The Woodlands Marathon 2012

Growing up in The Woodlands I remember the old marathon that I hoped to do one day as I grew up, however by the time I was in a position that I might have actually really done the race it had disappeared into the sands of time. However, starting in 2012, The Woodlands Marathon has come back as a new event and this time I made a point to be there.

Given that I am primarily in training for IM 70.3 in Galveston and then IM Texas, also in my local neighborhood of The Woodlands, my race preparation has been for those races and not for this one. I resolve to follow a heart rate based plan to help me get the most out of the race without overdoing things. I also set to follow a nutrition plan that I want to use for my 70.3 and full Ironman races, which is to take on a gel every 2 miles, plus a bottle of water each hour plus 4 Endurolyte capsules each hour starting 30 minutes into the race.

Seeing as how I set my PR of 5:30:45 in Disneyworld almost 2 months prior, I figure I should be able to run about 45 minutes to an hour faster without posing for Disney character photos and running at a faster pace. I had initially planned to start with the 4:30 pace group and see if I could keep with them. As the race got closer I figured that I might try a slightly more aggressive plan and start with the 4:15 pace group and drop to the 4:30 group if I needed to do so. The night before the race my friend Karen tells me she wants to try to go for a 4 hour finish and I decide to join with her for as long as I can hold the pace. We were running the entire race with an 8/2 walk/run.

On race day Karen and I meet up and get ourselves positioned at the back of Corral A just in time to begin the race. We leave at the back of the corral and head out feeling strong. I'm running without a GPS device to ensure I stay on my heart race plan, but I ask Karen what our pace is as we pace mile 1. Her response is, "You don't want to know." Actually that first mile went by in just under 8:50. We continue and stay on a solid pace. There is good crowd support and great racing weather this morning. I really enjoyed pushing a solid pace and having good company while doing it. We share occasional bits of conversation and use each other as a pacer. We pass the Mile 10 mark right at 1:30, on a 9 minute per mile pace, which is only slightly behind the time I had for the Ten for Texas 10 miler last October. As we turn back to complete the first loop we are just over 1:58. I've never run a sub 2 hour half marathon before today, and now I'm headed back for more.

We're still feeling strong and running in the low 9 minute pace through mile 14. This is where we begin to slow a bit. Mile 17 results in a 10:17 mile and we take a quick potty break in conjunction with our walk break and regroup. This must have helped because the next 6 miles ranged from the 9:30s to 9:50s.  Miles 24 and 25 were tough as (or at least I) were running on fumes and heart and each passed in 10:11 and 10:19.

Karen and I later in the race.

Finally, after passing the Mile 25 sign we're able to pick up the pace and average 9:19 over the final 1.2 miles. Karen is able to sprint ahead to the finish while I didn't feel up to it. However, just after she starts her sprint I do find the strength and I follow her into the finishing stretch.

I finish in a new PR time of 4:06:30. If you'd asked me a few days ago, I wouldn't have even thought I had an unreasonable chance of making a time that fast. Clearly I needed the help of a friend to open my eyes to the possibility of accomplishing more than I expected as I improved my PR time by 1:24:15. There are some days where I wonder where this road of activity is leading me, but, at least for now, I am enjoying myself along the way and I hope it always stays that way.

Post-race with Coach Michelle.

Going Forward

I am starting to reach those long training workouts that go with Ironman training, the workouts that begin to stretch my weekly training hours well beyond anything I would normally do. So far everything seems to be going well for me. In a way, things almost seem too good as I am coming off off two good training weeks in a row (and those followed a good 50 mile running experience in the Rocky Raccoon 50 mile event).

I don't really have much to report on, other than perhaps providing a detailed description of last week's workouts which I don't plan to do this year--although I did have close to 13:40 of total workout time last week. Feel free to go back into last year's blog posts if you want to see a weekly blow by blow of my training. However, it will vary from this year given that I entered this point of training from a perspective of being in better shape and aiming at some additional priorities along the way.

One thing I did want to write about was a change in my perspective. This is something I have mentioned a few times before, and my perspective is something that continues to evolve in ways I do not necessarily realize until after it has changed. I realized last week that all my training for so very long a time period has been backward-looking. By that I mean that I was attempting to reach a point of fitness that I could compare to a previous point in my life when I was in better shape. Later on I shifted to a backward-looking perspective where I was fearful of returning to my more recent past of less healthy habits and regaining the weight I worked so hard to lose. It is only fairly recently that I began to shift my perspective to being forward-looking as I concentrated more on what I can accomplish for its own sake with no bearing on anything in my past (except maybe to be better, faster and stronger than I was before). I don't quite know when this change of perspective happened, just that it did. Everything in my training is now geared towards improving myself to be better, but without the ghosts from my past taunting me along the way and also without me making any comparisons to my former self.

89 days until Ironman Texas.....

Rocky Raccoon 50 Mile Race Report

My Rocky Raccoon 50 Mile race adventure got off to an expected start with a rain coming down over the several days before the race. We had heavy rains the night before and even started in a light rain for the first several miles of the day. Otherwise the weather was good, moderate temperatures that cooled only slightly during the day with sun coming out only late enough to provide extra twilight visibility before dark. The course is 3 loops of a 16.67 mile course run through Huntsville State Park in Huntsville, Texas. My general plan is to run an 8-2 run-walk plan with extra walking up hills and large inclines, short rest stops at all aid stations and a break to assess myself between loops. I ran the race with my friend Karen, who is an experienced ultra-distance runner. Karen ran the 100 mile distance at this race last year. Loop 1: There is a lot of water on the course and it is only a matter of time before feet are wet and mud is splattered up along my legs. Fortunately my trail shoes (Brooks Ghost GTX) proved to be good at keeping most of the water out my shoes and draining excess water away from my feet. Initially, we try to avoid as much water as possible by going through makeshift detours around water-filled areas, but this only goes so far and we are often forced to go right through the water. Overall, I felt like this lap went pretty well. I did suffer from a moderate amount of gastrointestinal distress for several miles in the middle of the loop, though a trip to the porta-potty helped to address that for a few hours. After that, I feel like I am back on pace and running well with some of the more difficult parts of the loop ahead. I'm shown in this photo approaching the last aid station in the first loop.

We complete the first loop in 3:27:58 and are feeling pretty good with where we are right now. T1: I don't really think the break between loops is known as a transition break, but I'm a triathlete so that's what I'm going with for now. I come into the break and grab my bag and take a seat. I try to methodically go through the steps I need to take. I remove my shoes and socks and shove newspaper up into the shoes to wick out the excess water. I did bring extra shoes for each lap, but the other shoes would not be nearly as effective at keeping water away from my feet.

I clean off and examine my feet. Since they looked good I applied a coat of Body Glide to prevent chaffing. Then I emptied my extra nutrition from my waist pouches and restocked. Karen had previously given me the outstanding idea to have a separate bag packed for each loop's nutrition needs so that I could dump out the old stuff and repack what I needed without having to worry about forgetting anything. Finally, I munched on some extra nutrition and put on fresh socks with my shoes and head out after a stop of 17:30 feeling refreshed. Here I am shown preparing to head back onto the course.

Loop 2: During the early part of this loop I feel like I am running fairly well, though the earlier gastrointestinal distress starts to return. As part of my response to this I stop taking in simple sugars as part of my aid station snacks, which does seem to benefit me in the long run. During this loop we start to notice that the water is receding in certain areas of the trail, however the muddy areas and getting mucky and the clay areas of trails offer less and less traction--especially up and down hills. This loop begins to get tough on me personally as the middle third is filled with a slightly worse case of the gastrointestinal distress I felt earlier. This takes a bit of a mental toll during the middle part of the race. I do feel much better after another porta-potty break and resume the lap. After reaching the final aid station for this loop we again enter one of the toughest parts of the course. This time my mental state starts to get down and I feel the last 4-5 miles drag on and on and on... I just dig down do what it takes to keep on moving, meanwhile Karen does her best to encourage me through this part of the trail. My spirits finally begin to pick up a bit as we get close to the end of this loop and we finish loop 2 in 3:57:52, though I would have believed it was much longer based on how I felt. T2: This time through is pretty much the same as the first time, except that I decide to change into a fresh shirt. I again restock my nutrition and get into fresh socks and decide to stay with my trail shoes again for this last loop based upon the trail conditions. This time I am out in 21:59. Loop 3: As I start loop 3 I can tell I really do feel much better than I did when I came back. The lower parts of the course have drained more and some are more stable. However, the muddy parts are even muckier than before and a number of clay areas are starting to feel unstable. For the most part we run straight through the center of the path through the wet areas to find the clay base of support in the center of the trails. In many ways I felt at my mental best for this loop, I tapped into my endurance mindset and I tapped into my endurance and found a pace I could maintain. One interesting thing we discover as we come down the back side of the dam, somewhere around mile 41, a large pine tree tree had fallen across the path since we had last been by. Given our general level of fatigue, we talk among ourselves and with other runners and try to remember whether the tree had been there or not earlier. We make it to the last aid station a bit before dark, placing us 4.4 miles from the end with a bit of twilight left. Unfortunately, this places us on some of the more technical parts of the trail (many twists, turns and roots to deal with) as we are reduced to running with our headlamps. This slows our paces just a bit and we try to take quick, short steps as we run out the course. Finally, we take that last turn and are in an open straightaway from the finish. As we pick up for a finishing sprint I feel the unmistakeable pain of a popping blister on my right foot about 50 yards from the finish. I ignore that and sprint on through for my first 50 mile race finish in approximately 12:06:47. In the end I had a great time running this with a great friend. For now I need to turn my primary attention towards Ironman Texas, which is just 104 days away.....

Walt Disney World Marathon 2012

As with the half marathon on the day before, Day 2 of the Goofy Challenge comes early with a wake-up call just before 3 a.m. As yesterday, I quickly get dressed, grab my stuff and head down to the bus in front of the hotel for the trip to the starting area. After arriving I look for some friends near the bag check tent, although today I was unable to find any of them. Today I check in at the information tent and use a time from a previous race to get myself moved up to Corral B so I can better get out ahead of the crowds at the start of the race, using the logic that if I stay ahead of as many people as I can then the lines for photos will be shorter.

With a bit of fanfare the race begins early in the morning. I start trying to keep a moderate pace without pushing too hard, and I mix in 2 minutes of walking with every 10 minutes of running. Our first destination today is Epcot as the race runs through the front of the park and then out a side service exit near the World Showcase.

After that we are on the road towards the Magic Kingdom. For me this seemed like the longest distance between any two parks for the day. However, there were a number of entertainment choices in terms of characters, school bands and cheerleaders out to support the runners today. The weather was a slight bit cool, but very comfortable for running, especially for long distance running today.
Just before arriving at the Magic Kingdom we are running past the Disney World Speedway, where you can drive a racing car (for a price). All I got to do today was pose by the cars!

Given that the Magic Kingdom is later in the race it is light out when I come through on this day. I take the opportunity to slow down in this park to take several photos on my way through--and even see my friend Jeff on the way down Main Street.
After running through the park, and especially the castle, we make our way back out through the same service entrance as we did yesterday. However, unlike yesterday, we are heading all the way to the Animal Kingdom park. This route takes us along a long back service road which includes a backstage storage area for the Magic Kingdom, as well as several more photo opportunities to pass the time.

As I run into the Animal Kingdom I have two competing thoughts going through my head, the first is hoping that I will be able to ride the Expedition Everest roller coaster that I also left the course for 2 years earlier, the second thought is the realization that I am entering the park about 5 minutes before its projected opening time. This is a big surprise to me as I had never considered that I could have gotten to this point this early in the morning! As luck has it I am allowed into the entry gate as I approach Expedition Everest and join up with 3 other runners as we ride on the first ride of the day.




After finishing the coaster ride, I am off to run through the rest of the Animal Kingdom and then back out along the roads towards the other long portion of the race that is out of the theme parks, pausing for one photo just outside of the Animal Kingdom parking lot that I just had to have, although I do have to wonder just why my daughters think this was my best photo.... In any case I take this photo somewhere around the 18 mile mark and after I get back up to run I realize that I am feeling good and am still having a great time. In fact, I have never felt this good on a run of this length...ever. As I am running along up ahead I have a chance conversation with another runner, who was dressed as Tinker Bell. She noticed my Ironman Texas visor and told me she had done the race as well. It turns out that I had come all the way to Florida to run this race and randomly meet up with someone who lives almost down the road from me that I did not previously know. Here are Erin and I in front of a mile marker. We ran virtually all of the rest of the race together just chatting along with each other, as well as other runners, and just generally enjoying the race. Having joined up with Erin, and her friend Jerry that she was pacing through his first marathon, it made the next miles go by so much faster with the good company. Fortunately they shared my goals of having a fun time and we all stopped at all the photo opportunities along the way.

As we turn into the Hollywood Studios park we know we are getting into the last few miles of the race. In the Studios park the photo opportunities are fairly numerous and and can be easier to get as some of the other runners are just trying to get through the race. They are also, obviously, themed towards the movies.
Leaving the park means that we are entering the home stretch of the marathon. This is also the toughest part of the race for several reasons: it can be starting to get warm (though this day is not a bad day), you are pretty tired around 23 miles into the race (I'm still doing pretty good), and the crowd of many now walking runners clogs a narrow course path (OK, this one is still true). This part of the course runs along the path that connects Hollywood Studios to Epcot, by way of the Boardwalk and Beach Club Resorts. This area is full of supportive cheering crowds offering support to the tiring runners. As we make our way into Epcot and around the World Showcase, we all know are race is coming to a close soon. Around the 25 mile mark I run into my one problem on race day, which is some minor hamstring cramping. After a moment of walking and self massage, I resume running slowly and just try to enjoy the rest of the race. As we come towards the front of Epcot and pass the mile 26 marker we are ready to close out the race. I let Erin and Jerry go on to the finish as I pause for one last "must-have" photo of the Gospel Choir near the race finish.

Having just about concluded the most fun race of my life, I officially make it to the finish with an easy run for the last couple hundred yards and claim my finisher medals for the marathon and the Goofy Challenge. I finish the race in 5:30:45, improving my marathon PR from 6:11:36 from November 2009. More importantly, I had a great race with tons of fun on a wonderful day. I certainly hope I am able to do the Goofy Challenge again some day.

I save my last bit of Goofy Challenge fun for when I arrive home by adding a new sticker to my car window to help me remember all of the fun.

New Year, Next Ironman

Even though I am in the midst of several early season running events, I am also beginning training for my second go at Ironman Texas. With this changed perspective my early training is including a greater emphasis on running for several other events prior to IMTX. I really feel like I am entering into these early IMTX preparation sessions having a better overall fitness level than I did last year. In the last 3 weeks I have included long runs of 26.2 and 18.1 miles, my cycling is ahead of last year in terms of speed across a distance (today's ride averaged 19 mph over 48 miles) and my swim times and swim distances are also ahead of where I was last year at this time. Overall, I should be looking at solid improvement across my Ironman training and racing compared to last year.

One of the big question marks is how I respond to the Rocky Raccoon 50 mile event in 2 weeks--an event which I have wanted to do for a few years, but also an event which I can honestly say that is tough enough that there is no guarantee of success, especially considering I will be cautious enough to try to not ruin my IMTX race preparation with this event. Even so, I am looking forward to this effort to continue to broaden myself and see how far I can stretch my abilities.

Coming and Going (with photos) -Year 5

Part 5 of a continuing series...(I had posted this a short time ago, but am having to remove and repost due to a technical issue.)

Last July, while I was continuing through my physical and mental recovery following Ironman Texas, I began a series of posts where I reviewed my fitness progress and achievements throughout each year since I made an effort to return to an active lifestyle after a long period of relative inactivity and weight gain. These posts can be found here, though you will have to scroll down to the bottom of the page and work your way up to follow the chronological order of the posts.

January brought some big changes to my life and training. First, I got under 200 lbs for the first time in over 10 years and maintained my sub-200 lb weight for first time in nearly 20 years. In addition, January brought an uptick in my training schedule as I began ramping up for Ironman Texas. My training ranged from schedules of roughly 9.5 to 15.5 hours as I began the mental and physical preparation for the Ironman. As February came along it seemed that 16+ hour training weeks were becoming normal for me. By this point a recovery week had close to 13 hours of training--a volume of training I might never have even had prior to the start of my Ironman training program. Looking back from my current point of view I wonder just how I stood up to adjusting to that schedule, but it is something that I did manage to handle. I expect most of that was having the mental attitude of planning to complete the journey I was on.

March brought some big training firsts, such as a personal long 112 mile bike ride for the first time. I also used some time to take a bit of a "break" by participating with a team in the Texas Independence Relay. The TIR is a 203.2 mile relay race from Gonzales, TX to the San Jacinto Monument. The course covers 203.2 miles in remembrance of the Texas fight for independence from Mexico in 1836. I used the term "break" partly in jest as I ran over 20 miles in 5 or 6 run segments during the 31-ish hours our team was running. I can be seen in the back of this photo with a few of my teammates as we stand in front of the San Jacinto monument.


April brought me the peak of my Ironman training as I covered over 554 miles of combined training. Ironically, I probably would have had even more training if not for racing early in the month. One of the unique features of the Kemah Olympic Triathlon is jumping off of a boat and swimming back to shore. I really thought this race was worth doing for this experience alone!





In the end, I had a good day at Kemah, even though I was a bit disappointed with my swim and bike times, each of which was more likely due to the windy conditions than due to any shortcoming on my part. I came away with my first PR of the year--over 12 minutes since last doing this distance the previous September. By the time I was done with the Kemah race, Ironman Texas was looming even larger on the schedule. Before the month ended I was hitting my longest week, with around 18.5 hours of training and doing my longest sessions of each discipline. I was also hitting the wall and beginning to burn out on training just as I was getting to the 3 week taper point before the race.

May brought with it the prime event of my year--Ironman Texas. I had a good start on the day of IMTX but that gave way to some problems late in the bike and on the run portions of the event that hampered my performance on that day. Even so, I persevered and made it to the finish. Even with those problems that I had on that day, it was still a great event for me and I was glad that I had done it. One of the most surprising things that happened to me during Ironman training was the loss of about 17-18 lbs, from the start of the year until race day.

My post IMTX rest continued into June, but by the end of the month I felt ready to get going again. Although I was not quite fully recovered I returned to triathlon by entering a relay with my friend, Karen, as she got her first taste of triathlon. We participated in the Mixed Relay Division of the Y Freedom Tri in Pearland, Texas. We each had a good day and scored a first place finish on our division. This was my first and only athletic award in my 5 years of being active, and while that felt good it felt better to share the experience with a good friend.

It was during these summer months where my training had wound down from the Ironman training levels that I experienced the mental growth that followed my physical loss. By that I mean that I still mentally envisioned myself as the much heavier version of myself from several years earlier. To be truthful, this was a hard thing to reconcile as I had been in the 250-270 lb range or more for a number of years before taking on an active lifestyle, and I suppose I had long been used to the idea of how I once looked and likely I mentally assumed that I would always look that way. To some degree, I am still surprised by my current image in photos and reflections as being "me". I guess I am still getting used to that image of myself, and am maybe not entirely convinced it will be permanent. As a matter of comparison let me share two photos taken almost 4 years apart on separate vacations to Disneyworld. One is from the early morning hours of January 1, 2008, where my daughters and I stayed until the park's 4 a.m. closing and the other is one of my photos from the Disneyworld marathon just a few days ago. The difference in weight in these two photos is probably about 85 lbs (I almost can't believe I am actually posting the older photo online! However, if my posting helps convince just one person that they can go from looking like I did to being able to reclaim a healthy and active lifestyle, then posting this is worth it.).



In August I was back at triathlon fully as I did the Bridgeland Sprint Tri for the second straight year. I think it may have actually somehow been hotter than the previous year but I was much better prepared this time around. My final time for this race was 1:27:00, beating out last year's time of 1:34:14 by over 7 minutes, even with the run lengthened by 0.15 miles. It may have been the first time that I ran every step of the run part of any triathlon and it definitely was the first time that I finished in the upper half of my age group in any running or triathlon event, something that I am happy to say that I continued for the remainder of the year.
In September I ran the Houston Olympic Distance Triathlon. This time I was on a specific mission for my first sub-3 hour finish at this distance. Even though the day was warmer than expected, I set out to beat my goal time. I followed my plan and though I had some issues (worse than expected swim, better than expected bike) I came through in a time of 2:58:12 to meet my goal.

As October rolled through I was well into preparation for my early November half iron distance triathlon at Oilman, but I took a break for a fun sprint tri with a few friends to do the first year Oktoberfest Tri in Fulshear, Texas. I went there to have fun, and ended up having a great race. I finished 9th in my age group and 22nd overall while doing this fun, local event with several friends from my tri group, OutRival Racing. To finish up my racing in October, I did a local 10 miler called the Ten for Texas. This is a generally well run event (though I had my issues with it this year) that I seem to manage to only be able to run every other year for various reasons. I was looking to run under 1:40 this year, which would have dropped over 15 minutes off my PR off this distance. Since running a time of 1:40 would equate to a 10 minute per mile average pace, I set out to start at a pace of 9 minutes per mile and expected to have some extra time in reserve as I slowed down. As it turned out I stayed close to the 9 minute average pace and with a fast 10th mile I finished in 1:29:50, well faster than my own expectations on this day.

In November I started with my second most important event of the year for me, the Oilman Half Iron Distance race. I came into this race trained, rested and ready to go. I was looking to put as much distance as I could between this year's finishing time and last year's finishing time of 7:07:43. I improved in each area from last year, including both transition times. I had some cramping issues late in the run and had to walk much more than I planned in the final loop of the 3 loop run, however, this year's time was still 6:21:22.5, 46:20.7 ahead of last year's finishing time of 7:07:43.2.

Finally, to close out my racing year, I ran the Run The Woodlands 5K on Thanksgiving weekend. I ran this race last year on Thanksgiving weekend and set a new PR of 27:05. Given all the training I've done this year I figured a new PR was close to a sure thing today.

My goal was to get under 25 minutes and possibly even under 24 minutes with my finishing time. I ran hard and steady, trying to run as hard as I could maintain without faltering over the distance.I found my time to be quite a surprise as I would not have anticipated that I would have been able to run a 22:43 5K, but I did it. This is a time that takes me back to my 20's in terms of speed, though I have far more endurance training now than I ever did then.

In the end I can only say that this was a fabulous year for me. I successfully completed new events, most notably the Ironman, and reached a lot of self-improvement milestones along the way. In addition, I redefined my sense of who I was and I got to know a lot of great friends along the way. I also managed to maintain my early year weight loss and build on it so that I finished the year just under 180 lbs (even with some weight gain during Thanksgiving and Christmas) for a weight loss of almost 24 lbs on the year. Also notable for the year was that I gained a new PR in every event I did this past year. My only regret for 2011 was that it had to end, since it seemed that I hopped from one success to the next.

Walt Disney World Half Marathon 2012

The Walt Disney World Half Marathon is the first half of the Goofy Challenge, with the second half being the Walt Disney World Marathon on the following day.

The day of the half marathon starts with an alarm just before 3:00 a.m. I quickly get dressed, grab my stuff and head down to the bus in front of the hotel for the trip to the starting area. The advantage of staying at a Disney hotel is that they will bus you from the hotel to the starting area. After arriving I look for some friends near the bag check tent. Although I am unable to find any of them, my friend Corinna sees me and we head to the starting corrals together, where we come across a couple other friends. From the left, that's Debra, Diane and Corinna in the photo with me. I position myself at the front of my starting corral as we get close to the race start so as not to get caught up with all the other runners. The race starts with a bit of fireworks and celebratory fanfare with the race mascot, Donald Duck, and then we are off.
The weather was cool this early morning, but good for running. Given the early 5:30 a.m. start of the first wave it was going to be dark for a good part of this race. After several miles we approached the vehicle entry going towards the Magic Kingdom. Coming up to the Magic Kingdom brought us to the best part of the race--running through the parks! We were able to run down a dark, but crowded Main Street with lots of cheering spectators urging the runners along. After clearing Main Street, we were able to run through much of the park, including Tomorrowland, Fantasyland and Adventureland. During these areas there were numerous other photo opportunities as well. Finally, we exited the Magic Kingdom through a rear service exit and took a company road to head back towards Epcot. Along this road we traveled through some back areas and then alongside some of the resort hotels before making it back to the regular roadway system. Along that route we came across several other photo chances including these here.
As we head along the road back to towards Epcot I can see daylight arriving in the distance. During this run along the roads back towards Epcot there were a variety of entertainment options including characters, scenery and music. Here I am posing with the not often scene character Scrooge McDuck. Finally, we're getting back to Epcot for the last part of the race, which includes a short out and back through the park with an eventual exit through a side service exit and the finish line just after that. During this last bit I manage to get one last stop for a character photo before I make my final run towards the finish. At this point I probably have a bit more than a half mile left and realize that a PR is still possible for me and I stretch my legs out for a good finish. As it turned out my math was off a bit and that was a bit unnecessary as I finished with a time of 2:24:01, a PR of 2:44 from the Run Wild Half in February 2010.

Later that afternoon I met some friends for Dole Whips at the Magic Kingdom
and then later on I meet some more for ice cream at Beaches and Cream at the Yacht and Beach Club Resort before meeting up with my family for some time in the theme parks before heading back to the hotel room to prepare for the marathon the next day.