WDW Marathon Relay Jan. 2012

Writing all of these race reports is exhausting! Almost as exhausting as training for a half marathon (if I did silly things like train for half marathons).

Yep, that's about right.

So, anywho, here's my race recap from the WDW Marathon Relay. After taking it pretty slowly the day before, I wasn't nearly as sore as I thought I might be. Both relayers have to be at the start at the same time, so Run On The Sun and I were both on the bus at an insanely early hour for the second day in a row. I had the first leg and T had the second. Sorry, T, that you had to wait around for ETERNITY for your leg of the race!

Starting with the marathoners is a completely different experience from starting with the half marathoners. While all of the Disney races have a lot of excitement, the marathon is more serious. Less costumes and less chatter.

I was actually nervous about being able to finish for the first time since the first half marathon I ran. Having never run two half marathons in one weekend was a little scary. But I still stopped to take a few pictures.

Running into Epcot

Mexico..well, Mexico in Epcot

I took this picture because I started with the back of the pack. Since we waited so long to register, I was in the last corral. I'm slow, but not THIS slow. This is only maybe 5 miles in - I could be wrong about that - and everyone was walking. Although, I do realize most of these people are doing the full 26.2, so they deserves kudos because I can't (yet!) say that I've done that.

I won't lie, it felt really good to be passing everyone...

T was bored in the little prison set up for the second leg runners and sent me pictures from the holding corral.

Kinda cool to see the finish line before anyone was there,

Poor T is freezing. And bored. And apparently making
friends with strangers that don't mind taking her picture.

Bbbbrrrrr!

I stopped to take my traditional mile 10 picture.

Believe it or not, I actually had negative splits! I was still slow, but I managed to actually gain speed, which is pretty cool. So yeah! We totally did it! Back to back half marathons. 26.2 miles in 2 days. I'll admit it: I got teary eyed when I crossed the finish line. There weren't many relay runners, so the finish area for the first leg was very quiet. T and I shared a gear bag that she was able to keep with her until her leg and I was able to pick it up with no wait.

Made some new friends!

All in all, this was a really cool experience. It was great for my self esteem to be able to pull it off. But I also got a wee bit jealous of all of the Goofy medals I saw in the parks during the vacation part of our trip!

How cute is this medal?!

So yeah. Guess who's doing the Goofy Challenge in 2013? Moi. I've also conned Run on the Sun to join me and possible my friend, A. I guess I better stop Google Image searching medals and go train a wee bit.