mission was to stay out of the rain. Mickey's Phillharmagic and IASW fit the bill perfectly. The rain started to clear and we headed toward one of our favorites, the people mover. The ride stopped at just the right spot for a photo with the castle.

Don't we look adorable in our matching rain gear?

The rest of the day is kind of a blur. The rain stopped and then the park really got crowded. We still managed to get on a lot of rides and see the Muppets (of course) and watch the parade. It was my first time seeing the Festival of Fantasy parade and I was very impressed.


MK didn't close until midnight and I had every intention of staying at least that late. Unfortunately, my socks were wet from the rain and my feet turned into ice cubes waiting for the fireworks (the fireworks were totally worth it). We knew we were coming back on Sunday after the marathon so decided to head back to our hotel to dethaw my feet.


Now seems like as good a time as any to talk about our hotel room. We were in the 50s section at Pop Century overlooking the pond. We were both very surprised at how nice the room was despite not being renovated. One of the big complaints is usually the size but for the two of us it was more than enough. Easily twice the size of some hotel rooms in Europe. The big downside is the full bed. That's a bit of a tight squeeze for two adults but we managed.

That's all for now. Next up: I try running again and visit Epcot.

 

[GollyGadget]

Jan 4 Recap: I Try Running Again & Visit Epcot
It'd been quite a few days since my last run and I really wanted to shake out my legs. How far I went really depended on how I was feeling but my goal was 3-5 miles. We were staying at Pop so I knew I could run around the resort and Art of Animation but I really wanted to venture somewhere new so I brought up a map and found a sidewalk that would take me to Caribbean Beach.

Turns out that sidewalk was actually a sketchy underpass.

It really wasn't that shady and was well lit, just didn't have the usual Disney touch. When I got to the other side, I was at some sort of Cast Member building and parking lot. There wasn't a lot of traffic on the way out but the sun wasn't even up yet. When I returned on the way back there were quite a few more employees showing up for work so I had to be a bit more careful crossing the parking lot.

CBR is pretty heavily under construction so I wasn't able to run through the whole resort but it was a nice way to add some distance. It was also fun to see a new resort. Overall, I wasn't very impressed. I don't really know what I was expecting but the resort didn't remind me of the Caribbean at all. It looked beachy but not distinctly Caribbean. In fact, I was a little bothered there weren't any forest or dessert areas. The Caribbean isn't only beaches!


I made my way back toward Pop and around Hourglass Lake. A few of the year markers stood out more than normal because they referenced running milestones.


I made it to AoA and the annoying pain returned to my foot so I decided to head back to the room. Booooooo. Below is a map of where I ran in case anyone wants to use a similar route some day.


Once I got cleaned up, we headed to Epcot to meet my cousin. She drove over from the gulf and it was awesome to catch up with her life.

We had fp for Nemo, Spaceship Earth, and Frozen Ever After. We were still early for our fp but too late for a short Soarin line and Test Track was down. Instead we visited Figment and took a tour through the greenhouses. After that it was time for Nemo.

Test Track opened back up in the meantime and the app was showing only a 30 min wait. We hustled over but it was over a two hour wait by the time we got there. For the first time ever, we went single rider. We made it to the ride in about 15 min and my husband and I even made it into the same car. I think single rider may be my strategy in the future.

From here we headed into World Showcase. Fun fact: my parents never took me back here as a child because they thought I'd be bored (they were probably right). Anyway, I really loved WS the first few times but I'm just not impressed anymore. I think it might be because I've now been to several of the countries and the pavilions don't really do them justice. My husband also mentioned he didn't remember Epcot being so boring. We did enjoy several drinks, especially the gluhwein in Germany.

Anyway, we made it through WS pretty quickly and were back to Future World. Husband is a big Lion King fan and insisted we go see the Circle of Life. It turned out to be a great place for me to take a nap. SE was down so we missed our fp. We were allowed to use it on other rides, but we had literally done all of them we really cared about. Our FEA fp wasn't until late so we weren't sure what else to do. We went to see the Pixar films and that was one of the highlights of the day.

My cousin had to work the next day and decided to head home. We were about done for the day anyway. We decided to take a ride on the boat to WS for something to do. I was pretty tired and so we decided we would just head out as well.

Proof I went to Epcot:


Up next: I visit Universal Studios for the first time ever.

 

[GollyGadget]

Jan 5 Recap: Universal First Timer and Expo!
I totally forgot during my last update, but Friday is the day we also went to the Expo. I knew we’d want to avoid going Wednesday and with the available hours, it worked best to go Friday. I do really think runDisney could rethink the Expo hours a bit. I know I’m not alone in wanting to go to the parks and the Expo. It was kind of annoying to have to wait for the Expo to open at 9:30 before we could continue on our day.

I had warned my husband the day before that we were getting on the first bus to the Expo at 9am. The bus showed up a few minutes after 9 and we arrived at WWoS just before the official opening.

I would highly recommend this as a strategy for others looking to get on with their day. There was a bit of a queue to get downstairs into the expo area when we arrived and I was a little concerned at first. Turns out, that’s really all it was, a queue to go down the stairs. Once downstairs there were no lines in sight. I was able to walk right up to collect my bib and then across the floor to pick up my shirt. I didn’t really want anything from the expo itself so we exited quickly and headed for the runDisney merch.

Before arriving, I really wanted to get a mug to commemorate the marathon. I try not to buy things I’ll never use again and I figured this was something I would put to use. Unfortunately, I really didn’t like the mug and I was really bothered that it said “Marathon Weekend.” I wanted something specific to the race I was running. I understand how the “weekend” merchandise might appeal to more people, but it didn’t make a lot of sense to me. Since I didn’t like the mug, I thought I’d get a Christmas ornament…same issue. No ornament specific to the race, just the weekend itself. With that, I decided I’d finally cave and buy one of the “retro” shirts. They didn’t have my size in women’s so I opted for a small unisex and I think I actually like it better. Typically, I prefer a crewneck over a v-neck. Why do they think women always want to show cleavage????

Anyway, we were able to check out quickly. I stuffed my new shirts and bib in my day bag and we ordered an Uber to take us to Universal. From what I remember, we got to Universal by 10:30 which is pretty impressive considering we couldn’t get into the Expo until 9:30 but this was far too late to avoid any long lines.

US has started a virtual queue at the water park and for the Jimmy Fallon ride so we selected a return time for that and knew we’d at least get on one ride. Apparently, I kept calling it the Jimmy Kimmel ride and my husband was really confused since he’s on ABC…they’re all the same to me. I never stay up late enough to watch any of them.

We aren’t big at waiting in line (who is?), so when the Woody Woodpecker Kids Coaster was walk-on, I told my husband we better ride it now before it got a line. I had no idea that was not really as big of a joke as I thought. Later in the day the wait was nearly an hour! This pretty much explains how the rest of our day went. All of the lines were deemed “too long” and we spent a lot of time watching shows. The shows themselves were pretty good but it was frustrating to not be able to get on any rides without waiting over an hour. If we were to ever go back (which isn’t in the plans), I’d definitely find a way to fit the Express Pass into our budget. Another important lesson we learned was how easy it is to leave the park for a meal. We didn’t do this for lunch and regret waiting a long time for some mediocre theme park food.

I don't want to leave this update on a downer so I'm going to mention a few things that seemed to go very well for Universal. One was these parade floats that would come out randomly during the day and allow fans to dance along with their favorite characters. We’re not really the target demographic, but I could see children having a ton of fun at this.


They also had a lot of characters at set locations that never seemed to have much of a line. Getting photos with characters kind of creeps me out when I stop and think about how it’s probably someone much younger than me in there so I didn’t get any, but I was tempted by these cuties.


Finally, they were running a Christmas parade. The parade wasn’t anything spectacular, but it was enjoyable and I freaking love Christmas!


So, that was our Friday. Up next is Saturday Jan 6: Will Pandora live up to the hype?

 

[GollyGadget]

Jan 6 Recap
I didn’t take a lot of photos this day, so I’ll start it off with a picture of Bucky.

My mom snapped this photo while dog-sitting for us. It seems Bucky had chosen that spot for keeping an eye on the neighborhood.

And now for the recap…When I first started planning, I had decided that we would visit Animal Kingdom on Saturday. I knew that was a park we could leave early and make sure I got enough sleep. There was an EMH scheduled for that day so I was also hopeful we could take advantage of that to see one of the new Pandora rides.

About a month out, Disney updated park hours so instead of a 9a opening it was moved to 8a which mean EMH at 7a. I knew my husband wouldn’t be thrilled about such an early wake up, so I mentioned to him that we could go that early but didn’t want to push him on it at all. It’s his vacation too after all. As expected, we totally missed the EMH, but did make it to the park fairly early (for us anyway). NRJ already had an hour plus wait. I would have liked to have experienced it, but will just add it to the list for next time. From what I’ve read, it’s not worth the wait.

We were lucky enough to have a morning FP for FoP so we headed there first. I was a bit nervous going in as I got some pretty bad motion sickness at Universal the day before on the Jimmy Fallon ride. Luckily, it all turned out alright but there were a few times my stomach was a little upset about things. The landscape the ride takes you through is really beautiful but overall I’m just not a big fan of simulators (see motion sickness) so while I’ll probably ride it again, it won’t be as big of a priority for me.

Pandora itself seemed nice enough but I think it was also a bit too crowded to really get to enjoy a lot of it. Same thing goes for Harry Potter the day before. It’s cool to have a really well themed land, but with only a couple of rides, I end up feeling like I’m just in a big crowd aimlessly wandering around.

Since it was still early, I wanted to head to Dinosaur before the line got too bad. It was only about a 20 minute wait when we left Pandora but we had to stop for a bite to eat and our wait was probably closer to 30 minutes by the time we got there. At this point, the park started getting crowded and the lines were showing it. We ended up on TriceraTop Spin because it was right there and had a small enough line. I’ve never ridden so many spinner rides in my life. We always ride Dumbo because of sentimental reasons, but I honestly don’t think I’d ever even been on any of the others.

We had some time before our next FP at Everest so we headed to the jungle trek to hopefully see some baby tigers. It was still too early/cold and they weren’t out but we did see many active apes along the way. After that, we were able to ride Everest. My husband remarked that it was his favorite ride. Personally, I’m still a big fan of ToT but he thinks that one is too scary, heh. The rest of the day wasn’t particularly notable, we watched the Nemo and Lion King shows, we even found time for It’s Tough to be a Bug. I wasn’t real excited about that one, but when in Rome I guess….

After this, I realized it had warmed up and we had nothing better to do so we should see if the baby tigers were out. They were in fact out, but napping. I’m sure you can’t see them in this photo, but they’re both laying up against the wall. It was worth the walk back to be able to see them.


Finally it was time for our Safari FP. I had purposely selected a sunset FP time because I heard that is when the most animals are active. I think this might be more of the case when it’s summer and the temperature drop is a relief. Anyway, we saw quite a few animals and got to hear the lions so that made it worth it.



After that, we decided we were done with the park and should go find some dinner. We had moved hotels to OKW and for some reason I thought hitting Disney Springs for dinner would be “quick.” It wasn’t particularly quick, but the soup and mac ‘n cheese were a perfect pre marathon dinner.

All told, we still were back to the room by 8 and it was time to get my things ready for race day. Unfortunately, we had to change hotels AGAIN so I had to not only set out my race outfit, but also what I needed to shower and dress post-race, plus pack up everything else. I had some adrenaline problems falling asleep, but eventually managed.

Next up: RACE DAY!!!

 

[FredtheDuck]

Loving the pics in your recap!! Looking forward to reading about race day.

 

[KSellers88]

Jan 6 Recap
I didn’t take a lot of photos this day, so I’ll start it off with a picture of Bucky.
View attachment 295994
My mom snapped this photo while dog-sitting for us. It seems Bucky had chosen that spot for keeping an eye on the neighborhood.

And now for the recap…When I first started planning, I had decided that we would visit Animal Kingdom on Saturday. I knew that was a park we could leave early and make sure I got enough sleep. There was an EMH scheduled for that day so I was also hopeful we could take advantage of that to see one of the new Pandora rides.

About a month out, Disney updated park hours so instead of a 9a opening it was moved to 8a which mean EMH at 7a. I knew my husband wouldn’t be thrilled about such an early wake up, so I mentioned to him that we could go that early but didn’t want to push him on it at all. It’s his vacation too after all. As expected, we totally missed the EMH, but did make it to the park fairly early (for us anyway). NRJ already had an hour plus wait. I would have liked to have experienced it, but will just add it to the list for next time. From what I’ve read, it’s not worth the wait.

We were lucky enough to have a morning FP for FoP so we headed there first. I was a bit nervous going in as I got some pretty bad motion sickness at Universal the day before on the Jimmy Fallon ride. Luckily, it all turned out alright but there were a few times my stomach was a little upset about things. The landscape the ride takes you through is really beautiful but overall I’m just not a big fan of simulators (see motion sickness) so while I’ll probably ride it again, it won’t be as big of a priority for me.

Pandora itself seemed nice enough but I think it was also a bit too crowded to really get to enjoy a lot of it. Same thing goes for Harry Potter the day before. It’s cool to have a really well themed land, but with only a couple of rides, I end up feeling like I’m just in a big crowd aimlessly wandering around.

Since it was still early, I wanted to head to Dinosaur before the line got too bad. It was only about a 20 minute wait when we left Pandora but we had to stop for a bite to eat and our wait was probably closer to 30 minutes by the time we got there. At this point, the park started getting crowded and the lines were showing it. We ended up on TriceraTop Spin because it was right there and had a small enough line. I’ve never ridden so many spinner rides in my life. We always ride Dumbo because of sentimental reasons, but I honestly don’t think I’d ever even been on any of the others.

We had some time before our next FP at Everest so we headed to the jungle trek to hopefully see some baby tigers. It was still too early/cold and they weren’t out but we did see many active apes along the way. After that, we were able to ride Everest. My husband remarked that it was his favorite ride. Personally, I’m still a big fan of ToT but he thinks that one is too scary, heh. The rest of the day wasn’t particularly notable, we watched the Nemo and Lion King shows, we even found time for It’s Tough to be a Bug. I wasn’t real excited about that one, but when in Rome I guess….

After this, I realized it had warmed up and we had nothing better to do so we should see if the baby tigers were out. They were in fact out, but napping. I’m sure you can’t see them in this photo, but they’re both laying up against the wall. It was worth the walk back to be able to see them.
View attachment 295990

Finally it was time for our Safari FP. I had purposely selected a sunset FP time because I heard that is when the most animals are active. I think this might be more of the case when it’s summer and the temperature drop is a relief. Anyway, we saw quite a few animals and got to hear the lions so that made it worth it.
View attachment 295991
View attachment 295992

After that, we decided we were done with the park and should go find some dinner. We had moved hotels to OKW and for some reason I thought hitting Disney Springs for dinner would be “quick.” It wasn’t particularly quick, but the soup and mac ‘n cheese were a perfect pre marathon dinner.

All told, we still were back to the room by 8 and it was time to get my things ready for race day. Unfortunately, we had to change hotels AGAIN so I had to not only set out my race outfit, but also what I needed to shower and dress post-race, plus pack up everything else. I had some adrenaline problems falling asleep, but eventually managed.

Next up: RACE DAY!!!

Can't wait to read about RACE DAY! Loving it so far.

 

[GollyGadget]

WDW 25th Marathon Pre-Race Recap
Finally, the part I’ve been trying to get to….RACE DAY! I woke up in a panic just after 1a worried I was late (this happens to me every time I need to wake up early, especially for races and flights). Thankfully, I still had about 2 hours of sleep to catch. My phone alarm was set to wake me at 3a so I could be on the bus at 3:30. Husband was worried I wouldn’t wake up so he also set his phone alarm and a wakeup call. I’m glad he did because my phone’s alarm had been turned to silent and there’s no way I would have woken up without his help!

I made it to the bus stop just before 3:30 as planned and our bus was on its way moments later. Unlike the Expo bus, this bus went to pick up at SSR after OKW. I felt pretty good about the timing and wasn’t that worried but it was a bit annoying because we had to wait for two buses in front of us to fill up before we could even get to the bus stop. I really don’t get the logic here. Why not just have some of the busses dedicated to OKW and some dedicated to SSR in the morning?

We made it out of SSR by 3:45 so I still felt pretty good about our timing. I’m not sure what the best route to the starting line is, but I know we went past Disney Springs and headed toward Epcot that way. It wasn’t long before traffic was at a standstill. The first 30 minutes, I used to the time to try to get some extra rest. As time wore on, I began to realize I wasn’t going to get to the corrals as early as I wanted and I should probably eat my breakfast Clif bar.

It wasn’t long after that, our bus driver was getting frustrated. He commented something about there was supposed to be a bus only lane. A few minutes later, he went into the left lane to pass the traffic. This was probably shortly after 4:30 and that’s when we got to see the broken down bus causing the backup. I was glad we were finally moving and really thankful I wasn’t on that bus. I sure hope those who were made it to the race.

Thanks to my impatient bus driver, we finally made it to Epcot just before 5a. Seriously, it took 90 minutes to ride a bus a distance that I could have walked in less time. I knew I needed to hustle to get to my corral. This meant speed walking all the way to bag drop and skipping the potties. That decision was questionable at best, but I just kept remembering advice telling me to wait until I got to the corrals to go. I guess, they meant the corral area and not my specific corral because there was no place to go once I got where I belonged. No place besides the wooded area anyway and I definitely debated it. There was really nowhere to go for cover and that’s really the only thing that kept me on the proper side of the barricades. It’d been about two hours since I left my room and I definitely could have used a small wee. Eventually, I decided I’d just wait until I got on course because I didn’t have to go bad enough to need to go in the next 30 minutes.



Mickey and friends quickly took the stage and I started shedding my extra layers except for my gloves. I knew I could easily discard them once I got moving. Excitement and nerves were building as the start got closer. I still wasn’t sure what my goals were for the race. Finishing in under 4 hours seemed possible but I was also nervous about starting too quickly and blowing up at the end.


That’s all for now, next I’ll finally get to the moment we’ve all been waiting for…the WDW 25th Anniversary Marathon!

 

[DopeyBadger]

Ugh, I would be a nervous wreck on a bus that took 90 min. Heck, I was a nervous wreck when my bus took an extra 5 min! Can't wait to read the race recap!

 

[GollyGadget]

Loving the pics in your recap!! Looking forward to reading about race day.

Can't wait to read about RACE DAY! Loving it so far.

Thank you both for following along! My goal is to get the rest done yet this week so hang tight.

Ugh, I would be a nervous wreck on a bus that took 90 min. Heck, I was a nervous wreck when my bus took an extra 5 min! Can't wait to read the race recap!

I really had no idea how long it should take and I think that worked to my benefit. Plus, I was sleepy. The good news is I still managed to get to my corral and near the front. In the future I'll definitely be advocating for an early bus.

 

[sourire]

Looking forward to your race day report! I am loving reading along...helps me to relive my own marathon weekend a little.