Scott's lame, boring running journal. CW

[scoolover]

First of all, it is now tomorrow and I feel very good. Much better than after the race. My feet hurt and I have mild soreness but nothing major.

Second, I forgot to mention that I was registered in the clydesdale divison. After the races, I checked the sign in sheet and there were only about 6 or 7 people who would have been in my weight class. Of those, it was not listed what race they were in. I am thinking that maybe I did well in that respect.

Third, I mentioned that If I stuck with the leader, I would qualify for Boston. I would never run Boston. My yankee fandom would prohibit such a thing.

Lastly, there were two injuries that I saw. One guy looked pretty bad but perhaps he had his eyes closed to avoid eye contact with some rubber neckers. The other guy pulled up at about mile 25.6 or .7. We were less than 1/2 from the finish and something would not let him finish. Leg or foot would be my best guest. I should have carried him. Really.

Okay, pics.

Here is the hotel we stayed at. It was the host hotel and the expo was here. The starting line was right out front. Very good decison on my part.

My son and me before the race.

The race expo. It was surprisingly good. I compare everything to Disney so I was expecting cheezy but again, it was very good.

Here is Bill Rodgers. I would have waited for his autograph but he won the Boston Marathon. I am a Yankee fan so I couldn't.

All you need to run is a pair of shoes. Well...you know the rest.

Here is the start. Nice of them to start us on a mountain. *******s! I think that is the race director in the front. I figured out his game quickly. He has to pretend to be a jerk so peolpe don't bug him with stupid stuff but I bet he's a really nice guy.

Here is a picture of a van with a lighthouse in the back.

This was perhaps 4 miles into the race when again, I was the leader!!! Nice town.

After the regular start, we were back tracking through all these people. It really was like swimming up stream.

Me and Jane at the halfway point. This picture is the first I have seen of her face even though we talked for two+ hours.

Here is the second guy who passed me.

Boy was this a nice sight. .2 to go.

I had to walk for the previous 4 miles to ensure I had the strength to "pose" for this picture.

Add 30 min to the 4:50. See what I mean about it not being a big deal for my son to finish with me. It looks like I was last.

I guess this is the big one. If this was the big medal thank god I did not do the half. 1/2 inch smaller.

This last picture is sort of what the guys face looked like when we passed and he thought we were really leading.

Hope you enjoyed. I know it is not disney but I was impressed with the organization and the race overall.
Scott

 

[scoolover]

It's not important that I just had a great day at the Danbury, CT half marathon today. What matters is that I signed my son up for the 1/2 mile kids race. What a disaster that was. I could care less about winning and losing but we got about 50 yards into it and he started crying. "I can't do it, it's too far". "I want mommy". We had to walk the entire thing and were last. Again, not that I really care but the 65 year old grandmother with the one year old and the lady carrying two kids came in ahead of us. I was a little annoyed at the lack of effort but perhaps I can't expect much from a 5 year old.

A friend of mine who was on my college team is an elite runner. He took fourth in this race behind an Ethopian, a Kenyan and a guy from Colorado. I want to hear what he thinks of the course. It was about 10 miles of gradual incline and 2 miles of straight down before leveling off. Another thing was that my GPS had me running 13.5 miles. I thought it might be off a little but not almost a half mile. I am stupid enough that I may stop and drive it on the way to CT tomorrow.

I had a great race. I decided that I had to go out faster than I usually do. My long race theory has been to finish but I wanted to feel some accomplishment in this one. My goal was 2:10.59 which would be sub 10 minute miles. My garmin pace was 9:21!!! That pumped me up a little. I have not seen the official results yet but I am guessing the official to be around 9:40 or so. Still psyched. I learned a lot in this race as I have only been running for about a year and this was my sixth race. This may sound stupid but running fast is supposed to hurt a little. I am supposed to be out of breath and a little uncomfortable. I stuck with the gallowrunning until about mile 10 with a 5 to 1 program. After mile 10 I walked twice. Overall, it was a great race for me and it made me feel more like a real runner than I have in the past.

My mother, brother, sister-in-law and niece came about an hour from New York to watch the kids race and the start of my race. It was nice that they came.

I am really sore as I did not stretch as well before the race as I usually do and I didn't stretch after either. I am also tired. Time for a nap.

 

[scoolover]

It is Wednesday after the race and my legs are still sore. I walked for about 15 minutes yesterday but could not jog.

 

[tbstein]

Hello Scott.

I am sorry to impose on your journal, but the title was very intriguing. I really enjoyed the photos and the trip report of your WDW marathon. Great job!

Wendy

 

[scoolover]

For the fifth week in a row I ran a speed workout today. I did 3 mile repeats in 7:25, 7:20 and 7:12. Ironically, those were all PR's. I think that I ran a sun 7 minute mile in high school but I can't really remember. I am calling these a PR. Overall the training is going alright. I try to run every other day as my 5 and 3 schedule works out well with that. I run on my Tuesday and Thursday and then on my first and last days off. As I start gearing up for the goofy, I will start doing long runs on consecutive days (probably only a few times to get used to it) on my first two days off.

Also, I think that I am going to run two October marathons. It seems like all the New England marathons are in October. I know that is not correct but it sure seems that way.

Overall, I am proud to say that I have been a runner for a year now.

 

[scoolover]

Yesterday, I ran the Niantic and Waterford legs of the Special Olympics torch run. Call me silly but I really felt as if I was doing a good thing. There were 13 of us from Gates Correctional who decided to do it. We had to raise $30 to run it. Thankfully, my ex raised enough for both of us. Of all the runners, I was the only one from a back shift to run and the only one who was not on the clock (getting paid) as we ran it. It was one of those can't miss things to do because when I was 375 and couldn't, I really wanted to.

There was just about no organization but we did have transportation from the prison to the start which was about 2 miles away. We got there and stretched for about two minutes when the entorage approached. There was a lead police car, two state police motorcycles, three Special Olympics vheicles and a trailing state police car. Sanwiched in the middle were the runners. One of whom would be carrying the torch and pass it off occationally.

Being that there were 13 of us means that there were people of varying abilities. Before I knew what we were doing, there was a group that had decided that the pace needed to be set at about 8 minute miles. They were about a quarter mile ahead before half of us could figure out what was going on. I thought that the pace car was setting the pace but when I finally caught up, they were saying, "you guys set the pace". I was surprised and could not understand why there was no consideration for the others in the back.

Luckily, I was able to catch up and did get a turn with the torch. That little thrill lasted about a minute until it started to get heavy. Still, it was an attention getter.

Here is me in the yellow. Probably the best picture taken of me running. You can see the pace is no easy jog.

Anyway, some in the group finally circled back and others caught a ride and we finished our 4 mile strech on a nice hill at about 38 minutes. Yeah, you heard right. 9:30 pace for a group torch run. Anyway, everyone survived long enough for the group picture.

Next to me in yellow is my ex in grey who will be joining us for the half at this year's marathon weekend.

But wait there's more.

When we got to the exchange zone, there was nobody there from the next department to keep the torch going. After about a 10 minute rest, four of us continued on for another 3.5 miles. That stretch was more hilly than the first and since we were down to the elites (I say that with a grin), the pace picked up a little more in the beginning. We were around 8 minutes for a while. Thank god that one of the guys started to get blisters and had to slow. I was getting beat and it was getting hot. Part of my issue was that I had just run 11 the day before and I rarely run on consecutive days. Also, there were no gallowalks which I do on any run over 3 miles. No more complaining but I was beat. I carried the torch for the last mile and when I heard that our next exchange zone was KFC in New London (CT), I was psyched because I had $7.00 on me. As we approached I had a KFCgasm and we were finally done. I didn't have the balls to go in and get anything though. We hopped in the back of a pick-up and were brought back to work. We ran through the 10K at my PR pace and finished in 1:13 but I forgot to stop it for a while at our middle stop. Overall, it was a good day but very tiring. I went home and took a nap which is rare. Also, I booked for Pop Century for the week. I had heard that it was closed out for marathon weekend but maybe because it was for 9 nights they could do it. Who knows.
Scott

 

[Beka]

Scott, this TR still inspires me! One day I'll be running right there with ya! (Whenever I can get my RN, be a bariatric corrdinator, and can freain' afford it!) See ya on the OH boards!

 

[scoolover]

Thanks Beka. I too have had morons inspire me.

Yesterday, I ran my first one mile race. I finished in 6:33. I was hoping for a sub 7 minute mile but exceeded my expectations. I got as much thrill out of that as I have with any race I have finished.
Scott

 

[scoolover]

I guess that the story of this race would be the heat. The race started at 9:00 am but we did not beat the heat for this one. If it wasn't 90 when I finished then it was close. There is very little shade and the city streets radiating from them made for a tough one from miles 6 to 8.5.

This race is named after John Kelley and his wife Jessie. John won the 1957 Boston Marathon and repersented america in two olympics. He is in his 70's and lives here Groton, CT. He works in the only local running shoe store that also bears his name. Jessie has passed away but was apparantly also very incolved in the local running community as many of the runners were wearing home made T-shirts with "WLMK" on them. It stood for "We Love Mrs Kelley". Before the race John gave a quick speach and we were off. It is a free race and there were a lot of runners for a local event.

My plan was to break the race down into three phases. The first 4 were to get a good pace going in the 9 minute range. I did that even with walk breaks every 7 minutes. The problem was that I probably should have been doing walk breaks every 4 minutes from the start. Miles 4 to 8 were supposed to hold the pace and set up a great finish. Not exactly how it worked out. Miles 4 to 6 were getting a little tougher but I still had a great pace going and we were in an area that had lots of shade at times. Miles 6 to 9 were easily the toughest on the day and the part where I gave up my running career forever. This was the part with no shade and it seemed like we were going up hill all the time. Going up one hill in particular, I remember saying something like, "what the hell am I doing? I am 250 lbs, it's 90 F***ing degrees, and this course is all up hill. I am never running again in my life". There were many more F words but that was the jist.

The funny thing though was that I did not give up (other than that 5 minute stretch). Since I went through the half way point at 9 minute pace, it meant that I only had to do 11 minute pace for the second half to break my time from last year. Luckily the last two and a half miles would make that possible. Even though the last two and a half were in the main part of the city, there were trees lining the side walk and the houses also provided some shade. Also, it got flat and there was a breeze comming up the avenue. As a matter of fact, there were even some down hills. Miles 9 to 11 were not too bad at all. I even made up some of the time I lost while being a baby a few miles earlier. It still hurt a little but was tollerable. The last .6 was in the direct sun again but when you are that close it makes it easier.

I finished in 1:52.48 which beat my time from last year by about 4 minutes. The first half was done at a 9:22 pace and the second half, I held on for a 10:18 pace which I don't know how the hell I did. The result makes me pretty happy and I have decided that I will run again.

Incidently, Eric Blake who was on my college team won. That made me happy because most of the local elites are pretty arrogant and Eric is a real nice down to earth kid.

Overall, I was happy afterward.

 

[scoolover]

Now that summer is basically over I have one observation. I hate running in the heat. Every time that I ran in the heat I had a miserable run. I felt weak, tired, dehydrated and just miserable. Running up hill was impossible. Now that the weather is more reasonable, I have no problem going out for an 8 miler with a little extra water. What I had forgotten was that I didn't start the long milage runs until this time (September) last year when the weather was getting cooler. I would hate to think that an October marathon is out of the question but I just hate running more than 4 or 5 miles in it.

 

[scoolover]

Yesterday I ran the Niantic Bay Half Marathon. It was run at Rocky Neck State Park on the CT shoreline. I got my ex to bring my son to the event which was cool because it was a good spectator race. About a half mile from the start there was a path that enabled anyone who wanted to, to cut through the woods and see the runners 8 times in the 13 miles.

It started in a small parking lot in the woods and was like a cross country start in that everyone had to funnel into a space about 10 times smaller than the start line. It was actually pretty funny. The first mile was slightly down hill and the rest of the course was pretty much flat. I was hoping for a PR of better than 2:06. I will save the suspence and tell you that I finished in 2:03.45 for a new PR. I ran the first half of the race at 9 minute pace which I knew was too fast but whenever I start out slowly, I can't make up the time. I figured here that I would start fast and try to hold on. I told my ex at the half way point that if I could hold the pace I could break 2 hours. I was already feeling like I wouldn't, though. I must have run the second half at about 10:30 pace to get the result. I will take it.

It was a beautiful run but boring. Lots of woods. It was also two in and out loops, so we saw everyone twice. My goal was not to get lapped and I succeeded with my 53 minute first 10K. Incidently, my official 10K PR is 59 minutes so I am excited about running another. Perhaps I could break 50 minutes for it.

I talked with a few runners and finished with the slow people again but I am getting used to that. I went to work last night and it was the best thing because had I not, I would have lounged around and gotten tight. I woke up today feeling great and after going to the gym for some stretching, I feel like I could run another today. Overall, it was a good race and a good time.

 

[twotoohappy]

Hey Scott!
Love the pics and commentary! My last trip to WDW I actually stole your star wars idea and did the same pose as your sig. pic. My dd loved it!
Your running journal is really inspiring! This is my first race, yeah what a huge way to start. I'm going to do my best and hope I finish within the time! And if Darth Vader, Darth Maul, Anakin or Obi Wan are around...
I'm stopping!!!!!
Good luck in the Goofy! I'll see you on Saturday for the 1/2! I've got my disgreen shirt.... Do you?

 

[scoolover]

First and foremost, how awful to hear about Ryan Shay. It kind of makes me feel a little guilty about having such a great day.

Anyway, as an ameture photographer, I feel ashamed at what a horrible job I did with my photographs today. Instead of going in manual mode, I set it on auto so I would not have to think too much. 90% of my pictures were blurry due to the overcast day. Lesson number 1 in shooting sports is to shoot in a quick shutter speed but the dark day caused the auto to shoot slowly to let in more light. Sorry about the poor quality of pictures.

I woke up at 4:00am with my girlfriend. We live about 130 miles from Central Park and wanted to be there by 7:15ish. Figuring on light traffic at that time of day, we set out for the big city (which scares me as I am a country boy). The directions were perfect and we arrived at a close parking garage at about 7:25.

I had done some great planning but apparantly the planning did not involve packing my map of the city or the race route. Being that the trials were essentially 5 loops around the park, I decided a few weeks ago that we would hang around 72nd street and go back and forth to see the runners a possible 10 times. We entered the park on the east side and immediately saw the race course. By now it was 7:50 and the race had started 15 minutes before. We were going to see the runners for the first time at about the 5 1/2 mile mark. About 15 minutes before they came there were probably 100 people within eye shot of us. 10 minutes before they came there were about 1000. Everyone and their brother were doing the same thing I wanted to do but they all started on the other side so they could see them at the 2 mile mark.

The TV helicopter overhead was a great indicator that the runners were approaching. A few minutes later the first group of runners came by. To be quite honest, I was too busy snapping away to notice who was where but in a few minutes all the big names passed. Hall, Culpepper, Meb and Sell who was pretty far off the pace. There were a lot of Hansen Project jerseys in the crowd. After a few minutes of runners passing an ambulance passed going the opposite direction from the runners and then a police emergency vehicle followed. We found out why later.

We headed to the other side of the park to see them pass there but were too late. We had about 10 minutes to go east to west because there were only about 2 miles of race course to the south of us. Going west to east gave us more time as there was more course north of us. Even though we were late, you could feel a buzz whenever runners were around. People were running everywhere and rumors were floating throughout the crowd. "This guy dropped out, this guy is hurting. Webb broke away on the hill". It was great.

At mile 15 there was a 5 person lead group. By mile 17 Webb had a 30 second lead. By mile 19 the race was won and there was no body there with any doubt. At the same mile 19 Sell was running with Meb in 4/5 place. He had made a move to get back in the hunt for a place in Bejing.

We decided to head to the finish line and perhaps catch the finish. With a powerful zoom lens, my goal was to get beyond the finish line and get pictures of the top 3 finishing. Boy was I nieve. To go about 100 yards to the finish we had to walk 3/4 mile around a closed off field. Had I been alone, I would have done what everyone else did and hop the fence to get to the finish line more quickly but I wasn't alone. We couldn't get even close because we were on the inside or the course. Had we been on the outside, we would have been golden and found a nice spot in the bleachers. On the inside people were everywhere. On porto-potties, in trees, in bleachers, on bleachers, under bleachers. We found a nice spot behind the bleachers. We had no view but could hear the crowd start to roar. I pretty much pointed the camera and took pictures of Hall finishing up the last hill about 150 yards before the finish line. I saw him a little pumping his fists and pointing at the crowd. It was intense. Next in was Ritzenheim. I must plead guilty to being unprepared or ignorant here. I had no clue who he was or why he was comming in second, even though he was with the leaders all the way. The third one in was the crowd favorite Sell. Everyone loved this guy. Perhaps it was the article on Running Times on him and his blue collar job at Home Depot. If anyone got the crowd buzzing, it was he.

Since the finish line thing didn't work out all that well, we decided to go and see about getting a picture at the awards ceramony. Guess what? We got there about 5 minutes after they finished it. Another mess up. Oh well. Even though I screwed up on many of the logistics, the day was awesome. I will put this done as something that I will remember forever. I hope they have it in NYC again in 4 years. Count me in.

After that was all over we went to the WTC site because I had not been there since 9/11. It was pretty quiet and somber. We hit the 6 train uptown and did way too much walking but we were still out of the city by 2:00. It was quite a full day.

Me when we arrived. It was dark! I am not that goofy looking in real life.

The lead pack on the first trip around

The emergency vehicle

I guess this was around the 15 mile mark

Sell in the middle a ways off the lead.

The crowd

Another around 15 miles

Sell on the comeback trail

Hall at mile 17ish. Boy did he drop the pack.

Ritzenheim at mile 17 in a solid 2nd

4/5 place. A former silver metalist and perhaps a future silver metalist?

The area we had to walk around to get to the finish line.

People under, over and behind

Hall at the finish. He is the one in the top middle pointing at the crowd. We were about 10 rows back behind the bleachers.

When everyone left, we could get a great view of the finish.

The WTC site

 

[scoolover]

I did an 18.6 mile run today. It was pretty good for a while and I ended up walking the last two miles. I decided that since I skipped a long run last week, I didn't want to risk injury by going too hard after I really started to fatigue. I think it was a smart choice. Even the walking hurt. Overall, I feel run down but in an okay way. This run was a confidence builder. Also, I ran longer between walk breaks than normal. I also walked longer. That feels better to me as I can get in a nice rhythm without all the breaks. I think I may be able to walk at the water stations and have very few other walk breaks. There were 23 startions last year. That about one a mile+ a little. I like that idea.

 

[scoolover]

I had two small chunks of time to get some running over the last two days. I have been working a lot lately. I mean 6 doubles in a row. That means that I go to work at 3:00 pm and get out at 8:00 am. That is a long shift. If I have my son, I get 2.5 hours of sleep. If not, I can get 5 hours. That leaves mo virtually no running time. Ironically, I have to work to pay for the Disney trip where the purpose is to run the Goofy. I am undertrained but have the confidence to finish.

Yesterday, I ran 6.55 miles which is half of a half. I ran it at 10 minute pace which I was hoping would tax my legs a little. Today, I ran 13.1 which is half of the full. I was trying to simulate the Goofy without getting injured. Next weekend I will try for a 20 miler or so. On the weeks that I have a long run, I won't run on back to back days. Every other weekend, I will run two moderately long runs. If I had more time, yesterday would have been around 10, instead of 6.55.

 

[scoolover]

This whole Goofy thing started last year when I went for the marathon and looked around jealous of all the Goofy participants. They got an extra medal and I wanted one. When I got home it was a no brainer to sign up. The cost was way too much but it didn't matter.

Fast forward 11 months another marathon, a few halfs and a load of 5K's, a few injuries and a month's worth of digestive problems leading up to Jan 12 and 13.

The trip started as me going for a few days to run and come home. It ended up being 9 nights with two rooms and my son, ex-wife and girlfriend. We left on Thursday and arrived at the Orlando airport with no problem. As I waited in the line for the Magical Express, I noticed that of the perhaps 100 people in line, half or more were obviously runners. It got the trip off right. I was hoping to hit the expo that night but were a half hour too late. Friday morning we were up to be at the expo at its 9:00am opening. We were there 15 minutes early and got in line. Once it opened, the line moved quickly. I got to my Goofy line as my ex got in the half line. After getting all that squared away, we went to the expo floor to get our shirts. The nice volunteer that helped only put the half shirt in the bag and I pointed out that I also got the full. Thank god I was paying attention because that could have become a hastle. From there we went to the official merchandise area and I picked out a nice Goofy shirt and was disappointed in the hat selection. We paid for our mug, goofy doll for my son and my two shirts (one wicking and one cotton) and left the area. My son made my a poster at the sharpie area. I would have loved to see Jeff Galloway but he was speaking at the time of the Kids race which was out next stop.

I had signed my son up for the kids race on both days so we would have some flexability in our schedule. Last year he ran it and loved it. This year his mother ran with him and she wasn't as fortunate as I was last year. He had his typical melt down at about the 100m mark. The last 100m was a struggle. He finished and got his medal which made him happy but we had already decided that we were not going to do that again the next day. I don't complain much but the heats were run way too quickly as opposed to last year when they were run too slowly. I just think they need to perhaps assign more people to the kids race to assist but the volunteers that were there were great. That afternoon we hit downtown disney for a little shopping and lunch at the rainforest cafe.

Kathy and I made it back to the Pop just in time for the meet. I hate that stuff but everyone made it pretty easy and Kathy kept nudging me around the room to meet more people. Everyone was great and a pleasure to meet. I have no clue what I had for dinner that night. I think I ate light and I know that I had no dairy (the cause of my digestive issues).

The alarm went off at 3:00am and I hoped out of bed into the shower. The wake up call came when I was in the shower and the alarm on my watch went off shortly thereafter. I wasn't taking any chances. Out of the shower and into my already laid out clothes. I pinned my number on the night before and laced the chip into my shoes also. Many of you may remember that I lost my chip the year prior. The only way that was going to happen this year was to have my foot come off with it. I was shocked at the line for the but. Last year there were about 7 people on my bus. This time I had to wait for the third bus. It went very quickly anyway. We arrived at Epcot and took the 1/2 mile walk to staging area 1 where we met up with some WISHers. Everyone was again very nice but you could tell that it was early. I waited as long as I could since I am a nervous nelly and started to the corral area. The walk from the baggage tent to where I ended up in the corral was a GPS measured 1.03 miles. On the way there I met up with a WISH lurker and made my best decison of the weekend by bypassing the first set of porto-potties and heading around the far end of the ones in the corral area. I was about second in line. After that I found corral C and Erika. We chated a while before the race and she mentioned that her family was hitting the parks after the race even though she was doing the Goofy. I thought, "if Erika is hitting the parks - I'm hitting the parks". Soon enough the fireworks go off and we inch up. Ten minutes later more fire at the Start line and wave #2 is off. I crossed the start at 11 minutes into the race. My goal was 3 minutes per mile slower than my PR of 2:03. I figured around 2:45 would be a good first third (of the goofy).
Here comes the boring part. Here are the splits for the half as determined by the pictures I took of all the mile signs and my really bad math.
Mile 0-1 12:42
Mile 1-2 12:54
Mile 2-3 12:26
Mile 3-4 13:48
Mile 4-5 15:05
Mile 5-6 13:39
Mile 6-7 12:34
Mile 7-8 12:02
Mile 8-9 12:18
Mile 9-10 12:10
Mile 10-11 missed picture
Mile 11 and 12 average 12:57
Mile 13
I can't figure out how I messed up my pacing chart but you get the picture. It was pretty consistant except for the picture spots, were it took a little longer. The race was good and as always running through the parks was very exciting. I noticed that people walked before MK and after MK but ran in the park. It seemed that the parks jazzed them up a little. I wanted to take my time in the park and run during the boring streches. As I came out of the castle, the picture taker that I was poised to see was working on her camera complaining that it didn't work. That was alittle disappointing but Kathy was at the bottom of the ramp to catch a nice shot. The rest of the race went as expected. I finished without breathing heavy and with my legs feeling good. I had heard that my son was sick the night before and instead of dragging him to the finish, my Shawntel (my ex) let him sleep. That was fine with me. Who was I to complain when she was busy being mom as I was running around with all my foolishness. After a long walk over to the resort bus area and back to the correct area we headed back to the hotel for my first ever ice bath. I started in the tub and gradually added water and ice until I was numb. That was after the painful pins and needles. I must say that I got out - took a quick shower and felt awesome. Now we were off to Magic Kingdom. Mistake or not?

After pounding pavement all afternoon at the MK, I got back to the room and my legs felt tires. I had a chaffing issue that I was not aware of earlier in the groin area. That and my feet were not sore. All the good that my ice bath had done was ruined by the trip to MK. Still, it was a vacation and I didn't regret it as long as I finished the full and got my Goofy. My dad came from Daytona and spent the night. He took us to dinner at Ker's Wing House (same as Hooters but better). We also stopped to get water and other essentials we would need for the week. We went to bed not knowing whether or not he was getting up with us for the start or if he was comming to mile 18 with Hunter and Shawntel.

Again, 3:00 am alarm followed by wake up call and watch alarm. We got ready quickly and my dad decided to come with us. I didn't think he would do anything else. Again, we waited for the bus and rode over. Again, we hung out in the WISH area but this time I waited longer to go through the baggage area. I know- crazy Scott considering I was still probably in the middle third still. For only being 35 minutes early was pushing it. I saw Scott and Carrie in carral E and worked my way up toward the front. I think it was Scott that mentioned banking minutes before the sun came up. That stuck with me and I liked the idea. By the way, I woke up in a pissy mood. My chaffing issue was still there and legs felt like aluminum. Not as bad as lead but still heavy. I wasn't sure that I was going to finish. Around the time of the start, I was jazzed up with all the people and excitement and knew I would finish. My plan was to run a few miles at a nice slow pace before taking my first walk break. I hoped that would loosen up my legs. I think it worked. I took my first walk break at the 1.5 mile mark and felt really good. It is really hard to not go with the flow here. There are so many people that it was hard to take a walk break in the early miles anyway. That is unless you are one of the people who just stops in the middle of traffic to walk with no warning. I try to get over and make sure no body is comming before I walk. Anyway, running through the monorail station was awesome because people where everywhere. They were yelling from the monorail ranp and it was electric. The run through Epcot was cool and I had Kathy and my dad at mile 4. I got to them feeling great. My legs felt fine and my breathing was easy. The next 5 miles also flew by quickly because that is when I find a rhythm. By the time I got to the TTC my screamers were there again and I stopped to say hi. I knew that it would take them a minute to get to main street so I took an extra long walk break and a potty break during mile 9. I did it for them - really! As soon as I entered main street they were there. I found out later that they had only just gotten there after a quick bathroom break, themselves. I was disappointed running through MK due to the lack of characters. I think I only stopped twice because I either got them the day before or I just wasn't interested. Capt. Jack just isn't my thing. Next it was on to scream team location 4 where I was met in front of the Poly. Last year, it started to get bad after the half way point. This year, I still felt good. I had run the first half in a 13:12 pace which banked me a bunch of minutes for the second half and the heat. Up to this point, there was pretty heavy clowd cover and the temperture stayed reasonable. The humidity was high so I made sure to drink a lot. I carried a water bottle during both races and liked it. I would fill it at the water stations and I could control the powerade to water ratio (another gastric issue with me). I could also sip at my leisure, not just at the stations. Anyway, my second third was done and it was on to my last third before the Goofy medal.

By now I was sure that I would finish even though I still had half a marathon to go. I was reallly looking forward to mile 17.5 where my scream team would be united and my son would be there with his home made sign. I got choked up a few times when thinking about it. I am not sure what got me but running far makes you do funny things. I still felt good to mile 16 where my gastric issue made me stop at a porto-potty. I will save the details but it was nasty. The sights and smells made me gag. It took 5 minutes to clean it before I used it. After that it was a quick run to AK. Again all the people who looked exhausted before, found the strength to run all of AK. That is one of the great things about this race. There is always something to look forward to to keep your spirits up. Anyway, at the bus drop off in the AK parking lot, my family was there and I stopped to say hi to them. I really appreciated all the effort they put into making my little side show great for me. I still felt good to mile 18 where I stopped for a Mickey picture. Mile 19 was quick because last year it really kicked my butt. There was an overpass that I kiddingly wanted to jump off. When I saw the overpass, I charged it and beat it. I was elated. About a 1/2 mile farther I saw the real overpass that got me and got a chuckle out of it. My charge up the wrong hill caused this one to kick my butt again. Anyway, up to mile 20 I felt pretty good. That was when the wheels kind of fell off. My gastric issues made it so I couldn't really run. My stomach shaking around caused much distress. Also, I could feel hot spots on the bottoms of my feet at the balls. The only running I did during the last 6 miles was for picture spots and the last .1 for the finish line photographers. During the last 6 my feet got progressively worse and I knew that I would be a hurtin camper. I just hoped it wouldn't be for the whole week since we were staying until the following Saturday. It again became a one more step marathon. Hollywood Studios was okay but I had to run for the photographers there. That was annoying. The boardwalk was alright but the feet were killing me. By now I was also cramping a bit. I stopped taking Powerade about mile 20 because I couldn't handle it. It was catching up with me. There was one awesome moment on the board walk. I saw the top secret medal for the first time. That really perked up my spirits. It looked awesome. I even rubbed one of the WISH ladies medals. I couldn't wait to get mine. When I finally passed the mile 25 sigh, I was kind of indifferent. I knew I was going to finish but I also knew that I had 20 minutes of foot torture to go. The Epcot icon (ball) never seemed to get any closer as I rounded world showcase. That sucked. Once I passed Mexico and came around to future world, I could see it and it finally looked closer. Out the side of Epcot passed the choir (again awesome) and on to the finish. I had to stop and see the scream team where the chain link fence started. I mustered one final push to the finish and was done. It took 6:20 something to do it but it was over. The pain subsided and I got mine. It took about 5 minutes to unlace my shoe to get the chip out. The piece of mind was worth it. On to the Mickey medal and the beverage station. I grabbed two waters and a powerade. I knew that after last year and running out, they wouldn't do that again. Then it was on to the Goofy tent. This walk was one year in the making but it took a life time to get me there. I got my medal and picked up my checked bag.

I went out to meet my team. I was a little choked up again but with great reason. These people who came with me didn't have to play along but they did. My dad has a bum hip but still lumbered around for 6 and a half hours. My girlfriend and Ex wife didn't have to play along but did. It sure wasn't for their benefit. It was for mine and my son's. I appreciate it. I'd say that my son didn't have to make the sign but I kind of made him so there goes that one. Anyway, I appreciate everyone's support. The WISH team was great. The chearing was awesome and the orange slice at mile 21 was awesome. Again I appreciate the WISH team and the easy to find shirts. Overall, it was a great weekend.

Back to the hotel and I think I saw Matt. At that point I was having severe cramping and the feet were still killing me. Sorry if I wasn't too chipper but I couldn't breathe very well. Another ice bath helped a lot. The leftover wings from Ker's also helped and we proceeded to watch the Giants whip the Cowboys butts. As a Giant' fan I was delighted.

The next morning the feet were really tender. I put some body glide on and a few bandaids. I hobbled around that day and some more on Tuesday. By Wednesday, my feet were absolutely fine. There was no issue after that except a little chaffing that some body glide took care of for the rest of the week. I didn't wear my medals around but I did wear my expo shirts for the rest of the week.

As for next year, I am still not sure. The great feeling of knowing I did the Goofy is really appealing. I probably only have a few more days to decide but the cost is just more than I want to pay for a race. I was thinking of doing a shorter stay and maybe only the half. The trip wouldn't be so costly. Maybe I'll wait till next month to decide if I want to do the Goofy. That should help with the decison.

Thanks for reading.

Here are about 50 pictures.

 

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I thought I might do a Hyannis Race report. A few cool things happened that probably warrant a report. First it was an over night stay, secondly, I had a 10K PR and thirdly, I met the Hoyts. I was also second in my divison.

The highlight was without a doubt shaking the hand of Dick Hoyt. For those of you who don't know the story you can either do a Google search for "team hoyt" of better yet do a youtube search for the same thing. They are a phenominal pair of people.

Hunter, Kathy and I went on Saturday morning and it took a good two plus hours to get there. Once in Hyannis, we went to the expo and got my number and race packet. I am kind of a snob when it comes to races. I like the feeling of doing more than most other people there. This is why I loved the Goofy. It is also the reason I ran the Full at Hyannis last year. It was the longest race they had. This year I talked myself into the 10K. I have only run one other at the RFTT. I knew that a PR would be easy and with the unpredictible weather on the Cape, I didn't want to be out there all day. Last year, I got lucky with great weather. Part of me felt like a whimp for only doing the 10K. Another part felt like one of the 450 smartest. So anyway, I got another nice shirt with a cool logo. It is a long sleeve royal blue cotton shirt. We looked around the surprisingly good expo and left. As we were leaving, we passed Bill Rogers who was comming in. The guy next to me had a Rogergasm. The guy couldn't believe what he had just seen. He kept repeating, "now that's the real deal". I thought it was neat seeing him but that's about as far as that went. The guy ran fast 30 years ago. We went to our hotel about 2 miles away and checked in.

Hunter was itching to get to the pool. It was a nice indoor pool with a 4 person hot tub. We stayed in there for a few hours and returned to our room. We were all kind of tired so ordered in. We got a pizza and subs. Sunday we were up fairly early and ate at the hotel diner. It was a fine breakfast. We the headed over to the race, parked and went inside. The ballroom was packed. I think that there were 2000 people there for all three races that started at the same time.

They had minute markers there to line up by pace. They were too close together and we were really crammed in. This was especially the case when, all the late arrivals came and just stood up front instead of walking around to the back. Anyway, it was a great idea. Again, all three races started at the same time. 10K, half and full along with the full relay.

The race started up hill. Not crazy but enough to notice. As a matter of fact, the whole race was up hill or flat. I know that a race that starts and finishes in about the same place will have equal parts of up and down. Yet it seems that every race I run is up hill. It is a very scenic course and it is not hilly, just inclines (everywhere). My goal was 9 minute pace but I forgot my Garmin. I had to rely on the mile markers and missed the first two. The good news was that when I saw my first one I was half way done. I was a little behind pace but not in good enough shape to speed up. I have done almost no speed work in the last two months. Come to think of it, I have probably only done 10-15 miles a week since Disney. I kept the pace I had and stayed with the pack. Over the last half I did pick it up because I was passing people who I had earlier stayed with. At mile 5 we finally had a down hill. It was pretty steep which explains why we were mostly going up for the first 5. Here I was flying by people. I let my 250lbs carry me and I don't fight it. At the botton of this hill is where the split is. The half and full people go left and we went right. This was the exact time that I felt like the smart one. One mile to go and boy, was I going to kill it. I ran my butt off for about .75 miles and again, up hill, I crashed. I had to walk about 100 yards and watch all the people I just passed, pass me. I really thought I could hold that pace but the hill was a factor I didn't put enough thought into. After my little walk, I picked it up again and passed some of those people again (if I were them, I would have been really annoyed at me). There was a big guy there and I had to pass him just incase he was in my divison (226lbs+) I was proud of how I pushed myself to the finish. I usually just gallop in and whatever happens - happens. I held off some people at the finish. My chip time was 56:30 which is a PR. I was second in my divison by just over a minute. Had I known before the race that I would be a minute behind my divison winner, I still wouldn't have caught him. I think that for the shape I was in, I did about as well as I could have. Had I known 3 weeks ago - different story. Of all the clydesdales and fillies, I was 26 of 93 and 160 of 450 overall. I would call that a successful race.

The post race was great. There was clam chowder, some shrimp concotion, Dunkin Donuts, and all the regular staples -fruit, begals, chips, etc. I didn't stick around for the awards because I have never been so close to getting one. I wasn't sure how I would react. I might have tried to steal it.

As we were leaving, I say Dick Hoyt loading the wheel chair into his van. I stopped and shook his hand. I said some thing cheezy and he replied with a thank you. That was really an honor for me. He is an incredible person.

We went back to the hotel, swam a bit more and left for home. Again, overall it was a great trip and a great race.

Here are some pictures.

Team Hoyt before the race.

Team Williams before the race

Who is the goofball with the rediculus glowing hand

Team Hoyt finishing. (a 66 year old man pushing a wheel chair beat me. Good for him!

40 yards from the finish. Look at the gritting teeth. Boy was I serious

This picture is only significant because it is the only picture in existance with both feet off the ground.

This is the trophy for the 70+ age group. I didn't win this one.

After race relaxation