Quest for Goofy in 2008

 

18 More days until the 2008 Goofy Challenge!  Saturday was my last 20 mile run of my Goofy training.  My endurance and pace seem to be on track with the last marathon I did in June.  The difference this time is my knees are not holding up, lots of swelling and soreness. I am going to sacrafice some fitness and rest the next 10 days or so.  No running, just crosstraining and stretching.  Not how I wanted things to go for Goofy, but I rather go out on race day pain free and deal with the loss of some endurance. Time will tell.  Here's hoping for a nice cool race weekend for the Goofy!

Here it is December 2, 41 days from the start of the 2008 Goofy Challenge.  Training has not gone as well as I would have liked in preparation to do both the Half and the Full marathon.  My work schedule, mentoring a team for Team in Training, instability in my knees (again) and poor weather have put me at least two weeks behind in my training schedule.  This Saturday will be my first 20 mile run this season. I wouldn't be as concerned if I were only doing the Full marathon alone.  Marathon weekend is not going to be pretty, but I will finish the Goofy.

 

I set a new PR last weekend at the Space Coast Half Marathon in Cocoa.  I highly recommend this race and their full marathon; nice flat course along the intercoastal waterway, good support along the course and none of the hassels of a big race like Disney.  It's nice being able to park a block away from the start and not have to walk 3/4 of a mile to queue up in a corral for an hour and a half.  Oh, and a nice long-sleeve tech tee too!  (Why do races still insist on cotton tees?????)

 

For the next 3 weeks I am looking at two 20 mile and one 14 mile run, then the taper starts.

 This Fall, I have been chosen to Mentor a group of Team in Training participants who are training for the Disney Half & Full marathons in January '08.  This has kept me pretty busy during the week, so I have been missing some of my short training runs on weekdays.  Not doing the mileage during the week is making the long runs on Sunday tough.  I'm up to 13 miles on my long runs, so I need to get back on my weekday mileage schedule soon before I get injured.  Only 17 more weeks until Goofy!

It's been a long, hot month since I wrote last.  I'm trying to get back into my regular running routine, but the weather is not cooperating, at least for my afternoon or evening runs.  It's that time of year when we get those pop up thunderstorms and I swear they always happen on my run days.  I've managed to get back up to 10 miles now on my long run on the weekends, but I'm just not getting the miles in during the week to train effectively.  If I don't start catching some breaks weather-wise, it looks like it is back to the treadmill for me, ugh!

I started my training program to prepare to do the Goofy Challenge at Disney this week.  Since the Goofy requires running a half on one day and the full on the next, I decided to start training a month early to get a few more long runs in before the mileage taper in late December.  I also just signed up to do another season with Team in Training, so I will be out there on race day in my purple singlet at Disney this year.  So, the Quest for Goofy in 2008 continues; Only about 400 more training miles to go! 

Since my last blog entry, I reached my TnT fundraising goal to support the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.  I want to thank everyone who donated to help me reach my goal and to support the cause. 

Today I returned from running the Mayor’s Midnight Sun Marathon in Anchorage, Alaska on June 23^rd.  Very nice place to visit; Beautiful scenery, cool weather and no limit to the things to see and do.  I think you could stay two weeks and still not do everything in the area.  Plus, in the summer the sun is out nearly 24 hours a day.  Kind of creepy at first but you get used to it after a couple of days. 

The marathon started at 8am at a high school on the East side of Anchorage and follows a bike path and roadway for about 7 miles leading up to Fort Richardson Military Base area where the infamous “Tank Trail” is located.  From mile 7 to around mile 14 – 15, the road is a gravel road with a few hills.  The hills were not bad, but that gravel road just beat me up, it took a lot out of me to keep up any kind of pace.  From mile 15 for maybe two miles, the course follows a dirt path through the woods, up and down hills and over streams and finally comes out of the woods around mile 17.  I don’t think I have ever been so glad to see asphalt in my life!  My legs, shoes and socks were covered in a layer of dirt by this point but it felt good to be back on the pavement and maintaining a pace again.  I want to thank Andrea, our TnT coordinator, for the refill of Gatorade and our TnT coach Sandy for running with me for a bit at mile 18.  I’m sure they had a tough day, but it was nice to see a familiar face after running through all of that gravel and dirt.  From mile 19 or so, you are back on bike paths again through the University of Alaska campus and through the parks and trail system across town.  I never really felt “the wall”; I was taking in Cliff Shots every 5 miles and Sports Beans at mile 22 and 24. At mile 25, you face “Insult Hill” on a residential street leading up to the finish at West High School.  It is pretty steep but there was good crowd support and a TnT coach there to keep us moving.  Once I crested the hill, I straightened up my shirt and race bib for my finish photo.  I didn’t want to run all that way and not get a good finish line picture!  The last 1/10 of a mile is on a high school track.  It was nice to have people lined up along the sides cheering you on plus the announcer says your name and city as you are approaching the finish line, which I thought was pretty cool.  I finished in a net time of 04:56:21 for a pace of 11:18 per mile.  I felt pretty good after the finish, not really sore, just drained.  I think considering the course and that it was my first full marathon, I think I did pretty well.  So, like the famous Disney Superbowl commercials, what am I going to do next?  I’m going to Disneyworld and complete the Goofy Challenge!

 

The last of the long runs are finally behind me.  Ran 21 miles in 3h 44 m for a per mile pace of 10:40 last weekend. This should be good enough to allow me to finish the Mayor's Marathon June 23 in 4h 45m or so.  Ran a 15K race 3 weeks ago and finished in 1h 27m for a pace of 9:11. For comparison, I ran a 12K in February in 1h 27m for a pace of 10:51, not a bad improvement in 11 weeks!  I reached my fundraising goal for Team in Training this week.  It took almost 4 months to the day to reach my $5,100 goal to go to Alaska with the Team.  It's all for a good cause, but I'm glad the money part is behind me so I can concentrate on training.  Next stop on the Quest for Goofy, Anchorage Alaska and the Mayor's Midnight Sun Marathon and my first full marathon!

The weeks leading up to the Anchorage marathon seem to be dragging on forever.  I'm up to doing 18 miles for my weekly long run now, one more 18 miler and two 20's and then the taper for the marathon starts.  I'm not sure which I am spending more time on right now, running or fundraising for TnT.  On the fundraising side, I am at 80% of my goal now, which isn't bad but I wish it were behind me so I could concentrate on training.  On the running side, my pace on the long runs seems to be getting slower but I think once my body adapts to running the long distances, my pace will come back.  Next up, a few more long runs, a 15K at Disney and then the mileage taper starts leading up to the big day June 23.

This week marks the half-way point in my training for my first full marathon, the Mayor's Midnight Sun Marathon in Anchorage, Alaska on June 23rd.  Since last month's entry, I ran my first sub 30:00 5K race (29:06) and my first 60:00 10K race (60:29).  I am hoping to increase my pace by 30 to 40 seconds per mile in the 7 weeks I have remaining before I start to taper off the mileage before Anchorage.  That would place me around a 4:20:00 finish time, not likely, but I can dream can't I?  Next up: 7 Saturdays of long runs!