Mission Complete

Jon and I have been training since like August, and our race is over. It's crazy that something that took up so much of our time and our energy is done... but it definetly feels great!!

The weekend was so much fun. We left early Saturday morning to go to Orlando, and headed straight to registration. Disney truly is the BEST at service, they have it figured out. It was super easy when we got there, and energy was already high due to the half marathon finishing up that morning. Jon and I got some lunch and hung out, eagerly awaiting Rick and Dick Hoyte to speak!! (If you don't know them, google them, you will be encouraged). We waited for over an hour listening to some random speakers, and then sadly found out that the Hoyt's weren't speaking today. What a bummer.

We decided then to head to our hotel and get checked in. We stayed at Disney's All Star Music Resort- it's definitely one of their older hotels, but still looks so nice on the inside. We went to the outlets did some shopping, got Subway for dinner, and headed back to get ready for bed. We needed our rest, especially since we were getting up at the crack of dawn, literally.

We were packed and in bed by like 830, alarm set for 240 in the MORNING. Thankfully, the Lord blessed us with good sleep and our adrenalin was moving. We were up, dressed, truck loaded, and on a shuttle by 3:30. It was so surreal to be on the bus getting ready to run. When we were on Disney property, we were surrounded by so many runners- it seemed like so many people we were meeting and overhearing have run more than 5. They are way more crazy than us:)

We got to Epcot by 4am, along with 17000 other people ready to run, not even including the volunteers. It was like 45 degrees or something nuts like that, and we started on our walk to the carals. We tried to just keep moving to stay warm. We got to our caral around 5, and the first group wasn't starting until 530, and we were group F. So again, we were waiting. Jon and I were still trying to grasp the fact that we were getting ready to run 26.2 miles. The time was finally here, we could hardly believe it. Had some nerves, but more than anything we were excited. We also just wanted to start running so we could warm up!

The wheelchair group led the team, followed by group A- the pros. Some of these people were in USA gear, and had their RVs parked right by the start line. Outside of their RV- there were the remains of their warm cooked breakfast... it must be nice to be pro. Each group was counted down by some MCs and cheered on by Minnie, Micky, and Goofy. Not to mention, there were fireworks every time! It was so cool!! We loved when we got to the start, and got to experience the warmth from the fireworks. It was great for our bodies to start to move.

The beginning of the race was so jam packed, that we spent the first 7 miles or so trying to simply maneuverer our way around. One of the guys that we started by was trying to be encouraging to a woman that he was running with... she must have said something like "Sorry that I'm not going faster" His sweet reply was, "Don't worry, I got all day! The way that I look at it, the longer we take, the more bang for our buck that we get. We get the same medal at the end right??" It was really cute.

The beginning was fairly easy, I felt like my body could do anything. We were constantly encouraged by spectators calling us by name (thanks to our name being on our bibs), distracted by characters, music, and comedians. Disney truly does it well!

We had plenty of water and powerade aid breaks. For the first half, those were the only times that we stopped or slowed, as well as a few bathroom breaks. I was convinced we were going to be able to do that the whole race, sadly we couldn't. Our first half we finished in just about 2 hours, no walking. I was really excited to beat my half from Denver. We had a couple food breaks including bananas, cliff bars, and even chocolate! Jess, that's our kind of race right!?! When Jon and I got to about mile 16, it hit me hard. My right knee and hamstring hurt so badly... it actually hurt just as bad to walk. I tried to push through it. We'd run to the mile marker, then walk for a couple minutes, then that turned into running for 4 minutes and walking for one... then running for 3 and walking for 2... then finally just walking for a little bit. I was so discouraged. I started to think that we weren't even gonna be able to finish. Jon was so sweet, he told me if we walked the rest that he would have no regrets- our goal was to simply finish. I was encouraged by that, and then so upset. I thought I don't wanna just finish, I wanna know that I gave it every last ounce of energy I had. I was constantly surrounded by people who had team shirts with Phil 4:13 "I can do ANYTHING through Christ who gives me strength." I was definitely humbled, and thought Lord, I can't actually do this without you. How foolish was I to believe that I could. I started praying for his strength and his ability to complete it. Around mile 19-20, I was in so much pain that it brought me to tears. Jon pulled me to the side, off the route to pray for me. He prayed for the Lord's strength and for Him to bring me comfort. He asked for the power for us to complete the race that we had begun. I'm so thankful that I have a husband that serves the Lord, and draws me to Him with him. Something supernatural happened. As I began to run, it actually felt better to run than to walk. We got to mile 22, and ran the rest of the way. Adrenalin kicked in and determination.... the more we ran, the sooner we were done. It was such an awesome feeling to be running strong to complete the race. As we got within the last couple miles, there were people who had already completed the race, as well as fans cheering us on to finish... we were almost there. I swear, for like the last 2 miles they kept saying only one more mile, less than one mile... however, they were wrong. :) We still had over one to go. When we saw mile marker 25, I knew we were within minutes of being done. We could definitely run for 12 more minutes or however long it would take. We picked up pace, and pushed through. As we rounded the last corner, and could see the finish line, we gave it everything we had left. We grabbed hands, and finished together, exactly at the same time, 5 hours, 11 minutes, and 7 seconds. This was probably one of the coolest moments in my life. As we were approaching the finish line, there was a small football stadium section of bleachers filled with people, and people standing on the sides...around 2000 fans or so cheering us on. I was almost in tears, such a sweet sweet moment. We had our hands up and smiles as big as we could make them, as we heard "Here come Jon and Kim Moller from Gainesville, FL!!!" We were some of the only ones that finished then that were announced by name... why, we have no idea. Thank you Lord for the encouragement and ability to run the race.

As we got through the line, they covered us in Disney made trash bags to keep us warm, and they congratulated us by name as they put our medals over our heads. 26.2 miles done. We were then on our way to get iced and sit. It has never felt so good to sit!! We got snacks and drinks, everything tasted so good. I was a little disappointed because all I wanted was an ice cold coke... they were out. They had kinda cold sprite. I figured that would have to work.



Then I got even luckier, as we were walking to our shuttle stop, we were again congratulated by Disney team members. They asked if there was anything else that we needed... (snacks and so forth)... I thought I should say no considering I already stocked up on tons of snacks from other stops, I needed to not be soooo greedy. Then I decided to just see if they had coke, and it was my lucky day. They didn't have any at their station, but they had a private stash in their cooler for their staff, and since they are Disney, they shared with me. YUM!! It was all I wanted, and let me tell you, it was DELICIOUS!!

Got back to our hotel, took a few pics, and headed to Chipotle for lunch. I ate every bite of my burrito bowl, we were so stinkin hungry. I had put my marathon shirt on because I wanted a dry shirt since mine were really sweaty. I was again encouraged by people there. I told Jon, it was really weird being at the race, because it felt "normal" to be a marathon runner. It was almost as if it wasn't that big of a deal, people run a couple a year, and have been for awhile. But at Chipotle, I realized we were back to reality. It's not normal to run these....

I don't know when, but I think we will run another some day. I might stick to some halfs for awhile. I loved it, and loved that I got to check it off my bucket list. I'm so thankful that Jon ran it with me, there is no one else in the world that I would have wanted to do my first with. Thank you Jon, you are amazing. Your encouragement was needed not only on race day, but all the training days too. I love you.



If you want to see the video of us finishing and some professional photos go to this link... It will show you one video, but you can click on the different videos under it. Enjoy, and thanks for all your support and encouragement as well along the way.