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| New Balance Wall o' Names at the Expo |
My
Mister (Michael) and I arrived in Orlando to join my family for our epic
reunion the Wednesday before Walt Disney World's Marathon Weekend. Our flight
was delayed, which was an annoying start and led to a slow, sleepy start the
next day. We only had two cars and a total of 10 people, which made for some
chaotic scheduling issues from time to time. Especially considering that all of
us kind of wanted to do different things at different times. But we managed to
get to packet pick-up by midday on Thursday. I had to pick up the 5K for
myself, Half for my niece, and full for my friend Kimlee and myself. I only bought one
item – the Mickey runner Vinylmation with marathon medal. I’m pretty picky
about Vinylmation’s, I don’t think the majority are very cute – but I had to
have this one. I also talked my siblings into getting some Balega socks. I
should totally be a spokeswoman for them. I bought all my running friends
Balega’s for Christmas, too!
That
evening was a whirlwind of EPCOT. We really only saw Japan – which is
hilarious, since after this trip we decided to take a trip to Japan and will be
in the actual country in two weeks. I deeply regret not finding a way to go see
Captain Eo with my sister. We saw the original in EPCOT when we were kids
around 1986. It’s one of my only vivid memories from that first trip to Disney –
that and donut holes at a character breakfast. I have priorities. But it was
good to spend a little time with the majority of the family and we even got to
see Desiree for dinner in France!
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| My sister, brother, fella, and me after the Family Fun Run 5K |
Friday
we started out with the Family Fun Run 5K. My sister does not consider herself
to be much of a runner, but she has done 5K’s in the past – including a
Spartan. She also hikes and cycles. Michael hates running, but he did the
Half-Marathon in 2008 and currently does Crossfit. Point is, they’re both in
pretty good shape. And they ran like champs! Not that my brother and I are
speed demons or anything, but I’m just saying – they didn’t seem to have any
problems keeping up and I was so proud of our family for doing a race together.
Afterward,
Mister and I went to Universal Studios. Neither of us had ever been – I’d only
visited the Universal in Osaka, Japan. It was pretty neat. The lines weren’t
too long, but we were trying to take it easy so we focused on the bigger rides
with themes that interested us. For some reason I was ridiculously nervous
about the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit. That steep climb is a little shocking. But
we both chose some No Doubt to listen to and got through it! Otherwise, we
enjoyed The Mummy, the Simpsons, MIB, and Despicable Me. We had to leave before
the water show to pick up my friend Kimlee from the airport, but we were pretty exhausted by
then anyway.
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| My brother and niece after the Half-Marathon |
Saturday
we were originally supposed to be going out and cheering on my brother and
youngest niece in the Half, but the week before we left my mother suddenly suggested
going to Discovery Cove – a small park outside of Sea World where you can
snorkel and swim with dolphins. Michael and my mom both had swimming with
dolphins on their Bucket List, so it was kind of hard to pass up the
opportunity. So we spent the day before the marathon with my parents out in the sun and the
sand and the water. (I didn’t say I was smart.) But it was well worth it. We
saw all kinds of amazing wildlife and the dolphins were incredible.
But
Sunday came all too quickly. We got up and out of the house in good time – my brother,
my friend Kimlee, our spectator extraordinaire Michael, and myself. We found a
decent parking spot and left Michael to nap while we headed to the starting
line where we met up with two of my brother’s friends, one of which was doing
the Goofy with him. Kimlee went ahead to her corral and Desiree decided to stay
ahead as well, but I came to the conclusion that it made no sense for me to
leave my brother when we were there to celebrate having done the Goofy together
five years before. He might later come to regret that I had made that decision,
but oh well!
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| The only photo we took on the course - you can tell this was early on! |
Here
were the issues:
- We were in corral G, thus way in the back and had to stand around waiting to start for over an hour and a half from when we arrived. I always find this draining.
- Discovery Cove. While wonderful, spending the day before swimming in the sun took a lot out of me. Plus, walking around on the sand had aggravated an old injury on my right foot which was flaring up on the run.
- The Sun. I always say I’m the Anti-Superman because the Sun is my Kryptonite. And the heat and humidity did not help. I may be from Austin, TX, but we have a dry heat and I always trained in the cooler early hours of the day or did poorly.
- Upset tummy. It’d been a long week of some vacation foods and I was drinking a lot of Powerade when I’d mostly trained on water. I don’t know what the exact causes were for certain, but I do know my stomach was tore up. I felt like I was constantly stopping at port-a-potties or just stopping to walk in general due to cramps.
Bottom
line and all excuses aside? It wasn’t pretty. I felt fairly miserable the majority of the run – hobbled and
slow. Around mile 24 I felt like crying, but there wasn’t enough fluid in my
body for the tears. It really wasn’t that it was that hard, I was just so
disappointed in myself and felt so bad holding my brother back who was
insisting on sticking with me. He was also battling the flu and had just run
the 5K and Half, but still – I think he could have done the Marathon must
faster. I finished with a time of 6:44:14. About an hour longer than my
marathon time when I did the Goofy.
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| Kimlee and me after the Marathon |
But.
I did it! My third marathon. And my last. Or so I keep saying. But man if it
isn’t frustrating to have your last marathon be your worst time. So I guess we
will just have to see what the 10th anniversary of our first Goofy
has in store for us. They did just announce that Dopey Challenge… Just kidding,
Michael! Maybe.
Kimlee
did great, especially considering the heat and having spent the day before at
the parks. She finished about an hour and a half before me. Desiree was doing
her first marathon ever and finished just in time. Her tales of the balloon
people and folks cheering her into the safe zone of EPCOT sounded harrowing,
but she made it and is also signed up for the Dumbo and discussing
possibilities of Dopey! She has definitely been bitten by the run Disney bug
and it’s fun to see. Unfortunately my brother’s friends weren’t so lucky and
got picked up at mile 16. The husband had hurt his leg during the Half and just
couldn’t make it through the Full. It’s easy to forget how grueling these races
can be and how incredible it is for folks to even attempt them, let alone
complete them. Amazing accomplishments all around.
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| My friend Desiree is very DONE with the Marathon |
Michael
brought the car around and we headed home for ice baths. We’d hoped to make it
out to the Downtown Disney after party, but we just passed out. Which was probably
for the best since we were spending Monday at Universal’s Islands of Adventure.
It was awesome to finally visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and with
two of my closest Potterheads! Michael, Kimlee, and I have often dressed as
Dumbledore, Cho Chang, and Harry for movie premieres and Halloween parties. My
sister joined us as well and we had a blast getting behind the scenes tours of
the Potter ride lines from some magical cast members, downing Butterbeers, riding
the Incredible Hulk multiple times, snapping illegal photos on the Dr. Seuss
train, and escaping Jurassic Park.
The
next day wasn’t quite as smooth – it was meant to be the happy go lucky day that
Michael and I celebrated three years of marriage at Magic Kingdom, but we started
out late, had to pay for park entry we thought we’d had covered, and managed to
make Kimlee miss her flight due to our concern at missing our $106 pre-paid
breakfast reservations. I was sobbing on the way to Cinderella’s castle for our
breakfast with the Princesses. Obviously at this point everything had just come
to a boiling point – days of amusement parks, running, family, and
miscommunication had just come to a big, ugly head and I felt exhausted,
guilty, angry, and just plain sad. But Michael insisted I let it all go for
that day. There was nothing I could do to change anything at that point; all we
could do was have a great anniversary celebration.
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| Cinderella's Castle Fireworks |
So
we did. Breakfast was charming and we loved our waiter. And when we told
management how much we loved our waiter we got two free Fast Pass/Snack coupons!
But we had to work hard to find a way to use them because ride lines were
non-existent. We even got given an immediate Fast Pass to Space Mountain when a
cast member saw our Anniversary buttons – but we’d just gotten one from the
machine. So we went straight to the front almost back to back. Storytime with
Belle was fantastic – I got typecast as the Wardrobe and did a mean vibrato. We were able to enjoy the 3 o'clock parade with Desiree and her husband Tim. Dinner was spectacular – I’d made reservations at Be Our Guest the first week
you could. Our waitress was a treat and we got to try the grey stuff! Then we
grilled the Haunted Mansion host for fun things to look for and discovered the
new official location of Constance’s ring before catching the fireworks right
in front of the castle with some popcorn and free sodas since we never managed to use our
second free Fast Pass coupon as an actual Fast Pass. (The first one we ended up
spending on Peter Pan!)
Quite
easily one of the worst and best days I’ve had in a very long time. I could
have done without the worst part and all the drama, but stuff happens. Prime
example, the next day we woke up to a dead car battery when my folks were
trying to get us to the airport. Luckily we were leaving very early so they
could get on the road back to NC, but still. Not ideal. And yet life goes on
and lessons are learned.
Lessons
learned?
- Get up earlier than you think you need to. All the time. On race days. On vacation. On normal days. Just get up, it’ll likely save a lot of headache and heartache.
- When in doubt - rent a car; you won’t regret it. Even if you need to rent it for other people to use, it’ll likely save a lot of headache and heartache.
- Either do parks or do races or do both and accept the fact that one or both will suffer.
- Family first. The memories you make with your family (and friends who are like family) will be the most important, so make those memories happen as best you can.
I can't thank my family enough for making this reunion possible. Especially my parents, who so selflessly love having us all together that they covered us all staying at a gorgeous villa with its own private swimming pool. They do so many wonderful things for us, I'm so glad we had that week together. Next time we should probably try to do a little less so we can spend more of time actually together - but it was a treat nonetheless!
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