The race was awesome, and the course was very enjoyable--much better than the 5K we ran there back in May. I think this is my favorite race so far, but perhaps that has a lot to do with having my family there with me running and watching. My dad, Jason and his dad, and 2 of our friends ran with us; my mom and his step mom came to watch us race.
We woke up this morning at 4:30 a.m. (I should say got up because I don't think I slept through the night. I could not see the alarm clock and kept freaking out that I would oversleep), got ready and drove to Epcot to take the bus to the start line. This meant we had about an hour to kill and get nervous before the start of the race. With about 5 minutes to go, we finally lined up at our respective pace groups--I started at the back of the 11-13 pace marker. After the singing of the National Anthem, they set off some fireworks and off we went. There were so many people there that it took me almost 3 minutes to cross the start line.
The weather was ok: overcast, but very humid. I ran intervals of 1/4 mile and 1 minute walk most the way (about 3:1). I started out slow, about 12:30 pace, and picked it up towards the end. I felt good and strong the whole way, and I had plenty of kick left at the end--and boy did I need it (more on that in a minute). The only downer was that I had a side stitch during most of the race but I ran/walked through it. I also walked through all 3 water stops and ate a few sports beans. At the 2nd water stop, I saw one of my employees. It threw me off and I accidently paused my watch instead of hitting the lap button, but I didn't let it bother me too much.
The course was great and it flew by. We started at Wide World of Sports and ran on the highway towards Hollywood Studios. At the Studios, we ran through the set of the Stunt Show where they had a huge screen with a live feed so we could see ourselves on the screen as we ran by it. You could hear everyone cheering as you approached it before you saw the screen and could not help but do the same once you realized you were about to see yourself on screen. It was really neat. We then ran down the Boardwalk, which is beautiful but hard to appreciate that late in the race, especially when there are slight hills on the bridges and volunteers telling us we are almost there when we had yet to even cross the 5-mile marker.
Before we knew it, we were in Epcot with just over a mile to go. I really tried to pick up the pace here and run with less walking, but the side stich was getting worse. I tried to ignore it and give it all I had but had to talk a short walk break instead of running for a 1/2 mile because I wanted to be able to sprint to the finish.
As I was rounding the corner to the finish, I see Jason's dad looking for me. When he spots me, he started to run with me. Then I hear my dad screaming at me (words of encouragement of course) from somewhere and then he materialized on the other side of me. So here I am, being flanked on both sides and giving it all I got to keep up with them (they had already finished--dad in 1:01:41 and Jason's dad in 53:10--and waited there to help push me to the finish). At first I was thinking, "go away, I can't run any faster" LOL, but once I found myself speeding up and hearing them shouting for me to keep it up the awesomeness of it all sunk in.
Here are my splits from my watch. As always, it clocks the course a little long, but it gives me an idea of my pace. Check out these consistently negative splits and that huge sprint at the end!
The official stats:
chip time - 1:15:52 (12:12 pace)
clock time - 1:18:33
overall place - 1684 / 2616
gender place - 890 / 1576
age group place - 144 / 252
And here are the chip times from the rest of my group in order of arrival, with pace times in parenthesis:
Bob (Jason's dad) - 53:10 (8:33)
Dad - 1:01:41 (9:55)
Jason - 1:06:52 (10:45)
Tim - 1:10:14 (11:18)
Me - 1:15:52 (12:12)
Chas - 1:18:50 (12:41)
I will definitely do this race again and I can't wait for my first 1/2 marathon in Dec. My dad and I may also run the Inaugural Melbourne & Beaches Music 1/2 Marathon together in February :)
Congrats to everyone else who ran this race or one of the marathons this weekend!
This is also for the The Zen Run 10K, part of The Worldwide Festival of Races.
