The Back Story

So... I decided to try my hand at blogging.

I'm new to it, so bear with me while I learn the ropes.  Hopefully someone will find what I have to say interesting.

I recently completed my first Goofy Challenge at Walt Disney World's Marathon Weekend.  The Goofy Challenge consists of running a half marathon Saturday morning, followed by a full marathon Sunday morning.

I began running three years ago, after making the decision to run in the Disney World Half Marathon a year later.  When I started running, I couldn't run a mile without nearly doubling over and gasping for breath.  Less than a year later,  on a chilly January 10, 2010, I finished the Disney World Half Marathon in the snow and sleet.  The next day, I saw all of the people with their Mickey and Goofy medals, and I have to admit, I felt a little embarrassed to be wearing my Donald medal.  Not that I wasn't proud of my accomplishment.  I had just done something that up until a year prior, I thought I could never do.  Up to that point, it was one of the most difficult things I had ever done.  But... these people did more than I had done and that's when my pride kicked in.  I began thinking to myself, "if they can do it, I can do it."  So, I made the commitment to run the Disney World Marathon the following year.

Later that spring, Disney announced a new race that coincides with Epcot's Food and Wine Festival, the Wine and Dine Half Marathon.  This fit almost perfectly into my Marathon training program, so I couldn't pass up another excuse to head down to Disney World to run.  I finished a little slower than in January, but I think this had to do with it being a 10pm start and thus making some mistakes regarding what to eat and when.

January 2011, I made the trip to Florida again and ran my first marathon.  I was another year into running and my legs and knees were more used to the pounding.  I hurt less after this race than I did running half the distance the year prior.  Although, my tube of Biofreeze and I still got in a little quality time.  The day after the race, "Marathon Monday,"  I was walking around the parks and saw several 70+ year old men wearing their Goofy medals.  My pride kicked in again and I found myself once again saying, "If they can do it, I can do it!"  So, I committed to running my first Goofy Challenge in 2012.

As part of my training (wink... wink...), I once again ran the Wine and Dine Half Marathon.  The race was October 1st, which was also the 40th anniversary of the opening of Walt Disney World.  Making better eating decisions this time and now wearing compression socks to ward off the calf cramping that I experienced the year before, I set a Half Marathon PR.

And then... Along came Goofy...

Stay tuned and I'll tell you more.