So it’s been four weeks since my boyfriend, Brett (27), and I (26) accomplished a goal we’d only dreamed about in the months leading up to our January 2009 trip… we finished the Walt Disney World Marathon :sohappy:!!!
For those of you who have read either of my first two (extremely long-winded) trip reports you are probably quite aware of Brett and I’s love for the Disney characters. And it might not shock you too much that our original motivation for tackling the miles was the thought of getting to meet all the rare characters found only on the race… that’s right, you read that correctly, we are two crazy people (non runners at that) who were willing to endure 26.2 miles of hell to meet a few characters. And since we’re talking about the underworld and all, I guess I should give Hades some credit as a motivator; he was our most sought after character (ever since we saw a picture of him high fiving finishers), especially for Brett!
To set the stage for this weekend, I should start at the beginning. A little over a year ago (December 2007), Brett and I set a goal to become more active, a new year’s resolution if you will, but we didn’t call it that. We started looking into Disney’s Endurance Series (because of the aforementioned characters) and decided that a half marathon (13.1 miles) was a manageable goal. February through May was spent teaching my body how to run, or rather jog. Seriously, in the beginning I couldn’t run one mile at a 12 minute pace without feeling like I was going to fall off the treadmill and die.
Once we made it over that hurdle we decided to go online and register for the event. Little did we know, the half marathon was already full and registration had closed! This was a huge dilemma. We had already set our sights on being a part of Marathon Weekend 2009 and we didn’t want to let it go. And that was when we started thinking marathon. I contacted my cousin for some advice. She and her husband are Ironman triathletes and she told me the distance was totally doable and she put together a marathon training schedule for us. For those of you unfamiliar with what an Ironman triathlon is, let me just tell you… it’s a beast. It consists of a 2.4 mile swim, followed by a 112 mile bike ride, and it wraps up with a 26.2 mile run. Crazy! Crazy! Crazy!
So we posted the run schedule and a copy of the course map on a bulletin board in the kitchen and began checking off the days. We also used a thumbtack to mark our journey along the map. I spent months visualizing this course, and during earlier WDW trips this past year in May, September, and December I thought about the miles we would cover while we were driving down the roads we would one day be traveling on foot.
We started out closely following the schedule until life and ITB knee pain got in the way. Okay, if I’m being honest some laziness and feelings of “I don’t want to run today, I’ll do it tomorrow” got in the way as well. Fast forward to the week before the marathon and our longest runs had only amounted to ten miles…. we were in trouble and very undertrained, but never did we consider backing out. Granted that might just show quite a bit of stupidity and stubbornness on our part :brick:!
And don't worry, the upcoming posts will include pictures!
For those of you who have read either of my first two (extremely long-winded) trip reports you are probably quite aware of Brett and I’s love for the Disney characters. And it might not shock you too much that our original motivation for tackling the miles was the thought of getting to meet all the rare characters found only on the race… that’s right, you read that correctly, we are two crazy people (non runners at that) who were willing to endure 26.2 miles of hell to meet a few characters. And since we’re talking about the underworld and all, I guess I should give Hades some credit as a motivator; he was our most sought after character (ever since we saw a picture of him high fiving finishers), especially for Brett!
To set the stage for this weekend, I should start at the beginning. A little over a year ago (December 2007), Brett and I set a goal to become more active, a new year’s resolution if you will, but we didn’t call it that. We started looking into Disney’s Endurance Series (because of the aforementioned characters) and decided that a half marathon (13.1 miles) was a manageable goal. February through May was spent teaching my body how to run, or rather jog. Seriously, in the beginning I couldn’t run one mile at a 12 minute pace without feeling like I was going to fall off the treadmill and die.
Once we made it over that hurdle we decided to go online and register for the event. Little did we know, the half marathon was already full and registration had closed! This was a huge dilemma. We had already set our sights on being a part of Marathon Weekend 2009 and we didn’t want to let it go. And that was when we started thinking marathon. I contacted my cousin for some advice. She and her husband are Ironman triathletes and she told me the distance was totally doable and she put together a marathon training schedule for us. For those of you unfamiliar with what an Ironman triathlon is, let me just tell you… it’s a beast. It consists of a 2.4 mile swim, followed by a 112 mile bike ride, and it wraps up with a 26.2 mile run. Crazy! Crazy! Crazy!
So we posted the run schedule and a copy of the course map on a bulletin board in the kitchen and began checking off the days. We also used a thumbtack to mark our journey along the map. I spent months visualizing this course, and during earlier WDW trips this past year in May, September, and December I thought about the miles we would cover while we were driving down the roads we would one day be traveling on foot.
We started out closely following the schedule until life and ITB knee pain got in the way. Okay, if I’m being honest some laziness and feelings of “I don’t want to run today, I’ll do it tomorrow” got in the way as well. Fast forward to the week before the marathon and our longest runs had only amounted to ten miles…. we were in trouble and very undertrained, but never did we consider backing out. Granted that might just show quite a bit of stupidity and stubbornness on our part :brick:!
And don't worry, the upcoming posts will include pictures!
! But hey, whatever gets you through those last few miles.
