So, anyways…it’s been exactly a month since I last blogged. But once I give you my excuse, I hope you’ll understand why!

Of course, since Todd “put a ring on it,” I’ve been in wedding planning mode. And I am THRILLED to report that we have both a date and a location for the big day.

We will be getting married on…

NOVEMBER 10, 2016. WOOHOO! <3

But even more exciting? Guess where we’ll be tying the knot?!?!

I’ll give you a hint.

That’s right.

WE’RE GETTING MARRIED IN FREAKIN’ WALT DISNEY WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, long story short, Todd and I do not have large families. And the extended family we do have, well…let’s just say we’re not close. We also only have a handful of friends we’d really want to invite. So the night we got engaged, I confessed that I had been looking into destination wedding options…specifically at The World (and let me tell you, he was SHOCKED, lol).

Honestly, it seemed like it could be the perfect option for us. Rather than sinking thousands of dollars on a wedding in the NY/NJ Metro area for a guest count that quite honestly wouldn’t total more than, say, 25-30 people at most…we decided to pretty much elope with just our immediate families.

Also? The thought of spending months choosing flowers and centerpieces and DJs and caterers made my head spin. It did not excite me. AT ALL. I think that I’m missing one of the genes that makes me a typical girl because I gotta tell you, I couldn’t care less about any of it. I’ve never flipped through bridal magazines or watched shows like “Say Yes to the Dress” or spent hours on Pinterest drooling over wedding ideas, and I have no interest in a bridal shower or bachelorette party or any of the traditional stuff. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I’m just not that into it.

But you know the one thing I *did* always secretly hope could happen? That I could get married in my absolute favorite place in the world to a guy who was willing to put on some mouse ears and slap on a “Just Married” pin and go take a million pictures in front of Cinerella’s Castle.

Check and check.

So you can imagine my excitement when I discovered that Disney has a package that’s JUST for couples like us. (Which, P.S., I had been researching long before I had a ring on my finger, haha.) Plus, a wedding at The World seemed only appropriate, and not just because I’ve been a crazy obsessed Disney fan pretty much since birth. Such a huge part of our relationship has been running…and running at Disney…and we’ve made so many awesome memories there already.

The Disney Fairytale Weddings & Honeymoons “Escape” package is for the couple and up to 18 guests, and for a pretty reasonable amount of money you get a package that includes all the basics: the limo, the cake, the bouquet, the venue, etc. Better yet, you get a “wedding planner” and they take care of EVERYTHING for you…all you have to do is check off a few preferences like flower color, cake flavor, etc., and show up on the big day.

So, um, yeah…not only could I get married at Walt Disney World, but I could do it in a way where I didn’t have to actually PLAN anything?

SOLD!

I was so excited to share the news here but wanted to wait until it was official (if you’re planning the smaller wedding package, you have to wait until 8 months out to the day to book your date…and we wanted November).

We’re still working on signing contracts and whatnot, but everything HAS been booked for us! Here’s the plan:

We will be getting married at Disney’s Wedding Pavilion at the Grand Floridian at 10am on Thursday, Nov. 10.

Photo credit: Disney’s Fairytale Weddings & Honeymoons

Then, as part of the package, you get to have a champagne toast/cake cutting ceremony at the Grand Floridian. Where we may or may not be inviting (read: paying) some special friends to stop by…

Photo credit: Disney Fine Art Photography and Videography

We will then proceed to a short “reception” at the California Grill in one of its private rooms (Napa Room) overlooking the Magic Kingdom. We’ll have the option to customize a buffet menu for our guests. (Did someone say Mickey waffle bar..?!?!)

Photo credit: Disney Fairytale Weddings & Honeymoons

And we’ll finish the day with a private dessert party at Epcot while watching Illuminations. Since we’ll be escorted into the park by a “guide,” I’m allowed to wear my dress in the park!

Photo credit: Disney Fine Art Photography and Video

And the following night, I hope to book a private pontoon boat to take us onto the Seven Seas Lagoon to watch my most FAVORITE fireworks…Wishes.

Oh, and one of the MOST EXCITING THINGS EVER? We’re going to book a private bridal portrait session in the Magic Kingdom prior to park opening. Obviously this privilege costs about a million dollars, but I know it’s going to be SO, SO worth it. The plan is basically to cut corners on all the things we don’t care about as much (ahem, flowers) so that we can splurge on the once-in-a-lifetime stuff.

Photo credit: Disney Fine Art Photography and Video

So, that’s the story so far. In case you didn’t pick up on it, I’m sooooo excited — and can’t wait to share all of the details with you guys along the way!

Who wants to share some of their favorite wedding planning tips/advice?

If you could get married anywhere in the world…where would you choose?

After the previous morning’s traffic fiasco on our way to the half marathon, we set our alarms for even earlier (ugh) just in case of a repeat performance. After getting dressed in our Rapunzel/Flynn costumes and doing some last minute safety pinning (to make sure certain chameleons stayed put for 26.2 miles, lol), we were out the door…and ready to sit in another hour of traffic. That morning took us even longer to get to Epcot, and if we hadn’t left by 4am we could have missed the start of the race.

(Obviously in hindsight we should have just taken the runner buses, but I like having our car in the parking lot so we don’t have to deal with bag check and we can park hop, etc. at our convenience for the rest of the day.)

So, once again, we made it to the corrals with just moments to spare, and before I knew it we were about to begin another 26.2 mile journey.

The temperatures that morning definitely felt warmer, and yet maybe slightly less humid (thank god). It was definitely wayyyy too hot for running a marathon, but I was in Disney…so, you know, whatevs.

Our early miles were pretty much an exact replica the previous morning. Running in the dark. Forcing ourselves to keep our pace slow and steady to conserve energy for later. And sweating our asses off.

We skipped the characters who appeared before the Magic Kingdom because they were either repeats or characters we didn’t especially care about (I’m still not into The Nightmare Before Christmas).

By the time we reached the TTC, we both had to make a pit stop, and we were soon continuing on to the Magic Kingdom: THE BEST PART OF ANY RACE, ANYWHERE, IN THE WHOLE ENTIRE WORLD.

Running down Main Street was AMAZING as always, and that morning was even better because we weren’t running through a cloud of fog. We could actually, you know, see the castle.

And, as a bonus…we were getting LOTS of attention for our costumes.

You know what’s even more glorious than running down Main Street? Running down Main Street when the castle is still all lit up for Christmas.

Our first character stop that morning was for Lilo & Stitch. Because, I mean, c’mon. It’s Stitch. And I loves him.

And then began the most magical part of the marathon. The reason I wish I could run this race every single year for the rest of my life. There are no words to describe the elation of running through the Magic Kingdom. If you took the “high” of crossing the finish line of every single race I’ve ever completed and added them all together, it still wouldn’t compare to how I feel when running these 1-2 miles through the park.

Call me a dork, but…it’s the truth.

And this year was THE BEST YET because, unbeknownst to me, the course had been changed quite a bit (due to the closure of the speedway, I presume).

Suddenly I found myself running by Splash Mountain and through new Fantasyland and spending way more time in the park than ever before. It was AWESOME.

And there were some amazing characters out along the way, including my favorite princess ever. When we jumped in line, Sebastian was posing with Ariel and I was SOOOO EXCITED. But, of course, he was escorted away by a cast member when there were just a few runners in front of us. Boo.

I wish we could run all 26.2 miles through Magic Kingdom. Not even lying.

Before I knew it, it was time to exit via the backstage area and start making our way over to Animal Kingdom. This stretch of the course isn’t especially exciting. I was still feeling just fine, but Todd had been complaining of some tummy issues so I was hoping he would start feeling better.

Obviously, the good part about starting in an earlier corral for a Disney race is the comfort of knowing that you can stand in line for some characters and take pit stops as needed…and little did I know then just how much we were going to need that extra cushion (spoiler alert). I was feeling especially grateful that I damn near killed myself to score an almost-PR at The Love Run last spring to submit for corral placement for this race.

Character lines hadn’t been TOO outrageous at that point, but we did stop for a TON due to the extra time in Magic Kingdom, and of course we spent time taking pictures in front of the castle — which is why those 1-2 miles in the park always take us AT LEAST 30-45 minutes, if not more. Our pace was muuuuch slower than our usual race pace, of course, but we were still generally running around an 11:30/mile, if memory serves. So I wasn’t too worried at that point.

When we leave the park, we tend to get stuck behind a cluster of walkers on narrow paths before the course opens up (a little bit) again closer to the golf course. We just did the best we could. It’s not like we were trying to PR or anything (obviously), but we did try to weave around other runners whenever possible and if the course got too congested we’d walk a bit until we could find an opening.

And, fortunately, we found this guy and jumped in line right before he was supposed to switch for Donald. Lucky day.

The stretch leading up to Animal Kingdom had some surprises for us this year. It seemed every half-mile or so had a different character…and they were all really RARE characters, with lots of VILLAINS! Never knowing what character you might spot up ahead is a GREAT way to keep your mind off the agony of, you know, running a marathon.

I thought it was pretty much the coolest thing ever, so we jumped in line for pretty much all of them. Couldn’t help myself.

They also had some animals out for us as we got closer to the park. Seeing this guy was pretty much my favorite part of the entire day, not gonna lie, lol.

We made our way to Animal Kingdom for a short stretch of course inside the park. It was time for another potty break and some more silliness.

Todd still wasn’t feeling quite right, and truth be told my stomach wasn’t 100 percent either, but that tends to happen when I’m a.) running in the heat and b.) when I’m traveling and haven’t been sticking entirely to my “normal” food.

The Animal Kingdom part of the course is over sooo fast, and I knew the next several miles might be a bit of a struggle. So I enjoyed our time in the park as much as possible…especially when another runDisney photographer grabbed us to pose us for pictures in front of the tree.

Before I knew it we were back on highway, it was warming up…and things got a little boring. Especially since I know we were headed to the Wide World of Sports, and that’s just not a highlight of the course for me.

Halfway there!

This is probably where things started to take a turn for the worse for Todd. Now it wasn’t only his stomach, but his feet were starting to hurt big time and I knew the previous morning’s half marathon (and all the walking we did around the parks) was catching up with him. I’m used to tackling back-to-back races so I guess I knew what to expect, and I worried this might happen to him because it was his very first time with any sort of multiple-day race challenge.

So it seemed only appropriate that this was our next photo stop, lol.

We kept plugging away, but I could tell our walk breaks through water stops were getting longer and longer, and as we approached Wide World of Sports and Todd kept asking to take impromptu walk breaks, I knew we might be in a little bit of trouble. Unfortunately, we both remembered that it was right around this point last year when Todd lost his mojo, and this time we had the added fatigue of running the Goofy Challenge thrown into the mix.

I was feeling perfectly fine at that point; a little bit of fatigue in my legs and feet, obviously — and I still don’t do well in the heat, pace-wise — but when I’m in Disney I just don’t feel pain. It sounds ridiculous but it’s so true. So I tried to do my best to keep him in good spirits.

My high school yearbook quote, lol

We ran/walked through Wide World of Sports. I was encouraging Todd to conserve his energy as best he could, and unfortunately all of our tomfoolery earlier in the race had caught up with us. Though we started in corral F we had fallen wayyyyy behind the runners with similar running paces, so we were getting trapped behind walls of walkers. Because there’s really just no room to run on the narrow paths at Wide World of Sports, we opted to just walk whenever it became impossible to weave around other runners. Todd said his legs/feet felt a little better after each walk break, so that’s what we did.

And, you know, we rested our legs standing in line for pictures. How do you NOT stop for a photo with Goofy when you’re *thisclose* to completing the Goofy Challenge?!

Wide World of Sports felt like it went on forever, but we did pick it up a little bit for our victory lap through the stadium.

After we left the complex we kept plodding along towards Hollywood Studios. It sort of felt like we were moving in slow motion at that point. Because this section of the course is something of an out-and-back, we could see that there were no other runners headed into Wide World of Sports…which I knew meant we had fallen a bit further back than I thought.

I knew we had a little ways to go before the glorious Hollywood Studios/Boardwalk/Epcot portion of the race, and let’s just say Todd wasn’t in the best of spirits. His feet were killing him and his stomach was still upset. Since he has talked me down off the proverbial ledge many, MANY times in races before, I made it my mission to help him get to that finish line! We continued with our run/walk and made our way sllllllowly towards the final stretch of the race: the last 10K.

It was somewhere in mile 21 when I made a joke to Todd about how we were “almost safe” from the balloon ladies. Truth be told, we’ve never actually seen the balloon ladies, but if you run Disney races then you know that you have to stay in front of them in order to avoid being swept from the course for falling too far behind the time limit. Not 30 seconds later, a pacer on a bike rode by and announced: “just letting you know that you guys are about 2 miles ahead of the balloon ladies right now.”

And let me tell you I have NEVER seen a swarm of people all start sprinting at the EXACT. SAME. TIME. I knew well enough that we would be “safe” once we entered Hollywood Studios in mile 22, so I knew that we were fine. But Todd and I tried to pick up the pace nonetheless! We’ve never been that far back before, and it wasn’t the most pleasant of experiences to know that the “dreaded” balloon ladies were now chasing us to the finish line!

We made it into the park and runners were cheering and high-fiving and cast members were congratulating us on the way in, but since I’m such an experienced marathoner now (ha), I knew very well that these last couple of miles were still going to be pretty brutal. Even with all the distractions along the way.

I was thrilled to take on this final leg of the marathon because there’s so much park time and you get to run along the Boardwalk, but Todd was not having ANY of it. I knew he was hurting and I let him dictate whenever it was time for us to take another break.

The man still manages to smile for the camera, though…gotta love him, lol.

And what better way to take a break than standing in line for more pictures?

I have to say, I LOVED all of the “rare” characters this year.

I think his spirits lifted a little bit in the park because Hollywood Studios was already open for the day and thus there were lots of cheering spectators (as well as disgruntled park goers who made it clear they were pissed at us for clogging up all the walkways, haha).

My blogger friend Kim from Barking Mad About Running spotted us on our way out of the park, so it was awesome to have the personalized cheers.

The path leading up to the Boardwalk is basically a disaster because it’s damn near impossible to run. Everybody and their mother was walking, and because it’s so narrow you really can’t go ANYWHERE. Todd’s legs had basically fallen apart by then, anyway, so it was fine by both of us if we had to walk a little bit more.

But we were sooooo close to the finish and we had been out on the course for sooooo long…I was anxious to get to Epcot and cross that finish line!

We were able to run/walk/hobble/whatever you want to call it to the Boardwalk, with a few extra walk breaks. I knew for sure that he was struggling then because I heard a few expletives slip out of his mouth. And let’s just say that I’m the one with the potty mouth in this relationship, lol.

I knew we were going to make it, and I tried to be as encouraging as possible. I think he was kind of annoyed at the situation because I was bouncing around and making jokes and smiling and acting like an idiot and giving high-fives to people…and here he was in pure agony.

Seriously…I will say it again. There is NO SUCH THING AS PAIN when I’m running in Disney. I’m sure I was just as tired and in as much physical discomfort as he was, but I just don’t *FEEL* it the way I do when I’m running any other race. Why do you all think I’m so obsessed with this marathon?!

The views on the Boardwalk were beautiful as always, and with less than a 5K to go, I was feeling PUMPED.

At long last, we made it to Epcot for what is seriously the MOST INCREDIBLE marathon finish you will ever experience. Magic Kingdom is obviously the best part of this race for me, but the lap around the World Showcase is a close second. Between the spectators cheering you on and the absolutely EPIC music you hear playing in each country, there is NOTHING like it.

Oh, and the fact that there are a bunch of characters and absolutely no lines because we’re the only idiots who stop for photos in the last 2 miles of a marathon, lol.

As we ran towards Future World, I could feel my emotions bubbling up…and I almost lost it. Here I was running the race that started it all. It sounds corny but running the Dopey Challenge in 2014 as my first marathon really did change my life forever. Not the least of which is that it gave me courage and a level of confidence that I never had before…and it made me realize that I could accomplish absolutely ANYTHING.

And I kept thinking about how Todd had told me so many times “I’ll never be able to do the Goofy or Dopey” because he legitimately thought he wouldn’t be able to finish. And here he was about to complete his first Goofy Challenge.

Everyone was cheering for “Rapunzel and Flynn!!!” and I was soaking up every second of it as we made our way towards the finish.

And, ladies and gentlemen, after more than 7 hours and 15 minutes on the course…WE FINALLY MADE IT to the finish line.

There are no words.

It was our absolute worst marathon time to date, but I didn’t care one bit. I enjoyed every second of it and I wasn’t the least bit sorry for all of the photos and characters and silliness along the way.

I’m not sure if I’m ever going to get Todd to agree to run the Goofy Challenge again. And he pretty much laughs in my face whenever I mention the idea of running Dopey together someday.

But I could not have been more proud of this guy for completing his first Goofy Challenge.

After some much-deserved chair time in the finish line area (um, and also, devouring those Oreos in the snack boxes…OMG I LOVE OREOS), we made our way…slooooowly…back to the car to hop to Magic Kingdom.

Because, yeah…obviously this had to happen, lol.

After a Shower Pill “bath” and a fresh change of clothes, we headed to Liberty Tree Tavern to stuff our faces and enjoy the rest of the night in Magic Kingdom. I know ya’ll probably think we’re gross (and also a little insane), but since it takes us so long to finish the race, if we went back to the hotel for showers, etc., the parks would practically be closing by the time we got back. And ain’t nobody got time for that.

So, for the record, after the race was over some clouds rolled in and temperatures dropped and suddenly we were both FREEZING. UGH — it couldn’t have been that chilly during the race?! So, anyway, this happened. Thank goodness for Snuggies.

Anyways, this recap has probably gone on long enough…so thanks for sticking with me, and, as always, for all of your support along the way!

Have you ever been in danger of being “swept” from a race course?

What’s your favorite part of the WDW Marathon/favorite Disney race?

We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside this time around, and while it was a beautiful resort, unfortunately its location in relation to Epcot didn’t do us any favors on race morning. Though we were up by 3:30 and out the door a little after 4 (I always rent a car), we sat in RIDICULOUS, bumper-to-bumper traffic the entire way to Epcot. Between the road closures and police officers re-routing people and the zillions of runners trying to merge themselves onto one single-lane ramp to Epcot, what should have taken 10 minutes took almost an hour. UGH!

So by the time we parked and walked allllllllllll the way to the starting line, they were just about to release corral F! Our streak of JUST making it to the starting line of races continues.

Of course, we still made time for a few quick photos along the way, lol

In other news, that morning was HUMID. I mean seriously HUMID. Oh, and foggy…it was actually pretty creepy! It wasn’t sweltering hot or anything (I think it was in the 60s/approaching 70), but there was so much moisture in the air it was ridiculous. Don’t believe me? Here’s what our earliest race photos looked like:

As you know, for this race we decided to go as two of the Three Caballeros, and simply carry our third little duck friend. Well, let’s just say that my stuffed duck was pretty much soaking wet with sweat by mile 2. Groooooooss.

We started the race at a nice, easy pace, and our first official photo stop was Wreck-it-Ralph, who had a pretty huge line. But our plan was to stop for any characters we really liked in the first miles of the half marathon, so that if there were repeat characters in the marathon, we could skip ‘em.

As we got closer and closer to Magic Kingdom, I was feeling pumped to be starting another leg of the Goofy Challenge. Other than the god-awful humidity, I think we were both feeling pretty good.

And then you turn the corner onto Main Street and feel even more AH-MAZ-ING. I’m still waiting for the day when this gets old, and, yet…never does.

We stopped for a couple of character pictures (and a potty break) in the Magic Kingdom. This mile always clocks in on our Garmins as 30+ minutes or more because of all the character silliness.

When we stopped to take some pictures in front of the castle, one of the runDisney marketing folks took us aside and took a bunch of pictures of us since, as he said, “it IS the Donald half marathon…”

Photo credit: runDisney

We made our way through Magic Kingdom (which is STILL all kinds of glorious fun to me, BTW), and one of the more unique photo opps of the morning was in the backstage area: Peter Pan and the gang!

Of course, after you leave the park, the course becomes a crowded, congested mess. We’ve become accustomed to this and either try to run on the grass or simply take unplanned walk breaks when things get out of hand. There’s really not much more you can do; unfortunately, there are still lots of runners who walk in the middle of the path, stop unexpectedly, walk in groups of 3+ across, etc., so I’ve decided not to get agitated by it and just try to go with the flow.

We found a couple more friends along the way, and soon it was back to the boring old highway.

I will say that the marathon course is SOOOOO much better than the half, and the more times I run the marathon, the less I enjoy the half. I know runDisney tries to keep us entertained with the parade performers and the floats and the bands along the way, which I very much appreciate, but at the end of the day you really are just running on highways.

Excited to find Donald!

The goal of this race was to take things sloooooooow. I honestly don’t even know what our pace was at that point, but I did feel that we were running SIGNIFICANTLY slower than usual. I knew Todd was in for a real treat during the marathon the next day, and since he’s not used to the back-to-back race experience, I thought it was best to take the half marathon as easy as possible.

So thats what we did. We walked through water stops and kept our pace steady, and soon enough we were back in Epcot and making our way towards the finish!

We were excited to see more duck friends along the way, and had to stop for a picture with Scrooge!

And, of course, we had to stop for a quick photo with vacation Genie, haha.

Before I knew it, we were leaving Epcot and had reached mile 13! I had met a Twitter friend (hi, Sarah!) earlier in the race, and she happened to be taking pictures at the mile 13 marker…so she was kind enough to take ours.

We crossed the finish line in what was our worst half marathon time for a Disney race (or, you know, in general)…our usual Disney time is right around 3:30 since we stop for photos with practically ever character. (And we obviously couldn’t miss the opportunity to get a finish line photo with Donald, haha.)

But other than some sore feet, we both felt pretty good, so I certainly wasn’t complaining about our finish time.

We hung out in the finisher’s area for a few minutes, and thought it might be a good time to take a picture with another duck.

We also ran into Meranda and Lacey from Fairytales and Fitness! I’ve been reading their blog forever, and we had finally met for the first time at the expo the previous morning…so it was awesome to see them again!

Photo stolen from Fairytales and Fitness: http://fairytalesandfitness.com

After we made our way to the car to freshen up and slip into my magical OOFOs, it was time to hunt for our third caballero. We found him in Mexico. Donald was SUPER excited to see us, haha.

And then I decided it would be just gosh darn hilarious if we rode the Three Caballeros dressed as the Three Caballeros.

Doesn’t get any dorkier than this, folks.

The cast members in the Mexico pavilion went absolutely bananas for our costumes, and insisted on taking pictures with us, LOL.

It was a great ending to that morning’s 13.1 mile journey.

We spent a few hours in Epcot before grabbing an early dinner at ‘Ohana, and then went back to our resort for night-night to prepare for the next day’s marathon!

Walt Disney World Marathon recap…coming soon!

Disney runners…do you always stop for photos with characters along the way?

How do you deal with congested race courses?

Who else loathes Florida humidity as much as I do?! 

Todd conquered his first Goofy Challenge, and I added another glorious Mickey marathon medal to my collection.

Though it was WAAAYYYYYYY too humid for me for both races, we had an amazing time running Disney. And — no surprises here — I still think the Walt Disney World Marathon is the best marathon in the whole wide world.

The half marathon was awesome because we had a blast running as some of our favorite ducks. We got LOTS of attention from cast members (I think a lot of fellow runners/other spectators had no idea who were were, lol) and also the runDisney marketing folks; they took some awesome pictures of us in front of the castle and at the finish line and already used it on social media. So, basically, I’m famous.

Photo credit: runDisney

Oh, and we also managed to find our third caballero, live and in the feathers (haaaaaaa), after the race.

The marathon was a bit tough for Todd. He definitely isn’t used to running back-to-back races, and he struggled in the second half of the marathon. But I think he got a really good look at why I love the Walt Disney World Marathon so much. Even though my feet hurt, I was tired, etc…it’s kind of like I just don’t feel it. I’m having WAY too much fun to truly feel the agony of running a marathon.

It was also our closest encounter ever with the dreaded “balloon ladies”…we started in corral F but stopped for a photo with just about every character along the course. Toss in a couple of potty breaks and numerous photos in front of the Cinderella’s castle, the Tree of Life, etc., and, well, let’s just say we barely beat the balloons into the Hollywood Studios gates.

Almost there…

Even though Todd wasn’t really feeling it in those final miles, we stuck together and made it across the finish line! And then hobbled our way over to the Magic Kingdom for our FastPass+ reservation with Rapunzel (I seriously could NOT be any dorkier if I tried).

I’ll be back with full recaps and lots (and lots) of photos next week! Happy weekend, everyone!

What’s your favorite part of the WDW Marathon?

Do you have a favorite half/marathon that you run every year?

]]> http://thefinalforty.com/goofy-challenge-2016-we-did-it/feed/ 31 http://thefinalforty.com/goofy-challenge-2016-final-thoughts-and-costume-reveal/ http://thefinalforty.com/goofy-challenge-2016-final-thoughts-and-costume-reveal/#comments Wed, 06 Jan 2016 17:33:27 +0000 Jennifer http://thefinalforty.com/?p=6225 Hey guys! So, um, yeah…Merry Christmas…and Happy New Year, too! (Seriously, I’m the worst with keeping up with my blogging when things get busy).

But since I’m working on catching up on all of your blogs, I thought I’d offer a quick recap before we go into the *real* reason for this post.

Which is, of course, revealing our costumes for this weekend’s Walt Disney World Marathon!

So, Christmas was good. Lots of holly jolly fun and whatnot. And LOTS of dressing up my four-legged son and making him pose for corny Christmas pictures. Hahaha.

In terms of our training for the Goofy Challenge. Well…let’s just say it didn’t go EXACTLY as planned. Then again, does it ever? After my brief hiatus after the Richmond Marathon (which I STILL owe you guys a recap for, sad to say) we jumped right back into training. My goal was to do a few long runs and at least a handful of shorter runs each week to get myself back in “marathon shape” as quickly as possible. And, of course, complete some few back-to-backs so I could prepare myself for Goofy.

I literally do run on Dunkin’….

Long story short, we only made it up to 16 miles. This is the least prepared I’ve ever been for a marathon, and I don’t like it. I can honestly say we did the best we could given the time constraints. We were also careful not to ramp up so quickly that either of us risked an injury (let’s just say I considered jumping from a 13-miler to an 18-miler because we ran out of time, and Todd put the kibosh on that one, LOL).

After our last long run…and enjoying a new festive (and super sparkly) Christmas gift from Todd.

Do I think we’ll be okay? Yes. All of our runs went quite well, and I’m actually feeling a lot stronger than I thought I would. But I know it’s not going to be pretty, and we’ll probably have to do a fair amount of walking towards the end of the marathon.  I wish we had gotten up to say, 18 miles, but I’m still pretty proud of the fact that we ran two marathons in November and then went immediately into another round of training for Goofy. I’m obviously not there to PR, so I think as long as we run smart, we’ll be fine. It was sort of a last-minute decision to do the marathon in the first place, so time was not on our side…but I know we’re going to earn those medals.

Plus it’s Todd’s first “challenge,” so I’m excited for him to have the experience of “going Goofy.”

Okay, so without further ado, I wanted to share a preview of our (still not entirely finished, lol) costumes for this weekend! Especially since runDisney costumes are such a hot button issue right now thanks to the “new” rules released yesterday…which, to me, seem like common sense. Probably nobody should be running in Jedi robes, no? I do think the timing of the announcement was pretty horrendous and really unfair given that some runners are already IN Florida with their costumes. And they definitely could have been just a teensy bit clearer on their choice of words (now people are thinking SparkleSkirts are forbidden because it’s a skirt “layered” over shorts…).

Fortunately, since I like to focus more on altering actual running clothes to look like a costume, I’m thinking we should be fine. And by “I,” what I actually mean is “Nancy”…because Todd’s mom once again saved our butts and helped us pull together what I think are going to be FABULOUS race costumes at the last minute!

For the half marathon, we will be channeling our favorite parrot and rooster, lol. We’re both obsessed with The Three Caballeros, and since it’s technically the Donald Half Marathon, we figured it was appropriate.

And just in case you were wondering where the third Caballero will be…

Found this bad boy on eBay. And, yes, my crazy ass will be carrying him through 13 miles.

For the marathon, I wanted to go along with our costume theme from last year and go as another one of my favorite princesses — since I don’t think it’s likely I’ll get Todd to run the Princess Half Marathon anytime soon. Guess who…?!?!

I have a few more bits and pieces I’m still pulling together, but I’m beyond excited to head to Florida tomorrow and conquer another Goofy Challenge!

Sooooo…what will you be wearing this weekend?! If you see us, PLEASE do say “hi” — hoping to catch up with some of you this weekend!

Have you ever gone into a race feeling under-trained/unprepared?

Todd and I spent the day Saturday visiting some attractions in South Jersey that I’ve never been to — the Adventure Aquarium and the Battleship New Jersey — before making our way into Philly in the mid-afternoon for CGI Racing’s The Love Run expo.

The expo was held at Citizens Bank Park, and I should probably tell you that it was a pretty freakin’ COLD day. The temperatures were in the 40s, and it was super windy.

It was even cold for these guys!

That being said, allow me to paint you this little picture: though there were a handful of vendors inside, and our mug and bib pick-up was indoors, the main expo area continued outside by the baseball field…where several vendors were attempting to sell their wares in the blustery cold.

As I’m sure you can imagine, people weren’t doing a whole lot of shopping. I knew the expo would be small — which it was — but the fact that it was also held outside on a chilly day meant that there weren’t many runners lingering around. We were there to get our race shirts and get the hell back inside.

Well, okay, fine…I also grabbed a “Love Run” Bondiband and FINALLY broke down and invested in a Running Skirt (50 percent off!). I’ve been dying to try them, and their booth is always mobbed…so I felt this was my chance to get some one-on-one time with the skirts, try it on, and take it home to see if it works for me (it is one of my great missions in life to find a running skirt with shorts that do NOT ride up).

We stayed outside of Philly this time around to save some moolah, so we had an early dinner at the Cherry Hill Mall (gotta love California Pizza Kitchen) and got to bed early, since the race would start at 8am the next morning and we’d have to drive into the city.

Well, despite the fact that I got plenty of sleep, my foot hadn’t been bothering me much for the last couple of days, and I was actually feeling quite confident about the race, I woke up feeling…well…not quite right.

Little did I know that my monthly visitor would decide to make its grand appearance a few days early. I was scheduled to run 13.1 miles in an hour and a half, and here I was suddenly and unexpectedly hit with a wave of cramps and bloating and, let’s be honest…RAGE.

UGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. I apologize in advance for the all of two male readers I probably have, but I have to tell you that I was PISSED AS HELL because I can never, ever run on the first day of my period. I trained so hard for this race, and here was something I couldn’t control being thrown in the mix to make it even harder for me. I knew I was in for a morning of agony, and that if it got bad enough, that I could might have to kiss my race goal good-bye. I popped a couple of pain killers because I was desperate — something I also never do before running — and hoped that maybe the cramping would subside.

I grumpily got dressed in my race outfit and soon it was time for us make the drive into Philly to get to the starting line, so we parked in our usual parking garage that charges about $9,000 per hour, wrapped ourselves up in some handy dandy throwaway blankets ($2.88 at Wal-mart…SCORE!), and walked to the starting line…but not without making a quick potty stop to use the “real” bathrooms at a Sheraton, of course!

As per our usual race-day M.O, we JUST. MADE. IT., and just a minute or two after squeezing into the starting area, it was time to go!

As you all know, this was my BIG HALF MARATHON for this season. After well over a year of struggling to finish a half in anything under 2:20, I really hoped that the last two months of pushing myself big time would pay off on the course that morning. I desperately wanted a good finish time to submit for corral placement for Wine & Dine, since my ridiculously old PR from TWO YEARS AGO of 2:03 finally expired…and beyond that, I really wanted to prove to myself that I was still capable of running the times I used to when I first started. You know, before I got all slow and tired from my incessant bouts of marathon training.

My ultimate goal? I wanted ANYTHING under a 2:05. That used to be my old “standard” half marathon time, and now that well over a year as passed since I’ve run anything even close to a 2:05 (or, hell, a 2:10 or 2:15), I really, really wanted it.

As you also probably know, my plan was also to *ATTEMPT* to negative split. I still had yet to successfully do it in a race, but with all of my recent practice on training runs, I thought I might just be able to pull it off. Todd and I had already agreed that we would both run our own race, so I immediately went out at a comfortable 9:30/mile pace, and made it my personal mission to stay there until the second half of the race, where I felt pretty confident that I could pick it up.

Photo credit: chessiephoto.com

Well, the first few miles went swimmingly. The Advil I popped that morning seemed to be working, and physically, I felt pretty strong. There was lots of spectator support and even though there were some 10,000 runners, I felt I had ample room to run. It was fun running through the city and passing so many historical landmarks, and even thought I knew running by the Schuylkill River might not be quite as exciting, it was still pretty scenic.

It was a sunny, gorgeous day, and with temperatures hovering in the 30s, it was my PERFECT running weather. I was mostly on my own, because Todd goes out more conservatively than I do…I knew he was behind me, but I just wasn’t sure how far back at any given time.

I felt I had a 2:05 in the bag. In fact, I thought I might even be able to break 2:03 and PR. For a moment, I remember feeling REALLY ambitious and wondering if I might even have a sub-2 in me that morning.

Photo credit: chessiephoto.com

I knew from reading fellow blogger recaps that there would be a hilly section of the course around mile 5, so I basically spent the first four miles being nervous about it. And I apparently had good reason to be…because the hill pretty much ate me alive. I had a feeling Todd would catch up with me on that hill — he did! — and unfortunately, it ended up costing me a little more time than I hoped it would. I had a tough time recovering afterwards, and since we still weren’t even halfway, that’s when I started to feel my usual negativity start to creep in. You know, of the “I can’t do this” variety.

I took a very brief walk break through one of the next water stops and my legs felt a little better. My pace picked back up to around a 9:20, and I willed myself to stop being a baby, get my head in the game, and to think positively. I passed the halfway mark and found myself feeling pretty good. That’s where Todd caught up to me again and told me he was going to “step on the gas now” which made me a little mad because I a little bit thought that I might actually beat him in this race. For the first time ever. Hahaha, silly me.

We’re fortunate in that I’m only slightly slower than him, and our paces are so close that we can successfully train together…but even though I typically finish our long runs a little faster (and in better physical shape than he is, lol) he somehow ALWAYS manages to crush me during the actual race. I don’t know how he does it!

He took off and I felt jealous that races seem to come so easy to him and I hated the fact that I was a woman and had to deal with periods and that he was having a fine and dandy time that morning and could just magically pick up the pace whenever he wanted. Needless to say, I was grumpy again. So I gave myself a lecture about how it was important to run my own race and, once again, to stop being a little baby.

In mile 8, I discovered a bit more hilliness that I was NOT expecting. I’m not sure if it’s true, but I heard they may have changed the course a little bit from last year’s inaugural race…and, much to my dismay, it wasn’t as flat as I thought it would be. By mile 9, I found myself getting discouraged because my legs were a little tired from the rolling hills, even thought I was still feeling pretty comfortable in my pacing. I tried to push it just a little bit more, and hovered closer to 9:15 for awhile. My hope was that I’d break 9-minute miles in the last 5K, which is something I can typically do on shorter runs.

Then mile 11 came, and my pre-race womanly issues came back and hit me like a ton of bricks. Suddenly, my stomach really, really hurt, and that was on top of the fact that I was getting tired and my legs were heavy. I was THISCLOSE to packing it in. I wanted to walk until the cramping stopped. But I knew if I did, I’d NEVER recover, and I could kiss that 2:05 good-bye.

So I made a decision that maybe I wouldn’t be able to run as fast as I planned to for the rest of the race, but that I would still go as fast as I could. I fought through it and managed to drop to around a 9:05 by mile 12. With just one more mile to go, I wanted the agony to be over as quickly as possible, so I went as fast as my legs would carry me as we made our way back into the city. I knew there would be spectators and excitement and the glorious finish line to greet me, and I couldn’t wait.

As soon as I saw the finish line in the distance, I saw that the clock already read 2:05. I felt crushed and defeated, even though I couldn’t actually remember just how much time had passed before I crossed the starting line. Seeing my goal slip away, I pushed as hard as I could — just in case I still had a chance — and finally crossed the finish line.

…with a chip time of 2:04:15!!!!!!!

Photo credit: Chessiephoto.com

I felt like crap afterwards, so I couldn’t properly bask in my accomplishment. It still frustrates me that I KNOW I could have performed even better and probably even PRed if I wasn’t menstrual, even despite the slightly hillier second half of the course. Also, I didn’t exactly negative split — my results clearly indicate a pretty solid 9:28 pace — but I’ll bet if the course was a little flatter I would have!

Photo credit: chessiephoto.com

On the other hand, I am overjoyed to know that I can still perform at the level I once did, even despite all the time that has passed and the fact that I had pretty much convinced myself that if I wanted to run marathons, then I could never be “fast” again. It was clearly a load of malarkey and an excuse I was telling myself to ignore the fact that I wasn’t training properly.

So, now I KNOW I have a PR in my (VERY) near future, and I KNOW that a sub-2 is within my reach. I also know there is a lot I need to work on, but I figure I have to be doing something right to go from running 2:20ish half marathons last year to running closer to 2:00 again!

Todd found me a couple of seconds after I crossed the finish line. He did AWESOME, by the way — 2:01:53 — and even though I still hate him a little bit for it (kidding!), I’m also super proud of him. Actually, I’m proud of both of us! We made quite a comeback from our performances in races as of late. I know we stopped for a lot of pictures and all, but it took us seven hours to run the Walt Disney World Marathon just two months ago! It’s exciting to know that all of your hard work is paying off.

Anyway, after we munched on whatever was in the post-race goodie bags (a “soft” pretzel that was harder than a rock, and a particularly yummy PB&J uncrustable), we spent the rest of the afternoon perusing some Philly landmarks.

And, of course, there was no way I was leaving without a picture in front of the Love sign!

 Overall, I would put this race in the “win” column. I did have to deal with some unpleasant issues that morning, but despite all of that, I still somehow managed to reach my sub 2:05 goal. Apparently, runDisney corral placement is a big motivator for me, haha.

Have you ever run a race just to try to improve your corral placement for a future race?

Has sickness/womanly issues ever affected your race performance?

We’ll be heading back to Philadelphia for The Love Run this weekend, and this is going to be my goal half marathon for the spring. It’s supposed to be a nice, flat course…so I’m hoping to use it as my official Wine & Dine Half Marathon corral placement race.

Our most recent trip to Philly for Todd’s 2nd marathon!

Plus, since it’s STILL not feeling very spring-like around these parts, the weather is still producing optimal racing temperatures for me (the cooler, the better)! In fact, my 7-miler on the first day of spring was completed IN THE FRIGGIN’ SNOW! (But at least I got my free “first day of spring” iced coffee!)

I literally run on Dunkin’.

As I’ve mentioned many times here, my previous PR (and runDisney corral) was a 2:03…from a race about a thousand years ago (April 2013). The closest I’ve come since then was a 2:04 race in September of 2013.

Since then, my half times have been all over the map — anything from a 2:07 to a 2:14 to a 2:25. As marathon training consumed my entire life, all other race distances, my speedwork, etc. took a backseat…and I’ve allowed myself to use the “I have marathon legs!” excuse for far too long.

Honestly, I haven’t run anything under 2:10 in quite some time. So, needless to say, I’m EXTREMELY motivated this time around to correct the many (MANY) mistakes I’ve made in my training and see what I can really do.

I will be happier than a pig in you-know-what with anything under 2:05 this weekend. I know it’s a lofty goal, but I’ve been busting my butt these last two months to reclaim my “old” pace…and maybe even set a new PR. Hey, you never know, right?! My 1:34 in a recent 10-mile race gives me hope that I might just be able to pull it off.

And then, of course, there’s training for marathon #5. The New Jersey Marathon is really sneaking up on me now, and I gotta say, I think this has been my second best round of marathon training yet (after the Dopey Challenge, of course). I’ve been a lot more consistent in terms of logging ALL of my runs, and I’m pushing myself to run significantly faster on shorter distances (which, for me, is anything under a 9:30/pace). But it seems to be paying off on my long runs.

In fact…this Sunday’s 16-miler was among the most successful long runs I’ve ever had. That’s right…EVER!

Todd and I went to our local park, and I FORCED myself to keep my pace in check in the early miles. I’ve been doing lots of experimenting with that whole “negative split” concept lately; up until now, I had pretty much decided that it was something I was physically incapable of doing. Whether it’s a long run or a race, I am NOTORIOUS for going out too fast and then crashing and burning in the last few miles. And since that strategy hasn’t exactly been paying off for me as of late, I thought it was time to try something new.

So, this Sunday, I FORCED myself to simmer down and not go out like a bat out of hell. I maintained a comfy 10-10:30/pace in the early miles, and I just kept having to tell myself to SLOW. DOWN. when I’d get overzealous and feel that urge to run faster. I’m SO tired of dragging my lifeless body through the final agonizing miles of a long run, and I wanted to prove to myself that I CAN hold back a little bit and still have enough gas in the tank to push it at the end.

The first 10 miles flew by pretty quickly, and in that final 10K, I started to feel a little sore and hungry and, let’s face it, bored…but I also somehow felt just as strong as I did in the beginning of the run. SAYWHAT?!?!?!?!

In the last leg of the run, I allowed myself to go for it…and Todd and I both managed to pull out a 9:30-9:40 pace for the final 5K. Todd was having a little bit of a hard time that morning, but at our 10-mile fuel break, I fed him one of my Honey Stingers “Ginsting” gels with caffeine…and, for some reason, he claims it magically “gave him a boost.” Gee, I wonder why…?

As a coffee addict, I don’t think I really notice the caffeine in the gels all that much…but he doesn’t drink coffee AT ALL, and he said he really felt it. Ah, it will be so fun to get him hooked on legal stimulants.

Anyway, I somehow managed to end up with EXACTLY the 10-minute/mile pace I wanted for my 16-miler! I have NEVER been able to pull off such a consistent pace for a long run, and I honestly have never felt so strong in the last miles. I’m not saying I wasn’t sore and tired, but I didn’t feel like dropping dead like I usually do. It was a HUGE difference.

Why it says “8:06″ is beyond me…in my freakin’ dreams!

In other news, I’ve been having an ongoing issue with my right foot. It’s a pain on the bottom of the foot, but a little closer to the outer edge than the middle. I basically spent the entire day on Saturday trying to diagnose myself, because this has been going on for weeks now and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better. It was particularly bad on Saturday (more of a stabbing pain than the usual soreness). And since I had high hopes for Sunday’s long run, I didn’t want a stupid bum foot to ruin my efforts.

So, based upon my self-diagnosis — it sounds an awful lot like plantar fasciitis, a.k.a. one of the most common running injuries of all time — I tried all of the numerous tips and tricks that Google had to offer.

How I spend a Saturday…party time!

My efforts included: rolling it on one of my dog’s tennis balls (which I have been doing for weeks), freezing a bottle of water to try ice massage (which felt surprisingly good), wrapping an ice pack around my foot (and securing it with a hair tie, haha), pulling my toes back and massaging the tendons on the bottom of my feet, and doing lots and lots of stretching for my calves…hence the belt and my arch nemesis, The Stick.

Of course, I paid a little visit to the KT Tape website for a handy demonstration on taping my foot for this particular issue prior to Sunday’s run. (I’d share a photo, but I have the nastiest, most calloused runner/martial artist feet in all the land…and I don’t want to make anyone lose their lunch).

And I spent the rest of the day on Sunday and Monday walking around in my Gone For a Run “recovery sandals.” I felt like a little bit of an idiot trying to pull off the socks and sandals look in public, but, HEY…you gotta go what you gotta do.

Fortunately, it DOES feel better. During the run, I felt just a little bit of a twinge/tenderness…but nothing like I’ve felt on previous runs. And today, I don’t feel anything when I walk on it.

It’s a pain that seems to come and go — and I’m 99 percent sure it all started when I failed to replace my running sneakers in a timely fashion. I’m hoping that it will at least hold on and not get any worse until the marathon is over next month…at which time I promise I will do the one thing I know I’m supposed to do: REST IT.

Do you tend to negative or positive split in long runs/races?

Have you ever dealt with a foot pain/injury?

Congrats, Ken! Please shoot me an e-mail at thefinalforty at gmail dot com with your mailing address and shoe size.

In other excellent news, I mentioned in my recap of last weekend’s St. Paddy’s Day 10-Miler that Todd and I will both be running the Wine & Dine Half Marathon this year!

I ran the Wine & Dine Half Marathon on my own in 2013, and I have been DYING to do it again. I ran that year’s race as part of a family trip to The World to celebrate my parents’ wedding anniversary…because it just so happens that their anniversary fell on the same weekend as the race. Oh, what a shame that was.

I also ran the Jingle Jungle 5K that morning with my sister (a.k.a. Eeyore) — it was her first 5K, and we had an awesome time!

This year’s half marathon sold out in an unprecedented 35 minutes, and I was honestly surprised by all of the posts on Facebook/Twitter in the days leading up to registration by runners who were worried about not getting in. I’ve never had trouble registering for a runDisney race before, so whenever that happens, I assume it’s passionate runDisney fans such as myself just getting themselves worked up over nothing.

Apparently, I was VERY wrong. Lots of runners were shut-out of the race because it seems there may be some sort of new(ish) system in place that throws registrants into a “queue” based upon when they begin the registration process…so by the time it’s your turn in line, all of the available slots could be sold out. There were apparently a bunch of people who could only register themselves but not their spouses, or only one of their children, etc., before all of the slots for the half marathon, 5K, and kids’ races were filled up. So, needless to say, there has been a bit of drama on social media about the registration process this time around.

I was already set because I deferred my Tower of Terror 2014 registration (which was cancelled for this year…BOO) to this year’s Wine and Dine, so luckily, I only had to worry about getting Todd signed up. We had both of our laptops ready to go, and I started refreshing the Active link about 8 minutes before 12pm. I got right in when registration opened up early (by 11:55) with no problem, and he had his confirmation e-mail by 12:02.

In any case, I don’t know if it’s just because I started refreshing early (I always do!), or we’re just lucky, because we didn’t have any problems at all. I can completely understand why these races are so popular, but I hate that registering becomes more and more difficult (and stressful!) every year. When I registered for my first half marathon and runDisney race — the Princess Half Marathon 2013 — I didn’t sign up until the end of July…and there were still plenty of spots open! Ah, those were the days.

Anyways, I am SOOO excited to run Wine & Dine with Todd this year! I know he will enjoy it very much; our two favorite things are running and eating, so what’s not to love?!

This Polish girl looooooves her some kielbasa/pierogies!

We’ll be spending lots of time at the Food & Wine Festival, of course, but best of all, I already have a Little Mermaid room booked at Art of Animation! I may or may not have gone ahead and booked a room “just in case” as soon as we came back from our trip in January for WDW Marathon Weekend, lol. I’ve never stayed there before, and The Little Mermaid is my FAVORITE.

We also plan to get tickets to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party for the next night! I ask you…is there ANYTHING more magical than Disney World at Christmas?!

What can I say…we’re one of those strange Disney families.

Granted, the Wine and Dine Half Marathon will be the weekend after the New York City Marathon…so it should make for an interesting race experience for both of us. I’m sure it will not be our finest performance, that’s for sure. But, either way, November is going to be pretty freakin’ awesome!

Who else will I be seeing this November?!

What’s your favorite part of the Wine & Dine Half Marathon? The course, the entertainment, THE FOOD?

If you haven’t already entered, today is the LAST DAY for my PRO Compression marathon socks giveaway! You can check out my review and enter the drawing HERE, and I’ll announce the winner tomorrow!

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! In the spirit of the holiday, I thought it would be a perfect time to share my recap from this weekend’s 10-mile race: the St. Paddy’s Day 10-Miler.

The race is hosted by the Freehold Area Running Club, and I ran it two years ago as one of my first longer distance races. I remembered it being pretty hilly, so I honestly didn’t go in with huge expectations. Because I suck on hills. Like, REALLY suck.

However, I also knew that if I planned to sign up for this year’s Wine and Dine Half Marathon (spoiler alert…I am already in, and as of a few minutes before 12pm this afternoon, so is Todd!), that I was going to need a new time to submit for corral placement…since my old PR has officially expired in the eyes of runDisney. I’m hoping that this month’s Love Run will give me a shiny new PR to submit, but you never know what can happen…I know that there are all kinds of variables that can affect my performance that day.

So, I figured I’d use this race as a test run to gauge how well all of my recent “speedwork” has been working out for me, and to use as a “back-up” time to submit just in case my upcoming half marathons don’t go as planned. Plus, it was a cool and windy morning — it was in the 40′s, but when the wind would gust, it felt pretty frigid. Which made for FANTASTIC running temperatures, if you ask me!

It’s held at a park in Freehold, and packet pick-up was easy and well organized. This year’s shirt was cotton and long-sleeved, so my original idea to wear the race shirts over our tech shirts to match went out the window. So we used their handy dandy bag check for our race shirt and the few goodies they gave out so we didn’t have to make another trip to the car, which was a nice perk.

However, this particular club is known for being a little on the stricter side — i.e. all of their race materials threaten that you will basically be tarred and feathered in a public square if you so much as dare run with headphones or a stroller or a canine or, of course, a costume. So a volunteer gave me sort of a snarky comment as I was picking up my packet; it was something along the lines of, “you may have trouble running today, young lady, because our race director is very strict.” Uhhh…since when is a plastic necklace and a headband a “costume?” Everything else is legitimate running attire. So, I didn’t really care for that.

There was some debate on our “strategy” for this race. Todd and I have two completely different approaches — he always starts conservatively and has no problem negative splitting, whereas I have really NEVER done that. I always go out like a bat out of hell when the gun goes off, and then when my pace inevitably slows in the later miles, I rest assured knowing I have some time “in the bank,” if you will. But I told him I was really going to try it his way this time, especially since I haven’t been running so fast lately and I couldn’t necessarily count on holding my faster pace for any significant length of time before running out of steam.

When the race started, I went out way too fast for a few seconds before coming to my senses and letting Todd catch up. I then forced myself to find a “comfortable” pace and fall into a steady rhythm, which was somewhere around a 9:20-9:30 pace.

“Gee, maybe I should slow down a little…?” Photo credit: FARCNJ.org

The race takes you through lots of residential areas, parks, and, of course, over plenty of rolling hills…so I knew I’d have to conserve some energy in order to make it to the finish line. Plus, I felt really unsure of myself because I honestly have been running at paces at least a solid minute-per-mile slower in all of my recent races. In a matter of a year, I managed to go from averaging a sub 2:10 half marathon to being lucky to finish under 2:25. I’ve had the hardest time balancing my CONSTANT marathon training with the ability to train (and race!) at my “old” pace, which used to be somewhere in the realm of a 9:15/minute mile.

And, sure enough, it was within the first couple of miles that I felt just how dead my legs were. The previous week’s workouts consisted of my 14-mile long run, a 5-mile run, a 6-mile run, a 3-mile run, and two Taekwondo classes, and good lord, was I FEELING it. I was still maintaining my ideal pace, but I was struggling to do so…not because I was sucking wind or anything (which was a pleasant surprise!) but because my legs just felt so freakin’ heavy. And then we started approaching the first of several rolling hills, and I worried about coming anywhere close to what I would consider a “good” time.

But I figured I’d give it my absolute best shot. The course is pretty boring, and there really is no spectator support whatsoever, which really made me appreciate just how important they are! It kind of felt like running our usual long run with about 250 of our closest friends. I was feeling grumpy by the halfway mark because even though the clock time said 47:30 — which is exactly what I could have hoped for — I felt my legs were getting even heavier and I was nervous about this whole “negative split” concept. There were only a handful of water stops, so I took my Honey Stinger at mile 4 and tossed some water down my throat at the others, only stopping to stretch my legs once for a few seconds…and, as of late, I’ve been walking through water stops, so it was kind of new for me to not have any sort of break.

Moral of the story? I quickly fell victim to my usual pattern of self-doubt and frustration and the assumption that there was no WAY I’d be able to pick up the pace in the second half of the race. I’m a real hoot during a race, let me tell you (just ask Todd, lol).

But then by mile 7, something pretty awesome happened. I realized that despite slowing down a little bit on a few hills, I was still maintaining an average 9:20ish pace, and I thought that maybe — just MAYBE — I could actually pull this off. So I tried my very best to speed up just a little in that last 5K, and Todd did, too…so I did whatever I could to keep up with him. My Garmin showed that we were right around a 9:05-9:10 pace by miles 8 and 9, and I somehow managed to push it to an 8:55 in mile 10. Todd was a few strides ahead of me, so when I saw the finish line in the distance, I started sprinting to keep up with him so we could cross together.

For some strange reason, he took that to mean that I wanted to “race” him, so he sped up, too…and he ended up beating me by a freakin’ second. The handful of spectators and volunteers at the finish line really seemed to enjoy our action-packed finish, LOL.

Photo credit: FARCNJ.ORG

Plus, I saw that the clock was approaching 1:34…which was downright shocking to me because I knew that meant that I had, IN FACT, successfully negative split…and that I wasn’t too far off from my last results at this race, which was a clock time of 1:33.

Our official finish time was 1:33:53, which given the not-so-flat course and the fact that I was running on dead marathon training legs was about the best I could have imagined. And I was downright shocked that I came SO close to my previous finish time on this course.

So we celebrated by guzzling some Gatorade and going to check out the post-race goodies. And much to our delight, they had HOT DOGS. I’m not a huge fan of hot dogs in general, and I’ve never had them after a race before…but for some reason, it was the most DELICIOUS hot dog I’ve ever had in my life. Even now, days later, Todd is STILL talking about that damn hot dog. I think we’ve found our new favorite post-race food, haha.

Plus, they had hot soup, which tasted heavenly as my body temperature began to plummet, in addition to the usual fare like bagels and bananas. They also had beer (but neither of us drink it).

So we stuffed our faces for a little while, took some pictures, and watched part of the awards ceremony, where they handed out little shamrock plaques and gnome statues, haha.

Overall, I have to say that I am pleasantly surprised and quite proud of my performance. It was an awesome feeling to know that all of my hard efforts on training runs these past two months have been paying off, and I now know that a sub-2:05 half marathon (and, someday, maybe even a sub-2!) is something that is well within my reach once again. I don’t have to be happy to just “finish” a race any more, and I NEED to learn how to develop even just an ounce of confidence in my abilities when it comes to setting and reaching time goals.

It has been a long time that I’ve felt truly proud and excited by that finish time on the clock, and this race helped give me a big chunk of my confidence back. I’m hoping that with a bit more rest (and maybe a skipped karate class or two) in the days leading up to my next half marathon later this month — which is supposed to be a nice, FLAT course! — that I might just surprise myself even more. It was definitely the hardest I’ve pushed myself in a while, and the fact that I didn’t die (or really struggle beyond my usual leg fatigue) means that I have to be doing something right!

 Have you ever run a race for St. Patrick’s Day?

Have you ever performed significantly better than your expectations in a race?

Not only can they make excellent costume accessories, but my love for my PRO Compression marathon socks goes much deeper than that. I swear!

When I first started running, I had all kinds of issues with my lower extremities, from frequent blisters to tendonitis to pretty severe calf pain and tightness. My first course of action was getting properly fitted at a running store (of course), but my second step was to re-evaluate my sock situation. As runners, we have an ENDLESS array of options, and I ended up trying lots (and lots…and lots…) of different socks.

But I have to tell you that the first time I ran in PRO Compression socks, I knew I had found my one true love(s)!

And these are just the ones that happen to be clean right now, lol

I’m not gonna lie — I invested in my first pair just because I thought they’d look sort of like the black boots that Mrs. Incredible wears as I assembled my costume for a local superhero-themed half marathon, haha. That day, the weather was rainy and miserable, the course was BY FAR the hilliest and most challenging I had encountered in my young running career, my legs and feet were shot…and I struggled BIG TIME.

So you can imagine my complete and utter shock when I woke up the next morning and felt as though I had done nothing the previous day but lounge around on the couch watching Gilmore Girls reruns (among my favorite rest day activities, BTW). My feet felt completely fine, my calves were hardly sore at all…and I even felt fresh enough to run that day. (Not that I did…I’m just saying I COULD have run that day…)

Since then, I very rarely run without compression socks,  and I NEVER race without them!

I wouldn’t dream of tackling a long run in anything but my PRO Compression socks, and I even got Todd hooked on them, too. Fortunately for him, our feet are practically the same size, lol.

Some runners prefer to just use them for recovery, which is clearly a major benefit. I often change into a clean pair of compression socks after long races to help keep the blood flowing (and, you know, ensure that I can walk the next day), and I never, ever get on an airplane without them. I get some strange looks at security sometimes, though, haha.

But for me, running in them has helped make all of my early issues with pain, discomfort, and tightness in my legs and feet virtually disappear…and that’s why I pretty much consider them to be magic socks.

Since I just love taking on all of these back-to-back race runDisney challenges (the Dopey, the Goofy, the Glass Slipper, the Dumbo), I’ve even been known to sleep in them to help my legs feel as refreshed as possible for the next morning’s race. I am CONVINCED that they are what save my legs during a 48.6-mile challenge like the Dopey, especially since I always go ahead and spend the entire rest of the day walking around the Disney parks after each race!

So, how do they work? First, allow me to to directly quote from their website:

The science is complex, but the results are simple: recover faster and feel better sooner.

Compression socks help improve your circulation, which can reduce inflammation and help your body to recover more quickly. Which, of course, is of the UTMOST importance when you’re making your way through a half or full marathon training plan. It’s kind of hard to log 3, 4, or 5 runs per week when your legs and feet are still practically dead from the previous day’s miles.

I’ve only tried the marathon socks so far, but PRO Compression has all sorts of other options — calf sleeves, ankle socks, etc. I’ve already collected almost all of the solid colors, and now I’m making my way through their various patterned socks.

They have designs for pretty much any holiday-themed race you may want to run, from shamrocks to these patriotic socks they sent me. Guess I’ve got the finishing touch for my 4th of July race costume!

Can they be pricey? Sure. But, to me, they are SO worth it. Besides, there are almost always special coupon codes — use BLG15 for 40% off socks and sleeves! — and they also offer a “Sock of the Month” e-mail list with new product announcements and other special coupons and deals. You can sign-up via their website here, or check out their wide array of socks and other goodies here.

To learn more about PRO Compression, like them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter!

Okay, here it is! If you’ve ever wanted to try these awesome socks (or add to your collection!) please enter the giveaway below. The contest will run through the end of the day on St. Patrick’s Day (do YOU feel lucky?!) and the winner will be randomly chosen via Rafflecopter and announced right here on the blog on Wednesday, the 18th. I will contact the winning reader to get your sock size and address, and the folks at PRO Compression will send you a complimentary pair of their marathon socks! GOOD LUCK!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclaimer: PRO Compression kindly sent me a pair of socks to add to my enormous collection, but I received no other compensation for this post. All opinions are very much my own!