Disney Run/ painful fun

This is my Disney World marathon report.
Entered this race as a free entry Team Cigna member as they bought out my wife's company.
We spent Saturday with the kids touring the Parks with tons of walking. Got to bed much later than anticipated, but should have known. Woke at 3:30 am got ready and left the hotel at 4:15 to get to the start a few miles away. Thought I'd avoid the highway exit into Epcot and would take Buena Vista blvd instead thinking this would be a back way. Big mistake as we got tangled in a huge traffic snarl that delayed our arrival by at least 45min. So we had to rush to the start. Got there ok, but the corrals were packed so just dealt with it and managed to politely move up to my estimated pace time. Got started and just decided to take it as a glorified long run and try to enjoy the scenes and Disney themes. After about 3-4 mi I realized this would be a very painful experience due to my nagging hip/hamstring issue as well as foot and achilles pain. Almost bagged it at Magic Kingdom, but decided to just back off and play it by ear. The 3:25 pace group passed me at that point and I was fine with that. They kind of disappeared for a while. Tried to concentrate on form and cadence to minimize the pain. Actually took some pics with a few Disney characters here and there. Like Chris mentioned to me, you run a lot of this race in the dark. Thankfully Disney keeps the roads perfectly paved because you're placing your feet into darkness much of the first half of the race that starts at 5:30 am. It was also a very warm day topping out in the low 80F's. Watched the hydration and cracked 3 honey stingers total. I actually got a second wind in the middle to the last part of the race until a stomach cramp hit in the last couple miles after the last gel. Was actually passing tons of people who went out too fast along with the 3:25 group who must have had a clock time cushion. Finished back at my starting pace and came in at 3:25:14. Went back to the hotel and took a nice ice bath then went back over to find my wife who finish her 1st in 5:49 after very minimal training.
Split
Time
Distance
Avg Pace
Summary 3:24:53.7 26.44 7:45
1 7:58.0 1.00 7:58
2 7:40.9 1.00 7:41
3 7:50.7 1.00 7:51
4 7:56.2 1.00 7:56
5 7:50.8 1.00 7:51
6 7:53.9 1.00 7:54
7 8:00.2 1.00 8:00
8 7:46.6 1.00 7:47
9 7:39.2 1.00 7:39
10 7:40.1 1.00 7:40
11 7:37.2 1.00 7:37
12 7:45.7 1.00 7:46
13 7:59.1 1.00 7:59
14 7:48.9 1.00 7:49
15 7:37.5 1.00 7:38
16 7:41.0 1.00 7:41
17 7:29.8 1.00 7:30
18 7:22.5 1.00 7:22
19 7:33.5 1.00 7:33
20 7:34.7 1.00 7:35
21 7:31.3 1.00 7:31
22 7:44.0 1.00 7:44
23 7:55.0 1.00 7:55
24 7:31.7 1.00 7:32
25 8:02.2 1.00 8:02
26 8:03.4 1.00 8:03
27 3:19.6 0.44 7:39
Clock/ total elapsed time: 3:25:16

Nicely done, Steve. Disney is a tough race to run a good time with all the crowds, so I'd say that your splits show that you handled the crowd well.

I hear you with the hip/hammie and achilles stuff - wish I could just get it to all go away, and I bet you do too!

Good run Steve - sounds like a fun race, but that sounded awful warm... Good job on another one!

Not easy to run those hard concrete with nagging issues. Hope you recover well! Way to finish Steve!

Nice run Steve. Congrats to your wife on her maiden voyage.

You must have been near my daughter Chelsea. She was 3:26:49 after a few photo ops with the characters. Oh to be young again . She ran the HM the previous day 18OA Female, 2AG so she earned herself the Goofy. Nuts.

Good stuff Steve. I've heard some negatives about this race but those are some nice and consistent splits.

Nice work managing the race, Steve, and congrats to your wife on her first!

Your challenges weren't too obvious looking at your splits. Well done.

That's a tough place to run well at given all the logistics involved. You did great.

Tale of two halves. Nicely done.

Nice race Steve, and congrats to your wife!

Nice run! I ran Goofy and had a blast. I just goofed off the whole time, so it was super slow for me! I couldn't imagine running Disney as anything but a glorified long run.

carleenp wrote:Nice run! I ran Goofy and had a blast. I just goofed off the whole time, so it was super slow for me! I couldn't imagine running Disney as anything but a glorified long run.

Exactly what I did when I ran Goofy - it was a very fun time.

Great job on your long fun run! I guess I never think of someone as fast as you stopping and having your picture taken with Goofy or Cinderella! I like that! Congrats to the Mrs. on her first!!

Pretty good time for a fun run and stopping for pictures along with dealing with the injuries. Great job.

Running for time is brave at Disney. Well done!