Tower of Terror 10 Miler Race

Hubby wanted to run all the Disney races this year (although we are not going to be able to do the new ones) so I signed us both to do the ToT 10 miler.  My plan was to run this as my first 10 miler and hit a certain time, but that was before I accidentally registered for Chicago.  So, before my Coach had a heart attack, I told him I would run this with hubby in his corral (Corral E) instead of mine (Corral C) a week before Chicago.

I like the Disney races.  I don't like or go to Disney World often (if at all) but their races are well organized and the medals are cool, so I do the marathon every year (the Goofy Challenge, but who is counting).  But, since hubby started running and doing HMs (the I'm never running longer than a 10K, ooh, a HM, dude!), I registered us for Disneyland, ToT, Wine & Dine, and of course, Goofy.  Kill me now; that's too much Disney spirit even for me.

Anyway, with that being said, I've never done a 10pm race and with me running with hubby, we would finish at least at 1:30am on Sunday.  I was worried because my coach has a sense of humor and he had me doing a 10 miler with 6 at MP on Thursday, the 10 miler on Saturday and 8 on Sunday.  I checked and triple checked and he did!  So, this would be a hard week for me between 80 hours of work, the trip to Orlando and back, running in the middle of the night (and morning) and running back in Miami after that, and finish 47 miles the week before my race.  But I did it.  Not sure how, though.

We left Miami at 10am and it was Feels like 94F.  It was nice to head North (LOL) and seeing the temperature drop into the 80s.  Orlando weather is always nicer than ours.  And it was nice to run in such cool and non-humid weather.   Got to the expo with a full hour to spare (woohoo!) and got our bibs.  All of a sudden, I see that Jeff Galloway is talking and I mention it to my husband.  All of a sudden, I'm all alone and he is already there listening to his guru.  He gave us nice tips about running and always try not to run with the heat index above 80F. I turn to my husband and said, OK, no more running except in January.

We met Jeff afterwards at the RunDisney booth and he remembered us.  My husband was too tongue tied to talk to him but I have no compulsion talking ever consistently and non stop (ask Baboon).  We discussed run/walking techniques for my upcoming 50 miler (if I ever get to run it, that is), and he spoke to my husband about his shin splints and whatnot.  We ended up with autographed copies of his book and left to have lunch...at 4pm.

Since Orlando has the best Puerto Rican food outside of PR, we headed that way, had some mofongo (sorry, no picture of that) and headed to our hotel, outside Disney.  Relaxed for a bit, got dressed, texted Baboon and wife and headed to the ESPN complex to take the shuttles to the race.  Last shuttle was 815 and my husband expected us to get there at 8pm, but I made sure to be there before then.  For someone that made us late to our own wedding, this was an accomplishment.

We met with Baboon, MBC, and Kathy, and also another forumite from the marathoners forum.  It was great to finally meet Baboon and MBC!  They are very nice.  I think Baboon is even funnier in person!

You all saw the Baboon/MBC/Docket/Docket's Hubby picture in the Dailies, but if not, here it is!


My experiences during Disney races have been great, but like MBC said, it will also depend on the Corral.  Running in Corral C (mine) would have been slightly different than what we got in Corral E (but E was not that bad).

We head out and started with hubby's regular run/walk strategy.  But I wanted to make sure he was pushing enough rather than just running it.  We did great.  Then, I noticed all this smoke coming out of the character's section (lights, smoke, and the like) and realized that I might be having issues with my asthma if I continued running through that shit.  I did, a bit.

We ran Miles 1-5 very well, except for the slanted roads that made my ligament sore (still is), and my knee hurt (still does).  Then, my husband said, look!  Dust!  Another dirt path for you!

And that is why I ended up looking like this at the ESPN stadium:



Anyway, Miles 6-7ish were in and around the ESPN Wide World of Sports and me wearing an outlaw headband but I ran by it successfully (except for my cough today) and we ran back to Hollywood Studios. And then, my husband needed to pee. 

So, off we went back out to finish and I thought I could have us finish in 2:15 and we missed that by 4 minutes because he HAD TO PEE.   Overall, I think he did great.

As to me, I run at 6pm and I like it.  But 10pm is too fucking late. I am still exhausted from that.

Next up!  Hoping my insides do not explode on the Chicago course again!  No DNFs allowed this time!

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