Race Report: Goofy's Race & a Half Challenge -- Part 2, The Marathon

Walt Disney World Marathon

Sunday, January 12
Walt Disney World, Florida
Temp at Start: 58 degrees, low humidity
Start time 5:30am
Net time: 6:44:44

Saturday afternoon & pre-race

I wasn't nervous at all for the full marathon, especially after having run the half marathon, because I had a glimpse of what was in store for me the next day. There were so many people run/walking at my speed in the half -- many of whom were doing Goofy or Dopey (you could tell by their race bib) -- that I knew it would be a similar crowd on marathon day. Still motivated by John Bingham's words at the expo, I knew I could finish the marathon on the same day I started, so really, what was there to worry about?

The difficulty of the Goofy challenge is, obviously, that you are running a full marathon the day after a half marathon. The nice thing about the Goofy challenge is that because you are running a half marathon the day before a full marathon, it reinforces the concept of rest for the remainder of that day. Had I had plans to only run the full marathon, I'm sure I would have found some activities to squeeze into the day on Saturday. Things like shopping at Downtown Disney, having a Runkeeper Gathering at lunch, or going back to Downtown Disney for dinner with friends. Oh, wait, I did all of those things. In my defense, I did all of them as lazy as possible.

One of the highlights of my trip to Disney was meeting one member of my Runkeeper Street team, Ray from Calgary. My Runkeeper community includes family, co-workers, Run for Research teammates, local runners that I barely know, and a small, core group of runners that have been my best supporters over the past couple of years. Ray is one of those people. Thanks to his wife Liezl for signing him up for the Disney marathon, and for helping to coordinate the logistics of our lunch get together (and for not thinking it was totally creepy to bring your whole family to meet some runner girl from Boston who you don't know at all.) Congrats to Ray on his first marathon, and a sub 4:00 marathon at that! Street Credz represent!

Runkeeper gathering with the Chiang family

After lunch (turkey sandwich with a side of broccoli) and dinner (half of a burger with an entire side of sweet potato fries) I got to bed at about 9:00, and slept ok. I woke up before my 2:30am alarm and got up to eat breakfast (peanut butter on a bagel and a banana), shower, and get ready. Lisa deserves the helper of the year award, and got up at 3:30am to drive me to the race start. It took twice as long to get to the marathon as it did it get to the half, but I still got there in plenty of time, and Lisa was able to go home and get a quick 45 minute nap before she needed to get up and spend the entire day driving around Disney navigating detours trying to find me on the marathon course. Thanks Lisa!

The race report

You might not think that road races are Disney's area of expertise, but I have to admit, they did a pretty good job. RunDisney is legit. Port-a-potty lines were not too long; they had plenty of trash/recycle/clothing donation bins set up next to each corral; the corrals were well marked with giant glowing letters that you could easily see from far away; and the speakers were set up along the entire chute of corrals so even those of us in the way back could hear the announcers loud & clear for the 45 minutes it took for us to actually make our way up to the starting line. They started each corral on-time, and set off fireworks with each corral start. 

Fireworks! Start time 6:17am.

Unlike the weather at the half which was a bit too humid, the weather for the full was perfect. It was cool enough that I wore a throwaway shirt which I tossed into a donation pile just before my corral started. By the end of Mile 1, I was comfortable, and I would remain comfortable until the later miles when the sun would come out. I knew from the half that the first 3 miles would be rough, and they were, but I knew that it would quickly get better, and it did.

Distractions are good. Squirrel!

I felt better in the full marathon than I did in the half, and as a result, I had to force myself to slow down. My cousin Debbie and her husband Ric were coming to watch the race and their first viewing spot was just after the half marathon mark. I had told them yesterday that I would plan for a 14:00/mile pace, since that's what I did in the half marathon (you may recall, my "all-day pace"). I was running closer to 13:00's, but a leisurely bathroom break at Mile 5 slowed me down some, and then Lisa and her friend Jill were at Mile 8 so I stopped to talk to them for a couple of minutes. I remember telling them that I felt really good, and that I felt like I had been walking for most of it. The crowds were still so packed that I didn't feel like I was lagging behind. Shortly after I left Lisa & Jill, I got a text from Debbie that they were at Animal Kingdom. Now that I didn't have to force my pace to slow, I just let myself go with what felt comfortable. In hindsight, I should have stuck to my plan of running consistent 14:00's, because Miles 10-12 were all too fast which felt great at the time, but I think it did more harm than good in the long run ("in the long run!" I just got that.)

I got a text from Debbie that said they were by the tram station at Animal Kingdom, on the right hand side of the course, and I knew that they'd both be wearing bright yellow shirts. I don't think I saw much inside of Animal Kingdom because my eyes were constantly scanning the right hand side of the course for them. I do remember passing the Expedition Everest rollercoaster, which some runners stopped to ride, but I decided a 7-hour marathon was enough of a thrill ride in itself. I also passed the half marathon mark, and my watch read 3:07:49, which was only about 30 seconds off from my half marathon time the day before. I felt really comfortable and consistent, and remember that this was the point in the race where I thought to myself, "I'll keep this pace up until mile 20, and THEN I'll start to run faster at whatever pace feels comfortable." Little did I know that this "all-day pace" I had been keeping had an expiration on it, and that expiration was about 1 mile away. 

All of a sudden, we were exiting the Animal Kingdom through a service gate. I hadn't seen Deb & Ric yet, and by the looks of things, it didn't look like I was heading in their direction either. The service gate dumped us out onto some dirt road with a pond on one side and trees on the other, with no sign of civilization in sight. I texted Deb and said, "I think I might have missed you? Just exiting Animal Kingdom now" and she texted back to say, "Ok, we'll head to epcot to catch you there." Epcot was at mile 25. I was so looking forward to seeing them here at Mile 13. The thought of running another 12 miles with no spectators was devastating.  Then.... I turned a corner and saw the enormous Animal Kingdom parking lot complete with tram stations and thousands of spectators. I called Deb's cell, but no answer. I just kept running along the course, scanning the parking lot for them even though it seemed like a long shot, and then BAM! Two bright yellow shirts appeared. I ducked out of the race course and started running at them, arms flailing and waving, and shouting "Heyyyyyy!" You can see in the picture below the blue balloon with the "?" where I paused to send the text, and then the path along the pond where I was running, and then after the turn into the parking lot you can see the next place where I paused (slightly off the course) which is where we finally caught up to each other. Talk about a lucky break!

Oh sure, it makes sense from THIS angle.

We chatted here for a few minutes, and I was still feeling great. They headed off to drive to the Magic Kingdom parking lot so they could get on the monorail so they could get into Epcot and get to Mile 25. Spectating is no joke. That takes a lot of coordination and planning, and a lot of walking too. I was so glad they came out, especially because I only see them once every two years at most. As I continued on, I knew I wouldn't have any other spectators until I saw them again at Mile 25, and then Lisa & Jill at the finish line. 

The stretch between Animal Kingdom (Mile 14) and ESPN Wide World of Sports (Mile 17) were pretty boring. I was just slogging through, and starting to feel the cumulative miles on my legs. But then signs like this one kept me going. As I approached Mile 17, I could see a medical tent. The strange thing about this marathon was that every single medical tent had huge bottles of BioFreeze, which is like Bengay, and athletes were liberally coating their legs with it, even as early as the single digit miles. I have never used anything like this on my legs during a run, but I decided that what better time to try something new than 30 miles in on a 39.3 mile challenge. When I got to the med tent, they were out of BioFreeze. In my head, I had already planned a break here, so despite the lack of BioFreeze, I took my break anyway. I sat in a folding chair, looked at my watch and allowed myself 3 minutes, and took off my shoes to shake out the pebbles, and then I was on my way again. (If you're new to running and you're reading this: Don't ever sit down in a marathon. It should be noted that NOTHING in this blog post should be construed as advice, but seriously, you never sit down during a marathon.) I sat down again once I was in the ESPN complex, only because the picnic table bench just looked so comfy. A fellow runner actually said, "Don't sit down! Keep going!" and I nonchalantly thought, "Hrmm, they're probably right. I should be making forward progress here." It was around this time I started to spam the facebook feed. I needed a distraction that didn't involve sitting. 

Before I left for Disney, I said to my co-worker that I'd be "live-facebooking" the marathon, because I knew it would be a shit show, and what better way to deal with a catastrophe than to make it public as it's happening. One or two people criticized me for posting too much during the marathon (maybe they meant in general) but I will tell you, these posts really helped me get through. Thanks to everyone who commented on my posts or posted on my wall. Some of these I was able to read as I was bumbling along, and it definitely helped. These are pictures from Miles 18 - 22.

Just keep swimming

Did someone say Goofy?

Olaf from "Frozen". My favorite Disney character! Mile 20

"We're gonna MOVE MOVE MOVE!" Mile 21.5

At Mile 22, I didn't have the urge to sit anymore and my legs didn't feel that terrible. I was definitely walking a lot, so it felt like your legs would feel after walking for 5+ hours. It was just general fatigue, but not muscle cramps or anything that would make me stop. It made me think about people who say they could never run a marathon. Well, maybe that's true, but you could run/walk a marathon, and finish a marathon, and finish a marathon within the time limit. The Goofy Challenge might sound like an impressive feat, but if you do it in a mediocre way, it's very doable. I'm not saying this to disparage my own accomplishments, but it's just a dose of humility. If you are reading this and want to start running, or want to graduate to a half or full marathon distance, I am here to tell you that if I can do it, anyone can do it. The key is picking the right race where the crowd is back-loaded like Disney. haha.

At Mile 23, we turned into Planet Hollywood. I started to pass people here, as now mostly everyone was walking and ONLY walking, and I still had some jogging left to do. This was around the time that I knew I was definitely going to finish. Somewhere in Mile 24, along Disney's Boardwalk, I did my patented pre-celebration cry (which I invented on the bike at Timberman). As I'm shuffling along with tears streaming down my face, I can see a fellow runner looking over at me, wondering whether or not to say something. He did end up asking me if I was ok, and I think he was relieved when I told him I was crying because I knew I'd finish. We ended up walking together for the next mile or so (don't get your hopes up for a romantic story; he was so flaming he might have actually been on fire.). He was doing the Dopey Challenge, after having done Goofy for the past couple of years. He said that his philosophy is that you pay all this money to enter the race, why rush through the parks? His strategy was to run during the boring stretches, but to walk anytime he was in a park, resort, or any other area that he normally wouldn't have a chance to experience. After about a mile with him, we approached a medical tent that actually had BioFreeze! I told him I was stopping, and he went on his very merry way. I lathered up my legs with BioFreeze and continued running. It was definitely a strange sensation, because it numbs your legs and feels kind of refreshing. I'm going to have to consult a professional on whether or not it's a good idea to use that during a marathon in the future. I sort of felt like it was cheating. Then again, some people get in a sag wagon on the course and still cross the finish line and get a medal as if they ran the whole distance, so maybe I can drop the guilt about using race-provided BioFreeze.

I got a text from Deb that they were at Mile 25, in Epcot, on the right hand side. I was running as I approached them, mostly because I knew they were there, but partly because I only had a little over a mile to go.If they didn't have the video to prove it, I might have forgotten this part, but as I approached them at Mile 25, I was crying and saying, "I'm having a meltdown!" Unfortunately there wasn't much more to the video than that because I think it freaked Ric out so he stopped recording, which is just as funny as the video. My meltdown was a combination of wanting to be done already, the exhaustion of being on my feet for over 6.5 hours, and the pride that I actually made it to Epcot where the finish line was. 

Me, Deb & Ric at Mile 25. No meltdown here!

We had our picture taken in front of the Mile 25 sign (see? I bounce back quickly), and then Deb offered to run with me for a bit. We ran about halfway around the Epcot world together. This must have fired up the last of my reserves because I was able to haul ass all the way into the finish line. My Garmin said my last mile was a 10:13, which is faster than my average pace on the last 5K that I raced. I guess when you walk 80% of a marathon, you have energy left at the end. WHO KNEW?! (Apologies to my coach, Peej, who has probably been cringing this whole time.)  I passed the gospel choir, same as yesterday, and knew it was just one more turn and a straight shot to the finish. Miraculously, I saw Lisa & Jill in the crowd just before I crossed the finish line. I felt so good at the end, that I didn't need ice, I didn't need to sit, I was already done with my crying. That post-race comfort didn't last long, and I was definitely looking like someone from the Ministry of Silly Walks as the day wore on, but I think I'd be disappointed if it happened any other way.

Special thanks to Ric & Deb for your enthusiasm and willingness to come visit, and for wearing those shirts so I could spot you in the Animal Kingdom parking lot! And a million thanks to Lisa for getting me to sign up for the race, for coordinating our entire vacation, for getting up early to drive me to the marathon, for driving all over the place just to see me on the course, for carrying my nutrition and my medal around all day, and for capturing my post-Goofy glow. 

2 days, 4 parks, 39.3 miles, 3 medals.

 And for the record, I will NOT be doing the Goofy Challenge again. Dopey, anyone??