So when my wife (Heather) signed me up for the Goofy Challenge for January 2014 as a bit of an early anniversary surprise she also signed herself up! Now when she signed up there were no spots left for just the Donald Half Marathon that she wanted to do but there were a few more Goofy Challenge spots open. So in a moment of shear optimism (or insanity depending on your outlook on these things) she signed herself up for the Goofy Challenge as well! Now she has only done one half marathon before (Donald Half back in 2008) and no marathons so it will be a different experience for her.
My wife does run-walk-run cycles for her training and has been doing really well – she appears to be a natural toe runner and has a long strong stride when walking both of which are really helping her. She is going in with the mindset that she wants to be well under the 3 hour mark (goal of 2.5 hours) for the Donald Half Marathon on Saturday – if she can do that and still feel strong and has confidence that she can repeat that the next day she will get on the course for the Mickey Full Marathon on Sunday. The idea would be to try to repeat Saturday’s half performance in the first half of the full and then take what comes for the second half of the full (but hopefully still continue run-walk-run cycles). This would a similar strategy to what I did for my first Goofy Challenge back in 2010 (in the frickin ice and snow – never letting that memory go) – I really wasn’t in the shape I needed to be do justice to a full marathon at the time as I was up around 255 pounds. But I did the half on Saturday in approx 2:46 finished the first half of the full on Sunday in approx 2:50 and then walked it out from there for a final time of 6:36:35. I really wasn’t ready that year but my wife is going into this in way better shape that I was even when I did the race and she still has just over 9 weeks to continue to improve. I suspect from what I am seeing so far she will have no issues doing the Goofy Challenge.
So our plan so far is that we will do the half together – I will move back in the corrals to start with her and kind of work with her on her pacing and motivation, etc – not that I think she needs it but it will be our first chance to actually run together and the Donald Half will be a fun race to do that on.
The plan for the Sunday would be for me to line up in my assigned corral for my attempt at a new full marathon PR and Heather to line up in her corral. Assuming things go according to plan I will most likely finish first and I will either hop a bus to the Boardwalk Inn or walk back through Epcot to meet her when she heads out of Hollywood Studios onto the path to the Boardwalk and Yacht and Beach Club areas. I may jog along with her until the race route heads back into Epcot – at which point I will have to diverge from the route and go through the World Showcase entrance to Epcot and hit a few spectator points to cheer her on before she heads into the finish line. I will then head around through the Epcot exits and meet her after she has her medals and stuff.
So that is the plan anyway.
We will be doing this trip as a “couples only” thing so we won’t be bringing the kids – definitely looking forward to the after party at Downtown Disney after the races on Sunday night! Strangely I am also looking forward to staying at the Pop Century resort. We have stayed at moderates to deluxes with the kids the past several years and I am looking forward to a hotel that is unabashedly Disnified.
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