Go Red For Women 5K Race Report (Finally)

OK, it took almost two weeks, and a little bit of berating from the wife, but here it is, as best as I can remember:

It was a gorgeous Saturday morning in Central Florida as roughly 1600 women and 160 fellas gathered together to do something to help women, or celebrate women and running, or something like that. I'm sure it was a good cause. Quite honestly, though, I really just signed up for a few very important reasons:

• It's a 5K with a medal. How often does that happen?
  
• It's the last year they are running it, so last chance for a 5K. With a medal.
  
• My wife was already signed up for the 15K the next day. Despite the fact that my first race back from injury was a 15K, I just don't think I'm quite to a point where I'm ready to go that far yet. Even for a medal.
  
• And, hey, it's yet another excuse to get down to Disney.
  

But that's neither here nor there. Let's start at the beginning.

As with any other Disney race, it started with waking up way too early for civilized folks. Luckily, this was just a 5K, so it didn't start until 7:00AM, but we still had to be there before 6:45 to pick up my race packet. I didn't know at the time how much I would appreciate having that much time to sleep in (and we'll see more if holo wahini ever posts her race report -- sure, she wrote a little bit, but not an actual report), but again, I digress. We woke up dark and early at something like 5:45 AM, after which I spent a few minutes blindly stumbling around, muttering a bit, and attempting to put on running clothes. We grabbed a quick snack and got out of the hotel with lots of time to spare.

...which means we got there really early. And there wasn't nearly the lines I was expecting to pick up race packets. I guess most folks were either locals that were able to pick them up the day before, or people who had come from out of town and had time to pick them up the day before. Either way, I got my number, I got my shirt, I got my chip, and I was ready to go.

One side note -- the wahini did get my shirt, because the web site had said that it would be a women's shirt. From what I could tell, it looked like a plain ol' shirt to me. But I'd already signed up with her size, so, whatcha gonna do?

So there I was at the starting gate, putting myself toward the front of the 9:00 - 11:00 pace group. I was actually pleasantly surprised by the space that we were given (not packed in like sardines just yet), and the fact that there wern't all that many people there (for a Disney race), but I got to wander around a bit, warm up a little, and do some people watching. Mostly, it was nice to watch the sun rise...


At roughly 7:00, the far-too-perky-for-that-time-of-the-morning race hosts brought Minnie herself up to start us off on the race, but I think that either her recording broke, or she just didn't like us very much, because when one of them asked "Isn't this a great crowd?", she just stood there.

Awkward...

But then we counted down, and were off like a flash into the wilds of... the Imagination parking lot at Epcot. Yes, because the park is only so big, the first mile or so is run through parking lots, with cones set up to show the course. Like any other race, it was crowded at first, and you had to duck and move to get around people, but eventually, it did thin out. And honestly, having the course start out through the parking lot wasn't bad. At the very least, if you had to step outside the course to avoid a crash, you weren't having to step up onto a curb, a median, or some uneven ground. My knees thanked me for that. But when I finally got a chance to look at the Garmin, I realized that I may be going a little too fast: 8:17. Yeah, I might want to slow that down a bit. So I pulled back a little bit, just to make sure I had enough gas for the second mile, let alone the third. I do also have to make a mention of seeing the cutest little Minnie:


But we went around the parking lot, into a cast member parking lot, and got to mile marker 1 right around the back of Test Track. Of course, since this is one of our favorite rides, I had to try to get a picture of it, too... but on the run. There was no stopping for me at this point... I made the first mile in 8:42!


From there, we went around the corner, hit the first water stop (on both sides of the course -- I love it when they do that), and ran past what I think was the Universe of Energy pavilion, and out to Epcot proper, complete with giant golf ball. From there, it's just a simple run up and around, and...

OUCH!!!!

What the hell? All of a sudden, on the slightest of inclines, my left calf started hurting like crazy! I hadn't heard a pop or a snap, or anything, but my calf just did not want to run any farther. Of course, I did. And I'm more stubborn. So, against all sanity, I decided to keep going. It's a character flaw. But I did slow down a little, and I eased up a bit to where it wasn't hurting terribly bad. And as I kept going, it kept loosening up and feeling better. So on I went, past the various beach-themed topiaries (it was during the Flower and Garden Festival), past the fountains, and up towards the World Showcase.

Once I got up to the various countries, my leg was feeling... OK. Not great, but good enough that I could still run on it. So run, I did. There wasn't much going on in the countries, but I do want to point out a couple things. First, I actually was able to get a pretty decent picture of Norway while running:


And secondly, they very nicely had the torches lit around the water:


At some point in there, we also crossed mile marker 2. And believe it or not, I was still going strong. I must have picked back up before getting hurt, because my second mile came in at 8:42! All of a sudden, I'm thinking to myself that it was possible for me to come close to last week's time... as long as I don't walk. In the last race, I took a couple walk breaks in the third mile, and dangit, I wasn't going to let that happen again -- injury or no!

Of course, from there, it was pretty boring... I was just focused mostly on running a good race, making sure my leg was still attached and feeling OK (hey, I may be stubborn, but I ain't stupid), and trying to just keep putting one foot in front of the other. And after heading out of the park, I was on my way. The Garmin was still showing that I was doing remarkably well -- apparently, I did my third mile in 8:42, also! It was amazing how evenly paced it was. I've never run a race like that before -- and that was even while hurting for half the race. But I still had .1 miles to go... and it was time for the kick. And others around me were picking it up, too. I managed to pass a few people, but there was this one really tenacious woman that I just couldn't shake... and she actually passed me at the end. But still... 26:48! WOO HOO!!!!

Oh, and holo wahini was waiting for me at the end. I heard her cheering and gave a little wave as I was hitting the finish line. And then I had to wend my way through the chute, get my medal, Powerade, banana, and blueberry muffin thingy, and then go try to find my wife in the crowd. So, I started heading over to where I had last seen her. And... no wife. Thoughts of the Gate River Run started flashing through my head again, but this time, we had phones. I gave her a call, and she mentioned that Leana had finished shortly after I did, and that she was going to try to meet up with her, which we eventually did, and she's just about the nicest person ever. We also got to meet her folks, who ran the race with her. Of course, we had to get the obligatory photo:


Naturally, after standing around and chatting for a while, Leana went off with her folks to clean up and attack the day, and we went on to breakfast... and my leg had tightened up so badly that I could barely walk! So, there was one more stop for the day, and I know Lana would never let me live it down if I didn't post this photo, too:


Yes, that's me in the medical tent, getting checked out. It's fun having multiple knee braces, and trying to figure out why my leg doesn't want to work anymore. But, I just pulled it, and he gave me an ice pack (and I was very careful not to get frostbite!), and we went on our way. To make a long story slightly less long, it hurt for most of the day, but it did start relaxing in the late afternoon, and by dinnertime, it wasn't that bad at all. It's still a little tight, but I've been running twice more without a problem, so I'm just keeping track of it, massaging and stretching, and trying to take it easy for a little bit. Two PR's in a week and a half was a lot of work... especially when the improvement was almost a full minute! But I got some good rest in, and now we are starting the actual training for the Las Vegas Marathon. And to keep us motivated, we actually signed up a couple days ago. We're in it. And it's gonna be great!

BTW, all the pictures are available from Flickr.

FYI, here is the course from MapMyRun: