Stephanie Peteraf's Disney Marathon Report

I was feeling very sick on Thursday due to a bad cold, and when I went to bed I had my doubts about the marathon. However, as each day passed by I felt better and better, and by Sunday I had only a slight cough and sniffle.

Saturday night I tossed and turned until around 2:00am and my alarm went off at 2:45am. I walked to the breakfast feeling excited, enjoying the warm weather that would later burden me, and taking in the view of Coronado Springs at night, which was beautiful.

After a quick breakfast, the group boarded the bus and got to the marathon start around 4:15am. After stretching, a long port-o-potty wait, and a long walk to the start I only had about 20 minutes to go till the 6:00am start when I walked into the corral. I went to Corral E (the slowest) even though I was scheduled for corral A, because I wanted to run with a friend from Joints in Motion at the start.

This was a mistake because I could not find him and my place in the back lead to a very slow start for me. The crowd was huge and it was really hard to work my way through the mob of walkers and runners. I would compare it to the first mile of Broad Street for about 5 miles. Weaving, stopping and starting, etc, lead to a pace of about 12 min/mile for the first 3-4 miles.

After 3 miles we entered EPCOT and wound around the World Showcase, which was breathtaking. It was completely dark, but all the worlds were lit up including a globe in the center of the lake we ran around. I enjoyed the beautiful sights and music playing and was sad to leave it after less than a mile inside. At that point I told myself, "OK, only 7 miles to Magic Kingdom".

It was dark until around 7:00am (about mile 5 for me, it took me 10 minutes to get to the starting line) and I could already feel the temperature rapidly climbing. I had to stop and stretch frequently, starting at mile 5 and every 2-3 miles afterwards. My legs were tight and feet were tired but I was still in great spirits when we hit Magic Kingdom around mile 10.

The entrance to the park was thrilling. Family members and friends crowded around a huge walkway entering the park and everyone was cheering, clapping, and holding signs. Several people cheered me on by my name because it was written on my shirt. Going through Magic Kingdom was a lot of fun. Disney tunes played and we ran through Cinderella's caste and ran through several areas of the park. I saw my favorite ride, Splash Mountain.

We left the park around mile 11 and weaved around the course to the half marathon finish. I heard my joints in Motion Coordinator and a few others from the group cheering me on and it lifted my spirits. I hit the halfway point on pace to run 4:40. I was happy that I had managed to pick up the pace enough that my slow start wouldn't kill my time. I was still doing well, and I was looking forward to seeing my boyfriend Ed in only 5 short miles in Animal Kingdom.

Those miles were getting tough, as there was not much to look at and the heat was steadily rising. Around mile 16 I started to get excited, and I eagerly looked for the entrance to Animal Kingdom where Ed was supposed to be close to where we enter on the left. We finally entered the park around 16.5 and I looked for Ed the whole time. I started to realize that there weren't many spectators and worried if he could not come in the park because it didn't open until 9. I told him to get there by 8:30 so maybe he left?

As I left Animal Kingdom I was very disheartened despite the peptalks I was giving myself. I grabbed a water and stretched for a while and downed some goo and then decided to start up again as I finished my goo and water. We weaved around the outside of Animal Kingdom and I started to see a large crowd of spectators- and finally close to mile 18 I saw Ed. He was cheering me on and took my picture (which looked fabulous of course) and I told him I'd see him soon at the finish.

With my spirits revived I focused on making it to mile 20 figuring once I got to that point I had it made. I still felt ok until about mile 21, where the fatigue really started to kick in. Someone announced, "2 miles to Magic Kingdom", which got me excited because I knew after that it was the boardwalk hotel, then to EPCOT, then the finish. Disney volunteers and others such as a young group of cheerleaders continued to cheer my on by name. This kept me going and smiling and waving at the crowd.

Miles 21-23 were extremely tough. It was very hot and the course was up and back on a black-top highway. My focus was wavering but I new MGM was on the horizon. A little after 23 we entered the park and volunteers and visitors both cheered us on. We left the park before 24 and were making our way over to the Boardwalk hotel. At this point I was breathing very hard and exhausted. The temperature was about 80 degrees and I, along with everyone else, was making very frequent PowerAde and water stops.

As we entered the boardwalk hotel I was thinking that 2 miles has never felt so long before. Pretty soon we left and made our way into EPCOT at mile 25 and once again around the World Showcase, this time in the other direction. I knew Ed was waiting at Mexico, and as I glanced across the lake to see Mexico it looked like an eternity away. I focused to put one foot in front of the other- this time not enjoying the scenery of the World Showcase quite as much.

At Mexico I waved to Ed and continued to plod along. I tried to think of my friend Adriana, who I was running in honor of. I tried to tell myself that my momentary discomfort was nothing compared to her daily struggles, and this helped put things in perspective a little bit. As we left EPCOT I picked up the pace a tiny bit and felt my body react badly. I longed to see the finish but it was out of sight. With less than a half mile left someone yelled, "Only a mile to go!" and I almost died thinking that they were right, but fortunately they were not.

I was never so happy to leave EPCOT as I was that day. We passed mile 26 and I picked up my pace a tiny bit. I wanted to finish in under 4:40. As I finally saw the finish line the announcer was urging people to sprint to the finish, which I did for a few steps. I paid for it in my typical post-race queasiness but that was ok. My finish time was 4:38 which works out to about a 10:38 pace per mile. I finished 2,788 out of about 7,700 (about 10,000 starters).

After the race my feet were hurting more than they ever have before, and all I wanted to do was sit down. I tried to sit down several times and could not- my quads were shot and I couldn't lower myself into a sitting position! But, I got my Mickey Medal, some water, and was really happy and felt very emotional when I saw Ed as he caught up to me and handed me the phone to talk to my Mom so I could tell her I made it.

It was a really tough challenge but I'm glad I did it. I'm still sore and I hurt my right foot pretty bad but I'll be back to running when I'm able to. Overall I felt really proud that I finished and grateful that I was healthy enough to participate.

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