Wine and Dine Half Marathon 2013 Part 2

See part 1 here.

Finally, 22 minutes after the first corral gun went off, it was our turn.  I was strangely calm and excited when our fireworks went off.  Our strategy was to run for the first 3 minutes until we got out of traffic, then take up our planned 1:30/1:00 intervals, with hopes to finish in 3:15.  I don't remember much about the first mile except losing the arm warmers in the first 10 minutes.  It was cool for Orlando, but still pretty humid.  I train in south Alabama, I know humidity, so why does it affect my running so much??

We turned onto Osceola Parkway and by mile 3 I was ready to take my clothes off.  I really started to hit the wall very early.  In mile 4 I did what I thought would never happen:  I hit up the on-course portalet.  Add 5+ minutes to our time there.  The added time really beat me down, and we started running a 1/1 interval, but we were running through the Animal Kingdom, which was awesome.  Then we ran on a very narrow ring road around the Animal Kingdom parking lot that went on forever and ever.  But I was kinda pulling it together at this point and was ready to go.

Around mile 6 I felt like the tongue of my right shoe had moved and I fiddled with it, but felt it again a few minutes later. We stopped and I looked down, but nothing seemed wrong.  So off we went, back onto the long boring Osceola Parkway (note to runDisney:  You did a great job beefing up the course entertainment for the Tower of Terror 10-miler.  You should carry that over to the Wine and Dine).  We hit the 10K mat, and then mile 7.  Nearly half way!

And then it happened.  It felt like the toes on my right foot severely cramped.  I couldn't do much to stretch them with my shoes on, but I stopped and tried.  We walked for a bit to try to walk out the cramp, and tried to run some, but running was really painful.  I asked Mark if he thought I should drop out at the mile 8 Med Tent and he thought I should keep going, but I was going to have to walk as much as possible.  He stayed with me the entire way. I decided to try to run some more when we got into Hollywood Studios after mile 9.  We spent a lot of time backstage trying to fit 3+ miles into Hollywood Studios.  At some point we both said we were just ready to be out of this park!

courtesy The Affordable Mouse

One thing happened in Hollywood Studios that I really wanted to share.  Just before the Osborne Lights, where there were no employees or volunteers, there was a runner with a Team in Training coach shirt and a very low digit bib number.  She had stopped and was cheering on every single runner by name or character ("Let's go, Figment!").  At this point we were pretty close to the back of the pack so she had been there quite a while.  This lady had stopped her race to cheer on all those behind her, and it was really touching.  If you're out there Coach, thank you.  You are a shining example of the runner's spirit.

When we made it out of Hollywood Studios I realized that if I really tried, I could finish in under a 16:00 mm pace by my Garmin (which was measuring the course as long), so we started walking faster than I ever thought I could.  I ran a couple of more times when we got to EPCOT.  Another highlight: finding out Alabama had beat LSU from a bystander.  Roll Tide!

We heard our names announced at the finish line, and we were half-marathoners!  And our finish time?  3:31:XX.  What??  Damn you, portalet break in mile 4! I can't imagine our time if I'd been able to run.  I was really proud of the accomplishment.

We got margaritas at the afterparty before my foot really started to hurt.  It didn't swell until the next day.  When we got back into town I went right to the doctor, thinking it was some kind of sprain.  Oh no, no.  Broken 3rd metatarsal.  6 weeks in a boot.  But I finished the race!  I'm still petitioning runDisney to award me a special medal.

Wine and Dine Half Marathon 2013 Part 1

So what does a running blogger blog about when she can't run?  Past glory, of course!  In my case, race recaps.  And let's start with the one that got me into the boot for 6 weeks, shall we?

First, allow me to point out that I had run exactly 2 5Ks and done the Expedition Everest Challenge when I was, um, persuaded to sign up for the 2013 Wine and Dine Half Marathon.  That being said, I fully embraced the challenge and started my Galloway/Higdon training plan mash-up all the way back in June.

After weeks of training the big day was finally here.  If you've ever participated in a Disney race, you know that you have to get to the start early, so get to the start early we did.  There was lots of entertainment and portalets, but never enough portalets I discovered later.  We dropped the bag and went through the portalet line twice because there was no wait.  And then, we waited.  And waited.  Sat on the grass and waited.  Found our running buddies (all much faster than us) and sat and waited some more.  Portalet'ed again.  And then it was almost time to head to the corrals.  And I wanted to portalet just one more time, but so did every one of the 14,000 other people at that race and I couldn't wait in a 45 minute line.  It would come back to haunt me.

I'm gonna stop right here and say that whenever possible I run in costume.  I love coming up with them and putting them together.  Because the Wine and Dine finishes at the Food and Wine Festival at EPCOT I dressed like Figment. It was totally worth it because I got tons of comments and cheers and people wanted to take their picture with me.  Mark didn't dress up and was jealous.

I cut the feet out of a pair of socks for the arm warmers that I could toss and not feel guilty.  Mark (my husband, guess I haven't introduced him yet) thought I was a genius for this.

So back to the corrals.  For the first time in a race, I felt cramped and claustrophobic in the corral.  We were in K (out of A-L), so our corral did have more people, but it was really cramped and once you were in, you were in.  And then we sat down some more, because we waited probably 45 minutes before corral A moved to the start line.  Forty-five long, crowded minutes with no way to stretch or keep warm.  But all was forgotten when we started moving...