Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Tower of Terror 10 Miler Recap

Finally! Life has been so crazy for the last week that I haven't really had the opportunity to sit down and write a recap of the race. So here I go, finally.

Tower of Terror was my first 10 mile distance race and my first night race. I was super excited to run it, because I was running with two very fun people: Alyssa and Seth. (who had never met before, yet went to the same college for a few months in 2003 and knew some of the same people. crazy. Anywayyys...)

EXPO.

The plan was that Kath and I would pick Alyssa up after work on Friday and do the expo. It didn't happen. The traffic was a little awful and we would not have made it to ESPN in time. So we went downtown and had dinner instead. It was lots of fun!

Alyssa and I met at the expo on Saturday morning instead. As we were walking in, I saw Seth, Andrea, and Andrea's sister, Beth walking out of the expo. It was definitely a case of weird timing. We chatted for about five minutes and then Alyssa and I went inside to get the packets. We walked the expo two or three times looking at stuff and talking. I alost always get an "I did it!" shirt, but I didn't this time, because they didn't have many sizes left. They said there would be more merchandise after the race, so I intended to do it then.

The rest of Saturday was Kath and I going to lunch and Barnes and Noble. Before I knew it, it was time to get ready to go to the race!

RACE.

I met with everyone at Wide World of Sports. I was going to meet at Seth's and then ride over as a group, but stupid I-4 traffic was terrible and I just met them there. Naturally, I arrived ridiculously early and talked to my grandma on the phone for a while.

We all met up by the buses and rode over to Hollywood Studios. We checked bags and then went to our Corrals. Since Alyssa was in "C", I decided I'd move back from "B" to run with her. Seth decided to run with us, too. (It felt a little intimidating running with people faster than me, but I tried not to talk about it. Much. Out loud.) We sat in the middle of the corral and talked about our respective running experiences together and it was really fun. Before long, it was time to get moving toward the start.

I was really nervous before this race. I've only ever been this nervous for my two full marathons. I wasn't really sure what I was getting myself into. I didn't know the course and I'd never run a night race. I was also a little anxious about running with people that I hadn't raced with before. Seth and I had run once before- an 8 miler and Alyssa and I ran next to each other on treadmills once, but that doesn't count. So.. lots of anxiety leading up to this one.

We started off running really well. We ran the first 7-8 miles only stopping for water breaks. I almost always stop and take walk breaks, so it was a lot for me to push it as hard as I did. We walked a lot towards the end, which I feel so-so about. I felt like I should take it a little easy, because I've been pushing so hard for Chicago constantly. It was horribly humid outside, too. Awful. We stopped for one picture with Stitch, because the line wasn't terrible and I planned to get more at the after party.

I started feeling weird when we got close to the finish line. Initially, I thought I was just hungry. I knew that there would be snacks at the finish and that I could eat then.

Finishing was awesome. It finished backstage at the Tower of Terror!

Unfortunately, my stomach started feeling worse and turned into a full body awful-ness. I had a massive migraine. I didn't get to enjoy any of the after party at all. I sat for an hour or so and then Alyssa and I left. I'm really disappointed.

I am glad that I didn't feel awful during the race though!!

Overall- great race. We ran though some woods, through ESPN (including the track and baseball field!), and all the way through Hollywood Studios. I absolutely love that it was a new course and that it was an inaugural race! So much fun!

I'm also glad that I got to run in a group. I've never really done that before. It was a lot of fun!


3 comments:

  1. Woo, awesome run! Yay! I'm super jealous about the medal. Like, seriously.

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    1. It is an amazing medal! I'll let you see it in person in a month and a week! lol. It glows in the dark and the elevator part moves up and down.

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  2. Yeah, the medal is pretty amazing! I'm jealous of the course going through the park and woods and backstage! However when I ran that morning my legs were really tired so if I had run it would have been rough for me. If only disney races were a bit cheaper. It sucks that you couldn't enjoy the afterparty but at least you had fun in general.

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