After the Jacksonville marathon I kept up running through the holidays, putting in lighter miles & speed work to prepare for the toughest running event I have ever signed up for - the Disney Goofy Challenge. For those of you unfamiliar with this event it is a 1/2 marathon (13.1 miles) on Saturday and a full 26.2 mile marathon on Sunday for a whopping 39.3 miles in 2 days. Both events started at 5am so the alarm was set for 3am both days.
For the 1/2 marathon I did not know what to expect. I was placed in the A corral based off my predicted finish time and once the race started I was in the zone and running TOO FAST. I decided that I would not look at my Garmin watch & instead run based off of effort. I didn't want to run too hard because the 1/2 was only a small part of the 39.3 mile challenge. I still looked at the Garmin every mile marker and slowly the miles started ticking away all under 8:00 min/mile. I realized that at this rate I would PR the 1/2 marathon. Was that a good idea? PR a 1/2 marathon the day before I running a full marathon? I was about to find out. I was keeping up that pace while stopping to take photos with some Disney characters! I didn't plan to run the 1/2 marathon serious because of the marathon...I was even wearing Mickey Mouse ears as a joke... Finally the finish line was in sight--- I crossed in 1:43 and had a new 1/2 marathon PR! Wow! What a fun race.
After such a strong 1/2 marathon I didn't know what to expect for the full. I basically did the exact same routine, eating, etc. that I did on Saturday for the 1/2. Once the alarm went off at 3am I was ready to get the marathon over with.
At the start line I was able to talk with Mike & Galen - both local Tampa runners that I train with. Mike and I also met another runner, Jason, who was at Disney doing his first marathon --and doing it as part of the a Goofy Challenge!
I was in the A corral again and decided to start running at a 3:45 finish pace. Jason decided he was going to stick with me for as long as he could. I was cruising right along at the 3:45 pace (8:35 min/mile) -- ran into Joe Taricani from 'The Marathon Show' podcast (if you have never listened to his podcast check it out!!). Joe interviewed me for his show while I was running - I committed myself to a 3:45 finish time on his show and then kept running along. I made it through the 1/2 mark perfectly on pace for 3:45. Jason actually PR'd hiss 1/2 marathon time DURING THE MARATHON!! I lost Jason around mile 15 -- he just disappeared.
Around mile 16 my stomach wasn't feeling right. I didn't know what the problem was but it was bothering me and I noticed my pace start to suffer because of it. Around mile 19 I realized that I needed to find a bathroom. Luckily I was able to do so just before mile 20. The bathroom break really set me back on my goal time. I was angry at first--but soon realized my finish time would still be respectable even with the stop (especially as part of the Goofy Challenge). I also was stopping along the course to take photos with the Disney characters.
I finished the full marathon in 4:02, and I am ok with that. My overall pace for the 39.3 miles was 8:40min/miles. I couldn't have been happier. I was also able to see my friend Mike cross the finish line right at his goal of 3:59. I also looked up Jason to see how he finished -- 4:07. He was right behind me and finished his first marathon in a very respectable time. I wish my first marathon would have been 4:07!
The Goofy Challenge was a great event. I would definitely run the 1/2 or full marathon again.wired planning to run one of the events next year. As far as the Goofy Challenge goes, I will probably not run that event another time (we will see). Not because I didn't enjoy it, but because I would like to be able to focus my energy on one race without the worry of all the 'what-ifs'.
My next marathon is this weekend-- Miami. It looks like it is going to be a hot one. I am also considering the Fort Lauderdale A1A marathon in February.
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