Celebration Marathon

Despite having been to Disney more than a dozen times since 2012, and even Universal once, I had never seen Celebration, FL - just a hop, skip, and a jump from both theme parks. It is really a cute, quaint little town. 

And there was also an amusing store that was a dog grooming and bakery. Alas, there weren't any dogs in the front part of the store (the bakery), so none available to pet. They had a few signs that I totally appreciated and generally agree with. :-)

    

Celebration is the site of a small-field full and half marathon that I've heard about many times from one of my running friends and co-pacers. So, I was happy to FINALLY take the leap into pacing the race.

In the lead-up to the weekend, the south was having an unusually cold winter. And race day would be the same, with the race starting at an ideal - though chilly - 45F.

When I arrived in town for the expo, it was just chilly enough with me wearing a pacing singlet, but it was ok.

I picked up my bib, t-shirt, and fabulously soft, warm blanket at the expo, chatted for a few minutes with some of the pacers, and returned to drop off my stuff in the rental car and get lunch before starting my shift at the pacing booth.

Despite a couple of the recommendations for lunch from the people at the booth, I decided to just grab a bite at the local diner, and took one of the outdoor seats.

I crossed paths for a little at the expo while with the aforementioned co-pacer (Laura) manning the MarathonPacing.com table and her two children.

After they departed, I started my shift, answering various questions from the runners looking to join one of the groups (noting that the half marathoners would stay with the full marathon pacers up through about Mile 12, at which point, they needed to split off and finish on their own). 

I finally made my way to the hotel where several of the pacers were staying. There was a considerable line waiting to check in (as it's a very popular Disney "Good Neighbor" hotel), and one lady who was warning the rest of us about what she was seeing as a scam charge. (As my room was comped, I never had the reason to see first-hand what she was really talking about.)

These were some of the nicest digs yet that I've been in as a pacer. While there were three of us sharing the accommodations, we were in a huge suite. Shame it was only for the one night.

The pace team met up for dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant and went over the plan for the race.

It was nice a chilly in the morning - perfect for the start of the race. I decided to park at the Mile 1 and 14 markers (less than a mile from the start line, in a direct line, to make departure easy while the marathon was still ongoing.

After our group photo, we lined up in order to help the runners gauge where they should line up, and in an attempt to get them to join our respective groups. Most of the people in my vicinity looking to run 4:05 for the full (or approximately 2:02 for the half) weren't engaging at all. Even after we started running and I started asking some of my standard questions to try to get them talking, I got very little in responses -- tough crowd, even with my phrasing things towards half marathoners (since they comprised the majority of the runners).

After the half marathoners broke away, I had about 5 or 6 people remaining in my group who were running in the full marathon. At this point, they became a bit more engaged in conversation. I'm not sure why they didn't say much beforehand -- were they intimidated by the half marathoners, or were they just too far away from me to hear me or to speak up? No matter.

The course was nice and scenic. There were a couple of times that we were running along a boardwalk through a wooded area -- narrow enough with so many twists and turns that my pace slowed more than I thought during those stretches. It helped keep our legs fresh, but also required me to speed up a chunk afterwards to make up for that time. There was even a high school track on the route that we ran a lap during each half which provided a little spring to our step -- not as bad as I usually find that sort of surface to be. There were a few spots on the course that were poorly marked and I didn't know which way I was supposed to go, but luckily enough they had course marshals at those spots who were able to quickly answer the question and point me the right way. The most confusing spot was near Mile 19 where the flag was placed in a spot that made it seem like it was much further away than it should have been -- it took several minutes before I was able to figure out what was going on and satisfied myself that I was still on pace rather than mysteriously several minutes behind.

The water stops were pretty good, and at the stop at Mile 24, there were a couple of guys who were standing about 100 feet in front of it asking if people wanted to the splashed with water. By that point, it had warmed up enough (despite my having taken off my hat and rolled down my sleeves) that I glad agreed and held my arms wide. The two of them ran back, I opened my arms wide, and four people at the station gleefully threw cups of water straight at my chest. Dang, that felt good.

I had been confused about what the end of the race was going to look like. I didn't realize that we would be running around the back of the pond, so at the turn before Mile 26, I didn't appreciate that I was really in the right spot, since there were no other runners there at the time -- I didn't know I was really in the right spot until I finally saw the Mile 26 marker. And then it seemed like it would be more than 0.2 miles to the finish (which would mess up my time), but it was spot-on.

Finished only eight seconds from "the pin." As the 4:05 pacer, the true goal was 4:04:30 (with 30-second buffer on either side).

The immediate post-race food and drink was fine. They had small cups of Coca Cola and they poured me a new cup of a freshly opened bottle when I asked if the pre-poured was flat (which I wouldn't touch) or not. Hearing the stereotypical fizz, I gladly downed the cup of Coke.

If that was all that was available after the race, I would have been displeased. However, that was just the beginning. Most of the restaurants in the vicinity of the finish line had tables set up to provide a little sample of their food to the runners, who were all given cards to be checked off with each stop we made.

Nice fresh salad

The rice and beans from the same restaurant was a welcome addition to post-race food. 

Tiny brisket sandwich (with cheddar cheese and BBQ sauce) was really delicious. Shame I couldn't have seconds.

That mimosa went down very fast. Interesting, I could only get one of those, but between the two stations that were handing out beer, I could have gotten three beers -- if only I drank beer. Once I finished getting everything on the card that I wanted, I handed it to one of the other runners who was more than willing to get another beer with it.

Small but tasty portion of New England clam chowder being doled out at the same station as the roasted almonds and the small doughnuts.

This restaurant had the biggest "miss" with their offering. The pizza dough was undercooked and flavorless, and the marinara sauce served with it was similarly disappointing. One bite and into the trash it went. Oh well, more room for other things.

The pizza place ran out of pizza long before I crossed the finish line. (Heck, even before the fastest pacer - running 3:30 - finished, apparently, because the half marathoners ate it all. :-) ) While the penne was tasty, it was a disappointingly small 7 pieces.

Tasty caramel corn. I should have held off eating this until the end.

Mmm... pancakes. These were quite good, and the offered toppings were maple syrup, chocolate chips, and whipped cream. Despite this photo (stock photo from the race), I actually only had maple syrup on my pancake. And rather than make an enormous mess, I made sure to sit down at one of the tables at the top of the row of stations to be able to cut and eat it with my fork. Doing so one handed while carrying other items would have been nigh on impossible.

Fellow pacer - Laura - and this day's pre-race singer of the national anthem - Jonathan.

Thankfully the hotel was willing to give me a 1pm late check-out. I didn't get back to the car until about 12:15, but there was enough time to get back, shower, change, and pack out. And then Laura and I headed out to enjoy some rides and animals at Sea World, and then dinner. (As an annual pass holder, she occasionally gets extra day passes for free, and I was the beneficiary of one of them. Nice! My first time at Sea World.)