The day of the Marathon has arrived. It’s 3:30 in the morning, and just like the other days I’m going through my morning routine and putting my pre marathon preparation into action. But today is a little different. It is different for a couple of reasons, the first reason is due to the weather. Remember how I mentioned the half marathon was canceled due to rain? Well that rain came down because there was a cold front behind it. Instead of it being 60° in the morning when I woke up, this morning the temperature reads 33°!

Now I knew ahead of time that January in Florida could be cold or could be mild, so during my pre marathon preparation, planned for both. How I prepared for the cold weather was by purchasing some cheap sweatpants and sweatshirts that I could wear before I start running, when I’m just waiting around in the corral.

The reason I want to use cheap sweatpants and sweatshirts are because when you take them off you kind of throw them to the side of the course, and you do not get them back. Disney then comes around after the race and picks them up. They then donate all of those sweatshirts and sweatpants to the local homeless shelter. So it’s even going to a good cause.

I am a native Floridian, and 33° is miserable to me, I am not used to it, and I certainly don’t want to be out in it. So I put on my racing attire, shorts and a T-shirt with my racing bib on it, then I put on a long sleeve Run Disney shirt. Next I put on two pairs of sweatpants and one sweatshirt, then a plastic poncho, as a wind barrier. And finally I put on a second sweatshirt, a pair of gloves and a beanie.

With all of this pre marathon preparation, I should be comfortable waiting for the race to begin.

The second reason it’s a little different is today I am going 26.2 miles, so not only do I need to grab my breakfast, but I need to pack a bunch of snacks for the actual race. To make sure that my muscles have enough fuel for the race I plan on eating a small amount of an energy bar every 2 miles or so.

I really like the Stinger bars because they are about as natural as you can get and still have a good fat/protein/carbohydrate ratio, all while tasting very good, that’s why I put those into my pre marathon preparation plan. I put four of those in my running belt and off I went.

Another part of my pre marathon preparation was finding the fastest way to my event. Today I don’t have to take the bus, I can take the monorail right to the race. This will be more enjoyable for me, because after all who doesn’t love Disney’s monorail system? And it also takes less time to get there.

I arrived at Epcot where the race was to begin, and as I’m lumbering through the parking lot with my 37 layers of clothing I can’t help but look around and see people wearing Disney costumes without cover-ups and even shorts and T-shirts. I don’t understand how they can walk around dressed like this, it is freezing cold out here.

As I continue walking and see these people in shorts and T-shirts or less, walking around, I begin to notice that they are shivering, huddling down out of the wind, and even digging through the trash to try to find something to cover up with.

It’s not that they can stand the cold weather, it’s that they did not plan ahead. I was blown away, how could you go through all this preparation to run a marathon and not bother looking at the weather forecast, or at least bringing something warm just in case.

There were these outdoor heating units that Disney provided, they didn’t have a lot of them, I saw a total of four. You often see them at restaurants in the winter, they are fueled by propane and have a little fire on the top and the top reflects the heat down. Around each one was a huge circle of people not moving, holding themselves tight, trying the best they could to stay warm. I don’t know if you have ever seen The March of the Penguins, but they look exactly like penguins huddling around in a big circle trying to stay warm.

The more I walked around the more grateful that I was to have prepared for the weather!

With the start of the race 15 minutes away we were instructed to head towards the corral. Walking over in that direction and I still can’t get over the fact that people are digging through trash cans trying to find something to cover up with, but enough of that, on I go.

Again with this race I am right in the middle of the corral order. So I know I’ve got about half an hour before we start. No
w it’s time for me to go over my game plan.

My game plan is simple, finish the race!

So that means I’m going to take it slow, I got an Apple Watch back in November, and as part of my pre marathon preparation, I made sure that I knew how to use the timing apps.  I have my Apple Watch running a Nike run app, I just love it, this app will let me know what my pace is, what my split time is, and my total time. This is going to be very helpful for me to make sure that I finish the race in the allotted time.

Now I’m not trying to fool anyone into thinking I am fast, for this race call me Baymax, I am not fast. But I do plan to finish! So as long as I keep my pace under a 15 minute mile, I will finish the race, and I will finish the race with plenty of time to spare.

My corral is the next one to go, we have about two minutes left before the starting gun.
So at this time I take off one pair of sweat pants, one of my sweatshirts, and the poncho. Because if I start wearing all of my clothes I’m going to be sweating within 30 seconds, for any of you Survivorman fans, you know if you sweat you die… Probably not during the Disney Marathon, but you still don’t want to be all sweaty when you take it off, that will make you even colder.

Here goes the countdown 3…2…1… GOOOOOOOO!