Marathon dreams come true at Disney

Sunday was a good day for Charlotte-area runners named Michael at the Walt Disney World Marathon in Orlando. Michael Creason, 38, of Charlotte, clocked a 2:45:50 as our area's top finisher and placed 17th overall. Concord's Mike Beigay, 31, ran a PR of 2:46:51 to finish 20th. And 29-year-old Michael Knotts of Charlotte ran a 3:12:49 good for 169th place. And Michael MacIntyre of Cornelius finished in 5:38:47, capping a weekend in which he completed the 5K, the half-marathon, and the full marathon on back-to-back-to-back days (read his recap here).

But arguably the top performance at Disney was turned in by Amelia Slagle of Davidson, a former UNCC track and field star who finished sixth in the women's division with a 3:03:47. It was the 24-year-old's first marathon ever, and her time was the 81st fastest overall out of 16,883 finishers.

Amelia e-mailed me today to say she had "a blast" Sunday, and offered this brief recap of her race:

"I was super-nervous for about a week going into it because I was coming off a minor foot injury, and I heard a lot of stories from friends how they just die at Mile 20, or that there were points in the race where they just wanted to quit. But surprisingly, I felt really great the whole way.

"I was hoping to run a 3:10 and went out with the pace group, [but] they ran a 7:50 first mile, so I ended up leaving them after Mile 1 and trying to do my own thing. It was not until about Mile 4 or 5 that I started to get into a groove and was running 6:50 to 7:05 pace, and then I just kept it up. I ended up really dropping the pace at Mile 20 and averaging somewhere around 6:40 miles, which helped my overall finishing time."

Amelia would learn afterward that she ran an impressive negative split, rallying for a 1:29 second half after covering the first 13.1 in 1:34.

As for the overall experience, she said: "The course was fun when you run through the parks, but a little boring on the roads because there aren’t many people to cheer you on. But the parks make up for it because the Disney characters were pretty entertaining!"

Amelia competed for the Niners' cross country and track squads from 2003-2007. According to UNCC Web site, she currently holds the sixth-fastest outdoor 10,000m time (37:57.51) as well as the eighth-fastest indoor 5,000m (18:03.00).

Other area finishers at the 2010 Walt Disney World Marathon:

CHARLOTTE
Jody Dawson, 3:31:17
Dan Campo, 3:35:46
Sarah Schweppe, 3:36:42
Jessica Wagner, 3:44:03
Mackenzie Alpert, 3:50:45
Mike Crosby, 3:51:06
Dianne Allen, 4:00:32
Michael Barilla, 4:09:03
Toney Matthews, 4:12:57
Ben Wilhelm, 4:13:09
Jeffrey Brown, 4:14:21
Lauren Brown, 4:18:58
Andrew Baumgartner, 4:19:36
Kathy Lee, 4:24:35
Katherine Cutrer, 4:26:23
Bob Smolen, 4:29:50
Pat Lapekas, 4:29:51
Maggie Deller, 4:36:51
Wisdom Jzar, 4:37:16
David Bardsley, 4:45:40
Jack Cutrer III, 4:46:14
Amity Whalen, 4:50:51
Brad Morris, 4:51:42
Mandy Wiltzius, 4:52:09
Daniel Wixon, 4:54:00
Kevin Brown, 4:57:21
Melissa Brown, 4:57:21
Jessica Captain Hughey, 4:57:25
James Young, 4:58:59
Carl Richmond, 4:59:12
Marion Beason, 4:59:22
Suzanna Ruddock, 4:59:22
Melanie Mellone, 5:03:23
Kristen Bonghi, 5:03:23
Bridgit Kerger, 5:03:24
Jorge Herreria, 5:04:52
Deanna Pennetta, 5:06:27
Amy Jablonski, 5:08:06
Deborah Dawsey, 5:09:06
Cindy Lofton, 5:11:49
Donna Green, 5:17:22
Carly Green, 5:17:23
Jason Hooven, 5:19:43
Lauren Newton, 5:21:05
Linda Vaickus, 5:21:23
John Ellison, 5:21:31
Jean Herreria, 5:28:10
Curtis Phipps, 5:29:48
Arlene Auger, 5:29:51
Gina Baumgartner, 5:35:09
Susan Baumgartner, 5:35:09
Cherie Jzar, 5:37:19
Audrey Osinski, 5:38:39
Christine Bishofberger, 5:38:48
Joanna Ball, 5:39:48
Kevin Anderson, 5:45:33
Janice Moore, 6:03:31
Michelle Pfleeger, 6:03:31
Kevin Hoyle, 6:07:59
Teresa Peters, 6:11:31
Michelle Perno, 6:21:18
Angela Casertano, 6:36:19
Patty Siros, 6:42:48
Kelly Hill, 6:42:49
Scott King, 6:44:51
Christine Cipriano, 6:45:25
Michelle Olaya, 6:48:16
Erica Davis, 6:51:08
William Percival, 7:04:02
Marie Percival, 7:04:02
Jennifer Krupowicz, 7:13:50
Sarah Anne Horn, 7:18:51

CONCORD
Brian Cone, 3:40:39
Joseph Tierney, 3:52:26
Nancy Russo, 4:35:52
Carl Russo, 4:35:52
Toni Cruz, 4:56:11
Tom Jones, 5:19:34
Melissa Hardesty, 5:37:08
Nicholas Zerona, 5:42:38
Daniel Outen, 5:42:38
Patricia Blakely, 6:30:14

CORNELIUS
Scott Sharp, 3:51:59
Molly Gronski, 5:13:47

DENVER
Robert Keller, 5:24:43

GASTONIA
Jon Wright, 4:57:57
Kent Lupton, 5:45:34
Coretta Bone, 6:46:43
Kenneth Cotton Jr., 6:48:11

HARRISBURG
Darryl Strack, 4:48:30
Kathryn Strack, 4:48:30
Eric Anderson, 5:09:41
Adrian Beard, 5:33:41

HUNTERSVILLE
John Taylor, 5:25:51
Robert Lauro, 5:55:02

KANNAPOLIS
Cara Musumeci, 3:51:49

MATTHEWS
Alfred Sergel, 3:43:15
Tom Torkildsen, 3:58:12
Lana Torkildsen, 4:14:01
Adrienne Bridges, 5:28:57
Donald Bridges, 5:28:58
Kevin Montgomery, 5:38:34
Evan Weiss, 5:38:52
Marcie Beard, 5:49:03
Bobbi Griffith, 6:17:36
Suzanne Glasgow, 6:34:20

MONROE
Jose Santiago, 5:26:17
Russell Reed, 6:00:41
Richard Love, 6:09:46

MOORESVILLE
Christopher Dunn, 4:18:58
Barbara Munksgard, 4:44:06
Ginger White, 5:49:59
Tony White, 6:14:00

WAXHAW
Bill Moran, 3:26:46
Lori Dawson, 3:41:37
Richard Belcourt, 3:58:06
Kim Cooke, 4:05:09
Courtland Cooke, 4:11:06
Daniel Schumacher, 4:25:15
Richard Gordon, 4:27:11
John Heiskell, 4:30:25
Ed Liddic, 5:42:36
Nick Steffler, 6:28:17