Goofy's . . . ahh, Goofy's. What an interesting experience. Seriously, this was the hardest thing I've ever done. When I first contemplated running this race, I half-joking told my husband we should go do it for my 40th (which was last summer). I was pretty sure he'd tell me I was crazy. Instead, he said "Let's go!" In case you don't know, Goofy's is a bit of a crazy race in which you run the 1/2 marathon on Saturday and the full marathon on Sunday. Both races start at an ungodly hour and require you to board a bus to get to the start line even earlier. Our alarm went off at 2:30am, yes AM!, not one but two days in a row while on vacation at Disney World. Who thought this was a good idea, again?
So anyway, 7 months before the race we signed up and made our arrangements for a family trip to Disney World. Six month before the race we started training. And training we did. We trained through the summer. We trained at camp (in the middle of nowhere, each alone) through the fall. We trained during rain, rain/snow/sleet mix, blizzards, snow, cold and wind. We convinced babysitters to show up at 8am on a Saturday so we could do you second day of long runs (the really long one) together instead of running 20+ miles alone every third weekend.
And suddenly we were getting on a plane with the kids to go to Orlando and it was race weekend. Both races, quite honestly, were huge, a bit overwhelming, spirited, full of interesting people, packed with entertainment, characters, bands, music and sights. We did, after all, run through all of the parks. The only difficulty was that on the marathon day (day 2) it became quite warm before we finished and we had to do a run/walk for the last few miles of the race. But really other than the unpredictable weather (which honestly was okay since it made for a fantastic trip otherwise), it was everything I could have asked for. It was incredibly challenging, incredibly inspiring and a reminder of just how tough I really am. I still will never win any races or qualify for Boston or meet any of those other "tough"-runner benchmarks, but I will always remember the 30 hour period in which I willed (after much training) my body to run 39.3 miles simply because I thought it sounded like fun.
I recently learned that Disney is now offering the Dopey challenge. The 5k Thursday, 10k Friday, 1/2 Saturday and full Sunday. Is this in my future? Who knows, but it's pretty close to 50 miles and I have 10 years before I reach that decade milestone. That gives me lots of time to think about it I suppose . . .
