For those who signed up for the Dopey Challenge this year and got "robbed" of the Half Marathon, it was nice to see Disney make such options available to the registrants. Though, some friends of mine who decided to go "Dopey" wound up running 13.1 miles around the hotel parking lots, on treadmills, or just around the complex in between the raindrops on Saturday. I did the Full Marathon on Sunday and it was brutally cold! Truthfully, I was not fully prepared for that and wound up making due with what I had one (three Tek material shirts, compression socks, shorts, and a mylar/space blanket). The last time I saw the forecast for Orlando was a week before the marathon - and the low was only supposed to get down to the mid 40s. But, 34 degrees with a windchill of 29? That was a bit extreme and I have never trained in weather like that before (it's kind of impossible to do in Southwest Florida - unless I drag a treadmill in a huge restaurant/commercial freezer).
Did I finish the marathon? Unfortunately, I did not. I got about 15.1 miles due to a number of things, including the passing away of my father a few days before the marathon. So, I got to thinking about him and had to stop on the side of the road to break down for a few minutes. The heart was there to run it, but the mind....not so much. I will say that the experience of being in those corrals, despite the cold weather, was enough to say, "Yep! It's real now!" The pace group I was pretty awesome. It was a 15/30 pace group - estimated time to complete the marathon (6:30). But, by the time we got past the Water Reclamation facility was when things started to fall apart for me. I'll make an attempt at the marathon again. Right now, I need to run a few more half marathons and work on getting my time under 3 hours so the next time I sign up for Disney.....I'll be in those higher corrals and get started sooner. LOL!