Posts Tagged ‘Clothing’
The title is my finish time for the 2010 Disney Half Marathon! For those of you who didn’t keep up with the weather this past weekend, the half marathon was run on Saturday. We had freezing temps, SNOW, sleet and freezing rain for the entire race. Being in “G” corral really sucked. I really didn’t have an option of moving up to a faster corral because this was the first time I’d ever run a half marathon. I had to run a lot slower than I had planned; not only because of the weather but also because I spent most of the time bobbing and weaving through the crowd.
It was a fantastic experience, though. I have to admit, while waiting in the dark and cold for the race to start, with sleet pelting off the garbage bag I was wearing, I really began to wonder what the hell I’d gotten myself into. 
The SO and 4 friends were there to cheer me on. I saw them right after the start and then again right on the corner as we turned toward Cinderella’s Castle near the halfway point. They were out there in that frigid, wet cold, yelling and screaming and holding signs that read, “RUN, CHARI, RUN!”. It made me tear up. They were waiting for me again at the finish. I actually began to cry after I elatedly jumped over the finish.
I removed my garbage bag at around mile 4 and then removed my throw-away hoodie just before I entered Cinderella’s Castle at around 6 miles. I was toasty warm and figured I didn’t need it any more. WRONG! It cooled down quickly, plus the temps kept going down because the sun wasn’t up yet.
In trying to get a pic of the castle behind me, I ended up with the above not-so-flattering photo. Oh well, it gets the point across — I was almost over halfway! My Garmin lost the satellites while running through the castle; it picked them right back up once I exited, though. My time on the Garmin was about 3 minutes faster, but I think it did a great job and it was great to have it as a resource during the run — and it’s apparently waterproof, at least to the point it was exposed to rain, sleet and snow. The iFitness belt I wore protected my cell phone perfectly. In fact, my cell was probably the only thing that didn’t get wet!
I slowed down at every aid station and made sure I drank some water even if I wasn’t thirsty. I was not going to have dehydration become an issue! I tried some Powerade along the way, but it made my stomach cramp horribly. Blech. My Clif shot bloks worked great, as did the Clif gels they gave out at around 8.7 miles.
One thing I have to pimp: my Zensa calf compression sleeves! They were awesome. My calves didn’t hurt and didn’t get cold at all. In fact, my calves stayed fresh the entire 13.1 miles. After the race, only my thighs, knees and feet were having issues. They were cramping up mostly because of the absolutely FREEZING weather. Having huge sleet smacking us as we came through the chute didn’t help much, either. We had stayed at the All-Star Movie Resort, but the lines for the buses were ridiculous. Having never done a half marathon or any race in weather like this, I didn’t think to have something warm and dry to put afterward. My lips were blue and I was shaking uncontrollably. I had the Disney space blankets they handed out and one of my friends put a rain poncho on me, but it just wasn’t cutting it. Thank goodness 2 of our friends had driven out that morning — they shoved me in their heated car and everyone began to pile sweatshirts, hats and even long johns on top of me. Everyone piled in and sandwiched me in and they kept me warm to the hotel.
At the hotel, the SO turned on a nice, hot shower and I SAT in it and stuck my legs straight up into the air to get the lactic acid out of them. The hot water felt great as it hit the bottoms of my feet. No ice bath for me, thank you very much; I’d already had one.
I wore the compression sleeves again all day yesterday on my calves. They are absolute miracles. My calves and shins feel wonderful. I had to ice my knees last night, but today only my thighs are a bit sore. I’m really happy with my physical condition. The only casualty may be one of my toe nails. My second toes are longer than my big toes and after accidentally running through a deep puddle [I said the "F" word when that happened], my feet were wet. On the downhills, my feet were apparently sliding and jamming into the toe of my shoes. I couldn’t feel it at the time; it was too cold, but later after we’d gotten home and I cleaned up, I could see that the nail on my left second toe was dark purple and it was pretty sore to the touch. So far, it’s still hanging in there so maybe it’s a keeper!
It was a fantastic experience and one I’ll always remember. Thanks to everyone involved and thanks so much to the SO and my friends — you all are the best and I love you!
If you participated in the Disney Marathon Weekend races, which one[s] did you do and what were your times?
[edited to add my medal!]
Almost forgot! Here’s my finishers’ medal!
OH! And my stats [via my Garmin]:
Distance Time Total Time Pace
1 Mi 12:57.63 12:57.63 12:58
2 Mi 12:56.83 25:54.46 12:57
3 Mi 12:50.29 38:44.75 12:51
4 Mi 13:05.92 51:50.67 13:06
5 Mi 13:09.01 1:04:59.68 13:10
6 Mi 13:57.9 1:18:57.58 13:58
7 Mi 13:32.71 1:32:30.29 13:33
8 Mi 15:34.08 1:48:04.37 15:35
9 Mi 13:06.93 2:01:11.30 13:07
10 Mi 15:48.52 2:16:59.82 15:49
11 Mi 13:11.21 2:30:11.03 13:12
12 Mi 17:01.08 2:47:12.11 17:02
13 Mi 13:15.1 3:00:27.21 13:16
0.19 Mi 1:52.88 3:02:20.09 9:55
Yesterday around 11:30am, 3 of us left from work to go pick up our packets out at the race expo at Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex. The expo opened at noon, so we figured it was a good idea to get out there early on the first day rather than wait and risk long lines on Friday. I think everyone else had the same idea… they had to queue us in roped-off areas outside, just as if we were waiting in line for a ride at the Magic Kingdom.
The weather warmed up quite a bit yesterday afternoon, up to 62F. So the long wool pea coat I was wearing soon became quite toasty, especially after we were inside. I didn’t complain at all though, because after a week or so of non-seasonable freezing temps, having sweaty armpits was positively joyful.
We went over to the Milk House and picked up our race bibs first. There, I found out I’m in Corral G. There are around five waves for the race, and I don’t know how that corresponds to corrals, but I’m assuming I’m probably in the last corral. That’s fine with me — I have no intention of attempting to set any new land speed records. My goal is to finish and to enjoy the whole experience. They had us test our D-chips, which were attached to the back of our bibs, on the way out of the building to make sure the correct name and such came up on their screens. Mine worked! In fact, it worked so well that my name came up before I even crossed the threshold; the guy in front of me said, “that’s not me!” and I yelled up, “nope — it’s me!”. They had him re-cross the threshold and his name finally came up on the monitor.
The expo was in another building, and it was PACKED. There were a lot of vendors and lots of things to look at. We all knew what we were looking for, so we synchronized our watches and set off to get our goodies. I immediately found an adidas Women’s Response Astro pant for 30% off! Then I found a nice, not-too-thick women’s running beanie and then wandered off to find the iFitness booth so I could get a belt. I wanted one that I could put my race bib on without using pins and that would hold my cell phone and gels/bloks. They had one there that had a neoprene pocket [so it's waterproof] and also had the clip tabs for race bibs, so I got that one — it was their new Ultimate Running Belt, which isn’t even up on their site yet. Then I found my co-workers and got the heck out of there before I bankrupted my savings.
We’re heading over to the All-Star Movie Resort this evening to settle in. We figured it would be easier and less stressful to be on property than to try to drive at two or three in the morning to the site, fighting traffic and trying to find a parking spot. They’ll have shuttle buses from the resort hotels out to the race site. We just have to be on the bus by 4:00am to be on time. That gives us a little more sleep time…
The news says we can expect a “wintery mix” Saturday morning at race time — whatever that means. Actually, it’s probably going to mean freezing rain, with a possibility of snow flurries. Snow flurries in Orlando means one or two little snow flakes that immediately melt once they land on anything. It’s definitely going to be interesting and quite an adventure!
If you’re participating in one or both of the races this weekend, are you staying on property or are you driving out there at zero dark thirty?
OK, now that it’s 2 days before the WDW Half Marathon, I can finally get he hour-by-hour forecast for that morning. Thus far, it’s forecasting that at 5am Saturday morning, it will be 38F and raining. It’s saying that it will be raining through the 7am hour. The temps don’t change much, but go down one degree and stay at 37F until 10:00am.
So… shorts are out, definitely.
- 55 gallon trash bag — FOR RAIN. this will be discarded once we start moving.
- Huge heather gray pull-over hoodie – FOR WARMTH. this will be discarded once we start moving.
- Huge sweat pants – FOR WARMTH. this will be discarded once we start moving.
- Survivor buff — this will cover my lower face, ears and neck and can be moved down to just around my neck.
- Long sleeve technical running shirt
- Wind shell for running that zips up over my neck
- Running gloves — I probably will not remove these.
- Running pants
- Socks (duh)
- Shoes (duh)
- Sports bra (duh)
- Cold weather running hat
- Under Armor tank — this has the Run4Olivia.org logo on it and will be worn over my wind shell. (I’m running for this charity)
- iFitness belt (thanks, Maddy) — I can put my phone, some gels, my mp3 player and my sunglasses [prescription] in this and attach my race bib to it.
I hope this will keep me warm enough. Honestly, I doubt I’ll need to remove the wind shell even after I warm up, especially if it’s raining. Even with all of this, I’m still so nervously excited!
This coming Saturday is the 2010 Walt Disney World Half Marathon. The weather forecast is showing a low for Friday night of 33 °F with a RealFeel® of 21 °F and it’s supposed to be cloudy. Did I mention it will be COLD Saturday morning? While I understand that it’s preferable to have it be cool as opposed to warm when running a half marathon, a temperature that is considered the point at which water can freeze is a wee bit uncomfortable for me and most Central Floridians. Not to mention that I have no earthly idea of what to wear… well I do sort of, but I’m still constantly going over it in my mind and changing things.
Here’s my list of things [so far] I may or may not wear on Saturday for the race:
- 55 gallon trash bag — this will be discarded once we start moving.
- Survivor buff — this will cover my lower face, ears and neck and can be moved down to just around my neck.
- Arm warmers — I can remove these later and stuff them into my waist belt; probably won’t though.
- Running gloves — I probably will not remove these.
- Calf compression sleeves — these are for calf pain, but will help with needed warmth.
- Running cap — hopefully this will assist with keeping heat from escaping via my head.
- Technical running shirt; short sleeved
- Technical running shorts — 7 inches long
- Under Armor tank — this has the Run4Olivia.org logo on it and will be worn over my regular shirt.
- FuelBelt Helium 2 bottle with a medium storage pouch — I can put my phone, some gels, my mp3 player and my sunglasses [prescription] in this.
Whether all or any of the above will keep me warm enough to be comfortable, I have no idea. It’s difficult to imagine how cold it will be and since the sun still won’t be up for at least an hour or so after the start of the race, it’ll seem even colder. Hopefully, the adrenaline and excitement of the event will keep me from noticing.
If any of you are running this weekend, either in the half mary on Saturday or the full on Sunday, are you going to take your cell phone with you? Head phones are discouraged, but not banned — so are you going to take your mp3 player along? What about hydration gear or gels — they have water and food stations along the course; will you take extra just in case?
Can you tell this is my first half marathon? ::freaks out::
Earlier on, I mentioned how stinky my shirts and shorts made from technical fabrics become once I begin to sweat. After checking around, I had found a sports detergent that not only removed the smell and stains associated with sweat and physical activities, but it’s also a sports detergent that’s green and not hazardous to the environment. What I found was WIN Green sports detergent. My washing machine is a High Efficiency [HE], front loader, and this detergent works with it and with regular washing machines as well! I wash everything with it. Even my bath towels and wash cloths. Anything that can hold a smell, whether it’s sweat, mildew or even smoke from a camp fire comes out smelling like well… nothing!
I have sensitive skin and can’t use anything with perfumes or dyes to wash my clothes, so this stuff is a miracle for me. Because I ordered from them, the folks at WIN sent an email today with a coupon code for $5 off 8 bottles, plus free shipping. I bought 4 bottles from them and even though I paid for shipping, it was well worth the results we’ve gotten. Through December 31st, 2009, use coupon code 5OFF8 and get $5 off either WIN or WIN Green sports detergent.
They also have an auto-ship option so you never have to run out!
non-disclaimer disclaimer: I am not being provided any product and/or monetary compensation for this post.
