Eye of the Tiger Beer.

The general race etc.

The DisneyWorld Marathon is a massive mass-participation blingtactular corporate event. No surprise there. Its main purpose appears to be for aspiring runners who want a large piece of bling to prove that they did a marathon... along with getting a lot of people into Disney resorts during the off season. The standard of runner is not high, and the race is not setup for faster performances - no pacers, very early start, winding course, lots of hanging around at the start etc. Disney partners with Jeff Galloway, a former Olympian, who coaches huge numbers of people using a run-walk-run approach to completing long distance road races. I guess this is a good thing to a certain extent - getting people active who may not be active otherwise and to be coached into doing so in a way that makes long distances achievable is a good thing. I have to admit to doing the dirt on boards, though only slightly... I joined, though mostly passively observed, the disboards forum, which is basically a boards for everything Disney related, and followed the 2018 Marathon Weekend thread. After all, if a marathon is worth running, it's worth obsessing about online for months on end. The disboards forums were full of very friendly and welcoming folks, and a handful of decent runners too. I got a bunch of inside info about what to expect on race-day which was generally stress relieving and suited my obsessive nature!

Myself and my wife registered for the full marathon and half marathon respectively back in February. There may have been a bottle of wine or two consumed at the time. The Disney Marathon Weekend is as busy as a race weekend could be. There are four races on consecutive days - a 5k, 10k, HM and full marathon. Doing all four races is known as a "Dopey Challenge" and is a thing that people in real life train for. There's also a "Goofy Challenge" which is merely the HM and full marathon. Doing all four requires additional registration though it also includes membership of an elite club of folks who are willing to do 4 races in 4 days and gets you additional medals and t-shirts. There's a multi-day expo that we had to attend to pick up our numbers and race shirts. The race expo was in multiple buildings around the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in DisneyWorld which is made up of multiple sports arenas, stadiums and practice grounds. We showed up on the Friday, and the queues for registration were mostly non-existent - earlier in the week for the full Dopey folks they were multi-hour long. We had registered our two boys for some kids races, so we hung around the sports grounds for a couple of hours and took part in two well organised races where they got medals and a t-shirt for running a 100m and 200m race on the track, along with a few hundred other kids. At the expo I picked up some gels etc. for the marathon and generally browsed around. Disney had an entire building for their marathon weekend merchandise! There were some cute t-shirts, shorts, skirts etc. but we it was definitely on the expensive side.

My race.

I ate a lot the day before while we were in the Animal Kingdom after my better half's half marathon. I stuffed myself with food all day, my final meal being a pasta dish (of course) at about 5 or 6 or so. After the meal we watched a show and headed back home. The kids were awake for a good while, and I probably only got to sleep around 11PM. At 2:58AM I w moke up involuntarily and started to get dressed. By 3:25AM I was on a bus from my resort to the marathon. I had a bag with a change of clothes and a few race essentials stashed in it. Once off the bus, I joined a massive queue of folks getting searched by security, and when that I was done I made my way to the nearest coffee stand and washed down a dry bagel for breakfast. I strolled over to the bag drop area, got dressed into my final race-start gear along with a sacrificial never-worn hoodie, and started the long, long trudge down to the starting area. It was probably 2 miles away! Once I got there though, time passed quickly enough. I was placed into the "A" wave, with the fastest 2-4% of runners with me, and the entire rest of pack behind us. There were a load of large TV screens and I watched a few live interviews on them, did a light warmup (partially to keep warm) and then got into position for the start. I was maybe about 10 rows back. There was a moment's silence for the troops (...) and the USA national anthem sung live followed by some patriotic fireworks. A couple of minutes later, Mickey Mouse got us running after a countdown and a large fireworks display as we passed over the starting line.

An enthusiastic start 7:38, 7:04, 7:14, 7:05, 7:11

So, the disboards forum. There's one lad who's like the Testostercone of the forum. He is however around my standard of running, and he was running Dopey again this year. He ran the 5k in a disappointing 20:09 or so, then a brilliant 39:4x or so the next day, followed by a 1:30:3X. I'm pretty sure if I tried to run those kind of races on consecutive days it'd kill me. Anyway, I'd followed him on Strava and on the disboards forums, and about 200 metres into the race I spotted him and introduced myself. Once he paused whatever he was listening to on his headphones we had a bit of a chat and started to work with each other. He knew all the tangents and had a few words to say about the weather. There was a bit of a breeze from the north, which he explained would be a problem in the first few and last few miles. We ran alongside each other, occasionally swapping places and sheltering each other from the wind. What more could I want from a race start? The course here wasn't great. Running on a large road with some entertainment (occasional bands and DJs) on the side, in the dark and cold. Yawn. Going along at target pace felt good here (which it really should at this stage!).

Magic Kingdom and a change of clothes 7:10, 7:12, 7:16, 8:34

Running through the Magic Kingdom was fantastic. For the Disney-uninclined, the Magic Kingdom in Orlando is the main park that you would think of when you hear about Disney parks - a big castle and most of the classic rides. We finally ran off the boring roads, through the car entrance to the carpark, then after a few ups-and-downs eventually onto Main Street USA. The support was great here, lots of actual real supporters shouting and making a great atmosphere. There was a bit of winding around the park, followed by running through the actual castle and then around by Splash Mountain and out the other side of the park.After the Magic Kingdom I was feeling a bit sweatier than I reckoned I should be. I'd worn my Crusaders singlet with a MSB Patrick's Festival 2016 5k long-sleeve shirt underneath, so it was time to ditch the long-sleeve. I ran over to some portaloos around mile 9 and spent what seemed like an hour taking the bloody thing off and doing a quick toilet break. I'd lost my disboards pal - I went ahead of him around the park and couldn't see him nearby before or after the toilet break.

Nowhereland 7:06, 7:07, 7:14, 7:25, 7:16

Roads. Long, wide, lonely roads. Running past a biodiesel factory that stinked. Starting to get a bit brighter and warmer. Not many people around me, and one or two attempts at brief chats were ignored. Feeling cold, lonely and a bad feeling that I'm putting in more effort than I really should be at this stage. During an out-and-back I saw my pal well ahead of me and we exchanged waves. I decided to try to catch up a bit as the company could only help.

Starting to go to sh!t 7:03, 7:11, 7:16, 7:20, 7:29, 7:36, 7:58

Finally I reached the second of 4 theme parks, the Animal Kingdom. I wasn't full of joy to be there, and I was starting to get a bit cynical about the support from the Disney cast members. It was a little weird being back in the park less than 12 hours after leaving it. Once I got out of the park and into a massive carpark I decided I needed a bit of a distraction, so stuck on my headphones and played some music. This provided a bit of a boost. After the Animal Kingdom the course got even worse than before - a massive road towards the ESPN sports area. A total slog featuring ramps, a rising sun, rising temperatures and generally being exposed. Energy was draining quickly here. The EPSN sports area included a lot of turns, winding around a track (the surface of which actually provided some relief) and eventually running around a big enough baseball stadium with some cheesy support setup. A commentator shouted out my name as I went past home base which was a good laugh. The surface in the stadium however was some sort of energy sapping gravel and only further deteriorated my pace. Things were starting to get very tough here. My quads were getting very, very sore - like end-of-Run-The-Line sore. I'm not sure whether it was my form deteriorating or just general unfitness that was causing this, but the pain kept getting worse. Also I was wearing a recently purchased pair of Hokas which had shorn off an area of skin on the bottom of my right foot during the 22-miler 3 weeks ago... and sure enough the same area was once again being shorn off. I took my headphones off as everything, even music, was starting to annoy me.

Things are very bad 8:40, 8:56, 8:43

This was an agonising plodd up large roads in the sun. It wasn't too hot, just very bright. I was starting to be passed a lot. Finally turning into Hollywood Studios where there were real life people who weren't Disney employees giving some support did seem to perk me up a bit. I got my first "Go on Crusaders" shout from somebody at a water stand, which was quickly followed up by some also good support from another water stand where they bothered to read my name and give a shout. Up 'til then all everybody had to say were a few saccharine and strangely repetitive phrases such as "go runners!". After that was a run along a river and eventually a hotel boardwalk area which were both a lot more interesting than the large roads which had dominated the run so far. By now I knew there was no hope of a PB, but was vaguely clinging to a sub-3:20 time. Maybe I could muster something in the last couple of miles or so...

Haha yeah right 8:28, 8:32 (8:26)

The pain in my quads was only getting worse, and now I was starting to feel extremely hungry. Maybe I'd made a balls of my fuelling with the minimal breakfast. I really wanted to stop running. The end is a bit fun - running around the lake at Epcot, past the big circle thing and then into a carpark to finish. There was no sprint finish. I started to feel a bit woozy but it went away as I got to the finish line. Two chipmunks seperated me from finishing the bloody thing, so I high-fived one of the feckers and finally got to stop running.

Time: 3:21:03

Timer splits
Distance|Time
5 mile| 36:22
10 mile| 1:14:02
HM| 1:36:34
20 mile| 2:27:26
Clock time| 3:21:08


Positive split of 7 minutes 55 seconds

After

I staggered my way around the large post-race area, got a picture taken with my medal and eventually got my bag back so I could get out of running gear. This was painful to do, mostly because of my quad situation. I eventually staggered over to the beer and food area, and rehydrated myself a bit. I met my pal and we chatted for a few minutes before I headed back to our digs in Disney. A shower somehow seemed to help out my quad situation a bit, as in I could walk without grimacing the entire time after the shower. Afterwards we headed over to Epcot and I tried to get drunk over the course of the day, but I think Disney makes it impossible to actually get drunk based on their portion sizes and alcohol levels in their drinks I wore my medal for the day, which is the done thing in Disney. The Disney staff clearly all had instructions to congratulate marathon runners, which got a bit naff after a while. One guy in a shop did ask me how it went, I said something along the lines of "oh you know, tough last few miles but that's a marathon haha" and he replied "well it's all about getting that piece of metal around your neck!"... well, no... the obsession with bling and marathon tat at the event was off-putting, as was the fake enthusiasm and support both on and off the course, though I guess not to be unexpected.

What went wrong

This was one of my worst races ever. I didn't really have the same level of enthusiasm for it compared to any of the other marathons I'd done. I hadn't trained enough for it - some 20 milers but not enough tempo paced stuff. I obviously went out a bit too fast, despite the flat profile and good (if a bit cold) weather. I was still a bit jetlagged, on holidays, tired from walking a lot around theme parks, eating crap and generally not well setup to run a good race at any distance. I probably fuelled badly on the day, my breakfast was crap and I'm used to running well-fed long runs. I ate three gel type things on the course, same as in Dublin. I guess if I'd run 3:21:03 with even/negative splits I probably would have been happy enough. However I went for a PB and made a balls of it. The skin scraping on the bottom of my right foot didn't help. I really should have packed my trusty pair of slightly old Brooks Ghosts instead of the Hokas. I really liked the other two pairs of Hokas, but not only do these ones destroy my feet they just don't feel great on me. I have a pretty cool blood blister on one of my right foot toes that I have yet to pop too. I moaned on Facebook that this was a mediocre marathon, which it definitely was based on my PBs from earlier in the year. The time isn't a total disgrace but miles off where I should be. Mostly I'm disappointed in the execution rather than the result.

Next

I'm having serious DNS thoughts about Donadea - I don't think I've the stomach to knock out some more long runs between now and then. I've been taking it very easy since the race, with just one run so far, which did make my legs feel a bit better, but I have basically done nothing over the last few weeks so there's really not much point in showing up to my first ultra unprepared. I am somehow registered for another race on my holidays though - I was browsing the calendar of Kennedy Space Center for launches etc. and noticed a 4 mile running race called, obviously, "The Space Race", which is on Friday, the day before we leave. So I'll probably be doing that. Chances of a PB are high as I've never run a 4 mile race before, but I don't think it'll be anything like an all-out effort. Not only are my legs still recovering from Sunday, it's going to be humid and warm and it'll be at the end of a day walking around rockets and stuff.

Wubble Wubble wrote: »

I wouldn't be that disappointed with 3:21 to be honest. As you say yourself, preparation wasn't right at all, from reduced mileage to diet, with various niggles thrown into the mix too. It's a wonder you were able to run a marathon at all.

Recover well. You didn't mention your back at all in this report, which seems positive. What's the Donadea deferral deadline?

Yeh, the further I get from the race the less annoyed I am about it. Donadea deferral date was New Year's eve. Oh well.

Not a peep from my back before, during or after the race, even with all the jockeybacks

Annie get your Run wrote: »

Great report B, sorry to hear it didn't quite go to plan but as you say, the time is nothing to be ashamed of. I did a HM in Chicago a few years ago and the chase for bling is extraordinary. They did the minute silence for the troops then too and a big hoopla about the flag and the anthem... very patriotic indeed .

Take your time to recover properly and for gods sake, jog the 4 miler tomorrow!!

But the age category winners get to meet an astronaut!!! :eek::pac:

Swashbuckler wrote: »

Everything about that race is a novelty more than anything. Far from ideal in terms of prep for a marathon. Wouldn't overthink it lad. Put it down as a novelty marathon that you can say you did. And at that 3:21 is far from a bad time. Obviously not near where you wanted to be but looking at the prerace prep, all the walking, visiting parks, jetlag, food etc - nah..nothing to overthink there. You've completed a Disney marathon which was "a bit of craic". Tick.

Thanks - I think this is the right way to think about it alright

OOnegative wrote: »

Wouldn't dwell to much on it B, the prep wasn't the may west as you pointed out nor did the conditions on the day seem to conducive to fast times. Your better than the time you ran on the day, you know that yourself. Dropping Donadea might be a good idea, training for DCM into Disney Marathon into Donadea 50K is heavy going. Take time out to recover a small bit and let the body rest.

But I didn't train for Dublin!

diego_b wrote: »

Good report there B, you've sold the event for exactly what it is there. Your prep in the days preceding wasn't ideal for a much shorter distance let alone a full marathon, there are many who would dream of such a time (incl. me) so won't give that much consideration as a finishing time at all. Another one down! Recover well.

All things are relative, race times especially so

I think it was probably more training related than race prep, though I did feel tired and unmotivated early on.

denis b wrote: »

I hope the kids didn't go with a jockeyback after that Brian :eek::D. Boards expects nothing less than a pb, by way of redemption in the 4 miler. Enjoy those hols will ya!!!!!

No jockeybacks or running for 2 days after. Quads are back to normal now, and the kids are climbing up me again. The 7 year old is really starting to get too big for me to swing him up at this stage.

aquinn wrote: »

That's a tough sounding race B and especially on holidays. I hope you didn't further flog yourself now on the 4 miles.

Don't forget to book in your full heath check-up this year as promised.

Good reminder. I have a doctor's appointment next week and I'll ask her advice on it.

What was nearly a good week turned into a mediocre week due to being too hungover to do a long run on Sunday morning, and too tired on Sunday night to squeeze it in, preferring to get a decent night sleep instead of a late run which always keeps me up. Maybe I should have just done a few miles. Oh well.

Tuesday evening was spent at the club as threatened, and I did the track session which was a solid enough if unspectacular workout:
3 x 800 off 90 (3:01, 2:56, 2:57)
3 x 600 off 75 (2:11, 2:12, 2:13)
3 x 300 off 60ish (1:03, 1:02, 1:00)

On Saturday I got over to Malahide parkrun and knocked out an ok 19:35, it was controlled enough and I had the energy to do a few surges to get into better positions and finished relatively well, though the last 20 metres or so were a total mud bath so I lost a few seconds there.

I had a little bit of difficulty in the middle of the week with that damn wound on the bottom of my right foot that got shorn off by those bloody Hokas during the 22-miler 6 weeks ago and Disney marathon getting all blistery again. I even wore a bandage for a day and semi-hobbled around, not that it stopped me from getting a few miles in anyway. It got better towards the end of the week, though it still looks in bits and is sore to touch.

I did have a semi-running related medical discovery and cure during the week. Over xmas and my holiday, the left hand side of my throat was sore when I was swallowing. It wasn't mad sore, but it was a little annoying, and I'm a little sensitive to problems in that part of the world so got it checked out. I ended up seeing a throat specialist, who diagnosed reflux, related rawness and possibly some sort of blister thing that was on the mend. What does this have to do with running? Well, I regularly get heartburn when running (and when not running, but running definitely aggravates it), and control it by sometimes popping a Rennie before setting off. It's worse at some times compared to others and might be related to what I eat though I've never bothered to track it down. The doc prescribed some magic pills, and pretty much immediately I've been running heartburn free. Hopefully the heartburn is what was holding me back all these years

Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
22nd January|9.1 miles|9:06|Nice and easy commute
23rd January|6 miles|?|Cru warmup, session and cooldown. Also a jog to the quays with murph_d.
24th January|9.1 miles|8:49|Another nice and easy commute. Blister thing sore.
25th January|5 miles|8:59|Ran to the bus via D4. Blister still sore.
26th January|10 miles|8:11|Blister no longer sore! Grand run home.
27th January|8.8 miles|?|Over to Malahide parkrun, parkrun, back from Malahide parkrun
28th January|0 miles|0:00|Hangover


Total: 48.2 miles
Next week: Call into the Cru tomorrow anyway. Otherwise similar enough. Serious FOMO from all the Raheny reports, I need to register for a race (that I intend on doing)!