Questions from a Running Newbie

[dreamfinder]

Also, does anyone know how the time keeping works for YMCA road races? They had the time flashing near the finish line so you could see your time as you finished, but I don't remember the seconds (do the seconds matter for Disney's time submission?) I don't know if they will email me something with my time, or if that's something I should have gotten there and just remembered or what.

Depends on who they used for timing. Most smaller races won't email you your times. If you check the website for the race, they will typically have a link to the results. Or they will usually name the timing company used, who may simply post them on their own site. Or you can try looking on coolrunning.com (seems to be primarily New England races), or active.com among others.

 

[COrunner]

4. Any other tips? Anything would be greatly appreciated. All of the advice I've seen seems to focus on runners who are in a better starting state than I am, so I'm finding it difficult to get some reasonable advice. I think the most I can run without taking a walking break at the moment is only 1-2 minutes, and I've been told things like run for 5 minutes, walk for 10, which doesn't work for where I'm at right now. I don't mean to sound like I'm putting myself down here, it just isn't helpful to get advice that is so far off from where I am if that makes sense.

5. Are there certain foods that are good for running and certain foods that aren't? I'm just trying to be as healthy as I can, considering I'm still living at college for another few weeks and have all kinds of graduation festivities, but I'm wondering if there is anything I definitely should or shouldn't be eating.

Sorry for writing a novel! Thanks so much in advance.

Based on what you've done so far you've done a 10k which is great and as weird as it sounds if you can do that you can get through a 10 miler.

From the description of what you can/have done thus far you may want to look at an on/off run walk plan for the race. Typically you run a mile or 2 miles, then walk a mile. I have friends who swear by this method for their marathons. If you don't think you can go one on/one off then time is the second best. You will want to at least have a goal of 3:00 minutes on/3:00 minutes off. If you can do that and keep a reasonable pace (running when on and brisk or decent walk when off) then you will probably average a 12-15:00min/mile. If you go that way find a decent timex or other watch that has the countdown/count up running timer that beeps to keep you moving.

If you have the time and want to schedule workouts this should get you from zero to 10 miler: http://womensrunning.competitor.com.../couch-to-half-marathon-training-plan_15065/3

5. For foods it depends if you are asking about foods DURING the race or training or BEFORE/AFTER.
BEFORE/AFTER: light foods/fruits and water is always good. Proteins and heavier items after including chocolate milk has always been a favorite of mine or a vanilla protein shake (vanilla whey protein, vanilla greak yogurt, ice cream and a banana)

DURING: gels, this is an acquired test and with so many companies out there and types of forumlas you will definitely want to test a few before you find one you like. I always went for something that had caffeine and fruit flavors. Other friends go with coffees/chocolates but to each their own. Another good thing is liquid, either gatorade/powerade or just straight water. You'll want to gauge how much liquid you lose during the course of your training and as your runs get longer so you don't dip into dehydration.

Some rules of thumb: Wear a black hat/shirt during a longer run. If you sweat a lot during runs let the shirt dry and if there is a lot of white residue you are losing more sodium along with the water and you will want to drink gatorade, if it is just wet and then dry stick with water.

During the actual race or if you can tailor your training alternate water breaks with water and gatorade, then try a gel after about 25-50% of your workout. Try to get in the habit that if you run 4 miles or less to not use gel/water or gatorade as typically you aren't burning enough of them to need to replace or supplement your body.

Hopefully that helps and Mrs. CORunner and I are jealous. Every year we've had work/family commitments that have kept us from signing up for the Disney Marathon weekend and this year we missed signing up for the twilight zone run! Have a blast.

 

[BrittanyRose428]

Thanks so much everyone! I just submitted my time, (it was on coolrunning.com) and Disney anticipates that I'll finish in 2 hours and 51 minutes. That's assuming I have a 17.1 min. mile though, and I'm usually right around a 16, so hopefully I'll be all set!

 

[MickeyfromSTL]

BrittanyEarnsHerEars, I was very new to running when I participated at my first RunDisney event as well. In fact, the November 2013 Wine and Dine ½ marathon was the first run I ever signed up for.

I would still consider myself a “newbie” to running as well, and I can see from the other posts that many more experience people have already weighed in on most of your questions. I’m sure their responses are more relevant than mine on the majority of the topics…

What I wanted to comment on was your “question #4” about other tips. While training for the Wine and Dine ½, I ended up running about four 5k and one 10k events. I wanted to point out things that I didn’t expect/anticipate at the Disney run from my experiences in these other races. Some of these may be obvious to other runners but were things that stuck out to me…

1) Disney requires you to get to the starting area very early (I want to say about 2.5-3 hours). Prepare for a bunch of standing/sitting around during this time. I might consider bringing an old towel or “emergency foil blanket” to sit on and discard before the run.

2) There appear to be “a million” porta-potties at the prerace area (so many that our group was joking out their overabundance) however the line will get about 50 people deep for each and every one by 20-30 minute until you are to move into your corral. So “go” early even if you do not have to at the time…

3) If you are in one of the last groups to start the run (like I was because of my time), keep in mind you will not be starting your run for about 30 minutes after the initial “gun” goes off. They also put you in the corrals a good about of time before the initial “gun” so you will likely be standing in that corral for about an hour shoulder to shoulder. There is really nothing you can do about this, but just be aware.

4) Because of the volume of runners the start of the race is very slow, and hard to break out of. My first mile was the slowest of my run because of this issue (keep in mind I was in the 2nd to last starting corral, so I can’t comment if this is the case for the earlier corrals or not).

5) The lines for the porta-potties on the side of the roads during the run are very long. I would recommend looking at your course map to check if you run past bathrooms in the parks. I used one inside Animal Kingdom and was in and out in no time.

6) At all the drink “stops” on the run the first group of tables had the sports drinks and the 2nd set had water. This might be a common thing in runs, but it was something I hadn’t experienced before with my other runs and I didn’t remember seeing in the notes about the run.

PS- my run was at night (10:30pm start time)… My fiancé and I enjoyed splitting a big bowl of pasta at the Italian restaurant inside of EPCOT (Tutto Italia Ristorante). The pasta with a light salad and bread like the perfect size and type of meal for the occasion. Keep in mind you do need a park ticket to get into EPCOT so it might not be the best idea if you have a ticket limited by days and don’t already plan on going into the park that day (we both had annual passes so it wasn’t an issue).

Hope this helps,

 

[JillC LI]

Good tips @MickeyfromSTL. Sometimes experienced runners don't think to mention certain things that newbies are not expecting.

 

[dreamfinder]

4) Because of the volume of runners the start of the race is very slow, and hard to break out of. My first mile was the slowest of my run because of this issue (keep in mind I was in the 2nd to last starting corral, so I can’t comment if this is the case for the earlier corrals or not).

There is some slowdown in the earlier corrals as well. Where you are in the corral also makes a difference. If you get towards the front, then they should be a bit of space after the previous corral to give you a little bit of breathing room out of the gate.

5) The lines for the porta-potties on the side of the roads during the run are very long. I would recommend looking at your course map to check if you run past bathrooms in the parks. I used one inside Animal Kingdom and was in and out in no time.

Definitely keep this in mind. Each first aid station also usually has a single porta-pottie as well. Lots of people will hop out to use the restrooms at the TTC area when they run through there. And during the full marathon, there are people that will hop on Expedition Everest if they time it right.

6) At all the drink “stops” on the run the first group of tables had the sports drinks and the 2nd set had water. This might be a common thing in runs, but it was something I hadn’t experienced before with my other runs and I didn’t remember seeing in the notes about the run.

This is fairly common at Disney races. I've heard it has to do with them wanting you to push the electrolytes. Many people just grab the first thing they see when they are thirsty, so runDisney wants you to keep the electrolytes as lots of people aren't used to the humidity that often accompanies WDW races and get sweat harder than they might otherwise.

 

[lukacseven]

This is fairly common at Disney races. I've heard it has to do with them wanting you to push the electrolytes. Many people just grab the first thing they see when they are thirsty, so runDisney wants you to keep the electrolytes as lots of people aren't used to the humidity that often accompanies WDW races and get sweat harder than they might otherwise.

This is one of the reasons headphones are discouraged. Most races, including Disney will have volunteers telling you which tables have water and which have Powerade (or whatever sports drink they might be serving). Some races will distinguish using different cups, but I believe Disney uses all Coca Cola cups (Coke owns both Dasani and Powerade).