Oh, man. It was cold. And early. And windy.
The wind is what killed me. The actual mercury reading was probably a bit higher than yesterday but that wind chill was more than proportionately higher as well.
I slept in an extra ten minutes from yesterday. Wound up in Create 44 this morning. This is why it’s important to take a photo when you arrive — otherwise I’m not sure I would remember where I parked from day-to-day. I could’ve been wandering the aisles of “create” for hours looking for my car.
The crowds are getting larger in the pre-race mornings… as evidenced by the posted wait times to see our Disney friends.
This was taken after I had gotten two or three photos though which meant I was both too early for this thing and perhaps just in time.
The pre-race photos:
Donald wanted my hat… Philharmagic and all…
I skipped seeing Dopey in the (super early) AM as I wanted to get over to the corrals, figuring it was more important to be closer to the front to minimize wait times at photo stops on the course as opposed to waiting in the above line. Once again I caught up with Nick Tarvin for the race itself.
There were a few more photo stops along the way during the out and back on the highway and into Epcot proper. Nick says this is his favorite course; I’m more a fan of the half marathon course if only because it takes us into Magic Kingdom (formerly THE Magic Kingdom though Disney has recently disavowed the definite article).
According to my runner tracker notification, I unofficially finished the race with a 48:43. This 11-year-old kid was ahead of me, a real trouper. His mom/coach was, um, a bit too demanding and aggressive for my tastes, the kind of thing you’d see on a reality show wherein the stage parents are painted as borderline, well, monsters. But I was only seeing small slices of their lives, a few moments inbetween photo stops. But the way she demanded he keep up with her and kinda yelled at him felt less well-meaning and more… well… just plain mean.
Unlike my Mom, who yesterday did her self-described Madame deFarge and braided my belt. Her knee is still bothering her (orthopedist appointment scheduled for Monday!) and it was just too darn cold so I told her to stay home and cheer me on when I got back. Which she did:
Hooray for my Mom!
But before I doff my hat and seek a nap to conduct a batch of brooms to clean up my life, here’s a few post-run medal shots with the gang (the wait times were a bit better thanks to my being in the first corral).
I gave Donald my hat this time. He earned it. And let’s be honest, he’s a WAY better sorcerer than I’ll ever be.
And I’d be remiss not to mention my TravellingFit friends. Had to donate my block of processed cheese from the “recovery box o’ foodstuffs.”
To sleep, perchance to clean. To sleep, perchance to rest up for tomorrow’s half marathon.
