Goofy Challenge: The Mickey

Did you miss my half recap??  Read it here.

My wake up on Day 2 went very similar to day one with the exception that on day 2, it felt oh so wrong.  I mean, who gets up at 2AM two days in a row to do back to back races?  This girl.  Same process as the day before: hear the coffee pot start, go upstairs, gather clothes, dress, apply Aquaphor, choke down some cereal, and brush teeth.  For some reason, I didn't see the exact time we were all ready to go or what the exact time was when we left.  Hmmm, maybe it's because I was just happy to shuffle into the car.

This time we were also bringing two spectators with us.  I thought they were awesome to want to get up so early to spectate.  Clearly rockstars!  We got parking that was a little bit further away but it wasn't bad at all.  We headed back to the Jeff Galloway tent again which was much more crowded!  I am assuming more people heard how awesome it was!

Melissa, Mandy, me, Amanda & Christine

I got in the bathroom line and struck up a conversation with the woman in front of me.  First marathon and oh wait, first Goofy Challenge.  Huh?  That's a good idea?  I listened to her stories of being near the back of the pack the day before and I just shook my head (mentally, I think hope) and wished her well.  I hope she succeeded - her longest back to back training run had been 10K/20K.

They started making calls for us to move to the corrals again so we all started the shuffle.  This time it wasn't as bad as Saturday - definitely a smaller field - so that made getting to the corrals faster.  Amanda, Christine & I decided to start out together then spend as much time as we could during the race together.  Unlike The Donald, we were there to hear the anthem and see the fireworks.

Trying to hide my blanket behind my back.

I am telling you - in the sea of thousands, it was indeed a very small race.  Amanda & I ran into Felecia who is a part of MIT.  She took a picture of us instead of the other way around!

Yup, we were already sweating!

Disney has this race thing down to a science.  We were at the start right on time and set free quickly!    The first part of the course headed through the same route as The Donald and we were at the Cinderella castle before I knew it.

Just an idea of how many ppl were there!

As we went through the castle, the trumpeters were playing again which was pretty cool!  And today, there wasn't as much congestion coming out the other side which was really nice!  I was feeling really good even though I was sweating from places I didn't know I could sweat!  After the castle, the rest of the course was different from the half and we headed onto the Disney Speedway where they had a car show set up for us!  I missed the important cars like Lightning McQueen but I still enjoyed the car show.  The people sitting with the cars were are only spectators at this point and I was cheering at them to get them to cheer.  Off in the distance (barely see them in this picture) there were hot air balloons in the sky too.  Pretty cool!

Next up was Animal Kingdom which you could definitely start to smell as you approached.  There were beautiful animals by the side of the road - a pig, donkey, some other things and a cobra!  Yeah, I stayed as far away as I could from that cobra - NO THANK YOU!  Amanda, Christine & I were still together this point and shortly after the first banana stop (I abstained - bananas are gross), we took a quick pit stop.  Our hydration was going well but that would change for me as we went on.  We split off from Christine at this point and went through Expedition Everest next which I literally called a fake mountain.  Let's call a spade a spade.  It looked terrible.

Tell me who they are in the comments!

From there it was onto the ESPN Wide World of Sports.  We had been in the area for the expo so it was familiar ground and we got all kinds of terrain while there - a rubberized track, some sidewalk and then around the baseball fields.  I had to stop twice to clear rocks out of my shoes!  Our surprise visitors from home and our awesome spectators were there as we came out of the baseball fields with ice cold washcloths and oranges.  I regret now not taking the oranges.  We made a turn and there was a street with all kinds of characters on it and I begged forced Amanda to take my pictures with two of them even though I didn't realize who they were!

This stretch of the race was very hot because it was in the direct sun and I think this is where the race was finally getting to me.  I was getting low on GU, had gone through most of my Gatorade (if not all) and I had eaten my beans.  And I was chafing due to the sweat.  Amanda & I stopped at one of the aid stations where we got enough Vaseline for a small army and they refilled my water bottle for me.  My hands were so sweaty I couldn't even open the bottles to fill them!  We headed from baking in the sun to Hollywood Studios and I began to devise my plan to send Amanda on her way.  I wasn't feeling it and I didn't want to hold her back.  We crossed through a tunnel and I asked to slow down a bit.  She didn't want to and a crowd formed between us when I did.  There ended up being enough people, she no longer could see me.   There was probably about a 5K left and I was on track for finishing in less than 6 hours which was my goal, so I took the rest of the race as I wanted.  I racewalked some, strolled some and enjoyed the scenery. 

If you've read this blog and any of my pre-Goofy posts, you know my number 1 goal was to see Dopey during the race.  After not seeing him day 1, I had no hopes of every seeing him.  If I had stayed with Amanda, the end to this story would have been very different but alas, I didn't.  I am still not sure exactly when it happened but I looked to my right and there was Snow White.  I looked to her left and who was it?  DOPEY!!  He was coming down the sidewalk to join Snow White.  I casually walked sprinted to her and demanded Dopey join us for a picture.  As he did, I jumped into his arms, got a BIG hug, posed for this awesome picture:

My childhood FAV!

Stole a second really awesome hug where he put his mask against my cheek like he was kissing me then I ran!  He gave me that last little UMPH I needed to get to the finish!  As I was heading to the finish, I passed a man wearing the tank top from racewalking.org and I felt guilty so I started racewalking again!  And just when I needed it, there were gospel singers on the course to give not only beautiful musical tones to the end of the race, a little more energy!  The finish was near and I could hardly believe it!  In fact, I screamed about 3 times as I crossed it!

As I was moving across the finish and into the finishers corral, what do you suppose the first thing I did was besides grabbing a water?  You guessed it:  I posted to FB and Twitter "I saw dopey!!!!" What?  Doesn't everyone do that?

Disney did a great job of making sure we rehydrated.  I was handed two bottles of water and a volunteer opened one for me and said drink.  We were not allowed to leave that area until we had at least 1 bottle done.  They also let us take two of the food boxes too which was awesome!  When I got to our rendezvous point after the marathon, we were all so animated telling each other about our race experiences!  It was great!  That clink clink of the two medals was a sound to be heard! 

We're Goofy!!!

I'll admit - there are still points where it doesn't seem real to me.  The training went by so fast and the weekend went by quick too.  Sometimes I wonder if it all really happened!  The pictures sure prove it did!  It's surreal but it really happened & I have the bling to prove it!  I promise - just one more post after this about Goofy and I'll return to regular programming!