2010 Walt Disney World Marathon Spectating Recap

First off I just want to apologize for the delay on this post, Sunday night I came down with the bubonic plague and have only just now been able to crawl away from the bathroom floor. See how dedicated I am to you guys; I finally stop heaving my guts out and the first thing I do is write up my weekend recap...

Friday night Spike arrived and we had a quiet carb-load dinner before hitting the hay early pre-long run. We had intended on heading over to B.o.B's neck of the woods to run with the BRA but all the emails flying around Friday made me weary about going over there in the event that they would cancel the run due to weather. Spike and I weighed the pro's & con's and finally settled on just running here.
Saturday morning we got up around 6am and did our morning rituals before heading over to Cady Way. It was around 30 degrees with a light drizzle... joy o joy! We got to the trail head and I begged a few minutes to see if the rain would lighten up only to find that it had started to HAIL! HAIL!!! In Florida!!! OMG!!! And that my friends is how the next 18 miles passed, with rain, sleet and HAIL! I totally earn the HARDCORE stamp for that run! He doesn't though, he runs in that ish all the time... but he does get mega brownie points for helping me push thru that last mile... I was fading fast and he totally got me through it for a negative split! Best.Running.Boyfriend.EVER!
With all that out of the way, now on to the spectating...
Spectating the 2010 Walt Disney World Marathon
Whoever said spectating isn't a sport has never spectated a marathon in sub 30 degree weather for 7+ hours! At 4am Sunday morning we layered up and headed over to spectate what I am certain was the coldest Disney Marathon in history; we froze our @sses, toes, fingers, etc... off all in the name of support!
After getting caught up in crazy traffic, we headed over to the family reunion area to meet up with friends and then over to the Mile 4-ish spectating area to cheer on the runner's. There we spent a good hour or so cheering with the assorted noise maker's I brought everyone, ringing the cowbell and basically jumping around like idiots... more so to keep warm than anything else. I was so cold I seriously debated jumping in to run bandit just to warm up! The only runner we managed to find was Tall Guy Surfing and only because of his height! LOL! After that we headed over to the monorail and I snapped this pic of the dawn breaking on the infamous Epcot ball. If was a beautiful morning for RUNNING a marathon!
(Click on any of the pics for a larger view)
The monorail from Epcot heads over to the Transportation area where we would have to board another monorail to get to Magic Kingdom and that was where we met up with B.o.B! YAY!!! (Her spectating recap HERE)
After that quick pic we boarded the next monorail and set up shop at the Mile 10ish area to cheer and wait for our runner's. It was a sight to see the runner's making their way down Main St. and under Cinderella's castle. If I ever run Disney it would be for that and that alone!!!
B.o.B was smart enough to find a coffee stand and got some java and cocoa for us to warm up on and we were able to catch her friend Daisy, Tall Guy Surfing and Spike's cousin run by! Everyone seemed to be looking good and on pace! Yay!!! I was a little bummed I didn't see any of the other bloggers but I knew I'd have the chance when we headed back over to Epcot as we had all planned to meet up around the mile 25ish point.

After a quick bathroom break (hello it's me we're talking about) we got in line for the next monorail over to Epcot... and waited and froze and waited and froze until FINALLY a guy tells us the monorail is broken. F.O.L! So we go from being the first ones on the monorail to the last ones waiting for the Ferry over to the main land. Awesome... NOTSOMUCH. So we wait and wait and start to get a bit anxious as I am getting text updates from the other bloggers as they hit various areas and I realize that there is no way I will get to see Chris of Beyond Defeat (Link is to his race recap) because he is killing it out there on the course and there is no way we'll get to Epcot in time. Now mind you all this waiting is outside so we are all still freezing our @sses off! We finally board the ferry only to get held up just outside of the docking area for a good 5-10 minutes! We finally land and find ourselves in the longest line ever to get on the monorail over to Epcot. If there is one thing I will say about spectating the Disney Marathon is this: Disney is not Spectator friendly at all.

Spike & I huddling together for warmth on the monorail over to Epcot

B.o.B pouting cuz she's still cold

Our feelings towards Disney

We finally arrived at Epcot and by now we're at the 4 hour mark of the marathon. Chris has long finished but the other bloggers would be coming by soon enough. We left B.o.B at the finish and headed into Epcot to set up camp between Miles 25 & 26 as planned. It was still freezing cold and the winds had really picked up. I was so thankful I had thought to wear tights under my jeans but I no longer had any feeling in my hands and toes. We were miserable but had no time to dwell because it was game on! Time to rouse the spirits of the runner's as they brought it home for the Finish!!!

The first blogger to find us was Marlene of Mission to a(nother) Marathon! She was looking strong, had a huge smile on her face and if I hadn't known I would never have guessed that not only did she run a great marathon but had just ran a Half the day before! That girl definitely earned her Goofy status!!! Congrats Marlene on being GOOFY!!!


Not even 10 minutes later I see this girl heading towards us with a big smile on her face and I realize it is Christy of It Just Looks Like Slow Motion!!! (Link is her marathon recap, def worth the read! Go congratulate her!) I had never met Christy before but I knew it was her! We hugged and I slapped her on the butt and told her to go finish her marathon!!! She looked so happy and I'm so glad I got to be there to see her just before she finished!!! Congrats on your FIRST MARATHON!!!

About this point a Disney official comes over and makes us get rid of one of our motivational posters... Apparently "Your feet hurt from kicking @ss-phalt" is not a Disney appropriate motivational poster! LOL! No worries we still had the one above and plenty of cowbell left for the rest of our runner's. We kept inching our way further back until finally the park opened and we could set up camp closer to the Mile 25 mark. We were still freezing our @sses off but we refused to stop cheering the runner's. Every time someone gave us the thumbs up or yelled "More Cowbell" we knew we were doing a great thing. We tried to cheer on any runner that looked like they were struggling by name (Kudo's to Disney for putting names on their bibs) and we kept yelling the most random things ever...

"We're freezing for you! Do us proud!" "That's a sexy Garmin!" "Can you taste it? The finish line is right around that corner!!!" etc... Spike had more of the stranger ones but then again have you read his blog? Shouldn't have surprised me...

A little while after we relocated I see this tall figure actually skipping towards us and realize it is none other than Tall Guy Surfing! (Link is to his race recap) Yay! He looked surprisingly good despite running under trained and injured and we snapped this hilarious pic! Congrats on your FIRST MARATHON!!! (I can't wait to read his recap as he has warned me he has quite the story to tell!)

Shortly after TGS ran by I caught a fleeting glimpse of Maddy from Gotta Run who also completed the Goofy Challenge. She was in the zone and on the other side of the course when I recognized her so no pics but a big CONGRATS to her on going GOOFY!!!

Again not even 10 minutes later I see this vision in blue with a huge smile on her face and I jumped up and down and ran towards Melissa of I Don't Need Excuses! (Link is to her race recap) I had spectated her first Half Marathon back in November and now I was able to spectate her FIRST FULL MARATHON!!! She looked great and ready to finish strong! Congrats girl!!!

With Melissa in we only needed to wait for Spike's cousin who like TGS, was running injured and under trained. We were worried and started to get scared that we had lost him somewhere but thankfully he rounded the corner looking none the worse for the wear. He was in pain but the adrenaline of being so close pushed him through and he finished his first marathon!

With the cuz through the Finish chute we could thankfully conclude our spectating day. It was cold, it was miserable, we kinda hated Disney... BUT we had fun cheering on our friends and family and we know we really helped a lot of runner's dig deep and finish strong at the end there. That in itself was more than worth it.

After we trashed the posters and Spike ceremoniously stabbed the balloons to pieces we went in search of warmth and food. We had tickets for the day but after lunch decided to just head home instead. 7+ hours of spectating had kicked our @sses.

And that is that. I'm off to finish disinfecting my house with lysol and bleach. I'll try to catch up on blog posts when I can but I'm still not feeling 100% and only just now starting to make my way towards the land of the living... I hope ya'll had a great weekend and congrats again to all my Disney runner's out there! Bask in the after glow, you've earned it!!!