26 Miles, 26-Degree Weather
One of our Account Executives, Kristin Davis, recently completed the Disney Marathon. Here’s her story…
It’s 5:23 a.m., just minutes before the start of the 2010 Walt Disney World Marathon, and I’m filled with mixed emotions of excitement and self-doubt. I breathe in deeply and exhale to calm my nerves, watching my breath fill the air like smoke. I’m told it’s 26 degrees outside, but I can’t feel anything. Partly because I’m wearing just about every item of clothing that I own, but also because I’m too focused on the race to think about anything else.
My heart beat quickens as fireworks crack open against the sky and I hear Minnie Mouse’s squeaky voice over the intercom wishing us all “Good luck.” Claiming whatever personal space I can in a crowd of 15,000 runners, I try to get in some last-minute stretching. Then I stop to look up. The noise, the cold, the people, everything fades into the background as I watch the fireworks splash bright hues of red, blue and purple across the black sky, and I think about how grateful I am to be here in this moment. I close my eyes and breathe in again, as if to store it all in my memory so that I could revisit it again later.
A countdown from 10 begins, and the runners all start to inch closer toward the start line, but I hang back. I double-check that I have everything I need for the next four hours: Cell phone, Cliff bar, iPod, Chap Stick. Because once I cross that start line, I’m not going to stop until I finish this race … no matter what.
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