Where do I start?
If you had ever told me I could have so much fun while running, I probably would have said you were crazy. But this race was so much fun I immediately wanted to do it again.
Crazy, right?
We arrived in Orlando on Friday and immediately went to packet pickup. Unlike the long, winding lines we encountered in 2010, packet pickup was pretty empty so we were able to sail through the lines with ease and head over to the expo.
Where I perfected my running pose.
By that point it was well after lunch and we were all hungry, so we hopped a cab to Downtown Disney for some Earl of Sandwich and a little bit of shopping until our room was ready. Earl was boasting a special holiday turkey sandwich, and since it didn’t have any dairy on it I thought it sounded like the perfect choice for a pre-race day meal. Turkey? Good. Stuffing? Good. Cranberry sauce? Goooooooood.
(No, it didn’t taste like feet!)
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| We have this thing where we take pictures eating sandwiches. Just sandwiches. I don't know either. Blame The Hat. |
Finally our room at Old Key West was ready so we went back, unpacked and relaxed until our dinner reservations at Via Napoli in Epcot’s Italy Pavilion. The only dairy free entrée option there was spicy seafood pasta, which was just okay, but I had filled up on salad and bread anyway. We had just started to leave the restaurant when I started noticing the war going on in my stomach.
(Note: I just want to mention that I don’t think it was Via Napoli that made me sick. I don’t know what did, but if I had to guess it was the {incredibly tasty} sandwich at Earl, seeing as both my mom and I ate that sandwich and both started getting sick at the same time. Just wanted to clarify so people didn’t start swearing off Via Napoli. Or Earl, for that matter. I’d still eat at Earl. Maybe just not the day before a race.)
I didn’t even make it out of Epcot before I got sick the first time. After a very uncomfortable bus ride back to the resort, the rest of my evening was spent in the bathroom. Not exactly the way I had planned to spend the night before the race. Sometime after 11pm, I convinced myself that there couldn’t possibly be anything left in my stomach so I forced myself to go to bed. 2:30 was going to come very early. I lay in bed and listened to my stomach rage and wondered if I have to DNF or even DNS.
The alarm went off and my stomach was still gurgling. Thankfully I remembered that we had some meds in our toiletry bag for just such an occasion so I took two and prayed for the best. I also realized that my hydration levels were probably low from being sick so I needed to take more liquids on the course than I normally do. At that point, there was little I could do but keep moving and hope for the best.
I got dressed and debuted my costume for the family.
Just putting on my running costume/outfit lifted my spirits by miles. I was excited and secretly hoped the adrenaline would push me through and distract me from my ills. I shoved down my planned pre-race meal of PB toast and Sugar Free Red Bull (“it gives you wings!”) and promptly at 3:30 I was shouting everyone out the door to head to the Hospitality House to catch our bus to the start.
After about 15 minutes of waiting in a very long line, two buses arrived and we loaded up and began to make the very long, roundabout way into Epcot (since the usual route was blocked for the race).
I've heard various rumors - that there was an accident; that there were trucks that had to get into Epcot and can only go via one route; what really happened, I don't know - what I do know is that it was almost 5:00am we were still stuck in traffic.
I started to freak out.
Bag check was closing. We should have already been in our corrals.
I knew I should have made everyone wake up earlier.
Part 2 coming soon!
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