"I'm going to Disney World!" part 1

When I signed up for the Disney Marathon to be held in Florida during January, I expected several things. I expected to put in a lot of hard work. I did. I expected my friends to motivate me when my own motivation was running low. They did. I expected it to be warm on race day in Florida. It wasn't. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Marathon week started with me still nursing a nasty cough and becoming very anxious that I wouldn't be better by race day. Last runs were cut short and done on a treadmill, but they got done. Wednesday night, we had a pre-marathon pasta party at a local restaurant. A lot of my friends that formed Team Raegan were there to see me and Runner Wendy off. My friend Colleen, having seen the frigid race day forecast for Florida, thoughtfully brought me a couple packets of hand-warmers. Little did I know then how much a part of the marathon these would become.

After the pasta party, I re-thought my race day outfit for the 34th time. On the way home, we stopped by Wal-Mart to buy a pair of throw-away sweat pants and gloves. On the optimistic off-chance that it would be warm enough to stick to my original race day plan, I packed my capri tights. I also packed a pair of full-length tights and added the newly-purchased sweat pants. In addition to my Raegan t-shirt, I added a long sleeve shirt to go underneath and threw in the 2 new pairs of gloves.

Packing complete, I closed my suitcase and looked outside to see the snow coming down. My new worry was that my flight would not take off the next morning. Needless to say, sleep did not come easy that night. The next morning, my parents and I dug out their truck and headed out to a hearty breakfast before heading to the airport. Still anxious that we wouldn't be able to leave, I was fidgety all morning. Most schools and some colleges in the area were closed due to weather.

Luckily, our flight did take off. I think we were the last one to leave that day. Someone was definitely looking out fo me that morning. The flight was uneventful and I actually fell asleep on the plane. Unfortunately, I was rudely and jarringly woken up during our descent by the feeling that someone was jabbing knives in my ears. Still having a head cold, the air pressure made it so painful that I actually considering beating my head against the seat until I was unconscious. I think the landing took roughly 11 hours. Once on the ground, I could barely hear anything the rest of the day. Everything sounded as if I was underwater. Add that to my stubborn cough and the fact that Florida was experiencing record low temperatures, I was having serious doubts about running 26.2 miles by the end of the week.

So here I was in Florida with 3 days until the marathon and I had a cough that wouldn't quit, ears that wouldn't pop, and Flordia weather that wouldn't get above 40 degrees. I had been working toward this for 4 months and planning for it for almost a year. How was I going to get this done?