Wife Mother Runner Sid Busch Archives

2017 runDisney Walt Disney World Marathon…The First Half

January 30, 2017

The big race of the weekend was finally here! I was going to run the marathon with PK, Diana and our new friend Tami. It was PK’s first marathon and I was so excited for him! I told him that I would meet him at his hotel lobby at 4:10 a.m. He was staying right around the corner from me and right en route to the race, so it was perfect. So my alarm was set for 3:00 a.m. I had my tea, cinnamon toast and I packed a bag full of snacks.

I also had to put on several layers of clothing. I had on my long sleeve shrug, my Patriots shirt (in support of PK), a light jacket, a fluffy red sweatshirt and my XXXL men’s sweatshirt. I was also wearing my sign in honor of Lyla but I had to make sure that when I shed my layers I would have to re pin the sign and my race bib. It was crazy that in Florida I was dressing in so many layers. When I walked out to the car I was surprised that it wasn’t as cold as I was expecting. But I knew that waiting in the corrals I was going to feel colder.

PK and I drove to Epcot, had to park in one of the spots that was the FURTHEST spot away and we walked the journey to bag check, the runner’s area and then down to the corrals. Just before we entered the runners area I spotted Jacqui Kapinowski on her way to the wheelchair start! I was so happy to see her and she told me she had just been talking to Harry about me recently! I met Jacqui during Princess Weekend in 2014, and she was my first exposure to Achilles International, which I am not a volunteer for.

With this being his first marathon and his first Disney marathon he was surprised, like I was my very first time, at how much walking we had to do before even getting to the race. We got down to the corrals and hooked up with Diana and Tami. Thankfully we weren’t there too early. I believe we were in the corrals for about 20 minutes before they started moving us closer to the start. But just before they did we all go the pre-race porta pottie jitters so we all rushed over there just in time. I was right, it was cold in the corrals so we used the space blankets and I was glad that I had my throw away sweatshirt, gloves, and ear warmers. I talked PK into bringing his gloves and hat as well for the race.

PK, Tami, Diana and I trying to keep warm in the corral

Our corral took off at 6:23 a.m. and we were consistent with doing our walk/run intervals the first several miles of the race. PK and I planned to run ahead of Diana and Tami to the character or picture locations and then we would all decide if we wanted to wait in line or keep going. Since the first few miles were things that we had already seen in past years, and we wanted to increase the buffer of time between us and the balloon ladies, we skipped the first few stops. We did stop for Lightning McQueen and that’s where I ditched my first layer. Diana and Tami ran ahead and PK and I stopped for Jack and Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas.

My favorite thing is always running under the bridge that is the waterway to the Contemporary with the DJ and his big hands encouraging the runners. He never disappoints. We made our way towards the Magic Kingdom and waited just near Main Street for Diana and Tami and then we all ran down Main Street together.

While in Magic Kingdom, we used the real bathrooms, then Diana and Tami ran ahead while PK and I stopped for all of the character stops. We did end up finding each other around mile 10 at Bear Road (aka the water treatment plant). Just in time for Diana to get her picture with Wreck It Ralph! She was disappointed that earlier in the race they weren’t at the location we were used to seeing them at.

I found Sid around mile 6

On Bear Road there was a section of the race that had vintage ride cars. This was great. There was the ship from 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, a Rocket from Star Jets, a car for Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, Snow White, and a cart from The Skyway. This was one of my favorite picture spots. I heard Rudy announce that this was going to be around mile 10 and it was incredible to see these epic extinct rides!

After this point in the race we were approaching the out and back loop. i was unaware that this out and back was going to be so long. Last year it was a short distance until the turn around. This year, we had to make up some distance due to the construction going on in Hollywood Studios so the extra distance was on a long stretch of road behind Animal Kingdom. I was a little frustrated when I looked ahead and saw how far it went. But I put my head down and trudged forward. Again, we saw Diana and Tami at this part of the course.

We turned into the back of Animal Kingdom and this is where we were at the halfway point in the race. Stay tuned for part 2 of this blog post, the second half!

2016 WDW Marathon Half Marathon

January 18, 2016

The second to last race of the Dopey Challenge is the half marathon. Once again I set my alarm for 3:30. For this race I made oatmeal for breakfast to hopefully hold me over. I was so hungry during the 5K and 10K races; even after having a small breakfast before I went to the races.

Diana and I were running this race together. Mandy would be joining us for the full marathon the next day. I arrived to the Epcot parking lot around 4:45 and met Diana down by the corrals. The crowd size doubles from the 5K and 10K to the half and full marathon sizes. The 5K and 10K have around 7,500 people. The half and full have 26,500 people. That does impact your course time when starting in a later corral.

Thankfully it wasn’t raining for this race, but it was extremely foggy. I wore my Donald Duck costume for this race and Donald sent us off at the start.

Diana and I at the corrals

Since we had run this course several time with the previous year’s Dopey challenge and running the Princess Half marathon two years prior, I was very familiar with the course. Not to mention that the full marathon also runs most of the same route for the beginning of the marathon. I am pleased to say that this year the change in character stops made the race more enjoyable.

I listened to Jeff Galloway speak at the Expo on Thursday and he mentioned that for the 5K and 10K it was ok to run; but he said for the half marathon, plan to walk the first few miles, then incorporate your run/walk intervals for a mile, walk a mile, then do intervals again, etc. So I discussed that with Diana and that was the plan. Well when race day comes around, sometimes plans get thrown out the window. We ran most of the first half of the race. Below shows our splits from the half marathon.

The first two miles of the race we made ourselves run slower. There also weren’t character stops at that point; just props to take photos of along the way. Between mile 3 and 4 is where we started to do the character stops for Wreck it Ralph and Oogie Boogie. Mile 5 lead us into the Magic Kingdom and we did stop for some photos and then miles 6-7 are up cone alley. It was VERY congested up cone alley. This year I think the cones were set up differently and weren’t the tall cones that were lined right up against each other because people were hopping over the cones and running in the lane that was dedicated for car traffic. So we just continued to do our walk/run intervals up cone alley as best as we could with the amount of people in that area. I also found Mike Scopa heading into the Magic Kingdom and played some leap-frog with him during the race. I’d stop for a character stop and then he’d pass me. Then I would spot him and I’d tag him and told him he was it. It helped pass some of the miles along the way! I also found Sid Busch out on the course and gave him some encouragement. He is such a celebrity now among the running community.

Miles 8 and 9 didn’t have anything too exciting so we pushed ahead and around mile 10 we decided to walk the rest of the race in to save our legs for the full marathon. We had gone over the overpass of World Drive at that point and saw the crowd still coming up the road and we knew we weren’t in any danger of being swept. At mile 12 we took a photo with Vacation Genie and that was it for character stops in Epcot for us.

It was a good decision to walk at that point. I was starving, though. I definitely did not have enough fuel with me for that race. All I could think about was making an egg sandwich back at the hotel room when the race was over!

After the race was over I drove back to the hotel and made the egg sandwich my mouth was watering for! Then I showered and wanted to hang out at the pool with my family. PK and Katie were going to be there for a little while so I wanted to spend time with them. After visiting with them I got cozy on the poolside chair and next thing I knew I woke up with my mouth hanging open, my sunglasses smashed against my face and drool going down my chin! I had fallen asleep for a long hard 2 hour nap! I looked around and saw my family’s items around but couldn’t find them anywhere! I finally located them and we noticed the dark skies were starting to roll in.

The plan that night was to go to Disney Springs to have dinner at Wolfgang Pucks and then head back to the room for an early night. We were watching the radar and packed our ponchos. Joe Pardo was also going to join us for dinner there. We arrived at Disney Springs around 5:00 but waited a long time for the boats to take us to from the West Side to the Marketplace side.

The balloon was tethered down because of the storms coming.

Half way to the Marketplace side they stop, which I wasn’t aware of. The kids had to go to the bathroom so we got off the boat there, used the restrooms nearby and put on our ponchos. We ended up walked through the pouring rain to Wolfgang Puck Express and met Joe. I had a cranky moment at this point in the day. I was frustrated with the rain, the boats at Disney Springs and I was hungry. So I had a moment of a mini meltdown. Once we had dinner I was better. We ordered the bar-b-que chicken pizza as a good pre-race meal with the protein and the carbs. After dinner my son wasn’t feeling too well. He had been battling a chest cough for several weeks and there were times during the trip where he just felt funky and wanted his mom.

Always my favorite view at night.

It was nice for Joe to meet my family. I talk about them all the time when Joe and I are at races and when we communicate in our every day conversations. After we said goodbye to Joe and boarded the boat to head back to our car I sat with my son on the boat and it cheered him up. I think it was also hard on him that I was going to be early and then not around when he woke up during the races. Once we got back to the hotel it was time for me to lay out my gear for the morning and call it an early night. I was in bed before 10:00 and I wasn’t feeling too anxious about the race. I did have a harder time falling asleep that night; but I blame that on the nap.

Coming up next, the big finale race of the weekend…the full marathon!

40th Marine Corp Marathon Expo

November 2, 2015

The Marine Corp 40th Marathon was a very special marathon to me. The medal I earned from this race is going to go in a special place. It was one of the hardest races I have ever done. Harder than my first marathon. As I was reliving it and telling my husband about it, he told me it sounds like it was a traumatic experience for me. It kind of was.

Let’s start from the beginning. This is going to be a two part story. The first part is the Expo. I took a flight out of CT at 9:00 a.m. and arrived in Washington D.C. at DCA at 10:30. I tried to snooze a little on the plane. I was pretty tired. I set my alarm for 5:30 with all intentions of leaving the house by 6:30. I have TSA pre-check now so I knew going through security could be a little faster. I almost left the house at 6:30. That was, until I realized I was missing a few things. I had to go back into the house and tip toe around in my room to find the things that I was missing. One of them being my compression sleeves and the second one was a cord that was in my office. I knew I was going to wake up my husband as I had to go through the closet in our room to access the new addition where the office is. The main house and the addition are still not completely attached for general access. So we have a small entryway from inside our closet. Anyway…. I was on the road to the airport a little after 7:00 a.m. Ooops. Not to fear, I reached the parking lot by 7:45 and was through security and at a Dunkin Donuts before 8:00. Plenty of time to have a tea and wait to board.

I love travelling with my runDisney and Disney Social Media Moms gear!

The flight was easy and when I arrived I followed the signs at DCA to get to the Metro. I purchased a Metro card and then got on the train. I was lucky, the first stop is Crystal City where my hotel is. I got off the train tried to figure out how to get out of the Metro tunnel and then found my way around. I went to the Dunkin Donuts there and picked up a hot chocolate. I was feeling like I needed a little pep. I was also lucky to find a Rite Aid right inside the mall that is in Crystal City. This mall is cool. It’s all underground and is part of the Metro and hotel area. I was looking at the weather forecast and it was calling for rain for race morning so I wanted to grab some ponchos from Rite Aid while I was there. It was also a perfect chance for me to get some waters and snacks at an affordable cost rather than at the expo center or within the hotel. I checked at the hotel desk and was fortunate to be able to check in early. I brought everything up to my room, laid out what I could for my gear to make sure I had everything and didn’t need any special at the expo and then texted Kimberlee and Anne to find out where and when to meet.

It was close to noon so I went back down to the Metro and took the train to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. I had to walk a few blocks from the station to the Convention Center and then quite a distance along the convention center to the actual hall where the Marine Corp Marathon Expo was being held. There were two other large events taking place at the Convention Center, so it was easy to get lost if you didn’t follow the signs.

The Metro is very cool underground.

The Marine Corp Expo

Anne spotted me as I got to the bottom of the escalator and we went to pick up my bib and shirt. It was exciting to receive my bib and shirt from the Marines.

It really added to the excitement of the event. The expo was quite large. The first place we went was to the Brooks Official Merchandise Area. My friend Jennifer had picked up a jacket for me that morning because things were selling out quickly. In addition I purchased a visor, a pin, a glass and a windbreaker from the Brooks Official Merchandise Area. This race was a big deal to me and I wanted to purchase some nice things to commemorate it.

I was planning on meeting Sid Busch at the expo around 2:00. I gave him a call and he said that he was at home resting. He had been on his feet all day the day before giving out shirts and then volunteered again Saturday morning so he really needed to take a break. He had just run his 200th marathon the weekend before in Baltimore so he was feeling the effects of it along with being so busy for the past two days. We made plans to find each other at the race start.

Anne and I were keeping our eyes open for Kimberlee. She landed later than I did and also checked into her hotel which was near the Convention Center. While we waited for her, Anne and I explored the Expo floor. I ran into Susana Cruz from the Mickey Milers. I met her out in Chicago when I was there to run the Rock and Roll Chicago Half Marathon.

After pictures with Susana, I was shopping around and found a cute Running Skirts Camo skirt that would match nicely with my grey Mintz + Hoke shirt so I purchased it to wear instead of the Sparkle Athletic skirt I packed. I also had a mission to find Jeff Galloway, Sweaty Bands and Sparkly Soul head bands. As we shopped the expo floor we found Jeff and Barbara Galloway and I had him sign my bib and take a picture with me, as I always do at the races he is visiting. Not long after that we met up with Kimberlee.

We weaved up and down the rows of the Expo floor with her so she could also shop the vendor booths. During our shopping I came across Fitletic and decided to purchase a new fuel belt that would be large enough to hold my new larger iPhone Plus 6s and also have room to store fuel. That had been on my shopping list as well because I didn’t want to wear a Spibelt plus and additional belt for fuel. We also found Kimberlee’s favorite booth, Beecause Charms. She has the cutest charms on her sneakers and I was never a charms person; but once I got my eyes on the Marine Corp Marathon Charms, along with red, white and blue stars and then when you purchase those plus an American flag charm, proceeds from the purchase of the American flag charm goes to wounded warriors.

Just before we left we signed the Pace Car! That was a first for me. We weren’t sure when and where we were going to see the pace car, but we signed our names on it, along with 24,000 other people! We all realized it was getting late and I had to get from the Convention Center to Crystal City for my Mickey Milers Pasta dinner at Portofino. It was already 4:15 and I had to take the Metro to Crystal City where my hotel was and walk a few blocks to the restaurant. We took some last minute pictures and then headed off to our night’s events.

My train was delayed at the Metro so I texted my Mickey Milers friends and let them know to not wait up for me but I’d be there as soon as I could. I eventually arrived a little after 5:25 and ordered linguine and meatballs. I figured that would be a safe dinner choice. We enjoyed the company, I sat with Chris Smith, Susanna Cruz and her husband, Dave Dunkowski and his girlfriend, who had just become a grandmother at 5:37 that evening, and Eric and his daughter. Dinner took a long time to come out of the kitchen and we didn’t leave the restaurant until around 8:00. I walked back with Chris and Meghan Gorny and we made plans to hook up at 5:15 in the morning to walk to the shuttle.

By the time I got to my room and got ready for bed I was exhausted. I got my food and tea ready for the morning, got the rest of my gear laid out and I was in my bed by 9:00 saying goodnight to the family. I was asleep by 10:00 with the alarm set for 4:00 a.m.

My final outfit with the new Running Skirts camo skirt.

I really enjoyed the Expo and the Mickey Milers Pasta dinner. It was a nice day prior to the race. It was fun to hang out with friends, explore the goodies at the expo and find some new gear.

Front of the Marine Corp Marathon Shirt we received with our bibs.

Back of the Marine Corp Marathon Shirt we received with our bibs.

Some of the goodies I purchased at the Expo.

Stay tuned for my race recap of the hardest marathon I ever ran to date!

Tag: Sid Busch

2017 runDisney Walt Disney World Marathon…The First Half

2016 WDW Marathon Half Marathon

40th Marine Corp Marathon Expo