Marathon Weekend 2023

And the baobab tree still has no leaves or flowers.
that thing NEVER blooms!

As Walt Disney's nurse Hazel George once prophesied after taking a pill offered to her by Ward Kimball and entering a 3-day psychedelic trance: the baobab tree will bloom when the ostrich eggs hatch, and then will being the end of times.
 
I have an oddly specific Marathon question...

Anyone know how late they shut down Western Way traffic pre-race and when it reopens to traffic post-race? I'm considering a Flamingo Crossings resort and am just wondering how much, if any, impact the road closure may have on my ability to get to/from the race. (I am slow, so I'm less concerned about getting back to the resort; I feel certain Western Way would be open by the time I'd be on it.)
Road Closures | 2022 Walt Disney World Marathon - https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1zk75SLDIKYhYgBnPuK0yw-lmGkqAxV4q&usp=sharing

According to the map, for the Marathon, Western Way Eastbound from 429 to Buena Vista was closed from 4:30-noon. WW Westbound was closed at the same time from Coronado Springs Cast entrance to 429.
 

I have an oddly specific Marathon question...

Anyone know how late they shut down Western Way traffic pre-race and when it reopens to traffic post-race? I'm considering a Flamingo Crossings resort and am just wondering how much, if any, impact the road closure may have on my ability to get to/from the race. (I am slow, so I'm less concerned about getting back to the resort; I feel certain Western Way would be open by the time I'd be on it.)
I stayed at a Flamingo Crossings hotel for the past two W&D half marathons and the last two Disney marathons. I don't remember what time they close Western Way but there have always been signs posted the day before with the times and the road has always been open when we left for the race.
 
Good morning and happy Sunday runDisney All-Stars!

So we open campus to our students here at MSU in August and by late August it feels like fall - even if it is still way too hot to really be fall. But it is on the way, and in of fast approaching fall, time to check on training. How is it going?

My answer: I did not have a good August do to hurting my back and losing a week, then losing two more weeks to Covid. But after a total of 3 weeks lost in August I am pretty happy with the past week. I hit all my runs, I purposely slowed down but did hit my distance plans. In July I was getting excited about my progress with eyes on a POT effort at the Capital City River Run in September. I am still going to run the race but will have to adjust my goals some. Covid really seemed to take my legs and has left me with an irritating cough. But I am very hopeful September will be a good month and will remain focused on an adjusted plan for New York in November And Dopey in January.
 
Good morning and happy Sunday runDisney All-Stars!

So we open campus to our students here at MSU in August and by late August it feels like fall - even if it is still way too hot to really be fall. But it is on the way, and in of fast approaching fall, time to check on training. How is it going?
SAFD: Right on track! Got a treadmill this summer and that saved my summer base building. I haven’t needed extra rest days since I stay out of the worst of the heat when my work schedule pushes me into afternoon running. Early in the summer I was taking an extra rest day every couple of weeks and just felt more rundown, totally from the heat. Haven’t gotten injured. Even though I have been spotty on the PT prehab, I have gotten some in, and it seems to be helping my knees. My marathon plan started this week! One week down!
 
Good morning and happy Sunday runDisney All-Stars!

So we open campus to our students here at MSU in August and by late August it feels like fall - even if it is still way too hot to really be fall. But it is on the way, and in of fast approaching fall, time to check on training. How is it going?
Training is going well. Missed a bit in the middle of the month while recovering from a cycling accident, and happy to be back on track and turning everything green in Training Peaks again. The weather has been wonderful the past week (low 90s/high 80s with only 40% humidity) which makes the running and cycling infinitely more enjoyable.
 
Good morning and happy Sunday runDisney All-Stars!

So we open campus to our students here at MSU in August and by late August it feels like fall - even if it is still way too hot to really be fall. But it is on the way, and in of fast approaching fall, time to check on training. How is it going?
SAFD: Training is going very well! I had a rough road after Princess/Springtime Surprise this spring so I have been focused on staying healthy and injury free while increasing my base. We moved this past month and have settled into an area that is way more active then I had anticipated. Haven’t had a run or bike ride yet without seeing other runners/ cyclists / dog walkers. It is quite the improvement over our last location. It has been great learning our new town finding new running routes. Excited to start my marathon program next week knowing there are so many places to get miles in!
 
SAFD: Training is going really well. Only 6 more weeks until Chicago which means this month’s mileage is pretty high. I have hit my highest ever weekly and monthly totals and we still have three more days of the month left. I got beat up by a horse a couple weeks ago (kicked in the back, ribs, shoulder, arm and head). Still some pain when I try to lift things, but I’m getting better day by day. At first I had to keep my shoulder and arm immobilized when running, but I didn’t miss a run!
 
SAFD: Training is going well. Just did a half marathon in the heat and still got a PR, averaged 14 min miles :) But my toes got bruised on it, so reevaluating socks and shoes right now. Also yesterday I did my magic mile and I got a new PR on that too with 11 mins exactly. So yeah. I am still slow but I am improving so that is what matters! I think next time when the weather is just a little cooler I can hit 10 mins. Next weekend I will be doing 16 miles.... so that is scary. I have gotten use to half marathon level running but now we are getting to the part of training I have never done before. And since I am slow it will mean I will be out for such along time. But I figure I will get use to it, before I started training for Princess challenge, I never ran anything over a 10k before and now running 10ks are easy to me.
 
SAFD: I haven’t started officially training yet (planning to work with a @DopeyBadger plan for my first Dopey Challenge) but I’ve been trying to get myself back into running in preparation. I learned since Princess/Springtime Surprise that if I don’t have something set on the calendar, running doesn’t happen. Even when I tried to make my own plan, it didn’t happen. Despite this, I ran about 28 miles last month. These past 2 weeks my goal was to run the days that my Dopey training runs will be, and having that goal thankfully kept me on track.
 
SAFD: I’m currently training for two races this fall. The Broncos 7k is next weekend, and I’m doing the Hot Chocolate 10k at the beginning of October. I’ve had a good August, despite being frustrated with all of the air quality alerts we’ve had this summer. I’ve been using my treadmill and trying to get outside too. I had a strong run yesterday in warmer temps which was a confidence booster. I melt a little in heat and I’m getting better that that.
 
SAFD:

I completely agree with it feeling like fall without it actually being fall yet.

Training is going mostly well. I’ve managed to find some sort of balance with the kids, work, and running to mostly fit everything in most of the time. I have a half coming up in 3 weeks and then it’ll be time to fully dive into Dopey training.
 
SAFD: Training has been miserable this summer. The majority of it has been at T+Ds in the 155-172 range and it feels like I've had more trouble with the conditions than in past years. It's been bad enough that I haven't been able to complete anything over 10 miles or so without walk breaks in the 2nd half of the run, even with T+D-adjusted pacing. Frustrating.

The one ray of sunshine is that we had about a week of "Fake Fall" this month where T+Ds plummeted all the way to the 125-135 range. During that brief interlude from running on the face of the sun I was able to complete runs up to 16 miles at prescribed pacing, giving me a much needed boost of confidence that all hasn't been lost this summer.

The acid test comes in a 50k trail race next Saturday. T+Ds are currently forecast to rise from the 130s up into the 150s during the race. At least I'll be under tree cover most of the time and not baking under direct sun. Definitely not ideal, but it could be worse. Fingers crossed!
 
SAFD: Funny you should ask....
My training isn't happening at all. My last run was July 28, in preparation for the half that I was planning to run in West Virginia. It went well, and I was feeling optimistic about things. The next day, I went in for a medical procedure that should have been pretty routine, except that it needed to be done under anesthesia. When I woke up, I was in terrible pain. Only much later that day, when DH got me to the ER, did we find out why. I don't want to share too much, but it required a four hour emergency surgery that was really two major surgeries done by two different surgeons. I spent the next 12 days in the hospital, with various complications arising. My exercise for many of those days was just trying to get out of bed and drag my big IV pole down the hospital hallway. I've progressed to walking slowly in my neighborhood for 20 minutes or so at a time.

We were able to go on our (greatly modified) trip, and DH ran the half, but I obviously could not. One of the days of our trip, we had to rent a wheelchair for me, and the day (while fun) absolutely exhausted me. I slept almost ten hours straight that night.

I'm registered for the Space Coast half at the end of November, then the half for MW, then the half for PW. I don't know what any of those will look like at this point. I have a follow up appointment with one of the doctors tomorrow, and I'm hoping she can give me some guidance as to what easing back into running will look like. The other surgeon didn't object too much to my running again when I feel up to it, but she's the one who put such a big incision in me that it took 17 staples to close. (The other surgeon did her work through laparoscopy).

A few weeks ago, I posted that I had spent one night in the hospital after a scary medical episode. This was totally unrelated to that incident, which was apparently just a freak event. Except for being in the hospital when DS26 and DS24 were born, I haven't been in a hospital since I was seven years old and had my tonsils out. I've never gone through anything like this, and it's a lot to deal with, to be honest.

I'm grateful for the doctors who saved me, and the wonderful nurses and techs who took care of me, and of course, DH, who has been wonderful through all this. I'm just trying to figure out what the other side of this will look like, and it's worrisome to not know. I'm glad for the progress I've had so far, and look forward to being healthy and fit once again.
 
SAFD: Funny you should ask....
My training isn't happening at all. My last run was July 28, in preparation for the half that I was planning to run in West Virginia. It went well, and I was feeling optimistic about things. The next day, I went in for a medical procedure that should have been pretty routine, except that it needed to be done under anesthesia. When I woke up, I was in terrible pain. Only much later that day, when DH got me to the ER, did we find out why. I don't want to share too much, but it required a four hour emergency surgery that was really two major surgeries done by two different surgeons. I spent the next 12 days in the hospital, with various complications arising. My exercise for many of those days was just trying to get out of bed and drag my big IV pole down the hospital hallway. I've progressed to walking slowly in my neighborhood for 20 minutes or so at a time.
That sounds so scary! Sorry you had to go through all that, but I'm glad you're starting to recover. Hang in there!

SAFD: Training is going pretty well. I'm using the Higdon Novice 2 HM plan...sort of...for a race in 3 weeks. Pace runs are hard and I'm bad at them. But otherwise I've been able to get through all of my scheduled runs and feel pretty good about everything. Fingers crossed that T+D looks better on race day than it does right now, though!
 







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