Hi Guys!!!
Sorry its taken me so long to post since the races but things have been crazy and now Im just trying to get back to normal life again. I have to say that this years marathon weekend was incredible!!! The highlights included meeting up with DisBoards friends like Scott, Laurie, Stacie, and the entire WiSH racing team. I met people at the dis Pop meet, for lunch at MK and most importantly on the race course. Seeing Laurie, Kevin, Howard, Renee, Denny, Stephanie among others AND most incredibly ALL the scream team support was just a huge boost, particularly during day 2 of the Goofy Challenge. Running with Scott was once again an absolute pleasure as we really helped to pull one another through some really tough times on Sunday. Thanks buddy!!!!
My overall thoughts on the Goofy challenge:
I WOULD do it again, absolutely. I know...shocking (and I know I told Laurie I would never do it again LOL). Time heals all memory of the agony
. I would just need to take the lessons learned from this year and apply them. I felt like I was well trained, my legs held up and I never hit a wall during the entire race. I felt particularly and surprisingly good from miles 20-26. Go figure. The first half of the marathon was tough because my legs felt more tired, naturally, but I was able to get past that once I hit AK and push onward. At that point my body just seemed to say ok
looks like youre going through with this
.so lets just move on. The only issue was the fatigue from two EARLY mornings accompanied by my inability to fuel up enough on Saturday for Sundays long race. Scott and I both felt like we were lacking energy due to food and not so much training. The humidity also played into that, as we were sweating like crazy from mile 1 onward in both races. Even though we both took gels more frequently than we even anticipated
and ate along the course
.and both carried and took water along the course
.we still felt like we couldnt get enough energy. So it wasnt our legs or our endurance that let us down, it was our nutrition. Speaking with others who ran Goofy, several said the same thing.
As for the organization, I personally felt that Disney did a lot of things right this year and corrected issues that came up last year. Plenty of TP in the porta-potties
! PLENTY of water (thank God). And just tons of support along the GF area where it was desolate for us last year.
During the half marathon I had an absolute BLAST. We just took our time and enjoyed every last second, getting pictures, chatting up fellow runners, enjoying the sights and sounds. We finished a little faster than planned . We had decided to try to run/walk a 2:45 half but came in around 2:29. I dont think this actually factored into day two at all. My legs felt perfect (no soreness, no tightness, no aching, no cramping) going into the marathon the next morning! I was surprised that I felt very strong, albeit sleepy. Our plan was to finish the marathon somewhere between 4:30 and 5:00 hours depending on the weather. Once we realized that the course was really too crowded starting in the corral that we did, thus we couldnt log fast miles for the first 5 miles of the race, we gave up on 4:30 and set our sights on a solid 5 hour finish. The humidity was factoring in a bit as well so we were happy to take a 5. Unfortunately, my stomach issues reared their ugly head around miles 10 and 13 so that slowed us down a bit. I would guess that overall we lost a solid 10 to 15 minutes due to waiting on line for porta-potties and having to stop completely. After mile 13 Scotts legs started cramping, which I feel was due to excessive sweating AND lack of food, not to mention having to stop for my stomach problems
. He was absolutely starving hungry for the entire second half of the race and that factored in largely to his bad leg cramps IMO. My legs felt strong but my stomach was just not cooperating. It made for a tough race, but things settled down and we walked a lot to ease his leg cramps. We were able to finish in 5:23 and all things considered that is nothing to be ashamed of. I PRd by 1 hour over last year LOL! So hey
who can complain about that right?! Based on how we felt Saturday and the pace that I know we could maintain under normal circumstances, I think that had we just run the marathon we could have finished between 4:30 and 4:45. Someday I hope to run just a marathon so I can test this theory
. But anything can happen on race day so who knows.
Post race I felt surprisingly good
it took a couple of hours for my feet to stop being sore and my legs to settle down. I took one aleve and we hit the parks for some rides (ended up getting STUCK on ToT!), some dinner (props to our favorite bartender David from 50s Prime Time and favorite waiter David from Brown Derby!!!) and ultimately some partying. I danced like crazy, ended up on stage at Jelly Rolls and made some new friends with the conventioneers staying at Boardwalk. Woo-Hoo! On Monday my legs felt amazingly good
.slightly tight but nothing unusual after a long run. My shoulders and upper back were sore but that dissipated quickly. I know that my training was solid and that overall I handled the weeks leading up to Goofy as best as I could. The hours of XT and Pilates that I put in really paid off IMO. The training plan that Scott developed was excellent!!!
If
.BIG if
.I decided to run goofy next year, the only thing I would do differently would be to eat MUCH more the week leading up to the races, then on Saturday after the Half eat LOTS of small portions constantly throughout the day. I also need to figure out how to handle my stomach condition better
.I dont want to go through another race dealing with porta-potties and losing 10-20 minutes as Ive done the past two years.
Finally I have to say a HUGE THANK YOU to the WiSH scream teams. You guys were EVERYWHERE on the course both Saturday and Sunday. I cant tell you how wonderful it was to see those smiling faces when I needed them most. Laurie and Kevin
it was an honor spending time with you guys on the course on Sunday. It helped me a TON! Renee
I hope youre feeling good and that your back is better, I know we were commiserating in the AK parking lot and I was hoping to see you at the finish. You guys all totally ROCK!! And Scott
.my running partner
.it goes without saying but I had soooo much fun this year with you! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!
So whats next??? Were looking at a few half marathons this spring, going to choose one of them (Country Music, Kentucky Derby, Flying Pig or who knows???), after that
Disneyland in August for sure (YAY!) and next January MAYBE Goofy, maybe Arizona or who knows what? But I am absolutely planning on running another marathon in a year from now! Congratulations to all the Wish 5K, Half, Full and Goofy Runners. You guys are all amazing and should be SOOO proud of your accomplishments.
And yes...pictures are on their way (Kim
). I'll try to get some up here by tomorrow!!!
Just trying to take care of my race buddy 
You leave tomorrow!!! Is the anticipation about to get to you too! 
You are gonna rock the Goofy!
I'm just SO glad you had a really good experience this time around! 
