When I first decided to run this marathon I had huge hopes- run a 4 hour marathon, lift weights, follow training to a tee- then the reality set in. My hubby came home 2 months early from Iraq and disrupted my flow and training (not a bad thing), the cold New England weather rolled in, a root canal and life in general. I started missing long runs and then I started skipping my mid week runs and then I thought “how am I going to run this marathon?!” With an optimistic attitude and patience. My family deserved a nice vacation and time away so that would be the focus of the week and the marathon would be secondary.
We headed down to Orlando on Friday afternoon with plans to “do the expo” on Saturday and then meet up with my friend John, who was also running the marathon, and his family at Olive Garden for some carb loading and last minute race strategy. We had a great meal and good company and then we said our goodbye’s and planned our 4am meeting. Once back at our suite I pinned on my race bib, put on the chip, packed my race bag and laid out my clothes. My race team and I went over the viewing areas one last time and then it was off to bed. I didn’t have much trouble falling asleep. I did have a hard time however pulling my butt out of bed at 3:30am to go run 26.2 miles!!
I had my pre race breakfast of oatmeal and packed up my bagel for the road and headed out to the sidewalk to wait in the 30F cold weather to wait for John to pick me up. We drove over to Epcot for the start and I could feel the butterflies trying to fly out of my throat. After parking, checking in our bags and using the portopotties we started our .75 mile trek to the start.