RUNNING BUDDIES, GOOFY WEEKEND RESULTS

GOOFY WEEKEND RESULTS

WALT DISNEY WORLD MARATHON & HALF SAT/SUN JANUARY 9 & 10, 2010

7500 runners registered for the Goofy Challenge in Orlando Florida. The race consist of running a half marathon on Saturday followed by a marathon on Sunday. A little over 6000 runners finished the Goofy Challenge. Nghi, Joe, and I were one of the finishers who finished this foolish challenge. This was also our first half marathon and marathon for the new year. All event’s sold out for the Walt Disney World race weekend, 55000 runners participated in all the events that weekend (5K fun run, kids run, half marathon, and marathon). This was Nghi’s first Goofy Challenge, my second, and Joe has ran in all five of them!

DONALD’S HALF MARATHON

It was cold, raining, with sleet at the start and during the half marathon with over 17000 runners, on top of that we were in the very last corral. I thought corral G was for the Goofy Challenge runners. I found out it was the last corral when I asked the runner next to me how many corrals were out here, she said “this is the last corral”. I hit the starting line 40 minutes after the start of the race.

It was crazy running this race, it was like trying to race Bay to Breakers in the back of the pack. People were just walking, chatting (some on there cell phones), and taking pictures through the whole race. I was hurdling clothes left from the other corrals and weaving through all the walkers. I was thinking maybe it will clear up in a mile or two. I was too far behind for anything to clear up, I kept hitting all the corrals that started ahead of me. I finally got some room to run at mile 10 and got a clear path the last mile. I had to work harder than I expected to hit my goal time for the half marathon, I finished the half in 1:37. Runners thought Nghi was from Michigan since she was wearing shorts, everyone else in the corral had tights or sweats on, Nghi finished in 2:24. Joe didn’t have to start in the last corral, it must be his legacy status for running all five Goofy Challenges that got him in a closer corral, Joe finished in 2:19:15.

MICKEY’S MARATHON

The marathon had freezing temperatures, in the 20’s. There were over 16000 runners for the marathon, I was stuck in the last corral once again. It took me 30 minutes to get to the start. My first mile was close to 9 minutes, I didn’t want to dodge all the other runners again, so I decided to make the marathon a long run instead of racing it. It was so cold that the water at the water stops were frozen! The marathon course was cool, we got to run in the different Disney theme parks and back stage, I finished in 3:56. Joe finishing his fifth straight Goofy Challenge. He finished with his fastest Goofy Challenge marathon time 5:16 with coaching tips from Jeff Galloway during the expo. Nghi having fun taking pictures during her race finished in 5:50 with a smile at the finish and most of all limp free after the race.