This year I decided to follow my wife’s footsteps and run the Disney
Marathon. I’ll touch on that more in a
later post, but in the meantime you can read about her experience in an earlier post. Nevertheless, I not only decided
to run the marathon, but I decided to go from couch to Goofy in a few short
months. “Crazy!” you may exclaim. “Correct!” I answer in return. But, crazy as it may have been, I went from
not running to the bathroom to attempting a half marathon on Saturday, followed
by a full on Sunday.
I must say that
the total experience was phenomenal, and in fact I’ve already signed up for
another half marathon this year – though not a Disney run unfortunately. Huh? I’m
on a tangent? Oh yes, let me get back to
the purpose of this post…
As I crossed the
finish line on Saturday, I felt amazing.
I started strong and decided to reserve most of my energy for the
following day’s run. My wife Alice (who
decided to run the half marathon while several months pregnant – always a “one-upper”)
and I made our way back to our room at Old Key West, where I enjoyed (loosely
used term) an ice bath. After a near
bout with self-inflicted hypothermia, we decided to visit the Magic
Kingdom. After all, who really can be
that close and NOT go to the parks? So,
we hopped aboard the Disney Transportation bus and made our way to the entrance
gate. This is where something went
horribly wrong.
As I tried to
stand, my knee locked up. Locked up may
not be correct – locked down is more accurate.
It would not move and I was suddenly in excruciating pain. Turns out, I damaged it a few weeks before
during a 12 mile run and the injury I suffered was due to ITBS (Iliotibial Band
Syndrome). A condition I had never heard
of, much less knew I had to contend with.
Huh? Oh yes, back to the point of
the post.
I was finally
able to hobble into the park, but by this time tears started to swell in my
eyes. (I’m not too macho to admit pain
hurts!) Looking back, I’m not sure if
the tears were from the pain or the thought that I still planned to attempt
26.2 miles the following morning. But,
then I remembered an earlier post I had written about Disney’s First Aid Stations. And, that is where I headed
straight away.
As with every
other aspect of Disney, the customer service at the first aid stations is top
rate. This was evidenced that very
day. Although Disney had nothing that
might help me, beyond Tylenol, they did have an answer – Turner Drugs.
As seen in the
photo here, Turner Drugs is located near the parks. More importantly, Turner delivers! Yep – they deliver not only to the resorts,
but to the parks themselves. Apparently,
Turner Drugs has been serving WDW for over 20 years, and doing so was a life
saver for me that Saturday afternoon.
Within a few hours, Turner had delivered a knee brace to my resort, and
once back from the park, I was able to pick it up at the concierge desk. Thankfully, that knee brace held the pain
back enough for Sunday’s marathon; and as a result, I had one of the greatest
and most addictive experiences of my life.
So, if you find
yourself in the parks or at the resorts and suddenly develop a need for
prescriptions, braces, formula, diapers, reading glasses, medical equipment, or
other such items, Turner Drugs has the solution! Just go to one of the Disney first aid
stations or contact them directly. You
may contact Turner Drugs at (407) 828-8125; or visit their site at www.turnerdrug.com. Just be aware that there is a small delivery
fee, but it is worth it not to leave the parks or hassle with traffic in any
way. Perfect customer service. Thank you Disney First Aid, and thank you
Turner Drug!
