Some random observations a week removed from an excellent and overall very successful and enjoyable weekend
1. RunDisney withdrawal is real! It is not near as bad as
Disney Cruise withdrawal for me but I am constantly checking the boards for updates just to prolong/relive the weekend.
2. I am sure I was fighting a bug during the week and was in complete denial. Waking up with the alarm at 2:30 in a pool of sweat as well as getting random chills during the day is probably something I should have addressed. During the runs, I thought it was the layering that was causing the profuse sweating but in hindsight I am sure it was a bug (not near as bad as a few runners here experienced) but there is no way I should have been that soaked running at that level of effort in those temperatures.
3. I do not remember there being that many water stops. It seemed like everytime I turned a corner I was coming up on another water station which was great since I took 2 cups at each stop. Random thought/TMI: during the 2013 Marathon and 2015 Dopey I HAD to make multiple rest stops (with the same hydration plan) and during this years races there was never a time that it was absolutely necessary to stop, further evidence that I was losing most of my liquids through (sick) sweat.
4. For some reason the Osceola Pkwy and WWoS did not seem near as long/boring this year and it was exciting to hear the DJ around mile 19 say that the balloon ladies were 11 miles behind me and there was nothing to worry about.
5. The ramp onto World Drive seemed a lot higher than I remember (new construction?) and took a lot of self-motivation to not give up my secondary goal (I had already missed my primary) and just walk it in from there.
6. The Expo was crazy but I avoided most of the issues by getting there at 1115. I was expecting the traffic to be bad but we got in a parked pretty easily. We got in line at the HP Center right before they split the line into a merch and bib line so we were able to divide and conquer with my wife going in the merch line and me staying to pick up my bibs. When I finished with the bibs I went outside and downstairs directly into the merch area, no outside line at that point. My wife had pulled everything we were interested in and we pretty much got straight into the purchase line from there. By the time we left, a little before 1, the official merch area had reached capacity and the line was growing outside. Since we skipped it to get some lunch, I came back at 4 to go to the vendor expo and saw that the line to get into the official merch area was significantly longer than it was at 1 which surprised me.