Salute to All Things Disney but Mostly Disneyland

First it was the Goofy Challenge, then the Coast-to-Coast Challenge and the Dumbo Double Dare. Now the evil geniuses at runDisney have developed a new series to tempt their loyal running fan(atics): The Dopey Challenge.

runDisney is introducing a new 10K race into the 2014 Walt Disney World marathon weekend lineup. And they are convinced that there are plenty of runners who are, well, Dopey enough to want to run the 5K, 10K, half marathon and marathon and earn the Dopey medal to go along with the 5K, Minnie (10K), Donald (half), Mickey (marathon), and Goofy medals.

Yes, that's right - six medals for four races. If you're a bling junkie like me, how can you pass that up? :-) And I couldn't. Lee and I are both signed up to run the Inaugural Dopey Challenge next January. "Are you insane?" is the question I most often hear when I tell people that. :-)

I loved the observation one of my fellow Team AllEars members made - that at various points during this challenge we would probably feel like all of the Seven Dwarfs...definitely Grumpy and Sleepy! (I hope not to have much experience of Doc and Sneezy, though...)

And speaking of Sleepy...to be honest, the thing Lee and I are most concerned about is not the distance (48.6 miles over four days), it's having to get up really early four mornings in a row. It starts with the 5K on Thursday, January 9 and finishes with the marathon on Sunday, January 12. Followed by a really long nap...

Bring on the Dopey Challenge!

Registration for all of the events during Marathon weekend opened on April 9. For more information, visit http://www.rundisney.com/disneyworld-marathon/.

And Team AllEars 2014 is now open to new and returning members. Lee and I are back for what I'm sure will be a memorable year - it's the final year for Team AllEars. See http://land.allears.net/blogs/teamallears/ for more information.

We did it! The 2013 Goofy Challenge, and the 20th Walt Disney World Marathon!

Though Sunday wasn't quite as hot as they thought it might be (81 instead of 84) it was still a tough day to be running 26.2 miles. Very humid, too, and sunny, without the clouds I was hoping for, which just made it seem even hotter. It was a beautiful day if you *weren't* running a marathon. I was really happy to cross the finish line! I actually had a pretty good race, and although I didn't push it, I still ended up with a personal best time of 5:22:07. There must be something to this whole training thing because I wasn't totally dead after the race, and today (Monday) I feel pretty good. A little stiff if I sit too long, and slightly fatigued, but otherwise good!

Race day began, as it always does, much too early at 2:30. At least we slept better since we were tired from the half marathon. :-) There was a longer line for the bus and we had to wait for the third one (they were stopping at some of the other Epcot resorts first, so were arriving 1/2-2/3 full) before going on our way. There was more traffic so it took 20-25 minutes to get to Epcot - that's more normal than the 10 minutes it took the day before.

There were 25,000 people entered in the full, not much fewer than the half, but it seemed like there were a lot more people in the staging area. We again met up with Team AllEars, and there's a group photo floating around somewhere, but I don't have it. I think there were almost 40 of us in the marathon - that's very cool, especially for the first-timers like our intrepid co-captain, Michelle Scribner-MacLean.

After the disaster in getting to the corrals the day before they tried something a little different, and the first call was for those in Corrals A and B. Makes sense, since they start first. Then after about 10 minutes they called C and D. This time there was no huge non-moving mass of humanity - we were able to walk continuously to the corrals. Not a fast walk, but better than the shuffle I've seen before.

Of course the disadvantage is that we arrived in our corral with over 45 minutes before the race started, and over an hour until we were due to start. The advantage was that we were able to see all of the pre-race "show", featuring Disney race announcer Rudy Novotny (and a couple of others I don't know) and their interviews with Jeff Galloway, Frank Shorter, and Joey Fatone.

We were waaay back from the start line, but they had huge screens up by each corral so that we could see what was going on (sorry that the pictures are grainy - but that's why).

Several times we were cautioned about the heat - don't go too fast, drink lots of water and electrolytes, don't go for a PR...(And I didn't! It just worked out that way!)

Mickey, Donald and Goofy came out and "spoke" to us, we heard the national anthem, and then it was time to countdown to the start of the race! The wheelchairs went off at 5:30 and Corral A followed at 5:35. We again had a good fireworks display behind us, but each corral got their own start and fireworks over the start line.

We were near the front of Corral D and so once we got up to it we had a better view of the start line than we had the day before.

At 5:52 we were off! There were a lot of people still, but the course didn't seem quite as congested as it had been the day before - these were more experienced runners who understood (and practiced) race etiquette. So while there were still people walking (us included!) they generally weren't walking 2-3 abreast in the middle on the one-lane sections like we had seen the day before.

Still it was crowded enough that I didn't take any photos in the early going. There were the same character opportunities there had been the day before like Jack Sparrow and the pirates and Jack Skellington, but the lines (while shorter) were still too long.

It was a new marathon course this year. At the beginning, instead of going around and through Epcot like it has in the past, this year the marathon course was identical to the half marathon course for the first 8 miles, which meant we headed straight for the Magic Kingdom, and reached it about mile 5.5 At mile 6 we were in Frontierland in front of the Country Bear Playhouse.

The first new part of the course was just after mile 8, when we went onto the Walt Disney World Speedway. There was a steep hill going down under the speedway and then back up the other side which was a little treacherous.

We ran on the flat part of the track for about 3/4 of a lap.

On the track itself were a bunch of classic cars that the owners had come to display to us as they cheered us on - very much like what we saw at the Disneyland Half Marathon last September. It was great to see them out there.

Mater and Lightning McQueen were also out there.

After we came off the speedway we took the familiar Bear Island Road towards Animal Kingdom. The sun had come up by then and it was starting to warm up. At least that helped reduce the humidity, which was pretty close to 100% for the first 90 minutes or so. Along Bear Island Road there are a lot of tall trees that shaded us, and there was also a cool breeze so it still wasn't too bad.

Once we got close to Animal Kingdom we had some more character sightings, though most of them still had long lines (the one I was sorry to bypass was the villains). It was still Christmas there!

With the new course we arrived at Animal Kingdom about mile 13 instead of mile 16. I have to say that messed with my head a little bit - I'm used to thinking that I'm about 2/3 done by then instead of just halfway through, and I was a little discouraged to only be half done.

Outside Animal Kingdom is one of my favorite photo stops - the Haunted Mansion gravediggers. Alas, the race had been too much for Lee...(he said he was tempted to lay there a little longer!)

We had Team AllEars and Team AllCheers people cheering us on throughout the race, and they are terrific! Some of the most welcome places are in the second half of the race where there are some long stretches of road without much in the way of entertainment or spectators (because it's hard to get to!) and several of our cheering sections had set up in those areas. So a HUGE thanks to everyone who came out to cheer us on - it helps so much!

There were a couple of sets of characters out there and we didn't have to wait long for photos with them - that's what usually happens in the second half of the race.

Near mile 17 we entered the Wide World of Sports complex. This was another new part of the course. The best part: they gave us wet sponges!!! That gave me some relief - I was very hot and very sweaty by then, and it felt good to sponge myself off a bit. Ahhhh.

We ran around most of the complex, which included running on the nice cushy running track. I've heard mixed opinions on that - some people (like me) thought it felt good, while others didn't like the feel of the surface.

At this point Lee told me to go ahead - he was doing ok, but I was having a better day than he was, and he didn't want to slow me down since he knew he would be walking more. It was a tough day with the heat and humidity.

We ran on concrete paths throughout the area - I didn't like that very much because it's quite a hard surface. It was also winding and relatively narrow - it's a good thing the runners had gotten fairly spread out by then.

They had the Mickey balloon on one of the fields.

We ran around the inside of Champions Stadium. This wasn't nearly as cool as running through Angel Stadium, though. And this also got mixed reviews - we were running on gravel and apparently a lot of people got it in their shoes.

After we left Wide World of Sports we arrived at the Mile 20 Spectacular. Or the "not-so-spectacular", as it was dubbed.

They had music and a bunch of the big character puppets, like Lumiere, Sebastian, Genie, and Tigger.

There was also a raised stage with Mickey, Minnie and Pluto on it, where people were getting their photos taken.

And over the road was a huge Celebrate 20 Years sign. A lot of people didn't realize that was mile 20, and further down the road I heard several people asking where mile 20 was, and I told them we'd already passed it. :-)

So yes, it was a nice diversion, especially since otherwise that was a pretty uninteresting part of the course, but "spectacular?" Not so much.

We had more Team AllEars people near mile 21 - it was really good to see them!

At about mile 22.5 we entered the Studios. And by this time people were hot and tired and just wanted to be finished so there were almost no lines for characters from that point on. I took advantage of that, and had my photo taken with the Incredibles and Wreck-It Ralph.

We were staying at the Boardwalk again and our room looked out over the course very close to the mile 24 sign. That section was a bad part of the course, though - the path along the canal is not very wide and a lot of people were walking by then. I was still (mostly) jogging and I kept having to weave around and through people - it was frustrating. Once I got to the bridge that goes over to the Yacht Club it was wider and wasn't too bad the rest of the way.

More Team AllEars folks just beyond the bridge - I got a big hug from Deb Wills, and that helped get me the rest of the way to the finish!

There were a number of characters at Epcot. These two were just outside the International Gateway. I recognized the Fairy Godmother, of course, but who is the one in pink?

There were more characters out in World Showcase. World Showcase was open to guests by the time I got there, but priority was given to runners, and in a couple of places guests had to wait for me to get my photo taken first. I thought that was very appropriate.

At the mile 26 point was the gospel choir. I LOVE seeing these people. And not just because it means I'm almost finished. They sing with so much energy and passion that it flows into me and I can finish strong. I don't know the name of the group but they are awesome!!!

At the finish line I got to high-five Mickey just before I crossed!

And then a wonderful volunteer gave me my Mickey medal, and another wonderful volunteer gave me my Goofy medal!

They still had those silly runDisney food boxes...come on, I just ran 26.2 miles and that's what I get??? Oh, yeah, there were bananas and packets of gummy candies, too. In preparation for that I'd put a package of mixed nuts into the bag I'd checked, and I was glad I did. (To be fair I have to say that I talked to a woman on my flight home who liked the change to the boxes, and thought the snacks in there were better than the bagels, orange slices, and bananas they usually have.)

Lee was not too far behind me, so I waited for him and we exited the runner's area. We made a pass through the merchandise tent just to see what they had - there wasn't a whole lot left by then.

We were pretty tired and took the bus back to the Boardwalk rather than walking - I hope they give all of those seats a good cleaning after marathon weekend... :-) When we got back to our room I could still see some people out on the course.

As you can see, Donald isn't lonely anymore - he has plenty of company now!

Thank you to all of the terrific volunteers and cast members for a wonderful weekend. And thank you to all of the spectators who came out to cheer us on, and all of the bands who came to play for us. I'm sorry that I didn't have the energy to acknowledge everyone who cheered for me, but please know that I appreciated you, and the energy you brought to the race, and in turn passed to me, so very much.

Marathons are hard - I'm going back to halfs for a while, though we have our eye on Goofy in 2015, since it's the 10th Goofy Challenge. Our next race is the Tinker Bell Half Marathon at Disneyland, which is this Sunday. And yes, that means we'll earn our Coast-to-Coast medals in a week - and we won't be the only ones doing that!

Thanks for reading!

*** Update - we finished this morning's half marathon in 2:32:58! Faster than we had planned, but we only stopped for one character photo because the lines were so long. We feel good - now we're resting up for tomorrow.

We arrived in Orlando Thursday evening and headed straight to the Expo from the airport. We'd been seeing Tweets and Facebook posts from our teammates all day about the Expo, and how they had been able to register for the new Dumbo Double Dare - the 10K and half marathon race pair at Disneyland over Labor Day weekend. Another chance to earn three medals by running two races! Registration doesn't officially open up until January 22, but we wanted to make sure that we got in. Lots of fellow Team AllEars people will be there, too.

The Expo closed at 7:00, and we arrived on the floor at about 5:50 where we went straight to the runDisney booth to sign up for Dumbo. The line wasn't too long (compared to reports we'd seen earlier in the day), but it still took half an hour.

And then we went over to the Field House (different building) to actually pick up our race packet and bib number. No lines there, and lots of very helpful and friendly volunteers. Like last year, those of us doing Goofy only get one bib and not two - which means we have to re-use our kind of icky bib on marathon day, too. I don't really understand that...it would still be easy to give Goofy runners distinct (but separate) half marathon and full marathon bibs. Lee suggested it's because of the RFID timing chip on the back.

Then we went back over to the Expo to pick up our goodie bags, containing our three shirts and some other things. In this photo is the race program, a "20" button, and a set of 2013 Walt Disney World MARATHON shoelaces. For some reason I received three shoelaces rather than two. :-)

The shirts are the usual long-sleeve Champion tech shirts. Lee thinks the fabric is a lighter weight this year, but it feels the same to me. I don't like the sleeves - I have to get an extra-small so that I don't swim in the shirt, but then the sleeves are too tight.

I really wish they would offer a choice of unisex or women's style shirts like they do for the Princess and Tinker Bell (and other races, too).

We had about 10 minutes to shop in the "official merchandise" section. I was disappointed that there wasn't much of a selection of Goofy shirts - I would've liked a short-sleeve cotton t-shirt, but they were almost all tech shirts - and the one cotton shirt only had XLs left. They did have a women's short sleeve version of the "I did it" shirt in cotton, but it was *pink*. No way. The unisex version was a long-sleeve cotton shirt, so we both got that and I'll cut the sleeves down. :-)

So in an hour and 10 minutes we registered with two more races, picked up all of our registration stuff and did some shopping. Not bad. :-)

Today (Friday) we went back to the Expo, since we didn't really get a chance to look around last night. We drove over from Animal Kingdom about 12:30 - lots of traffic, and we were parked out in the overflow lot that's across Victory Way! We don't mind walking, so it wasn't that bad, but we definitely arrived at a very busy time of day.

Outside the entrance they had some photo backdrops set up - one for Goofy, one for the half marathon, and one for the 5K.

And near the Field House (packet pick-up) was one for the marathon.

The Mickey Mile kids' race was finishing up as we stood in line to get *in* to the Expo.

It is unseasonably warm in Florida, and Disney posted these signs and warnings in a lot of places. It's expected to be 62-63 at the start of the races, and probably in the high 70s, maybe 80s, by the end of the marathon. It's pretty humid, also. So definitely not optimal running conditions, especially since most of us have been training in much cooler weather. So the idea is to run slower and hydrate - but not over-hydrate.

Given the line to get in, it's not surprising that the Expo was quite crowded - it was tough to move around in places.

We went back to the merchandise area, and I was surprised at how much was GONE compared to last night. Very little Goofy merchandise at all, and they were out of some sizes in the women's "I Did It" shirts. There was still another day and a half left of the Expo!

We made our way around the Expo floor - there were some things we would have looked at a little more closely if it hadn't been so crowded. But Cigna was doing something cool - they took our photo against a green screen and this was the result:

They had various props we could use - like the Mickey and Goofy medals we are wearing, as well as a tiara and ear hats. Fun.

Lots of traffic getting away from Wide World of Sports - it took a while. We won't see it again until Sunday, when the marathon course takes us all around the complex!

We tried to take it somewhat easy the rest of the day...it'll be a short night since we'll get up about 2:30 in the morning. By the time most of you read this we'll probably be done with the half marathon! I'll post a follow-up with our time. You can also follow me on twitter: @AllEarsLaura.

Do you have any questions about Marathon Weekend? Use the "Comment" or "Feedback" links below and I'll do my best to get the answers for you.

It's that time of year again - Walt Disney World Marathon weekend! Lee and I are "going Goofy" again, and will be participating in the half marathon on Saturday and the full marathon on Sunday. We've had a good training season, and we're as ready as we're going to be.

This is the 20th Walt Disney World Marathon, so there are some special things this year. And of course, the one that is most appealing to me, all-new bling! It's a striking and rather different Mickey medal this year.

There are two spinning elements in the center. The Mickey head features a more contemporary Mickey on one side, with a black and white pie-eyed Mickey on the other. The ring around it also spins. On one side it says: "All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them." And on the other side: "I only hope that we don't lose sight of one thing - it was all started by a mouse."

The marathon course is also slightly different this year - it still starts and finishes at Epcot, but rather than going around Epcot for the first few miles, runners will head directly toward Magic Kingdom. After leaving Magic Kingdom we'll take a lap around the Walt Disney World Speedway. We'll also be running through the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, including the stadium there (I wonder if we'll be on the Jumbotron like we are when we run through Angel Stadium during the Disneyland 1/2 marathon?). You can see a map of the marathon course HERE.

There's also going to be some special entertainment at Mile 20, though according to the map the entire mile from 19-20 is the Mile 20 Spectacular. I'm looking forward to that - that's usually the point in the race where things get pretty hard for me, and a little diversion and something to put some energy into me will be appreciated!

Later that day from 4:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. is the Downtown Disney Cool Down Party at Downtown Disney Westside. It's open to anyone at no charge and will feature the awards ceremony and entertainment.

It's not just the marathon going on this weekend, though - there's a number of other events, too. Thursday-Saturday is the Health and Fitness Expo at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex. That's where all race participants pick up their registration packets and goodie bags. At the Expo you can buy all kinds of running merchandise - including lots of things you never knew you needed! :-) There's always a pretty good selection of official runDisney race merchandise as well - we never seem to escape with less than a couple of shirts...

On Friday there's the Family Fun Run 5K at Epcot at 6:30 a.m.. On Thursday afternoon and Friday and Saturday mornings are the Kids Races at ESPN Wide World of Sports. There are events for kids 13 years of age and under, with variable-length "dashes" open to specific age groups (including a Diaper Dash for crawlers!), and the Mickey Mile which is open to all kids.

Saturday morning is the half marathon, starting at 5:30 a.m., which will include somewhere between 27,000 and 30,000 participants.

One of the highlights of the weekend for us will be hanging out with our fellow Team AllEars members. This is an amazing group of people - so inspiring! The Team Meet on Saturday, where we'll all get together, and often meet each other in person for the first time, is a really special experience. That's also when Deb Wills will unveil how much we have raised in the fight against breast cancer. This is last year's team photo (click on the photo to see a larger version):

Read more about Team AllEars.

I'll have more as the weekend progresses - and you can also follow me on twitter: @AllEarsLaura.

Do you have any questions about Marathon Weekend? Use the "Comment" or "Feedback" links below and I'll do my best to get the answers for you.

The Inaugural Walt Disney World Marathon Relay is in the books! Lee and I both had really good runs - he finished his half in 2:13:02, and I finished my half in 2:30:33. They also counted the 3:17 we spent in the transition area, so our total time was 4:46:51. I was thrilled that it was under 5 hours! The number "4" was still the first number in the race clock when I arrived at the finish - I didn't think I'd ever see that.

Just a few photos for now - I'll have a more detailed report later.

The morning started EARLY - we caught the bus a little after 3:00. Here's the Team AllEars photo, taken about 4:15 - a few people were missing because their bus drivers got lost. :-(

In the transition area (they had a HUGE area for the relay, much larger than we needed), they had numbered chutes, and you waited until you saw your runner approach, and then moved out into the lane. There was no official passing of a baton, or any point that you both had to cross - just whatever greeting you wanted to give your incoming runner, and then runner 2 could take off.

Lee crosses the finish line! He had a really good time. Which made it nice for me, because it put me ahead of a whole lot of runners, so the course was less crowded for me, and I didn't have to wait too long to get my photos taken with the characters. :-)

They had a really elaborate area set up for the Villains!

Team All Ears cheering area just past mile 24 - this was really a great place for them to be, since at that point a lot of us are very tired - we know we can make it to the finish, but a little extra encouragement really helps, and they were so supportive of EVERYONE - not just TAE runners!

My new Chip and Dale relay medal!

Just after this year's Walt Disney World Marathon weekend in January, Disney announced some of the details of next year's event - one of which was a new race - the Marathon Relay. A marathon without having to run a full 26.2 miles? Isn't THAT an intriguing idea! It was a little frustrating, though because up until this week there hadn't really been any additional details on it. But finally, just a day or so before registration opened up on Tuesday, there was some additional information on the web site, and even more has been released since then. Here's the press release.

In the new relay, two-person teams will each race 13.1 miles (each completing their own half marathon). The first leg goes from Epcot to Magic Kingdom and ends in the Pluto parking lot. The second leg goes from there to Animal Kingdom, the Studios, and Epcot, and ends in the Epcot parking lot. It will be run at the same time as the WDW Marathon on January 8, 2012 and will share most of the course with those who are running the Marathon, with some slight differences because of the relay aspect and exchange zone.

Those mischievous chipmunks, Chip and Dale, are the hosts for this race, and will be featured on the new relay medals. It will be fun to see what the medals look like! I hope they are not responsible for the aid stations, though - I'd prefer something other than acorns. :-)

The web site says that "registration is limited" - though it doesn't say how limited. I didn't take any chances, and I signed up (Lee and I will be running as Team Zimmerbreath) as soon as registration opened on Tuesday morning. :-)

I love running in Inaugural events - this will be my 4th Inaugural Disney race. I've also done the Inaugurals of the Disneyland Half Marathon, the Tower of Terror 13K and the Princess Half Marathon. It will be interesting to see how some of the logistics work, though, and I hope there won't be too many first year glitches - that's probably one reason they are keeping it somewhat smaller. I know I have lots of questions on how things are going to work - like how they will transport those of us running the second leg to our start area, and if we'll have any way of tracking our partner to know where they are and when we might expect them to arrive - and then how do we find them to do the "exchange"? And then there's the transportation or runner1 back to Epcot, and whether Lee will be able to monitor my progress, and how we find each other at the finish. Not to mention how we all amuse ourselves while waiting at least a couple of hours for our partner to finish their leg of the race! I'll be running leg 2 - it's bad enough to have to get up insanely early for the start of the marathon, but it looks like I'll have to get up insanely early and then wait for Lee to arrive at the exchange. And then he'll have to wait for me at the finish - and since he runs faster he'll have a longer wait than I will. :-) Hopefully all of these questions will be answered before the race - but if not, we'll definitely find out on January 8, 2012!

Now that we've figured out what Disney race we're running in January, Lee and I are also happy to be returning to Team AllEars again this year. We'll be Running with Purpose along with our co-team captains Michelle Scribner MacLean and Mike Scopa, the incomparable Deb Wills, and the rest of our wonderful teammates. We'll all be doing our best to raise awareness and support breast cancer research. You can read more about Team AllEars HERE.

If you've ever thought about running a race during Disney's Marathon Weekend this is a great opportunity to do it. It doesn't matter if you've never run before - every year the team has people new to running who work and train and then are able to complete their first 5K or half marathon during Marathon Weekend! Everyone on the team is so supportive and encouraging - it makes a big difference in all of those months of training since even those of us who are experienced runners have our ups and downs, too.

Team AllEars is dedicated to raising funds to support breast cancer research. We're not quite ready to start with the on-line fund raising yet, but when we are I will be posting information here, and I hope that you will all consider supporting Team Zimmerbreath as we participate in the first Walt Disney World Marathon Relay!.

We did it - we're Goofy! We felt a lot better than I expected, and we actually ended up run/walking the entire race - I figured we'd be walking a lot of the last 6-8 miles since I thought we'd be much more fatigued after the half marathon yesterday. I was hoping to finish in 6 hours, but we finished in 5:23:25! We were both really happy with that.

I think I alluded to it in Part 1, but I didn't talk about our run/walk race strategy for the races this weekend. We've become intrigued with Jeff Galloway's program (and he is, after all, the Run Disney consultant) to run/walk our long runs rather than just running the whole thing. How long you run versus how long you walk varies from person to person, and what works best for you. We've been using a run 4 minutes, walk 1 minute program since November, and I'm really a big fan. Though it might seem strange, running and walking use different muscles in your legs, and by walking some you give your running muscles that time to rest and recover, so you don't tire as easily. I've found that for the most part I can maintain (or even better) my overall pace by walking 20% of the time. Then when I am running I can run a little faster, so it makes up the difference in my walking pace (though admittedly I am a fast walker).

It really worked well for us this weekend!

As you might imagine we are pretty tired, but it's nothing that a little rest won't cure.

The day again began at 2:45 a.m., though at least I slept better last night since I was tired from yesterday. The buses were waiting at the Boardwalk, though we had to wait about 10 minutes for one to fill up (in the meantime we were in a heated bus with cushy seats, though!) before we were on our way to Epcot.

We again had the race retreat, so headed there after we walked over from the bus. We met Julie, from Team AllEars, and visited as we ate our breakfast, then checked our bag, and walked over to the start corrals. The marathon had "only" 17,000 entrants, as opposed to 27,000 in the half, so the walk over was a LOT more pleasant - there were just a few places we were reduced to a shuffle. Based on what I submitted as our estimated finish time (I drastically over-estimated and gave it as 6 hours), we were in the last start corral - ugh. So we started about 25 minutes after the first wave started.

The weather was about 10-12 degrees COLDER than yesterday, and I could really tell - it was about 42. I was wearing my trash bag and emergency blanket right up until the race started, had my hand warmers until about mile 13, and didn't throw away my sweatshirt until almost mile 14. I was glad I'd decided to wear the long-sleeve shirt - there were times when the wind blew that I got a little cold. But the sun came out and it was really a perfect day for running.

Because we were in the last corral where just about everyone was either walking or running slower than we were, we ended up getting stuck behind slower people in the narrow places - it was frustrating. Though it did ease a lot earlier than during the half yesterday, and wasn't much of an issue after mile 13.

As we headed from the parking lot into Epcot they had some of the Electrical Parade units out to greet us - since it was still really dark, those were very effective. They were playing the music in the background, too.

In Epcot we went under Spaceship Earth and up the promenade, where the Illuminations globe was lit (they must have gotten it fixed, though it still wasn't spinning).

We saw a lot of the same characters today that we did yesterday, and today the lines were for the most part shorter (except for the Pooh characters and Mickey and Minnie) so I got a lot more character photos today. First up was Panchito and Jose Carioca at Mexico.

After we left Epcot it was a long, long way to Magic Kingdom - MK was just after mile 10, as opposed to mile 5 yesterday. We saw our friends Gail and Julian cheering near the Contemporary and stopped for a quick hug and photo.

Once we entered Magic Kingdom we saw the AllCheers group at the hub before we turned into Tomorrowland.

Lots of characters in Magic Kingdom, but many of them we had seen (and had photos with) yesterday, so we bypassed those and did photos with some of the others that had too long lines yesterday. Like the Cinderella group - though today Cinderella wasn't with them - it was the Prince, stepmother, and two stepsisters. They were a hoot.

We again saw the Fairy Godmother and asked her for a little more magic because it worked so well yesterday. :-)

The pirates were out again, and this time the line wasn't too long so we had our picture taken with them. A lot of the character locations had one of the official marathon photographers working there and taking photos, but this wasn't one of them. Because of that a cast member was asking everyone as they got in line if they had their own camera - we appreciated that - it would have been terrible to wait in the line and then not get a photo! I asked Jack Sparrow why there was no rum, and he told me it was waiting for me at the finish line. :-)

I think I've mentioned this in the past, but the characters were all so gracious, and didn't seem to mind being around (and even touching!) all of us sweaty runners. The ones who could speak usually made appropriate comments. It's just one of the things that makes the Disney races so much fun!

A couple of miles after we left Magic Kingdom we were at mile 13 - just about half way! Yikes. We were still feeling pretty good - a little more tired than we were at mile 13 yesterday, but not too much.

The stretch from there to Animal Kingdom I remember as being pretty boring five years ago, but it seemed like there was a lot more entertainment along the route this time. Several "streetmosphere" types of characters, including a bayou woman and her big (fake) alligator (someone dressed as Peter Pan put his head in the gator's mouth and she said: "Ohhh...I guess we'll have to re-write the ending to Peter Pan!), and "Davy Crockett" and his sidekick. My favorite was Zorro, though. :-)

There were a lot of characters backstage at Animal Kingdom - and the line to take a photo with Mickey was actually fairly short. We noticed that the longer the race went on the shorter the lines got - I know we found it harder to get started when we stopped, and perhaps a lot of others felt that way, too.

Outside Animal Kingdom there were these refugees from the Haunted Mansion. :-)

One of the hardest (cruelest) sections of the course is the part that goes out towards Wide World of Sports - and then loops back on itself. So you can see the people that are coming back towards you, but they are .6 miles ahead. I was getting really tired by then - my legs were fine while I was walking, but those 4 minute running intervals kept getting longer, and the one minute walks kept getting shorter. (Though the intervals often got disrupted by character photos and water stops, especially in this later part.)

When we arrived in the Studios, we were very disappointed that they hadn't rolled out the red carpet for us like they did when we ran the marathon five years ago. We had been looking forward to that...it felt SO good after running on pavement! There were quite a few characters backstage for us, though - we did our best monster impression when we posed with Sulley.

At this point we were past mile 23, and it was only about 3 miles to the finish. We knew we could do it, and also knew we had a chance to finish in under 5:30, which would be a real accomplishment for us.

There were two groups of AllCheers people along the Boardwalk - they helped keep us going. We got back into Epcot just before mile 25, and found a rather lonely Princess Aurora in France - everyone was anxious to finish and was just running by her. We didn't, though.

We got to the mile 26 marker - only .2 to go!

I really didn't have much left for a sprint, but did the best I could to try to keep up with Lee (he slowed down for me) and we crossed the line together - 5:23:25. WAY better than I was expecting to do!

It was a cooler day today, so the emergency blanket was very welcome, and the Mickey Marathon medal even more so. There was a special area for "Goofy" runners, and that's where they put that lovely Goofy medal over our heads. Woo hoo - we did it!!! (This picture was actually taken in the Race Retreat - because we had three medals the photographer asked Buzz to hold one of Lee's medals and Jessie to hold one of mine.)

Today we were able to meet up with our Terri, our fellow West Coast Roadrunner - she did the Goofy Challenge last year, so she knows what it takes. It was really nice to see her.

We went to the Race Retreat where we had some hot food - in addition to eggs and potatoes they also had a vegetable bean soup. It was pretty salty, but after all that running that actually tasted pretty good. We got our picture taken with our medals, as you saw above. I wasn't up to walking back to the Boardwalk today so we took the bus - our timing was good because it was almost ready to leave. We did get off at the Swan and walk back to the Boardwalk, so we got in a little bit more of a walk.

Tonight we actually feel pretty good - tired, of course, but it's a good tired. Once we get moving we can walk pretty easily, and without pain.

We had a lovely dinner at Kouzzina, but I'll write more about that separately. (Thanks to AllEars reader Gail for coming up and introducing herself!)

How do you like my collection of bling from this weekend? I'm very proud of it!

We're back at Walt Disney World (yes, less than a month after our last trip) for Marathon weekend. As I mentioned several months ago, Lee and I are planning to run the Goofy Race-and-a-Half Challenge this weekend. That means that we run the half marathon on Saturday (which is today for many of you reading this) and the full marathon on Sunday. Something that you have to be, well, Goofy, to do. I think there are about 3000 of us entered in both races this year.

To prepare for this we trained for the last six months with a group in San Diego called the West Coast Roadrunners. We've trained with them before when we ran our first WDW Marathon - it's really a fun group of people and they have years of running experience. So there's lots of support and training tips and coaching available. Those long training runs are a lot easier to do when you're running with a group. Some of the coaches and group members had run Goofy before, so we picked their brains about strategy and training. Since we are only trying to "finish in a vertical position" and are not trying for any personal bests, our strategy is to take it easy during the half marathon - stop for pictures, do some walking, don't push the pace when running - and then just try to do as normal a "long run" as we can on Sunday. If we have to walk a lot, so be it - we have 7 hours to finish, and even if we didn't run at all we could do that.

We've been doing the walk/run thing (as recommended by Jeff Galloway, Disney's running consultant) for the long runs, with a 4-minute run/1-minute walk interval. I think it's really helped me a lot. Though you don't always realize it, you use different muscles when running than when walking. So that walking break allows my running muscles to rest and recover a little bit, and I'm not quite so tired at the end of a long run. We plan to do that for both races this weekend, though it's really hard to slow down to a walk during the first few miles when the legs are still fresh! But you have to do it from the start for it to be effective.

As for what else has been going on...After we arrived last night we went to Epcot and had dinner at the Tangierine Cafe - that's one of our favorites, but we didn't have a chance to eat there last month - partly because the seating area is like a breezeway and it gets really cold - and it was cold enough last month without eating in a wind tunnel. Anyway, after dinner we walked about World Showcase lagoon, getting some hot spiced wined and some caramel corn in Germany, and then we watched Illuminations. The globe was seriously misbehaving last night - first it didn't turn on, and then it wasn't spinning, and then it kept going off and on. The middle of the show is pretty boring if there's no globe! At the end it didn't open up which worried us - but someone must have hit the "emergency abort" so that the fireworks inside it didn't go off. It made the finale not quite so effective though. Hope they get that fixed soon!

This morning we took the bus over to the Expo, though first we met up with some of our Team AllEars teammates. It was nice to put some faces to some names!

The packet pickup was pretty uneventful - as "Goofy" runners we had our own pickup area and there really weren't any lines.

Down in the merchandise area there were more people and the checkout line had a lot of people in it, but they kept it moving quickly. There was a much better selection of merchandise than I remember from past races.

The Expo was in a separate building, and it was a lot more congested than it was when we ran the marathon 5 years ago. That's where we picked up our "Goody Bags" which had our shirts in them. As "Goofy" runners we got *three* shirts - the regular half marathon and marathon shirts AND a special Goofy shirt.

We did a little shopping and bought a few things that we will use both this weekend and in the future.

Geico is one of the race sponsors - and the Geico gecko was there. :-)

HP had a booth and would give you a photo for free, so we did that. We really weren't at the Magic Kingdom. :-)

As we were leaving they had this banner overhead:

Taking the bus to the Expo was really a good thing - the traffic getting in there was pretty bad, so it was a lot easier to take the bus. The bus was serving all of the Epcot Resort hotels, so we got off at the Dolphin and had lunch at Picabu. Lee had a dinner with lasagna, mac and cheese, and creamed spinach (getting started on that carb-loading!).

I had a bowl of chicken and pasta soup - it was very good. We like Picabu - it's close to the Boardwalk AND we get a 20% discount by showing our DVC member card.

We had a short break back in our room before the AllEars meet at the Belle Vue Room this afternoon. I don't know how many people were there, but it was quite a turnout. Lots of the Team AllEars members. And it was wonderful to see old friends like Gail and Julian Robinson (from the old RADP days!).

And we met some other RADP people, too - Linda McCollough introduced herself, and we'd met Ed Russell back in December. (Ed ran the 5K this morning, just six months after open heart surgery, and got his first Disney bling! Woo hoo Ed!)

Team AllCheers is going to be out in force cheering us on this weekend (which really means a LOT, especially late in a race), and they even got custom cowbells for it! I love these.

Our plan for tonight is go go have dinner at Seasons in Epcot (yeah, probably more walking than we should be doing, but at least we haven't been in parks all day like some of our Team AllEars teammates have!), and then get as much stuff ready and laid out tonight as we can.

And then comes the really hard part - trying to sleep. Complete with pre-race jitters (this will be my 11th half marathon, but I still get nervous before a race), and knowing that the alarm is going to go off insanely early (like 2:45 or so). The buses start running at 3:00, and our goal is to catch a bus by 3:15 or so, so that we have time to get to Epcot and enjoy the Race Retreat (that's a special tent that's heated, with chairs and refreshments and its own porta-potties - we paid extra for it, but I think it'll be worth it!) before we have to walk to our starting corral.

The weather looks like it'll be really good - no rain, some sun, and temps in the 50s. That may sound chilly, but it'll be pretty nice for running.

Hopefully as you are reading this, especially if you're on the west coast, we are already done with the half marathon, since we should be finished by 9:00. I'll post an update to this blog right here once we're back at our room.

And we're done! It went really well - I finished in 2:35:49 and Lee finished at 2:35:47 - not sure where he picked up two seconds on me, though. :-) We feel good.

Now, please think good thoughts for us for Sunday's marathon!