September 18, 2016 – The Sea Legs Marathon

September 18, 2016 – First Sea Day
The unsanctioned Sea Legs Marathon

Seventy-nine loops. That’s how many times I ran round and round deck 4 on the Disney Magic to hit 26.2 miles. I decided to do it on the very first sea day as I imagined the longer I put it off the less likely I was to do it.

It was a bit mind numbing to be honest. And I have newfound appreciation for race car pit crews having to change the tires during a race. As the jogging directional signs on deck 4 indicated one way traffic, I kept making left turns on the loops. I suspect I wore the tread away and could’ve used a rotation of “tires” at some point to preclude shaving the rubber in one direction only.

I did really well in the opening half. I purposefully got up at 4 am ship time to maximize the solo time on the deck before others came a circlin’ and exercisin’ prompting a bit more ducking and weaving. But to be honest, even if there had g been any other folks on the “track,” I suspect the second half would still have been repetitively and progressively slower.

I can say that the water fountain aid station at assembly point E was VASTLY superior to the water fountain at point D on the other side. Colder, tastier, better. So that’s where I’d stop every 10 loops or so to rehydrate and mentally reset.

Mom came out to cheer me on in the closing hour and it was a big boost to have my cheerleader there. I slowly counted down the remaining loops like an inverted Ben-Hur chariot race. Slowly I turned, step by step, moving closer and closer to my finish line.

And then, with the sun rising over the ocean’s horizon, I finished. A marathon at sea. Others have done it, perhaps most infamously at the ill-fated Antarctica Marathon forced to be held aboard a converted Russian research vessel (it required 400+ loops of memory serves). And I’m sure others have done it many times aboard the DCL fleet. After all, millions of guests annually set sail on the seven seas in their four ships.

But for me, this run enables me to answer my brother when next he asks, “Hey, Kevin! Have you run a marathon at sea?”

“Yes, Steve, I have. I have indeed.”