You definitely have to be goofy to want to run a half marathon on Saturday and turn right around and run a full marathon on Sunday. This is what Disney calls their
Goofy's Race and a Half Challenge and it is run every year during Marathon Weekend here at Disney. It consists of running the WDW Half Marathon on Saturday and the WDW Full Marathon on Sunday--a total of 39.3 miles. Now we actually did what is unofficially called the "Dopey" which is to run the family 5K on Friday morning at Epcot (3.1 miles), run the half marathon on Saturday (13.1 miles), and then run the full on Sunday (26.2 miles). So it's actually a total of 42.4 miles. Pretty exciting, huh?
Well I don't want to give away the surprise, but we did it! A huge accomplishment for us, especially after having such a horrible marathon experience back in 2010 when the weather was 13 degrees F. But we had fantastic weather this weekend, we both ran unbelievably strong, and we had a blast. This may have just renewed our excitement for running, which has been lacking lately. Below is a blow by blow account of our weekend of races. I want to record it before I forget. Running the marathon this year I realized that I forgot a lot of the race from 2010. Hmmm, forgot may not be the best word--"intentionally blocked it from my mind" may be a better phrase.
Friday January 6: Family Fiesta 5K at Epcot
I did not sleep well the night before this race. We went to bed early, around 9, but I woke up at 1am thanks so some loud fireworks (I'm looking at you, Magic Kingdom). So I laid in bed until 4am. Watching the puppies while they sleep at night is too funny. Anyway, we got up, I was wide awake, so we headed to Epcot. The raced started at 6:30, but we needed to be there by 5. So we got there, ate our breakfast and relaxed in the car. Once we got out and headed to the corrals, we realized that is was a bit chilly. We both were pretty bundled up since we were planning on walking and not running the race. The race started and we had a grand old time just walking and taking our time as we traveled through Epcot. This race wasn't timed, so we just went slow and enjoyed the race. We wanted this to be a somewhat dress rehearsal for the two big races on Saturday and Sunday. It was fun just walking and talking. I have no idea what our time was, and it was the first race I have walked the whole thing. We walked backstage at Epcot and then walked around World Showcase and then crossed the finish line as the sun came up. Overall a fun, non-challenging race.
After the race, we went home, showered and Josh headed to work. I headed towards our bed with the pups and we took a 2 hour long nap. It was nice. Once I woke up and had some lunch, I walked down to get my spine alined at the chiropractor. Let me just say, he is amazing. A few short weeks ago I thought my running career was over because every time I would run I would get this incredible bruise-like pain in my lower back. But thanks to a suggestion by my aunt, I researched a local chiropractor in Celebration and found a fantastic one. Not only did he fix my back problem, but he made me feel so great everywhere else--I had no idea how much your spine affects other parts of your body and visa versa. I also love the fact that he emphasizes good nutrition as the foundation of a healthy body. He was super excited that I'm vegan, so that's always a plus. So getting a tune-up before the half marathon was a great idea.
That night we ate pasta, laid out our clothes, and went to bed early. I think both of us were very nervous and excited. The anticipation of running the Goofy was definitely on our minds as we closed our eyes that night.
Saturday January 7: WDW Half Marathon
We awoke at 3am and promptly dressed in our running gear (and layers because it was chilly!) and we loaded up the dogs in the car and headed towards my dad's house. We dropped the dogs off with Nala and Lilo for my sister to watch while we raced. Sammy was a great help this weekend. Once we said good bye to the pups, we headed towards Epcot. We were greeted by heavy traffic once we hit World Drive, but we were parked in the parking lot by 4am. We ate our breakfast, put on our leg braces and then headed towards the starting corrals at 4:45. It's a good 20 minute walk from the parking lot to the starting corrals and we needed to be there by 5am. It's always an exciting feeling walking to the starting corrals. We were in corral F, which was in the 5th wave. There were so many people in this race, a lot more than in previous years. We are usually in the 3rd corral, corral C, but Disney clearly added more people to the race this year, and I don't know if that was a good thing or not.
We used the porta-potties and I took a Cliff Shot while we stretched and waited for our turn to start. We watched the fireworks for each of the corrals to take their turn while we slowly moved closer to the starting line. When it was finally our turn, we were ready. When we started the course we felt very strong. We didn't really have a game plan for how we wanted to run this race, all we knew was that we needed to take it easy and not push ourselves too hard, because we need to save most of what we had for Sunday. It was very crowded to start off with, and we just decided to run as long as we could. We both felt so strong and we were running faster than we have ever run in any half marathon. So much for pacing ourselves and taking it easy. But it was hard not to run fast, we just felt so good! The weather was fantastic, our legs were strong, our bodies felt good, and we were running at a 12 minute per mile pace. We usually stick to a 14-15 mile pace if not slower. This past year I have been bumping up my speed and it was really showing in this race.
We sped through World Drive on our way to Magic Kingdom. I always love running through the parks because there are so many people cheering for you, it reminded me just how much I love running. After MK, we were on our way back to Epcot. We walked some of World Dr in hopes to slow down our pace so that we had some energy left for the marathon. We walked up the final exit ramp but then we decided to run the final stretch until we got into the park. Then we walked the up-and-back in Epcot and saw that we were on a PR pace and we ended up running the last half mile to the finish. We finished with a PR of 2:54:02. Josh beat his previous PR of 3:00:00 and mine of 2:56:50. It was a great race.
After we got our Donald medal (he was the mascot for the half) we sat down, ate some vegan protein bars and stretched. I couldn't believe how great we felt after the race. Usually something is hurting or something is tender and is uncomfortable. But nothing hurt! As we got into the car to head home, we both were unbelievably excited about our race and were eagerly looking forward to the next race, less than 24 hours away.
That afternoon we rested, iced, and used our compression socks to quicken our recovery time. That afternoon I went back to the chiropractor for a final tune-up before the big race. I wanted to make sure that everything was in tip top shape. He put me back in order and wished me the best of luck. At this point I started to get that nervous/excited feeling about the upcoming race.
Sammy came over for dinner and had spaghetti bake and watched a movie. After we ate, Sammy headed back home and we headed to bed. We watched some House Hunters on HGTV while we stretched and laid out our racing clothes. We ended up falling asleep by 7:30pm.
Sunday January 8: WDW Marathon
Marathon Day. Sammy came over around 2:45am and ended up staying at our house while she did laundry and watched the dogs while we headed to Epcot. We ran into a lot more traffic on our drive in but we still managed to get into the parking lot with enough time to eat, put on all our leg braces, and prepare for the race. Heading to the corrals was much more enjoyable than the last time we ran the marathon because we weren't freezing our butts off. Last time the temps were in the teens, where as the temps were in the high 50s that morning. So much more enjoyable!
Once we got to our corral, we used the bathroom, took our Cliff shots, and stretched. At this point I was super nervous. I know we have done this race before, but never after a half marathon the previous day. What if my body couldn't handle it? There were a lot of "ifs" running through my head as we moved closer to the start. But once it was our turn to go, I turned my music on and started running. Whoa was I sore. My knees were really talking to me but I just told them to shut up and I turned my music on louder. Josh was a few steps ahead of me, but we both agreed that we were going to run non-stop until we hit World Dr which was around mile 6. The first 5 miles wound around Epcot and through some of the countries and then back out onto World Center Dr. I was feeling good. We both were feeling good. When we reached World Dr we both agreed to try and keep up the pace (we were doing a solid 12 minute per mile pace) and try and run non-stop until we got out of Magic Kingdom, which would be mile 12. We put our heads down and kept running. By the time we hit MK my knees were hurting, but not hurting bad enough to walk. We ran through the park and continued running once we got back out onto the back road. It was at this point that I looked down and saw something red coming out of my shoe. I turned to Josh and was like, "Hey, I think my foot's bleeding." He had this worried look on his face but my foot was practically numb from the continued running, so I decided to deal with it once we hit the half way point and could get to a medical tent.
We reached the 13.1 marker at a time of 2:45, a new PR! We had beaten the record we had set the previous day and we were thrilled. I quickly stopped at the medical tent, took off my shoe to discover that I had a huge blister that had popped and bled a lot. But it didn't really hurt--or my foot was just that numb from all the constant movement--either way I decided to just put my sock back on and keep going. In retrospect, I should have even stopped because we wasted time. Oh well.
The next part of the course was on Bear Island Road--the road that connects from World Dr to backstage Animal Kingdom. Boy do I hate this road. It's long and you run by the waste treatment plant that smells literally like crap. My experience of this road during my first marathon was horrible. It was so cold and I hated every minute of it. But this year it wasn't that bad. At mile 15 I ate the best banana of my life, and before we knew it we were crossing Western Way and were in the backstage area of Animal Kingdom. At the back gate they gave us Cliff Mocha shots and they had a lot of animals out by the course. We didn't stop and pet them or anything, but it was cool to see them. We ran as much as we could through AK, but decided to walk a bit once we got back out into the parking lot. It was starting to get really hot and sunny. Once we hit mile 18 in the AK parking lot, we decided to kick it up a notch and start running again. Our next objective was to get through Osceola Parkway. Running on this stretch of road was my least favorite part of the course this year. It was long and right in the sun. But overall, I felt like it went quicker than my previous marathon experience. We continued a run/walk pattern until we hit the infamous mile up-and-back at mile 20. At this point my left knee was really hurting. Like sharp pain hurting. We were running at a pace to finish under 6 hours, but we decided not to hurt ourselves so we started to briskly walk from that point on. I think that was a great choice because we were so far ahead that we had plenty of time to enjoy the rest of the course and not worry about getting swept or not finishing in the alotted time for the Goofy medal. So we walked fast and talked. It was nice. When we hit backstage of Disney's Hollywood Studios, we were very happy to see that they had chocolate for us! If you read our race recap from the 2010 marathon, you will remember that because we were so far back in the race, by the time we reached backstage DHS they were all out of chocolate. But not this year! Our 12 minute runs earlier in the day paid off! We grabbed a handful of the dark chocolates (thats all we could eat) and we ate them happily as we walked through the park. Once we exited, we were on our way through the Boardwalk, Yacht Club, and Beach Club hotels. Then before we knew it, we were backstage of Epcot with only 1 mile left!
And whoa was that mile long. Like really long. The last mile consists of walking all the way around World Showcase. No big deal right? I mean we walk that all the time. But not after having run 38 miles in one weekend. We were both very tired and were moving kind of slow. But we kept up with the pace and we walked all the way through the park and across the finish line. We finished right behind the group of Goofy runners that stopped and got margaritas in Mexico. If I would have known how well we would run I would have brought my wallet! We finished with a marathon PR of 6:22:01, which totally shattered our previous marathon time of 6:56:48. But we still had an amazing moment crossing the finish line. We both were teary eyed as they placed the marathon medal around our heads. What an achievement. 39.3 miles in two days! I never thought I could do it! I was scared for the past 4 months just thinking about it! After we got our marathon medal we had to go to the special Goofy Tent to get our Goofy medal. One of the volunteers reminded us to go to the tent. Yeah, like we needed a reminder to go and get the medal that we had been dreaming about all weekend, haha. (but in all seriousness, the volunteers at these races are awesome, just awesome, and I am thankful for everything they do.)
As they placed the Goofy medal around our necks it was the most incredible feeling. We did. Whoa. Another thing to check off our bucket list. Wow. After that, we hobbled to our car and headed home. Sammy was there to take our pictures and she made us lunch! How nice! She brought us our lunch in bed with our ice packs and she headed back to school while we spent the rest of the afternoon resting in bed with 4 dogs. It was great.
What a fantastic weekend. Just fantastic. I was really getting bored with running. And I seriously was contemplating not doing this race because I hadn't trained due to my back hurting. But wow, get a good chiropractor and some good weather and now our love for running has returned! I can't wait to run another race--which is a good thing because I am running the Princess Half Marathon next month!
Here are some tips I learned from completing the Goofy Challenge:
1. When you see a porta-potty and you kind of have to go, just go and use it. You never know when there will be another one. There were several time during the marathon that I didn't heed my own advice on that one.
2. Run with your own water bottle and fill it up with 1/4 cranberry juice and the rest water. This was like my secret weapon this weekend. It was amazing, and my body seriously craved it while I was running. I would drink it and it would go right to my muscles. Seriously.
3. If there is blood coming out of your shoe, just ignore it. It's better to deal with it when you get home.
4. Legs hurting? Turn up your music. By the end of the race my music was super loud, but we finished with a PR time.
5. If you are going to use Cliff Shots, stop using the ones with caffeine in them at mile 10. I randomly forgot that there was caffeine in them and took them every 5 miles until the end. Yeah, that would explain why I was up at midnight Sunday night and completely wired when I should have been fast asleep.
6. Get a chiropractor. Getting a spine adjustment is quite possibly my favorite thing ever.
7. Have support. We have a great group of friends and family that supports us and our running. We are very lucky.
