The weekend of January 12th and 13th I ran the Goofy Challenge in DisneyWorld. This consisted of running a half marathon on Saturday, followed by a marathon on Sunday. Training had been spotty, given a summer with little running and longer than recovery times following hard weeks due to a persistent foot injury. I had committed to the race and trip months ago, so I refused to back out. Though I ran a semi-decent half-marathon in November, I anticipated at Disney a terrible half marathon time, and an average marathon time.
The packet pickup took place at the Wide World of Sports area. I rode a bus there first thing Friday morning, grabbed my stuff and was on the bus back to the hotel as quickly as possible. Against all recommendations I actually walked around one of the parks that day, but family was with me so there was no choice. Waking up at 2:30am to get to the starting area proved easier than expected, but exhausting. The Goofy Challenge is so called because during the WDW Marathon weekend, the half marathon and marathon take place on separate days. Over 20,000 people race in each event, and some crazy people decided to attempt both events. It sounds goofy even to runners; non-runners who hear about this either looked at me blankly, or shook their heads wondering why anyone would attempt this.
Saturday morning I lined up in corral A, and the fireworks signaled the start at 5:35am. I took the first mile easy. The course descended languidly the the first couple of miles, and the second mile opened up with a slightly faster pace as I settled into a rhythm. We hit the Magic Kingdom around mile 4, with a sharp dip under a bridge the only significant hill. Runners entered the park through a side door, then took a sharp right turn along Main Street amid cheering crowds. Undeniably such enthusiasm does something positive. At the top of the street came another sharp right turn, straight into Tomorrowland. It was still dark, and Cinderella’s castle lit the sky and was visible the whole time. We ran through the castle, then veered right again along what appeared to be Frontierland. Someone zipped in front of me to take a picture with some characters, almost tripping me up. Otherwise the trip through the park seemed almost too brief.
We exited Magic Kingdom and ran past two of the resort hotels, a few people lined up along the road cheering. As we hit mile 10 I still felt good and started passing people. I rarely looked at my watch, trying to feel the pace instead. Near the turn to Epcot, the road climbed as we looped a wide looping turn. After about a mile we turned rightward again, and headed into Epcot. I think the pace lulled me a little here, as I throttled back and let people pass me until near the end when I realized I could break one hour and 40 minutes. With around 200-400 yards to go I woke up and sprinted to the finish. I ended up at 1:40:07, three minutes faster than my PR, but a few seconds shy of seeing 1:39:xx on the clock. Still, much better than I expected.
The following day saw another vast crowd of people in the same place, many Goofy runners amid the marathoners. Again I found myself in corral A, but I started further back since I planned an easy run. We followed the half-marathon trail through the Magic Kingdom and two resorts, then turned and ran into and around a speedway, with cars stationed all around the track. Then we ran through empty back roads, with only occasional characters by the sides of the roads, until we turned into Animal Kingdom just before the halfway point.
I ran fairly easy through the first 15 miles, at which point fatigue and pain took over, and I slowed the pace. Although I’d completed a couple of 18+ milers in training, the fatigue, heat, and foot pain, combined with a mental disconnectedness that sets in after a certain distance, all contributed to poor pacing over the second half. Around mile 16, with the Wide World of Sports park ahead, we could hear people announcing the 21-mile point, as the course looped around the park. Running through the WWS park, with its complexes of soccer and baseball fields, broke up some road monotony, and we even ran through a baseball field and around the chewed up outfield. Then at mile 20 Mickey, Donald and Goofy were there for a photo-op.
The last six miles were tough, as always. I struggled through Hollywood Studios and along some of the other resorts. We ran on boardwalk planks along the Boardwalk. At mile 24 as we left Hollywood Studios I felt out of breath and walked a little bit for the first time. The crowds in the parks were great and volunteers beyond fantastic. Thank to the one person around mile 25 who encouraged me by name to keep going, giving me enough energy to push through and run the rest of the way. I enjoyed running through the world showcase in Epcot, even though the bridge to France seemed massive. There were more crowds closer to the Epcot entrance and near the finish line, but at that point I remember little except passing one runner going backwards. I ended up finishing at 3:54, tied for my slowest of four marathons.
Running through all the parks was a blast. The weather was warmer than expected, near the 80s at the end. And it seemed like the walk back to the monorail took another hour. At the start of the race an announcer mentioned 95 perfect Goofy’s were there, people who had run the Goofy Challenge all the 20 years in the race’s history. Quite an amazing feat, as I’m not sure I’ll attempt this again. I’m now trying to rest two injured feet, hoping that when summer arrives I can start training for my next running goal, knocking down my half-marathon time another five to eight minutes. I think I am done with marathons, unless something special comes along. I am close to figuring out the half-marathon race, with a great negative split for the Disney half, and nearly zero recovery time. The marathon takes me a couple of days before I feel right again, and the final 6-10 miles remain elusive in putting together that perfect race. We shall see.
