Dopey Finisher & First Time Marathoner

Not a creative title this time around, but I feel like this article has been so difficult to start! I wish I would have done it much closer to finishing the race, but life happens, right?!

During this entire marathon training process I have learned a lot about grace, comparison, judgment (mostly of myself), injuries and recovery strategies. And the most important thing I learned is community and partnership is the key to a happy marathon. That will be the focus of this article, I have so much to share!

Marathons are arduous, painful, time consuming (both physically and mentally) and I think that is why only .017% of people in the world have completed one. I never knew how much I would need or want a running partner for race day! 

Let’s back it up for a quick second, why did I want to do a marthon? And why do the Dopey? Well, I may only ever run the 1, so why not make it magical! And while it was highly rewarding it was all consuming the last 6 weeks prior to the event itself. I trained on the treadmill for hours upon hours, to the point of binge watching the last release of The Crown on Netflix during my longest training run of 24.24 miles. (TBH I ran longer than those 6 episodes- totaling 7 hours). I was timing runs around school drop off, appointments and meals.

But I was ready come race week! An unexpected running partner emerged when I needed it, a God wink, maybe. But man, I can’t thank my random running partner enough! One compliment (see my article on kindness) led to a personal best for both of us! We shared and encouraged eachother through multiple sections of the race and our mutual accountability kept us going. And we finished strong! 💪🏼

To recap a bit, miles 1-7 flew by. In and out of Epcot and headed to the TTC and Magic Kingdom. Around mile 8 aka sunrise I noticed a very dark cloud to the Low and behold, it was a squall line that dropped a ton of rain on us, quickly and just before we hit Magic Kingdom. We happened across a maintenance cast member who was handing out trash bags, we rapidly ripped holes in the bottom and slid them over our soaked heads. We wore them all the way to the entrance of Magic Kingdom and quickly tossed them once we knew the rain cleared out.

Within Magic Kingdom we were slightly distracted because now we were dodging the puddles as much as we were dodging people. And there were so many puddles which were soaking me more than the rain had! If you’re a runner, you know, wet socks at mile 9 is not something you wanna deal with!

Down the infamous “Cone Alley” which has tons of construction, and is pretty crowded, I was dreading it, but at this point I used my Shokz and just jammed out as a massive Bald Eagle swooped down to about 10′ over us and surprised the runners as it was heading home.

Making it down the stretch to Animal Kingdom I was tired, sore and hurting. We had been slugging along in wet everything and I was feeling it. But I knew from there we would be down to single digit miles left and that was a fantastic feeling, and it was a great place to stop and use a real restroom, this is where used the tip that saved my race. I changed my socks which was a tip I heard on the ‘Rise and Run Podcast’ and it saved my marathon. Right after we headed to ride Everest, sadly at the point I ran through animal kingdom no runners were allowed to jump on the ride. So we headed out to Blizzard Beach and on the way we saw the infamous Balloon Ladies, they were really sweet as we passed them (fun fact I saw one of their daughters waiting for them in Epcot later that morning).

Onward to Blizzard Beach parking lot, which was surprisingly fun, and then for me the toughest miles were post BB to Hollywood Studios and they had me questioning if I was make it my running partner kept encouraging us to stay on our Run-Walk-Run Ratios. And on the way we saw some characters, quite a few actually….

Ohhhhhh, Hollywood Studios, once we reached you I was a ball of emotions. Partly because of the chocolate! And partly because everyone was so excited to see us, and this was the first time I ran through this park with people in it…plus we basically had just a 5k left! I wish I had thought to try to ride a ride here! I guess I’ll have to run another Disney Marathon? Anyway, seeing Joy here really made my heart melt, a perfect place for her, as we were really being energized by the crowd!

Leaving was just as emotional, there were lots of crowds along the front entrance and into the final stretch which wound along the lake using path towards the Epcot area, around the Boardwalk hotels and then into Epcot! It was crossing the bridge out of the Boardwalk area that I passed my furthest distance to date of 24.24 miles and I had to memorialize that moment. One of the most unexpected character stops was Mirabelle and she told my running partner to go finish strong, she is making her family proud! YESSSS! That is what we felt too. Running through Epcot full of people, to include some that were unaware of the race, yet they stopped and cheered with their families for a few minutes once they found out…I mean! Cue the tears! HOMESTRETCH, finishing the World Showcase and out the back to see Starlord, pass the chior and into the finish chutes! Mom, Dad and Emilia were in the stantds on the left and I saw them, they waved and cheered and I cried, of course I cried, there was the thought of I am doing this, I am a marathoner, I proved to myself that I could! Intentions lead to goals, action gets you to the finish line!

That is just a recap, I really want to get into the training, mental capacity and fortitude to finish, and how important that accountability is. This was a week for the books. And I am ready to get back into the groove of the race seasons.

Would you do a marathon?