Who is in? i'll start -

I and my cousin have signed up for the 1/2 marathon. It will be my first foray into anything like this before. She is a professional trainer and rep for a exersise equipment firm and well as a past Miss Fitness USA contestant. She has helped me during every step I've taken.

Last Feb. I finally decided "enough was enough" - I'm only five feet tall, and incredibly overweight. Time to do something about it! And the 1/2 marathon was my goal. Memorial Day weekend I did a 5K....and I continue to work toward the 1/2 in Jan., 2006. I have gone from being winded while walking to being able to run for 10 min. at a time and then walking, then running some more! I have dropped 20 lbs., and have learned to appreciate the early mornings!

I worry about not being able to finish the 1/2 before I am swept, that would break my heart...so I work almost everyday so that I may finish in the 3 1/2 hours given.

There was a time I was a size 0/2....obviously that was a long, long time ago! I aspire to be healthier, and leaner and happier. And - to go to WDW :p Although size 6 would be nice :p

So - Who else is going in for next year?!

We have signed up, but have yet to make any travel reservations (yikes)!

My wife Christina is going to do the half and I am going to do both the half and the full marathon (the Goofy!). We are both concerned about this. Christina has never ran a half-marathon and I have never ran a full marathon (let alone a half the day before).

Christina is pregnant with our first child and he will be due Mid August. So, she hasn't been able to train much more than taking long walks. I have managed to get up to about 12 miles a week in, but I am wondering how much is too much or too little at this moment.

Before I discovered this board, I set up a little group site on Yahoo groups. If anyone is interested in chatting there also the address is

http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/disneyrunners/

This is for fun and sharing of ideas and info. Hope to meet many soon!

Denny & Christina J.
Golden Colorado

cool...glad to have you on board! I have never attempted ANYTHING like this 1/2 before, so it's all new to me, as well. Good for your wife...ha ha my excuse is that I just had my last son (yeah, 7 1/2 years ago :rolleyes: )

we spent a "bit of time" in Colorado -{Parker, Co which I think is on the other side of Denver from you, right?} before we realized we couldn't live without the water!

Sorry I won't be going this year. The WDW marathon is by far the best and one of the funner runs I have ever done. I hope everyone has a great time!!!

I don't know if i can do it, but I'm in for the 1/2 marathon. I'll be walking, but I suppose I'll need to run some as well. I have just started training for my first half marathon in North Conway, NH on Oct 23rd. I am doing that with 6 friends, one of them has a vacation home in NH. I haven't found anyone to do the Disney with me, but I'm working on it. I'm from CT, so it's an expense. My daughter (15yo) will come down with me but she's not walking. I am a casual walker, about 2-3 miles a day, usually on a track, so I've got a long way to go.

good for you! :D

Alex and I are signed up to do the half again. There are some other folks on Team MousePlanet who signed up so I'll let them chime in.

hey ericles, if you can run for 10 min at a time, that's pretty good. I walked for an hour this morning, I think I went about 4 miles, but it was soooo hot! I found a good training site online for walking.
http://www.halhigdon.com/halfmarathon/walk.htm

I have been training and its kinda hard when you live on the side of a mountain. I ran 6 miles yesterday in just under 1 hr. I still think I'm out of my mind for thinking a can do the "Goofy"!

Well cheers to all of us who set our sights on higher things!

Denny J
Golden CO

Alex and I are signed up to do the half again. There are some other folks on Team MousePlanet who signed up so I'll let them chime in.


I'm chiming I'm chiming.

I have signed up for the half and have been training...have yet to run more than 8 contiguous miles this year but I'll get there.

I have been training and its kinda hard when you live on the side of a mountain. I ran 6 miles yesterday in just under 1 hr. I still think I'm out of my mind for thinking a can do the "Goofy"!


What you need to start incorporating is 10/20 weekend runs, ie 10 miles Saturday followed by 20 miles Sunday. Run them to completion, not exhaustion; not marathon pace. You have to start getting your body used to this stress.

If that 6 mile run at about 10:00 pace was difficult consider slowing it to 11-12 pace. If it was fine, keep it there and give yourself room(15-30secs) each time you increase your long run.

But as for the main thread topic, i'm "in" as well. I just signed up, on here, last night and some of the relevant info is in the thread that was moved to this forum. I didn't know there was an actual forum for the marys. If anyone has answers to any of the questions i ask in that thread, i'd appreciate it. :)

What you need to start incorporating is 10/20 weekend runs, ie 10 miles Saturday followed by 20 miles Sunday. Run them to completion, not exhaustion; not marathon pace. You have to start getting your body used to this stress.

If that 6 mile run at about 10:00 pace was difficult consider slowing it to 11-12 pace. If it was fine, keep it there and give yourself room(15-30secs) each time you increase your long run.

But as for the main thread topic, i'm "in" as well. I just signed up, on here, last night and some of the relevant info is in the thread that was moved to this forum. I didn't know there was an actual forum for the marys. If anyone has answers to any of the questions i ask in that thread, i'd appreciate it. :)

I so appreciate the advice. My training has dropped off just a bit as I take on new daddy duty. I have in the past few days gotten myself somewhat back on track. Its amazing how much missing 8 days of training seemed to deflate the previous 2 months of steady workouts.

The longest run that I have completed without stopping is 7.5 miles. I am having trouble carrying enough water to go on much longer runs. Its hard here in Colorado when your route has no "aid stations".

We are moving to Indianapolis later this month. Its a bit easier to train there, they actually have level ground! Moving from 6000 feet to 400 feet is going to be a real treat for the lungs!

I am going to miss the sunny skies and mild winters though. I guess its time to get a treadmill.

Denny J
Golden CO (for now).

The longest run that I have completed without stopping is 7.5 miles. I am having trouble carrying enough water to go on much longer runs. Its hard here in Colorado when your route has no "aid stations".

Denny, grab a Camelbak Catalyst, Fuel Belt, or Amphipod. These are the 3 main hydration products that have been a "hit" among distance runners in training.

I own the Catalyst and a 4-bottle Fuel Belt. I prefer the Fuel Belt over the Amphipod with re to design but they're both essentially the same thing; belts with various ways of carryinh amounts of liquids/gels/pouches.

Fuel Belt has their own website and buying ability through yahoo. They have two size bottles 7 and 10oz and varying numbers of bottles. You can buy gel sleeves as well. The 4-bottle 7oz one i own has a small neoprene pouch with velcro as the securing mechanism. I get a bit paranoid with that and tend to touch it throughout a run to make sure my house key is still there. It'd be nice if they made it with a zipper instead. It can't hold a cell either. I pack a small baggy of salted pretzels or animal crackers for long runs.

The Catalyst is great because it has zippered pockets like most Camelbaks, but is still small enough not to be a nuisance. I wouldn't recommend running shirtless with it though, but that shouldn't be a problem now that we're headed into Fall/Winter. If you only drink water on runs then a Catalyst may be the thing for you due to it only having one bladder and thus one fluid. The Fuel Belt and Amphipod on the other hand are independent little bottles and therefore give you a variety.

I typically use the Catalyst for hill and trail running in local hills when i'm not going great distances and water is fine.
Whereas the majority of the time i wear the Fuel Belt with Gatorade and in humid/very hot days carry one bottle of water to dump on my head/back.

Its always good to carry a $5 bill with you for emergency.

I had no idea we had this thread just for us Disney runners!! (everyone is allowed to say "Duh" one time only). I ran my first half-marathon in June on the Deadwood Mickelson Trail (a beautiful trail run, if anyone is interested), and I'm hooked! My next run will be two weeks from Sunday - the Rushmore marathon (only I'm doing the half again). So, I'm coming out to do Goofy also (we still need to find another way to phase that). I'm not going to break any speed records (I'm 48), but I'm going to finish them both and have a wonderful weekend. My long runs are constantly 11 miles, with about 20 more during the week. After Rushmore in two weeks, I'll need to work up to two long runs back to back to prepare for Goofy. I think I'm on track. It's easy to run in the fall when the weather is cool and the leaves are beautiful. It gets harder when the snow and crappy weather comes, but I have a treadmill, too (which I hate).

So, do we rock, or what?!!!

Been trying to respond to this for days... I ran the first WDW Marathon in '94 and followed up with a '96 run. Last year I ended up running for the American Stoke Association and have to say the return trip was a blast. Upon my return I heard a lot of complaints from my wife and 3 [now grown] children as they were struggling through the winter and I was enjoying myself in WDW. AS I told them if they put in the training and ran either the 1/2 or full marathon then they could come...the entire family is training this year. I can't wait....

Jay

Jay - that sounds so wonderful having your entire family there to run with! You are going to have a fabulous weekend, and will remember this weekend forever. I'm a single mom with three younger kids (10, 13, 16), so I'm coming out by myself to run. Feeling a tad sorry for myself that I won't have anyone cheering me on or waiting for me at the finish line, but so be it. I can't pull my kids out of school again (I pulled them for a week last December for WDW and we had a great time, but my son ended up flunking Spanish and had to take it again this year - so pulling them out of school again isn't an option)

It'll still be fun and a great experience, but I am envious of you having your family there running with you!

Feeling a tad sorry for myself that I won't have anyone cheering me on or waiting for me at the finish line, but so be it.You should try to meet up with some of the other MousePadders who will be down for the race, Wendy3. Then perhaps you'll have someone to meet up with after the race. Best of luck! :)

You should try to meet up with some of the other MousePadders who will be down for the race, Wendy3. Then perhaps you'll have someone to meet up with after the race. Best of luck! :)

GREAT suggestion! Maybe I'll start a thread closer to January and round up some fellow solos to meet up with. Thanks!