Travel With Mel

We did it!  After a year of planning and training in the heat, the rain and the snow, I crossed the finish line on Sunday, January 11 after running 39.3 miles in 2 days.  The event is part of Walt Disney World's marathon weekend and includes running the half marathon on Saturday and the full marathon on Sunday.  Somehow the idea of this race caught on last January and we traveled to Orlando with more than a dozen of our Chuckit running friends who were 'goofy' enough to do this race.  In retrospect, the hardest part of this race was getting up at 3 AM EST (midnight PST!) 2 days in a row to get to the 5:50 AM race start.  My strategy was to run a personal worst half marathon to run a more normal full marathon.  The half started with fireworks and we were off to the Magic Kingdom.  The energy on Main Street and music pumping through Tomorrowland was incredible.  Before I knew it, we had run through Cinderella's castle and were on our way back to Epcot and the finish line.  That had to be the most fun I've ever had in a half marathon as it was nice to take it easy and just savor the miles in a race.  After the race, we ate, napped and spent the rest of Saturday afternoon by the pool.  Then we carbed up at Portobello Yacht Club and went to bed early.

The alarm went off again at 3 AM and Richard and I dragged ourselves out of bed to meet Glen, Bert, Bill and Heidi for the bus at 3:30.  This time we were smarter and lounged on the ground in our 'throw away' clothing before proceeding to the start.  The fireworks were bigger this time and we were off and running.  We ran through Epcot and back up to the Magic Kingdom.  I ran across the 4:15 pace group heading into the Magic Kindom  and hung with them for a few miles, but never expected to finish with them since I had run the half the day before.  I used a strategy of walking through every water stop and Disney is so well supported that this is about every mile after mile 4.  I looked forward to running through the Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios, 2 parks I had not yet been to.  I encountered Disney characters and smiling faces and people waiting for character photos along the way.  Like the half, this was about the most fun I'd had in a marathon and I was happy to see the miles were passing easily.  About mile 24, Bethany was there to cheer us on and then I entered Epcot and knew I was nearly done.  I crossed the finish line in 4:13:55, over a minute faster than my fall marathon in Victoria and my 4th fastest time of the 10 marathons I've run to date.  I did some back to back long runs in my training and didn't feel like my long runs suffered as much as expected from the previous day's mileage.  Recovery was the bigger challenge and I took the rest of the week off from running to enjoy Disneyworld!

The rest of our trip was a blast and I got to spend time at all 4 parks.  Richard and I did an off road Segway tour around the Ft. Wilderness campground.  This wasn't nearly as much fun as our Segway tour of California Adventure, but it was fun to ride the off road Segways.  Surprisingly, I really enjoyed Animal Kingdom and decided Expedition Everest was my favorite attraction.  It combines outstanding line theming that captured my interest so much I was sad the line moved quickly and multiple roller coaster elements (backward, darkness) that make it a thrilling ride.  I'm not usually an animal lover (except for Tapas!) but I enjoyed the animal attractions in the park and it's clear Disney has made an investment in making this a world class park.  The Magic Kingdom was classic and felt like an expanded Disneyland, Hollywood Studios hosts some of the most thrilling attractions and Epcot's World Showcase and Illuminations fireworks show were spectacular.  My only complaint of the week was Disney's bus transportation to our All Star Sports hotel was at times frustrating.  The lines for downtown Disney were long and there was no direct bus transportation from the World Showcase/boardwalk areas to our hotel.  However, when I think about how large Disneyworld is and how much there is to offer, I am amazed that they make it all work with the top notch customer service Disney provides.

I really wanted to like this race.  A few years ago I paced the second half of the marathon and felt bad for those who ran the whole thing.  There were a lot of hills and even one within the last half mile.  I remember commenting on the course just before a guy behind us threw up.

This year the course had been altered to run across 520 and a few of us were jazzed about that.  From the elevation map, the east rise of 520 looked to be the longest hill so I thought they finally had a winner of a course. I was dead WRONG.  Apparently there are some pretty nasty hills in Bellevue (I run up Kamber once a week and these are much worse) and I faced them starting in mile 6.

The day (June 29, 2008) was exceptionally warm.  I don't fault the organizers for that but because of their poor planning, the race start was delayed at least 15 minutes.   Those 15 minutes matter as the sun is beating down and warming up the asphalt.  The problem was clearly the logistics of transporting people from the finish line in Bellevue to Seattle.  I'm not sure if transporting family had anything to do with that, but I really can't believe the race committee allowed family on the busses when they had no prior experience with transporting people.  I anticipated this would be a problem and arranged for my own transportation. (Thanks Richard!)  There were athletes late to the start and some missed the start.  The race committee offered to donate half the money for those who missed the start to a local charity, which I find offensive. They (the race committee) should refund the athletes who missed their race as a result instead of just donating money for them.

As if it couldn't get much worse than warm weather and a hilly course, the water stops were a mess.  Several of them were not prepared for the crowd and I hear one even ran out of cups.  I know preparing for the rush of people is difficult and the day was hot, but I think better planning and preparation could go into training the volunteers.  I do thank the volunteers who were there since I know it's not easy!

My last complaint (and I swear I'm done!) is that the event was planned to conflict with the Shore Run, an annual event with a history much longer than the Seafair marathon.  Next year, I'm running the shore run!

I've been running for more than 20 years.  I've been running marathons since 2000 and for most of that time I have resisted technology.  I bought a Nike heart rate monitor and speed/distance pod several years ago but the pod never calibrated well and my heart rate data never really interested me.  Eventually, I gave up the tools and just used the watch.  When the Garmin 305 came out, I didn't feel the urge to buy it.  I had enough friends with them that I could always ask 'how far' and avoid wearing the heavy 'brick' on my wrist.  Also, running is as much therapy for my head as a physical workout for body and I've long argued that I don't need to know my heart rate and pace for each mile.  Sometimes it's nice to get lost in the run and not worry about it.

When the Garmin 405 came out I was also just coming off the high of a fabulous experience at the Napa Marathon.  (It's well organized, small, gentle rolling hills and absolutely beautiful.)  Boston qualifying was back within reach (not close reach, but doable with a lot of work) and I decided that I would make the investment in a new training partner.  They were backordered at REI, but after a couple weeks I picked up my brand new Garmin 405.

My first couple runs with my new 405 were terrific!  I had my exact mileage and pace per mile and the knowledge that it was being recorded made me run a little faster.  Then came a track workout with the 405 and I will admit to uttering more than a few 4 letter words.  The training partner kept coming on and STAYING on so I couldn't see the timer for feedback.  Then I tried the lap button and it didn't reset the larger timer view.  It just continued running and I couldn't get instant feedback during my workout.  I'm sure this is a setting that I can change but changing the settings are not intuitive with the 405 bezel design.  I found this out when I accidentally turned off my GPS and set up coordinates 5 miles into a 15 mile run.  8 miles later I finally figured out how to get it back on and the rest of the run the watch beeped at me with every step.  Sigh... I admit to more 4 letter words.  The sleek bezel doesn't make me happy and does not work well in the rain, a problem for one who lives in Seattle.

The Garmin ANT agent tool to upload my running data as well as the garmin connect web site for storing this data online have also proven disappointing.  It's really cool to see the maps and data on my runs.  But again I complain that these aren't very intuitive and I haven't uploaded data since the first time.

I've dumbed down my watch to just show my overall time, distance and pace.  My friends that have the Garmin 305 can show 4 readouts on their screen and include their heart rate.  That would be useful if I was into the heart rate monitor or maybe it would help me find value in the HRM.  As it stands, I've run with the HRM once in 3 months.  I think this goes to show that I'm just not a running techno geek.  But my advice to those techno geeks out there that have yet to join the Garmin bandwagon... save your money and buy the 305 on sale.  Or wait until Garmin learns from the current 405 and improves upon it in v2.