2010 WDW Marathon Weekend: Part 3 - The Half Marathon

Saturday's half marathon had the most amazing weather I have ever run in. Here we were in Florida and the forecast called for temps around 30 deg with chance of SNOW, sleet and rain. Add to that a wind of 10-15 mph and you have one cold, wet party.

That morning my husband and I thanked our lucky stars we bought the Runner's Retreat package. Since we wanted to get to Epcot early to get good parking, it was nice to know we had a warm, dry place to hang out until it was time to go to the corral. We arrived at the Epcot parking area at 3:30 am. As I stepped out of our parked car, I could swear I pulled a shoulder muscle shivering!

We made our way to the race retreat where we had a bagel with peanut butter and some hot tea and hot cocoa. After making our final preparations, we checked our bag at the bag check in the race retreat tent, used the porta lets for the retreat, and headed out into the cold.

My race garb for the half included a long sleeve tech shirt, my MCM running jacket / shell, tights and running capris. I also had gloves and a knit cap. For the corral I sported my fashionable garbage bag. Jim and I met Maddy near the baggage check and headed over to the corrals together. Since Jim had not trained for the past couple of months, his plan was to walk the race. Maddy and I decided to run the half together - taking it nice and easy to save ourselves for the marathon the next day.

It was a wet run through the parks. Early on I did not notice snow flurries, but I did feel the sting of sleet on my face and occasionally in my eye. I was very glad that I didn't follow my typical routine to wear contacts for the race. My eyes would have been totally exposed to the sleet. When it wasn't sleeting, it was raining - pretty much the entire race.

Maddy and I ran the entire half marathon together, chatting the entire way. It was really cool because it felt like the race just flew by. We ran, we took walking breaks, and just enjoyed the time.

We cross the finish line together at 2:35:02. Incredibly for me that was a course PR!

After the run, Maddy got her knees iced as a precaution and then we headed over to the bag check area for her to get her bags. There was quite a line and the process probably took over 30 minutes. Meanwhile, the heat that our body generated on the run had disappeared and even the mylar blankets could not keep us warm. I waited politely with Maddy until she got under the tent area, then headed back to the runner's retreat for a warm dry place, dry clothes, and a hot meal! They offered scrambled eggs, potatoes, fruit and warm drinks! It was to die for!

By the time I had changed clothes and checked on Jim's time, he had already finished in 3:15! I called him and found I was sitting 2 tables away from him in the retreat tent. We finished eating and headed home. 2 days down and one left to go!