2013 marathon? half marathon?

[johde]

My husband and I both did the Family 5k in 2011 and really enjoyed it (walking). We are both incredibly overweight and trying to find better health. I would love to train for and walk the 1/2 in 2013 with him. He did it back in 2003 when it was full and half on the same day and just crazy.... I stood in the dark for hours to watch him walk by twice!

I would definitely be up for an accountability/reasonable goal setting process!

Welcome to the group. The goal of walking the half next year is completely doable. I am also obese (6'4" 300ish lbs) and I went from being able to walk a 5K to walking a half marathon in a year. I didn't do it at Disney, I did the Cleveland Half Marathon in May as my first Half Marathon. In June 2009 I walked, with a couple of bursts of running if I remember correctly) my 2nd 5K in 47:01 (15:07 pace). Sept 2009, completed my first 10K 1:37:07 (15:37 pace) again walking with a couple of bursts of running. May 2010 Completed first half marathon, 3:28:02 (15:53 pace) all walking, the race had a seperate walking division.

The key in my opinion is to take it slowly, and set intermediate goals. If possible plan a couple more 5K's and at least one 10K. For my 10K I used Hal Higdon's 10K plan as a guide, but repeated every week twice.

The other thing you may want to consider is if you want to incorporate running into you plan. After that first year, I've incorporating running into my training. Disney is much more strict about the 16:00 pace requirement on the half marathon than they are on the 5K's. The 2 people you want to look at here are John Bingham (With Jenny Hadfield), and Jeff Galloway. The two people take slightly different approaches to incorporating running into your training. I started with using Bingham/Hadfield and have since transitioned in to something closer to Galloway. Bingham/Hadfield tend to start out with longer intervals for example walk 3 minutes/run 1 minute, and if you follow some of their plans back to back you can transition to continuous running. Galloway on the other hand, proposes shorter intervals For Example run 20 sec./ walk 40 sec. He also advocated never completely getting rid of the walking.

The reason why I bring up incorporating some running is that a little bit of running can greatly pick up your pace. I completed my 2nd half marathon in October 2010, 5 months after my first, in 3:07:42. 20 minutes faster than my first one. I did walking 2 minutes and running 1 minute mostly following Bingham/Hadfields walk/run half marathon plan. I did change the intervals at the end of the plan. Depending on how fast you are, that extra speed could keep you from being swept, give you time to take more pictures, or allow you to finish quicker.

Keep at it, and don't be afraid try new things. Just remember to listen to your body to know when to back off a little bit.