Dopey Challenge Training Updates and Wine and Dine Half Marathon!

Hi, guys!

So I feel as though I’ve been so completely wrapped up in my Dopey Challenge training – physically and mentally – that I sort of forgot to talk about another awesome race-cation I have coming up. In fact, I’m writing this from our resort: the Port Orleans — French Quarter.

I’m paying a visit to Walt Disney World (again) for the Wine and Dine Half Marathon!

But first, since I’ve been kind of quiet here lately, I did want to share how my training for this lovely 48.6 mile adventure has been going.

I’m still following Hal Higdon’s plan as closely as possible, and two weekends ago, I tackled my first 16-miler ever!

2013-10-26 10.53.48

I felt surprisingly okay until the last couple of miles, when my legs started tightening up on me. Other than some soreness, though, I wasn’t feeling too bad at all.

2013-10-26 10.51.47

Fortunately, Todd was willing to join me again – I went out for 8 miles, and then he joined me for the remaining 8 miles. Long runs definitely go by a whole lot faster when you have company, that’s for sure!

2013-10-26 10.52.49

The following day, we ran a Halloween-themed 5K in Long Branch: the annual Trick-or-Trot, sponsored by the Jersey Shore Running Club. It was a lot of fun – you know I’ll take ANY excuse to dress up like an idiot. Fortunately, I found someone who also doesn’t mind looking like this in public:

DSCF6793

Honestly, I did a whole lot better than I anticipated, given the fact that I was running for nearly 3 hours the day before! We both finished around 26:30. It was a super easy course – we ran up the boardwalk for 1.5 miles, and then turned around – and the weather was gorgeous.

This week, I’ll be in Florida celebrating my parents’ 30th anniversary – they’ve always wanted to check out the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival, and I figured this was a fine time for me to try my hand (or feet, as it were) at my first nighttime race!

The Wine and Dine Half Marathon starts at 10pm…and I’m very much a morning person, so we’ll see how that goes. But how miserable could I possibly be dressed up like my favorite female mouse and then partying it up in Epcot afterwards? :-D

What’s possibly even more exciting is that my sister and I also signed up for Jingle Jungle 5K held at Animal Kingdom that morning. It’ll be her first 5k!  We’re going as Pooh Bear and Eeyore…our favorites!

She has tried running a few times in the past, but since signing up for this race, she really has stuck to a semi-regular running routine – and we’ve even run together a few times over the past couple of months. I’m really excited that I might just have converted a new fellow running junkie… :-D

I know I’m probably worried about nothing, but I AM a little bit concerned how this vacation is going to throw off my Dopey training plan and my progress thus far. I’m not sure how much running I’ll be able to do other than the 5K and half marathon this Saturday…and let’s just say that today was already spent doing a whole lot of wining and dining…

2013-11-07 17.15.16

We definitely have a jam-packed itinerary while we’re here, including visits to Islands of Adventure and Sea World in addition to the Disney parks, so it’s not like I’ll be “at rest,” per se’ (my feet and legs are already sore from all the walking!)…but I definitely won’t be running, either. I was supposed to take on 17 miles this weekend, so now I’m going to have to push it back until next weekend, and I’ll be missing a few scheduled 4- and 8-mile runs. Hopefully all the fun Disney time I have ahead of me won’t make me TOO lazy. :)

Anyone else running Wine and Dine this weekend?

Have you ever run a race at night?

 How do you fit vacations (or any other interruptions) into a marathon training plan?

 

Comments

  1. Have a fantastic weekend!!!! I’m stalking all of you runners at W&D this weekend. I’ve run a nighttime 5K, started at 9pm and it was great, but I am not sure I could do a 10pm half marathon. I’m a morning person and love running early in the morning. W&D is on my list though, so I’ll have to figure it out eventually! LOL. Good luck this weekend and I hope your sister has a blast doing the Jingle Jungle!

    • Thanks, Karen! I’m DEFINITELY a morning person, too, and still would much rather wake up at the crack of dawn than gear up for a race at 10pm! No matter what, though, both races were a blast. :)

  2. Have fun! Can’t wait to hear about it. TOT weekend interrupted my NYCM training, but sometimes you just have to move things around. You got this!

  3. You are rocking the races, girl! Wow! I love the TMNT costumes :)
    Congrats on a very solid and speedy 16-miler. Good for you! It’s MUCH easier to have someone with you for sure.
    Tomorrow Glenn and I are racing at 4:00. The sun sets here at about 5:30 so we should be in the dark for the last third of the race or so. I may have to take some sunset pictures while I’m running!

    • Haha, aw, thanks! They were pretty easy to put together! :)

      AGREED — the miles go by so much faster when Todd is around. I hope you guys enjoyed your race, I’ll be running at sunset was beautiful!

  4. Hope you had a blast and rocked the wine and dine half – which I’m sure you did :) Glad to hear that dopey training is going well though I am not surprised at all!

  5. Hey Jennifer! Hope you are having a great week at Disney! I mean how could you not when you get to run awesome races then eat delicious food and drink yummy wine/beer! I can’t wait to hear about your 5K’s and of course, the W&D half! I’ll be doing that one next year!

    • Hi Lauren! I had an awesome time — like you said, how could I not?! You’re going to LOVE Wine and Dine, it was a blast! :-D

  6. Oh my gosh, how on earth did you run a 26 minute 5k the day after running 16 miles??! That is seriously impressive! Go you!

    • Believe you me, I was shocked, myself! All I can say was that it was a ridiculously flat, fast course, and I made sure to spend a whole lot of time rolling out after the long run, so maybe that helped? No idea how I pulled that off, honestly…but I’ll take it! :-D

Leave a Comment

*