I ran my first Marathon in Walt Disney World! | Disney Vacation January 2020

I'm so excited and happy to say I ran my first marathon in Walt Disney World on January 12, 2020! We go to the Health Expo to get my bib and shirt, as well as shop the RunDisney 2020 merchandise. Since the Marathon Weekend actually started a few days prior, it's important to note that the expo was sold out of some items (like the RunDisney 2020 white baseball cap).

I went to bed around 7pm on January 11, and set an alarm for 1:30am. I ended up waking up around 12:30am and couldn't fall back to sleep. I got out of bed by 1:50am, and was out the door by 2:20am. As you see in the video, I carried my little bagel and peanut butter with me. When I was getting ready the thought of eating disgusted me! I think it was because I only had dinner around 5am, so it had only been a few hours since I'd eaten. Also I'm not one for midnight snacks, so my body was just not ready to eat in the middle of the night. I did force a few bites down before I left, and figured I would take the bagel with me on the way. I ended up never eating it, and threw it out shortly before we walked to the starting line. Though right before the race, around 5am, was when I had started feeling hungry. But by then I had gotten rid of my bagel.

I was one of the first people to get on the monorail to Epcot. And by that, I literally mean the monorail wasn't even running yet when I got down there. The security guards had us all line up right at 2:30am for the monorail. I thought I was going to be so early! And I definitely was. However since most runners are arriving by shuttle bus or car, it feels very empty on the monorail until you actually get to Epcot. And then as seen in the video, there was a large stream of people coming in from the shuttles.

The marathon started a bit late, around 5:20am rather than 5:00am, and I crossed the starting line at 5:30am. I finished just before 10:30am. My official time was 4 hours, 56 minutes and 24 seconds, and according to RunKeeper my offical mialge was 26.86 miles (so a bit over the 26.2 marathon length. The extra distance could be due to poor GPS location on my phone's behalf). My average pace was an 11 minutes per mile. Before I walked that one mile at the end, my average pace was closer to 10:30 a mile (in training I had been aiming closer to 9:30-10:00 mile. You win some you lose some!)

Since my friends and family signed up to the RunDisney tracker as advertised at the Expo, they received text messages every 5 miles, with my average pace and what time I was expected to finish based on my pace. Once I finished they all received a text saying I finished. My mom said the tracker was off though, as they would receive the text messages a few minutes prior to when I would reach the marker. I also had my phone out and was texting my family updates along the way so they knew I was almost there. It was as much of a marathon for my parents as well since they had to stand for 5 hours in the sun waiting for me to get to the finish line!

When you finish I was given my medal first, a cooling towel, and the little Mickey hat. The challenge finishers go through a second tent to get the challenge medals, and everyone else went straight to the food tent. They give you a snack box and they had lots of bananas. In the snackbox was food I basically don't eat, a lot of random items. I'm also a picky eater, so there's that.

Immediately I had to sit down for a few seconds, and we found the edge of a table bench I could sit. They did not have a lot of seating for anyone in this section. And there was no shade. Since this is all basically in a parking lot, it's all open and asphalt. I waddled back to the food trucks, and we found a lemon poppy seed muffin for me to snack on the way back to the hotel. However the muffin really didn't have any poppy seeds. Only like a few on the top. After a long waddle back to the monorail, we made it back to the hotel. I showered, drank some YooHoo (since in training I normally have a protein chocolate milk type drink after I run), and sat down and filmed the second half of the marathon video!

I realize much of this was covered in the video too, but just a second recounting of the marathon. Again I make these videos and things for the memories, and sometime in the future I know I'll want to read this again to see what my first marathon was like. I'm so happy and proud that I ran a marathon, and am genuinely looking forward to my next one!

Thank you again to my parents for supporting my running journey. Back in May 2018 when I casually told my mom I wanted to run the WDW Marathon I don't think I could picture myself actually running it. It's wild how time goes by like that. I couldn't have done this without the support and love from my parents (and again, they did their own marathon standing in the humidity for 5 hours!).

_________________

Filmed January 11 and 12, 2020

This video is not sponsored. All tickets, food and products were purchased with my own money. All opinions are my own.

Видео I ran my first Marathon in Walt Disney World! | Disney Vacation January 2020 канала almostamandax