I like running January marathons in warm climates. Last year I ran Carlsbad, which was a lot of fun with the masters runners meet up beforehand and the trip DH and I took to Catalina Island afterwards. This year, we had free airline tickets from a promotion we participated in with Dockers, and one of the destinations available was Orlando. Once we had our travel dates and destination nailed down, I entered the Walt Disney World marathon. Training for a January marathon here can be challenging, especially after a foot problem forced me into a 3-week layoff after the NYC marathon, and December was especially cold for us in Fairbanks. But the foot recovered, and I was able to run on the treadmill during the week and outside on weekends in December and had no problems. I felt ready to race! Our trip to Orlando took almost 3 days due to missed flights, delayed flights, yada, yada, yada. Suffice to say it took a long time to get here. We've mainly relaxed and done not a whole lot of typical touristy things, having been here 2x before and "been there, done that." But the weather has been warm but not too hot, breezy but not too windy, and DH and I have had a relaxed time getting used to the climate and time change (4 hours). We found a nice place to run here, and I got a couple of nice runs in before the race. One of the highlights of the trip was meeting Breger1 and his DW, who drove up to Orlando just to meet us and watch my race. They picked out the restaurant and picked us up in their car.... that Burger Byll is quite the driving machine! Bill and his lovely DW... DH and me... The four of us after dinner... After we said goodbye to Byll and his DW, I got all my stuff ready for my race. I was missing a safety pin for my bib and looked all over for it. Oh well, I'll see if I can get one at the bag drop. I kept thinking I was missing something, but figured the safety pin was the thing that tripped me up and shrugged it off. Uh oh. Stuffed my Garmin in one shoe and my socks in the other. I've forgotten my Garmin for a race before and will never do that again. Turns out I was forgetting something else this time, and it wasn't the safety pin. Got up at 3:30 (barely), got dressed, made my oatmeal that I'd gotten ready the night before, had my banana... what's missing? Oh well, just nerves. DH was driving me to the start and we found ourselves mired in traffic and headed the wrong way. Quick re-route and made it to the start with time for the porta potty line. Kissed DH goodbye as I went to check my bag, got a 4th safety pin for my bib (yeah! I'm complete!... or am I?) and headed out to the starting corrals. I was very near the front, corral B of the first wave, and lined up close to the 3:40 pacer. After the anthem and lots of "blah, blah, blah" from that mouse pair and duck up on stage, the start was announced with a flair of fireworks! It only took a couple of minutes to reach the start, I started my Garmin and off we went... slowly. First mile was very congested and people were pushing and shoving something awful. If I had to say one thing I didn't like about this race, it was the crowded start, made worse my narrow thoroughfares. Something still didn't feel right, but I couldn't figure out what it was, until we crossed a mat at about 5k and I felt like I was missed. That's when I realized I didn't have my chip on my shoe. WTF? Where was it?? Oh. My. God. I realized I hadn't attached it the night before, part of my pre-race ritual that was probably derailed by the missing safety pin (ok, lame excuse but that's all I've got). I pulled out of the race, walked a couple of circles on the grass, sat down and cried. I did. Like a big ol' baby. Then I called DH, told him what happened, and sure enough he found it right in the envelope it came in, where I'd been getting my stuff ready the night before. I was so mad at myself, so frustrated, and so upset I just cried for a bit. DH was so kind, and said "Hey, you're in Florida, it's warm, you're ready to run... go run your race!" He was right. I said thanks, and asked if he could bring it to the finish, and hung up. Sat there a few more moments feeling very sorry for myself, got up and started running. I could treat this as a nice long supported training run, with volunteers handing me bananas, water and power gels, porta potties at the ready, and no snow!! I was running well and strong, had been keeping with the 3:40 pacer even as he ran sub-8 minute miles to make up for lost time in the congested first mile or so. Most of my remaining miles were run between 8:15 and 8:30, depending on the crowds and water stops. I walked the water stops, but only a couple of other walk breaks in the later miles. I did stop a couple times to redo my metatarsal pad, which had never slipped before but now kept ending up under my heel. I stopped at a med tent to get it taped down to the bottom of my shoe, and the volunteer taped up a blister I was brewing on the ball of my foot. It didn't feel right, but she gooped up some vaseline-like lube stuff between my toes and declared me ready to go. Hmmm, next couple of miles it felt odd, but I ran with it. At one time, I came out of a porta-potty and saw the 4:15 pacer go by. Ha! I don't care what else is going on, I can't have THAT group beat me! Just keeping up my easy MP stride I passed a ton of runners. I saw Bill at Magic Kingdom, I think at about mile 9 and just before 13. It was great to see him, get a hug and some inspiration, and off I went. I kept busy thinking about how I would handle this marathon in my head, and hoping the Maniacs would give me credit for it even without an official finish time. I did talk to a couple of other runners and one said she'd heard it was possible to be an official finisher without a time, because someone from the HM the day before had done it. So, there was hope! I was thinking about all of you here, and at Kick Runners, and at home... friends who wanted to track me and would be wondering what was going on. I was worried about DH being stuck in traffic like when stuck on the train in Boston. I think being sort of occupied by all these thoughts kept my mind off my foot, and I was running pretty well. He texted me just before mile 24 to say he was stuck in traffic 3 miles from Epcot, and I replied I was almost at 24 (I was happy for the walk break anyway). After that, I decided to put on the steam and finish strong. I was almost thinking a 4 hour time would be possible. The last 2 miles I passed a bunch of people. Some were really struggling, maybe from the heat? It was warming up, but I felt fine although regretting not putting on more sunscreen... (just SPF 15 on my face). I was tempted to walk a bit the last mile, but said, No! we're not going to do that! Suck it up and RUN! My last full mile on my Garmin was 8:30 pace, and I heard Bill yell "Go Erika!!!" just before the finish, but I didn't see him. I crossed the finish mat and hit my Garmin stop time at 4:02:57... this includes all the stops, crying fits, bandaging and water walk breaks because I knew I'd want a "real" time to cover the distance. Bill and his DW met me at the finish, and DH caught up with us right afterwards. I did talk to an official, who turned out to be a supervisor, and after some back and forth with other staff, they said my chip had an official start time (even though I swore it was impossible because the chip was at the hotel!), and they "swiped" it after all the discussions to give me an official finish time. It's almost 45 minutes after what my Garmin said, but that's fine. I got my medal, I have an official finish, I have a Florida marathon and I know what I could've done that race in. I know I lost at least 10 minutes to all my fussing around, probably more. And I know I will never ever ever forget my chip again!!! End result: my goal is always finish healthy, and I think I did that. I need to figure out what's causing the blisters because I don't get them in training runs, and I goop up my feet with Body Glide pretty well beforehand. Maybe it's the warm weather races? Last time I got blisters like this was Boston... but I didn't have any at Carlsbad. Other than that, I feel great. No worse than after a long run. I did take an ice bath afterwards, but mainly for my feet. Not sure they really cared, actually, but it felt good. Bill said he had some pictures to add... I don't really have any to add from the race itself, but I know he got a post-race picture of me with chocolate Gu on my face... Bill and I have even talked about doing the Goofy next year, but I know it fill really early and I don't know if I can commit to the travel yet... but it does sound like fun!!

Glad you got to meet Bill. Absent the little chip incident it still sounds like you had a great time. As I mentioned in my post in today's daily the stories this race will generate for years to come will more than make up for the frustration you feel now!

Wow, what a day...I would have cried like a baby too...great pics and great race. Thanks for sharing it all with us

Congratulations! And a great report, too. I kept thinking, "What the heck was she missing??" I, too, would've cried over forgetting my chip, but you pulled it together fine fashion and ran a fantastic race.

Thanks for the great report. In spite of your travails, disappointments and blisters, you ran with with class and guts. Once again - showing us you're made of tough stuff. And, as Byll says, gorgeous too. How do you look so good during and after a marathon!!??

Good job, evan. It's a bummer about the chip but your time was great, you are an official finisher, and you got to spend time with the bregers. The pictures you and breger posted were great. Congratulations. TomS

Nice job Erika! Runnin' the race....that's what it's all about. Enjoy this one!

Hi Erika, After all you went through, it is great that you could get back up, run your race, and still be able to flash that gorgeous smile at the finish. Congratulations on making the best of what had to be a frustrating situation, and still getting an "official" time and earning your FL marathon. It is great also that you got to meet Bill in person, and that he was there to take those greta shots of you during and after the race. How tough was that first run back in Fairbanks after the warmth of FL? Or did you prefer being back in 'normal' winter weather? Jay