DH here. I decided to write down as many "core memories" as I could recall from MW. Here goes; trying for chronological order:
Final run of training plan the morning of the 9th. 2 miles to HS and back, while the lights and sounds of the 5k were in the background. And knowing it was really going to happen.
Walking back to get our prepurchased merch before heading back to the bus on the 8th, and realizing it was after 5:30pm and the sun was still up. A far cry from the 5pm sunset in Pa then.
Lunch the 9th with
@FFigawi . Our WDW trips are usually planned to the nanosecond (mostly by me), but we wanted to just take what each day gave us this time. This was a spontaneous lunch experience for us, where we learned a lot about MW, and DW got great ideas about where to spectate the marathon.
Being able to ride BTMRR for the first time in many years. It has been down the last couple of times we visited.
Dinner at Blue Zoo. Great food and service. Quiet table. This trip was our everything: October anniversary, Christmas, birthdays. And this dinner was our anniversary dinner.
Spectating the 10k on the 10th, and possibly seeing Rogue 2 in flight at the Boardwalk. Even
@lhermiston can be hard to see in the dark.
Boma breakfast on the 10th. Best breakfast on-site. Talking with 10k runners and experiencing the joy of others sharing their stories.
HH DIS meet. So many new faces to put with screen names. All welcoming of newcomers to the MW experience.
HM trip up MS USA. Lee was right: it can be emotional. I kept telling myself to savor this.
Suddenly realizing that the gang was passing me at the end of the HM, and being able to finish with:
@rteetz @FFigawi @Bree @lhermiston
DW finding me in the self-treatment medical area after the HM. Bookends perfectly with our first race: a 5k Turkey Trot in 2010, on 3 weeks notice we were going to run our first race, she found me in the finish area that day as we were heading to get our shoe chip tags removed.
Starting the marathon in the company of the Goof Troop.
Getting texts from DW that just said "dinosaur", and knowing that it meant she was at TTC next to the inflatable dinosaur.
Coming out of backstage onto MS USA and seeing all. those. people. From there all the way to Future World. It felt like thousands of people.
Seeing DW again at the GF.
Realizing around mile 20 that I was going to finish my first marathon.
Coming around the corner and seeing the finish line ( I can see it now, even)
Doing the
Castaway Cay Challenge 5k together with DW start to finish. She said after 2 miles she was spent, and we'd be walking the rest of the way (she was coming down with influenza). She still looks better in the finish photos than I do.
I plan to start turning our training journal into a trip report journal. All are welcome to stop by.