Who the hell voluntarily wakes up at 3:00 in the morning, gets in their car and drives to EPCOT Center at 3:30, takes the monorail to the Magic Kingdom, walks to the outer edge of the parking lot (that’s 2 miles so far), and waits in line, in the rain, when it’s 55 degrees outside, just to run 6.2 miles? 9277 runners, joggers, and walkers do, that’s who. And we were among them.
Shaina had this bright idea to run the Disney Wine and Dine 10k. She and her husband, Jeff, like to run. They’ve done this before. She called me one day and asked me to sign her up. Registration was going to open at 10:00, and she had a client at that time. “Will you please sign me up? They’ll sell out in, like, an hour!”
How do you say “no”? I didn’t. I said, “yes”. And while I was waiting for registration to open, I started looking at the race website. Those marketing people are geniuses. They actually made running look fun. So, of course, I had to sign myself up, too. Then I signed up my Jeff, and Shaina signed up her Jeff. Well, I guess we better start training. I never ran a mile in my life without stopping. I hate running! The only time I ever ran successfully was when I was going through my divorce.
So, we downloaded the Couchto10k app and started running. Ugh, it was so hot. I couldn’t catch my breath. My feet hurt, and I even bought really good shoes! This sucks. But, we persevered. We managed to run 2-3 times a week. Sometimes 4, if we were lucky. The furthest I ever ran during the training without stopping was 2 miles. But then I’d walk for about 20 seconds and start jogging again. (Did you see that? I switched from running to jogging. I’m not running unless something is chasing me.)
So comes the day. We got a hotel room just outside the Disney property. Shaina brought her babysitter to watch the kids, we all had an early dinner and tried to go to bed. I never sleep well as it is. But when I know I have to get up at an unreasonable hour, I don’t sleep at all. I think I slept for about an hour and a half. When the alarm went off at 3:00, I was actually grateful that the night was over.
I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, got dressed, and we met the kids in the hall at 3:25. We were totally gob smacked in the face with cold rain when we walked outside. What the hell were we thinking? We spent $135 each to wake up in the middle of the night, and run 6.2 miles in the cold rain? And for what? A medal? YES, DAMNIT!!! I wanted that stupid medal, and nothing was going to stop me. Not the cold! Not the rain! Not the unGodly hour! Not even the Balloon Ladies! What? Who are the Balloon ladies, you ask? They’re a group of women who start in last group. They carry balloons as they walk a 16 minute mile. And if they catch you, they put you in a van, throw you out of the race, and you don’t get the stupid media! That’s bull shit.)
By the time we got to corral #3, we had already walked two miles. It was 4:40AM. Shaina’s husband, Jeff, left us all in the dust. He was in corral #1 with the real runners. Shaina’s friends were in corral #2. They planned to run slow so she could catch up during the race.
Someone sang the Star Spangled Banner and the fireworks began. The first batch of runners went at 5:00, and another hundred or so went every three minutes, fireworks and all each time. It was actually getting really exciting. Thank goodness, because we were cold, wet and tired. We approached the starting line. I could see the gates in front of us. We could see the announcers, all snuggly warm in their fluffy rain coats. And then Bang! The fireworks flew and we were off!
After about 30 seconds, Shaina turned to look behind her at us and commented, “You guys are so slow!”
“Go on. Find your friends. We’ll see you at the finish.”
And just like that, she disappeared into the sea of crazies running in the rain. We were jogging faster than ever. Not because we wanted to, but we didn’t want to be the “slow pokes”. I really hated it at first, but then it started becoming fun. Every half mile there was some sort of celebration to let you know you’d made it that far. There were characters along the way, port-a-potties, water stations, giant digital signs, all sorts of reasons to stop and take a picture. No way! I wasn’t stopping for anyone. Those Balloon Ladies weren’t going to catch me!
One by one, the miles went by. We saw a huge celebration at the 5k mark. Then it was time to run through Hollywood Studios. The mist was constant, and I had no way to clean my glasses. So I just took them off. I couldn’t really see everything, so I just followed the crowd in front of me. Before I knew it, we were running down the Boardwalk. And just around the 5-mile mark, we got to the back entrance to EPCOT Center. Jeff got a burst of energy.
“Go baby, go!” I said. And he, too, disappeared into a sea of runners. My legs were killing me, and I was so tired. When I tried to walk, I felt dizzy and unsteady, and my legs actually hurt more. So I kept going.
Then I reached the 6-mile sign. Only 0.2 to go! We ran under the ball and out through the gates. There it was, the finish line! I could see it, even without my glasses. I could hear the music, the announcers, the people cheering each other one. I was going to make it after all!!!
As I crossed the finish line, I saw Jeff. He had gotten there about three minutes before I did. I ran it in 84.34 minutes, and my goal was 90 minutes. Someone cheered for me and handed me a medal – Balloon Ladies be Damned!!! I finished my first 10k ever, and was back in my hotel bed by 7:30AM. My legs would never be the same.
November 2021