Goofy delayed report

Disney Marathon Weekend

Goofy Challenge

Well, what a weekend. We arrived in Orlando, Florida Thursday afternoon January 10^th. I was going to go to packet pickup Friday morning, but I got into Disney area early enough, and I was so excited that I had to go Thursday afternoon. So my wife Kris, and nephew Jace accompanied me to the expo.

The expo was well run, and moving in and out of lines to get everything accomplished went smooth. I got my packet and my bib/chip for the event. Since I was doing the Goofy Challenge I would use the same bib/chip for both the Donald Duck Half Marathon on Saturday, and the Mickey Mouse Full Marathon on Sunday. I was placed into corral “E” for both races, based on the estimated time I had previously provided early in 2012 when I originally signed up for the race. The expo was fun, and had some nice RunDisney gear, and the usual vendors for the race.

Friday was an easy day we spent the day at Magic Kingdom walking around the entire day and evening. I put lots of time on my feet. Most people would say stay off your feet the day before a race, but it's DISNEY, you have to do the parks. Before turning in for the night, I laid out my equipment for the next day. On my race belt I had my race bib, 2 Gu's and a Waffle Stinger. I decided to go light for the race as I was going to try and set a PR, so I did not carry any of my own fluids with me during the race. Instead I had researched and found that they would be using Powerade, Banana's, and water on the course, All of which I have trained with in the past. The unknown was the Powerade it was not going to be a low sugar version. I turned in get some rest at about 10:00pm Friday evening, but the result was just laying down, no real sleep happened. I awoke every hour until 3:00am which was my wake up time for the race.

At 3:00am I donned my gear and headed off to one of the many buses Disney provided for race entrants to get to the starting area. I stopped in at the hotel cafeteria which Disney had open for the runners, and picked up a bagel with peanut butter which is my normal race morning meal. I get to EPCOT which is where the start of the races was to happen, and stopped in to the Galloway Tent to say hi to some of my Galloway com padres from different cities across the nation. I left for the starting line, and given that there were approximately 22K of my closest friends also being herded to the starting line, it took approximately 35 minutes to reach my corral. As I mentioned I was in corral “E”, but I had recent times that qualified me for corral “C”. The race started at 5:25am for the Wheelchair Division, and then for the rest it started at 5:30am with the Elites. Each corral went off approximately 8 minutes from each other, so corral “E” started at roughly 6:10am. The start of the race was spectacular, Disney characters were out, music was blasting, interviews of Olympians and Celebrities were conducted, and to top it all off each wave was started with their own fireworks display. What a way to begin a race, first class all the way.

The race begins, and I was probably in the back two-thirds of my corral. So as I cross the starting line, and for the first 3 miles I spent much of my time and a great deal of energy trying to dodge, weave, sprint, and dance around fellow runners to try and find some open space to run. I felt great, and I felt strong. Even though it was slow going I felt like I could still had a shot at going sub 2 for the day, and that was my goal. I had lost a lot of time, and got pigeon'd into areas at different times around the water stations that caused some extensive delays. The roads were relatively narrow at the aide stations, and with that many people, you either chose to basically stop or to run over people. I did both, the running over people was not done on purpose, but the result of them making a dead stop in front of me and me not having any other place to go. So up and over I went. At each aid station I grabbed a couple of ounces of either water or powerade alternating between the two at each station. At mile 8 I increased my speed, and tried to make up some of the distance, but it was too late to get sub 2., I knew it, and so now the goal was to make sure I PR'd the race. I hit the finish line with a Garmin time of 2:07:53 a new PR for the half marathon distance. Previous best was 2:10:56. Knocked 3 minutes off my time in under 12 months. That was great. However, I fully believe that if I had made the change to put me into corral “C” to start the race, I would have had an even better time, and possibly even gone sub 2 hours for the race.

All-in-all it was a great day and a great race. After the race, I met my family back at the hotel, but since my nephew had been sick all night he was in no shape to go into the parks so I went back to the expo while my wife took care of my nephew and she slept. I took in some seminars, and looked a some more gear to buy, in fact I picked up a new pair of running socks. The rest of the day was spent walking around Downtown Disney, and chillin.

Nighttime came and I laid out my gear for the next day. I had a Stinger Waffle, 4 GU's, and a Bonk Blocker in my arsenal for the next race on Sunday morning. I hopped into bed around 10:00, and again no sleep came. I was up at 2:45am and getting ready to repeat my morning ritual and head-off to the starting area again. I again, stopped in to the Galloway Tent, to visit with some folks and spend some time speaking with Jeff Galloway. A woman came into the tent and she was from England. In her hands she carried one of the Olympic Torches used in the summer 2012 Olympics. She brought it so that we could get a chance to hold a piece of history. She was right, everyone jumped at the chance to hold the torch and get pictures taken. A lot of fun for sure. I also had the privilege of meeting Chris Twiggs. Chris is the National Director for the Galloway Training program.

I head off to the start line, but today we reached the area a little quicker a few less thousand of people running the full versus the half. Again, there were introductions, and interviews, and the start took place with the setting off of fireworks. The goal for today was unofficially to try and keep a 11:30 minute per mile time. The pace is slow, but a number of factors went into setting that pace time for me. The first factor is that I had been injured most of December, so the longest run I had between November 10^th and race days was 12.5 miles, I also felt like I was at about 90-95% healthy from an injury perspective, I had just wrecked my legs the day before trying to set a new PR, and finally the temperature was 80+ degrees for a good portion of the race.

I don't like being chilled when racing as my muscles tend to tighten up, so although I wore shorts, I ended up wearing a long sleeve shirt under a race singlet for the marathon. So, two shirts were worn the entire race. Needless to say, I sweat quite a bit. So I really had to stay hydrated. I used the same method of hydrating as the day before I would not stop at the aid stations, but grab either water or powerade alternating between the two for the entire race. I took in my GU, Banana, or Stinger approximately every 30 minutes starting about one hour after the start of the race. I did not hit a wall, and I did not ever feel like I had no energy. The day before race took a toll on my quads and calves, so even though from a endurance perspective, and from a breathing perspective I was having absolutely no problems the muscles in the quad especially were screaming since I had not gotten them properly prepared for the double distance being run on two consecutive days. There was always a large group of people running in front, behind, or around you, so you always could feed off some of the energy provided by others. I found a person who was running a little faster then I was and I tailed them for approximately 5 miles until they slowed down, and then I found my next individual to help pull me along and keep my speed up. The process worked well, no complaints.

I was able to hold a pace for the race at 11:45 with a total finish time of 5:10:45. However there is a caveat, the race distance per my Garmin for the marathon measured 26.44 miles for that 5:10:45, so given the total miles and the time I have recalculated my 26.2 mile race time to be 5:07:55. The time would then be a new PR for me. :) That's my story and I am sticking with it.

After the race my family and I spent the whole day walking around the park, and enjoying the day. Your body is amazing and very resilient. I also, spent the next day in the park from 9:00am until 9:00pm walking around Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom. Albeit a little slower than my normal race pace of walking around.

I do come away from the weekend with a number of learning experiences that I would like to share with my fellow racers, they may help ,they may not, if you can use them feel free and if not awesome:

1.Never run in two shirts, duh!!! Wear something like a Goodwill sweatshirt that you buy for a dollar, and then donate again at the start of the race. I know better, and normally do it, but forgot to pack one for the weekend.

2.As long as you are good with what is being offered on the course for nutrition, you may not need to bringing your own. Make sure you have practiced with the nutrition in your training. Do not attempt anything new race day.

3.If running a double race (back to back days) make sure you get your miles above normal. I would suggest getting your long runs up to like 28-30 miles. If doing like I did a half and a full. I completed the races, and had good races, but they could have been better if I had been better prepared.

4.Decide which if either day you will attempt a PR. Base it on pre-race decisions, but also listen to your body the day of and during the race.

5.Make sure to re-hydrate after the race, and get in some protein and carbs immediately after the race. I know I probably dropped 5-7 pounds of sweat over the two days, but today (3 days later) I am back to exactly the weight I was pre-race, and I feel great. Obviously a little sore, but fully functional and ready to get back to working out.

6.Adjust during the race. If you can go faster, go faster, if you need to slow down then slow down. It's your race, your event, and your body. Be smart.

I hope everyone enjoyed reading the report, and if there is additional information you would like to have about the Disney Marathon Weekend, please feel free to ask. I highly recommend the event. I know I will be doing it again in the future. Right now, I am gearing up for TRI season, and I plan on doing some Ultra Races in the future.

Wow! I am in awe! Thank you for sharing your tips!

Pretty amazing! It sounds like a good time and like you had great races, even if in hindsight you might have done things a little differently.

Thanks for the write up :)

 Great report!  I can not imagine doing both, having PR's AND walking around Disney.  Way to go!!

Kat

Good work.  During my first Goofy, I humped it around Magic Kingdom after the half and suffered for about the first four miles of the full the next day.  I agree with you that it's vacation so hitting the parks (even though ill advised) is not the worst thing.  Keep up the good work!