13.1 Down, 26.2 to go!

Taken after finishing the half marathon

After rising at 2 am (usually we go to bed then) we left the house at 3 am and arrived at the Epcot parking area just before 4 am. It was a tad on the chilly side but we had those paper jackets and pants you can buy at the expo to keep us warm. I had extra trash bags just in case, but we only used them for sitting on the ground.

We headed over to the bag check area to see if anyone running the half would come for a meet up at 4:15 am - but we missed Maddy and Leslie (aka Marathon Girl) was unable to make it this morning. At 4:30 am we headed over to the porta potties for a quick stop before heading over to the corrals.

As we walked to the corrals we were very excited that we had a spot near the front in Corral B until we realized that we were not placed in the same corral! My husband's race number had him in Corral F, 2 waves away. They will allow the person up front to line up in the back but not visa versa. As we walked all the way to the back, we were grumbling about the rule when we decided to try corral hopping....

We were able to sneak from F, to E, to D just fine. But to get to corral C it was a big step over the fence. My husband hopped it, so I decided to just walk around and enter in the normal way (since my corral B number would allow me). When I tried to find him in Corral C, I couldn't! I looked all through Corral B (in case he hopped another one), through B and C. I didn't know what to do or where to go. We had no way to contact one another.

Finally, I went up to Corral B and waited off to the side. The starting fireworks went off, and Corrals A and B were released in the first wave. I stood by the right side of the road hoping to see him but didn't see him in the first wave. I was starting to feel desperate.

The second wave, Corral C & D, moved up and the 2:45 pace leader came through. Should I go with them and hope he catches up? I didn't want to cross the starting line apart. I kept scanning the crowd. About 1 min before the second wave was released, I spotted him coming up the right side. I was so relieved to see him. While I had gone around the corral to meet him, he got caught by the Corral police who promptly sent him back to Corral F. Before the start, he managed to sneak up to Corral D with the second wave - then moved up when they moved up. We were all set to start together!

The race went really well. We ran our race - 5 min run 1 min walk - right from the start. We kept our eye out for the 2:45 pace group and eventually passed them. We made one pit stop just before the Magic Kingdom. Jim was pretty anxious to run faster but I had to keep telling him to hold back...many more miles tomorrow!

We finished in 2:39:42, a PR for hubby and a Disney Half course PR for me. We collected our medal, had our orange Goofy band removed and received our blue Goofy band. When we turn the Blue one in after completing the marathon, we will get our Goofy medal.

I have a few video clips I took during today's race which I will post in my next post. Time to massage and relax for tomorrow morning!