Sure, you could ride the rides, see the shows, or eat the food, but what fun would that be? You really need to plan your Disney World vacation months in advance. Here's how it went at my house many months ago:
Me: Oooh, look. It's the 15th anniversary of the Disney World Half Marathon, and they're going to have a special medal. We should do it this year!
Steve: Okay.
... a few days later ...
Me: Oooh, look. They're going to have a marathon relay this year at the Disney World Marathon. On that day, you can have a two-person team and each of you runs a half-marathon while the marathoners are running the full marathon. And since it's an inaugural race, we should do it this year!
Steve: Okay.
Now we are not as stupid as we may seem. Sure, we knew these races would be 24-hours apart. We knew this because (a) we've done these races before, and (b) we were so crazy that a few years ago we did the Inaugural Goofy Challenge, where you run the half-marathon on Saturday and the full marathon on Sunday. However, we also live sometimes in the Land of De Nial, so we thought this new plan was a good idea.
It would have been an excellent idea, had I (a) not eaten everything in sight on the three Disney cruises I took this year and missed the cruise so much that I decided to keep the resulting weight on my body, and (b) I had put a little more thought and effort into the theory of actually training for this endeavor.
Regardless, after yesterday's race, I just ignored logic and set my sights on today's race. Again, the race started at 5:30am. The difference is that in the team event, the first runner starts and the second runner (or in my case, waddler) takes over after the first 13.1 miles. Steve and I were a team, and Molly and Lynnette were a team. So Molly and I dropped the other two off at the start and drove to the Magic Kingdom to await their arrival in a few hours (and sleep in the car). Naturally, we had no idea where we were supposed to park, but after being stopped by one Disney policeman, we found a place to park. Which was not really near the switching place, but after a walk, a bus ride (from one side of the TTC to the other), and another longer walk under the bridge and across two more lots, we finally managed to get to the right place. We did get to sleep in the car for a few hours. We managed to keep from freezing by turning on the car heater every 20 minutes and sharing a tiny blanket.
Anyhow, a few hours later, Steve blazed into the relay exchange with a great time, which meant I could use all those extra minutes for my part, which were going to come in handy. I would give you a blow-by-blow, but basically this is how it went: My legs were pretty much outraged that I was going to put them through this again, so they voiced their complaints with pings and pangs. My wonky left ankle spoke up and decided to put out a distress call with a piercing arrow pain every few miles. My body decided that a 13.1 mile walk (yes, I said it - walk) in the sun with no clouds in the sky was just what it didn't want and told me that I had better pour a cup of water over my head every water stop. The balls of my feet would have gladly disintegrated if they had the slightest hope of stopping this outrage, but since they couldn't, they just kept plodding along. And while I had hoped to at least match my abysmal time from yesterday, by the last four miles I didn't care - I was just going to finish.
And eventually I did finish, and got my Chip and Dale medal. I got on the bus back to the resort and gave my aching body parts a rest.
The question is, do you think I learned anything about scheduling races from this weekend? Me neither!!
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Today's blessings: dropping off Steve and Lynnette, then going to MK with Molly; fellow woggers in today's race; volunteers and seeing Aisling; finishing the race; seeing the blind runners and the girl in the wheelchair in the race; playing with Lindley at the park; Steve picking up lunch AND dinner
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