We crossed the start line, and I remembered to start my
Garmin. I looked down, and I must have
been a bit excited as my heart rate was around 120 with my first step off. MJ was the official timer for our Galloway
group, and we all tried to keep together and to raise one of our arms to signal
to the people around/behind us that we were slowing from a run to a walk. It was a bit impossible to NOT have an
occasional last-second lateral dart to avoid us, though. Though I was worried about having my heart
rate increase quickly because of the run/walk interval, I noticed that it
leveled off fairly quickly, and the first mile came in at 14:49 with a 138
average HR.
The first mile was a special one because there were a number
of Team AllEars folks manning the first water station. As we approached the first table, I went into
my Search and Rescue military voice and started shouting,
“JAMISON!!!!!!!!! OH JAMISON!!!!!!!!” in
the hopes of embarrassing someone who is pretty much unembarrassable. I think he heard me because he just shook his
head as I went by (he had a smirk on his face, though, so I think he was
amused). We all shouted out to the Team
AllEars volunteers as we flew by them.
As we settled into the pace, we started talking about
everything under the stars (literally…it was still dark out). We’d occasionally have someone outside of the
group run up and chime in about something.
Whenever that happened, Ellie would shout, “STRANGER DANGER!!!” and,
after having him/her tell us his/her name, put them on a 1-mile “probation”
where, if they were still in our good graces, we’d let them run with us. It led to a number of laughs and additional
probations.
I had the intention of trying to get a picture at every mile
marker, but, after seeing the pick of the first mile, I decided against it; it
was so blurry that one could barely read the number! We kept on going and were having a blast out
there as we came up on the Mile 2 marker.
Because we started mile 2 in the middle of a walk interval, our time was
a bit slower, but still fine (15:02 with a 145 HR). Before we knew it, we started hearing the
“Caution Runners…Speed Bumps Ahead…Please Watch Your Step!” announcement as we
approached the MK toll booth. After the
87th time hearing it, that announcement sort of becomes your mantra,
and I found myself chanting it unconsciously.
As is my tradition, I made sure to tap the toll booth as we went through
it. Soon after this point, Steve dropped back for a moment as he was dealing
with a minor issue, but he took care of it quickly and was caught back up.
The part from the MK Toll Booth to the TTC is somewhat of a
boring one, so I took a bit of time to check some of the runner split updates I
had received. The first one I received
was Bloomington/Normal native Karin Watts, who I met at our local Fleet Feet
Sports. Karin was doing the Dopey, and
she looked REALLY strong, coming in with a 12:15 split at 5 miles. The first Team AllEars splits came from Rich
Gairing and, at the same time, Co-Captain Michelle Scribner-MacLean (there was
a large group of the team running together).
Breast Cancer survivor and runner-adopted-by-everyone-down-there
Kimberly Torres Markey’s message came a few minutes later. Fellow Moose Brian Swann was doing well with
a sub-14 time, and Podcaster and friend Will Jensen was right at a 13:00 pace
at 5 miles.
This part of the course was cruel in that we could see and
hear all the runners on the Speedway, knowing that we were a good 5.5 miles
away from being at that point. Mile 3
was at a 15:11 pace with a 147 avg HR.
The talk among the group really started getting interesting
(remember…what is said on the marathon course STAYS on the marathon
course)…let’s just say that we had dozens of people around us cracking up. Somehow the discussion turned to podcasts,
and I mentioned that I always wanted to do an intro for Mike and Michelle’s
show, but with a twist. I wanted to do a
Mickey Miles: After Dark intro. I got into my Barry White voice and…well,
let’s just say the terms “the Stick”, “Chafing”, “Body Glide”, “Nipple Guards”,
“Marathon”, and “Six Hours” were all used in the intro.
Soon we made the turn away from the Speedway and into the MK
parking lot. We were approaching where I
was cheering at the previous day, so I knew the character picture location
(Jack Skellington) as well as where the cheering section would start picking
up. I didn’t even realize that our gaggle of runners
was on the “wrong” side as we made our way to the TTC (the very thing I was
complaining about when cheering yesterday…I missed a few Teammates because they
were over there…and now we were too!).
The thing that made me realize it was that I heard my name being shouted
to our left. I peered over and saw Jay
Griffith and Rikki Niblett screaming for us right where I was located exactly
24 hours earlier. I had a big smile and
acknowledged it and hollered a big, “THANKS!!!!” as well as a “Hi Rikki!!”,
though we had never met in-person before.
Around the same time, Teammate Amy Frank flew by us with her daughter,
Dani, who was completing her first marathon, too.
Mile 4 was close to the monorail station. 14:50 and 149 for the data…getting faster
with no real increase in the heart rate.
The cheering section was PACKED at this part of the course, and the
course narrowed quite a bit (we knew because we heard another announcement
about 236 times). One of our running
crew expressed concern about back teeth floating, so we started strategizing
for the first bathroom break. I recalled
Nerd Christine (ermahgerd) Griffin mentioning almost never-busy bathrooms by the
Tea Cups, so we all agreed to try to make it there as it was just 50-100 feet
off the course.
We were coming up to a part of the course that I was
honestly a little nervous about…the water bridge by the Contemporary. During my first half marathon back in 2011, I
ran down this underpass way too quickly, which resulted in sore quads the
rest of the race. I wanted to make sure
that this didn’t happen this time, so we all agreed to take it slow. Luckily the vast majority of runners around
us were thinking the same thing. It was
either that or they wanted to watch the DJ with the largest set
of Mickey Hands ever seen waving to us on the water bridge.
One runner I was paying particularly close attention to was
a fellow blogger named Amanda Tinney, who was dealing with IT band issues in
the weeks before the race, and she was doing the Dopey Challenge. I knew that she was also starting in Corral
M, and I let her know that, if I saw her near the end struggling with the knee,
I’d try to help running a bit with her.
Amanda’s 5 mile split came in about 4 minutes before we were to hit the
5-mile split mat, so it looked like she was doing okay! I also had some Nerd Herd friends that
started a corral or two behind us, and they were catching up to us quickly. Our group’s 5 mile split was 1:15:50, giving
us a pace of 15:10. The Nerd Herd was
about 2-3 minutes behind us.
The next part of the course is a favorite for most…about to
enter the Magic Kingdom! Steve asked if
I could help out with a picture once we got to the WDW Radio cheering area. He has a tradition of getting a picture with
Beci Mahnken, who owns the well-known MEI- and Mousefan-Travel sites (Steve is
a vacation planner under MEI). We told
the rest of our growing group to go ahead and that we’ll try to catch up around
the Hub, where a large contingency of Team AllCheers folks would be. We entered MK by Tony’s Town Square
Restaurant, and head straight to the WDW Radio group:
I was trying not to laugh as I was taking it because Valerie
Drew was doing everything she could to NOT be in the pic (behind Steve).
Once the pic was done, I extended my hand to Lou Mongello to
say a quick “HI!”. Katie McNamara, who
was standing right behind Lou, looked right at me and screamed “HUG
HIM!!!!!!” Immediately, 2-3 other WDW
Radio Cheerers joined in with the "HUG HIM! HUG HIM!" chant, and I finally remembered the fundraiser that MEI was
doing. Lou had a look of fear at the
prospect of yet another sweaty hug from a hairy guy, but he offered it up. Katie caught the precious moment:
With my man card now in the shredder, Steve and I make the
classic mistake of catching up on Main Street.
This is a point to absolutely cherish the course…you’re running up one
of the most famous roads, with the iconic Cinderella Castle in front of
you…take the time to listen to the background music as you leisurely strol…OUT
OF THE WAY…WE’RE ON A MISSION!!! My
heart rate skyrocketed to 170 as we flew to the Hub. We made the turn towards
Tomorrowland and found our cheering squad.
Evelyn, MJ, and Ellie had just arrived there, and we said a quick “YO!” to
everyone as we passed. In hindsight, I
should have asked one of them to get a pic of the 5 Teammates. Yes, there is a video of this, but I'm holding off on posting it until the very end (you'll understand when you see it). The goodbyes were said all-too-soon, and we
crossed the bridge into Tomorrowland. I
honestly wish I were fast enough to be able to run this stretch in the dark so
I could see the amazing lighting effects.
Oh well…maybe I’ll head over there on a night when the park is open and
the crowds are really low…I’ll just run then.
We made our way past Cosmic Ray’s and let those that weren’t
on the Team but were following along with us that we were stopping for a couple
minutes to hit the bathroom, and Darrell said he’d be glad to wait for us. As we peel off, I started to hear the
tell-tale, “MUUSHHH!!! MUSH! MUSHMUSHMUSHMUSH!!!” That told me that the Nerd Herd had caught
us. We all hollered back “ERMAGERD!!” as
Julie Olson, EhrmaGerd Griffin, Dan “I ran a marathon” Rajnik, and Jeff
“HellerYeah” Heller also exited off the course for the super-secret
bathrooms. It quickly became an
impromptu meet-up, and there’s no way I’m going to divulge the conversations
that went on during this! While we were
waiting for everyone to finish up, we grabbed a pic:
(I can’t believe I didn’t do the “Ears Up!” here…I know…Bad
Mush…BAAAAD Mush)
With everyone properly relieved, we found Darrell, who
graciously waited for us for several minutes, and we all started back up. Dan was just ahead of Darrell, who was able to read the back of Dan's shirt, which he also wore in the 2012 marathon. It has one of the best quotes ever on it!
As we made the left turn in Fantasyland near Pooh, we nearly had a multi-runner pile-up when the girls all noticed Dr. Dribble waiting in line for a character pic….here’s why:
As we made the left turn in Fantasyland near Pooh, we nearly had a multi-runner pile-up when the girls all noticed Dr. Dribble waiting in line for a character pic….here’s why:
Heading through the castle was a tight squeeze, so we walked
most of that short section. I saw a Marathonfoto dude at the exit, and I decided to remedy my faux pas earlier by not giving "ears up"...
(MJ was framed perfectly in-between runners for the shot, too!)
As you can see in the picture above, we got spread out a little bit as we exited and made the turn to the forecourt area.
As you can see in the picture above, we got spread out a little bit as we exited and made the turn to the forecourt area.
This video actually captured everyone we were running
with. Evelyn crossed the strip at :18,
with Ellie right behind her. I can’t
tell who the WDW Radio team runner is, unfortunately. Julie, Christine, and Dan cross it at :22,
and I’m crossing at :25. MJ crosses at
:27, and Steve and Darrell (who we are now considering to be part of the group)
are about to cross at the end (Darrell is about 5 feet behind Steve). Oh, before anyone gets up in arms, yes, I made a digital purchase from Marathonfoto, so I have the rights to the pictures/videos that I'm posting from them.
We all made the turn towards Liberty Square, and I looked
for Tiana, but she was off-stage when we passed. When we got to the bathrooms in Frontierland,
everyone started yelling at Linda Eckworth, who was hopping back on the course. Linda was supposed to run the 10K on Friday
but was unable to make it to Orlando.
Someone on the team had a marathon bib that was going to be unused, so
he/she offered it to Linda so she could take part in a race. She started out with everyone else and was
going to drop out once she made it to the 10K distance. As a side note, someone even gave Linda their
10K medal since she did complete 10K during Marathon Weekend.
Have I ever mentioned that I love the people on Team AllEars?
Linda had this huge smile on her face as we all shouted her
name. She was running with Laura
Gilbreath, who was right by her side.
Noting that everyone was screaming for Linda, I looked at Laura, and, in
a quiet, subdued voice, I simply said, “oh, hi Laura.” I couldn’t keep the smile off of my face as
Laura gave me a sarcastic, “Gee, thanks, Chris…I really appreciate that”. Laura said that Linda was doing great and
should have a strong finish.
All too soon, we crossed the train tracks and were off-stage. The marathon was about 25% complete.
(Part 3 can be viewed HERE)
(Part 3 can be viewed HERE)
