Marathon Weekend 2017!

[Tardisblue]

Right now? At least three, but possibly seven if I end up adding a third boat!

Renting out the entire fleet? Sweet.

 

[bellanotte10]

Chear squad still not available on the page in case anyone but me is looking to sign up. Did this take so long last year?

 

[FFigawi]

As far as I'm concerned, this marathon won't be "won" or "lost" in January, it will be won or lost during the months I do or do not put the time into training for it.

All races are won or lost during training. The race is merely the end result of what came before it.

 

[Curiouser&curiouser!]

Chear squad still not available on the page in case anyone but me is looking to sign up. Did this take so long last year?

We are traveling as a group of 4 but only 3 of us are running the 1/2 marathon. The 4th is just joining us for the trip. Does he need to sign up for Chear Squad to watch us? I was thinking that he could just come with us the morning of the race, take the monorail to the TTC and see us run through there, then take the monorail and wait for us at the finish. Is that not the case?

 

[Ariel484]

We are traveling as a group of 4 but only 3 of us are running the 1/2 marathon. The 4th is just joining us for the trip. Does he need to sign up for Chear Squad to watch us? I was thinking that he could just come with us the morning of the race, take the monorail to the TTC and see us run through there, then take the monorail and wait for us at the finish. Is that not the case?

He can do that.

Personally, I would never pay for the ChEAR Squad. If you have knowledge of the race courses and the Disney transportation system, you can see your runner for free.

 

[IamTrike]

We are traveling as a group of 4 but only 3 of us are running the 1/2 marathon. The 4th is just joining us for the trip. Does he need to sign up for Chear Squad to watch us? I was thinking that he could just come with us the morning of the race, take the monorail to the TTC and see us run through there, then take the monorail and wait for us at the finish. Is that not the case?

He can absolutely just see you around the resort. He could even walk over to the Poly (about mile 7) after seeing you at the TTC (about mile 4) and see you in the front of Poly. It's a short walk for him, but you'll be running 3 miles in that space. After that he'll have time to walk back into Poly and get coffee/breakfast (Poly's coffee bar has some of the best coffee on property) before he needs to mosey down to epcot.

I think cheer squad is good if you have ambulatory issues and need to be able to sit down and watch, or if it's really important that you get to see them actually cross the finish line. Without cheer squad you can usually see people on the course outside of epcot just before the finish, or you can see people in epcot. I have historically liked to go back into world showcase and cheer for people around Norway, but I'm guessing that area might be slightly more crowded this year.

 

[bellanotte10]

We are traveling as a group of 4 but only 3 of us are running the 1/2 marathon. The 4th is just joining us for the trip. Does he need to sign up for Chear Squad to watch us? I was thinking that he could just come with us the morning of the race, take the monorail to the TTC and see us run through there, then take the monorail and wait for us at the finish. Is that not the case?

that should be fine! one of my friends did that 3 years ago when we ran the princess. Someone correct me if i'm wrong. I just like the Chear squad amenities that are offered. you do not need to sign up for it to watch

 

[Curiouser&curiouser!]

Thank you all for your help! I am sure I will have many more questions before race day, but I must say that this thread has made me feel much more at ease about running my first 1/2 Marathon already! I've got this.

 

[CarolynFH]

He can do that.

Personally, I would never pay for the ChEAR Squad. If you have knowledge of the race courses and the Disney transportation system, you can see your runner for free.

So, will DD and DSiL receive a map of the course for the half, so DH and I can figure out where to watch for them?

 

[Ariel484]

So, will DD and DSiL receive a map of the course for the half, so DH and I can figure out where to watch for them?

It'll be in the event guide for the race weekend, which will be posted online/handed out at the expo.

 

[pixarmom]

Chear squad still not available on the page in case anyone but me is looking to sign up. Did this take so long last year?

I'm still considering cheer squad this year, and hope to see it available soon! We bought the silver package for the kids a couple years ago - so we don't use it for viewing spots, just for t-shirts/blankets/clappers. Our youngest will run the 5K with me, but then he's on the sidelines for three races. It's fun to see him excited about the extras. Our older boys will just fly in for the weekend - school and extra-curricular schedules will prevent them from running any of the races this time - so it would be fun to have some extras for them too.

 

[opusone]

So, will DD and DSiL receive a map of the course for the half, so DH and I can figure out where to watch for them?

Here is the official USATF course for the WDW Half for 2016. I doubt it will change much, if at all, for 2017.

 

[slp1650]

I'm running the old with a bunch of my coworkers and our friends. It has annoyed our scheduling manager to no end because she knows we won't have a lot of staffing that day, but that's something to worry about for that day. Last week I started to make plans for our post run celebration... I think we've landed on Hoop Dee Doo. The all you can eat (and drink) is looking too inviting at this point!

 

[Keels]

The all you can eat (and drink) is looking too inviting at this point!

It will DEFINITELY be worth it.

By like Mile 20 of the Marathon, I would've punched a kitten for all of the ice cold beers.

 

[slp1650]

It will DEFINITELY be worth it.

By like Mile 20 of the Marathon, I would've punched a kitten for all of the ice cold beers.

Not gonna lie, if I wasn't so tired and just focused on finishing I totally would have grabbed a margarita or something last time I did the marathon. Marathon goal for next time maybe??

 

[wallskm]

Checking in, haven't posted since early in the thread. Got my room all booked at the Contemporary for race weekend and I'm really excited! My husband and I have been running (working on building a base over the summer, plus training for an end-of-summer 10K for my proof of time for the race). Have some pace questions though. Before April I hadn't really done much running for the past few years, but I have been running consistently since then. Previously I just ran to complete the distance and never did any sort of speedwork or anything like that. I'd like to be faster than I used to be (last 1/2 was a 2:18) and so far I seem to be. I just hear so much about not running too fast and I am worried I am doing just that. My husband and I did a 5 mile race last weekend (it was HOT!) and I ran it in 49:40, so just under a 10 minute mile. I have been doing speedwork once a week, alternating between a fartlek and tempo run. My last tempo run was a 9:26 mile (3 miles). Today I did a 6 mile long run at 10:32/mi which seemed very comfortable. But when I put that race pace into the McMillan Calculator it estimates my 1/2 marathon pace as 10:35 or so. I know long runs are supposed to be slower than race pace. Am I on target? I don't want to overextend myself or run too fast on my long runs. But I felt fine and not like I was pushing myself at all.

 

[croach]

Checking in, haven't posted since early in the thread. Got my room all booked at the Contemporary for race weekend and I'm really excited! My husband and I have been running (working on building a base over the summer, plus training for an end-of-summer 10K for my proof of time for the race). Have some pace questions though. Before April I hadn't really done much running for the past few years, but I have been running consistently since then. Previously I just ran to complete the distance and never did any sort of speedwork or anything like that. I'd like to be faster than I used to be (last 1/2 was a 2:18) and so far I seem to be. I just hear so much about not running too fast and I am worried I am doing just that. My husband and I did a 5 mile race last weekend (it was HOT!) and I ran it in 49:40, so just under a 10 minute mile. I have been doing speedwork once a week, alternating between a fartlek and tempo run. My last tempo run was a 9:26 mile (3 miles). Today I did a 6 mile long run at 10:32/mi which seemed very comfortable. But when I put that race pace into the McMillan Calculator it estimates my 1/2 marathon pace as 10:35 or so. I know long runs are supposed to be slower than race pace. Am I on target? I don't want to overextend myself or run too fast on my long runs. But I felt fine and not like I was pushing myself at all.

I don't think you want to use your long run pace in that calculation. Like you said, it's meant to be run slower so you can build endurance. Long runs are meant to be done at least 60 to 90 seconds slower then your race pace. If you want to do the McMillan thing I would use that 10k pace as a better idea then your long run pace. It sounds to me like you're on the right track with a mix of speed work and longer runs but hopefully some others will chime in with thoughts.

 

[DopeyBadger]

Checking in, haven't posted since early in the thread. Got my room all booked at the Contemporary for race weekend and I'm really excited! My husband and I have been running (working on building a base over the summer, plus training for an end-of-summer 10K for my proof of time for the race). Have some pace questions though. Before April I hadn't really done much running for the past few years, but I have been running consistently since then. Previously I just ran to complete the distance and never did any sort of speedwork or anything like that. I'd like to be faster than I used to be (last 1/2 was a 2:18) and so far I seem to be. I just hear so much about not running too fast and I am worried I am doing just that. My husband and I did a 5 mile race last weekend (it was HOT!) and I ran it in 49:40, so just under a 10 minute mile. I have been doing speedwork once a week, alternating between a fartlek and tempo run. My last tempo run was a 9:26 mile (3 miles). Today I did a 6 mile long run at 10:32/mi which seemed very comfortable. But when I put that race pace into the McMillan Calculator it estimates my 1/2 marathon pace as 10:35 or so. I know long runs are supposed to be slower than race pace. Am I on target? I don't want to overextend myself or run too fast on my long runs. But I felt fine and not like I was pushing myself at all.

There are two main ways to improve your half marathon speed:

1) Speed Work
2) Endurance Work

Determining which you are more deficient in would determine which you need to work on more. The best way to do that is to use a race equivalency calculator and compare your recent race results under ideal conditions. Your HM was a 2:18. The McMillan race equivalency calculator has the following matching results at other distances:

5K - 29:48 (9:36 min/mile)
10K - 1:01:54 (9:58 min/mile)

Are your recent results at these distances faster or slower? Based on your recent tempo workout (9:26 of 3 miles), I'm assuming your recent results are faster. This would suggest you are more deficient in endurance work than speed work and would likely improve your HM PR with more focus on endurance type training. The following would be the paces I would recommend you train at based on a HM PR of 2:18.



I typically subscribe to the theory of 80% Easy and 20% Hard when making a training plan of any distance from the 5K to the marathon. Thus, I would state that 80% of your training should be done at 11:46 min/mile (long run) or slower. This would improve your endurance base the most. If you choose to do speed work, then for a half marathon it doesn't need to be any faster than 5K pace. Thus short intervals from 400m to 1600m, totaling no more than 3 miles @ 9:38 min/mile with added in rest intervals of 400m and added in warm-up and cool-down to total the desired duration of the workout.

Based on my suggested paces and what you've stated you've been doing recently, I'd say you're probably training too fast. When that happens, you typically "train to survive and not thrive". You'll survive the training plan, but on race day you won't thrive as much as you could have.

If you have a different more recent ideal condition race result, then I can plug that into my calculator and give you other training paces. For instance if we used your recent 3 mile tempo it would be:



HM estimate of 2:15 based on your 3 mile tempo.

Hope this helps!

 

[wallskm]

Wow, thanks so much for both of your responses! I really appreciate the pace calculations. Your info is consistent with what my husband is reading/implementing in his training. He's doing HR- based training and says he's having to slow down a lot more than he realized. It's just kind of counterintuitive- it feels like pushing the pace more would pay off but it seems that's not the case! It's hard to really predict what I can actually do at this point without getting out there and doing more races over time. The 5 miler I did last week was my first race in several years. My most recent 1/2 was in 2012 (the 2:18) my PR is actually 2:05 but that was well before that. Thanks again!

 

[UNCBear24]

Running less than 4x/week when preparing for a full marathon is asking for heartache, IMO. I don't like the Galloway plans for other reasons, but to say that Higdon's plans are better is a huge understatement.

I believe that the only plans worse than the Galloway plans are not having any plans at all. There - I said it.

I've trained for all of my marathons on only 3 days a week and have had no problems, including a sub 4 hour. So it can be done, even if you're over 50 like me. I used my own plan, so I can't comment on the Galloway or Higdon plans.