Run like mothers we did… COLD mothers!! It was a record low temperature setting Disney Marathon weekend and I’m pretty sure 23,964 other marathoners were wondering who invited the “Bad Weather IronMommies.” For those of you who’ve never raced with the Sarasota IronMommies before, we hope you’ve enjoyed your good weather. Nevermind the fact that we live and compete in Florida, the sunshine state. We’ve even contemplated changing our motto from “IronMommies – No Mommy Left Behind” to “IronMommies – The Solution to a Drought,” or in the case of the Disney Marathon, “IronMommies – Combatting Global Warming one Race at a Time.” It. Was. Cold. As IronMommies, we’ve trained in rain, heat, humidity, heat, and heat. None of which were present on race day. The six of us spent the week before the race scouring the Target clearance racks for gloves, scarves, hats… anything that would keep us alive in the frozen Florida tundra for 8 hours. We then violated the first rule of marathoning and raced in clothing we’d never run even a mile in.

But after 6 months of training and well over 550 training miles, race day was upon us. We got out of bed (notice I didn’t say woke up… there was no sleeping going on) and began layering. Forty five minutes later we were all coated in multiple layers and ready to face our frozen destiny. We all boarded our respective buses and met up with each other at the family reunion area near the start. We visited the porta-potties, checked our bags, tried to choke down some pre-race breakfast, and froze for about an hour before making our way to the start corral. We made it just in time and didn’t have to wait at all before the first wave was sent running. We slowly moved up to the start line as part of the second wave and before I knew it, we were off. The fireworks and crowd support at the start of the race felt awesome and our adrenaline was pumping. I was a bit suprised though because I didn’t realize how much running we had to do on the highway before getting to loop back into Epcot. It felt like we just kept going in circles. But finally we passed the Epcot parking turnstiles and could see the big white globe in the distance. The run through Epcot was AWESOME! The torches were lit around the lake, the World Showcase lights were flashing, and the music was pumping. Unfortunately, before I knew it we were out of Epcot and the long trek up to Magic Kingdom was upon us. By this point, my toes had thawed out and I was feeling okay. We were still running together as a group and everyone seemed to be in good spirits.

I believe it was about mile 8 that we lost Eve, and by mile 9 Rose-Anne, Natalie, and Ashley had pulled ahead of Robyn and I. Robyn turned to me and with an icicle hanging from her nose and vowed to me that we’d cross the finishline together. We made our way into Magic Kingdom and beheld the beauty of Cinderella’s Castle. The beauty didn’t last nearly long enough and the next thing I knew we were spit back out onto one of the Disney highways making the long, dreadful trip down to Animal Kingdom. It was at this point that the wind kicked up, the temperature dropped even further, and I vowed to myself that I would never, ever, ever, ever do this again. I mean really, what type of sick person wakes up at 2:45am to come torture themselves through 26.2 of the coldest miles known to man? Certainly, not a sane person!! My thought was quickly interrupted when a paralyzing spasm errupted in my leg muscles. After many a symptom free training run, I can only attribute this to the fact that my body was colder than it had ever been in my life. I slowed to walk while Robyn kept running. After about one tenth of a mile, my legs loosened up and I was able to pick back up to a run and catch up with Robyn. After passing what was apparently the Disney manure fields, we entered the back of Animal Kingdom. At that point, we decided a potty stop was in order. Okay, so I didn’t really need to go… but I was desperate for any excuse to find indoor warmth and the opportunity to sit down… even just for a few seconds.

Within minutes, we were back on the course and exiting Animal Kingdom. Now we were in for that super fun, out and back stretch with a big hill that we’d heard so much about. It didn’t disappoint. Finally, we were heading into Hollywood Studios and the race had come down to the longest and most painful 5k of our lives! I honestly don’t remember much of the scenery from Hollywood Studios through The Boardwalk. I think I must have been delirious because those three miles are all a blur… except for those glorious gold robes at mile 26. Boy, could that choir sing!! And with a burst of tears, Robyn and I grabbed each other and cried tears of joy that we were there… the finish was in sight. After I hobbled back to the monorail, to our parked car, and into our hotel, I took a scalding hour long shower. It will go down in history as the best shower of my life.

Today is four days post-marathon and I went for my first 2 mile recovery run today. My quads are still pretty sore and my body feels tired all over, but all things considered it wasn’t too bad. For the record, my body still has not warmed back up and I have developed this mind altering fear of being cold.  Literally, just a tinge of cool air sends my entire body into complete shutdown mode.  Despite all this, I must be completely insane, because I have an insatiable question in my mind about how it would feel to run a marathon in temperatures that aren’t subfreezing. I’ll have to get back to you on that one.

Congratulations to all the IronMommies Disney Marathon Team and Lanell and Leslie, who comprised our IronMommies Disney Half Marathon Team!! All of you ladies survived some pretty extreme conditions and earned every ounce of those beautiful finishers medals! Wear them with pride for the next week. Then we’ll get back to work! Time to start working towards those 2010 goals!