We left the house around 4:15 a.m. It was a good thing we did as we ran into traffic. We couldn’t take the back way in or many of the other routes in. I even cut through Hollywood to arrive at traffic. I think I should have looked at the road closures better before leaving. Anyways, we made it, but we didn’t have much extra time. In the past, we sometimes hang around for 1 or 2 hours. We probably had 30 minutes or so which actually wasn’t too bad. The bad thing was that we had to walk around 2 miles just to get to the starting line.
As witnessed the day before, we were in a bad corral. We didn’t have a good time, so we were in Corral G. I think if we didn’t turn in a past time and we would have just put in “expected,” we would have been better off. I was passing a lot of higher corrals….well, some. There were so many walkers that the side of my knee hurt moving laterally around them.
Andrea and I were in G. Deb was Corral H, but she was better than us. She actually rode Expedition Everest during the race which was pretty cool. I just kept on running by.
I need to get the pictures, but Dad, Tom, and Cindy were at mile 14 which was really nice. I had only done 14 miles as my long run, so I needed the encouragement. After that, it was all down hill. The last 8 miles were tough, but we finished. My goal was less than 6 hours and it was accomplished, so accomplishment-wise I felt good.
We should have read the race-guide better. Dad, Tom, and Cindy didn’t make it to the Finish Line before we did due to the road closures and traffic. Even the Epcot parking lot was closed! Dad was about 3 minutes too late to see me cross the finish line. Oops. But he met us and gave us roses Disney sold. Disney is sellsy like that — but nothing compared to buying a car — more on that later.
After the race, we went back to the rental house — which was great to have — and took a shower. Then, we went to Tutto Italia in Italy for dinner to celebrate. I saw a paid wheelchair left in the parking lot and Deb was nice enough to push me to Italy. I was in some pain, but using The Stick, some bengay, and putting my legs in the air, I recovered the next day.
Italy was pretty good…maybe not as good as the first time, but still ok. Dad loves their olives. Afterwards, we took some pictures with Mickey.
Looking back, it was tough, but fun. Overall, running has been good for me. Once I recover from these two months, I hope to burn about 500 calories a day by running and tone in other ways. I think I have lost 20 to 25 pounds since I started running and being more cognizant of food….. (in 2011….slow process).