Well as you know this past weekend me and the husband went to Orlando for what would have been my first marathon. Although it was bitter sweet in a sense for me, we did have such a wonderful time indeed.
On Saturday we left the house around noon, had a pit stop at Boston Market and then we were off. We arrived in Orlando and checked into our hotel, the Disney Beach Resort...

I've decided this is thee place to stay for the Marathon. Although the room was pricey (around $320) it was definitely worth it to be *right* there. I didn't realize that our balcony faced the race route until Sunday morning when I looked out the window and saw all the yellow cones barricading the course off. Before I get ahead of myself let me rewind.
So we check in, clean up, and head out to Downtown Disney. We had reservations at a place called Fulton's Crab House. OMG, so good!!! You have to go. We totally splurged since we don't get out much these days. For an appetizer we had stone crab claws and lobster bisque. Then for my entree I ordered thee most expensive item on the menu. :) King crab claws with a lobster tail. I swear I died and went to heaven. Chip had a filet and a lobster tail bringing our grand total to almost $200.00 dollars. Wow, it was worth it though.


After dinner we headed over to the Cirque de Soliel. We were right on time and got into our seats just minutes before the show started. Here I am outside of the theater.

The show was fantastic. I was in complete awe of the things these people were doing. I recommend everybody go see it at least once. When the show was over I had thoughts about joining the circus, that's how good it was. :)
Once we got back to the hotel we decided, well I decided, we needed dessert. We ordered ice cream, a milkshake, chocolate layer cake, cookies, and a glass of milk from room service. We wanted to make sure we covered all bases. $50 dollars later I felt like I was going to puke. Why, oh why do I do these things to myself?!
In the morning we ordered room service (again!) for breakfast and were able to watch the very first racers run by. Someone told us it was between 24-25 miles where we were at. Here's a picture of Sunday morning before anyone came through...


Now Jen, Kirsten, or anyone else who's planning on running this race in 2010, the reason this place is so ideal is that the husbands can sleep in, have a nice breakfast, lounge around the pool area, etc. while they wait on us to run on by. Lots of people were pulling chairs from the pool up next to the race route. If you don't stay at a Disney hotel it would be very hard find somewhere to camp out at and wait for us to come by. My mother in law for example tried to watch the first year my father in law ran and it was so crowded and uncomfortable that she has stayed back at their hotel (a few miles away from Disney) the last 2 years. And seeing our husbands at mile 24 will be a great boost of energy to get through the last 2 miles and finish strong.
Check out was at 11am, but we decided to stay until 12 to see my father in law and my brother in law run by. FIL is 65 and this was his third and last marathon. He's had trouble with his feet and he wasn't sure if he was going to finish the race. When we saw him at mile 25 we were SO proud. He was pretty happy to see us too, as it was a surprise.


I can't wait to go back next year!!!