Barca33Runner's Journal: Thanks For Noticin' Me(Comments Welcome)

Barca33Runner

Please excuse the crudity of this model
Joined
Feb 27, 2014
I have been posting on these boards for a couple years on and off, primarily on the runDisney/Events/Competitions board and almost exclusively within threads with some relation to WDW Marathon Weekend. I thought it might be good to start a journal for an added measure of accountability to my fitness goals.

A little introduction...My name is Jared and my username refers to my favorite football team FC Barcelona. In Summer of 2011 I weighed around 260 pounds (I know it was at least that but I avoided the scale) with very poor muscle tone; not a particularly good place for a 5-9, 29-year-old guy. I love sports but was never an athlete and I could not name the last time I had traversed 1 mile in a continuous effort (running, walking or any other means). As a result I had been overweight for basically my entire life. It is something that I hated about myself and had tried numerous times to correct without any success.

My sister had recently given birth to her second child and was looking at ways to find motivation to lose some of her baby weight. She had come up with the idea to train for and run her first half marathon. She heard of the WDW Marathon (something which I was completely unaware even existed) and was looking for someone to go run with her. I saw an opportunity to finally undertake an effort which would force me to get in shape, but mainly saw a chance to go to Disney World with my nearly 3-year-old nephew. On a bit of a whim we both decided to sign up for the 2012 WDW Half Marathon (I signed up in September, I am still grateful that the <2-hour sellouts had not yet begun).

To my shame, I did a very poor job of training for the race. My confidence in my ability to walk a 16:00/mile pace helped me backslide into one of my worst tendencies-to procrastinate and do the bare minimum amount of work in order to achieve something. I had lost virtually no weight and was still giving in to any excuse not to exercise. I finished the race but did not enjoy the fun as much as I should have and was ashamed of my lack of training. Around the 8-mile mark I had come to the conclusion that I would redeem myself the following year by running the full marathon. My sister, for much different reasons, had also resolved to tackle the marathon the following year so we had a new plan in place.

In 2012 I did a much better job of training. I lost around 30 pounds and felt great about my chances in the marathon. The 2013 WDW Marathon was one of the greatest achievements of my life and although the weather and the overwhelming challenge of finishing a marathon caught me by surprise I was able to finish. Still looking for a bigger goal, my sister and I decided we would try for the Goofy Challenge the next year. Those plans changed when the Dopey Challenge was announced. After a couple years of being envious of the Goofy runners, we knew we had to go for the biggest challenge the weekend offered and wanted to be in for the first year.

During training I lost another 40 pounds and was in the best shape of my life. I shaved almost 2 hours off my marathon finishing time despite the added rigors of the challenge. We have continued to run the Dopey Challenge the last two years and plan on making it a tradition.

That brings me to the title of my post. I finished my first marathon in 7 hours and 11 minutes. I was and still am very proud of that achievement. Over the three Dopey Challenges my marathon times have been 5:22, 5:17, and 5:27. I knew coming into this year that my fitness had taken a little step back and was already thinking of ways to re-motivate myself to greater emotional and fitness gains. Training for the Dopey itself had become too comfortable and I was once again slipping into bad habits. That's why I came up with my 7:11 Challenge. I would like to finish the 48.6 miles in the 2017 Dopey Challenge in less time than it took me to finish my first marathon. My goals have always been just to finish the races I have entered, but now I need to bring a new element of competition for myself in order to keep moving in a positive direction.

Thanks to everyone who made it to the end of this post. Hopefully I will be able to post regularly to update progress. Any and all comments and suggestions are welcome.
 
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2016 WDW Marathon Weekend Recap

This year my sister and I were competing in the Dopey Challenge and my mom was walking the 5k and 10k.

Wednesday

We had an incredibly early flight because my mom likes to be on the earliest flight possible. Our flight was at 6:40 AM and we landed at MCO before 9:00 AM. After the DME ride we arrived at POR before 10:00 AM and had quite a wait for our room to become available. We hit the Riverside Mill Food Court for lunch and it was good as always. We have stayed at POR all five years that we have done a race during Marathon Weekend. We really like the resort and while I am sure we would also enjoy other resorts it has kind of become a tradition. We enjoy both Riverside and Boatwright's and like the proximity to Disney Springs. After lunch we had a short wait for our room and headed to the expo after being able to drop some things off. Expo went well; I don't usually purchase much at the expo, but got my usual headband and car magnet. I also purchased some Clif Bloks as I am transitioning from gels to gummies for in-race nutrition. Went back to POR and had dinner at Boatwright's. I could eat basically anything on the menu and be happy, but I love the Crawfish Etouffee so that's usually what I ended up getting. Got back to the room around 8 PM and got ready for bed since we would be waking up so early for the next 5 days.

Thursday

Up early for the 5K. This was the first race that I have ever gone in costume. I was slightly worried about the new rules, but decided to wear my Eeyore onesie anyway. I took my gear check bag just in case, but my fears were unfounded. We were at the staging area early so we decided to get our picture with a couple of the backdrops. We got the Marathon Weekend backdrop first then headed over to the Dopey backdrop. We were second in line when Dopey made his first appearance of the weekend. It was pretty serendipitous for us that we got to be the second people to get our picture taken with Dopey:
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The race went well, but running in costume was pretty hot. It was cool getting all of the recognition on course, but I was happy to be done. After returning to the room and showering, we went to DHS for the day. The last time any of use went to DHS it was still MGM and the Tower of Terror had not been constructed. We had a great time. We used FP+ on Rock n Roller Coaster, Star Tours and Tower of Terror. It did not seem to be an incredibly busy day at the park, but we still felt lucky to have been able to do virtually everything outside of Midway Mania on the day and had very little wait time. Eating highlights on the day were my German Chocolate Cake Chewbacca cupcake and dinner at Mama Melrose. We didn't know what to expect for dinner, but we were all really impressed with our food. We left dinner and headed over to get seats for Fantasmic. We all enjoyed DHS more than we expected; it was really a perfect day to be at a park.

Friday

The 10K took the weather from the day before and flipped it on its head. There was a steady light rain the entire time that occasionally got worse. I was very glad that I wasn't in costume for the day as it would have gotten very wet and very heavy quickly. Since we had our picture with Dopey and were there early again we wanted to get a picture with the Dopey backdrop and managed to get it this time:
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We also took just a standing around with nothing to do picture:
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Outside of the rain the race was a pretty standard affair. I started to develop blisters on my feet for the first time in a few years as a result of the rain, so that was a bummer. After the race we decided to go see The Force Awakens. We had a terrible experience with our bus transport to Disney Springs. We left our room at 10:15 with tickets bought for an 11:30 showing and had to run down to AMC to get there at 11:35. Fortunately there are a bunch of previews before the movie, but it should never have been that close. The weather got better as we were in the movie and we spent the rest of the day at Disney Springs relaxing, shopping and waiting for our dinner reservation at Morimoto. We were underwhelmed with dinner. The food was good, but it felt a bit pricey for what it was. I guess that is probably a common refrain at many Disney restaurants, but it felt especially true for us in this case.

Saturday

The Half is our fun run out of the 4 Dopey races, as it is for many Dopey Challengers. This is the only race that my sister and I run together (she is faster than I am and we run much differently; she is a metronome, I am a bit kamikaze). We took a picture with Daisy before the race and then hit quite a few characters during the race:
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Mainly hit the characters that we watched the most as kids/love now, so it was cool to get Uncle Scrooge and Wreck-it Ralph/Vanellope. We finished in about the time range we were looking for and despite my blisters not getting any better, it was a pretty good run. We met our grandparents for lunch at Raglin Road (one of our favorites) in Disney Springs after the race and spent the afternoon relaxing at POR before heading out for dinner at Fulton's. Maybe not the best idea to have seafood before a marathon, but the food was good.

Sunday

I felt terrible heading out for the marathon. My legs were already heavy and I knew I was going to be in for a long one. I think it was the mental aspect that was toying with me more than the physical, but I felt like I hit the wall after the first few steps into the race. I texted my sister, who started one corral ahead of me, that I was thinking of quitting before I got to mile 4. I knew I wasn't going to quit, but I needed the absurdity of even suggesting it and her scathing/supportive responses to help keep me going. Got some GI issues (nothing food specific, I tend to have issues no matter what I eat due to nerves) sorted in MK and felt much better afterwards. I have a weird device that I use sometimes while I run where I count to 100 in German while running and walk for a 60 count in English afterward. It primarily only comes into play for me during the Marathon because I don't run/walk very often, but I was walking very early into the race. One of the reasons I got worried early on is that I tried to break into this pattern to get comfortable and I was having a hard time focusing on my count. I was somewhat worried I may have had something other than fatigue catching up to me. I decided that saving my Clif Bloks was not a great idea and downed two packages at around mile 4 and 8. I knew that the Clif stops, bananas and chocolates were coming at the back half of the race so I was OK not saving them. I was taking at least one Powerade and one water at every station and think that hydration plan worked out really well with the humidity. I really turned a corner at around mile 6 and was in good shape through to mile 18. The fatigue of a marathon definitely caught up to me at that point and I was unable to keep my intervals as regularly, but I was still run/walking and managed to finish in 5:27. Only had one stop for pictures, Jafar:
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I always kick myself after the races are over for not taking more character stops but I am so eager to get done, especially during the marathon, that the slightest line discourages me. Was happy to get a picture with Jafar though; he's always been my favorite villain. Unfortunately, we were leaving on another super early Monday AM flight so we just had dinner at Boatwright's, our traditional post-marathon prime rib, left before packing and leaving. Looking forward to piling a few vacation days on to the back end of the trip in the future as the Monday flight takes some of the celebration time away.

I've outlined my plan for next year above and we have already booked a rental home as my brother and his family and my dad are planning on doing some races for the first time. It will be a different experience coming from offsite, but it will be really great to have an expanded group of people with us.
 
Congratulations! I will be following along for sure! DD26 and I were down for the marathon next year, but have recently decided to do Goofy instead. Would love to just go for it and do Dopey but $$$! We also have to register for Avengers in April and that is just too much for my bank account in one month lol! Your first post was very inspirational - thank you for sharing all that. :)
 


Thanks for taking a pic with me on 5k morning. I was worried I'd be harassing a stranger in an Eyeore onesie that had no idea what a "disboards" was. So at least now I have proof that I tried to find people in the corral!
I think you had the easiest costume to spot for sure.
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Thought I'd give a quick introduction to my training partner. He's about 1 1/2 years old and is my best pal. My dog McFly.
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He's an Irish Setter and has many similarities to Pluto. He's fun, energetic, friendly, bouncy, and easily bamboozled by small rodents. I have been careful running with him until now trying to be careful with his bone growth, but I think he is ready to do some longer distance. He can easily outpace me for a mile, but I am planning on taking him on training runs of up to 5 miles this year. I am sure he can handle more; I'm just not sure how well my shoulders would hold up. Hopefully he will help me to achieve my goals and make some of my training runs a little more fun.
 
Heading out on the Fantasy tomorrow for my first ever Disney Cruise. I plan on getting in 3-4 miles each day so that my food consumption is offset a tiny bit by some physical activity. Will post my race schedule for the year after I get back.
 


I'll have to put aside my love of Real to fully enjoy this thread. :p:angel:

I can really identify with having confidence in a 16 min mile and just sliding back into procrastination because it's easier. I love your 7:11 goal, and your recap of this years challenge. Congrats on getting Dopey done! I can't wait to see what you accomplish in your training!
 
Thought I'd give a quick introduction to my training partner. He's about 1 1/2 years old and is my best pal. My dog McFly.
View attachment 145300
He's an Irish Setter and has many similarities to Pluto. He's fun, energetic, friendly, bouncy, and easily bamboozled by small rodents. I have been careful running with him until now trying to be careful with his bone growth, but I think he is ready to do some longer distance. He can easily outpace me for a mile, but I am planning on taking him on training runs of up to 5 miles this year. I am sure he can handle more; I'm just not sure how well my shoulders would hold up. Hopefully he will help me to achieve my goals and make some of my training runs a little more fun.

OMG!!! Look at that sweet puppy face!!! What a good running partner!

Have you looked into a belt attachment for his leash? I have one of these for my woofs and it works great!

http://www.amazon.com/Reflective-Ru...TF8&qid=1453044620&sr=8-4&keywords=leash+belt

I hate having things in my hands when I run, so I can still take one of my dogs out with me but don't have to constantly hold a leash or pull them back if they're trying to chase down a smell.
 
Thought I'd give a quick introduction to my training partner. He's about 1 1/2 years old and is my best pal. My dog McFly.
View attachment 145300
He's an Irish Setter and has many similarities to Pluto. He's fun, energetic, friendly, bouncy, and easily bamboozled by small rodents. I have been careful running with him until now trying to be careful with his bone growth, but I think he is ready to do some longer distance. He can easily outpace me for a mile, but I am planning on taking him on training runs of up to 5 miles this year. I am sure he can handle more; I'm just not sure how well my shoulders would hold up. Hopefully he will help me to achieve my goals and make some of my training runs a little more fun.

Your running partner looks a lot more like a runner than mine. I've taken one of my pugs out for a couple of runs, though nothing more than 1.5 miles, because, well, he's a pug. You get some interesting looks when you're a 6'6" man running with a pug.
 
Sorry to have neglected the thread for a week, but I decided to go completely without connectivity while I was on the cruise. I am sure most of you know this but Disney does a top notch job with their Cruise Line. I really enjoyed my first Disney Cruise, although my waist line definitely did not. Went on a couple runs around the deck 4 running track and that is a strange experience. Running into 30 mph head winds while gradually moving uphill and getting the tailwinds as you turn to come back is very strange. Along with the challenge of maintaining balance it gave my calves quite the workout.

I will attempt to reply to posts and get my schedule sorted as I get my feet under me over the rest of the weekend.
 
OMG!!! Look at that sweet puppy face!!! What a good running partner!

Have you looked into a belt attachment for his leash? I have one of these for my woofs and it works great!

http://www.amazon.com/Reflective-Ru...TF8&qid=1453044620&sr=8-4&keywords=leash+belt

I hate having things in my hands when I run, so I can still take one of my dogs out with me but don't have to constantly hold a leash or pull them back if they're trying to chase down a smell.

Thanks for the recommendation. I am working on getting him to be a bit more under control before I attempt a belt. He is incredibly strong and because he is, ostensibly, a bird dog he has a rather high prey drive so he is still a little unpredictable. I need the higher degree of control for now, but I have looked into hands free options for the future.
 
Great race recap, glad you pushed through the marathon. It's hard on stopping for character pictures for me too, I regret not stopping for more in the half, but some of the lines scared me and the full I just didn't have the time to spare for them until the end. WE loved that Scrooge was out too, I missed him in the half but got him in the Full.

Your training partner is cute! Great 7:11 goal too!
 
A few random notes on the cruise before getting back to running tomorrow:

-When I was growing up cruising was my family's favorite form of vacation. That said, I had not been on a cruise since some time around 2000 and had never been on a DCL cruise (Our first cruise was on the precursor to DCL (Premier Cruise Line?); they had some type of licensing deal it seemed and had some character appearances but was much different than DCL).

-We were on an Eastern Caribbean itinerary on the Fantasy departing on Saturday and disembarking the following Saturday. Embarkation was kind of rough; very busy and a little disorganized. Not sure if this is normal or if we had a strange experience. Was on the cruise with my parents, sister, bro-in-law, nephew(6) and niece(4). Sister's fam had gone on a DCL cruise the year before and were very surprised by the chaotic embarkation area.

-Because of my sister's previous experience we knew about the Key to the World cards and had our lanyards ready to go. I did not then and still do not understand why MagicBands are not used instead.

-After getting on the ship everyone is either eating at the buffet or in the pool area. It was incredibly crowded until rooms opened up at around 1:30.

-Rooms were pretty spacious compared to what I remembered, but it's a cruise ship so they were still relatively small.

-Food was great all week at all locations. I guess I am not that hard to please, but it seemed most guests were happy with everything. I especially enjoyed the soft serve ice cream. It's definitely a weakness of mine. Yeah, I definitely had too much ice cream.

-First day was a day at sea. It was incredibly windy, but was not a very rocky day at sea. When I ran on the track around Deck 4 it was wet because the wind was blowing all of the spray up on deck. As I detailed in an earlier post it was incredibly difficult to run in those conditions. I didn't do my calves any good running four miles on a slick deck with strong winds.

-Pools were open on deck and incredibly busy as you would expect on a cruise. The Aquaduck water slide was pretty cool, but even if I were more inclined to swim it probably wouldn't have been that appealing. Because of the audience there were a bunch of water areas, but they all seemed too small to accommodate the number of people/children interested in them.

-My nephew discovered the Midship Detecctive Agency. This was his favorite thing to do on the ship. There were three cases (Muppets, Missing Puppies, and Missing Paintings) he did each of them at least once and did the Muppets one about 10 times. Despite doing them over and over again, I only saw the same outcome twice because of the different permutations within the cases. Don't get me wrong, it got old for the adults in our group re-running the same cases and seeing many of the same clues/animations over and over again, but him and his sister loved it and this trip was more about them than it was about me.

-We didn't go to many of the nightly shows, but Aladdin was their big production and we did make a point of seeing that one. It was pretty good and the kids really enjoyed it.

-First stop was Tortola in the British Virgin Isles. My sister, bro-in-law and I did the Discover Scuba and had a blast. The company Disney worked with, Sail Caribbean Divers, were incredibly friendly and well-versed in running their beginners course. We had about a 15-minute class on safety and the operation of the equipment we were using and then went into the water for guided practice for about 30 minutes before being picked up to go out for a ~ 30-foot guided dive. It was much more difficult, but so much cooler, than snorkeling. I had wanted to do Scuba for a while and would like to get certified someday and this did nothing but enhance those feelings. I missed the sea turtle (because apparently I'm blind), but still had a tremendous time. Tortola was definitely a personal highlight of the cruise.

-When we got back to the ship we had a quick turnaround for Pirate Night. I dressed up in some old dress clothes from about 60 pounds ago that I had no qualms about cutting up. It was a decent attempt at a shipwrecked pirate, but paled in comparison to many of the outfits throughout the night. I was astonished at how all-out many people went; either from the obvious amount of effort that went into them or the obvious outlay of cash that had occurred. The kids made it through both shows and the fireworks, so it was a great day all-around.

-Next day was St. Thomas. I had been to St. Thomas before and our excursion was a bit of a bust, but it is a nice island. We were a bit hamstrung on our full group options for excursions because my niece only qualified for a few because of her age. Would have been much better to have just found a beach rather than trying to find an inclusive group excursion.

-Next day was another day at sea. This time, despite not being windy, the seas were incredibly rough. They had multiple pools shut down, but the Aquaduck was operational so we did that a couple times right when it opened and had a very short line. The adults had a brunch at Palo, one of the two additional charge restaurants, that day. It was pretty good. I probably wouldn't pay additional fees to eat "fancier" on a cruise again, but I may be in the minority on that.

-Final day was at Castaway Cay (Disney's Private Island). The weather made it a bit of a bust. We hadn't booked an excursion but they were all cancelled anyway because the smaller boats that brought in most of the staff for the excursions were unable to make it to the island because of rough seas. It was ~70 degrees, overcast, windy, and with a steady drizzle that was occasionally a harder rain. I did not sign up for the 5K and was kind of glad I didn't after the weather turned out that way. There was a big group of runners and they all seemed to have a good time despite the rain. We were on the island early and my niece and nephew hit the water slides 3 times each before deciding it was too cold to go in the water anymore. I had planned on snorkeling, but it soon became apparent that we would be eating lunch as soon as the BBQ opened and going back to the ship so I decided to try and stay as dry as possible. I could certainly see the possibilities that the island would have offered on a nicer day, but it turned into a pretty melancholy sendoff since the lack of activity on Castaway Cay kind of drove home the reality that our cruise was ending the next day.

I guess that turned into more a trip report than a few thoughts, but once I started writing I kept remembering different things of possible interest. I'm sure it's at risk of a few tl;dr's.

Will be back tomorrow with my first race plan and some training and running musings.
 
My first race of the year will be the Cleveland Rite Aid Half Marathon on May 15, 2016. It will be my fall back POT race for Dopey 2017 and I am hoping and planning to post my first sub-2:00 half marathon. Training started today with a nice 40 minutes and 4.16 miles. It was harder than I had hoped to run that pace but probably should have been expected after only running a few times since finishing Dopey. I don't really have my training mapped out yet but plan to make an actual schedule for the first time this weekend to keep myself more accountable.

I saw the subject of expense and what people do to be able to afford runDisney races discussed in another thread. The lengthy layoff between races is indicative of my primary saving device. I run only the WDW Marathon Weekend from the rD schedule and run relatively few local events. It is hard to pass up all of the bling but running at home is free and I can't beat that price. By running relatively few events I also feel like the events that I do run remain special and exciting rather than becoming run-of-the-mill. This is, of course, just my personal experience but I was thinking about it so I figured I'd share.
 
As I detailed in my opening post, my running journey started mainly as a means to lose weight and become healthier. One of the big challenges I am facing in the coming year is losing the weight that I have put back on in the last year and a half. I started my journey at around 260 pounds and made it down to slightly below 180 in the Summer of 2014 before having some health issues and missing two months of training. I have been too quick to point to those two months as the genesis of regaining some weight, but the truth is I just got too comfortable with my training and was no longer being as dedicated as I should have been. I finally stepped on the scale this morning for the first time after my cruise and got the bad news: 198.4 pounds. I was fully expecting to be over 200, something that I swore would never happen again after passing it the first time, so there was at least that glimmer of good news.

I am going to be using Wednesday posts to update my weight to stay accountable and to assess whether both my dietary and workout schedules are working. I have definitely noticed in the last year that fatigue is setting in earlier on my runs and I believe that is strongly linked to my added weight, so eliminating some weight and lowering my times should run hand in hand. Now the hard part begins.
 
A good week back in training is over. Was able to get in 7 and 6 this weekend for a total of 25 miles on the week. This should be about as light as my weekly work will be for the next few months, but I'm not sure my mileage numbers will necessarily exceed this amount for the month of February. I am trying to achieve some weight loss this month and that usually goes better when I am mixing in a lot of elliptical work to give some variation and take some of the pounding off my joints.

My plan for February is to be pretty consistent each week and then use March and April to ramp up the mileage before a taper for the Cleveland Rite Aid Half on May 15th. My weekly plan is:

Monday-30 minutes elliptical
Tuesday-4 miles
Wednesday-45 minutes elliptical
Thursday-4 miles
Friday-30 minutes elliptical
Saturday-10 miles
Sunday-1 hour elliptical

Over the next month I will be looking for a nice 8-10 week plan to tweak to my schedule during March and April to help get me in the best shape possible for May 15th.
 
Was able to take McFly out for an early (for a weekday) run after getting dismissed from jury duty. Was able to complete 4.07 miles with him which is his longest run yet. A few observations:

-Having a law degree is, apparently, a good way to get dismissed from a jury. I wasn't thrilled about spending 3-4 days on a jury, but was willing to serve if I was selected. I wasn't asked any questions during selection, figured I was going to be serving, and then was the first person dismissed. I guess just having my law degree on my questionnaire made me a non-starter for one or both of the parties.
-Running shoes would make poor tread for a sled dog team. McFly put that to a pretty good test during the first mile; fortunately, I was able to keep both of us upright and out of the road.
-After the first mile he settled in pretty well. My shins and shoulder didn't enjoy that first mile very much, but it was a pretty normal training run after that.
-First mile was 9:35, but after that we were within :03 on either side of 9:00. I was surprised we were so consistent.
-I wish I had either his turn of foot or his stride. Either would make running so much easier. We looked quite the pair with him at just above a walk and me putting in a pretty good effort. He was breathing pretty heavily when we got home, but I think he may have just been humoring me.

Looking forward to taking him out more in the future. He will definitely help motivate me to get lighter and quicker on my feet.
 

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