WDW Half Marathon

On Saturday morning I was up before my alarm and wakeup call at about 2:45. A quick shower and some breakfast, and then over to the food court at Pop Century before 3:30. I grabbed a coffee there, and then out to the buses. The lineup was winding all over the place, but there were at least six buses lined up and ready to take runners. Soon after I jumped in the line, they reorganized the line and started loading 2 buses at a time. I was only in line for about 5 minutes before I was on a bus and on my way.

The buses were amazingly organized to drop off as well. Of course the buses were coming from all the Disney Resorts, so there were lots of them. They were unloading about 10 buses at a time, so that went quickly as well. It was quite a walk to the Family Reunion area, where the runners were congregating, but excitement was in the air. I met up with a few people from the Disney Running group at the R tent, and tried to eat some more and organize my stuff. I had 2 bags, and my plan was to check one and toss the other at the start. (The toss one had some drinks and food and a towel to sit on) All of a sudden, the masses started moving - they had opened the bag check area. I went through the bag check quickly and onto the portapotty area on the other side. Hundreds of portapotties for everyone! I made use of one, and then was going to put on my pace band. Oops, it was in my checked bag.

My corral was B, which was in Wave 1, starting at 5:50. They were announcing that all Wave 1 runners should be heading to the start, so I started off that way. Another long walk to the starting corrals. Once I found my corral, I still had at least half an hour before the start. Luckily I met up with some people from the WISH group, so the time went by quickly talking to them. At this point there was lots of excitement in the air. A few minutes before the start I ditched my warmup clothes, and was ready to go.



Fireworks started us off, and the mass moved slowly at the beginning, and then faster as we got to the line. I settled in to a nice pace, and the first few miles went by really quickly. Soon we were at the TTC area, and all the screaming fans. With all the fan support, the run around the lake went very quickly. Next thing I knew, we were at the Contemporary and about to enter Magic Kingdom. The run through Magic Kingdom was amazing. I'm sure I actually slowed down to enjoy it.



Through Magic Kingdom and things quieted down a bit, but there was still fan support at the Grand Floridian and Polynesian. We were on the home stretch, but my hip joint was starting to give me some problems. I stopped once to stretch, but it didn't seem to help much, so I just kept going after that. My times were slowing, but I was still well ahead of the 2:15 pace group, so all was good. Two overpasses on the way into Epcot seemed to be unfair, but I managed those and the end was near. A quick jaunt around Future World, and then backstage. The finish line was closer than I thought it would be when we emerged into the parking lot, so I was able to sprint through the finish.

I was overcome with emotion when I finished and I could hardly breathe. Pretty exciting stuff! Through the runners area and back to the Family Reunion area where my family was waiting.



My finish time was 2:11:49, and my splits were:
Mile 1: 10:14
Mile 2: 9:57
Mile 3: 9:25
Mile 4: 10:14 (missed the 4 sign, so this is 2 miles divided)
Mile 5: 10:14
Mile 6: 10:03
Mile 7: 9:49
Mile 8: 9:57
Mile 9: 10:14
Mile 10: 10:17
Mile 11: 10:14 (missed the 11 sign too, so another divided split)
Mile 12: 10:14
Mile 13: 9:52
Mile 13.1: 1:05