Star Wars Half Marathon - The Dark Side

Training

Last time I raced was about 7 years ago, in my 20's. I lived in NYC and ran tons of NYRR races and ran the NYC Marathon a few times. But I really hadn't run much since then. So I registered for this race and started training in the first week of January. My first full week of training, I logged 10 miles. I gradually added to that until I peaked at 22 miles per week, which I hit 3 weeks before the race. During training, I ran the 13.1 distance on three different occasions and beat my race time goal twice. I tapered back from 22 miles per week to 18 miles per week. The last long run I did--a 10 miler exactly one week out--I ran at 8:41 min/mile and it felt great.

When I started training, my goal was to simply finish the race. But I was bouncing back into being a runner much faster than I expected, so part way through training I decided to aim for a finish in under two hours. Over the course of training, I lost 10 pounds. But I only got better control of my diet about two weeks ago, so I have some progress to make there. As for the week of the race, I went lap swimming once and also logged an easy 3 miler. I ran that particular course in 25:01. I originally ran that course in 33:19 in early January. (I wish I had the heart rate data as well, but I didn't have a sensor that early on.) I was feeling antsy about not running in the last few days before the race, but I knew that would happen from experience.

Miscellaneous Training Notes

• When I ran in my twenties, Strava wasn't a thing and there wasn't such a clear winner as a fitness logging platform. It's so awesome to see what my friends and family are doing and share my runs with them. That's such a great motivation.

• Strava's heatmap helped me find great places to run in San Francisco and while traveling. I tried a bunch of different routes, and it kept things interesting.

• Carrying my phone during my runs became a pain, so I found a refurb Garmin fenix 3HR and started using it late in my training. It took a few tries to get my settings right, but I was glad to have it during the race. It also gets a better GPS signal in urban environments compared to my iPhone 6S.

• I travel a bunch for work now and that's taken a toll on my health. It's really hard to eat well and stay active. But having weekly running goals has motivated me to stay in shape.

• I became obsessed with trying new running routes and now I want to run in as many states and countries as I can.

Pre-race

I meant to wake up at 3am and get to bus by 3:30am, but I was up at 2am and wasn't going to fall back asleep. It worked out well; having a little extra time to get ready was nice. I was on the bus around 3:10 and then on-site shortly thereafter. The start village was pretty amazing. I snagged a photo with BB-8, bought some fruit, and sat down on the curb until the corrals opened. I went to the corrals just before the pre-show started. Since I didn't have proof of time, I was in corral F. I pushed as far up front as I could. Even though I had a long time to wait before the race started, the pre-show was actually fairly entertaining and made the time pass quickly. I managed to get to the start line with the first group of corral F runners.

Race Miles 1 - 3

After crossing the start line, I was in a bit of a panic for the first quarter mile. Some of the people who had crossed the start line ahead of me were already on a walk interval and were taking up so much of the width of the course. I was having a very hard time avoiding people, it was like running in an obstacle course. I relaxed a bit when the course opened up, but I found myself still bobbing and weaving quite a bit to keep my pace. Luckily, I saw someone ahead of me doing the same, so I followed him for few miles. Honestly, it was probably a good way to avoid going out of the gate too fast and finishing strong. My first mile split was 8:59, which I felt good about because I knew that usually the first mile of a race is always the toughest in terms of dealing with runner density.

In the first few miles I was starting to get a sense of what this race is like. There is TONS of entertainment along the course, including music, photo ops with characters, lighting, sound effects, video screens, and even pyrotechnics. I'm used to pretty boring races, so this was pretty cool. At this point I'm feeling challenged but also very confident that--barring any surprises--I'm in for a good race.

Race Miles 4 - 8

We entered into the backstage area of Animal Kingdom, which was really interesting to see, even though it was still pretty dark out. I was loving the idea of running in the parks until we got closer to Pandora. It was so cool to run in Pandora at night, but the course there is REALLY narrow and there were still a lot of runners. At mile marker 5, my split time was 9:15, which put me back into a panic.

Even after exiting Animal Kingdom, there were a couple spots where the course was surprisingly narrow in the parking lot area in front of Animal Kingdom. Even though it was so interesting to run through a closed-off park, I was glad to get back out to the highway so that I could have some room to pass. I had my two best split times between mile marker 7 and 9. That more than made up for my slow mile inside Animal Kingdom. I'm back to feeling relaxed and on a good pace.

Race Miles 9 - 11

Between mile marker 9 and 10, there's a bit of a climb up a highway overpass, but then after mile 10, you enter Hollywood Studios. I really enjoyed running by Tower of Terror, and seeing the Cast Members who work that attraction. Of course, their whole schtick is not smiling, and they were pretty much in character out there. Even though the course narrows through the Epcot resorts, it was nice to see so many people out cheering.

Race Miles 12 - Finish

Entering Epcot and running through the World Showcase was awesome. So many cast members from the different countries were out waving flags and cheering runners on. By the time I entered Epcot, I finally started to feel like I was running roughly on pace with the other runners around me. Running past Spaceship Earth was a highlight for me. I had the energy to kick it up a notch towards the finish line and ran the last tenth of a mile at a 7:30 pace. I was very happy with my official finish time: 1:54:32.

Post-race

I had to rush through the post race process because I needed to get on a bus back to the hotel so that I could catch my flight. I wasn't originally planning to leave the same day as the race, but I had to change my plans because of extenuating circumstances. RunDisney does a great job with the post-race process.

General Race Notes

• Setting a race time goal at a Disney race and not being seeded in the right corral is going to be a frustrating experience. I knew this would be a bit difficult, but I still had a lot of trouble getting into an even, relaxed pace until the very end. It's exacerbated by the fact that the course is rather narrow at a few spots. The narrowness of the course wouldn't be a problem if I were running with people at the same pace.

• I was surprised at the amount on run/walk runners I saw. In fact, even the pace groups were run/walking. I know that's a thing, but it's clearly very popular at Disney races.

Overall, I had such an amazing time at the race. It was fun and entertaining. It wasn't at all like the races I used to do, but in mostly good ways. I hope to do another Disney race, and hopefully I can be seeded in my appropriate pace group next time.