….in which I finally detail Steve’s first marathon at Disney…..
Before I start – I owe an apology to all those 5 fans who read this blog….including Steve. Since the Disney 1/2, I’ve run a grand total of 6 miles. Yup – barely an 8K. The pain in my foot has nagged me and beaten me down a bit and I’ve avoided blogging. But – that is for the next blog post. Right now – I’m documenting the last day of our Disney Marathon weekend…..
After the 1/2 on Saturday, we all crashed for a little bit in our hotel rooms. Then the plan was to get over to Downtown Disney in search of toys and food and back to the rooms pretty early.
Getting out the door to the buses proved a bit challenging to me – the foot was aching even after an hour or so of icing. So in order to get things put together, I sat on the end of one of the beds and barked orders at the kids. Or as Steve put it – I “held court”. Overall the kids were rather affable about the whole thing and were very willing to help out. (Maybe cause they knew that a trip to the LEGO store was on the line….) We finally got it all together and I managed to hobble out to the bus stop.
Downtown Disney is one of our family’s favorite places in Orlando. We often meet up with friends and family there to grab a bite and not have to pay the prices to enter the parks. I’m pretty sure the kids occasionally think that Downtown IS the real Disney….such is the life of a Floridian. We got to explore a new restaurant there and checked out Wolfgang Puck’s Express in order for Steve to carb load. The plate of pasta he had was bigger than his head. The rest of us were rather relaxed and reliving the moments of our races from earlier in the day (kids included as they had run in the kids races). Then we managed to get the kids in and out of the LEGO store rather quickly and with minimal damage to our wallets.
The key to that night was getting everyone (read: kids) settled down while helping get Steve prepped. I kept telling him to focus on him while I battled over excited kids. We did manage to get to bed at a decent hour….and Steve got great sleep – till he woke up at 12 or so and thought it was 2. I do think he managed some more sleep though before the 3am alarms started ringing. I felt bad that his send off party was just me – but it did seem silly to get everyone else up to see him off. And I quickly hit the hay again after he left.
My morning started again at about 6am….as I was getting the kids up and moving, I tried calling the front desk for late check out. Unfortunately every other runner had already called to do the same and we were out of luck for getting that option. And thus began our morning….and our daughter told Aunt Stacia that “Mommy’s in crisis mode!” Actually I was concerned about how fast I could move (the foot hurt a lot) and how quickly Steve would finish so we could get him back for a shower before we checked out.
Thus, the kids and Stacia and Rob and I started getting everything packed up and organized. We were getting texts that Steve was going faster than we anticipated….which would have been good for getting a shower – not so good for us getting over to him if we didn’t run just as fast. We decided to pack everything in the car and pack clean clothes for Steve separately. Managed to get it all sorted out and hobbled on down to breakfast. I did check at the front desk and discovered that Steve could shower at the pool if necessary.
The bus trip over to the finish line was a lot shorter than Steve and the kids had experienced trying to get to the end of the 1/2 on Saturday. The best part of it for me was watching the kids have such fun with their aunt and uncle.
And then the hilarious part … Stacia was watching out the window as we made our way to the Epcot area for the start/finish of the race. She was explaining to my daughter that it looked a lot like where we had started the race yesterday.
I said, “Well it should – it is the same place.”
“No it’s not.”
“Yes it is – we ended the race near where we were dropped off by the buses.”
LOL. From the height of the bus, and the daylight that was absent when we had made our way to the start line the previous day, Stacia finally figured out that they didn’t actually move the bag drop off location….but the drop off and meet up and finish area were all the same thing. (Gotta love chances to laugh at your baby sister!)
We did have a lot of waiting around for Steve….ventured into the merchandise tent (You are not at Disney if there is not a store within 30 feet)….wandered….and then finally made our way to the spectators area next to the finish line. We couldn’t find any seats but stood on the sidelines while the kids sat on the ground. We weren’t sure exactly how far off Steve’s time was from clock time….so we started looking carefully when we guessed he was likely to finish. He had been on track for a 3:45 time or so…..he finally crossed in 3:55:37! WOO HOO Steve! Of course with all the crowds and the roar of the past 26.2 miles still echoing in his head….he didn’t hear us. Stacia managed to run down the fence and catch his attention….but barely.
I have to admit I was a bit worried when I saw him cross. He wasn’t limping or anything….but his whole body read “weary”. And I wasn’t sure he was actually aware of his surroundings. But then again – remember I’m an expert worrier.
We finally caught up with him after he got his medal and post-race food. We got him to a bench quickly and tried not to hug him too much (he was pretty smelly after all!). I think he was happy with his time….but at that moment, Steve just seemed happy to be done. He had been worried he was going out too fast too soon. But he really managed to keep up a decent pace for awhile. While he didn’t use the words “boink” or “wall” – mile 18 and on were a bit of a struggle. Later when I was looking at his Garmin results – he lamented some of his slowest paces….I lost sympathy when I realized his slowest were still faster than my fastest! 🙂 But he was moving better than I had been…..and he was rather quick to perk up….
No matter that he met his goal of under 4 hours but not his “real” goal of 3:45 or so…..no matter that he struggled a bit in the final miles…..he did it – my hubby has run a whole marathon – in one morning. He’s got the medal and the t-shirt to prove it.
We did get back in time for Steve to shower in our room….whew! And he actually looked a lot better then. 🙂 For an hour or so we all hung around outside at the resort – enjoying the sunshine and asking Steve questions about the race. The funny signs, the course route, the candy stop that he passed by cause chocolate didn’t seem like a good idea…..the kegs of beer they ran past in Epcot! (We also learned during this that Rob had no recollection of any of the sights along the 1/2….he and Stacia are WELL suited to one another!) We also kept saying “Congrats” to the runners who would walk by – still in running clothes, sporting medals. The ones with Goofy medals on would clank past us – leaving us shaking our heads….running a 1/2 and then a full in two days??! Wow.
But as we watched them walk by – we started to make plans for Disney Marathon weekend 2013!! Steve’s actually considering the Goofy….??? And he tried to talk Rob into it…..We didn’t actually firm anything up – but we all talked about the possibilities and the best options for all of us – and for keeping an eye on the kids!
We finished off the day with a big meal at IHOP and then a bit of shopping at a local outlet mall. When we made our way back to the cars (me still hobbling)….Stacia and Rob were going to drive over to see Stacia’s best friend from high school. I could not stop hugging her goodbye….and actually sobbed when we finally got in the car to go.
That weekend was amazing…..such fun to be with Stacia and Rob….to spend time with the kids and watch them with their aunt and uncle…..to manage to accomplish what we set out to do so many months prior. One of the best ways to start the new year…..running together as family and being there for each other…..I’m thinking we were right to start planning for next year already!