Sports, Ink

(Mike Heitzenrater, the 2008 Buffalo News runner of the year, recently took part in the Disney marathon in Orlando. He finished 14th overall out of almost 15,000 runners, and won his age-group in a time of 2 hours, 39 minutes, 49 seconds -- about two minutes faster than his first attempt at this rate.

Mike is not only an excellent runner, but he’s expresses himself well. He sent along this first-person account of his trip South:)

I arrived at Jacksonville, Florida, with my girlfriend Angela Kudla and our friend Kelly Pimm late Thursday night. We stayed at my parents’ house in Jacksonville. This would be the first Marathon for both Ang and Kelly. 

Saturday we drove to Orlando to pick up our race packets and visit the expo. After the expo we went to eat at Olive Garden. Upon returning to the hotel at 8:30 at night I discovered that I had forgot to pack my running shorts! This led to a mad scramble the night before the race to attempt to purchase new shorts.  I was doubtful that I would be able to buy any. Luckily around 9 p.m I found a store and got a pair of shorts and was ready for the big race.

Sunday morning started with a 3:30 wakeup call. The roads at Disney start to close at 4 a.m. so they want you in the park by then. We were running a little late fighting the traffic. Once there it’s about a 1.5 mile walk to the starting line.

Disney has a split start that merges the runners just after the 3 mile mark. I was in the elite starting box with about 50 other runners, including Andriano Bastos (the winner) and Jerry Lawson (former 2:10 marathoner). Once near the staring box I discovered that the elite athletes could not go to the line until after the start of the wheelchair athletes.  At 5:45, they where off. Shortly after they hustled us to the line for a count down to the start.

While on the line I noticed that one of the elite athletes was running toward the start, but it was too late.  The gun went off and he missed the start. 

During my first marathon I only drank water and had no Gatorade or power gels. When I reached 20 miles, I died ... big time. This time I wasn’t going to make the same mistake. I started the race with 4 power gels pinned to my shorts. I planned on taking one about every 5 miles. I also planned on drinking both water and Gatorade at each fluid stop.  At about 1200 meters, one fell off. At this point I was on 6:05 pace and there was still a woman ahead of me. I thought to myself, "Wow, she’s out a bit fast!!"

I was in about 18th place until the 3.4 mile double start merger. At this point I was in about 27th place. I kept thinking I was going slow but I looked at my watch and I was right on the pace I wanted to run. Winding through Disney and through the parks helped to keep me motivated. I was excited to go to the next park to hear the cheers of Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and friends.

At about 10.5 miles the race goes through the Magic Kingdom castle.  This is the most scenic part of the race. At 12 miles in, I still hadn’t passed anyone. I started to think that things weren’t going to go very well and that no one was going to come back. Shortly after that, I got to a straightaway and at mile 12.5 I started to pass some runners.

I realized that I was picking up the pace, running a couple of splits under 6 minutes. At 15 miles the pain started to set in but I was still running 6 minutes and under. When I reached 20 miles, the pain in my legs was really building up but I still managed to run a 5:58 and a 6:04 for the next two miles.

Then came mile 22. At this point the pain was bad, but I thought that I could grit down and race through it. I found myself in 12th place. Then I started to get muscle spasms. My leg muscles started to spasm and cramp with every few steps. I had no choice but to back off the intensity or I would certainly get a cramp. I was worried that one of these cramps could turn into a muscle pull. During the next 4.2 miles I had to back off and got passed by two of the people I had recently overtaken. Every time I tried to pick up the intensity I felt my muscles go to the verge of cramping and becoming pulled.

At one point near the end I lost a little focus and as I ran by a water station I mistook Gatorade for water and threw the entire cup on my face to cool off. Needless to say I had some burning in my eyes.

Finally, the finish arrived. It's a great feeling to know that you are done. The soreness sets in immediately, and it only gets worse. The day after the marathon I went for my 2-mile run to keep my running streak alive and it took me 22:17 to hobble the course -- probably it did me more harm then good.

Ang ran it just for run, and she finished in 3:14:21. She finished first in her age group.

I'm not sure when my next marathon will be but there will be some more in the future. Why? I’m not sure. Just because, I guess.