Been away for a while due to college football excitement taking up much of my internet time. Training is not where I'd like it to be given that I injured my toe earlier this month, but that's slowly starting to get better which is allowing me to get into a better training pattern even if I need to take a day off or two to rest my foot.
SAFD Disney CM: I'd love to be a walkaround character in Galaxy's Edge. Even with the weight of the suit and the heat, that would still be awesome.
Doing my first Dopey for Marathon Weekend 2022. Trying to figure out the best strategy for the different runs. Do you try to go for good times in the 5k and 10k and cruise the half marathon and just run to survive the marathon? Go for good time on the 5k, take it easy on the 10k, go for time in the half marathon, and then try to cruise the marathon? Or do you just to pace yourself through the first three days to save your legs for the marathon?
My strategy has been to do the 5K as slow as possible. Lots of photo stops and if I feel the slightest bit tired, I slow down. This point, if I finish the WDW 5K in less than 90 minutes, I'm going too fast. I have to up my effort a little bit during the 10K since they time it, but still I take that race as easily as I can. It's all about preserving my legs for later. For the Half, it's similar to the 10K strategy, but as a slower runner, I have to be mindful of my pace. Once I know that I'm sufficiently ahead of pace, I usually just see if I am anywhere near a slow enough pace for my liking Galloway group. I cannot run the first 3 races slow enough. Just don't get swept is good enough. I figure that slow and steady to start leaves me with fresher legs for when I really need them. This also allows me to feel like I can really push myself during the marathon even when I don't need to for pacing purposes just so I can finish faster.
EDIT: in light of the medal reveal, a new SAFD - WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE MEDALS??
I love them. I really wanted them to focus heavily on the 50th and they did not disappoint. As much as my very first set of Marathon Weekend medals from 2019 will forever hold a nostalgic place in my heart, the design on these might be my very favorite. At least for me the medals are perfect.
For this week’s Sundays are for Disney, what’s something you’ve never done at Disney that you’d love to try?
I want to experience WDW in full on holiday mode. I've gotten a partial holiday experience in 2012 and 2020, but not the full 9 yards.
Also, I have to figure out a way to do the Galactic Starcruiser. Somehow.
SAFD: I had to really think about this, as i've been lucky enough to do just about everything Disney offers. But one I haven't is the Walt's Footsteps tour at
Disneyland. Would really like to do that someday.
That's a really fascinating tour. Seeing so much of Disneyland history is just cool. The holiday time tour is also really fascinating.
My other question is, how hard on your body is Dopey? My longest run so far has been 8 miles. I have time to get to a reasonable long run before race weekend for sure.
Admittedly, I have never run a marathon as just a marathon, but I think that Dopey takes about the same toll on me as the marathon did. Meaning I had run many challenge weekends at runDisney before my first marathon which was part of my first Dopey and my soreness the morning of the marathon was normal. Now after the marathon, I hobbled my way around the parks with very sore legs and a smile that far outpaced the soreness of my legs. Because the timing of runDisney races is sometimes completely not ideal for me, if I can swing a race or all of them for a given race weekend I will do so.
2017 Star Wars Dark Side came during a very inconvenient time. It involved tremendous sacrifice during training and even longer work hours than the normal really long work hours that time of year. But it was Star Wars and I really wanted the Kessel Run medal. As it turned out and nobody knew it then, that would be the last Coast To Coast race year. It wound up being doubly worth it. You never know what unexpected changes may come so if you can swing it, I say go for it.
From where I sit today, I would absolutely kick myself if I had passed on the 2017 Star Wars Dark Side race weekend for all the reasons I could have reasonably passed on it.
