3:00 am
WAKE UP
People are on their way home from the bar at that hour. Alison and I were waking up to get ready for our 1/2 marathon.
3:35
DEPARTURE TIME
Mary Lynn (my mother in law and fellow runner) drove us to EPCOT for the start.
3:55
ARRIVE AT EPCOT
Try to remember where we parked the car (Create 42 and we did!)
4:00
WANDER INTO THE PRE-RACE AREA
Notice there are tons of women wearing tutus and glitter
Eat our PBJs
Pit stop
4:20
HEAD TO OUR CORRALS
Pass expired disney vehicles such as old jungle cruise boats and backlot trams
See a man wearing a tutu
Pit stop
4:45
ARRIVE AT CORRALS
Say bye to ML who is in group A after finishing her previous half in 2:02
We are newbies with no times and head to group D
4:55
DECIDE WE SHOULD SIT
Al finds a garbage bag so her yellow shorts stay clean
Watch the jumbotron which includes a bunch of nutcases 'hosting' the preshow [who Al was convinced were on drugs] act extra cheery about the ridiculous hour of the day
5:00
Outside temperature: 68 degrees
100% humidity
YIKES
5:35
GROUP A START
ML is off!
5:56
GROUP D START
We are off!
During the next 2+ hours, we 'off-roaded' to avoid slow people in our way on the pavement. We heard words of encouragement from spectators and fellow runners. We also had Mom, Michael, Sal & Mario there cheering us on.
We ran from EPCOT up to the Magic Kingdom, through Cinderella's castle, and back in 2:21. Not the time we were hoping for, but you have to start somewhere. The weather was not ideal. It was warm and very humid. I actually got the chills part way through the race because I was drenched. Kind of gross. But Al kept me going and we finished strong!
We heard live music and saw countless Disney characters along our route. It was our first 1/2 marathon and I was so glad my sister was my running buddy. There were 26,000 runners, and we finished 2842, so in the top 10.9% of runners. For my first race, even though I did not run quite as fast as I'd like, I am happy to be in that group.
Now all we have to do is decide what race to run next. Now that we have a time to submit, we can get a closer corral and start working on shaving minutes off our time.
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