WDW marathon (pre-race festivities)

It's time! January 8th arrives. The day I depart for Florida to run my first marathon. The past couple of months were not kind. Rib injury. IT band issues. And now snow. A lot of it. A WHOLE lot of it! Talk about not being motivated. Along with the issues, I really don't feel like running in the snow. I try to run on treadmills, but I don't do well. 3-4 miles is about all I care to do. Crap. How in the world am I going to run 26.2 miles when the farthest I've ever gone on foot was 13.1 miles? This should be interesting.

On Thursday the 7th I get a call from the airline. My morning flight has been cancelled. Really? REALLY? I'm convinced that God really does not want me to do this. Issues and now a cancelled flight. They can get me on a flight Friday afternoon though which gets me into Orlando about 9:30. I'll take it.

I arrive at the airport for my 5:35 departure. Delayed by 5 minutes. No worries. I'll hang out. Oh. What's this? Delayed by 15 minutes. Great. I'll go to the restaurant and get a little dinner. And ok, a margarita I guess too. To make an already long story only slightly shorter, we lift off about an hour late. But I make it. I'm in Orlando. Nice warm weather is outside the airport just waiting for all these runners. Ahhhh.... Sweet.

30 degrees. That's what the temperature was when I went outside the airport expecting to find nice warm weather. 30 degrees. Really? For cryin' outloud. I did NOT sign up for this crap! The cold that hit the midwest and left it's mark had invaded Orlando as well. 30 degrees. It can't get any worse. I make it to the resort and find Brian. Brian and I work together at OP. Brian was crazy enough to jump on board with the whole marathon thing. We're in Florida! Let's hit the bar! A little carb loading on Friday evening and then it's time to hit the sack. Surely the weather will be warmer tomorrow.

Sleet and rain. Holy crap. It's sleeting in Florida. Saturday morning greeted the 1/2 marathoners with a gift of moisture in the form of ice pellets slamming into eyeballs. I don't believe it. It's seriously this cold in Florida? Seriously? For cryin' out loud. I guess I better rethink this thing as the shorts I brought are probably not going to be the best thing to run in!

Lynn, Brian and I jump a bus and head to the marathon expo. Ooops. Wrong bus. But the friendly driver, who'd been up since about 3 am and still needed to go to Clearwater for another pick up, gave us a ride to the expo. We meet Kelly and Kelly at the expo and hear about the 1/2 marathon that they both did that morning. Cripes. I'm glad I didn't have to run that! Brrrr!! But I am scheduled to run tomorrow. Better get me some long pants. I check the expo. Apparently 50,000 other people had the same idea. Everyone was sold out of running tights. Kelly had rented a car and drove us up to the Nike outlet where I found a pair of 2XL. A little long. A little bit roomy around the waist. But warmer than shorts! I'll take 'em!

That night I line my stuff up. I put the tag on my shoe. I put the number on my running belt. I'm actually going to do this. I'm going to get up at the butt crack of dawn and attempt to run 26.2 miles. OK, maybe actually running the entire 26.2 is out, but I'm at least going to try to finish 26.2 under my own power. I really don't want to reach the finish line via ambulance! Time for bed. It's 7 pm.