Coincidence? or way of life...

Been a while since I blogged. A LONG while... (July 2007 to Feb 2009 long) but just recently I did another one of those go-to-an-amusement-park-to-run-a-long-way things. This time it was Goofy's Race and a Half Challenge. January 9 & 10 at Walt Disney World parks in Orlando, FL. It was called Goofy's Race because you have to be Goofy to do it. You run a half marathon one day, then run a full marathon the next day. The 5 hours walking around the parks the day of the half is the "Goofy Stupid" option according to my hubby. I did very well actually, all things considered. I didn't really train very well for the race. I had a series of strange illnesses between my prior marathon and the Goofy race including a trip to the hospital and a week of "no running allowed" on doctor's orders following the hospital visit.

What was the race like? Well, the half was nice. I planned on running a 12 minute mile pace which for me is a relaxed, mellow, not in a hurry and enjoy the scenery marathon pace. I ran along a bit too fast until I caught up with someone else from my training group. She was running the race on hurt feet. So I ran with her the rest of the way and ended up doing almost exactly as planned. It was fun and we stopped for pictures with the disney characters.

Then comes the full... I was dreading this part of the event. Worried about the possibility of whatever happened to me the last time I ran a 10 miler followed by a 17 miler and ending up in the hospital. I was also not too happy about having spent the afternoon walking around DisneyWorld's Magic Kingdom the day of the half. Adding insult to already sore feet. But, I started anyway... with thoughts of "This seemed like a good idea a year ago" running through my head. It wasn't near as hard as usual for me to run "slow" I quickly "achieved" my target pace of 13 minute miles and cruised along. I ran alone, my friends were all in corrals in front of or behind me.

Everything went well until about mile 15 when my right foot started hurting bad, then the left foot did, the knees got into it on and off.. but it was mostly the right foot. That foot has been giving me problems for months, still does today. The pace quickly fell towards 14 minute miles.. but in the last 6 miles I was sick and tired of running and hurting and picked up the pace instead. I limped my way to the end of the race faster and faster, just wanting it to be OVER. Then I finished right next to a guy in mickey mouse ears. But at least it was over. And it didn't hurt nearly as bad as I thought it would! (Which brings to mind the obvious question.. if you thought it would hurt worse, why did you do it?) :)

In the end I did the half right around 2:30 and the full at 5:36, both right at my target times. Not too shabby for an out of shape runner who turned 39 the next day... 39.3 miles before the 39th birthday.

So, coincidence or way of life.. my two blog posts so far are about running races in Disney parks. Honestly, I don't like Disney... so Disney is not the way of life.. but running is. So get used to it. You're likely to hear quite a bit about it.