Disney Marathon Report
by Charles Cohn
After leaving Atlanta around 8 am Friday morning, we drove to Disney World and went first
to the Wide World of Sports so I could pick up my number and hear Nancy Clark's talk,
which was excellent. (I'm glad I did it then because the lines on Saturday were
horrendous.) Then we drove until we found the Dixie Landings resort.
We went to the food court and tried to find the encounter, but it was already near 7 and
we didn't see any likely-looking group. (Where did everybody disappear to so fast?) We ate
at the food court (liked the food) and then went to the Fort Wilderness
campground to check our camper in.
Saturday morning, we had a fairly late breakfast and then set out to to the Coronado
Springs encounter (i.e. the Dead
Runners' Society get-together). I thought I'd take a rest from driving, so we used
Disney transportation. Big mistake: the waits for the buses were interminable. We arrived
half an hour late, looked around the lobby and restaurant area and again didn't find any
likely-looking groups. Another encounter shot to hell!
We went to the Wide World of Sports again, where I registered as a racewalker and checked
out the expo. It was meager, but for me the opportunity to talk to the MCM person and
clear up issues relating to my DNF (as I reported previously) made up for any faults.
Later we went to the pasta dinner for the 4:30 sitting. I had no choice about that; it was
part of our Fort Wilderness resort package. It was OK, but I thought the pasta was a bit
underdone. I wore my pink Penguin hat, but didn't see any others and nobody accosted me,
so again no encounters.
We settled in early, so I had no problem getting up at 3 am. While Maggie slept, I
vaselined myself, put on my heart monitor, girded my loins, pinned on my number, collected
my accoutrements and headed out. I drank almost a pint of water, which gave me problems
later, as I will relate. I also ate some dry cereal and a banana.
I caught the campground bus, which took me to the waiting point for the main bus. There, a
nice array of food items had been set out. I grabbed a Danish, which I was a little afraid
of but which caused me no trouble.
When I reached the staging area, I hung around, used the john and met a few people I knew;
several racewalkers from Atlanta had come to do the full or the half. One young woman
missed registering as a racewalker; the racewalk table was closed when she picked up her
number on Friday night and she didn't go back on Saturday.
At about 5:30 I stuffed my jacket into my bag, dropped it at the baggage tent and headed
for the start. I took along a pint bottle of water and a Power Bar, which I consumed when
I arrived.
The porta-johns had long lines, but that didn't matter because there were lots of bushes
handy. I waited until the last minute before I watered one and got into place. As a
result, I was way back, and it took me ten minutes after the fireworks to get to the
start.
I got moving smoothly and comfortably at 14 minutes per mile. By the second mile, my
bladder was filling up again. There were a few porta-johns along the route, but they all
had long lines and I passed them up.
After entering Epcot, I detoured to the men's room near the entrance and took care of my
needs. The facility was almost vacant and I had no waiting, but the stop still cost me a
minute and a half. I was in a much better state, though, to enjoy the sights and sounds of
Epcot.
By this time I had speeded up to between 13:20 and 13:45 per mile. At mile 12, the course
passed through the yard where the Magic Kingdom parade floats are kept. It was interesting
to see them. I stopped again to water a bush, but I needn't have bothered, as just then I
entered the Magic Kingdom and a men's room was right there.
By mile 14 I had slowed to between 14 and 14:30 per mile. By mile 15 my body seemed to
want to lean to the left, and I had to exert conscious effort to stay upright. That had
happened to me only once before, when I did Jacksonville in '95. At that time, I ended up
losing my balance, falling, and skinning my knees and elbows, so I knew I had to be
careful not to trip. Fortunately, the roads were smooth and clean, and I just had to keep
watching ahead for hazards.
By mile 19 my legs were aching and I had slowed to around 15 minutes per mile, and by mile
23 I had slowed to over 16 minutes per mile. When I passed over the squishy temporary road
I slowed way down, as I knew my balance would be precarious. I did miles 25 and 26 at
16:30 to 17:00 per mile, and the final 0.2 in a glacial 3:22. By this time I knew my body
was badly out of line, as I could feel my left foot striking harder than my right.
So finally I finished, in a net time of 6:20:11. This was my second worst marathon time.
It was especially galling when I later found out that the third-place male racewalker in
my 60-69 age group had a time of 5:59, which I had bettered at a couple of other
marathons. In the ten marathons I have now finished, this is the closest I have ever come
to winning an age-group prize.
Maggie met me, and I hobbled to the monorail to go to the Magic Kingdom. There we met
friends from Tampa that we had invited to spend the day with us -- two adults and a
ten-year-old boy. We went to the restaurant where I replenished with a good buffet lunch.
Then we watched the parade and did ten-year-old-boy things: Pirates of the Caribbean and
Splash Mountain.
Our friends now had to leave for Tampa, so we took the launch to Fort Wilderness and saw
them off. It was already 6:30 and I was still full from the lunch buffet, so I decided to
skip the Bragathon -- another mistake.
Monday morning we drove to the Wide World of Sports, where I picked up my certificate and
found out that I hadn't won an age-group prize. We tailgated a breakfast in the parking
lot, returned to Fort Wilderness and took the launch to Discovery Island. (The tickets
were part of our resort package.) We looked at birds, etc. until Maggie got tired, and
then we returned to the camper for lunch and a nap. In the afternoon we did some shopping
at the Downtown Disney marketplace. We bought some fancy things at the Gourmet Kitchen for
dinner, returned to the campground for an early dinner and settling in. Tuesday morning we
started out early for home.
When we went to our podiatrist-chiropractor the next day, he said I was indeed badly out
of line and dealt with the problem with a few good snaps and cracks. I'll try it out
Saturday when I plan to racewalk in the Chilly Chili 5K.
I do plan to enter this marathon again next year. Whatever problems I had were my fault,
not Disney's, and I think I know better how to deal with them. Maggie is willing to go
with me again, and that's half the battle.
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