My First 5K!

By Leslie Bird

(The following is a first hand account, or diary, by Leslie Bird, on her first trip to Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend.)

Packing

I’m not a runner. Really, I’m not. If you would have told me at this time last year that I’d be running a 5K at Walt Disney World on Marathon weekend, I’d laugh you right out of the room. But here I am, packing for Disney so I can run a 5K. I’ve never packed for a race before. I think my suitcase is in danger of exploding. I’ve got cold and warm weather gear, a rain poncho (please NOT rain gear), and half of my closet in there. The bag with my running shoes, iPod, moleskin, and a few other necessities, makes it look like I know what I’m doing.

How did this happen? When did Disney become a race destination? Go back to March 2011″¦ I was online listening to my very first podcast. I’m an junkie. You see…I’m a planner. I make lists upon lists for every trip we take. Allears helps me know what’s going on. I needed the current menu for Coral Reef and noticed the post about a podcast the next day. I had to ask my son how a podcast worked, but the next night I was at my computer when people started talking about Team AllEars. Huh? What’s Team AllEars? It’s people who run marathons to raise money for breast cancer research. That got my attention. But I can’t run a marathon. No way… but then they started talking about a 5K. My brain said something like “Hey a 5K isn’t that long”¦Google it real quick”. 3.1 miles. The chat lines were flying up the screen so fast I barely had time to read them. People were saying they walked it last year. WAIT! I can WALK 3.1 miles. If I can walk around Epcot for eight hours, I certainly can walk 3.1 miles. (Irony of irony the race is around World Showcase). Sign me up!

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Training

I’ve been doing Relay for Life the past two summers, but I wanted to DO something more, make a difference. You see, my best friend Kim died four years ago from breast cancer. I miss her every day. And let’s face it; I could stand to lose a few pounds, and this makes me accountable to the rest of my team (I belong to a team!), so I can’t quit. The runDisney site says you have to maintain a 16-minute mile. I bought a stopwatch, put my sneakers on, and went to the track. Four laps later I was in trouble. 22 minutes. Now what? For the next three weeks I walked as fast as my feet would go, but even then I couldn’t get the time under 19 minutes. It turns out I’m not a fast walker.

Hmm. I’m going to have to run part of it. Nice going genius. You – run – HA. You just had knee surgery. Dr. Schwartz is going to LOVE this! Then my brain jumped in and said something like “Hey Kim can’t run at all, so shut up, suck it up, and DO it!” So I started running one straightaway in each lap. Four weeks later I was running one curve and one straightaway on each lap. My time was down to 16 minutes. I could do it! But then I started playing the “What if?” game. What if I get swept? I’m not going all the way to Florida and getting swept. I started alternating walking a lap and running a lap.

When I felt like quitting, I chanted, “You’re running for Kim and raising money to help Deb”. That’s how I breathed”¦ I worked on my time, now I had to work on my endurance. I didn’t have a coach, and I didn’t know about Jeff Galloway yet, so I just winged it. About the beginning of August I added the second mile. Those first few times were rough. My husband would come out and hold the stopwatch, but mostly this was a solo journey. My friends encouraged me on Facebook, but thought I was a little nuts for doing this. I added the third mile in late September and haven’t really thought about distance since. Oh, and I could run the WHOLE thing! Wow! So I’m going to Walt Disney World to do a 5K. Holy cow!

Thursday

It’s Thursday night. We just got back to our room from Yee Haw Bob’s show. It’s 11 pm, and I need to get my things ready for tomorrow morning. Running shoes-check, socks-check, running clothes, jacket, iPod, running belt I bought at the expo (yes against everyone’s advice I am doing something new on race day), gum, chap stick-check. Need to go to sleep. I get up at least four more times to make sure I have everything, and finally pass out around 12:15 am.

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Race Day

Four hours later the alarm goes off. Oh my Lord I’m tired. I get up, get dressed, as we have to be at Epcot soon, and I’m not sure what the traffic will be like. Eat breakfast”¦a banana, rolled up turkey breast, a cheese stick, and a few wheat thins. I make sure I have my gum and chap stick for the umpteenth time (for some reason I can’t run without gum and chap stick). Make sure I have my camera and we go. There’s no traffic and we’re really early. It sure is cold. I parked the car and walked around the corner and I stopped dead in my tracks. Holy cow! There are SO many people! How am I going to keep up with all those people? Stop. Breathe. You can do this. You trained, you will be fine. This is only my second race… there were 12 people in my first one.

Wow this is a lot of people. We need to find the team. More people are arriving”¦ costumes, teams like ours. There’s the team! Now I’m excited and less nervous.

The announcer says 8000 people. What!?! We’re going out in three waves. My time is wave two. The team goes all together in wave one. Uh oh”¦ I’m not fast enough for wave one. Breathe. Just do what you do. Let them run past you. It will be ok. I didn’t realize how much I talked to myself until I did this race! We’re waiting for the start. The crowd has swallowed up most of the team and I can only see a few people.

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The Race

3-2-1- GO! It takes a few minutes to get to the start line. People are lined up cheering. Don’t start too fast, you’ll get tired. Just do your pace. So I run and weave through the crowd of runners and walkers. I don’t know where my teammates are, but I know they’re with me somewhere. We run around the parking lot and then backstage. Where the heck is the mile marker?!? It has to be close. Go around the corner behind Test Track. The first mile marker shows a time of 16.42. WHAT?!? Breathe. It took a few minutes to get to the start line. We run into World Showcase through Mexico.

Wow! I’m running in Epcot. How cool! First thought”¦ ALL the people are going the same way and no one is trying to run you over with a stroller!” I laughed at myself. Look characters! They said to stop and take pictures. But I don’t want to stop, but I do stop at the American Adventure to take a few pictures across the lake. Keep going!

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People are passing me, but at the same time I’m keeping up with a good deal of the crowd and passing others. I’m not tired now, my adrenaline is going… France. Cross the bridge. Go towards International Gateway. Mile 2 around the corner and the water station. Run past Canada, and Spaceship Earth. It’s getting closer! That means I’m almost done! Still running! Still going! Around Spaceship Earth. Past the memories. Up the hill. Ugh. Getting tired, but still running.

Wait! I can hear COWBELLS! That’s Team AllCheers! Keep going! You’re nearly done! Mile 3. UP a hill…grrrr. Cowbells. Cowbells! I SEE them! I SEE the finish! “GO Louise! (my nickname)” Keep going! Going across the finish I holler “Team AllEars!” I DID IT!!! I DID IT!!!! I ran the whole race! I’m so excited, but I want to HUG someone! Why can’t people wait for you at the very end? I get my medal, take the finish photo, and get my food bag and water. Then I walk about another mile back around the tents to the cheer spot.

Thelma gives me a hug. You did it Louise!!! Now I stand at the railing and watch the other runners and walkers come up the hill and cheer. GO! GO! GO! I drink two bottles of water and eat the banana and bagel from my food bag. I start to think about when was the last time I ate a bagel. I am freezing, and need to get warm, but I’m not leaving until the team has all finished. I wish I had brought my coat. We head back to the car after the last person goes past the cheer location. Besides being cold, all I could think was I ran with 8000 people!

I really don’t remember the drive back to Coronado Springs. I don’t remember if we talked about the race (I’m sure we did). I do remember standing under the shower for 25 minutes trying to get warm. No rest for the weary, we headed straight over to Animal Kingdom. People are wearing their medals. I left mine in the room. Didn’t know people would be wearing them in the parks. When we got onto our safari vehicle our driver asked who had run the 5K that morning. Two of us raised our hands. The woman sitting in front of us said “I don’t think I could be a runner.” During the whole safari ride I smiled, and not because I finally saw more than that lion’s backside”¦ I smiled because while I may not be the fastest, or in the best shape, and I wasn’t going to be doing the marathon; I smiled because I guess I’m a runner. A runner running with purpose”¦Team AllEars!

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9 Replies to “My First 5K!”

  1. Way to go!!! Be proud of yourself and all your hard work!!! Hope to be there next year for both the 5K and the marathon!!! Going to skip the Goofy!!! Keep up the good work!

  2. Our family (my husband, daughter 15 and I) did the 5K also and it was our first! I can relate to you on starting from scratch last Feb 2011 and working our way to that 16 minute mark by a run/walk! However, race day I ended up completely walking and finished at about a 19 min mile pace since I wasn’t expecting to be 3 months pregnant on race day! I was surprised I was no where near last too. Congrats to you!

  3. Hooray on your first RunDisney race– a little intimidating this year hearing there were EIGHT THOUSAND for the 5K alone…My brother and I have done the 5k for the past 2 years, and I did the half last year and will probably do it again next year. We had so much fun both years but this year was even better because I was running in front of Team All Ears! I turned around and saw the t-shirts and was like “Rich, that’s Deb, from AllEars” and he was like “What? Who?” so I had to explain, and then I kept pondering whether or not I should ask them for a picture?!? Well, didn’t get the picture because I kept running, but if you saw two red “Got Lobstah” shirts, that was us! I’m wondering- how does one run for Team AllEars? I’d love to be on the team next year.

    Team AllEars: Keep following this blog – we will announce our plans for 2013!

  4. Congrats!!!!
    I ran my first 5k during the Wine and Dine marathon weekend. It was so cool running thru Animal Kingdom. I’m wanting to run the 10 mile Tower of Terror race in Sept when I go. My mom wants to do the 5k.

  5. Yes you are a runner Leslie and I’m so very proud of you. Love your story. Love your enthusiasm and can’t wait to see you next year