Day 3: Sunday, January 8.
Overall I slept pretty decently the night before the race, though I did wake up a few times to peek at the clock (once at 12:30, once at 1AM, and again at 2AM when the iHome went off :hammer
. Luckily I was able to easily fall back asleep each time and hopped out of bed pretty quickly when it was actually go time at 2:45AM.
After changing into my running clothes, I stepped outside onto the balcony and was hit with a cold blast of air…and that’s when I realized that throughout all of my careful planning, I’d forgotten one thing: throwaway clothes. While runners were required to be in the starting corrals at 5AM, buses from the resorts would stop running at 4, and we were planning to catch ours by 3:30 at the latest, so we would be hanging out in the staging area near the start for quite awhile. Temperatures were, I believe, in the high-40s to low-50s at the point. Smarter people would arrive at the race wearing warm clothes that they would discard before the race or at some point along the course – Disney would pick up these clothes, clean them, and donate them to charity. We, not being smart people, were going to arrive without throwaway clothes and most likely shiver our butts off for a good hour or so. :hammer:
After having that sad realization, I decided I was as ready as I’d ever be. I grabbed my bag of food and fuel belt and headed out of the villas to the quiet Beach Club lobby. While quickly walking past Stormalong Bay toward the Yacht Club I alternated between cursing myself over forgetting throwaway clothes and looking at the bright side –
At least I’m from Ohio and am somewhat used to weather like this. That’s got to count for something, right?! Really, it ended up not being that bad. We didn’t catch pneumonia or anything, and once we actually did begin to run, the weather was perfect.
The Yacht Club lobby was a little busier than the Beach Club lobby. There were quite a few runners and one girl who was, clearly, not a runner. The runners were all wearing old sweats, stocking caps, garbage bags, etc., while this girl was wearing a short skirt, spiked heels (4 inches maybe?) and tons of make-up. Clearly she was returning from a night of partying, just as the rest of us were getting ready to head to the marathon start. Quite a contrast to say the least.
Party Girl and I shared an elevator up to the 3rd floor and I was pleased to find that my brother was up and almost ready to go. Like me, he didn’t pack any throwaway clothes, and was not pleased when I told him how chilly it was outside. He gathered all of his stuff quickly and we headed out into the hall only to remember, just as the door closed, that he didn’t have his room key with him. Poor mom woke up to give it to us and we headed down to the lobby and out the door to catch a bus to the start.
We hopped on the bus at about 3:40 or so, and I think we also stopped at the Beach Club and the Swan and Dolphin – fine by me. The bus was nice and warm, so I didn’t mind the stops. We each had a granola bar and some water, and I recall starting to feel very, very nervous. All I could do was try to remind myself that I was there to have a good time and that this was going to be just like any other run, except way more fun. Luckily my brother is a “good talker” so he kept telling me random stories during the ride, which took my mind off of how anxious I was feeling.
The bus let us off in one of the Epcot parking lots (the Explore lot maybe?) at about 4:15 AM and we walked over to the staging area. I’ve read online that the previous day the buses had been a mess in some areas for the half marathon, but for us it wasn’t bad.
People complain about how much walking is required before these Disney races, but I don’t really mind it. Having to constantly move helped keep my nerves in check and allowed me to warm up a bit. We started off with a short walk to the staging area, which was located in the Wonder lot and was set up almost exactly the way it had been for the Princess Half – food trucks, a med tent, an information booth, a DJ…and CHARACTERS! :sohappy:
Pluto and Scrooge were available for pictures…I was surprised to see that Pluto’s line was huge (nothing against Pluto, but he can easily be met in the parks on any given day), while Scrooge’s was almost non-existent. So we met Scrooge for the first time!
Why I look like such a doofus in this picture, I have no idea. This would be a trend all day. :lol:
The screens with the marathon weekend logo also had short lines, so we grabbed a picture there as well.
We skipped Pluto’s line (he wasn’t wearing a special outfit or anything) and just walked around for a bit, trying to take everything in. After heading through the “no bag check” line we made a porta-potty stop and continued on toward the corrals on World Drive. I think that this, specifically, is the walk that people hate. Again, I don’t mind it. We just sort of slowly chugged along for a half mile or so, eating bagels with peanut butter that I’d brought from home along the way, chatting, and listening to all of the activity around us. Old Backlot Trams were to our left, the Lights of Winter (I think), wrapped in plastic, were to our right.
After one last bathroom stop, we arrived at Corral D!
We definitely took our sweet time during the walk…a few minutes after we were granted access to our corral, Mickey (talking Mickey, that is), Donald and Goofy were sending the wheelchair racers on their way. The 2012 Walt Disney World Marathon had officially begun! :sohappy:
I was convinced we were separated for the rest of the day...with thousands of people in that race, what are the chances that we'd find one another? Ya know?...