Why is a gay pirate riding a dragon?
So, I finished my marathon. Or, to put it in Kelsey's terms, this means I can stop complaining about the marathon.
...well, not quite yet. As soon as I finish this post.
As I'm sure you know by now, I did the Disney Marathon at Disney World in Orlando. Of all the races I've ever been in (and I've been in a few), this was by far the most organized, well-run race. Buses ran on time, water stations were well-stocked, there were more than enough volunteers. Overall, the race was very "Disney." At the start, they said there was some form of entertainment every half mile. There were marching bands, characters, singers, DJs, skits. Even Cirque de Soleil had a stop where they were doing acrobatics on trampolines. On top of that, there was a petting zoo at Mile 20ish (who puts a petting zoo in a race?). Regardless, the race was a lot of fun. You run through all four theme parks (EPCOT twice), and you really run through the parks--you see at least half of each park on your tour. This becomes a problem later on when they open the parks to the public, but fortunately they did a good job of controlling the crowds.
My performance in my first marathon was...adequate. I finished in a little over 5 hours. Overall, my goal was just to finish. The time limit was 7 hours, and if I had taken 6:59:59 to finish the race, I would have been happy. But, even though I said this to everyone, I still wanted to break 4:30. Alas, an knee problem prevented that. I ran a good pace through mile 16, when I couldn't take the pain in my knees anymore. So, I ran/walked the rest of the race. By the end, my knees were so stiff, I was really just shuffling. But, I finished! And that's more than 99.6% of the American population can say (seriously between 0.1% and 0.4% of the U.S. populace has completed a marathon).
As far as I know, I'm the only scuba-diving, bobsledding, marathoning, triathlete-economist in the world. So suck on that!
P.S. The finisher's medal is quite delightful...and giant--about the size of my hand.
...well, not quite yet. As soon as I finish this post.
As I'm sure you know by now, I did the Disney Marathon at Disney World in Orlando. Of all the races I've ever been in (and I've been in a few), this was by far the most organized, well-run race. Buses ran on time, water stations were well-stocked, there were more than enough volunteers. Overall, the race was very "Disney." At the start, they said there was some form of entertainment every half mile. There were marching bands, characters, singers, DJs, skits. Even Cirque de Soleil had a stop where they were doing acrobatics on trampolines. On top of that, there was a petting zoo at Mile 20ish (who puts a petting zoo in a race?). Regardless, the race was a lot of fun. You run through all four theme parks (EPCOT twice), and you really run through the parks--you see at least half of each park on your tour. This becomes a problem later on when they open the parks to the public, but fortunately they did a good job of controlling the crowds.
My performance in my first marathon was...adequate. I finished in a little over 5 hours. Overall, my goal was just to finish. The time limit was 7 hours, and if I had taken 6:59:59 to finish the race, I would have been happy. But, even though I said this to everyone, I still wanted to break 4:30. Alas, an knee problem prevented that. I ran a good pace through mile 16, when I couldn't take the pain in my knees anymore. So, I ran/walked the rest of the race. By the end, my knees were so stiff, I was really just shuffling. But, I finished! And that's more than 99.6% of the American population can say (seriously between 0.1% and 0.4% of the U.S. populace has completed a marathon).
As far as I know, I'm the only scuba-diving, bobsledding, marathoning, triathlete-economist in the world. So suck on that!
P.S. The finisher's medal is quite delightful...and giant--about the size of my hand.