Disney Marathon

I ran the Walt Disney World Marathon on January 8, 2012.

Do as I say, not as I do. In the 8 weeks leading up to this race, beginning with my calf injury in November, I ran weekly mileage totals of { 0, 1, 4, 8, 20, 35, 12, 5 }. That is a total of 85 miles in 8 weeks and my longest run was only 13 miles. That is definitely not a good marathon training plan. I knew that if I sought out sage advice from my online running buddies they would uniformly tell me not to run. So, I didn't ask them. I really wanted the Disney finisher's medal and I wasn't sure I would ever make it back to the race again.

I had conflicting emotions at the expo when I picked up my packet.  I was very proud to be among the faster runners in the race.  Yet, I would not be able run at full-speed and that saddened me.

I decided that the best chance I had for successfully finishing the race and avoiding further injury was to employ a run/walk strategy. Disney seems like an appropriate place for such a strategy since they hired Jeff Galloway as a consultant. He is a former member of the US Olympic team and the author of the Run-Walk-Run method of training. His method appears very popular and successful with the novice runners that flock to Disney.

I started off the race very conservatively and held myself to about 1 minute of walking for every 2 minutes of running (slowly).  Surprisingly, I wasn't the only person in the first corral (A) that was following such a run/walk strategy. In the first couple of miles I was trading places with a guy and a couple of women who were doing the same thing. I would pass them and then they would pass me, and so on. He was wearing a watch that would beep periodically telling him it was time to run/walk again. He seemed to be drawing a fair amount of attention from other runners too. They all seemed to know him and call him by name -- Jeff. Doh. I was run/walking with Jeff Galloway himself!

The course winds through all four of the Walt Disney World parks, Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Epcot, and Hollywood Studios.  All along the way there are characters you can stop and take a picture with.  It is quite a unique atmosphere for a race and it is interesting even when you are running through the behind-the-scenes areas of the property.  For example, we got to see Disney's Wonderful World of Wastewater Treatment.  I don't recall anyone pausing for pictures there though.

As I said, Disney is very popular with first-time marathoners. Many didn't look like runners at all. One woman in particular caught my eye. She was quite large and had poor running mechanics, yet there she was running along -- ahead of me no less! I passed her at about mile 15. I know I was running slow, but surely not that slow. I mean, come on man! It took me about 3 days to figure that one out. Finally I remembered that there was a relay race going on too. She had a faster partner who ran the first half of the race, and then she took off for the second half ahead of me. LOL.

I ran this race with two of my brothers-in-law.  We are three of the luckiest men in the world as we are each married to a woman we don't deserve.

Each of the guys finished their first marathons.  Congratulations fellas!

Be careful what you wear on race day. I chose to wear my 2010 Chicago Marathon shirt and all day long I got to hear "go Chicago"!

I finished the race in 4:38:23 with no injuries.

I'm back.