WDW Marathon Weekend 2014 - MARATHON DAY, Part 4

You can read the previous installment HERE.

The next part of the course, to me, seemed like the killer portion.  We were to head out of the AK parking lot and make a long loop arc via the Osceola Parkway onramp.  It was then straight east into the sun for what I anticipated to be about 75.3 miles, on two overpasses and back down before finally, mercifully, turning into the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex, where we make about 4,375 lefts and rights around various fields before FINALLY making our way back towards a theme park.  The cheering was going to be pretty sparse in this area, too.

Yeah, you could say I wasn’t looking forward to this part of the course.

Darrell, Ellie, and I were all getting a little tired, and there wasn’t a whole lot of talking by us (or anyone else around us, for that matter).  Ellie tried again to get me to go ahead and finish without her, and I again reassured her that the sweepers were nowhere near to us (we’re still < the 16:00 pace, plus we have the padding of the corrals that started after us and before the sweepers).

Mile 14 was in the books at 16:08 (hr 155), and Mile 15 (on the first overpass) was at 15:46 and 157 hr.  We were looking forward to the top of this overpass, because we knew that there would be a Team AllEars contingent waiting for us up there!  Bryan and Melanie Camphouse, along with Brian and Laura Thompson.  Man, we NEEDED that cheer squad!!!

(Photo courtesy of Darrell Burgoon) 

We stopped and talked for a couple of minutes with the 4 of them.  Bryan handed a Coke to Ellie (who had requested one before the race) and asked if I wanted one.  I declined, but he looked at, paused, and asked if I really wanted to have a Coke.

I again said, “nope…thanks, though!” … then I noticed his smile and his head-bob towards Ellie.

Yeah – I was a little slow on the uptake.  I’ll hold it for Ellie for later down the course.

All too soon, we said our goodbyes, and we started back down the overpass.  The Coke did Ellie some good, as she got some more bounce in her step.  I kept the other Coke hidden from her as we hit mile 16 near the top of the World Drive Overpass (16:26 and 158…pace was slower from stopping at the McDonald’s Team AllCheers group…SO WORTH IT!)  As we crested the second overpass, we finally were able to see racers returning from the Wide World of Sports on the Ramp-From-Hell near mile 21.  Well-known (and absolutely insane, in the best way possible) mega-cheerer Laura Smith Ozo was near mile 20.7, on the other side of Osceola…once I found her, I went back into military drill-instructor voice and gave a rather loud show-out to her.  Laura definitely heard it and waved/shouted back to all of us.  It was a good thing she saw us; she sent out a FB post mentioning that she saw us; it was the first update on our progress since the half split, and some folks (Sheri) were getting a little concerned that something had happened to us.

Sheri was definitely relieved, and she started posting Disney quotes on my FB wall (though I didn’t see most of them until I was a little outside of Hollywood Studios and finally took a minute to check FB (Troost…no comments!).  

Examples:

“Just keep running. Just keep running, running, running. What do we do? We run, run. (channeling my inner Dory)”

"Keep moving forward."- Walt Disney”

“I am on my way, I can go the distance. I don’t care how far, somehow I’ll be strong. I know every mile, will be worth my while. I will go most anywhere to find where I belong. Hercules”

Ellie had just about downed her Coke, and I pulled out the second one and gave it to her, with Bryan’s blessing.  She nearly hugged me right then and there.

I was also looking for Joe Taricani broadcasting on the course, but we didn’t find each other.  The excitement factor was increasing again as we turned right onto Victory Way towards WWOS.  Most everyone was high-fiving the outgoing runners as we passed each other.  About halfway to the WWOS entry, Ellie spotted Bob and Barb Kennedy on the outbound side.  We all stopped for quick hugs and updates.  Barb was looking simply awesome, with that smile on her face!

We left and immediately found the Mile 17 marker (16:15 and 159).  Soon after, we turned right and headed into WWOS!  Finally…we’re off the road.

…and we’re on a bunch of walkways…with the first one seeming to go on for-evah!!!

Darrell peeled of hit a restroom.  We offered to wait for him, but he said he’d catch up.  Honestly, I thought we wouldn’t see him again.  A couple of minutes later, Ellie and I saw a sight that may as well have been Nirvana; RunDisney was handing out towels soaked in cold water.  We both grabbed one and nearly kissed the RunDisney folks handing them out.

We took a left and a right through soccer fields and then found ourselves entering the track.  Our legs were LOVING the track surface.  I pulled out my inner engineer, and Ellie and I took the most direct route to the inner portion to minimize the distance.  AS we hopped off the track, we hit the mile 18 marker (16:36 and 160), and Darrell surprised us by catching up really quickly.  After a bunch of lefts and rights, as well as 1-2 shortened run intervals to help with the heart rate, we were all cussing this part of the course.  On more than one occasion, Ellie let out a “I HATE ESPN!!!!” to everyone around us.  Each outburst gained progressively more shouts of agreement by the runners.  The trek to the Mile 19 marker seemed to never arrive, but it finally did (16:47 and 159).  The mile splits were heading up quite a bit, but I think we all were losing motivation with the course. 

Just about that time, RunDisney must have sensed it, because we had another banana stop.  We each grabbed a banana and said “Thank You!!” to the volunteers (along with a “no offense, but WE HATE THE WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS!!!” – which was met with laughs) and trudged forward.  The next big cheering section (we hoped) was going coming up…the baseball stadium.  We entered, and I immediately got warning track gravel in a shoe.  

Grrrr.

I didn’t waste the energy to see my ugly mug on the jumbo tron, and, if you check out the video, I think you’ll agree that most people were not really feeling it.

We (mercifully) left the stadium, and I had to pause to get about 2.5 lbs of rock out of my shoes.   A few (dozen) more turns, and we finally made our way out of the WWOS.  We all nearly gave it an honorary single-fingered salute as we left, but decided against it.  Mile 20 was 16:40 and 159.  I lobbied for another reduction in the run/walk ratio, and all agreed (not sure if they liked the decision, but we all added another 15 seconds to the walk interval).  The mile 20 split notification came through, and we were still below the 16:00 pace, though barely.  We noticed as we got back on Victory Way, though, was that nobody was entering the WWOS. Street Sweepers were working on cleaning up the course.  Ellie went into a dead panic that we were going to be swept; however, we were in WWOS for 45-50 minutes, so we were still under 16:00; besides, once we got to Hollywood Studios, the chances of being swept were reduced to almost 0.

6 miles and ½ of a marathon to go!

The Finish can be viewed HERE.

WDW Marathon Weekend 2014 - MARATHON DAY, Part 3

Part 2 can be viewed HERE

We entered back-stage where the parade floats are typically stored. We bypassed that and went straight for one of the rougher parts of the course…affectionately called “Cone Alley” by runners.  Seriously, there has to be something like 10,000 cones to mark the course!  It was around this time that the group started spreading out a little.  One member of our group was starting to get a throbbing pain in a shoulder and had increased the pace a bit to help block out the pain.  Still, we were within 20 feet of each other for the most part.  One thing that we did start doing, though, was implement verbal cues instead of visual ones…”Start” when our run interval was beginning and “Stop!” or “Walk” at the end.  Mile 6 was in the books…it was slower because of the bathroom break (18:01), but it also gave the heart rate a chance to come back down a little, especially after the sprint up Main Street.

Cone Alley is always an odd part of the course…it’s eerily quiet, probably because one of the most exciting portions (MK) was behind us, and the next theme park was more than 6 miles away.  I was feeling good…getting onto Cone Alley without injury was something that I had yet been able to do, so I was thrilled!  At mile 6.2, we saw another Team AllEars contingency (including Deb Wills) waiting for Linda to finish her 10K.  We gave/received high-5s and hugs and continued onward.  We had a nice musical interlude at the mile 7 marker (14:53 pace with a 152 HR).  Well…it started out as a nice musical interlude.  They had Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline playing at concert-level volume, so we could hear it from about a half-mile away.  Of course, the entire armada of runners was doing the “bom bom bom” during the refrain, as well as singing the “SO GOOD! SO GOOD! SO GOOD!” at the appropriate places in the song.  Once the song was over, it repeated.  Okay…we sang it all again, though not with as much enthusiasm as before.

By the 4^th time we had heard the song, we were completely sick of it.  Instead of “Bom Bom Bom”, I was singing “TURN IT OFF!” in my head, and “shoot me! kill me! please now!” where the “so goods” were supposed to be. 

We (mercifully) got past the speakers with our eardrums more or less intact, and we started getting quiet again.  Ellie threw in her earbuds and started jamming to her U2 playlist as she ran, occasionally belting out some of the lyrics.  I took the opportunity to enjoy the scenery by the golf courses and Shades of Green.  Mile 8 was at a 15:17 pace, and the HR was 151.  The sun was starting to make its presence known, however, and we were nearing another downhill/uphill portion of the course in order to make it onto the Speedway.  I had heard horror stories about how steep this was and that the best course of action to handle this was to walk it.  EVERYONE was doing this, but it didn’t really help the fact that we were going up what felt like a 70-degree incline.  We all were cussing this stretch. 

Of course, they would just have to place a MarathonFoto guy right at the top of that hill.

This pic was taken about 2 seconds after Ellie screamed, “I HATE THE SPEEDWAY!!!!”  We were all busting up at that one.  As we made a left hairpin turn to get onto the speedway, we all realized that this was going to be a LOOONNNG trek around the track.  MJ was having issues with her Galloway interval timer, and she was about to drop-kick until she found the setting that was causing the problem.  We crossed mile 9 on the track…15:21 on the pace, and the HR kept inching up, with it now averaging 153.  When we finally were able to hop off the track, we cut across a median and made it to Bear Island Road.  While there wasn’t much in terms of characters or theme parks, it was a shaded area, which made for a little cooler feel for the run.  While on this stretch, Teammage Rob Wilhelm caught up with us and ran with the group for a few minutes.  It was great to see Rob as I hadn’t had the chance to talk to him yet over Marathon Weekend.  Laura Gilbreath also caught back up with us and ran with us for a few minutes:

(Courtesy of Laura Gilbreath)

Mile 10 gave us another split pace check from RunDisney.  Our pace was 15:41, but that included that long bathroom break in MK, so we weren’t too worried about the time…not TOO worried.  Amanda Tinney was still about 3 minutes ahead of us, and the Nerd Herd was ahead by several minutes.  The road curved right and left a few times, and what I initially thought was a nice cool portion eventually turned into a long, LOOOONG stretch with no end in sight.  Mile 11 (14:40 at 156) came and went. 

Then came the water treatment plant for Walt Disney World.

That’s all I have to say about that.

Actually, it wasn’t too terribly bad, considering some of the stories from last year’s marathon.  Still, our group was beginning to spread out again, and this time the range was increasing to 50-75 feet.  Ellie’s legs were starting to hurt a little (the Goofy Challenge is definitely NOT an easy task), while others were bearing down more and blocking out pain by increasing the pace.  The “START” and “STOP” commands were becoming more important now.  A well-timed banana stop gave us a little bit of energy to power on.

When we got to Western Way, we caught up with Jazlyn Zombo Doolittle, who was running in full firefighter gear.  We talked to Jazz a bit on her cause (she’s a cancer survivor, a firefighter/EMT, and the wife of an active duty soldier) and introduced ourselves and what Team AllEars stood for.  She was struggling a bit under all the equipment, but was continuing on, and I saw that she did indeed complete the Dopey Challenge, all of it wearing the suit.  For more information on her fundraising, please visit http://www.active.com/donate/Code3ForACureFound/jazzzombodoolittle .

After crossing Western Way, we could tell we were nearing Animal Kingdom with the buildings that we passed by.   We popped through the security gate, and animals were everywhere!  There were cast members all about with animals on display (I took special note of the vulture…wondered if he would remember me when he circled around my carcass in a couple of hours).  Several characters were out there, too, as they had the jeep from the AK opening show out there with most of the Fab 5 waving and posing for pictures.  Just before entering AK was the mile 12 marker (15:06 and 159).  The group was really spreading out, and a decision had to be made.  Ellie was starting to worry about the sweepers and she told me to just go…she didn’t want me to be swept on my first attempt at 26.2.  I looked at her and said point-blank that this was my first marathon and I was going to PR the flippin’ thing regardless of my time…we were staying together.   Besides, I was guessing that the sweepers were still a good 45-60 minutes behind us.  Darrell also agreed that he was sticking with us no matter what.  The rest of our group slowed to a longer walk for us to catch up, and, after discussing it for a few seconds, we all agreed to split into 2 groups (with emphasis from the group in the back that we were completely fine with it).  Evelyn could tell Ellie was hurting a little bit, and I told her before they headed off that I would keep watch over her.  Soon after, Evelyn, Steve, and MJ were a good 100 yards ahead of us and continuing on.

As Darrell, Ellie, and I continued on, I realized that I was so caught up in all that was going on around me that I wasn’t even close to fueling the way I had trained.  I started eating energy beans as though I had forgotten to do so for the past 2.5 hours! 

We entered AK, and, as expected, a second wind came across most of us with the excitement of a new park.  Within minutes, we were at Expedition Everest, where was saw some members of the Nerd Herd waiting for fellow teammates to get off of the attraction.  For the briefest of moments, I contemplated asking if anyone else wanted to ride it.  Then, common sense kicked in (I still have over a half-mary to go!!), and we continued on past the mountain…though the screams from the ride made me nearly turn back.

(Still feeling good!!!  Ellie was jamming to U2)

Running through AK was fun…as a family, we have been taking shorter trips, and we haven’t been in that particular park for 3+ years.  Unfortunately, our trek in the park was short-lived, as we were back off-stage behind Dinoland.  Soon after, we hit the Mile 13 marker (15:37, HR 156).  It was about this time that we decided to bump up the interval to :30/1:00, as the sun was starting to really make itself known, and there was no real shade around.  Having already received tons of halfway split texts from other runners, I took notice that Amanda Tinney hadn’t crossed yet, though we were about to cross it ourselves.  We received our split texts, and, about 50 seconds later, Amanda's came in.  I immediately started looking around and behind me in case she was struggling with her legs, but I couldn’t find her.  I found out later on her blog post that her family met her in the AK parking lot (Read her marathon recap HERE)  Our halfway splits: 3:25:10, pace 15:39.

Halfway through the race distance-wise, but about 25% through the marathon.

Part IV can be viewed HERE.

WDW Marathon Weekend 2014 - MARATHON DAY, Part 2

(Part 1 can be viewed here)

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 87^th 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:

(Photo courtesy of Steve Cantafio)

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:

(Photo courtesy of...well, you JUST read it in the previous sentence, didn't you??!!!)

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:

  (Photo courtesy of Laura Gilbreath)

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. 

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)

WDW Marathon Weekend 2014 - MARATHON DAY, Part 1

I was expecting an entirely sleepless night, but I only woke up a few times, thanks to my time at the U.S. Air Force Academy, where I learned to sleep in different phases; I found a way to get sleep but still be aware of sounds around me…it’s not restful, but it’s better than no sleep at all.

The phone rings at 3:15, and Steve is up and getting ready. I decide to let my phone alarm go off so I can hear a little music from Pirates of the Caribbean to pump me up. I had everything laid out, but I started OCD’ing about absolutely everything, ranging from how much water I should drink before getting on the bus to which arm I should wear my Magic Band on. After quintuple-checking everything, I looked at Steve, and we gave each other the nod that we’re ready to do. The bus arrived about 4-5 minutes after we made it to the stop, and there were still seats available, so we grabbed two up-front and started talking to the others. About ten minutes later, we were at the unloading area and were repeating the events from yesterday morning.

After the security check, we made it over to the Team AllEars meet-up in the staging area. There were a few familiar faces that were there that morning that weren’t there the previous morning, including Michael Fuller, a past Team AllEars member, who stopped by to say hi to the crew. In what seemed like no time at all, we started forming up for the team picture. As everyone got into place, I shook hands with good friend Tom Troost, who was lining up behind me for the pic.

….wait a minute…

 Tom?


You’re wearing a bib.



 YOU’RE DOING THE MARATHON??!!!!!!! YOUR FIRST MARATHON??!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Now, this is the perfect time to let everyone know that Tom had already done the 5K, 10K, and half, but he had not trained for a full marathon. This in itself is crazy, but it is even more so because he had run the previous 3 days!!! I immediately felt bad because there were many pictures of Barb Kennedy, Julie Patton, and me as the “first-timers” for this race. Tom calmly said that he’d run as far as he could and, if he didn’t make it, he’d just stop and enjoy the rest of the day.


We got the picture taken, but I felt that something was wrong…Barb wasn’t there. I immediately pulled out the phone to see if she had sent any updates, and I saw that she posted a picture just a few minutes before of her with Jeff Galloway.

Yeah, I probably would have made the same decision on that one.

Barb showed up a few minutes later, and we had another pic taken.

After that, we all said our good lucks to each other, and we started off on our long trek…

 …to the corrals.

Only those who have done the half or full at Marathon Weekend will get that joke. I knew that Teammates MaryJean Kancel (affectionately known as “MJ”) and Evelyn DeLuccia were in the same corral that I was in (Corral M). My roommate for the weekend, Steve Cantafio, along with Teammate Ellie Argaluza, ran with MJ and Evelyn during the half the previous day and decided to fall back to Corral M with them and me for the full, too.

Now, I have to preface the rest of this report with the fact that we all agreed that “what happens on the marathon course STAYS on the marathon course.” If there is a vague comment or a story that may seem a bit incomplete, well…you now know why (muahahahaha).

On the walk to the corrals, I was brought up-to-date on the discussions from the previous day’s race. The only thing I could initially think about was, “poor Steve!!” Then I realized that I was the fresh meat of the group and that I was about to be initiated into the group, and I immediately felt the blood drain from my face in fear and apprehension.

I was saved by the fact that we met up with another flock from Team AllEars heading down to the corrals, and we intermingled for a few minutes until we hit the armada of porta-potties. At that point, the groups broke off to head to their respective corrals. It was about 4:45…there was still around 45 minutes to go before the official start.

We were near the front of the corral, and the veteran marathoners pulled out an old mylar blanket and spread it across the road for us to sit on while we waited. We talked with a bunch of people around us, including a woman named Amanda, a gentleman named Darrell, and many others. I got to hear Joe Taricani from The Marathon Show call out our very own Barb Kennedy for her first marathon a few minutes before the start…AWESOME!!!

My 25,000 closest friends quieted down for the singing of our national anthem (though we did have one do the “OOHHHHHHH” shout right next to us…grrrrr), and, a few minutes later, our first Teammate, Ed Russell, was launched with the wheelchair division.

(Ed's in front of the purple sign)

 Then came the first wave...



Yeah…I’m going to have to get the entire family down for one of the RunDisney races so they can experience this.

Requisite Team AllEars Corral Pic:

We knew that we still had a good 30 minutes or so before it was our turn, so we continued talking to everyone around us. About 10-15 minutes before our wave was expected to start, everyone developed the same nervous urge to hit the bathroom one more time, so we took turns watching for when we would start moving while others ran to the porta-potties. As we saw Corral L start walking past us, the last few people in the area darted for the bathrooms. We also noticed several from later corrals jumping into our corral as well as in J, K, and L.

Sigh

Finally, we got to start walking our way to the start line. We still had a couple of corrals to go before we were off, but the atmosphere was simply electric. Most were nervous but really happy. I downed my Clif Shot Bloks and guzzled a bit of water…and waited. I was definitely nervous about falling behind the pace of everyone else. I had trained for a :30/1:00 pace, but the others had agreed to try a :30/:45 pace, which is what they did the previous day for the half. I told them early on that I was completely fine if I couldn’t stay with them and that they should just go ahead…I wanted them to run their own race.

Corral L blasted off, and we were next:

Rudy Novotny, known by everyone as “The Voice of America’s Marathons”, has been an absolutely huge supporter of Team AllEars over the years. During the third year of the Team (my second year on it), Mike Scopa put out a call one December morning for as many Team AllEars members as possible to send Rudy a friend request on Facebook. Rudy is immensely popular with many, MANY people, yet he took the time to accept every single request and comment back to everyone. His actions, along with a similar “friend-bombing” of Joe Taricani, helped Team AllEars gain a lot more visibility, as well as more money raised.

Everyone knew that I had the drill instructor voice, so they had me shout out to him, which you probably heard about 1:09 into the video below.

Post by Darrell Burgoon.

Kewl…another Team AllEars Shoutout! …annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd WE’RE OFF!!!!!

(Continued HERE)

WDW Marathon Weekend 2014 - Half Marathon Day, Part 2

Part 1 can be found HERE

I hoped that a friend of mine from the Lodgeboards days (PixiePat…now known as Patricia) would be working at Kona, so I could catch up with how she was doing, but she was off at that time.  I knew that I was a bit later than my usual dining time at Kona (I’m militaristic…7:35 ADR…done eating by 8:15…quick bathroom break…on the monorail by 8:25, and at through the MK turnstiles for the opening show by 8:35-8:40), so I put in my request of (what else) Tonga Toast as soon as the server showed up.  I was absolutely parched from cheering, so I had around 4 glasses of water down before the food even showed up.  I was afraid that they were going to pull a Whispering Canyon on me and drop off a gallon-pitcher with a straw.  The breakfast was there in a flash, and I was stuffed in no time flat.  Bill paid (with a tip that hopefully made the server smile for being so awesome…I was a server at one point in my life, so I tend to empty the wallet a bit more), bathroom run done, dash to the monorail, and BAM…I was back on my MK schedule.  Actually, I was there earlier than expected.  I checked in on FourSquare at 8:32.

I had some time to chill before the MK Welcome Show, so I hopped on Facebook (and promptly got a growl from my wife for checking in on FourSquare and posting it).  I went to Twitter and noticed that I had a couple of messages.  Apparently, Jay Griffith and co-host of the Be Our Guest podcast Rikki Niblett were about 200 yards away cheering at the half.  I kicked myself for not seeing this message until it was too late, but they assured me that they would look out for me during the full.

We all sang the Good Morning song, and I promptly made my way up Main Street.  I knew that my friend, Judy, was off today, so I didn’t dart into the Emporium to look for her.  Instead, I bypassed all the Photopass Dudes/Dudettes and went straight through the castle to try getting a pic with Rapunzel.

Okay…I had better stop here for a minute, though I doubt anyone will believe what I am going to say.  I have two nieces that are Disney-Princess obsessed (yes…more than me).  One of them is a bit shy around me, so I decided that I was going to try getting some of the Princesses’ autographs for them in the hopes that they might actually stay in the same room as me at the next family get-together.

Honest…that’s why I was doing this.

HONEST!!!!

I made it to the rope and found that there was nobody here.  I assumed that most had probably made a beeline for Tomorrowland to hit Space Mountain, but I thought there would at least be a few from the Crystal Palace or Cinderella’s Royal Table ahead of me.  Nope…I was 1 deep at the rope, and that was with no pushing/shoving at all.  The cue music played, and I expected to get trampled by screaming Pre-K girls and their parents as they rushed to see the Princesses.

Nope. 

2 people entered the line to see Cinderella, but nobody went to see the haircut-averse princess.

Oooookay…this is a little weird.  I’m a grown man…by myself…first in line to see Rapunzel…

I expected her to have pepper spray in one hand as I walked up.  To make matters worse, there still was nobody behind me as I entered the room.

We talked a bit about the race and my nieces (which, I am guessing, she considered classic overcompensation).

Of course, Snow White was also in there…and still nobody else!

After I left the room, I put the camera away and just laughed at what had just happened. 

I made my way toward Tomorrowland and gazed at the construction of the Seven Dwarves Mine Train as I passed by.  My personalized touring plan told me to head over to Buzz next, but I chanced it and went straight to Space Mountain in anticipation of a decent wait.  The only “problem” was that I felt like the only person in the entire park.  The wait for Space Mountain was just about AFAYCW (for those who have not read any of my previous trip reports, “AFAYCW” stands for “As Fast As You Can Walk”…basically, there is no wait).  There were maybe 15 people ahead of me, and I skipped ahead of most of them thanks to them needing a single rider.  I did a stupid sleeping pose for the on-ride pic and actually missed hearing Sheri scream her lungs out during the ride.

I went to Buzz next and, since there are no witnesses to confirm or deny it, I scored 999,999 points! (I don’t think I broke 50K…one of my worst scores ever).   I made my way back towards Fantasyland and noticed that there still were no crowds at all in the park…I walked by Alice near the Tea Cups, and there may have been 2-3 families in line to meet her.  I was about 12 minutes ahead of schedule, according to Lines, so I decided to see how long the line was for Cinderella in case I wanted to grab a couple more autographs for my nieces.

I walked in…just me…nobody else…more pepper spray was on the ready as I walked in.

Cindy and Aurora were in the room.

I had a lot of explaining to do when Sheri saw the pics uploaded from my camera.  The first 14 pics from this day were of the Princesses and me.

The next stop was Philharmagic…this has always been one of my favorite ones, mostly because I love watching people experiencing it for the first time.  This one was a little odd because of the lack of people.  I counted around 22 people in the entire theater.  When I posted my requisite “Opera Glasses” pic, several friends mentioned that I needed to prepare because the throngs were on their way to the parks after running/cheering for the half.  I used my first FP+ for Peter Pan and then hopped over to sing along with Mary Blair’s dolls.  I made sure to time my waits for Fred Hazelton and the rest of the TouringPlans.com stats whizzes.  I was still a good 15 minutes ahead of schedule, so I toured the Tangled bathrooms and slowly walked around Liberty Square, because my FP+ time for Haunted Mansion was still a good 15 minutes away.  I looked to see when Sleepy Hollow opened up, because I had heard of nothing but amazing things with their Fluffernutter waffles with fruit.  They weren’t open yet, so I decided to try getting a pack of cards from the Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom game for my boys. While doing this, I noticed that Tiana was out and that nobody (none…zero…nada) was in line to see her; she was just carrying on a conversation with the Photopass dude.  Another Princess autograph to get (and even more consecutive pics of Princess pics on the camera).  Since there was nobody else in line, I stuck around and talked with Tiana for a bit (she was out there early for the half and was going to be there bright and early for the full, too).  We said our goodbyes, and I got a text from Steve that said he was on his way to MK.  I hopped into the Haunted Mansion AFAYCW and positioned myself right in front of the wall that opened up to the Doom Buggies.  I’ll freely admit that I was singing most of the attraction…I gave Thurl Ravenscroft a run for his money in the graveyard scene.

After Phineas blew my head up and popped it like a balloon, I headed out and made a beeline for Sleepy Hollow for my waffle sammich.  I made the mistake of grabbing the chicken one instead of the Fluffernutter one (I was worried that it would have gout-inducing high-fructose corn syrup).  The chicken one was okay, but I’m not a fan of slaw.  I called home to make sure the boys remembered to wish their Mother a Happy Birthday (they forgot) and to have them give her a present.  After that, I cut across over to Adventureland and hopped in line for the Tiki Birds.  Steve texted and mentioned that he was at the gate, so I hopped out of the pre-show and waited for him.  About ten minutes later, he strolled up, and we got in line for the Tiki Birds. We talked about how the half marathon went and messed around/tested changing FP+ times on the mobile My Disney Experience app – we were able to sync up FP+ times for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad later on.

The birds eventually kicked us out of their lair (again), and we hopped on Pirates.  I think we set a record for most people taking flash photography in one boat.  We contemplated throwing one or two of the cameras overboard during the small drop, but we restrained ourselves.  After Pirates, we looked into possibly trying the Pirate’s Adventure attraction but decided against it and went straight to Big Thunder.  I knew about the Goat Trick on the Disneyland version, but I didn’t know if it worked on the east coast.  I told Steve about it, and, at the top of the second hill, there wasn’t exactly a goat, but I did find something to focus on as we entered the drop.  I think it worked, but I hope to test it at my next trip to Disneyland this summer.

I wanted to get off my feet for a while to rest for the race.  Steve had just arrived and wanted to tour a bit more, so I headed back and prepped for the Team Meet at the Swolphin.

(Continued)