My Journey to the Walt Disney World Marathon — Part Six: There and Back Again
A 26-mile Victory Lap
A 26-mile Victory Lap
Not to bury the lede:
Yes, I came to Florida, I saw Spaceship Earth lit up at 3 AM, I conquered!
My friends, if you’ve stayed with me through this journey, I hope you have found it useful… and thank you. I’d like to give a little bit of the practical side of getting to Orlando and how I overcame some of the logistical obstacles, and then a small sense of what the race and its aftermath was like. This may be a little more timeline-y than previous entries, but if you’re planning to do this and coming from the west coast like myself, you might find some of this helpful.
Coping with Time Zones
I had come to the shake-out part of my training. Having completed the simulation run, I knew that I could do 26.2 miles in a pace good enough to complete the race, just. A few factors still worried me, though: the unpredictable Florida weather, travel scheduling and, most of all, the time change.
Here’s the reality of a west-coaster doing any Walt Disney World running event: you are waking up at 11 PM PST (2 AM EST) to get to the race which is starting at 3 AM PST (5 AM EST). That’s right, I said “waking up at 11.” If you have not acclimated, at least partially, to the east coast time zone, you are going to be struggling. This is not to suggest that you can’t do it, a certain amount of sleep deprivation due to scheduling, excitement the night before, etc. is part of the deal. For myself, however, I knew that my simulation race pace was not comfortable enough that I could afford to pile exhaustion on top of it. So my wife and I came up with a plan.
Four days prior to my flight to Orlando we began waking up at 5 AM (PST); two days prior, 4 AM. Arriving two days before the Marathon (I was signed up only for the Full, none of the other weekend races.), I landed in Orlando around 4:30 PM EST, took an Uber directly to the Marathon Weekend Expo to pick up my race bib and shirt, then a Disney bus to my resort, Port Orleans: French Quarter, where I had dinner, grabbed an Instacart order I had made which was left with Bell Services and settled in for a fitful sleep before which I set my alarm to wake up at 4 AM EST.
By this point I had gradually shifted my schedule backwards about 5 hours from normal, having woken up the day before the Marathon at what would’ve been 1 AM California time. I waited a few hours for Disney Animal Kingdom to open, then went and spent the morning there.
The Day of the Half of a Half — Friends New and Old
This was an interesting day. If you follow runDisney events at all, you are probably aware that this was the day of what is becoming known as the “Half of a Half Marathon.” Rain had been predicted all week for the weekend and, by the night before, that prediction had turned into a lightning storm coming in to the Orlando area around 9 AM. Appropriately, the race organizers announced that Saturday morning’s Half-Marathon would be shortened to seven miles to insure that the course would be cleared of runners as well as race staff and volunteers before the storm hit. This meant that many of the main features of the Half, such as running through the Magic Kingdom, were cut out of the event. It was the right thing to do, and yet my heart aches for those runners. Many folks, myself included, can’t afford multiple trips to Disney World for events like this and to have the event cut short must’ve been devastating, especially for folks in that boat.
That morning I had a reservation for breakfast at the wonderful, African-influenced, Tusker House restaurant in Animal Kingdom. It was around 8:40 AM and so, within minutes of my sitting down, the place began to fill with drenched runners, some still in their bibs and Hokas, wearing their Half-Marathon medals.
It is a testament to the spirit of these people that they were smiling and laughing and chatty after what was surely a dispiriting event. I had a wonderful time eating roasted tandoori-spiced tomatoes and talking to folks about their experience that morning on the abbreviated course.
By the afternoon, the skies had cleared and it was a beautiful, cool, sunny day and there was going to be a meet-up of the hosts and fans of the Rise and Run Podcast at Disney Springs. I made sure not to stay too long at Animal Kingdom (I did ride the Mighty Ikran and scale Everest, though.) and went back to my room to rest before the meet-up.
I was a little concerned that I might’ve overdone it walking around the park the day before the marathon, but it turned out to not be a concern and, I suspect, it helped me get some sleep that night.
Now, there is an elephant in the room for those of us who flew to Orlando that weekend; an Alaskan Airlines flight heading from Portland to Los Angeles, had to make an emergency landing after a door blew out of the hull at about 16,000 feet. It sent a chill through many of the travelers I talked to as a number of Boing 737 Max 9 jets were suddenly downed for inspection. I had flown an Alaskan Airline’s 737 just the night before and on my way to the Rise and Run meetup I got a text message on my phone from one of my best friends:
“Kelly, you know that flight that went down? We were on it.”
I stopped and checked in with my friend and stepped out of the Rise and Run get-together several times to follow up with him. He sent me a picture of the breach from his airplane seat. It left me a little rattled.
The meet-up was lovely. One of the show’s hosts, Bob, and his wife, Becky (who made delicious cookies for everyone), couldn’t have been more gracious. I met lots of nice folks and had some great conversations, but have to admit I was a little distracted worrying about my friend and his family. (They are doing alright.)
Pre-race Preparation
By 6:00 or so I had taken the boat back from Disney Springs to Port Orleans, had a bite to eat at the counter service restaurant there and then began to lay out my gear for the morning: shorts, top, knee sleeves, socks, extra pair of socks (in case it rained), shoes, filled hydration vest, Sports Beans, Tylenol, two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, a banana, bib, Mylar blanket, trinkets my wife and kid gave me for luck, cellphone, portable charger and bone-conduction headphones. I set two alarms for 2 AM and, exhausted as I was, fell asleep.
Notes on Fuel
In order to pass along things that I hope are useful, I want to talk about fueling a little. I am a very tall guy and my fueling needs might be a little bit more intense than a lot of runners. I mentioned earlier my two PB&J’s, Sports Beans and banana. Here’s how I work that. The first sammich happened in the corral. At about mile three I ate the banana, that’s fuel that I will benefit from later as the starch is going to keep me from absorbing it as rapidly as I will the Beans.
Generally my plan is that after mile four I have two or three Beans (depending on if I’m feeling hungry or not) every mile. This keeps me pretty well fueled for a marathon-length run. The problem with this plan is that after about thirty or so of them, you never want to see another jelly bean again. So at some point when they felt like just too much, I ate the other sandwich. Disney also, in addition to their frequent water/Poweraid stops, also had stops that handed out bananas, for which I was deeply grateful later in the race.
(As an aside, please don’t throw your banana peels on the course! What are you even thinking?!)
Race Morning, or a Zombie in Mylar and Brooks
I got a reasonable six hours of sleep and was feeling pretty good when the alarms went off. I went down the line of stuff I’d set out and strapped myself into all of it and shambled down to the lobby to meet the bus at about 2:40. It was waiting. I hopped on with about ten other people and we were off.
Arriving at the Marathon entrance in what was really the dead of night, into a weird enclave filled with strange pockets of vendors and giant video screens showing amped up entertainers who were there both to give instructions and to build up enthusiasm was, to say the least, surreal. I bought some sort of dragon fruit yogurt parfait thing (which was delicious) and waited for the corrals to open. Once they did I wandered, pretty casually as it wasn’t particularly packed yet, over to my corral where I took advantage of the army of port-o-potties and just kind of walked around and stretched for a bit. The entertainment and hosts followed us to the new area and the show continued.
Truth be told, if I’d come a half hour later, it wouldn’t have made much difference.
After a little time, even though the temperatures were around what I’d often trained in — around fifty-two degrees — I realized the value of the Mylar blanket. Running at those temperatures was one thing, but sitting or standing on the concrete parking lot was entirely different, and I was going to be there for some time yet. I was the last corral, F, and this meant that, after all the other runners had launched, wave after wave, we would not enter the starting chute until almost 5:50 AM; almost three hours from the time I’d arrived at EPCOT that morning.
Lest this wait time unnerve you, gentle reader, rest assured that it didn’t FEEL like three hours. The stage, and its attendant screens, were filled with a continuous assemblage of interviews, music, instructions and, eventually, countdowns.
Over and over, from five o’clock on, every minute or so, there would be a countdown, “Five! Four! Three! Two! One! Go!” and a cluster of fireworks would launch. Every person I’ve spoken to since I returned from this trip has asked the same thing, “Didn’t that get annoying?”
No, it honestly didn’t. The excitement at each launch was so sincere and truly palpable. As the people flew down the chute onto the race course proper, each and every time, their joy was shared and my anticipation notched up a little.
Eventually, it was our turn and we moved into the starting area and the countdown became OUR countdown… And we were off!
The Race
I don’t want to go through the race inch by inch — some of those inches do turn into some pretty boring miles — but I do want to share a few things that really struck me during the six hours or so I was out there.
The runner support was unbelievable. I’d trained with my hydration vest and was glad to have it, but if I hadn’t, the sheer number of water and Poweraid stops would’ve served just as well. Later stops with bananas and, once, chocolate, were excellent touches as well.
I was unprepared for how powerful the cheering support would be. Primarily within the parks themselves, but occasionally outside, packs of people with signs who were shouting encouragement with seemingly inexhaustible enthusiasm again and again lifted my spirits whenever they might be flagging. And not just onlookers, the staff of the parks were just as encouraging as the patrons. It was truly incredible.
I didn’t stop for any character photos, this being my first marathon, but it was certainly nice to see them peppered throughout the course. I was particularly excited to see this throwback to the old, long extinct, Adventurer’s Club.
I’ll be honest, I’m a Disneyland guy. I enjoy Walt Disney World, for sure, but my heart is in Walt’s park in Anaheim. So I thought I had come to Florida to see EPCOT and Animal Kingdom, but wasn’t that interested in the Magic Kingdom. I had my own personal sense of nostalgia.
But look, man, if you can run through Cinderella’s Castle with that stunning view of Main Street USA all lit up in the early dawn and not shed a joyful tear or two, well, you’re a better man than I, Gunga Din.
I don’t like to use other people’s misfortune to my benefit, but the rain forecasts coming into Marathon Weekend did help me prepare mentally for running in inclement weather. I had trained in the rain a LITTLE, but not enough to be really comfortable with it. The advice I heard over and over again coming into the weekend was “Just embrace the rain.” I had an extra pair of socks and an unopened clear poncho if I needed it, but simply accepting that the rain, in whatever amount, was going to be part of the experience and not at all antithetical to it, was enormously helpful.
The skies did open up for a few miles just prior to my entering the Magic Kingdom and we all got wet. And it was fine.
As far as course congestion and race etiquette, I found that most folks were pretty considerate and we never got particularly bogged down. Of course there’s always factors out of people’s control — if you need to walk and you simply can’t get over to the right side of the course, you can only do your best — but generally it all went pretty smoothly.
At just about mile 23, I realized that I was in no danger of being swept, having kept a consistently better pace than I had in training, and that I was going to make it. It hit me like an emotional ton of bricks. The finish line was great, but this was the moment when the 7 months of training and trip planning, studying and experimenting, sweating and aching all came to a head. I burst into tears, joyful tears. No one around me seemed to care, it was mile 23 and we were all there together.
After the race when I called my wife to tell her how it had gone, I talked about this moment and lost it all over again.
And then there was the Finish Line, which was, honestly, a blur. I was still running. Someone handed me a medal. Someone handed me a damp cloth. Someone handed me a box of food. After a hundred yards or so, for the first time in six-plus hours, I realized that I could just… stop.
So I did.
I looked around at the group of people around me, some heading off to transportation, some slowly walking or stretching, some sitting on the ground in a daze.
I sat down, situated my medal and my other stuff. Then I got up and called my wife to tell her what had just happened; that I’d completed a marathon.
I’m still not sure I’ve taken it all in.
The Aftermath
I wish that someone had given me this piece of advice: wear your medals to the parks! Not just for the first day, but for every day you will be at them during your trip.
I chose to stay and enjoy Walt Disney World for several days after Marathon Weekend had ended and I wore my medal the night after and then not the next day. I learned quickly, though, and wore it for subsequent days. Here’s why, you have a ton of friends at the parks who have just been through the same experience you have. When I wore my medal, not only was there a fairly constant stream of congratulations from people in the parks, but I found myself in conversations over and over with other runners discussing our experiences. Going to theme parks is great; going to theme parks and finding that you are surrounded by friends is much better.
Community
There are so many pockets of Disney and theme park fandom out there and if a piece of that world interests you, you may be surprised to find just how much company you have. I can’t express my awe with how strong some of these communities are. From the bloggers and podcasters, those of us who make it down to events like Adventureland Day (coming up!) or Dapper Day, the Disney historians, the park planners, the animation lovers and, especially, the mighty runDisney community who will pick you up and put you on their metaphorical back and carry you across the finish line if that’s what it takes. If you’ve ever been curious, reach out. You may just find a whole world of people just like you. I certainly have.
I’ll leave you with this. Along the route, near the end, after I’d realized that I was very likely to finish the race, I saw someone holding a small, handwritten, sign that paraphrases a film that my kid and I have watched a million times and yet seeing the phrase in this context hit me like an emotional ton of bricks.
“You never know how far you’ll go.”
You really won’t, unless you try.
Hope to see you at Disneyland in September for the Halloween Half!
Thank you so much for reading. If you feel especially appreciative and would like to support me in this journey, consider dropping a few bucks into the kitty:
https://ko-fi.com/kellymccubbin
From northern California to Orlando ain’t cheap.
And if you’re a runner and just want to say “Hey!” please don’t hesitate to reach out.
If you are enjoying this series and would like to read more of my writing about Disney and other stuff, check my bio site with the links to my most recent articles:
The earlier entries in this series:
