2011 Disney World Half Marathon from a Spectator point of view! Marathon Weekend Recap Part 2

Incase you missed it, here's a link to my Marathon Weekend Recap Part 1 - The Health and Fitness Expo! :0)

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I made plans to meet up with Jenn the morning of the Half because we both had friends running and we wanted to cheer them on. Yes it was early and yes I’m crazy for getting up that early the morning before my Marathon to cheer people on. I know how much it means to me when people are there cheering me on so I wanted to do that in return. Do unto others as they say! :0)

With all of that said, I was still kind of indecisive of what I wanted to do. Do I miss the opportunity and stay in bed and sleep? Do I go anyway and not worry about sleep? Decisions Decisions! Well, I went to bed at a decent time that night…..and I set all of my alarms so I could get up and get going.

I wasn’t planning on arriving before the race started. I just wanted to be on a bus before 5 a.m. when they shut down the roads! I washed and flat ironed my hair the night before (thank GOD that I did that otherwise, I’d have never made it)! At 4 a.m., my alarm went off. I got up and I …… turned OFF my alarm! I fell back asleep and had a dream that Jenn text me and told me I missed the last bus so oh well. I jerked up and realized it was 4:36 a.m. Holy cow I wanted to be on a bus by 4:45 a.m. I’m telling you, I have NEVER gotten ready that fast in my life! I jumped out of bed, threw on my clothes, got ready as fast as I could and I was out the door!

Thankfully, there were buses waiting! I got on and we sat for a few more minutes….I realized that by this point, it was 5 a.m. Finally we started driving and of course, the roads were closed. Our bus driver got the run around several times - one person working the roads would tell him to go across the parking lot to another road, then he would get stopped and they would tell him to turn around. What a huge mess! Finally, he let us off in the MK parking lot and we walked to the TTC. It wasn’t far. The TTC was where I was planning on starting off anyway so it worked out perfectly!

Around 5:15 a.m., a poor girl with a race number pinned to her shirt came speed walking through the TTC carrying a banana. She was trying to get on the monorail. Must have woken up late…I definitely felt sorry for her!

Another guy came running through trying to get to monorail. By this point, it was like 5:35 a.m. and we figured the race had just started. He was trying to get to the race start. I once again felt bad for him. It reminded me to set THREE alarms the following morning. My cell, Jason’s cell, and a wake up call!

Before long, the race started and we could see flashing lights down the road. We were at mile 4 at the TTC! The first people we saw come through were the wheelchair racers!



Very inspiring. We started to tear up and commented how much of a basket case we were going to be the following day for the Full. Did I mention it was Jenn’s first Full as well?



Not far behind the wheelchair racers came the runners! They were going SO fast we could hardly keep up! It was crazy!



After the elites ran through, then came the fun people! :0)



I text Alexis back and forth telling her exactly where I was going to be! She found me because I was looking down at my camera…ugh. LOL Sorry Alexis!



After Alexis passed, we walked over to the Poly for breakfast. I had a banana and a glass of hot tea. Yumm! We waited outside the Poly for a while and watched all the crazy runners dressed in costumes!



This made me cry…for real. His shirt said “Proud Dad” and her said “Daddy’s Girl”! Awww!



This was a Dalmatian and Cruella! Too funny!



The Flamingos were out there on Sunday as well!



She saw me taking a picture so she smiled! :0)



Woody, Bullseye, and Jessie!



There's Alexis again! By this point, she didn't look excited anymore! I so remembered that feeling and I knew it was getting hot and we were standing at mile 8. I told her that she had this thing and she was almost done! She did awesome!!!! :0)



Here’s Jenn and I! Awesome Half Marathon spectator cheerleaders! :0)



And just because we were all decked out in our Saints gear (even though we lost), here’s a few “Who Dat’s” in Epcot! :0)



Up next: Full Marathon Recap!!!