At this time, I was contemplating starting my own business as a personal trainer for women of child-bearing age during and after pregnancy. My website was going to be Mommytrainer.com. I had even had a logo designed. But this was also around the time that the economy started slowing and personal trainers (being a luxury) were less and less used. I decided it would be in my best interest to stay working instead of opening my own business. If I could quit my job now, not have to worry about money, and do anything in the world, I would still open up a business to help people run marathons.
Sweta was my first protege. She had just had a baby via C-section, and nine months later, she would be running her first marathon.
The Race: Walt Disney World Marathon, Orlando, FL, January 2009
My Training Plan: Since his training plan worked so well for me for my first marathon, I used the Hal Higdon Novice 1 Marathon training plan to design a plan for Sweta. During the beginning of the training period, I was training for the October Indianapolis marathon, but picked up Sweta's training plan once I had run the other marathon. Again, my longest run during training was a 20 miler. Sweta actually missed the 20 miler, and her longest was only 19 miles.
Weather: The race starts early (I think around 5:30am) so that the parks can open up for business afterwards. It was very cold at the start (maybe upper 30s or lower 40s), but warmed up toward the end. The weather was really very similar to the Indianapolis race, except that the ending temperature was much higher (probably 70s) - ideal conditions, in my opinion.
Running Attire: Purple LIZ tank top and black Mizuno shorts with pocket for food.
Who I ran with: I ran the whole race (with the exception of the very beginning and one porta potty stop) with Sweta to help motivate her. We had two different start corrals, so we met at mile 3, where the courses converged and ran the rest of the way together. She had started with the 5:00 pace group, led by famous pacer Star B. The pace group walked the first minute of every mile, and ran about an 11:00 pace the rest of each mile.
The Course: The course winds through four different parks at Disney World: Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios. The course is fairly flat, with some hills in the parks and some hills over bridges between parks. Some of the areas going between parks can be boring, with little to look at, minimal fans, and narrow roads. Some parts of the course were on very narrow roads/paths, which made it difficult to avoid other runners. Miles 20-21 have a steep slant to the road.
Organization: The race, expo, water stops, etc are all very well organized. The expo was very well organized - I was in and out in 15 minutes, getting my number and shirt. Along the course, there were multiple food stops (bananas, chocolates, gels, etc), water and PowerAde stops at every mile, and Vaseline and Biofreeze stops.
Swag: A long-sleeved technical shirt and a pretty cool medal with Mickey Mouse. Other than that, nothing particularly special.
Starting Line: The race has two separate starting lines due to the number of runners and the narrow paths in the park. Runners join back together around mile 3. There were adequate signs to let you know where to go, and plenty of porta potties near the start. You start pretty early when it is still dark. They have generator-powered lights along the course until sunrise, but sometimes it can still be difficult to see. It is pretty cold at the start, but quickly warms up as you run.
Fans: The spectators were great in the park areas, but between parks were somewhat sparse.
Finish Line: I don't remember much about the finish line, unfortunately. But I don't remember any bad experiences either, so I'm sure they had adequate food and water. I did take an ice bath in our jacuzzi tub at the hotel afterwards, which really helped me to have the strength to walk through Magic Kingdom the rest of the day.
How I felt: For most of the race I felt pretty good. Toward the end, especially with the slanted roads, I was feeling it. I tried to stay positive, and Star did a great job of helping us all focus one mile at a time toward the end. I will say that the slower I go, the harder it is - because you're still running that whole time. Running for five hours is much harder than running for four and a half hours.
Travel/Tourism: Obviously this is a great destination race. Flying into the Orlando airport is pretty easy and convenient. We rented a car and stayed at a two bedroom timeshare affiliate with my timeshare points. We got two-day pass for the parks and went to both Magic Kingdom and Epcot while we were there. We also visited Universal Studios while in the area.
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