Another race weekend is behind us. Dopey feels like it just happened. I can’t even wrap my head around Princess being over now, too.
The Lead Up
This was the first time in ten years that I only ran one of the races of a race weekend. My very first runDisney race was the 2016 Princess Half. I’ve written before about that race and all of the meaning behind it, and I’ll likely revisit it again soon as this was the 10th anniversary of that life-changing run, but ever since that weekend I’ve always done at least the weekend challenge, and usually the 5K too even when it’s not a part of the challenge.
Lately, my bin of medals and race shirts has been bursting at the seams and I’ve been trying to get a little choosier about what I run. I never want this to just start feeling like checking boxes and you can only run so many perfect seasons before you start to think that maybe it’s time for a new (cheaper) goal…so I’ve skipped the occasional 5K lately and taken it all a little more lightly.
In all honesty, up until I was walking into Expo and pulled up my check-in pass, I had totally forgotten that I’d only registered for the half marathon this weekend. I’d thought I was in for the challenge. But I guess I can see what I was thinking. After Dopey maybe a standalone half would be fun and since this was my OG Disney race 10 years ago, and it had just been the one race, maybe this would feel sort of nostalgic.
All that said…yeah, not for me. The final race of the weekend is supposed to feel like the climax. The big finish. Sure I was better rested and on fresh legs, but I’ll trade that all day for being in the fold of the runDisney magic all weekend, being with my people, having my body’s internal clock shifted to those early hours before the main race. We all do what’s best for us but only doing one race of the weekend definitely felt off for me.
The Night and Morning Before
Like I said, at least I was well rested! I worked most of yesterday but did an early bedtime yoga routine, had a mug of tea, and put myself in bed before 8. I was probably out by 8:30 (I’ve been so run down lately that falling asleep wasn’t hard) so, when my alarm went off at 1:45, I felt pretty good. Probably got out of the house around 2:45, drove myself to EPCOT, and was through security and done the long walk to the staging area by a little after 3:00. The pre-race characters were Royal Minnie, Rapunzel (she was on the race medal), Belle (on the challenge medal), and Royal Goofy. I grabbed pictures with Minnie and Punzie and then checked my bag and, out of things to do (lines were starting to get too long), I did a final porta-potty stop and headed into corral. Everything just felt very low key. Basically walked right up to almost the front of A and sat down near the start line to get myself situated. It was a little misty and chilly while we waited, so I was happy to have a tossable sweatshirt with me.
The Race
I was in the first wave of runners, so, after the usual fanfare and a touching tribute to Jeff Galloway, was out the gate and on the course right at 5 a.m.
Things started unexpectedly (but delightfully) speedy all things considered. This has been a light training season for me but I was in the 8-9 minute mile range for the first 5 or so miles headed to and into Magic Kingdom. Things were heating up quickly though, and I knew I wasn’t on pace for any sort of PR anyway, so I told myself I’d push hard into Magic Kingdom and down Main Street (that’s always an adrenaline rush anyway) and then slow down a bit and enjoy the course.
And that’s basically what I did. I powered through to the castle, and then eased up a bit, did a bunch of characters, did an unrushed bathroom stop, and generally just relaxed a little more on the course.
The heat and humidity picked up a ton toward the end, so I’m glad I made that decision. Around mile 7 I started feeling more dizzy than usual — something I’ll explain more below — so I focused on staying steady and finishing comfortably. My stomach also wasn’t feeling great so I was having some trouble fueling. I had a couple of salt tabs along the way and switched from water to Powerade at the stops on the course just to get something into me. In retrospect, not being able to get real fuel down early probably caught up with me later.
Recent Medical Issues
I haven’t really talked about this publicly, but my balance was also a bit off and I was feeling a little dizzy because I’ve been having some inner ear issues lately. About 3 weeks ago, I very suddenly lost hearing in my right ear. Not to the point of complete deafness, but I can’t really hear anything more than very faint, garbled sound on that side. And what’s been making it 100 times worse is that it’s been accompanied by nonstop tinnitus (or ringing) on just that side. So not only can I not hear on the right, but what little I can hear on either side is drowned out by a nonstop, high pitched ring. I’ve read all of the things, seen an ENT, had hearing tests, tried every trick in the books to get rid of the tinnitus. No luck yet. Hearing tests have confirmed that it’s a nerve/inner ear issue, which accounts for my hearing being garbled in addition to quieted. Everything sounds like a distant, bad radio signal on that side of my head.
I’m waiting on an MRI (hopefully this week) to rule out an acoustic neuroma, or non-cancerous tumor on the hearing/balance nerve. It’s not often the cause, and sounds scary…but in all honesty would give me some answers and that’s what I’m looking for at this point.
In any event, I share this here because it’s been affecting my balance, and because of the nature of the issue even my bone conduction Shokz didn’t work on that side…so as the race went on all I was getting on my right was a higher and higher pitched sound that felt and sounded like a very bad radio connection. Since it’s asymmetrical it makes me a little dizzy and messes with my balance (which was never great on a good day, to be honest) and that was interacting with the weather and my inability to get much food down to make me feel a little weak and off toward the end.
And if you tried to say hello on the course and I either missed it completely or just looked confused, there’s my explanation for why. 🙁
After the Race
Which leads me to after the race. Right at the finish we were all feeling the humidity and accepting cool towels, but our bodies cooled off quickly because it was only about 59 degrees out with lots of cool moisture in the air. I threw on the sweats I’d packed in my gear bag, grateful for earlier me’s foresight, pulled out a blanket I’d packed too, and felt pretty good for the first 20-30 minutes—but between the sudden temperature change, the lack of food in my system, and my inner ear issues, I had a wave of nausea at that point that took me out. I excused myself from the conversation that I was in the middle of having and started booking it toward the parking lot, but didn’t quite make it and ended up puking into two different trash cans on my way out. So that was fun.
On the up side, I felt much better as soon as my stomach purged itself. Drove myself home, took my son to Hebrew school, took a little rest, and wrote this while it was still fresh in my mind.
Jeff
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Jeff Galloway here. His family, and our community, lost him somewhat suddenly days before this weekend’s races. It’s hard to understate the impact that he had on running as a whole and, perhaps to an even greater extent, runDisney specifically. His run-walk-run method broke the running and racing barrier for so many people. The sport as a whole is accessible to so many more participants than it ever could have been without him, and the outpouring of love that we saw in his memory this weekend was wonderful.
It makes me think. Jeff was an Olympian. One of the greatest runners of his time. So many people take excellence like that and use it to elevate themselves in contrast to everyone else. He was the opposite. He took his skill and knowledge and used it to open the door to his sport to so many humbler people. And for that, he will live on forever. It really is a lesson in how best to use your knowledge and skills to make the world a better place.
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