Pongo53
Spent 11 minutes in Magic Kingdom on 1/10/10!
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2010
- Messages
- 42
This is my first thread, and I'd like to thank Dolce27 for giving me the courage to make it. She had such a great thread last year on the preparation for doing her first Disney Marathon, I thought I'd share a few pictures of our 2011 trip. We decided for our second Disney to try the Goofy Challenge--as how much harder could it be to do that little extra 13.1 the day before the full 26.2 miles?
So we set out for WDW on Tuesday evening, after DD3's school. We'd pulled her out for 4 days right after being back from Christmas break only two days. DD2 was not due back until the Wednesday after the marathon.
We had to stay off-site this trip as we brought our Bichon and our Cavalier King Charles with us, and we can give good marks to the Holiday Inn Express on Palm Parkway--it is pet friendly and people friendly.
The girls got to do the parks on their own while we dog-sat, because they would be dog-sitting for us when we went to the expo and the races. They like to sleep in, anyway, so it works out great.
The weather was much better this year, and we did not mind the long waits on Saturday and Sunday after getting to the corral staging areas. Everything was well organized, and went so smoothly, you would never guess how many people they were orchestrating every day.
All the volunteers were extra-nice and very eager to help, with water, poweraid and gels, and this year, I ran without a hydration belt on Sunday. That worked out a lot better than carrying my own liquid. I carried a belt pouch on Saturday for gels, and I'd never used it before
scared1:not biight!
), and could not keep it centered. Sunday, I just wore long pants because it was colder and carried the gels in one pocket and the camera in the other. Much better!
Just to get this thread started, I'm going to post this now, and add bits as I go. Here are a few sample pictures from the weekend, and I will post more if there is any interest.
It is glorious to be running at WDW at dawn.
..and I will never get tired of the view running up Main Street towards the castle at MK. This was Sunday--we were there before dawn on Saturday.
Posting this pic for DD2 and Dolce27--I think they both have a thing for the Mad Hatter. That's not me, I just snapped it whilst running by.
THAT's me (on the left). I was running out of glycogen stores by mile 21, and stopped to get this picture to try to take a deep breath, and get on with it. Also, my son is a Marine, so I had to stop here.
Got this shot for my daughters who absolutely love Princess and the frog. They are college age, yet never went anywhere without their plush Louis and Ray. Tiana and Navene loved seeing their movie fans when they would see them at character greets and in the parade. Not a lot of Princess and the Frog merchandise in the park this year.
Not the best pic, but me on the way to TTC in the MK parking lot. A wonderful lady saw me snapping shots while I ran, and we traded cameras to take a shot of each other. ( Thanks, Leeane!)
Perdita, back at the hotel and freshened up a bit. She fell and injured herself at mile 11.2 Sunday, and I am so proud of her for making it to the finish. She may not be able to run Houston like we planned on the 30th--that's just three weeks after the Goofy. For those interested, she tripped on the carpet covering the grated bridge leaving MK. Anyone else have trouble there? But, she tried to not let it affect her badly, she really wanted the Goofy medal, and she actually did negative splits, 4-5 minutes faster in the second than in the first half. BTW--for all that, I think she finished third in the Goofy in her age group!!! Fifth in the half and 11th in the full. She had never run before summer 2009. WDW was her first marathon ever, last year.
Me, not cleaned up, after the event. I was pretty used up as I had done my nutrition between races insufficiently well, or I just went for too much Sunday. Let me be a lesson to you. The last six miles were not fun this year, but I never stopped trying. Its just that there was no glycogen left in the leg muscles to respond to my brain. More on this in a future post. Also, that's "Tinkerbell", our car, behind me, and I did not lose her in the parking lot this year. That's the thing--my brain was still fine, my muscle stores in the legs were just depleted.
And this is what makes the whole trip worthwhile. DD2 and DD3 dancing to a Princess and the Frog song outside of World of Disney at DD. This was spontaneous, and just full of innocence and joy. I love them so much.
More, soon. about being Goofy at the happiest place on earth.
So we set out for WDW on Tuesday evening, after DD3's school. We'd pulled her out for 4 days right after being back from Christmas break only two days. DD2 was not due back until the Wednesday after the marathon.
We had to stay off-site this trip as we brought our Bichon and our Cavalier King Charles with us, and we can give good marks to the Holiday Inn Express on Palm Parkway--it is pet friendly and people friendly.
The girls got to do the parks on their own while we dog-sat, because they would be dog-sitting for us when we went to the expo and the races. They like to sleep in, anyway, so it works out great.
The weather was much better this year, and we did not mind the long waits on Saturday and Sunday after getting to the corral staging areas. Everything was well organized, and went so smoothly, you would never guess how many people they were orchestrating every day.
All the volunteers were extra-nice and very eager to help, with water, poweraid and gels, and this year, I ran without a hydration belt on Sunday. That worked out a lot better than carrying my own liquid. I carried a belt pouch on Saturday for gels, and I'd never used it before
scared1:not biight!), and could not keep it centered. Sunday, I just wore long pants because it was colder and carried the gels in one pocket and the camera in the other. Much better!Just to get this thread started, I'm going to post this now, and add bits as I go. Here are a few sample pictures from the weekend, and I will post more if there is any interest.
It is glorious to be running at WDW at dawn.
..and I will never get tired of the view running up Main Street towards the castle at MK. This was Sunday--we were there before dawn on Saturday.
Posting this pic for DD2 and Dolce27--I think they both have a thing for the Mad Hatter. That's not me, I just snapped it whilst running by.
THAT's me (on the left). I was running out of glycogen stores by mile 21, and stopped to get this picture to try to take a deep breath, and get on with it. Also, my son is a Marine, so I had to stop here.
Got this shot for my daughters who absolutely love Princess and the frog. They are college age, yet never went anywhere without their plush Louis and Ray. Tiana and Navene loved seeing their movie fans when they would see them at character greets and in the parade. Not a lot of Princess and the Frog merchandise in the park this year.
Not the best pic, but me on the way to TTC in the MK parking lot. A wonderful lady saw me snapping shots while I ran, and we traded cameras to take a shot of each other. ( Thanks, Leeane!)
Perdita, back at the hotel and freshened up a bit. She fell and injured herself at mile 11.2 Sunday, and I am so proud of her for making it to the finish. She may not be able to run Houston like we planned on the 30th--that's just three weeks after the Goofy. For those interested, she tripped on the carpet covering the grated bridge leaving MK. Anyone else have trouble there? But, she tried to not let it affect her badly, she really wanted the Goofy medal, and she actually did negative splits, 4-5 minutes faster in the second than in the first half. BTW--for all that, I think she finished third in the Goofy in her age group!!! Fifth in the half and 11th in the full. She had never run before summer 2009. WDW was her first marathon ever, last year.
Me, not cleaned up, after the event. I was pretty used up as I had done my nutrition between races insufficiently well, or I just went for too much Sunday. Let me be a lesson to you. The last six miles were not fun this year, but I never stopped trying. Its just that there was no glycogen left in the leg muscles to respond to my brain. More on this in a future post. Also, that's "Tinkerbell", our car, behind me, and I did not lose her in the parking lot this year. That's the thing--my brain was still fine, my muscle stores in the legs were just depleted.
And this is what makes the whole trip worthwhile. DD2 and DD3 dancing to a Princess and the Frog song outside of World of Disney at DD. This was spontaneous, and just full of innocence and joy. I love them so much.
More, soon. about being Goofy at the happiest place on earth.
Sorry it's taken me so long to come over - things have been hectic at work since I came back last Thursday.
) I had my running pants packed but went with the capris and was fine in them. Last year it was running tights! You're correct - weather MUCH better this year. 
It does look like ya'll had a good time. Now that you mention it, I don't remember seeing much frog & princess stuff.
love the picture with the Castle
He'd love you! ...and to answer about how I fuel, I use PowerBar brand gels, about one every six miles, or more as needed. I use the chocolate as it is thicker. The mocha is good, too, but a bit thin if it gets warm. Perdy likes PowerShot blocks, but I can't cope with them. My problem was not energy in the last 10k of the full--I was fine for energy, it was the glycogen stores in the legs that ran out, and I will try to put together an explanation of that in a future post. Briefly, as I understand it, glycogen is fuel for the muscles, specific to a group of muscles, and cannot be shared with other muscles. So even if you are fine in upper body stores, if you run out in the legs, you can't get any more until your body goes through the lengthy restoration process--it will not happen during a race. Which is why we try to not go out too hot and burn it up early, and also avoid building up lactic acid toxins in the muscles from starting out even fifteen seconds per mile more than you can do. I'll have to ask Perdita more about this as she is the one who studies it--I just run for fun.
and the soft Disney hot dog had me back in top shape to run. Really!
I need still to get to the dentist to have that fixed. All these reasons not to run, yet onward we press. 
