The Goofy Challenge - my race-cation part 2!

Well, we made it! Here we are the morning of the Walt Disney World full marathon!

I’d love to tell you I got a wonderful night’s sleep but that is definitely not true. Between the nerves and excitement, there wasn’t much in me to fall asleep at a reasonable time like I was hoping. That said, this is why I always stress that it’s more important to focus on sleep the week BEFORE the race rather than the night before. Even without traveling, you most likely won’t sleep well the night before a big race. There’s just too much to think about. After the half marathon, we had lunch at the Grand Floridian Cafe, walked around Disney Springs and tried to get sleepy around 6pm.

My friend, Lauren, was able to come with me to the start to drop me off. She waited for me to make my way to the corrals, slept a little in the car and then took the monorail to Magic kingdom so she could see me run down Main Street but more on that later.

Like I said in my part 1 recap, the procedure for getting to the race is different so we were able to get this magical view of the finish line as we walked up.

One reason I love runDisney is that you’re never alone. I was able to sit with some friends in the corral that I’ve made through Instagram and chat, share war stories and talk out our nerves. Due to the heat, they kept reminding us that we needed to take it easy and stay as hydrated as possible. Also because of the heat warning, they got us started so quickly we barely had any time between corrals! We were in S4 and were off and running by 5:05am.

This marathon course changed this year which to be honest, I didn’t love. The new course takes you out and around the freeway until about mile 3, you circle back into World Showcase which was pretty but then you make it back out and at mile 4 you’re passing the start line again. It was a letdown to see all of that again to be honest, when I start running I want to get away and get some miles as fast as possible, I don’t need to feel like I’m starting over again! Miles 4-10 we are making our way to Magic Kingdom and watching the gorgeous sunrise. I was so THRILLED to know my friend was waiting for me, it almost made it seem like if I could make it to mile 10, I was almost done.

From what I could tell, it was pretty easy for Lauren to meet up with me, do some shopping, ride some rides at opening and then make her way back to Epcot for me to finish.

When I left MK, I was trying to be in a good headspace that this race was almost done, even though I was already feeling some aches and pains. There’s your first fuel stop around mile 8 for some honey stinger chews and your first banana stop at mile 13, so they do a good job of breaking it up every few miles. I think the hardest part for me is the time it takes to go from MK to Animal Kingdom. You’re in a sort of in this haze of just getting miles over with and trying to not think so much. I was happily surprised that the heat wasn’t too bad before we reached AK. I feel like Animal Kingdom is always blazing HOT no matter what day or what you’re doing so I was grateful to feel ok. There’s a second banana stop once you leave Animal Kingdom as you’re hitting mile 18. Let me tell you…that entire mile I was running thinking “I just have to get to mile 20 and this is almost over, almost to mile 19 right now.” When all along I wasn’t at mile 18 already, but 17. The MISERY I felt in that realization, haha. But, it’s ok I kept moving along.

The hardest part of every marathon is making it through the dreaded 18-21 miles. Let’s be honest, you’re over it. It feels like you’ve been doing this for too long, you’re hurting, you’re tired and you really want some mickey waffles. My best advice is to give a call to a friend or partner who can pep you up or at least distract you until you get to Hollywood Studios at mile 22. There’s a chocolate stop by Tower of Terror that I feel is hit or miss. It seems to be whatever left over Halloween candy they had and one year we did in fact get candy corn m&ms. When I was reaching Epcot and getting some encouraging texts, I knew that soon this would be over and the happy selfie was coming.

The only goal and promise I set for myself during a race is to have fun and not spend my time stressed about how I’m doing. You’ll look back and remember the sights and the feeling, but never your time. Keep one foot in front of the other and tell yourself that you’re amazing!