In Training: Marathon Weekend 2013 (Dopey Challenge)! 1/17 - LINK TO TRIP REPORT!

[Ariel484]

Week 11: Rest Day
Sunday, November 11, 2012

Ahh. Not a lot going on, just ran lots of errands and spent some QT with the husband and monster pup. Legs felt REALLY good. I know some people hate ice baths and don't think they do anything, but for me, they really make a noticeable difference. I've been doing them pretty consistently after my long runs, and I think I might start adding them after my Friday runs as well. They aren't fun, but they really help me a lot.

Continued in Next Post

 

[Ariel484]

Week 12: Strength training
Monday, November 12, 2012

Happy Monday, Week 12!

Today's strength training sessions was okay. I decided to err on the side of caution and take out any exercises that I thought would hurt my blister from Saturday's run...so basically this was anything that involved a lot of jumping on the toe/feet area. No burpees, jumping lunges or mountain climbers today. This is unfortunate because even though I HATE burpees and jumping lunges, I know they are super effective (jury's still out on mountain climbers...I don't feel like they do anything for me ). I did leave in jumping squats, which I probably should have taken out - I could definitely feel the blister when I was doing those, but I don't think it split or anything. Those squats are the most important exercise in the entire strength training plan though, so I'm glad I could keep them in without hurting my blister more.

In other news, Will and I were talking about the Disney races and he was saying how it was too bad he wouldn't be able to do the 5K (it won't work out with his work schedule). I had to really try hard to contain myself because I want him to do one of these races SO badly with me, but he's not a runner at all. So the fact that he mentioned that got me super excited. I brought up the Expedition Everest Challenge (which WOULD work since it's a Saturday night race...actually, I think any 5K might work except for the Marathon Weekend one, since it's a Friday race) and he actually seemed...dare I say it...excited for that! So that race very well may be on the table for us in May of 2014. I'm going to try to not bug him about it too much...but yay!!

In other news, the Wine & Dine is done (congrats to all who finished! ), which means that the next runDisney event is Marathon Weekend! Somehow that makes it seem that much closer to me. Less than 60 days now!! And wow, I just realized...the 5K is 2 months from yesterday, the half is 2 months from today, and the marathon is 2 months from tomorrow! It's crunch time, people!!

Continued in Next Post

 

[Ariel484]

Week 12: Run #1 (5 miles on the treadmill)
Tuesday, November 13, 2012

5 miles completed/29 miles planned for the week
236 miles completed so far in training

This morning was my first weekday 5-mile treadmill run. I found myself feeling very nervous to do this run and kind of worked myself up over it. So lame, I mean...it's just running.

Once I got going the run itself wasn't too bad at all...I definitely think the key for me is to keep throwing a towel over the display portion of the treadmill so I am not constantly looking at the clock/mileage. I woke up with tight calves and some tightness in my back this morning - meant to stretch last night but got distracted by mindless TV - and the run really loosened up both areas. I feel better now.

Total time: 49:28 for 5 miles --> If I can run a similar time or a bit faster for Thanksgiving's Turkey Trot I'll be very pleased
Average pace: 9:54ish/mile


In other news...

...the marathon is 2 months from TODAY! So let's see...going off of the time stamps from my pictures...at 9:45AM during last year's marathon I had just passed mile 16 and was about to enter Animal Kingdom!

January 8, 2012: Our good friend Rafiki welcoming us to Animal Kingdom!

So now I am trying to figure out where I will be exactly 2 months from now at this very moment! Assuming I'm at mile 16 like I was last year (and I hope to be further along...time improvement is a good thing, right?) I'll be on the dreaded Osceola Parkway stretch of this year's course. Last year this part of the course was a long out-and-back portion (miles 18-21)...at least this year they've broken up the out-and-back with a jaunt through ESPN Wide World of Sports, along with that mile 20 surprise they've promised (my guess/hope - tons of rare characters!).

So the countdown to Marathon Weekend is in the 50s now...and I have 32 training runs left to do. Hmm, that sounds like a lot. Oh well, woohoo!

Continued in Next Post

 

[annabanna]

I use the towel trick for my runs too. It seems to make it so much better. I used to do that with my elliptcal too. I think I finally figured out why I hate the treadmill so much - it's because I don't feel like I really get into my groove until I am at about 2-2.5 miles. And now that I am mostly stuck inside on my short 30 minute runs, by the time I finally get into my groove I am done. I was forced inside on Sunday for my long run because of freezing rain and followed by temps hovering around 5 degrees with wind chill. Once I got past 3 miles, it actually wasn't that bad at all.

I stil would rather be outside running, but it definately helped my attitude towards the treadmill!

I love reading your reports - they help keep me on track!

 

[Ariel484]

I use the towel trick for my runs too. It seems to make it so much better. I used to do that with my elliptcal too. I think I finally figured out why I hate the treadmill so much - it's because I don't feel like I really get into my groove until I am at about 2-2.5 miles. And now that I am mostly stuck inside on my short 30 minute runs, by the time I finally get into my groove I am done. I was forced inside on Sunday for my long run because of freezing rain and followed by temps hovering around 5 degrees with wind chill. Once I got past 3 miles, it actually wasn't that bad at all.

I stil would rather be outside running, but it definately helped my attitude towards the treadmill!

I love reading your reports - they help keep me on track!

When I first started running I ran exclusively on the treadmill (I think this is pretty common...what a bizarre thing to think about now!) and I used to do the thing with the towel all the time. Then I only ran outside for about a year or so and I think I forgot about the towel thing. It has been a lifesaver!

Wow, it sounds like you have had some NASTY weather lately. Yuck! I totally know what you mean about taking awhile to warm up during runs. I think that's why I don't race many 5Ks.

Thanks for reading and commenting! How's your Princess Half Training going?

 

[Ariel484]

Week 12: Run #2 (4 miles on the treadmill)
Wednesday, November 14, 2012

9 miles completed/29 miles planned for the week
240 miles completed so far in training

Today's run was pretty meh. I went into it thinking that this run would fly by since I did 5 miles on the treadmill yesterday - surely a 4-mile run would feel SO much shorter, right? RIGHT?? Yeah, not so much. I don't think there was any specific issue or anything, just one of those runs I guess. Although it really didn't help that it felt like the temperature was about 1000 degrees in the cardio room.

Total time: 39:12 for 4 miles
Average pace: 9:48/mile

Continued in Next Post

 

[Ariel484]

Scouting the Courses: 2013 Walt Disney World 5K (January 11, 2013)

Now that we're inside the 2-month mark, I'm starting to get pretty excited about race weekend and am continuing to think about logistics that'll be involved during our short WDW trip. Although, I should be honest...I am totally Type A and have been thinking about this stuff since before I even signed up for the races. But now that it feels closer, I thought maybe I'd jot down some of the million WDW Marathon Weekend-related thoughts that have been running through my head. Cool?

So let's start off by looking at the courses, shall we?

Despite my Type A-ness, one mistake I continually make when a race is coming up is to NOT look at the course map ahead of time, so I'm trying to get a little better with that. Probably a good idea to know what I'm in for, yes?

Of the 3 courses, this is the one that is the most new to me, as this will be my first-ever 5K race at Disney! I haven't been able to find much information about this course or the 5K race itself, so I'm just trying to piece together what I know. I HAVE run through portions of Epcot for both the 2011 Princess Half (Future World only) and the 2012 WDW Full (part of the World Showcase, counter-clockwise), so at the very least I think I can make a lot of educated guesses about what to expect.

I think I've mentioned it before, but I signed up for this race for a few reasons, the 2 main ones being:

1. The finisher medallion - AMAZING!

When I saw a picture of this, that was it. Well played, Disney...take my money.

2. The full marathon course has changed, and there is no more early-morning run through Epcot (my favorite part of the 2012 Marathon course - more on that in another post). So this is a chance to get that early-morning Epcot run in! This is what originally got me thinking about the 5K...seeing the medallion above just sealed the deal.

If I'm being totally honest, earning Dopey Challenge bragging rights is really not a priority for me...like, I want to finish the races, of course, but "going Dopey" was definitely not at the top of my list of reasons for doing the 5K. I certainly don't begrudge anyone that is running the 3 races so they can say they went Dopey, but for me it's not so much about that - we all have our own reasons for running these things.

Now, from what I have heard, there is no official timing for this race (hence calling it a Fun Run). Runners get bibs, but the bibs don't have timing chips - so we won't actually get official results posted online - and there are no sweepers. Despite the fact that there is no "real" timing going on, I have seen pictures of race clocks at each mile marker. I've also read that there is no corral placement - runners are expected to line up all at once in the starting corral by pace, completely on the honor system. Runners expecting to run a faster pace start out in front, with the rest of us that aren't quite as fast behind them (i.e. the 6-minute milers are closest to the starting line, then the 7-minute milers, etc.). The stroller division is the last group to start the race.

At this point, I'm not sure where to line up - if it was a "normal" (i.e. non-Disney) 5K I'd probably line up somewhere between the 9- and 10-minute milers, hoping for a fast time. For me, Disney races are different: I know I'll stop a bunch at this one and take pictures, and I won't be gunning for a PR here. Soooo......??? Maybe I'll line up at the beginning of the 10 minute/mile corral. We'll see. I think I'd like to keep my time between 30 and 40 minutes, but let's be honest...if I see characters I want to stop for any time thoughts are going to go completely out the window.

In looking at the map, were going to start out in one of the Epcot parking lots. Just like the longer races, we'll get fireworks at the start. Then we enter Epcot in between Mexico and Norway...woohoo! The race begins at 6:30AM, so I'm hopeful that it will still be dark outside and that all of the countries will be lit up as they are during Illuminations. We were treated to this during last year's marathon, and it was awesome...it's probably a lot to hope for, but still...fingers crossed.

I'm having trouble telling where mile marker 1 is from the map...eh? It looks like it would be right when we enter Epcot. Who knows. Anyway, after entering the World Showcase we'll turn left and pass the first water stop in Norway (I probably won't stop), then run past China, Germany, Italy, the American Adventure (there's a small incline here that I am sure no one ever notices...unless you're running a race! ), Japan, Morocco and France. Along the way I'm expecting/hoping to see a decent number of characters: specifically Mulan or Mushu in China, Snow White in Germany, Aladdin and Jasmine in Morocco, and Marie or Aurora in France...in other words the normal characters you'd expect in the World Showcase, no rare ones. These are just purely guesses on my part, and I hope to be proved wrong and meet some rare characters! If there are no rare characters, and the character set is the normal one you see in Epcot every day, I'm not sure that I'll stop. We'll see.

Well cross the bridge over France and exit the park at the International Gateway. Here's a reason why I'm glad I looked at the map - I didn't realize we'd actually be leaving the park in the middle of the race, even if it's only for a brief time. It looks like mile marker 2 is here, along with the second and final water stop. Unfortunately it looks like we're going to skip right over the UK pavilion and re-enter the park through a Cast Member-only entrance. If I'm thinking of the right place, we did the same thing during the marathon (turning right and running through the UK area), and this portion of the course was pretty narrow - I remember wanting to run when we were entering Epcot here, but not being able to.

Anyhoo, back into Epcot! Once we pass Canada that'll obviously be it for our tour of the World Showcase. Then it'll be down a narrow path into Future World and past the Fountain of Nations...I'd expect to possibly see Duffy out at some point as we leave the World Showcase, but again, that's just a guess. We'll pass Spaceship Earth (I'm hoping a nice stranger will take a good picture of me here ) and pass the Leave A Legacy area of the park before leaving on a path that runs in between the Universe of Energy and the Wonders of Life pavilions. This path out of the park is, I think, the same as the longer races (makes sense that the races all finish in the same areas...that way runDisney doesn't have to set up and break down 3 separate finisher areas). So if I'm right about that, mile marker 3 will be just after we leave the park, and then we'll sprint to the finish in the Epcot parking lot, near where we started the race!

Even though it's not the main race I'm training for, I'm really glad I signed up for this 5K and am really looking forward to it. It just seems like it'll be SO much fun. I'm not really expecting much in the way of rare characters...HOWEVER, this is the 20th anniversary of the 5K (something that you hear nothing about since it's also the 20th anniversary of the marathon), so I'm hoping runDisney will do a little something special.

Continued in Next Post

 

[annabanna]

Training is actually going really well. I had a few setbacks getting started and ended up a couple of weeks behind, but I am back on track now and I actually feel like I have the hang of it, I don't dread the long runs anymore, which is a great feeling. Next week will be the test though, we are going to Kansas City for Thansgiving. I will have to fit two runs in, but we are going to visit my sister and she is who I am running the PHM with, so hopefully we can keep eachother on track.

I love that you know the courses so well, I just can't wait until it's my turn!

 

[Ariel484]

Training is actually going really well. I had a few setbacks getting started and ended up a couple of weeks behind, but I am back on track now and I actually feel like I have the hang of it, I don't dread the long runs anymore, which is a great feeling. Next week will be the test though, we are going to Kansas City for Thansgiving. I will have to fit two runs in, but we are going to visit my sister and she is who I am running the PHM with, so hopefully we can keep eachother on track.

I love that you know the courses so well, I just can't wait until it's my turn!

Sounds like you are doing a great job! You're right, keeping up with training is hard while traveling. That's awesome that you can run with your sister though!

I typed out everything I remembered from the Princess Half course (which is exactly the same as the WDW Half Marathon course) and I'll post that next week. You and your sis are going to have so much fun running that race.

 

[Ariel484]

Week 12: Strength training
Thursday, November 15, 2012

After doing a shortened version of this workout on Monday (due to the blister I got during Saturday's 16-miler) I was back to doing the full workout today. I forgot to mention that the blister didn't really bother me too much during Tuesday's and Wednesday's runs...I mean, I could definitely feel it, but it didn't hurt and I don't think I made it any worse by running. I think I'm out of the woods!

In other news, I did something crazy yesterday - I went to bed early. WHAA? I have been going to sleep at 10:50 on the nose every night this week. On Tuesday evening it started to catch up to me (in the form of a splitting headache that popped up around dinner time), and then yesterday I just hit the wall. I was in bed around 10:10, which is VERY good for me. I was reading the Marathon thread yesterday and other morning runners were saying how they get to bed between 8 and 9...I SHOULD BE DOING THAT. Duh. I do solemnly swear I will do better with my bed time!!

And in even more news, my brother did something crazy yesterday - he ran. Yeah, remember how he's supposed to be going Goofy? Someone hasn't been training at all...: I don't know what finally made him get his butt on the treadmill but he made it sound like it was sort of a wake-up call that he needs to actually start training and "cut down on drinking" so we'll see if he sticks to it. I'd feel pretty guilty ditching him on the course...

So that's all for now. Tomorrow I have an 8-miler and packet pick-up for this weekend's half...which I keep forgetting about

TTFN!

Last year during Marathon Weekend all of the Christmas decorations were still up...no such luck this year

Continued in Next Post

 

[Ariel484]

Week 12: Run #3 (8 mile out-and-back)
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Weather: high 40s and sunny with a slight breeze

17 miles completed/29 miles planned for the week
248 miles completed so far in training

I had a really hard time getting my butt out of the door today, but this ended up being a nice run. I am trying to stick with my little trend of doing these Friday runs at a more relaxed pace, and I think I did an okay job of that today.

Splits:
Mile 1 - 10:21
Mile 2 - 10:18
Mile 3 - 10:43 --> walk/water break at the beginning of this mile
Mile 4 - 10:20
Mile 5 - 11:08 --> Gu chomp/walk/water break at the beginning of this mile
Mile 6 - 9:54
Mile 7 - 10:48 --> walk/water break at the beginning of this mile
Mile 8 - 10:04

Total time: 1:23:36 for 8 miles
Average pace: 10:27/mile --> was shooting for 10:30...pretty close!

A couple of annoying things about this run:

1. My stupid handheld water bottle leaked all over my hand during the first 2 miles...I guess I overfilled it?
2. My Garmin 305 watch has started bothering me...making my wrist sore. I've ordered a different model that's supposed to come on Monday, and it's quite a bit smaller, so I hope I like it better.
3. I got shouted at by 2 cars full of high school boys and honked at by some dude in a truck. I did my best to ignore them, but that kind of crap bugs me. Oh well.

Now it's time to hit the showers and then off to packet pick-up for Sunday's half!

Happy Friday!

Continued in Next Post

 

[steph0808]

Shannon - I hope your half went well today!

Just wanted to post that I saw this on the marathon thread. I am so screwed in terms of amount of money going to be spent at the expo: http://www.active.com/framed/event_detail.cfm?EVENT_ID=2064076&CHECKSSO=0

 

[kkelder24]

I did the 5k through Epcot in 2011 and it was ALOT OF FUN. I may have had my one and only Disney meltdown before hand (We were out the night before until 11 and the day of the race was my last day there and I DID NOT want to start the day off at 4:30 in the morning to make it to Epcot by 5:30 for line up) Needless to say, it is still my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE DISNEY MEMORY EVER.

It was so much fun. I put myself in the 8 minute pace group because that it is what I trained for. I didn't cross the start line because there was so many people running it until 10 minute in and because of the density of the race, it wasn't thin enough to start running until I made it inside Mexico. When I got to the 1st mile marker the time said 19:45. I was able to finish the race at about 38 minutes which included walking as we got to Spaceship Earth because it got really crowded again. And the sun was up by the time the race started, so I don't think there were lights there.

I just figured you should know that because it wasn't prepared for the immense crowds. Get to the front of the pace groups if you'd like to actually run the whole thing.

Good luck! Someday I hope to accomplish what you are going to!

 

[Ariel484]

Shannon - I hope your half went well today!

Just wanted to post that I saw this on the marathon thread. I am so screwed in terms of amount of money going to be spent at the expo: http://www.active.com/framed/event_detail.cfm?EVENT_ID=2064076&CHECKSSO=0

Thanks for the well wishes, and for the D&B link! Before I saw that you had posted it here I saw it on the marathon weekend thread and already had my credit card whipped out Goodbye, money!

I did the 5k through Epcot in 2011 and it was ALOT OF FUN. I may have had my one and only Disney meltdown before hand (We were out the night before until 11 and the day of the race was my last day there and I DID NOT want to start the day off at 4:30 in the morning to make it to Epcot by 5:30 for line up) Needless to say, it is still my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE DISNEY MEMORY EVER.

It was so much fun. I put myself in the 8 minute pace group because that it is what I trained for. I didn't cross the start line because there was so many people running it until 10 minute in and because of the density of the race, it wasn't thin enough to start running until I made it inside Mexico. When I got to the 1st mile marker the time said 19:45. I was able to finish the race at about 38 minutes which included walking as we got to Spaceship Earth because it got really crowded again. And the sun was up by the time the race started, so I don't think there were lights there.

I just figured you should know that because it wasn't prepared for the immense crowds. Get to the front of the pace groups if you'd like to actually run the whole thing.

Good luck! Someday I hope to accomplish what you are going to!

Hey! Thanks for the 5K info and for the luck. Sounds like a lot of congestion...I will definitely prepare myself for that, so thanks for the heads up. I'm glad you had a great race, despite all of the PEOPLE! Too bad about the sun being up already when the race started...I'll keep my fingers crossed that it'll still be dark out but I won't get my hopes up.

 

[Ariel484]

Week 12: Rest Day
Saturday, November 17, 2012

So nice to sleep in on a Saturday!

Pretty relaxing day. Ran a few errands with the husband and on my own, got a badly needed hair cut, and then went to husband's high school's play that evening. He always has a few students with roles in the plays/musicals, and they always ask him to come to a show, so I go with him. It makes me happy that the kids like him so much that they want him to come, and I get a kick out of seeing them see that he's there once the show is over. Their faces light up...so cute.

Continued in Next Post

 

[Ariel484]

Week 12: Run #4 (12 miles scheduled, Fall Classic Half Marathon completed)
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Weather: high 30s/low 40s at the start, low 50s at the finish...sunny

30.1 miles completed/29 miles planned for the week
261.1 miles completed so far in training

Half marathon #5 is in the books!

So I sort of impulsively signed up for this race a couple of weeks ago and immediately wondered if I'd made a mistake. I ran the race last year and had a MISERABLE experience...it was toward the tail end of training for the 2012 WDW Full Marathon and I had been getting pretty overwhelmed with my runs getting so long, and I was starting to feel pretty nervous that the marathon was coming up. I thought the race would be a good change of scenery and a confidence booster.

It wasn't.

The course was awful, I ran a non-Disney PW (personal worst...I feel the need to separate my Disney race times from my non-Disney race times since I stop for character pictures at Disney - and that adds a lot of time! ), and I came out of the race feeling discouraged, incredibly sore, and really not confident in my ability to finish the marathon (luckily I did finish the marathon though ). My time last year was 2:35:32, a 11:52/mile pace. Not awful by any means, but I had expected to do better since I had been running consistently for the first time in my life over the months before the race. I think I had also expected the race to be easier since I'd been training for a marathon - surely a half wouldn't be so bad?

Anyway, fast-forward to this year...

I didn't get to bed quite as early as I'd hoped to on Saturday (GASP!) but I still felt like I got a good amount of sleep when I woke up yesterday morning. I got up at about 7, had my coffee and started to get ready to go. I'd laid all my stuff out the night before, so all I needed to do was get breakfast (plain bagel with peanut butter, as usual) and go. Will got up to see me out and I was on the road a bit before 8, with a 35-40 minute drive to the race site.

The drive was easy and I found parking pretty quickly in the lot adjacent to the race site at about 8:30. The whole race was enclosed in a portion of our local park system, so we all had to park in this other lot. I'd definitely forgotten how long the walk was from the parking area - about 10-15 minutes. Not bad at all, but by the time I got to the starting area the lines for the bathrooms were HUGE and I quickly figured out that there was no way I'd be able to go to the bathroom before the race started. This it the second time this has happened to me this year at a race...I'm such a dummy. I think I got VERY lucky that I felt okay during the race despite not having a bathroom stop. I thought there were supposed to be bathrooms on the course, but I don't remember seeing any...I'm not sure that I would have stopped anyway though. At any rate, I felt a bit uncomfortable during the race but not too bad. Good story, right?

After giving up on the porta-potties I headed to the start and fiddled with my Garmin, iPod and timing chip. One big complaint I had about this race last year was that they had no timing chips...I mean, it's $45 to do this race and it's put on by a running club - why did they not have timing chips? Finally they did this year, but they were in the form of some weird ankle strap and there was no timing mat at the start, just the finish. I never figured out how to get the strap to sit completely comfortably, but for the most part it didn't bother me. It did leave a black mark on my leg though (2 showers later I can still see it). Anyhoo, I also spent this time trying to keep warm. It was definitely brisk out, and I was wearing a long-sleeved shirt and my running skirt (same one I'm wearing for the marathon). Not the best outfit for standing around and waiting for the race start, but I felt SO comfortable once I started running. They had bag check at the race but I didn't want to bother...I almost never use bag check. I also went over my little race "plan" in my mind - first 5 miles at 10:30, second 5 miles at 10:15, last 5K at 10:00 or faster.

We started the race right at 9 and my race plan went out the window immediately. I made the common mistake of getting caught up in the adrenaline and trying to keep up with everyone around me, and I went out faster than I planned. Surely I couldn't keep this up...

Like I said, the course is completely contained within our local park system, and even though I handled it better this year (knowing what to expect helped a LOT), of the 3 half marathon courses I've run it's definitely my least-favorite (granted one of those courses is the Princess Half/WDW Half course...what can compete with that?? ).

The course is just so challenging - so many sharp turns and curves, having to run by mile markers that you're so far away from (for example, in the above map you run by mile marker 9 right before mile marker 4), and seeing runners in front of you pass by 3-4 times.

So while I handled it better this time, all of the above challenges were still there. The sloped roads on all of those curves about killed me, and despite the fact that I remembered them from last year and made a huge effort to run on flatter parts of the ground my right IT band was screaming at me by about mile 5 or 6. It hurt from my knee up through my hip...definitely the worst it's felt in months. And how I said above that the course takes you by mile markers that you're far away from? At the halfway point we had to run RIGHT in front of the finish line. So with the IT pain, the finish right there, and the knowledge that I had to do this same loop another time, this was the first time I've ever thought about dropping out of a race. I think I just panicked for a second - the thought was literally there and gone almost immediately, and I just kept going. And oddly enough, the pain completely went away and I felt fine for the rest of the race. So weird.

One other quick thing I need to mention - a big challenge with all of the curves was that I knew if I really hugged them that I would add a lot to my total distance covered, so I made sure to try to run the tangents as best I could. Yay math! I still added to my distance (my Garmin read 13.29 miles at the finish) but I think I did the best I could on such a curvy course.

And by about 11:15, I was done...with a shiny new PR to show for it!

Splits:
Mile 1 - 10:09
Mile 2 - 10:19
Mile 3 - 10:10
Mile 4 - 10:08 --> Gu chomps at the beginning of this mile
Mile 5 - 9:59
Mile 6 - 9:49
Mile 7 - 9:46
Mile 8 - 10:17 --> Gu chomps at the beginning of this mile
Mile 9 - 10:17
Mile 10 - 9:52
Mile 11 - 10:08 --> Gu chomps at the beginning of this mile
Mile 12 - 10:03
Mile 13 - 9:35
0.29 - 2:43

Official time (which doesn't equal the splits above because I wasn't totally sure where the starting line was with all the people around me): 2:13:32...I forget what other walk breaks I took and which water stops I stopped at.
Average pace: 10:12/mile

That's 5.5 minutes faster than my (now old) half marathon PR from May and a whopping 22 minutes faster than I ran this course last year.

Obviously I think having done this race once before and knowing the course somewhat helped a lot, but there's definitely more to it than that. I'm in better shape than I was last year, I've lost weight, and I was just in a totally different place mentally this year. Last year I remember feeling like this race would never end...this year I sort of relished the challenge and didn't dread it quite so much. And I'm really thrilled with how I felt after the race was done (completely fine) and this morning (okay, a bit of soreness has creeped in, but nothing crazy).

Needless to say, I'm really glad I did this race. It's made me think that maybe, just maybe, I can pull off this Marathon Weekend thing after all.

Continued in Next Post

 

[steph0808]

Thanks for the well wishes, and for the D&B link! Before I saw that you had posted it here I saw it on the marathon weekend thread and already had my credit card whipped out Goodbye, money!

Haha nice! Which one did you get?

I am thinking about the satchel but wish I knew the size before buying!

 

[Ariel484]

Haha nice! Which one did you get?

I am thinking about the satchel but wish I knew the size before buying!

The letter carrier! I've been hoping that they'd re-release the 40th anniversary pattern in the letter carrier but I think I'm out of luck, so this seems like a good time to grab that size of a bag. I already have a bigger sketch bag. Is the satchel like this one? I bet the size is similar.

That's my one complaint - I wish they had information similar to what's on the Disney shopping website, along with a bigger picture of the bags. Maybe they'll post about it on the Disney Parks Blog soon.

 

[Ariel484]

Week 13: Run #1 (4-mile treadmill run)
Sunday, November 18, 2012

4 miles completed/36 miles planned for the week
265.1 miles completed so far in training

Just chugging right along over here...

In the past I've taken the day after a long race off from both work and running. Not only am I at work today , I also got up to run. I may have crossed over to the running dark side...

Total time: 39:40 for 4 miles
Average pace: 9:55/mile

The first half mile of this was pretty rough...I felt okay yesterday after the race but I think after sleeping/being still for so long that soreness definitely set in. The run helped though and I felt better as I went on. Hopefully I'll have the same experience during the WDW Marathon...right? RIGHT??

Continued in Next Post

 

[Ariel484]

Teeny shopping update!

Packet pick-up for the Fall Classic just so happened to be at my very favorite local running store on Friday. Normally when a store hosts a packet pick-up they run some kind of special for race participants, and this time was no different - 20% all shoe/apparel purchases with race bib!!

As I said in this post, I have some shopping to do before Marathon Weekend (which is only 51.5 days away! ) and I was able to take care of some of that using the above discount. I got:

1. New shoes - they didn't have them in my size, but I ordered 2 pairs of Brooks Adrenaline 13s, one in the blue color and the other in neon green. They should arrive last this week or early next week (I'm guessing next week with the holiday). Good running shoes aren't cheap, so I was very excited for that discount, which saved me a combined total of $45!

2. I also mentioned that I wanted new shorts for the 5K and a new running skirt for the half. I got the shorts (again, with the discount ).

3. I picked up a new box of Gu chomps (16 bags). This didn't apply for the 20% off discount, but I know from past experience that the store discounts boxes of gels/chomps by 15% if the entire box is purchased, so that's what I got.


So now I need to get a skirt for the half (still waiting to see what other solid and print skirts SparkleSkirts comes out with)...and if they come out with a few I like i may be wearing a skirt for the 5K as well. Beyond that I think just normal trip stuff and breakfast for the race mornings, and I'll be set!

And I did order one more thing...

The Marathon Weekend Dooney & Bourke Letter Carrier!! I was hoping they would come out with a D&B pattern, and that it wasn't just for the Princess and Tinkerbell half marathons. I need another bag like I need a hole in my head...but look at how pretty!

It's getting closer...

Continued in Next Post