Cover 26.2 Miles on My Own Two Feet...Check!

{my favorite part of marathon weekend}

Well, I didn't make my goal of breaking five hours and the last five miles were miserable at best, but I completed the damn thing. We all did. And that is pretty awesome.

Here's how it went down.The alarm went off at a decidedly uncivilized hour, and we were trudging toward the starting corrals with 25,000 other crazy people by 4:30am.

Since we forgot to send in times from previous races, we were all assigned to the last corral, P.  Schmoozimano put his charm to work and managed to get himself and my parents moved up to a higher corral, but the rest of us were stuck trying not to think too much about the reality of what lay in front of us while fireworks exploded overhead as the runners in corrals A through O started their races.

Finally, we got close enough to see the starting line, and by then, I was just ready to get the show on the road. I'm very sad that I didn't get a picture of the giant Mickey Mouse who was firing the starting gun because he had the creepiest blinking eyelids...

And then we were off. Despite two pre-start bathroom breaks, I had to pee by mile three, but the port-o-potty lines along the course were out of control. I decided to wait a while, but others went with a different option.

{so unfair}

The course included a lot of Disney parking lots, some Disney-adjacent highways, and the Disney waste water treatment plant. The parts of the course that wound through the different parks were welcome breaks from the long dull stretches.

{the Magic Kingdom}

{running through Cinderella's castle}

{Animal Kingdom}

{also Animal Kingdom... I think}

{costuming exhibit}

{Hollywood Studios}

Then there was a long stretch of misery that I would prefer not to talk about... 

Then there was the finish line, which was a glorious thing! With the end, literally, in sight and a vague goal of "finishing strong" swirling in my marathon-addled brain, I managed to pick it up to a jog for the final stretch. It also helped that I realized that the sooner I crossed the finish line, the sooner I could sit down, a prospect that was highly appealing at the time.

Tom totally killed it in his first marathon outing, running with my dad the whole way and finishing in four hours and 16 minutes. My mom was not far behind, so they all had plenty of time to meet up with the Cusimanos and Erin in the stands to cheer the rest of us on as we reached the finish.

{looking more confident than I felt}

Crossing the finish line was pretty great. Plus, there was the Mickey medal. And the foil blanket thingy that makes you feel like an official runner. Also the sitting. The sitting was excellent.

{Screw you, Marathon Foto, with your $30 digital download and your intentionally misspelled name.}

I still kind of can't believe I finished the thing, and I know I wouldn't have even started if not for these guys. I'm so proud of them and so proud to one of them.

{four first timers and four old pros}

{I'm especially proud of and grateful for this guy who jumped into marathon training wholeheartedly just because I asked.}

{Huge thanks to Tom's parents, Mary and Charlie, for making the trip to Orlando and getting up at an ungodly hour to wait for hours to cheer us on for a few seconds.}

It's been over a week now, and I can once again sit down and stand up without gritting my teeth and the memory of those last few miles is starting to fade, so while I'm not exactly chomping at the bit to do another one, I'm not ruling it out either.