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.

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.

Disney's Wine and Dine Half Marathon

Disney’s Wine and Dine Half Marathon is a nighttime point to point course on Disneyworld property. I got out to the Wide World of Sports complex pre-race area by about 7:30 P.M. By this time there were already a ton of runners around and many more were on the way.

I walked around a bit to see the area and meet up with some friends also doing the race. It took me a little while but I finally locked onto some familiar faces together (Jeff, Rae and Amanda--all pictured in last photo in the same order) who were fellow bloggers and runners on Team Voice (a group of Disney oriented running friends I know through the internet) as they were standing together in the larger group. I hung around with them for about a half hour before walking off to meet with some other friends for a short time. In a bit I get in line to get my pre-race photo with Mickey (back with Team Voice friends again at this point). A bit later I also got a nice photo with Jeff Galloway after he spoke to the crowd. Finally, we are getting close to time to line up in the race corrals, so everyone walks over to wait in the corrals for a while. Eventually, we get a countdown and fireworks before we start.

My plan for this race was always to have fun, however when the gun went off I covered the first 2 miles in about 21 minutes running through the crowd. Around the Mile 2 marker I started walking with another online friend (Lisa) who I had coincidentally just come upon. Lisa and I spent the next 9 or so miles walking quickly but casually. We enjoyed catching up on real life conversation with each other as well as talking with fellow runners. We took the opportunity to stop at virtually every photo opportunity, danced around a bit to the music at some of the live bands, and just generally found about every possible opportunity. Just after the Mile 11 marker Lisa (with me in the photo just above) and I lost track of each other and I ran the last 2 miles in about 22 minutes through the walking runners. I finished in 3:31:39, easily an hour and maybe 80 to 90 minutes slower than the time I might have gotten had I really “raced” this event. However, my time on this night was measured not by hours, minutes and seconds, but by fun—and I had tons of fun on this night, although the excitement was far from over.

The biggest problems with the race were in the after-race party. As I cleared the finish area and got my post-race photos, I noticed a complete mess if the bag claim area (fortunately I had not checked any bag on this night!). After I got into the EPCOT party area I noticed very long lines for the various food and drink items, after walking halfway around the park looking for a decent bite of food I headed off to the restroom. It was shortly after this point that the lack of post-race food, plus the heat from waiting in line in a tight and poorly ventilated area culminated in a dizzy spell as I started to leave the area (a condition from which I was not the only one to suffer). Fortunately I had the sense enough to sit down and had some good friends around to watch over me until I felt better. We all sat around and talked for a good while before heading out in search of food and to find the bus back to the hotel. I ended up primarily eating the banana and gronola bar I got from the race, with only a small taste of the special Wine and Dine food offerings but what I did have was really very good. If Disney can improve these long lines for the runners, it will be much better next year.





All in all, I had a great time with this event and would highly recommend it to anyone, with any luck I’ll be able to do it again some day--and hopefully I'll be able to do it with some great friends again as well.

Disneyworld Wine and Dine Half Marathon

I am back home from a completely exhausting and thrilling race weekend. I had a great time with some great friends over the weekend as well.

I'll be posting a real race report in a few days after I can really recover and organize my thoughts and photos along the way. The race was not perfect, but it was still a fabulous event and I think it has a lot of potential once Disney can make a few adjustments for next year.

Based on the way I ran out the first 2 miles and the last 2 miles, I am convinced that I could have made this a PR time race. Instead, I spent the intervening miles having great conversation with other runners, stopping for many photo opportunities, and concentrating on just having a fabulous race event. This was easily my slowest official half marathon run time (and I don't even know what it was!), but it was also the most memorable and enjoyable--and that was what mattered for this event.

2010 Disney World Trip Wrap Up

I spent 10 days at Disney World at the beginning of this month. It was easily the longest trip we have ever taken to Disney World, and it still seemed so short at times. Even so, for me it was the trip of a lifetime.

It very well may have been the last trip my family takes as a family together, as just the 4 of us. My daughters are 19 (Patricia) and 21 (Amanda) now, and are moving in different directions in their lives. Amanda will graduate college this spring and Patricia is applying to Nursing School this year as well. Given their ages I can be sure their lives will be changing significantly soon, and likely in some ways that are both expected and unexpected. While this will sadden me to some degree, that doesn't make it a bad thing. It's a good thing that these young women are ready to take their place in the world, I'll just be sad that it means they'll have to be apart from me to do it.

I'm not sure how I can effectively sum up 10 days in a single blog post, so I'll just try to hit the highlights. We spent our first seven days staying at Disney's Old Key West Resort in a 2 bedroom unit. The Old Key West Resort is part of the Disney Vacation Club, which is a first rate timeshare complex. The resort was very nice and the large accommodations were very relaxing. On our first full day there, my girls slept in and I got up early and headed out to the parks(and my wife would not arrive for 3 days due to some work issues for her). Disney has an extensive mass transportation system, and while it is not perfect it is good most of the time. The first day I did something I had always wanted to try, to go to all 4 major parks in one day. I did at least 3 major rides in each park, starting at Animal Kingdom and moving on to Hollywood Studios, EPCOT and then the Magic Kingdom. It got fairly busy later in the day, but was not too bad for a Sunday. I was guessing the cool weather was keeping the local population home during much of my stay, which was fine for me if cooler weather meant shorter lines. Monday - Thursday afternoon was a mix of touring the parks on my own, with just my wife and with the whole family. The weather was unseasonably cool to cold, but not terribly bad. I could go into a lot of details, but I think it's mostly fair to say that we just tried to enjoy ourselves. We did a lot of things but tried not to push too hard to overdo things, and I think we struck a good mix.

Starting on Thursday I was looking towards the races over the weekend, which time away from family but with other friends (and with some of you that read this!). I learned that it is very tough to balance meeting friends and being with family as there wasn't enough time to feel good about doing both, but I'll have to be satisfied with the time I got. September will bring another chance to meet up with the Disney running friends at the Disneyland Half Marathon. As far as the details of my race experiences, I already wrote several posts on those days.

Saturday morning was the wet and nearly freezing half marathon, and after getting back to the resort room I had less than an hour to be checked out as we were moving to the Port Orleans Riverside Resort for the next few days. After a warm bath (it was in the low to mid 30's and wet all morning!) I got dressed up and we headed out for the day. This day was cold and wet--it even snowed and sleeted during the race earlier--and we spent time relaxing more than touring the parks. Sunday was marathon day, although after completing the marathon I was on such an emotional high that I spent much of the afternoon and night at the Magic Kingdom. This was about the only time that my family could walk faster than me all during the stay as I shuffled around, but I still had a great time. Finally on Monday, I had to miss the opportunity to see some friends one more time as we were preparing to leave.

I would have liked to have spent more time with friends, but I can't regret the time spent with my family. Next time my friends will be around as well, but my family is transitioning into the next stage of our lives. This trip was 10 days--so short but yet so long--and was the most full vacation trip I may have ever taken, but I still would not have traded it for the world.

Walt Disney World Goofy Challenge Part 5

Well, this is the wrap up post following my Walt Disney World Goofy Experience. I think I am pretty sure by this point that I will have spent more time blogging about the Goofy Challenge than actually running the Goofy Challenge!


Saturday's half marathon was my 11th half marathon (not counting the run part of the Longhorn 70.3) and it was also my second slowest half marathon time at 2:58:48. Obviously, I spent a good amount of time stopped for photo opportunities and that slowed me down some, but I purposefully ran a slower average pace because completing Sunday's run was far more important having than a fast time on Saturday.



Sunday's marathon was my 2nd full marathon and was my slowest at 6:17:45. I felt good going into the start of the marathon, although my legs took a few miles to really get going--but I can't really say whether that was due to yesterday's run or the bitter cold weather. After looking back at my timing information I was very pleased to see that I ran the marathon with a 2:59 negative split!! That's right, I ran the last 13.1 miles nearly 3 minutes faster than the first 13.1 miles. That maybe shouldn't have been too surprising to me, as I felt great for most of the race and really enjoyed the whole day once I got moving in the morning.



Other than completing these combined races, my most important goal was to have fun. I had told some friends some time back that my goal was to feel like I was part of some fantastic 39.3 mile party the whole time. Well, the weather was wet, cold, windy and miserable for much of the runs (well, only wet on Saturday), but I still finished feeling like I had enjoyed the race of a lifetime--that I had been granted my wish to just thoroughly and completely enjoy the process throughout both days. For anyone who might even be tempted to do the Goofy Challenge, or even "just" the half or full marathon at Disney, I say "Go for it!!!" For me it felt like a once in a lifetime running experience and may never be equalled.






















I am now left with just two questions to answer to myself about the Goofy Challenge:
1. When do I get myself back there again? (even next year?), and
2. How do I top this recent experience?





(and there is a photo of Goofy and I coming to complete the collection, but I won't have it for at least another week)