39 miles… in my own words PART II/ The Donald (the Duck, not that other guy who fires people)
3:15 Saturday morning… time to get out of bed. Many who know me have heard me say it. Whenever I see 3:15 on a clock I feel like it’s God telling me He’s watching me. I made sure 3:15 was the time I saw on the clock when I got up (maybe it was cheating because I set it up that way, but hey! It works for me… and for those wondering why 3:15 it’s because 3/15 was the day God sent me head first into this world… literally!!)
So, I was now getting myself ready. Many layers of clothing… check. My shot blocks and supplements… check. D-tag on correctly… check. Bib… check. Newly glued Jesus porcelain thingy… check. It seemed I had everything. Still, after yesterday I wasn’t taking any chances. I tripled checked everything to make sure I hadn’t forgotten anything. I got a wake up call from Javi to make sure I didn’t oversleep. I was awake. I was good. He mentioned it was clear out. I reminded him that it wasn’t 3:30 I was worried about. It was 5:30 and I wasn’t taking any chances. I had to make a stop before getting to the race area. I was going to CVS. I was going to get trash bags. I didn’t have a raincoat, and I was looking for a cheap way to stay dry. I stopped at CVS at just before 4 and got myself a 20 pack (the smallest they had). I figure I’d share with my comrades and that I’d bring the rest home work their original purpose. While there I also decided that it was a good time to replace my dog eaten shades. (I’m not sure if I had mentioned I replaced the shades in my other blog… if I did, now you know exactly when I replaced them)
I drove into Disney World at just after 4 am only to find a HUGE delay. Apparently they wanted everybody coming in single file (why I still don’t know) and took a LONG while for me to get to the race site in EPCOT. Fortunately, I got a great parking space. I parked, grabbed three garbage bags and started to walk to the waiting area. Three steps into my walk it began. The rain. No time to waste. I began putting on the trash bag. I cut a smole hole on the top before trying to stuff my head through it to prevent from looking like Ace Ventura coming out of the rhinoceros in When Nature Calls. I didn’t want to unnecessarily scare any children. I got the bag on, and then it heat me… the EXTREME cold. The thermometer in my car had told me it was 34 degrees, but only now was I beginning to feel it. I got all the way to waiting area and called my partners, Roly and Javi, to see where they were. We found each other easily enough thanks to a large Cigna Health Care balloon right smack in the middle of the waiting area for the runners. Javi arrived with a little present for me… a white, disposable lab coat he had brought from USF. Another layer to wear until we were ready for the race. It made for an interesting look really. I took off the bag, put on the coat and put the bag back on. It was still raining and it was cold! Roly pulled out the running gloves he had gotten for me at DC, and my getup was complete. The three of us started making our way to our Corrals.
The corrals for the races at Disney are a nice little 20 minute walk away from where we were. This was actually good because it helped to start warming us up. We got to our corral and then we had to wait… for about 30 minutes… in the rain… for the race to start. That’s when things changed slightly. The rain turned to snow. In Orlando. Let me repeat… s n o w i n O r l a n d o. What was up with that?!?!? I must say, it wasn’t too bad. One, it was less wet coming down than rain. Two, the warmth of so many people around us I think helped keep us warmer than if we were in a completely open area. It was cool being with Roly and Javi waiting there. It was like we had gone back in time 20 years to when we were all in the Encuentros Juveniles together, and not like now, three grown men, fathers to 10 children altogether, and living in three different cities who had actually kick-started the friendships once again (particularly in my case) thanks to Facebook. I definitely would not have been running with either one of them if we hadn’t started communicating on FB. Pretty cool.
The race started getting closer to starting and we decided it was time to start shedding some clothes. Truth is that once you get started you warm up pretty quickly. I had already decided earlier in the week that I was going to run Saturday in shorts, and so I took off the warmups I had taken, knowing well that once I tossed them they were going to wind up in the hands of someone in need of clothing. I initially tied them around my neck to keep that area warm until the race began. The first wave of runners was sent a full ten minutes before we got to start, but we did begin to move closer to the start. It was right about now that the little bit of snow falling started sharing its air space with sleet. I had never seen sleet before. Roly was nice enough to point it out to me. He also told me how this was good news. Sleet doesn’t make you wet. It just bounces off of you like little pebbles. It seemed harmless enough and in the long run, it really was. Then the race began.
Now the race itself was relatively uneventful. It was really cool beginning by EPCOT, but we didn’t actually go in yet. We ran out through the entrance where you pay for parking at around mile marker two. During these first two miles, I first shed my warmups that I was wearing as a cape. I then shed the trash bag, as did Javi. The two of us now looked like a couple of cold mad scientists running among a large mob… kind of like Dr. Frankenstein and Igor trying to run among those chasing them trying to look inconspicuous. Eventually we lost the lab coats too, and we just looked like Florida boys running in the cold (yes you could tell the difference). By mile marker 6 we were getting close to the Magic Kingdom. The three of us were still running together, and we were looking for cameras. You need to do this because if not they’ll take a picture of you while you have your mouth open or wiping your nose, or most embarrassing of all in a race… walking!!! Well, I wasn’t going to walk, but the others were a distinct possibility, so we all ran ready to pose (the cameramen in general didn’t cooperate with us.) Running down Main Street is pretty cool. I got a rush while running there with everybody yelling and screaming and cheering you on there. We all continued running first through Tomorrowland, then through Fantasyland, then through Cinderella’s castle where they’re supposed to get a really cool picture of you (mine sucked), then through Liberty Square, Frontierland, and then out of the park. It was a neat little run there that I would duplicate again the next day. Shortly after this little section is when staying together began to get a little tougher. Roly started falling back a little. We kept looking back to try to stay all together (Javi and I weren’t in a hurry to finish fast because we were pacing ourselves for day 2), but little by little we separated. Then in one of my attempts to locate Roly, Javi turned back to look and felt a twinge in his groin area. Not good. He told me what happened and then started worrying not so much about this run (we were 8 miles in) but about the next day’s. He decided he needed to stretch it out a little so we picked up the pace a bit, and in turn lost Roly. Well, the faster pace seemed to help Javi, so we stuck to it. And then I realized that I was feeling good at this faster pace myself. So much so I found myself continuosly speeding up little by little. Javi kept reminding me about day 2, but I just felt sooo good. When we got to mile 11 we saw a small climb up ahead, and I decided to push. At this point Javi and I looked at each other and decided, what the hell, if we’re feeling good, let’s just go for it, and we kicked it up a notch. The sleet was still falling, but honestly at this point it wasn’t even an issue. I felt awesome. We kicked it as we were entering EPCOT right before the 12 mile marker, and “Whoop, There It Is!” was blaring through the speakers. This got me even more pumped!! I took off and Javi followed, then passed me, and I knew we were going to go hard til the finish. We ran all the way to the Christmas tree where Future World meets the countries, then turned back full force. Nobody passed us at the end. We were passing everybody. As we passed Spaceship Earth we took a hard right into the final stretch. It was there just before mile marker 13 that the gospel choir was there to sing us through the last tenth of a mile… except that they all had their backs towards us trying to warm their hands in the portable electric hand warmers they had placed there for us, a reminder of how cold it really was. We finished strong and both came out with equivalent times of 2:05:41 (the clock said otherwise but remember we started in the second wave). I looked in the stands to see if I saw Roly’s or Javi’s families, and was surpised to see only about 50 people there. It was kind of sad really. Not much after, Roly came in and we could all celebrate. We got our Donald medals, and Javi and I made our way to the Goofy tent so they could give us wristbands to identify us for the Goofy race the next day. Javi and Roly called their families and found out that the roads which were supposed to have been open at 7:15 were never opened and so the spectators we were expecting were all being turned away. It sucked for them really, but for me it didn’t really make much of a difference. In a way it worked out for me because we got to celebrate together and I didn’t have to worry about being left while my buddies found their families. Looking back at that race later on and looking at our splits, I realized what a good race Javi and I had run. Every runner’s goal is to run negative splits… each set of miles faster than the previous. We accomplished that. After starting the first few miles at just under 10 minute miles, we wound up running that last almost 4 miles at right around 9 minute miles… and by my calculations, it’s possible the last mile and change was right around the 8 minute mark. Exactly what we had hoped for!
After some pics we bid adieu to Roly who was going back to his family, and Javi and I went back to out hotels to shower and get ready for breakfast (it was still around 8:15 when Roly finished). We went to Cracker Barrel with our Donald medals around our necks (dude, we earned them, right?) and had a nice breakfast. Now I was dying to rest. The truth is I didn’t sleep too much the night before. The anxiety that comes with the idea you might oversleep and miss the race and lose all that money that I had spent on THIS FRIKKING RACE!!! Sorry, lost my head a little there. Well, I was tired. Unfortunately, I had a tire to replace. So Wency with Javi and his family in tow head on over to Sam’s Club to get me two new tires (one to replace the shredded one, and one to replace my other “older” one just in case) The plan was for me to leave the car there and go hang out at Javi’s place until it was ready. I could take a nap there and relax for a while (they had a 2 bedroom suite, so there was plenty of room there) and then go pick up my car when it was ready. Well, when I ordered the tires, they told me the truck would be ready in 45 minutes. Well, if it was going to be THAT fast, then maybe I should just wait it out. Javi offered to stay with me and wait, but I told him that was ridiculous, and that his kids would get antsy waiting for me, so I sent them all on their merry way. Javi figured he would then get a massage to prep for day 2. I was jealous, but I was going to wait. Well , I walked around Sam’s club for 45 minutes (not what you want to be doing after running 13 and waiting to run 26 more). I think I saw every aisle, every bargain, every rip-off that was passed off as a bargain, and the cover of every single book being sold in the book section there. But I wasn’t ready to pick up and buy anything… this trip had already cost too much!! And then I went back to the counter to ask if my car was ready. Nobody there. So I went to the garage area to see if my car was ready… it was still sitting where I had parked it when I got there. UUUUGGGGGHHHHHH! I found a bench by the garage, sat down and just waited. I tired to take a little nap sitting there, but the bench was a bit uncomfortable. After about another hour, the car was finally done. Javi had called to check on me, and couldn’t believe my car wasn’t done. I asked how his massage went, and he told me he couldn’t get it. He told me he was starting to think I was rubbing off on him!!! (First groin, then no massage). SORRY DUDE… Job must be contagious!!
I finally went back to the hotel and decided to get a couple of hours of rest before heading out to dinner with Javi and family, and my friend Ivan (running partner number 2) and his family. I lay down in my bad with every intention of falling asleep, and despite my struggles was about to go under when the inevitable happened. There was a knock on the door. “Go Away… I’m sleeping!” “TOWELS”, was the reply. “Go Away I’m Sleeping!”
“TOWELS!” This happened two more times accompanied with more knocking. Now, I knew what was going to happen. I was going to get up, and then no matter how hard I’d try later, I wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep. I got up, went to the door and got the towels I DIDN’T need because I had towels for three in the room even though I was there alone. Then I got back in bed… and didn’t sleep. After a few hours of just lying there trying to rest my legs which actually felt great, I decided to get up. I made a few phone calls. Talked to Dania and told her how everything was going. Called Nicole (running partner number 3… had to include her, al my other running partners were accounted for that day). Called my friend Mandy to see how his birthday had been the day before, called my sister Josie to fill in her in on what was going on… in other words, I think I used ALL of my rollover minutes earned over the course of a year in one afternoon!
Not much later Ivan’s wife Yoly drives up t pick me up for dinner. Javi had found a place in Orlando with some pretty good reviews that supposedly had great pasta. We were all going to go. Please God… I don’t need another setback!! Well, no complaints here!! It was one of the best Italian places I have ever been to. A little mom and pop place where our waitress was the daughter, the hostess was the owner herself, the busboy was her son, and the chef was the other owner. The prices looked great, and the portions looked even better. And best of all the food was awesome. I carbo-loaded that night like I never had before. I ate like a king. At this point I really felt good about Sunday’s race coming up. Nothing could dampen my spirit’s. After that dinner I was READY. I went back to the hotel, got myself ready for bed, and attempted to fall asleep. Well remember how I couldn’t sleep the night before for fear of oversleeping? Well, I think I “slept” that whole night with one eye open… until 3:15am.
Part III (The Mickey is coming tomorrow… or maybe the next day)