Disney Half and of course, the resolutions
I've been thinking about keeping track of my running and racing online for a while, but never have because I'm not very fast and I'm motivated occasionally, driven by competitiveness occasionally, and injured a lot.
I am trying to improve speed and fitness AND prevent injury this year in a sustainable way, as well as the big challenge--doing better with eating. So here's to public accountability as motivation, starting with a little story about a big race.
I signed up for the Disney Half Marathon almost as soon as we moved to Florida. I thought it would be good motivation to keep running, and it was a Disney race after all--I had never done one of those.
Well, it took me a long time to get used to the Florida heat and humidity. I ran with two colleagues a couple of times a week, but we were all getting used to new jobs and the new climate, so our training was not too regimented.
Long story short, the longest run I had done since, oh, March leading up to this race was 9 miles.
Here's a short recap of the Disney half. I woke up at 2 a.m., had coffee and a shower, and my dad and I left my house about 3 a.m. We were at the entrance to Epcot by about 3:30 and parked by 3:45. Made a bathroom stop then headed back to the car for a bit--I kind of wanted to go back to sleep but knew that might be a bad idea. About 4:30 I decided to make my way to the start line (the race started at 5:30 a.m.--ouch!) because they said to allow 20 minutes to walk to the start.
Well, it might be a 20 minute walk for 1 person, but for 26,500 people it was at least a 45 minute shuffle. The access and maintenance roads around Epcot just aren't big enough for that many people! Luckily, I made it to my corral by about 5:25, and was able to see on the big screen the wheelchair start and the "A" group start.
I started with the B group, and started at a sensible 10:30 pace after passing race ConDUCKtor Donald :). I stopped at a porta potty before the first mile was over, and had to wait a bit. Then I picked up a nice 9-10 minute mile pace for the next few miles, then remembered what any long-distance runner knows: start SLOW. But the marching bands, cheerleaders, and occasional character made it very hard to do that. By about mile 7 I knew I was in trouble, but I also knew my dad was going to be in the 8-mile spectator area. So walked a couple of 30 second breaks, but kept jogging until I found him at the Polynesian resort.
My pace was definitely slowing by that point--closer to a couple of 11 minute miles, which I was kind of bummed about. I was also developing blisters. The last half of this race, I think, has all the hills. I decided on a run 5 minutes, walk 30 seconds approach, which helped some. Then I discovered two more things: one, my stomach was not happy (It turns out my whole household had a case of mild food poisoning--that's the last time I will ever eat out before a race! I should know better) and my right quad started seizing up.
None of this should really have been surprising--I had been having trouble with my feet at miles 7 and 8 of some runs, and hadn't trained the full distance. But it was still sad to be the one struggling through the lovely sunrise finish to the race, and not enjoying the characters as much as I should have been. I came to a run 2 minutes, walk 30 seconds, I mean 40, I mean 50 seconds, pattern, which I held until I reached the one mile mark, where I just forced myself to jog. Around 2 miles to the finish you go over two big overpasses, then you come up through the Epcot parking lot, enter on the right side of the park and make a bit loop around Future World and come back out on the left hand side to run through the finish. It's a fun finish with LOTS of fans, and I broke into a huge grin when I got to high-five Mickey and Donald at the end.
Total time for the race was about 2:26, which was many minutes more than I had hoped. But that included a lot of pictures of fun things along the course, some porta potty side trips, and some hobbling along on blistered feet.
So here's to the next race, where I'll eat better, wear better shoes, have negative splits! You can hold me to that--it's going to happen.
(Pictures are forthcoming)
Oh--I almost forgot. In addition to the big race revisions above, here are this year's plans:
Run a second half--probably the Orange Blossom on March 4.
Race a sprint, Olympic, and hopefully a half iron triathlon this year.
Improve running pace back to what it was earlier this year--in the low 9's.
I'd like to run the Peachtree again--I missed it for the first time in a long time last year. I'd also like to run it in less than an hour.
Resolve / continue to do prevention on IT/knee injuries.
Built up core strength and balance leg muscles for the above reason.
Continue with the Y masters' swimming group or switch to the tri training group here (there are so many training groups here in Florida--it's amazing!)
Eat better; specifically, at our house we are going to be weekday vegetarians with a few weekend splurges; and my big goal for the year is portion control and moderation.
Find a really good yoga class and attend at least once a week--we really miss Hilltop in Lansing but it's time to move on!
