Going the Distance... From Mile 1 to 26.2: A Marathon Weekend 2009 Trip Report

So it’s been four weeks since my boyfriend, Brett (27), and I (26) accomplished a goal we’d only dreamed about in the months leading up to our January 2009 trip… we finished the Walt Disney World Marathon :sohappy:!!!

For those of you who have read either of my first two (extremely long-winded) trip reports you are probably quite aware of Brett and I’s love for the Disney characters. And it might not shock you too much that our original motivation for tackling the miles was the thought of getting to meet all the rare characters found only on the race… that’s right, you read that correctly, we are two crazy people (non runners at that) who were willing to endure 26.2 miles of hell to meet a few characters. And since we’re talking about the underworld and all, I guess I should give Hades some credit as a motivator; he was our most sought after character (ever since we saw a picture of him high fiving finishers), especially for Brett!

To set the stage for this weekend, I should start at the beginning. A little over a year ago (December 2007), Brett and I set a goal to become more active, a new year’s resolution if you will, but we didn’t call it that. We started looking into Disney’s Endurance Series (because of the aforementioned characters) and decided that a half marathon (13.1 miles) was a manageable goal. February through May was spent teaching my body how to run, or rather jog. Seriously, in the beginning I couldn’t run one mile at a 12 minute pace without feeling like I was going to fall off the treadmill and die.

Once we made it over that hurdle we decided to go online and register for the event. Little did we know, the half marathon was already full and registration had closed! This was a huge dilemma. We had already set our sights on being a part of Marathon Weekend 2009 and we didn’t want to let it go. And that was when we started thinking marathon. I contacted my cousin for some advice. She and her husband are Ironman triathletes and she told me the distance was totally doable and she put together a marathon training schedule for us. For those of you unfamiliar with what an Ironman triathlon is, let me just tell you… it’s a beast. It consists of a 2.4 mile swim, followed by a 112 mile bike ride, and it wraps up with a 26.2 mile run. Crazy! Crazy! Crazy!

So we posted the run schedule and a copy of the course map on a bulletin board in the kitchen and began checking off the days. We also used a thumbtack to mark our journey along the map. I spent months visualizing this course, and during earlier WDW trips this past year in May, September, and December I thought about the miles we would cover while we were driving down the roads we would one day be traveling on foot.

We started out closely following the schedule until life and ITB knee pain got in the way. Okay, if I’m being honest some laziness and feelings of “I don’t want to run today, I’ll do it tomorrow” got in the way as well. Fast forward to the week before the marathon and our longest runs had only amounted to ten miles…. we were in trouble and very undertrained, but never did we consider backing out. Granted that might just show quite a bit of stupidity and stubbornness on our part :brick:!

And don't worry, the upcoming posts will include pictures!

 

[HollyBelle]

Well deserved
And thanks again for the great story.

One observation...
The last leg of the race had many fewer pictures....was that due more to your brains turning to pudding or weren't there the number of new/rare characters that you were hoping for?

Some nice different costumes on many of the pictures you did include.

While my brains were complete mush... it was definitely the latter! I would have still stopped for anyone qualifying as rare. I was actually quite upset with the lack of characters in the last two parks. From what I understand the Studios is usually crawling with characters and other than the three we stopped for (Jessie, Max and Mushu) the only other ones we saw were the army man I mentioned and I think there were a few power rangers out in the Streets of America-anything but rare.

As for Epcot, the absolute only characters I remember seeing in the home stretch were Snow White and Dopey and they were set up in Germany as per usual. More for park guests, but I recall seeing a runner or two hop off the course to meet them.

At the time (while I was still on the course) I remember thinking that maybe they'd pulled the characters because it was getting so late, but that wouldn't be fair because we were still within the pacing requirements. Afterwards I looked into it and the Studios was lacking in character attendance for earlier runners, as well.

So how long did you sleep after the marathon? Were you able to get out and about and do anything around the parks or anything before going home? I'm sure you prob'ly had more for the post-marathon report. I'm just sooooo patient, huh?! LOL!

Yep, patience must be your middle name! And since it is I guess I'll just let you wait and see...

No really, we did make it to dinner that night and to the parks the next day! There's no way I'm going to be on Disney property and not find a way to get out and enjoy myself!

a friend of mine once said something along the lines of this:

"Some days, I wake up not knowing if I could ever run a marathon. But every day for the rest of my life, I wake up knowing that I did."

That is something for the two of you to hold onto, and I look forward to being able to say that myself this time next year.

from Disney's registration site, as of today:


# Marathon
# Half Marathon - 50% Full
# Goofy's Race and a Half Challenge - 85% Full

Great quote MKCP. I really like that. I know that when we finished this thing our first response was... "Great, now we can check that off the life list!" "One and done," as you've maybe heard the marathon referred to as before. But it's amazing how quickly our heart/mind convinces our body it's worth another go round.

I'm monitoring that site closely. I know the marathon didn't fill until Octoberish last year, but the half fills quickly enough that we'll have to make a decision long before then.

I really can't wait for Jan! It would be awsome if I was able to meet everyone from here.

I agree, Joanna. That would be so cool!

 

[HollyBelle]

After changing into flip flops and some clean clothes we went down to the Riverside Mill Food Court and grabbed a quick bite to eat. From there we immediately headed over to the Muddy Rivers Pool Bar for some football and beer! FINALLY… it was time to enjoy that beer I’d been craving all morning. So a couple of heavenly Blue Moons (and an Eagle victory) later we paid our tab and went back to the room.

I decided, or rather my body decided, that I needed a quick nap before dinner. I laid down and was out immediately. During this time Brett took a hot shower and took a walk over to the gift shop to pick a few things up. When he got back and woke me he was so proud to inform me that his legs weren’t feeling too bad. So after about an hour nap I drug myself out of the bed, as it was time to get ready for dinner and I knew we were going to need all the extra time in the world to get over to the Polynesian in time for our ADRs. Bear in mind… travel time from place to place was slow going for us :lookaroun. But hey, at least we were going to make it to dinner.

Had I known how good a hot shower was going to feel I don’t think I would have let myself get sidetracked with food, beer and sleep first, and believe me that’s saying something! Brett had fallen asleep in the meantime and when I woke him to leave for dinner he wasn’t feeling nearly as great as he had earlier; his muscles had tightened back up during that nap of his!

When Brett asked me if I was going to wear my medal to dinner I must have looked at him like he was a crazy person because he was quickly able to answer his own question… HECK YEAH I AM! Not only did the thought of wearing my medal to dinner help motivate me through that race, but throughout the evening I was going to need passersby to see that there was a reason I was walking like a 92 year old grandma who’d had her walker taken away.

We took a bus over to the MK and debated whether boat or monorail would be the best choice to get us to dinner. What was the debate really about, you ask? Well, should we walk up the ramp to the monorail or attempt stepping down into and up out of the boat? Seriously… that was our dilemma, not which would get us there faster; more like which was to be less painful?!

The monorail won and we made our way over to the Polynesian where we checked in for our dinner ADRs at Ohana. Long ago when trying to decide what would be the best post marathon dinner there was no question for us that Ohana was it. It’s our celebration place and has been since the very first trip we took together. We were lucky enough to make reservations that would coincide with Wishes, and even luckier to get a two top smack in front of the windows facing the kingdom. It was a perfect celebratory dinner at one of our very favorite restaurants. Wishes doesn’t normally choke me up but it did this night. I still hate that we didn’t think to get a picture of ourselves; I attribute it to exhaustion though, as there aren’t but two pictures from the whole night… and that’s just not like us.

During dinner we decided the hot tub back at the resort was calling our names, but after the long trek back to POR we just didn't have it in us to leave the room. We were zapped! And sound asleep by 9 pm.

Next up… an early morning at the MK and a surprise experience at the Animal Kingdom!!

 

[DormaNesbit]

When Brett asked me if I was going to wear my medal to dinner I must have looked at him like he was a crazy person because he was quickly able to answer his own question… HECK YEAH I AM! Not only did the thought of wearing my medal to dinner help motivate me through that race, but throughout the evening I was going to need passersby to see that there was a reason I was walking like an 92 year old grandma who’d had her walker taken away.

I just woke my husband out of a sound sleep after ROARING with laughter having read this paragraph! Holly you and Brett are an amazing couple and I believe sweetpea was right with the analogy. And being the age that I am and happily married for 19 years, I ask you the question (aw heck I'm nosey ok?) maybe are you two thinking about something getting married??? Think of it like a marathon---you already ran one, how about a for life one? Sorry----I love weddings!

 

[WDWFigment]

Awesome conclusion to the marathon. You answered a question I was going to ask about recovery time. One of the reasons we are hesitant to do this is because we only get so many days at WDW per year, and we don't want this to consume an entire trip because we're so tired from it. I really want to do take a trip with the Marathon falling on our last day. I know it's probably ill advised because of all the walking on the previous days, I think it would maximize our enjoyment of the vacation.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

I just woke my husband out of a sound sleep after ROARING with laughter having read this paragraph! Holly you and Brett are an amazing couple and I believe sweetpea was right with the analogy. And being the age that I am and happily married for 19 years, I ask you the question (aw heck I'm nosey ok?) maybe are you two thinking about something getting married??? Think of it like a marathon---you already ran one, how about a for life one? Sorry----I love weddings!

I already asked her about the impending wedding via email!!! LOL! Aren't they totally adorable?! I've been married 15 years and I'm tellin' you these 2 are sooooo like an old married couple with the way they just sorta mesh. I'm waiting for the Disney proposal. How 'bout you?!

 

[Pluto Princess]

Oh my goodness HollyBelle! I just read your entire trip report in the past hour, and I must say that it was really inspiring! Congrats on finishing in all that pain! :sohappy:

I was REALLY excited for you two when you finally crossed the finish line!

Cant wait for the rest of the report :wave:

 

[DormaNesbit]

I already asked her about the impending wedding via email!!! LOL! Aren't they totally adorable?! I've been married 15 years and I'm tellin' you these 2 are sooooo like an old married couple with the way they just sorta mesh. I'm waiting for the Disney proposal. How 'bout you?!

I would love to hear all about a Disney proposal!

 

[diddy_mouse]

This is such a HUGE accomplishment and big congrats to both you and Brett! :sohappy: I don't think I could ever do a full marathon (I have a bad knee to start with) but reading your report almost makes me want to get my lazy self down to the gym and start training. :lol: One of my goals in life is to do a charity walk or possibly a 5K/10K. And by reading your report, knowing you two finished through all that pain...I gotta say it is inspiring!

P.S. Those medals are pretty sweet!

 

[HollyBelle]

Awesome conclusion to the marathon. You answered a question I was going to ask about recovery time. One of the reasons we are hesitant to do this is because we only get so many days at WDW per year, and we don't want this to consume an entire trip because we're so tired from it. I really want to do take a trip with the Marathon falling on our last day. I know it's probably ill advised because of all the walking on the previous days, I think it would maximize our enjoyment of the vacation.

Thanks, WDWFigment. With regards to recovery time... it's absolutely dependent upon how well trained you are for the marathon. We knew going in that we were severely undertrained and that's one of the reasons we were hurting so bad the next few days. Throughout the parks the next day we saw people in all different types of post race condition. Some like us, some worse off than us, and some walking with a spring in their step. We even saw Goofy racers walking at a nice clip. So I think much of it has to do with your own preparedness.

Something else to consider if you don't want it to adversely effect your vacation time too much would be to participate in the half or even in one of the other races they have throughout the year like the Tower of Terror 13K. The max time you will spend out there for the half is 3.5 hours. Meaning you're done by 9:30am... and there's a full day ahead of you! Just a thought.

And as for the marathon falling on the last day... I can tell you, having the parks to walk around in and work the soreness out was a blessing. I can't imagine how much my body would have been screaming in pain if I'd made it sit in a confined airplane right away !!

I just woke my husband out of a sound sleep after ROARING with laughter having read this paragraph! Holly you and Brett are an amazing couple and I believe sweetpea was right with the analogy. And being the age that I am and happily married for 19 years, I ask you the question (aw heck I'm nosey ok?) maybe are you two thinking about something getting married??? Think of it like a marathon---you already ran one, how about a for life one? Sorry----I love weddings!

I already asked her about the impending wedding via email!!! LOL! Aren't they totally adorable?! I've been married 15 years and I'm tellin' you these 2 are sooooo like an old married couple with the way they just sorta mesh. I'm waiting for the Disney proposal. How 'bout you?!

Thank you for the compliments, ladies!!! Considering the success of your own two marriages, I truly value your comments and what you see in us. We'll get to that "for life" marathon here eventually! And don't worry, any future Disney celebrations will be sure to pop up in a trip report.

Oh my goodness HollyBelle! I just read your entire trip report in the past hour, and I must say that it was really inspiring! Congrats on finishing in all that pain! :sohappy:

I was REALLY excited for you two when you finally crossed the finish line!

Cant wait for the rest of the report :wave:

Thanks, Pluto Princess!

This is such a HUGE accomplishment and big congrats to both you and Brett! :sohappy: I don't think I could ever do a full marathon (I have a bad knee to start with) but reading your report almost makes me want to get my lazy self down to the gym and start training. :lol: One of my goals in life is to do a charity walk or possibly a 5K/10K. And by reading your report, knowing you two finished through all that pain...I gotta say it is inspiring!

P.S. Those medals are pretty sweet!

Thanks! You can totally do it... go ahead and sign up for that 5K/10K and that'll help inspire you to get moving :sohappy:!

And you're right about those medals.

 

[HollyBelle]

Day 3, Monday January 12, 2009: Magic Kingdom/Animal Kingdom

We woke up bright and early on Monday, refreshed from a full night’s sleep. Getting moving wasn’t so easy but we managed to get ready and get out the door. I found this great youtube video about the “day after a marathon” and thought I’d share it with you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-hCuYjvw2I .

For both of us, the very best thing about staying at Port Orleans Riverside was the simple fact that a Boatwright’s breakfast was only a short (albeit, slow) walk away. It’s the best breakfast on property! So we were there at 7:30 am beating down the doors for our deep fried French toast baguettes. Yummy!

After breakfast we went to the bus stop and quickly got on a bus to the Magic Kingdom. The bus dropped us off 20-30 minutes before the opening show on the train station. Good thing too, because I had to take two or three breaks as we walked from the bus to the entrance . We learned very quickly that the longer we were on our feet, the better. Our muscles would loosen and the more we walked the less crazy we looked doing it.

Magic Kingdom Entrance:

The Train Station on a cold blustery day:

It seemed like there were hardly any people at rope drop, especially in comparison to other times of the year. We took a few pictures and then headed over to the Newsstand to keep warm. Turned out it was much cooler than the day before.

Once we entered the park we decided to hang out in Town Square where we happened to see Stitch escorting Snow White from the train station to Exposition Hall… it was a funny sight. Unfortunately for us the character set for the Magic Kingdom has been the same for our past three trips. I miss the days when it was random. We went ahead and met Pluto and Daisy Duck and then began gingerly making our way down Main Street.

Wearing our medals to the parks was a great idea because it was the start of so many wonderful conversations with others, especially those who had their own medal or marathon tech shirt on. Everyone had a story to share. It was like a secret club… we’d see someone in passing and offer up a congratulations or sometimes there would just be a shared smile meant to say “You were there, too, and look we both survived.” The camaraderie and respect was instantaneous. If the feeling of crossing the finish line isn’t enough to make someone want to do it again, I’d think the pride of wearing that medal would.

In addition to the VIP club we were now a part of :sohappy:, the CM’s were wonderful; always complimenting us and starting up conversations about what we’d accomplished. The character attendants would always be sure to point out our medals to the characters, if they hadn’t already spied them. You could tell they were definitely on the lookout and always made such a big deal of us!

 

[HollyBelle]

We slowly made our way to Fantasyland, and decided to give the teacups a whirl. Getting in and out of them proved to be painful enough so we decided to hang up the rides for the rest of the trip! Look, a Hatter behind my head… he’s quite mad:

Currently, we’re trying to come up with some good ideas for Halloween costumes, because we’re hoping to be able to time our Food and Wine 09 trip with MNSSHP. Right now, the Mad Hatter and March Hare are in the running… who wouldn’t want to walk around all evening being preposterous and talking nonsense?!? And after seeing this picture, I’m fully convinced Brett can pull off the Mad Hatter:

We made our way back to the Toontown rope drop, considering the only thing on my to-do list for the whole day was to get our picture with Mickey and our medals. Yay! Minnie was with him. Unfortunately, the picture is a bit blurry.

After this we went to check out Philharmagic, my favorite 3D show. It was our third and final attraction/ride of the whole trip. Next up was a walk through Liberty Square and Frontierland, where we caught a glimpse of Goofy doing meet and greets in front of Splash Mountain. He was wearing a new outfit!! Also, he loved the tiny version of himself that Brett had clipped on his medal. He loved it so much that he was very unhappy with me for not having one too, and before he let us go he made Brett promise to buy me something Goofy!

It was starting to get colder, so we decided to head back to the room, change, and make our way over to the Animal Kingdom for lunch. Cold or not, I had to get myself a dole whip on the way out!!

 

[HollyBelle]

We got off the bus at the Animal Kingdom, and it was back to learning how to walk again after sitting for so long! Taking our time (as if we had a choice in the matter :dazzle, we headed to Asia in search of a late lunch. We walked up to the Yak & Yeti counter service restaurant, stood there looking at the menu for a minute and then did what we always do when standing in front of a counter service restaurant... one of us says, “Why don’t we do a table service?” And the other’s response is always “Great idea!” So that’s what we did! While we were waiting, I told Brett there was no way we wouldn’t be seated upstairs, considering the shape we were in, it was inevitable. So when the hostess called us over, told us our table was upstairs and asked if we’d like to take the stairs or elevator, in unison and without hesitation our response was “elevator!”

We had a great server and lunch was delicious. Afterwards we made our way back downstairs via elevator. No reason to embarrass myself by going backwards down the stairs in the middle of the restaurant! We didn’t know what to do with ourselves when we first left, and decided to head towards Africa. Louie and Baloo were out so we stopped to take a quick picture. Louie loved the medals!

Next we decided to make our way towards Camp Minnie Mickey and possibly catch the next showing of FOTLK. When we got there we were just meandering around and taking some pictures when two cast members approached us and began talking with us about the marathon and what a huge undertaking it was. Next thing we knew, one of them asked us if we’d like to celebrate our accomplishment by being the Grand Marshalls in Mickey’s Jammin Jungle parade! Did we ever… I was so excited!! So we were told to meet Cory (one of the cm’s) outside the gates near the entrance to the Kilimanjaro Safaris queue at exactly 3:30 pm.

3:30 wasn’t far off, and we didn’t want to venture too far considering how slow we were moving. So from Camp Minnie Mickey we headed back to Africa where we did a little shopping and people watching. It was nice to relax in the area and listen to the drummers as we waited for 3:30 to roll around.

The Mombasa Marketplace:

Hey… we saw these guys yesterday:

A Kilimanjaro Safaris flyer plastered to the wall:

I just love the lamppost signage in Africa:

And the Harambe Port Authority:

As you can tell in the pictures, especially the Port Authority one, the sky had been threatening rain for most of the day. And we were really hoping it wouldn’t open up and pour, as that would spell the end of the parade for us.

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Grand Marshalls!! That's awesome!!

I lol'd at the thought of you going backwards down the stairs in Yak and Yeti!!!:ROFLOL:

 

[HollyBelle]

When it was time we went over to the gate where a couple of other families were also waiting and at 3:30 Cory came out to greet us; he was great! He gave us all some basic information about the parade (there were 4 families), and then took us backstage in the order of our floats.

The CM’s were all being very hush-hush about the character on our float, wanting to surprise us. Brett and I played along, even though we knew Rafiki opened up the parade, and had a pretty good guess that being the grand marshalls meant we were on the lead off float!! So we got our gear on (safari hats and vests) and waited to board. Making my way up onto the float was a feat in and of itself; I was successful! Oh my, getting down is going to be tricky. Next, the characters and entertainers came out. Rafiki interacted with us quite a bit as he was getting onto the float and while we were waiting around to go. He’d bang his staff everytime he wanted to get our attention. And really throughout the parade he didn’t forget we were there. Louie and Baloo stopped by to say hello and pick on us a bit when they came out.

Being in the parade was so much fun, and probably a once in a lifetime experience. Disney has photopass photographers set up to take our picture throughout it, which I thought was great. But, in addition to those guys, Cory also took a picture of us with a Kodak throwaway camera when our float first came out of the gates and then handed it to us to do what we wanted with it. So we took a few pictures of the parade from our vantage point. It was so much fun to watch the characters and stilt walkers interact with guests as they made their way around the park. My favorite was towards the end when we went by the fruit stand and King Louie tried desperately to rip down some hanging bananas!

Sorry these are so grainy, they were taken with a one shot camera and then scanned onto the computer, but at least they get the idea across.

The entertainers and characters leading Rafiki's float, followed by a picture of us. Cory took both of these before handing the camera off to us.

Our view (the stilt walker in orange was awesome... she even took the time to entertain us with some smiling/facial exercises before taking off!):

And last but not least, Rafiki, who was right behind us:

By the end of the parade we had the song down (actually, I won’t lie, we knew the song before we even got started because we have the loops for all the parades already stored on itunes, MJJP is actually one of my favorites) and we sang along throughout the parade. When the photographers handed us our photopass later, they informed us that the two of us were, in fact, having entirely too much fun out there! What else were we supposed to be doing?!?

Below are some pictures photopass took.

This was our response everytime Rafiki asked us if we were ready for the party, with a repeated, "I said, are you ready for the party?!" "Yeeeeaaaaaahhhhhh!!":

When the parade entered backstage, we were dropped off and allowed to stand at the edge and watch the rest of it as it came in. We were able to manage a couple of pictures.

Pluto swinging by for a quick high five before heading off to get a bone:

Goofy was great because his music was cut off mid sentence and he just kind of shrugged, as if to say “Wonder what happened to my voice?”

 

[HollyBelle]

After we turned in our gear and thanked the CM’s, Cory especially, we began making our way out of the park. We stopped briefly in the Island Mercantile to pick something up and then exited the park.

Princess Atta at the Island Mercantile (love her):

And boy, the gang moves fast… they were already at the park exit bidding everyone good evening:

From the AK we got on a bus to the Grand Floridian for our dinner reservations at the Grand Floridian Café. Dinner was good, and extremely quick; the place was empty. I don’t know if that has to do with the time of year or time of day (it was about 6pm), but there were all of about 4 parties seated, including us. I’m wondering how they stay in business. During dinner we discussed going to either Epcot or Downtown Disney for the evening and by the time we got on a Downtown Disney bus, we were spent. The day (or rather, day before) had caught up with us and the hot tub was sounding better and better, so we chose to go back to the resort instead.

Let me tell you… the hot tub worked wonders on my sore muscles. For any of you who are considering marathon weekend 2010, be sure to stay at a moderate or deluxe resort, if for no other reason than to use the hot tub. I could have stayed in that thing all night! It was miraculous how easily I was able to walk back to the room after soaking my tired legs. Unfortunately though, it didn’t last. By the time I woke up the next morning they were back to being mad at me .

Next up: departure day !

 

[HollyBelle]

Grand Marshalls!! That's awesome!!

I lol'd at the thought of you going backwards down the stairs in Yak and Yeti!!!:ROFLOL:

If just the thought of seeing me go backwards down a set of stairs makes you laugh, Tammy, then you would have loved to follow me around for a week :lol:!! I was going backwards down every set of stairs I came across and on my way up I looked like a 3 year old that hadn't quite grasped the concept, making sure to land both feet on each individual step.

As for Mickey's Jammin Jungle parade, I was sooooooo excited. And it didn't disappoint. We have been very lucky on each of our past 4 trips.

 

[DznyGrlSD]

:sohappy::sohappy::sohappy: Wonderful trip report

 

[eagles]

wow, grand marshall of the parade. that is so exciting. oh no, you can't leave yet, go back and write some more!

 

[joanna71985]

Wow, that's awsome you were picked to be in MJJP!!:sohappy:

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Oh wow! They couldn't have picked better Grand Marshals for a parade with your character lovin' and wearin' the medals and all. Y'all are awesome. The expressions in the pics are great. You did a fantastic job! Yaaaaayyyyy!!!!
:sohappy::sohappy::sohappy: