Disneyworld ‘Goofy’ Challenge

As I reflect back to my 2007 running season, there’s more disappointment than happiness. But that’s all behind me now. I’m wiser in terms of injury prevention, cross training, and what my body can handle and works for me. I look forward to a better 2008.

I’m starting the year with 2 back-to-back races at Disneyworld called the Goofy’s Race and a Half Challenge. The advertisement stated, “Complete both the Half Marathon and Marathon events, and you will receive a special Goofy medal!” How can you pass that up? Since Grand Rapids at the end of October, I haven’t been running that much (3 to 4 times a week) with only one 20 miler under my belt in preparation for Disneyworld. I didn’t do as many back-to-back runs as I liked either. This was because of the same ankle/foot problems again. I went to the orthopedic foot specialist who X rayed my foot just to have peace of mind that I don’t have a stress fracture. Too many of my friends were out because of stress fractures during 2007. I took 2 weeks off to let the pain subside. The doctor told me that it would lead to a stress fracture if I didn’t take some time off. So I did and cross trained instead. He told me to let the pain determine whether I ran or not, and any cross training was OK as long as there was no pain.

I was extremely unsure of how to run the half marathon on Saturday and still have enough to do the full marathon the very next day without collapsing. I thought to myself, what times would I be happy with for both races? A 1:50 half and a 3:50 full would make me extremely happy under the circumstances. My friend Alida was also going to do the Goofy Challenge and had the goal of 1:49 and 3:49, so we decided to run together. She follows the Galloway run/walk method. She’s done a couple of 3:30 marathons using this method. That’s good enough for me! She’s so exact with each mile pace, that she was exactly who I needed to run with.

The half marathon starts at Epcot and runs through the Magic Kingdom before returning back to Epcot. My oldest daughter Lisa also ran the half but started way in the back in the very last wave and very last corral. Her ‘long run’ was a 7 miler that Monday before the race. Prior to that she hadn’t run since Thanksgiving! She attends the University of Minnesota, so for her, it’s too cold to run outside and too boring to run on the treadmill. She didn’t get by the slow ‘walkers’ until after mile 8. She managed to pull out a 2:06 time, but she was sore and hobbling around for days afterwards, worse than the marathoners.

What a beautiful run! It’s dark and cool when the race starts with fireworks. By the time you finish the race, the sun is starting to come out. The Disney characters out on the course and the music are all uplifting. It’s just a happy time. I wish I had a camera as we approached the Cinderella castle. Alida and I wanted to keep an 8:15 pace which would give us a 1:48 finish. Since we both run half marathons at a faster pace, it was hard to hold back. We finished with a time of 1:46…so far so good … 3 minutes faster than our goal! I had hoped that we didn’t burn out the next day especially since we would be running in the sunlight the last half of the race.

The hardest part of the back-to-back races is getting up at 3:15 AM two days in a row to catch the bus to the start. It is just so early! Once you get to the start, see the gear check tents and a long line of port-a-potties, you soon get caught up in the excitement. My left thigh was a little sore from the day before, probably because that’s the leg I favor because of the ankle sprain. Other than that I felt great. We were in the very first corral in the first wave, but we decided to not be up too close to the front. There were some runners dressed up as Disney characters. The best one was a guy dressed up as Tinkerbell. He was really fast because he was a top 15 finisher. We also saw a guy running in nothing but a red woman’s bikini underwear. He must have lost a bet.

Again the marathon started with fireworks. This time we ran through Animal Kingdom which I absolutely loved and MGM Studios in addition to the Magic Kingdom and Epcot. I again wished I had a camera with me. We needed to keep an 8:45 pace and decided that our walk breaks would be at each aid station and going up the ramps to the overpasses. That worked out well. Tons of people passed us in the beginning, but we wound up passing them at the end. At mile 21 I felt on top of the world…never felt better! My legs were starting to feel fatigue so I started running more with my arms. All the upper body and core workouts I’ve been doing the past year were paying off. Well it paid off until mile 25 when cramps in both calves set in. They usually come around mile 22, so I guess getting them the last mile wasn’t bad. I thought to myself that this is the last timed mile from my track workouts. Alida kept pushing me on. She told me she would stick with me to the end (bless her heart because she would have finished a lot faster than me!). That last mile was really tough because I knew we had to do it in less than 9 minutes, or we would go over our goal (this takes into account the .2 miles). It was that close. Finally when we could see the finish line, she grabbed my hand and pulled me to the finish. We just barely broke 3:50 by seconds and finished with a 3:49 time. I could not have done it without her!

I turns out that I placed 3^rd in my age group for both the half and for the full marathon. What a great way to start the year! I’m signed up for Boston. I’m going to break my curse there in 2008.