the real deal

Let me start by saying...nothing about this race was "ideal". I guess I'm just not the "ideal" kind of marathoner we all hoped for (including myself). I woke up Friday at 4:45 am SHARP and quickly got ready for the hospital. Got halfway there and noticed my car felt unusually unstable. WTF is going on? this car is brand new...new tires...besides for the 10 inches of snow..there was def a problem. I take my hands off the steering wheel and almost go off the road. You've got to be kidding me right? Get out...flat tire! That's how it all started....

Go to the OR..do some surgeries..leave early to go let the dog out and catch my flight. I hadn't really packed yet (oh ya know..minor detail)..so I still had to do that as well. I was in a huge rush..walked out the door and forgot my camera and ipod. Let me repeat...FORGOT MY IPOD! Yes forgetting camera was sucky...esp since I was in Disney...even more especially because my friend I was staying with forgot hers too. But lets get serious...running a marathon untrained without an ipod? FORGET IT!

Flight was uneventful..thank god. Went and picked up race numbers..tried to scheme how we were going to sneak into the half marathon..have an amazing sushi dinner..and lights out. 3:45 am alarm goes off..there is no way we're getting out of bed. NO WAY! Shut it off..roll over...and not another word was said

Wake up at 9:00 and decide that a GOOD idea would be to do the park hopper deal at Disney and hop around all 4 parks ALL day. At this point...were thinking we might try to do the full on Sunday. Lets think...walking around amusement parks all day...in the sun (no sunscreen by the way)...probably not the BEST way to spend the day before a UNTRAINED marathon.

So to the next point..our training. What training? Did you say a train was coming? Yeah..about that. If you call an 8 mile run in November training..then put a check next to the box. Because that is all we did in preparation of this event. I know its stupid...but no one ever said being adventurous was always the smartest thing. So here is another thing that made conditions NOT ideal...AT ALL.

Fuel...ya know...the stuff that keeps you repeating right foot, left foot. Didn't bring any of it..no GU, no shot bloks..no nothing. We ended up buying some cookies to eat for breakfast...but thats all the fuel we had.

Fanny pack....nope didnt have that either. My friend ended up letting me borrow an extra IPOD that she had...so I ended up carrying my phone in one hand...Itouch (pretty large) in the other hand the whole race. DEFINITELY not ideal...esp for my shoulders.

Clothing...I had awesome running shorts with the built in underwear and all that good jazz. Did I wear them? Nope..opted for the capri wind pants because I thought the start of the race might be cold. HELLOOOO Runninduff...FLORIDA!? Did you even check the weather to see race day forecast? Nope.. haha I also wore my LONG SLEEVED marathon shirt as well...which ended up being tied around my waist the whole time and causing more sweating..more fluid loss..and more heat around the mid section. AWESOME

Oh yeah..and did we learn a lesson by not having sunscreen on the day at Disney parks? Nope..forgot it for the marathon too...as well as my sunglasses. As you see... I failed on all aspects of executing this marathon.....but despite all odds....

The race started with fireworks. It was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! Super fun...lots of atmosphere. I esp loved running past the epcot ball at the beginning, running through the castle, running through Epcot country at the end..and most of all...FINISHING! I hit the wall at mile 20..wait what? no one ever hits the wall at mile 20!! (jk obviously). Had to walk a little bit..then realized it hurt less to keep running. I finished in 5:01 which was good for a PR...but fell short of breaking 5 hours :( boooo! But for not training..and all the other circumstances...I was happy.

Now my body on the other hand...NOTTTTTTTTTT happy. My legs have never hurt so bad in my life...its insane! I can't walk, squat, kneel, stretch, bend over or anything that resembles any of those actions. I believe this is wehre the "I told ya so.." of not training for an event comes in. In other news...all our friends finished that were running...and Danielle (hot pants) rocked it out with a 3:57 KILLING her previous time of 5:19! Insane right? So that was it! Great times.. I'll probably stick to half marathons for a while...but surprisingly i Felt pretty good the whole race and am starting to get that bug ALREADY of..."man..i want to do another one" haha. INSANE!