Monday, June 3, 2013

Saturday May 4th - Race Day

We woke up on race day around 8 AM as we wanted to grab a quick bite to eat and then we had a bus to catch for packet pick up. As we headed out of the room we noticed it was already raining. Uh oh. Would this spell trouble for race day. If there is lightning they will postpone the race for a certain length of time and after so long it will be cancelled. That is one thing I was dreading because we likely wouldn't be able to make it back for the reschedule of it. =(

Luckily that did not happen but back to the story at hand. Ian went back to the room and grabbed our ponchos because we were unsure how long we might be in the rain for at the Wide World of Sports on the return trip. We had a yummy breakfast at the quick service at the resort. Then headed out to the bus stop and a bus came rather quickly. We were excited to see the Wide World of Sports complex as it was our first time ever needing to go over there. The cheerleader competition was going on too so that was kind of cool to see how that worked. I had watched several over the years including dance ones.

They let us in early for packet pick up since it was starting to come down pretty hard so that was nice of them. We got our packets pretty quickly and the flow they had made it easy to go through everything. They had some cool items for sale too and had a much better selection than I was expecting. Most of the time for the Everest challenge there is not really an expo but they had a nice mini one for us. =)

After we had everything situated we made our way back to the bus pick up to head back to the resort. Today was supposed to be a pool day and since there was no lightning we were like might as well go swimming since we will be wet anyway. However when we got back they had closed the pools as there was some lightning reported in the area and they don't take chances which is good. So today ended up being a read and nap day. We woke up around 5 to head down and have a nice pasta dinner to fuel up on carbs.

Then we got ready and went out for a bus around 8. The bus was filled with excitement as many were returning to a beloved race and some of us were newbies. The traffic was crazy to get into Animal Kingdom so we didnt actually get off the bus until about 9 PM. Once off we made our way over to our corral and got a nice place towards the front of it. This would prove to be a bad and good thing. We made friends with a mom and son doing it for their first time. They had just arrived the day before and were going to have park time after the race for the rest of the week. I would probably do that in the future myself. We should have arrived the day before the race and then had time at the parks after but you live and learn. LOL.

We were able to see special fireworks they had set up over at Hollywood Studios so that was cool. Then it was the magic hour of 10:00. They did the national anthem and a moment of silence for those lost in the Boston Marathon tragedy which we thought was cool. Then the first wave was off.

We had 40 more minutes to wait before our last wave would be off. We were finally at the starting line and were filled with so much excitement. We saw some of the first wave people finish the race so that was crazy fast for them. As we had our countdown we took off. We were ready to do a little bit of a jog at the start and then we were going to move our way over to the right side out of race courtesy to let those faster go by us on the left. So I turned to get a drink off our camelbak as I was thirsty and to go to a walk for our next interval. Right at that moment, my right foot stepped off the road and twisted. There was a good couple of inches that dropped off and wasn't expecting it.

When I fell my left leg slammed down to the road half on and half on the grass. Needless to say I was in extreme pain. Some nice people stopped to see if I was ok and to help me up. I stood up and could not put any pressure or weight on my right ankle so we called a medic over. They came over with a cart and wheeled me to the medical tent where we put ice on it and they assessed it. Needless to say it was swelling pretty quickly and just the DR touching it was putting me in tears. They told me I had a sprain for sure and would need to get it xrayed to make sure it wasn't so severe it would need surgery. So they pulled us from the race and told me to go back to the hotel and elevate it and alternate ice on and off for 20 mins for the night. So needless to say while I was waiting to be wheeled over for the handicap van they had for me, I was in tears. All our hard work down the drain because of a stupid accident.

Now the area on the course where I fell, the lighting was bad. The street light was out right there so I had no clue about the drop off. I told Ian next time we do it we will stay in the middle or at least not get too close to the side so we don't have this happen again. I was so upset as I was looking forward to the reward of training for something and completing it. It definitely gives me fuel to come back and finish it.

Ian was great through the whole thing as he was just as affected as I was by being pulled. He was a rockstar through it all.

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