Race Report - Goofy Challenge

The weekend of Jan 9th I flew down to Disneyworld to do the Goofy Challenge. The Goofy Challenge consists of running a 1/2 marathon on Saturday and a full marathon on Sunday. I got to bed at 1am Thur night and was up at 5am Friday morning to get to the airport. I met up with sisters Jen, Cork, Liz, and bro-in-law Justin down in Florida. We rented a treehouse cabin at Saratoga Springs resort on the Disney campus. We checked into the hotel and then went to the marathon expo to pickup our race packets. The packet pickup and expo were a breeze to get through with no lines. Justin's parents flew in for race support and we all joined up race dinner back at our resort, a pasta special with chicken and vegetables which was exactly what I wanted. We got to bed about 11pm and had a 3am wakeup call so we could get on a bus to the race start, Epcot, by 4am at the latest.

Half Marathon [2:04:25]

Got up at 3:15 and suited up. Race forecast was high 20's with snow, sleet, and rain. Awesome, just why I flew to FL to do a race. I freaking hate being cold more than anything. I wore winter running tights, a technical long sleeve shirt, my Mizuno base layer shirt, mild winter gloves, and a mild winter hat. Sucked back some coffee, a banana, and an English muffin and we all headed to the bus. Walking out the door was like getting punched in the face. We stood around for 30 minutes waiting for a bus to come which made us even colder. Ugh.

At 4:15 we finally boarded a bus for our 30 minute ride to Epcot where the race started. It was a long 15 minute walk from the bus drop off to the actual race start and as we walked there it started to snow and sleet. At every chance we were seeking crowds for warmth and when we could not find one we formed the 'circle of trust' amongst ourselves to share body heat. And then finally at 5:50am the fireworks went off and the race was on. I was with Liz and Justin at the start but Cork was in a different starting corral starting a 40 minutes later, it was a wave start. We 3 ran together for for the first 6 miles at about a 10 minute pace and then Justin took off to get a sub 2 hour finish. The course was dead flat and super easy. It was a shame to be so under trained for this race b/c you could really lay a fast down here. The only hills we would hit were the highway overpasses which didn't amount to much. There were some off camber access roads we ran along that were kind of a pain since one foot was lower than the other which messes with your form. The course was a little boring. You circled Magic Kingdom at the start but then it was mostly access roads and too dark to see anything the rest of the way. We go to

see Jen and Mr. and Mrs. M on the course a few times and stopped quickly to say hi, so that was cool. Jen runs a tight ship when doing race support, moving all over the course to meet us at strategic locations. I'm not sure Mr. and Mrs. M knew what they were getting into when they signed up with Jenny. Surviving the cold as a spectator took some toughness, hats off to all of them.

Every restaurant in Downtown Disney was booked from 3:30pm till 11pm. So we opted to just eat a big lunch and then maybe make a small plate of pasta for dinner back at the treehouse before bed. We ate at an Irish pub where I had a not so delicious meatball sub. Then to bed by 10pm and up again at 3:15AM to catch a bus to race start for the marathon.

Marathon [4:38:26]

At the marathon start it was colder, now 23F but no rain, sleet, or snow. At 5:40 AM the fireworks went off and the marathon was on. We were all a little spent from the day before, being cold, and getting up so early so we took an easy pace from the gate, around 10's. The marathon route does a loop around Epcot and then heads up to Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and then finishes back at Epcot. It was a much better course than the 1/2 marathon, you got to see stuff. There were all the Disney characters dressed up along the route and I ran with a camera so I could get a picture with them all. Clearly not going for a PR here. In Animal Kingdom one of the employees had a donkey on a leash on the side of the road. Donkeys are my favorite animal so that was cool to see. Again, it is a dead flat course which was nice being that I'm not fit right now. I ran with Justin and Liz for about 9 miles and then fell back. The Irish pub meatball sandwich was the wrong pre-race meal but I think I knew that when I was eating it. I had 3 full bathroom stops during the race, THREE! The finishing few miles of the marathon were really nice and had pretty good crowds since the parks were now open. I enjoyed the marathon course a lot, I thought it was laid out well and entertaining.

In general, both races seemed to have slow runners. I was dragging my feet and was surprised at the number of people I was passing. My take is that Disney 1/2 and full marathons are geared more for just having fun and enjoying a long run. Not so much for laying down a PR. Most people ran with cameras and stopped along the course to take pictures, sometimes even waiting in lines. I think that's kind of cool, a fun friendly race. We got 3 shirts which were high quality and really nice: 1 for the 1/2, 1 for the full, and 1 for doing both races 'The Goofy Challenge'. The race medals were awesome and to be honest the reason I wanted to do the race. I saw the Goofy medal at a NYC marathon expo one year and new I wanted in my collection. The 1/2 medal was Donald Duck, full medal was Mickey Mouse, and of course Goofy medal for doing both.

Congrats to Cork, Liz, and Justin for a great race and thanks so much to Jen and Mr/Mrs M for surviving the brutal weather!