Space Coast Marathon - 2014: Dolphins, Sunrise, & a River

Space Coast Marathon

Cocoa, FL

Nov 30, 2014

Split Times: 

Location	Net Time	Pace
10k	50:47	8:11/mi
Half	1:47:50	8:14/mi
20mi	2:54:09	8:42/mi
Finish	4:06:28	9:25/mi

Total Time:	4:06:28 (9:25 pace)
My Rank in Age Division (M45-49):	45 out of 215
My Rank Overall:	436 out of 2729
Unique State:	13
Overall Marathon:	16
Under 4 Hours:	No
Weather:	48°F at the Start Line

Quick Facts:

• This was my 13th unique state and my 16th overall marathon.
• Sue's parents often stay in this area every winter but only January through March.  It was a bummer that they weren't here a month early this year.
• My most memorable moment was seeing the dolphin in the river to my right near mile marker 25!
• Also enjoyed seeing Sue while she was nearing her finish line for the Half.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~

This was a fantastic chance to spend Thanksgiving weekend with 2 of the best people I know:  my wife & my son!  It was especially nice to have Brian, my son, with us, since he doesn't get the opportunity as much.

Once we arrived in Orlando's airport, we were able to show Brian the general area where Sue's parents stay near Cape Canaveral.  Grill's Seafood Deck & Tiki Bar in Port Canaveral is our favorite restaurant, so we ate there, watched Disney's cruise ship leave the port(!), observed lionfish at the nearby store, and saw the beach.

The Expo was a good way for us get into the mood to run the route.  We picked up our bibs, saw the merchandise, and even got Bart Yasso, the Chief Running Officer of Runner's World, to sign a couple of books that we purchased.  I've been able to listen to him speak a time or two at previous marathons, and I enjoyed his discussions of running in faraway lands, like his trip to Africa to survey a potential race route that was found to be too close to rhinos.  Ha.  He has some very good stories.

During the morning of the race, Sue & I arrived at the start line, and I hung around the Half starting line for quite awhile to keep her company.  Just as her Half was about to start, I went over a block to go to the restrooms & get in my "waiting area" which waited for the Half to start before weaving over to the actual start line.  I recall cutting it a little too close with the potty.  We actually had a real restroom, but it had a long line by the time I worked my way over from Sue's starting line.  As always, it worked out.

The full marathon route, as shown on Sue's post, did its first 13 miles or so by an out-and-back north of the start / finish line.  Then it finished the last 13 miles or so by running the same out-and-back going south that the Half Marathoners were running.  I enjoyed the route.  The sunrise was spectacular that morning.  I was keeping my eyes peeled to see Sue on that southern loop, but I still missed her until she practically ran into me to catch my attention.  Hmmm.  It was great to see her, though.  I remember seeing quite a few Jeannies (from I Dream of Jeannie) handing out water or running.

The sunrise was beautiful earlier in the race, and running along the Indian River was wonderful for the entire race.  The best part was spotting a dolphin close to the shoreline at about mile 25!  As I finished up the marathon, I strolled around the finish line and consumed all that I could as I normally do, but then I had to catch the shuttle back to the hotel to get back with Sue & Brian.  Then we drove off to the Orlando airport, so we could fly on to our final destination.  Another good trip.

Be sure to also read Sue's post of the same experience doing the Space Coast Half Marathon!

One of my favorite sites along the drive between Fargo and Minneapolis ... near Mile Marker 117.  I make this trip often;  this picture is taken during my drive to Minneapolis to start off my journey to pick up my son to spend time with him before running in the Space Coast Marathon - 2014.

Eating a delicious meal in Port Canaveral, FL

Chicago Marathon & Space Coast Marathon Christmas decorations that Sue got me!

Sue getting into the groove to start her Half.

Running at about mile 16.5 along the Indian River during the Space Coast Marathon - 2014.

Space Coast Half Marathon 2014

Thanksgiving weekend 2014 we traveled down to Florida for the Space Coast Marathon and Half Marathon.  After checking into the Hampton Inn Cocoa Beach, we drove to the Space Store in Cocoa Village so I could pick up some souvenirs for my class. I had previously researched online a store that sold space shuttle erasers.   Sure enough, they had them!  Here I am right outside the store.

A Space Shuttle eraser!  I had to get them something since they helped with my race (as you will see later in this post).

The next morning we got up and went to the expo which was being held at the Radisson Resort at the Port in Cape Canaveral.  We picked up our bibs and did a little expo shopping.  I found a jacket I liked, a shirt for our son/stepson who was with us, and a Christmas ornament for our tree.  We have ornaments from all our Disney races as well!  

We also saw Runner's World CRO Bart Yasso!   We took our picture with him and he signed the two books we bought from him.

There were plenty of photo opportunities at this expo! 

The Space Coast Marathon currently has something called The Big Bang Series where a different space shuttle appears on the medal each year for five years.  A special extra medal is given to those runners who run three out of the five races (Milky Way Finisher) or all five races (Intergalactic Finisher).  This year the Challenger Shuttle was on the medal.  Sidenote:  For those of you interested in anniversary years, the upcoming Space Coast race in 2016 is also their 45th Anniversary race!  They had a display at the expo with all the medals for all the years, both half and full marathons.

Here is a picture of my bib, shirt, and -a first for me at a race, but fitting - a Moon Pie!

After getting back to our hotel from the expo, we decided to relax at the beach for most of the afternoon and have an early supper.  

We had an early morning wake up the next morning.  We drove to Cocoa and found street parking.  I took a picture of the street signs so I would remember where we parked, as the plan was for me to drive the car back to the hotel when I finished.  That way I could shower and get ready, while Dan would take the shuttle back to the hotel.  We were checking out that day so we had to have a plan!

We stopped at some porta potties while walking to the beginning of the half marathon.  We had someone take our picture.  This has almost become a tradition.  We were joking that our prerace pictures always have porta potties in the background.  A gal heard us and offered to take our photo off to the side of the porta potties. 

Since Dan was running the full marathon, he was wearing his usual marathon shirt.  You will see this shirt often in his marathon posts.  

Since this year's medal was the Challenger shuttle, the one with the teacher (Christa McAuliffe) as part of the crew, I wanted to tie in the fact that I was a teacher, too.  I had a local sporting goods store help me design a sparkly space shuttle on the front with the words "Mrs. Smith accepts the challenge."  On the back, I had them put enough white stars for my class to each put their name in one.  I had them use a black Sharpie to write their name.  I told them this would help me finish the race!

The start line was at the beautiful Cocoa Village area where we had picked up the Space Shuttle erasers a couple days earlier.  They had loud music to pump up the runners.  Dan waited with me till it was almost time for me to start since the half marathoners started a half hour before the marathoners.  In keeping with the theme of the race, they played a video on a big screen of a shuttle launching off!

The half marathoners went south right away in an out and back loop.  The marathoners went north in an out and back loop, then south in the same route as the half marathoners.

It is a beautiful course!  You are running by water the whole time.  It's a flat course, awesome volunteers.  Even homeowners along the route were cheering runners on.  It was amazing to see the sunrise as I was running.  Here is a shot from the beginning of the race, provided by Almost There Photography.  MarathonFoto was also there taking pictures which were available to purchase.

As I was getting closer to my finish, Dan and I crossed paths as he was into his South loop.  He was so in the zone I had to almost jump out in front of him to get his attention!  It was awesome to see him at this point, as I was very tired and ready to be done!

The finish area was in a pavilion in Riverfront Park.  I received my medal, finisher towel, and some snacks.  I sat down for a bit, but then knew I had to hurry back to the hotel so we could catch our plane.   The circular area was a bit confusing.  I wasn't sure how to get out of the "circle" as most of it was roped off, being it was part of the course. I managed to escape the circle, but was still pretty confused on which direction to walk.  It was dark out when we started.  Luckily I had my photos on my phone that I took of the street we parked on and used my GPS to get me there!  With any race, it can be tricky trying to drive out with many roads closed, but I was a little familiar with the main roads since this is near where my parents live three months out of the year.  I took a long way back to the hotel, but it was a route I knew.  I hurried back and showered while Dan finished his race.  I will provide a link to his recap when he gets it up.

Here is my medal and finisher towel....

-Sue

Disney Princess Half Marathon 2013

Since the eighth annual Disney Princess Half Marathon is coming up, I thought it might be a good idea to write a recap of my experience running the race in 2013, the fifth anniversary of this amazing race! I can't tell you how long I wanted to run this particular race! I read recaps on other blogs and was determined to someday run this race! Finally, in the fall of 2012 a co-worker agreed to run it with me, and we signed up! It would be my first half marathon! We ran a local 10K so we could put in a time in order to get a better corral. Soon February was upon us. We flew down early and stayed with my parents in Cape Canaveral. They picked us up at the airport and took us to the expo so we could pick up our race bibs and shop! That year it was held at the Coronado Springs Resort. Luckily we both got in the same corral! They were photo opportunities there and we couldn't resist this one, which we took wearing our newly purchased jackets!

Then we headed to the ocean! We were lucky to have another warm day the next day, and enjoyed some relaxing time by the pool. You can see the pink mesh bag here that we got with our bibs.

The next day we met Dan (my fiance at the time) at Disney All-Star Movies Resort. We wanted to stay on Disney property due to the early race day wake up call. Each building at All-Star Movies has a theme. We stayed at the Love Bug. I loved how the sign outside said "The Big Race." How fitting!

We ate dinner at their food court. Breakfast boxes were also available for purchase for runners. I believe there was a bagel, a banana, and some other items in there. We went back to our room where I tried on my outfit (we were dressing in matching Sleeping Beauty outfits) and laid everything out in preparation for the next morning. We were up by 2:30am (Disney World races require early wake up calls) and ready to go by 3:00am to catch the shuttle to the race start at Epcot.

After being dropped off at Epcot we walked to the "holding area" where there was a lot of dancing and fun as we pumped ourselves up for the big race! Here we are with our breakfast boxes we brought with us.

We had a blast dancing in the holding area, but soon it was time to travel to our corral.  And do I mean travel!!  It was a quite a walk to our corral.  We hit up the porta potties and entered our corral.  Disney does do a good job of checking bibs before allowing runners to enter.  This is where a little of the nerves set in, but luckily we were in the second corral and didn't have to wait long.  I do remember checking my earbuds and they didn't work!!  How was I going to run without my music (side note- I've run the last few of my races without music)?!  Miraculously, one ear bud started working.  I could make do with that.  Our original plan was to run the first half without stopping for any pictures and limit any walk breaks.  Then when we made it to the castle at Magic Kingdom, we'd ease up and stop for pictures.  I had heard about the infamous balloon ladies and didn't want to get picked up before finishing! Another great thing about Disney races is the fireworks they set off for every corral.  Here's our send off...

We were off!  I was running the race I had dreamed of running for years!  I like the fact that this race is made of mainly women, and a good majority of them run in costume.  Important to note, please do a trial run with your costume!  We weren't a mile in and I saw a tutu tossed aside on the road.

It wasn't long before we reached the ticket area to Magic Kingdom.  They do discourage wearing headphones due to the many announcements along the course.   One of these was a caution entering the ticket booth area, to be aware of the speed bumps.  I guess a girl in front of me didn't hear that warning or see the bumps.  She tripped and fell almost right on her face.  Luckily we were really close to a medical stop and I believe they took care of her.

We were getting closer to the Magic Kingdom!  I was excited to be half done, and to see Dan, who was waiting for me near the castle!!  He was such a trooper and probably ran more miles than we did, running around trying to spectate!  Soon we were at this underpass.  This stands out for me because at this point I was struggling to keep up with my younger co-worker!

Finally, we entered Magic Kingdom near Tomorrowland and Space Mountain. RunDisney posted this pic.  Can you find us?

After running down Main Street towards the castle,  we found Dan and stopped for a bit to talk to him and take pictures.  He also had the PowerAde Zero orange flavored drink I like.  After saying our good-byes we started off again.  We quickly found a little spot for a great photo opp with the castle behind us.  We volunteered to take a pic for someone else if they returned the favor.

We were off again, running towards the back of the castle.  Unfortunately, we didn't get any pics of us running through the castle, although I did do a screen shot of us from our video.  See us on the bottom?

As we exited the Magic Kingdom through Frontierland, I ran to use some real bathrooms.  That was nice!  We made our first stop for pictures with the glass slipper guys in tuxes and then we noticed Pocahontas had a short line!

At this point, I started to not feel very well, especially when I stopped to stand in line for pictures, so this is where we split up for a bit.  I continued running with walking intervals, and my friend stopped for pictures and later caught up to me.  And she got some great pics with all the princes and pirates!  My foot started hurting quite a bit, and I thought I might have serious damage to it.   I just needed to finish!  Once we could see the ball of Epcot, I knew we were close.  Towards the end, the route takes you into Epcot a bit.  I noticed a poor girl that had fainted at this point.  So close to the finish!  I felt so bad for her!  Many people were attending to her, so we trudged on.  I remember how I felt at this exact moment in this picture below.  It was a combination of the pain  I was feeling from my foot, and just the emotion that I was going to be finishing my first half marathon!!!

We didn't get a great finish photo since someone crossed right in front of us, but here is a screenshot from our finisher video (that I purchased from MarathonFoto).  If you look way to the left, the girl with the white shirt and pink skirt with her arms raised is Ali Vincent from The Biggest Loser.  I remember they announced her name as we finished.  And yes, it took us over three hours for a half marathon which wasn't too bad considering it was my first, we stopped to visit with Dan for quite a bit, stopped for photos and a couple bathroom stops, and hobbled in at the end.  You don't run Disney races for time, but for fun.  And, boy, did we have fun!

We did it!  I finished my very first half marathon!  And I did it at Disney World!!

After the race we found our shuttle which took us back to our hotel.  I texted Dan that we were leaving right away as I need a restroom badly, sorry for the TMI.   I think the 100% humidity got to me.  We were drenched!  Remember to hydrate, people!   Anyway, Dan met us back at the All Star Movie Resort with Mickey roses for both of us!   Here we are with our roses, medals, and shirts from the race.

I finally earned the right to display this sticker I ordered off Ebay on my Jeep when I got home!

-Sue