Not So Simply Cancelled!!!

Yep, my "simply delayed" flight was cancelled. After the delay to 6:30, they posted one more delay to 6:45. Then just 5 min after posting 6:45, it was cancelled. Their first plan was to put us up in a hotel and re-book us for the 8ish flight Tues morning. But, luckily, some of us had another option to get home Monday night. There was a flight to Birmingham scheduled to leave at 6:35 but was delayed about 10 minutes. This delay allowed several of us to make it on that flight to Birmingham.

Ok, I make it to Birmingham, but now what? The original plan was for Mel to pick me up at HSV. She was too tired to make the hour and a half plus drive to BHM to pick me up there so I (along with all the other HSV bound on the BHM flight) was provided a transportation voucher...by cab!! I'll just say that the trip to HSV was one of the most interesting, thrilling, death defying rides I've ever taken. We approached 90mph on several occasions. We did the 95 miles in 65 minutes. You do the math!!! Mel did pick me up at HSV and had a more sane trip home.

Thoughts from the race....
First, it was fun!!! Second, as Rae said in one of her comments, I too learned a lot about myself Saturday night. I cannot put into words what it was like in the last 20 minutes of the race as I decided if I was to try to finish under 65 min, and as I tried to do it. It was definitely something that I will not soon forget.

After doing the first 2 miles on open road with almost no cheering, it was nice to hit onstage and immediately see familiar faces cheering us on....Linda, Deb Wills, Masayo, Beci, Mike Newell and others. Getting into the park provided a huge burst of energy and adrenalin.

Disney (I hope) learned many lessons in this first night time (and dual) race. We'll start with packet pickup. After starting some 15-20 (i think) minutes late, parts of the process where obviously not thought out. However, when taking my sister to packet pickup on Saturday, it was obvious they learned their lessons and changed things up a bit.

What is normally a 5 minute trip from Pop Century to MGM took about 20. Luckily, we left earlier than we originally planned and beat the rush that was to come. The combination of the traffic jam getting in and (supposedly) an accident and backup effecting the race course, prompted a 20 delay in starting the race. I would say that a good portion of the traffic jam getting to MGM could have been prevented if Disney would have provided transportation to/from MGM. In the end, after enough people complained, Disney did provide transportation, but didn't provide any notice to the runners, forcing some to rent a car for the day just to get to and from the race.

My final (for now) issue is with the face that this was a dual race....13k & 6.5k at the same time. The start times were staggered by 10 minutes, with the 13k starting at 9:50 and 6.5k starting at 10:00. Because of the "low" number of runners (~3,500 for the 13 & ~1,100 for the 6.5) this provided just enough time between the starts. However, the issue came when and where the two courses merged together for the final 2+ miles. Imagine the 13k runners navigating through the 6.5k walkers....in MGM....with lots of turns. Many of the runners were quite annoyed with the walkers not getting out of their way. And I can understand that. To me, the issue lies in that Disney provided NO guidance on how to handle the situation. For those that have done many races, and maybe even used to training around other runners, they had an idea of what to do and how to listen and react to runners coming from behind. But, I would dare say that many (if not most) of the 6.5 "walkers" had no real idea what to do. I overheard many asking what a runner said and what it meant. "Normally", it is walkers/slower to the right and runners/faster pass to the left. But, in the park there were many, many turns in both directions and the runners want to cut the corners.

For me, I kept my head on a swivel the final 2 miles. The last thing I wanted to do was to cause someone to have an accident. While this was only my second race and I've never trained around other runners, I had done some reading on running courtesy. I also did a lot more running during the final 2 miles, so I was on both sides of the fence.

In the end, however, it was a fun race. It was a neat experience to "run" through a Disney park and to run through a Disney park with people cheering for you. It definitely provides me with a glimpse of the bigger and better things to come. ;-)

Till Next Time...Take Care!!!