2010 Goofy Challenge Race Report

Go get a couple of cups of whatever is appropriate to drink!

Half marathon photos
Marathon photos

This is the third time I’ve done Goofy Challenge. The first time was in 2006 (inaugural year), then again in 2007. I thought I was done after those 2 episodes, but a friend convinced me to sign up again this year (or was it the other way around?), and it turned out to fit perfectly in with my Phase II training for Ultraman.

In 2006, I didn’t know what I was doing, and ran 2:07.17 in the half and 4:27.07 in the full. Total time: 6:34.24. It was near-record cold temperatures in Orlando, but comfortable—high 30’s and low 40’s.

In 2007, I thought I knew what I was doing, and ran 2:14.32 in the half and 4:31.13 in the full. Total time 6:45.45. It was hot and humid. I would rather run in the cold!

This year, I really thought I knew what I was doing, and I went in with the stretch goal of qualifying for Boston in the marathon (I’d need to go 4:05), and a secondary goal of beating my combined times of past years. I ended up going 2:06.00 in the half and 4:20.22 in the full. Total time 6:26.22. That’s 8 minutes faster than in 2006, when I was well-trained, only now I am 4 years older, and I have been training a whole lot harder overall this year than ever before.

Just 2 weeks ago, I did my first mega-swim/bike workout of about 5.4 miles swimming and 90 miles riding. That was a 20-hour training week that included a 15+ mile run, and was the beginning of my run taper.

One week later, I did my first 10K (11,000 yards) swim, and ended up at a 16-hour training week one week before Goofy Challenge! But I tapered down my bike.

Last week, I only swam twice, biked once and did 3 short runs and some strength training before I left for Orlando. My run legs were feeling good, and I had some swim breakthroughs to boot. So everything was looking good for some good running. Or at least strong running, which is really all I cared about.

At the beginning of last week, I started scoping out the weather for Orlando, and it looked like there would be record cold. Hearing my Floridian friends complain about it was entertaining! Meanwhile, Chicago teed up a big snowstorm to hit on the tail of a near-zero freeze pattern. On Thursday, I got about 6” and cleared it all from the driveway and thought we were done. But on Friday morning, another 4” had fallen, and I had to clear some of it just so the limo could get up my driveway. Nothing like a nice 30’ workout before boarding a plane!

Orlando weather in January is as changeable as Chicago in October, but it was definitely going to be cold, so all I’d packed was running tights and long shirts and pants for daytime. My flight out of Chicago was only delayed by about an hour, so it was good I’d scheduled an early flight so I could make it to packet pickup.

The schwag for this race is excellent. This time we got 3 technical T-shirts—one for the half, one for the full, and one for Goofy! The other times I’d done it we didn’t get a Goofy shirt. We also got a silly plastic medallion, some shoelaces, a nice sling bag, 2 disposable cameras (which I left in my hotel room for the next occupants), and a pink Sharpie! I am so excited to have a pink Sharpie I can’t tell you! Sharpie sponsors the race, particularly all the mile markers (get it? Markers?), and also places all these signs along the course with little-known facts and brain teasers. One that I remember from this year was, “How deep would the oceans be if there weren’t sponges in there?”

Once I got checked into my hotel (after stopping at Publix for some takeout sushi, which was quite good, and beer), I began obsessively watching The Weather Channel. Before I left, Saturday was projected to be the colder day but now it was Sunday. I only had one pair of really warm tights, so I decided to save them for Sunday, which turned out to be a good decision.

My Saturday wave started at 5:40AM, and I was up at 3AM and left for Epcot before 4AM, then stayed in the car to keep warm for about ½ hour, then met up with my friend, Brad, and his family, before we headed to the corrals. Brad’s sister was running the half, but she would be slower than Brad and I who were planning on running together.

We had on our big garbage bags to keep warm but also act as water repellant. On the way (it’s about ½ mile or so) to the corrals, it began snowing. SNOWING IN ORLANDO! I was laughing my ass off! And it was windy, so it was blowing more or less sideways. It didn’t stay snow very long, nor did it stick to anything, but it changed over to sleet, which is pretty much what we had for the half marathon. It was just over 30 degrees.

Brad and I ran just nice and easy and comfy. Sometime during Mile 4, I had to pee, and I decided to use a porta-potty, and told Brad to go on ahead. When I came out, though, I waited about a minute to look for him, and then just kept on going. I felt fine, but it was not fun being pelted in the face by sleet! During Mile 8, I had to poop (stupid early start time), and after this, I was able to run faster—go figure! I also decided to finally ditch the garbage bag, but in retrospect, that may have been a dumb idea. While I wasn’t really cold, the continuing sleet/mist was now permeating my upper body. Oh well!

I felt great when I finished and it turned out Brad was just a few minutes behind me, but as soon as I stopped running, I started shaking, so made a fast pass through the line to get my wrist band exchanged for the marathon one (pretty blue!), some eats, and a finisher picture.

I went back to the hotel and showered, put on compression tights and stretched and basically laid around in bed the rest of the day. I had to turn the heat up to 74 to begin to feel warm, and I noticed that just my right quad was really tight due to the road camber. I managed to get to sleep early so I could get a decent night’s sleep before the marathon. Looking back to the morning, it seemed like I ran all 13.1 miles while half asleep!

Upon waking on Sunday, it was even colder than Saturday—just in the 20’s. What the fuck, this is FLORIDA, isn’t it??? But I’d saved my fleece-lined tights for today, and my upper body kit was a bra top, lightweight short-sleeved technical top, then a Nike long-sleeved technical turtleneck (which seems good for 30’s and 40’s normally), then another short-sleeved technical top, and of course, a garbage bag. I lubed up my feet with Vaseline for blister protection and heat retention. I did have one blister from Saturday that I popped and then coated with New Skin before I applied the Vaseline. Oh and of course a hat and gloves.

For the half, I drank what was on the course—some piss tasting Powerade crap and water. When it’s cold, I barely drink because I will just pee like a fucking race horse. But I did rehydrate well after the half, or so I thought. For the full, though, I wanted me some caffeine, so I had mixed up 4 hours of Infinit and put it into a Fuel Belt. I was smart enough to not refrigerate it overnight with the cold temperatures planned. I had 32 oz. of Infinit, and figured I’d supplement it with sufficient water.

Standing around waiting to go to the corrals on Sunday morning (I was running solo this day—Brad was running with his girlfriend who was doing her first marathon, and Brad’s Dad was afraid to run with me because he thought if he slacked that I’d slap him upside the head, but it turns out he could have done it to me as he finished in 4:18), I noticed how cold my legs felt. Normally, you suit up, head out the door and start running—you don’t stand around. So I guess that was a part of it, and I heard from several other runners that their legs didn’t warm up for about 10 miles.

Well, at least it wasn’t raining! My wave went off at 5:45, which is still early to my body being from CST, but what are you going to do? My legs just felt like the joints were cold and needing oil or something, and the first time I took water from an aid station, I was like what the hell, it’s FROZEN! Not all of it, but there was a lot of ice in it. And then I noticed the asphalt through the aid station was icy, which was good to note, so I’d be careful at each one. When water was dropped, it was freezing! Nice! I heard from a friend that someone slipped, fell and broke a rib.

My legs felt cold through about 10 miles, and that was about when a friend of mine ran up next to me. I hadn’t seen her in months and months, and go figure, we see one another in the Disney marathon! I told her I couldn’t feel my legs, and she pointed out that if I could feel them they would hurt.

So then when they finally warmed up, of course they hurt. I expected that. I guess it was about then that the evil thoughts entered my head. Why am I doing this? It hurts, it sucks, I’m cold, who cares what time I do, why don’t I just walk? And everything I’m doing as training for Ultraman was right front and center in my head begging for me to find a reason to keep going. I really wasn’t suffering physically. I have been in more pain than this. I wasn’t pushing myself aerobically. Some books admonish you to practice your comebacks for these thoughts. I spend plenty of quality time thinking positive thoughts and feeling good about things. Sometimes I find you just need to let the voices in your head have their say because as long as you keep going while they are babbling, they haven’t won! And while at the time it seemed like this went on for 10 minutes or so, it was probably more like 2 minutes, and as quickly as the thoughts entered my head, they went away. It’s good to be at a point of fitness where you can just tell yourself that slowing down will just prolong the suckitude, so you just keep pace.

And while my legs did hurt somewhat, it wasn’t that bad, and getting back into the moment with so many people around me, I just let the flow pull me along. Since we run through some of the parks in Disney, there are many narrow walkways that we run over, and unless you’ve placed yourself at the very front of your corral, it’s more effort to push through all the people than it is to just stay with them. Near the end of the marathon we are running on a sidewalk alongside a lake, and the sidewalk is maybe 4 feet wide, so you can imagine the traffic jams this causes.

Once I got to Mile 18, I just began counting down the miles, knowing this would be over. I did try and smile whenever I saw a photographer, and I enjoyed all the Sharpie signs I could see. One thing I noticed throughout the race was that whenever we had a slight downhill (and while Disney is basically a “flat” marathon, there are ups and downs with over and underpasses), many folks pulled up, I guess because they thought it would somehow be easier on their quads? 2009 was the year I learned to relax and run downhill faster than ever, and so whenever I hit the downs, I just let it fly and passed a bunch of people and then was even happy for the uphill! It’s not like we were running serious trails with serious ups and downs, and news flash—your quads are going to be trashed whether you run downhill or not!

There were Disney characters every mile or so where people could stop and get pictures taken with them. The one that really caught my attention was near the end. It was a pair of Power Rangers. They would pose in a “powerful” way with runners. That was cool!

I think it was during Mile 25 when I remembered that I had some of Dad’s ashes with me and I wanted to get them out of the Fuel Belt for my finish. I ended up needing to stop briefly to do this since I had to take off a glove. And then I got all choked up, but I had to finish, so I kept running.

As I approached the finish line, I really thought I was going to break down and bawl my eyes out just as a matter of stress relief, but I only let myself shed a couple of tears and then got on with the business of collecting my medals (we got Donald Duck for the ½ marathon on Saturday, Mickey Mouse for the full, and then the Goofy medal for both), getting a mylar wrap, some snacks and then getting in the car to warm up.

I went back to the hotel, showered, put on compression tights and stretched. I think this is the first time I have ever stretched right after a marathon! It felt good, and then I got in bed and watched some TV until a friend came out and then we had some beers and food.

I am taking an easy week this week. I biked on Tuesday, and yesterday I swam (slowly!) and did a core workout. Today is another short (1:15) ride, and tomorrow I am going to swim 5-6,000 yards, depending on how that feels, Saturday is a 2-hour ride and that’s all that’s planned for the week, so I’m going to do some cooking this weekend and maybe go and catch a movie. I can’t believe I have a triathlon in 2 weeks (indoor sprint)! While resting after a race puts all the real life crap front and center, my body appreciates the rest, and so next week I will begin ramping back up.

This concludes Phase II of my Ultraman training, and Disney was my fourth marathon+ in 5 ½ months! I remember back in late June or early July talking to my most awesome massage therapist, Mike, and he told me that I shouldn’t try and do all 3 of my planned post-IMLP events (ROTPM, North Face and Goofy Challenge). He said he’d be there to fix me up if I got injured, though. So here I sit having done them all, and knock wood, no injuries! Historically, running has been the thing that will get me injured (as it is for many triathletes), so doing all the running I have done in the last 5 months was a big experiment for me. And then I decided to do a whole lot more swimming than ever while maintaining my cycling base. I am amazed at what I’ve been able to do so far, but know that I have a ways to go to feel ready for Ultraman. I am hoping that this running base will carry me for the next 6 months, as there is no way I can keep up 40+ mile run weeks and get in enough cycling and swimming. I need to give my mind a rest now, too, because any day now I will realize that I am getting closer and closer to Ultraman and it is still a big, huge deal!