26.2 Miles Later...

I did it! I crossed the finish line of my first (and possibly last) full marathon. (Yeah, I know - I say that now.)

I think one of the most amazing things (besides actually being able to see and cross the finish line) was that I did it all with only one pit stop during the race at Mile 9, without another one until I got back to my hotel room after the marathon. We're talking almost 6 hours without a pee break. Considering the amount of water and Power Ade that I drank at each station, and the fact that it was freezing-ass COLD out there, that's nothing short of miraculous!

All in all, I held up pretty well physically. Some minor annoyances like a small blister at the bottom of my little toe that started at around Mile 23, and my left knee started to bother me a little bit after Mile 10, probably due to the pitch in the road. Mentally was another story altogether. There were some long stretches of highway walking - particularly between the starting line at EpCot and the Magic Kingdom. On the plus side, they were flat. On the minus side, they were B-O-R-I-N-G! They were also just a bit windy in spots. Just a bit. I think my worst stretch mentally and physically was between miles 18-24, especially between miles 20-21! (Those of you who were there know what I mean:-) My best miles pace-wise were miles 1-10.

My best miles mentally were miles 24-26.2, when one of my coaches met me and walked through EpCot's World Showcase with me as far as mile 26. It was like strolling through my "home away from home" at Disney. The best part (aside from crossing the Finish Line) was having an unplanned cheering section made up of my friends, the fabulous and wonderful World Showcase Players, who were starting a show right as I passed the United Kingdom pavillion. That was AWESOME!!! Talk about perfect timing!

More to follow a bit later (because there's SO MUCH more great stuff to tell), but I wanted to write at least this much down before I forgot it all. It was a great experience!

I DID IT!!!

I DID IT!!!

Less Than 10 Days to Go!

I can't believe it's almost here! After all this training and fund raising, the day of reckoning is quickly approaching.

I've already started packing for the trip, although I'll probably re-pack and re-organize my stuff several times between now and when I actually leave for the airport. My race day clothes are picked out and ready to put in my carry-on, along with a backup outfit just in case. My Disney park pass "will call" confirmation is printed out in triplicate, and with copies stored in my wallet, my carry-on and my suitcase, again "just in case". I've printed out two copies of my marathon waiver, packed my iPod charger and Blackberry charger, and am charging up my camera batteries as I type this. My plan is to take both my iPod Nano and iPod Shuffle with my Nike+ Sportband as my "Plan B".

I know I've over-packed some clothes, and I'll be narrowing them down within the next few days, so that I have two outfits for each day of my trip - one warm weather outfit, and one for chillier weather. I have a set of "dispose-a-clothes" to wear in the chillier early-morning temps on race day while I wait for the race to start. I have a checklist a half a mile long to make sure I don't forget anything. I think I'll relax once I'm actually in the airport with the rest of my team!

I'm Not a WIMP!!! I'm a ...

SERIOUS BAD-ASS!!!
(and quite modest about it, too, as you can see:-)

Things I learned today:

• AccuWeather is definitely less-than-Accu-Weather! It was nowhere a "real feel" of 9 degrees this morning! Fortunately, it actually felt warmer than it did last night!
• If you do the absolutely most hated, "I can't deal with this" part of your training workout first, everything else is downhill - in some cases quite literally!
• One reverse upper loop up the West Side of Central Park in the freezing cold makes you a bad-ass. Two reverse upper loops up the West Side of Central Park in the freezing cold makes you a SERIOUS BAD-ASS! The added bonus is that nothing else in the park is anywhere near as torturous and the rest of the workout is a piece of cake!
• Even after walking over 14 miles, I am still faster than half the tourists on Fifth Avenue! Holy crap, those people walk SLOW! Amazingly, I did not mow anyone down, although I came close on more than one occasion.

My walk coach, Barb, was very helpful during my "meltdown moment" yesterday. The "staying in the park instead of going up Riverside to the Little Red Lighthouse" idea was a good one and it really worked out well for me. It went so well, that instead of my usual walk to the subway station at Fifth Avenue and West 59th, I walked all the way down to Fifth Avenue and West 42nd Street! Total miles on my pedometer at the end of it all was...

17.25 miles!!!

Another interesting by-product of all this is that "The Great Broccoli Mystery", which I originally wrote about here has been SOLVED!!! It grows on the trees in the area! No joke! If you look at the picture below, you can see round objects on the tree branches in the lower left, and upper middle sections. (They're a bit larger up close - about the size of a tennis ball.)

Those aren't nuts or apples or cherries. They are broccoli-like things that are look like the thing in the center of this picture:


Had we not been doing a reverse loop this morning, we might never have solved the mystery!

I'm Being a Wimp, Not a Bad-ass

I think I've probably hit the worst part of my training, at least mentally.

I am freaking out, in tears and panicking about doing a 16-17 mile walk tomorrow in the freezing cold. I don't think it's about the weather or the distance, though. I think it's more of a mental thing. I've e-mailed one of my coaches for suggestions. In the meanwhile, I'll write about it here so that at least I can get it out of my head and onto "paper".

I am scared to death about getting through tomorrow's long walk. We're supposed to walk up Riverside to the Little Red Lighthouse and back, and then some. It's supposed to be 26 degrees out at 8:00 AM, with a "real feel" of 9 degrees! After my 9/11 volunteering, and my more recent trip down the West Side Highway and back last week, I know it feels about 10 degrees colder along the water and it's usually really windy. But, at least walking down the West Side Highway is familiar. I know where things like clean restrooms are. I have no familiarity with walking up Riverside. I also know that, as a walker, chances are I'll be walking at least part of the way back alone. So, the thought of being in unfamiliar territory, in the freezing cold all by myself is kind of scary. I don't think the thought of doing it would bother me as much if the weather was warmer. The combination of the two, though, is more than a bit intimidating and overwhelming. We have the option of doing our miles in the park, which may be what I'll end up doing if no one else is going to be walking up Riverside and back with me.

The other thing that's overwhelming me a bit is the thought of then having to commute back home in the cold. I have a change of clothes packed, so I have something warm and dry to change into once I'm done, but I think I'm having flashbacks from last weekend, when I was wet and chilled to the bone and waiting for a bus in the rain. I didn't get really warm and dry for over 2 hours after the actual walk was over. I really don't want to go through that again. I think being chilled and cold on the trip home is worrying me more than being cold during the actual 16 mile walk, if that makes any sense.

Like I said, I'm being a wimp, not a bad-ass right now:-) I'll survive, I'm sure. Nothing I could possibly face in the Walt Disney World Marathon next month could ever be this bad weather-wise!