2016 WDW Marathon Journey (Comments Welcome)

[LSUlakes]

Marathon weekend has come and gone. Other than a response or two, this will be my last post on this thread.

Lets start with the expo. We went first thing Saturday morning and had no problems at all. It was a nice set up, and I actually wore the free shirt this past weekend. After the expo we went to our resort and headed to HS. My BIL and his wife drove in from South Caroline to spend the afternoon with us and for marathon morning. We had an early dinner at Momma Melrose (SP) and went to bed at a decent hour. I knew marathon morning was going to be a bit muggy and kinda lost some of me excitement about the race knowing it was going to be a hard run.
Marathon morning I was up at 2:30AM and out the door for 3:00 to catch the first bus from the Wilderness Lodge. I was amazed at how large the pre race area was. I was also happy most of it was paved surfaces with all the rain lately it would have been a mud fest. I made my way to the starting corrals around 4:50AM, which was about as long as a walk one has to do for the Boston Marathon. It sucks to have to walk it, but its just part of the day. The marathon was very hard for me, the miles never came easy and somewhere between mile 15-16 I just couldn't hold pace anymore. I ended up walking the water stations, and man that hill with the GI Joe guy did not help. Overall I really enjoyed the course and the things to see along the way, both expected and not. Crowd support was good in areas that it is allowed and the volunteers did a great job. It may be a while before returning to run Disney, but not because I did not like it.
My marathon miles are as follows:
1 - 8:18
2 - 7:59
3 - 8:12
4 - 8:08
5 - 8:06
6 - 8:17
7 - 8:33
8 - 8:17
9 - 8:23
10 - 8:30
11 - 8:20
12 - 8:19
13 - 8:27
14 - 8:13
15 - 8:31
16 - 9:20
17 - 10:03
18 - 10:22
19 - 10:07
20 - 9:27
21 - 10:18
22 - 10:55
23 - 9:34
24 - 10:04
25 - 10:07
26 - 10:20
.2 - 9:09

Unofficial Time was 3:59:12, Official time was within a second or two, but cant remember exactly. It was a bad day for me, but it was done. If I had to do it over again, I am not sure what I could have done to prepare myself for the conditions.

The weekend following the Disney marathon is the weekend of the Louisiana Marathon. On Friday I decided to run the half just to get a decent run in. I ended up running my 3rd fastest half with a finish time of 1:43:08 or 7:52 pace. The course runs the first 10.5 miles as the full and I helped pace a friend whose goals was a sub 3:30 for the full. Around mile 6 I was glad I did not try to full as the soreness from the full the week before started to come back to my legs. Conditions where ideal for a great run! IF you read Runners World lately you will see the marathon made it way in the news for two things, one for DQ'ing the 1st place female runners for violating the rules and the second for the priest who had a 26.2 minute mass before the race (he also ran the marathon). I attended the mass and it was standing room only by the time I got there. The post race party is second to none.

Final thoughts: I would like to thank you all for your comments, likes, and for taking time to read my journal. I enjoyed talking with yall and reading yalls personal journals as well. I wish you all luck going forward and your next big race and goals.

 

[DopeyBadger]

Congrats! Wish the weather had held out for us, but next time we'll get fortune in our favor. Make sure you stop by when you finally hit that BQ, because I want to hear all about it. Maybe we'll end up in the same Boston Marathon!

 

[LSUlakes]

Congrats! Wish the weather had held out for us, but next time we'll get fortune in our favor. Make sure you stop by when you finally hit that BQ, because I want to hear all about it. Maybe we'll end up in the same Boston Marathon!

Thanks! I plan on being around, just not in this post for much longer. I have an idea I'm working on and hope to have something going later this week. A BQ seems so far away after Disney... I have a half coming up in March that I hope to get into the low 1:30's. so we shall see.

 

[BikeFan]

Thanks! I plan on being around, just not in this post for much longer. I have an idea I'm working on and hope to have something going later this week. A BQ seems so far away after Disney... I have a half coming up in March that I hope to get into the low 1:30's. so we shall see.

You really can't let that Disney marathon get to you too much. It was humid as all get-out, and not at all ideal race conditions. Despite living in the South (Virginia, the northern South) for most of my life, I still perform poorly in the heat/humidity. My best times have come right around 40 degrees.

How much do you average per week year-round? I've had some of my best times as I've built a solid base of ~40/week year-round. Most of the miles are easy, but the training benefits are still there. The consistency has really helped me stay at near-peak fitness most of the year, and I've run BQ marathons twice now. Building a base has been key for me.

 

[LSUlakes]

You really can't let that Disney marathon get to you too much. It was humid as all get-out, and not at all ideal race conditions. Despite living in the South (Virginia, the northern South) for most of my life, I still perform poorly in the heat/humidity. My best times have come right around 40 degrees.

How much do you average per week year-round? I've had some of my best times as I've built a solid base of ~40/week year-round. Most of the miles are easy, but the training benefits are still there. The consistency has really helped me stay at near-peak fitness most of the year, and I've run BQ marathons twice now. Building a base has been key for me.

Thanks for your post. The weather was a big part of the problem for not reaching my goal this year. In fact based on the half I ran the following weekend I would say I did as well as I could have in those conditions at Disney. It just a bummer it worked out the way it did. I agree that temps around 40 are ideal, as some of my best race times have been accomplished between 35 and 45. The first 6 months of last year where very low mileage. I had a foot injury that required a long time off and then slowly got back into starting in June/July. Over the last 6 months I averaged a little north of 31 mpw with the last quarter being higher than that. So my base miles weren't that good. The plan this spring and summer is to keep it near 40 mpw like you suggest. Congrats on your BQ's and hopefully one day in the near future I can say I did the same.

 

[RunDisneyDad]

I agree you shouldn't use your time at Disney as a reference point toward your overall progress. Obviously the weather was the main culprit, but also the travel (did you fly in Friday or Saturday?), doing a lot of walking around the expo and HS the day before the race and finally getting up at such an earlier hour (2:30am) made it all that much more challenging and much different than the routine you are accustomed to.

 

[LSUlakes]

I agree you shouldn't use your time at Disney as a reference point toward your overall progress. Obviously the weather was the main culprit, but also the travel (did you fly in Friday or Saturday?), doing a lot of walking around the expo and HS the day before the race and finally getting up at such an earlier hour (2:30am) made it all that much more challenging and much different than the routine you are accustomed to.

We drove in, but started on Friday morning and stopped in Gainesville around 5pm. Woke up at a normal time Saturday and drove the last two hours to the expo and spent less than 30 minutes there. We spent about 4 hours total in the park that afternoon and was back at the resort around 7pm. I did try to plan for that as much as possible. My wife and I also took turns driving to make it a little easier as well. The 2:30 part wasn't ideal, but the sleep the night before I believe is more important than the night of the race itself.

It just wasn't my day this year for various reasons. We all experience them during training as well. You go out for a 14 miler after your have been running longer than that for a few weekends in a row and its just a very difficult run. I just wasn't able to overcome the weather and completely understand why. Looking forward to my upcoming spring schedule and will base my progress on that cycle. Thanks again!

 

[roxymama]

I know that when you have a time in mind that you are capable of and you don't quite get there it can really sour things. And when people tell you that your time is still awesome, it's hard to take that compliment knowing you think you could do more. I'm super competitive with myself and to this point I've just been running 5k's and even getting in one minute more than I wanted bums me out a bit.
But with all that being said...I AM SUPER IMPRESSED with your time. (Sorry if that is annoying ! )

I look forward to your future journals if that is what you plan to do. Distance is something I'm trying to add at the moment and having you and some other distance guys/gals posting helps me more than you know

Happy 2016!

 

[LSUlakes]

I know that when you have a time in mind that you are capable of and you don't quite get there it can really sour things. And when people tell you that your time is still awesome, it's hard to take that compliment knowing you think you could do more. I'm super competitive with myself and to this point I've just been running 5k's and even getting in one minute more than I wanted bums me out a bit.
But with all that being said...I AM SUPER IMPRESSED with your time. (Sorry if that is annoying ! )

I look forward to your future journals if that is what you plan to do. Distance is something I'm trying to add at the moment and having you and some other distance guys/gals posting helps me more than you know

Happy 2016!

Thank you. I'm not annoyed by it all. I am not sure if it will have a journal moving forward. I am thinking of starting a thread in the runDisney section for just general running and keep a list of poster with upcoming races/goals/and results in the OP. Also trying to get a QOTD list from another forum because I don't think I can come up with one everyday. So kinda waiting to see what happens with that before moving on. I may start another journal just for more specific things, but not 100% sure at this time. Thanks again for the support and good luck to you moving forward!

 

[roxymama]

Thank you. I'm not annoyed by it all. I am not sure if it will have a journal moving forward. I am thinking of starting a thread in the runDisney section for just general running and keep a list of poster with upcoming races/goals/and results in the OP. Also trying to get a QOTD list from another forum because I don't think I can come up with one everyday. So kinda waiting to see what happens with that before moving on. I may start another journal just for more specific things, but not 100% sure at this time. Thanks again for the support and good luck to you moving forward!

I like those ideas! And would be happy to offer a QOTD now and again. I am trying to do at least a race per month again like last year and already am researching for Feb. So I will for sure have lots of races to gear up for throughout the year.

 

[SarahDisney]

Congrats on finishing! Even though it wasn't the experience you had hoped it would be, I hope you still enjoyed the experience somewhat despite the rough conditions.
I'm glad to hear you were able to have a great race the next weekend - it's always nice when you can bounce back from a rough run with a great race!

 

[LSUlakes]

Congrats on finishing! Even though it wasn't the experience you had hoped it would be, I hope you still enjoyed the experience somewhat despite the rough conditions.
I'm glad to hear you were able to have a great race the next weekend - it's always nice when you can bounce back from a rough run with a great race!

Thank you and congrats to you as well.