really nice reports. Both races were executed well. I wish I could have been there with you two. Turns out, I didn't run my 20 miler today because I have a pretty bad cold. Almost thought of trying to power through, but ended up sleeping for a good bit of the day. Hope I can make it up somehow. Nice job again- Shan, is that a PR for you as well?

Kimmie - it was my first race at that distance - so inadvertently - yes.

Congratulations on a nice race. You two look great!

This is just a formality here, but here it is any. Hope it isn't tl;dr (too long; didn't read): Disney Marathon Race Report This race was a shot at redemption for me, as my last race in Toronto in 2007 was a really bad experience. I hit the wall hard at 18, and really felt like I never ran at my potential. With that, and all of the miles I'd put in during the fall and winter (1150 in 22 weeks), I felt like I had a good chance at finally doing well at the Marathon distance. I wanted to do at least 3:20. If not 3:20, I wanted the BQ at 3:15:59, I figured that would be a nice touch. The Disney course is great. It starts in Epcot, runs around the park, through some staff access roads, along the World Showcase, around the park again, then to the Transportation and Ticketing Center, then to the Contemporary Resort, around the Magic Kingdom, through Cinderella's Castle, through Adventureland, through some more access roads to Animal Kingdom. Then the course goes through Africa, Asia, by Expedition Everest, and out the park on the south side, and through the parking lot. Then there is about 6 miles of nothing until you get to Hollywood Studios, which takes you around the back side, and then through the Streets of America, and through the main drag of the park. After that, it's a three mile shot to the finish along the boardwalk, through the World Showcast again in Epcot, past the main drag of Future World, and out to the finish line in the parking lot. You get a lot of parks, plenty of characters to take pictures with (I passed this time, but I counted at least 18 different characters). There are gobs of people (mostly in the parks, but Disney busses out volunteers to the far and remote corners of the course to cheer you on), and the support is top notch. Raceday started (note I didn't say dawned, dawn came about halfway through the race for me) nicely. It was about 55 outside, a little humid, but really, perfect racing weather. I left my room about 3:30, we got right on a bus, and we were at the start about 4am. I left my wife at the Finisher's area about 4:40, and meandered to the start corrals. It's about a 15 minute walk from the Finisher's area to the start corrals, with lots of Portasan's along the way. It was a nice leisurely walk, and plenty of time to chat with people and get loosened up before the race. I submitted a time before the race so I got placed in the first Blue corral. It was really nice to be in front of the crowds instead of in the middle or back, it was only 15 or so seconds to the start from where I was in the Blue A corral. I searched out the 3:10 pace group, figuring to hang with them until they sped up too fast for me to keep up. After the national anthem, and a send off by Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy, the fireworks at the start went off, and the race started! The first thing that I had to get used to (again) was running fast in the dark. There were street lights around the major roads in the first few miles, but on the service roads around the parks, it was pretty hard to see where you were going. It got so dark in one place that I looked down to see if I could see my watch at one point, and I damn near ran into a stop sign. Doh! Add to that some winding roads, and it was a bit rough to keep a pace for the first few miles. Once we went around Epcot the second time, and got back on the main trunk roads, it was much better. The first few miles went by really fast. I stayed in contact with the 3:10 pace group all the way until Cinderella's Castle at mile 10. They were keeping a nice pace, 7:05-7:21 pace, and I was banking seconds away left and right. In retrospect, it was definitely most crowded around the pace group. If I had fallen off a bit early and just kept them within 25-30 feet, I think a lot of the congestion problems would have went away in the windy parts of Epcot. The problem was that I was having intestinal problems. Finally, at mile 11, I had to stop, which is really where things started to get a little funky. I took a 90 second pit stop at mile 11, got the bowels in order, and started to bank time again. At the half, I hit the split at 1:36:46, with about 75 seconds banked in case of a crash. Let me just stop and say that the people on the Disney course were great. There was lots of people spread out on the course. There were a few spots in between Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom that were pretty quiet, but for the most part you didn't go more than a quarter to a half mile without having someone cheer you on. It was very cool. After clearing Magic Kingdom, and the halfway point past the Grand Floridian Resort, we headed down to Animal Kingdom and Africa. I was still banking time a few seconds at a time, but as I entered the park, I felt my intestines let me know that it was time to stop again. So....stop I did at mile 19. Dammit. Another 90 second break. After this, I felt like I needed to not do anything that might cause me to slow down too much, so I decided to skip taking Gu at mile 22 (especially since I was starting to feel a little rough at that point). I made it through the hills of the course (such as they are) pretty well, I thought, and as I looked at my split for 20 and how close I was to the BQ (at that point I thought I was +14 seconds), that I tried to pick it up and finish strong through 20. I told myself that it was my best chance to make Boston happen, and it came down to "How Bad Do You Want It!". Well, not that bad. I hit 21 in 7:23 (-4 seonds), but then times started rising (7:30, 7:38, 7:46 through 24). From 18 to 22 is kind of a no mans land. It seems a lot longer than it really is at that point in the course, and there is a little spot where you do a mile out and back on a four lane highway. That one mile section seems like it took FOREVER! 23 is all Hollywood studios. It was cool, because they had some neat Characters, the Incredibles and the Army Men, in particular. I was so in the zone though. I wanted that BQ that I hardly noticed anything about the course, I was just trying to put one foot in front of the other. I came out of Hollywood Studios, and looked at the 7:46, and tried to put the hammer down for one last 2.2 mile push. That worked sort of ok, and if by ok, you mean Hit the Wall, Hard. There is a bridge that spans the Boardwalk at 24.5, and when I hit that bridge, all of the life was sucked out of my legs. At that point, it was pretty much a death march, albeit a short one. I finished up the course with an 8:08 and an 8:28. It was discouraging to see the clock at mile 26 read 3:15:59 as I passed by it, but it was what it was. Executive Summary: Chip time: 3:17:34 Gun time: 3:17:52 overall place: 273/14,940 ag place: 53/1,454 splits: 1:36:46/1:40:28 I finished with a chip time of 3:17:34. That's 95 seconds away from Boston. Not bad. I figured that even with all of the miles, it was likely that it was going to be close, and I was right. The important lesson to take from this race is to have the big pre-race carbo load at lunch the day before, not at dinner time (even if it is an early dinner). You would think that I would be disappointed by missing Boston by 95 seconds, but in my mind, the larger goal was getting through as much of the race as possible without hitting the wall, and in that light, the race was an unqualified success! It's also a nice set up for my next race, which I signed up for yesterday: Bayshore on May 24th! Why not? Two marathons in one year!

Nice race Mr. I under challenging conditions!

YEAH MR. I!!!!!!

Check my sig (and the blog within) to read a race report for the Run Thru the HIlls 10K.

Yep. srlopez would be proud.