#131 - My runDisney Marathon Experience 2022

January 16, 2022 Tadris Parker

In this week’s blog/podcast I will give you a day-by-day breakdown of my latest runDisney experience. On Sunday, January 9th, 2022 I officially ran my very first full marathon. It has been a long time since I could say that I’ve entered a race distance for the first time. I’m going to give you my biggest takeaway, the wins and my mistakes heading into Sunday’s event.

Hello, my name is Coach Tadris Parker and I love helping people reach their health goals through running and walking. My blog posts are my notes for my weekly podcast.

Press play to hear my full experience on this trip

See this content in the original post

In the podcast, I just pressed record and started speaking each day with no notes. Here below I briefly typed in some thoughts from each day after the podcast was already recorded.

Thursday:

Before my daily responsibilities, I walked my daily mile. While walking I decided to listen to some others on YouTube give tips on what to do days before a marathon. A few things that I learned:

You don’t have to overly carb load before the event.
Have carbs responsibly. (Whole grain rice, not pizza)
Stay off your feet the day before (Don’t do excess walking)
Take your #flatlay picture the day before the race event.

Friday:

I live in New Jersey and it began snowing at 2 am. We had to be at the airport at 4:30 am. I made sure that I woke up early enough to shovel snow and throw some salt down. My niece came over to watch our dog for us while we were gone.

The flight was only delayed by a half-hour. Then away we went to warm and sunny Florida. When we arrived, I immediately went to the expo to pick up my packet. It felt so weird NOT to go get into the half marathon line. It was crazy just how weird it felt for me to be in the marathon line.

I planned to get my packet and get out of there without spending any extra money. That didn’t happen as someone from a booth threw a mini percussion massager on my back. Knots were being removed and after writing a blog on TB12 Method, I had to have this device.

Ran into my mentor Jeff Galloway and got a picture. I had the opportunity to speak with a Galloway Pacer. I picked the right pacer to look for on race day. My goal was 4:30 and with the run, walk, run we were set to do a 90/30 ratio. Looked at an enlarged map to get a visual as to what to expect on race day. Where are the long roads, how long do we stay at each park, etc?

Family and I checked into our Disney All-Star Movies Hotel.

We headed to Disney Springs for some dinner. I ordered Spicy Chicken and Rice Bowl from a restaurant/ bowling alley called Splitsville. So Good!

I ended up walking a total of 6.5 miles that day. (Mistake)

Saturday:

Woke up and walked a mile to keep my streak going.

A fun day at Hollywood Studios.

A night at Disney Springs for dinner.

Total miles walked 6.5 miles (Mistake to have put 13 miles of walking before the big event.)

Sunday

Race day. Woke up at 1:30 am. Caught the shuttle to race at 2:30 am. Arrived at 3 am. The race doesn’t start until 5 am. Disney wants you there in enough time to take care of the bag check in’s. There is a pretty long walk to the start of the race.

On the shuttle over, I recorded a clip for the podcast and met Dillon from Mississippi.

We were talking the whole way as we were walking through the zones. Dillon runs trail marathons and this was his first road marathon in quite some time. Dillon had to stop off at the medical tent for pre-race attention and that was the last I saw him.

Now it was off to my corral. I learned my lesson from my past races there. Do not go into your corral too early if you know that you will need to go to the restroom. The corral can get packed with people and there aren't restrooms inside the corral. I didn't enter my corral until 4:50 am. I hung out near the restrooms. On race day you may find yourself having to go repeatedly. Either due to the nerves, the morning coffee, or the water that you were drinking to make sure you were hydrated.

I found my pacer that I met on Friday, lined up and we took off.

Thousands of people made it hard to get into the pace we were looking for in the first 2-3 miles. As the roads opened up and got wider we were able to start catching back up to the pace we were after. Our goal was a 4:30 pace for the marathon. The first half of the event, I was on pace, then a bathroom break derailed my plans. I lost my pacer and began my journey alone. Things got real as I hit the wall in mile 22. Miles 22 and 23 were the worst in my life. Miles 14 - 23 were Disney highway miles with nothing much to see. I regained some strength when we entered mile 24 as we entered Hollywood Studios. My Keep Calm and Run To The Best You members were sending me so many encouraging messages. Those messages were playing in my ear down the stretch and were much needed. Too many names to mention here, but I must thank Ed Brown & Chris Ballard as they both tracked me from the beginning. Both were relentless with timely encouragement. My medal is as much theirs as it is mine. Love all members that messaged me that morning.

The race was over and I immediately went to the medical tent for some ice.

Limped my way to my wife and son that was waiting for me at the finish line. A wonderful sight. I found my way back to the hotel. I got some much-needed rest as I lay in bed watching NFL games while my family went to the pool.

I could barely walk as some bones in my feet were hurting and my groin was on fire.

Bring on Monday.

Monday

Woke up Monday to do my daily mile and got it done slowly. This was the day for the Magic Kingdom with the family. We had this scheduled for Sunday and I knew that wouldn't work. When arriving at the resort we changed it from Sunday to Monday. (Good Call) We as a family had a lot of fun on this day.

Tuesday:

Woke up and got my mile in with little to no pain in my feet. Groin pain was gone. We spent time at Disney Springs. We bowled and had lunch at Splitsville. Hung out that the pool before the 8 pm flight back to cold N.J.

Wednesday:

Back to everyday life back in New Jersey. No signs of pain or limping from the weekend's marathon. Walked the mile easily.

Thursday:

I trained my members by running with them for 20 minutes. My body was ready for action. Rest time after a marathon varies from person to person. I’ve seen suggestions anywhere from 7 days - 26 days. Now I have my own experience to go off of. The most important thing is to listen to your body. I was ready for light running after a 4-day rest.

Final Thought:

I used two methods to train for this event. The run, walk, run as well as the 9-Mile Marathon method in which I focus on my heart rate during key training days. I wouldn’t change a thing. I managed to run a marathon without losing any toenails, no crazy blisters or lingering pain that lasted nearly a month. I love helping people, in particular parents, to run events without spending a massive amount of time training. Spending long hours training every weekend not only robs your family of time spent with you. Running long hours weekly will have you overtrained and tired before you ever line up at the starting line. I want to thank my travel agent Lori McIntyer for helping with our travel arrangements and making this trip possible. When you are ready to set up your dream Run-Cation, you are going to need an experienced travel agent to help you plan a stress-free experience. Reach out to Lori at A Perfect Journey today and tell her Coach Tadris sent you!

If you are interested in running your first race event and want to learn more about running less, yet further, faster. Please fill out the Contact Us form for a FREE call with me Coach Tadris!