Officially Goofy in 2015

As noon approached yesterday, I wondered if their would be a rush on the RunDisney website to get registered for Disney Marathon weeks.  After all, the last couple races sold out in only a couple of hours.  turns out there was no need to worry.  I was in shortly after noon and fully registered 15 minutes later for the 10th Goofy Challenge.

Even though my official training plan does not begin until September, all the hard training I am going to do for the Hotlanta Half in August is going to be in preparation for the Goofy training.  Essentially I plan on hitting the ground running in September and train hard through the end of December.

I have to say that I am looking forward to getting my hands on this come January 11, 2015

Wet, Muddy and Humid (Georgia Peach Jam Report)

The Georgia Peach Jam Half Marathon was yesterday, and the words for the day were wet, muddy and humid.  What was supposed to be a perfect weather weekend for running went south very quickly as rain moved in overnight on Friday.

The race was held on the Big Creek Greenway, which is a very nice area to run when it has not rained overnight.  There are many spots where it just does not drain well.  While the rain stopped right before the race kicked off, there was still standing water all over the course.  What this meant was that runners needed to navigate around the water, which meant running onto the grass at many points.  This resulted is shoes and legs covered in mud very early on, and wet shoes throughout the race.

I started out the race pretty good. I was under a ten minute mile at the 3 mile mark.  This is where I could really tell that the tempo/pace runs I have been doing for the past six weeks had really helped.  If I could keep up that pace I was easily on my way to a PR.  This was not to be.  As I have found out in a couple of previous races, humidity is just not my friend.  By about the halfway point of the race, I was starting to feel it.  This was also the point where my wife, Karen, blew on by me.  I could see her up ahead for a little while, but soon lost sight of her.  She was gone.

My wet shoes and I trudged on through the last half of the race, and I finished with a time of 2:17:35.  That's about four minutes slower than my PR.  I was also thankful that Dirty Spokes might have measured the course slightly short.  I have a Garmin and Karen uses the Nike IPhone app.  Both showed the distance we ran at 12.9 miles.  I have never had that happen in a race before.  If anything it is usually a little longer than 13.1 due to having to weave around people.

So it's onto the next challenge now.  The local 10K on July 4 followed by the Hotlanta Half in August.

Game On..Again

Well, after being doubtful of the whole waiting list for the Georgia Peach Jam Half Marathon next week, I receive an email this morning letting me know that both Karen and I can now register for the race.  Registration is due by Wednesday by snail mail, so off it will go in today's mail.

Good thing I did not slack on any training for the past couple of weeks.  While a PR is probably not going to happen this time around, I certainly think I can run a respectable time on what will be a completely flat course.

New Plans

Well so much for that idea.  My wife and I were all ready to register for the Georgia Peach Jam Half Marathon next month only to find out that it has sold out.  I emailed the race contact to confirm that it was indeed sold out, and apparently there is a waiting list.  This is the first time I have ever heard of a waiting list for any race.  So I guess there is still a sliver of hope to run in an official race next month.

Yesterday I started looking around to see what other half marathons might be available to run.  I came across the inaugural Hotlanta Half Marathon.  Sounded pretty good to me.  The catch.  It's on August 24 at 7:30am.  Hotlanta indeed.  That would be one hot and challenging race at that time of year.  However, it gives me something to focus on throughout the summer, which is what I need to stay in shape ahead of Goofy training which kicks off in September.  I signed up this afternoon, so I am committed to it now.

Thinking ahead to a Goofy time

Thus far, there is only one half marathon that I am looking to put on my calendar, and that would be one on April 19. A very flat run on the local greenway, which should make for a pretty easy race. As such, I am doing minimal training at the moment and only running 20-25 miles a week.

However, I am very much looking ahead to the Disney Goofy Challenge in January 2015. I want to push myself a little more, and figured this was a fun event to do it in. A half marathon on Saturday followed by a full marathon on Sunday. Registration does not even open for another month, but I am already tinkering with training plans that I would not even start with until September. I figure that it never hurts to plan ahead in order to know what I will face. Training to run 39.3 miles over two days will be no easy task, but in a crazy sort of way I am looking forward to it.

Until such time, it will be pretty much maintenance running over the hot summer months at about 20 miles per week. My schedule will be on short run, one tempo run, and one long run per week to hold me at that 20 miles. Near the end of the summer I will gradually start increasing things so that I can jump right into my Goofy training come September.

Two years and running

Almost two years ago to the day, I started running after not doing anything resembling that for over 15 years.  I decided one day that I wanted to run a half marathon and that the Disney Wine & Dine Half Marathon would be a good way to start.  My wife decided that she would join me in this little adventure as well.

So began seven months of training that included running a 5K and a 10K in what was the biggest heat wave to hit Atlanta in years.  It all culminated with the Wine & Dine Half in November 2012.

While I did not finish my first race in the time I wanted to and was miserable due to running on some shoes I should have traded out long ago, I was sufficiently hooked.  I needed to get back out there and do better.

So began a series of races throughout 2013 where I was able to decrease my half marathon PR two times. When I started running again, I always said that the half marathon distance was enough for me.  Well that was thrown out the door after running my second half marathon last year.  Why not go for the full distance?  So my wife and I signed up for 2014 Disney Marathon.

It was hard and time consuming training.  However, we successfully finished our first marathon.  As with my first half marathon, I did not finish this first race in nearly the time I wanted to, but I did learn a lot of things.  Things that will be very helpful in training for future races.