What a week. What
a runner's high!! What a confidence builder. 54 miles of racing, 27 miles
of trail running, and >80 miles of cycling all packed into 22 fabulous
day!!! It was great!
In my previous blog I talked about preparing for the
Goofy Challenge - a 63km back-to-back. Well, the training paid off. I left for Disney on a Saturday. My
trusty little 5x8 trailer served me well. I spent 9 days at my Disney Vacation
Club resort and 12 in my trailer. Of
those 12 nights 3 of them were in rest stops.
My actual challenge – i.e. the challenge to which I
agreed to raise money for American Heart Association – was for the
back-to-back, a ½ marathon and 50 miles of cycling in 8 days. I had the last week of the taper-down which
allowed me a 31 mile week with 13 miles on Saturday. I spent all day Saturday driving and checked
into Suwannee River State Park on Sunday.
Sunday had its ups and downs but overall was a great
day. It rained all night and was raining when I arrived at Suwannee River State Park about
7:30am. I couldn’t get into my campsite
until 1pm because there were still people there. I offered to help them pack but the ranger
didn’t like that idea. They did have a place where I could park and use my
trailer without electricity. By 9:30 I
was on the trail. This is a portion of
the Florida National Scenic Trail. This
section goes from a point near Florida State 90 (just a bit north of I-10) to
the Georgia state line. I decided that
I wasn’t going to let the rain spoil my fun.
Besides, I needed this run. I needed
to escape. This day would have been my
45th wedding anniversary. Anniversaries and my wife’s birthday are
really hard for me. As most of you know, running is my escape and grief therapy. Trail runs are especially good because they
require constant concentration on what you’re doing.
About a mile into the run I went past an
Agricultural Inspection Station. It was
on a back road where the road crossed the Suwannee River. I couldn’t help but stop and ask the officer
why they had an inspection station there.
She was so bored that she thanked me for letting her tell me the history
of the agricultural inspection stations.
As she spoke I noticed that she was wearing a typical police gun belt
with a pistol. She told how, in the 19th
century the farmers, who used the Suwannee to move produce, asked the
government to have inspection stations where they made the exchanges with Georgia
boats to help avoid being swindled. That’s why it was originally put here. They were originally manned by civilian gov’t
workers until the drug cartels stated using back roads and rivers to move drugs
north and some of these civilian workers were killed. Since then the “Agricultural Inspection
Officers” are trained police. Reading
between the lines, she’s there to watch for drugs.
I had
turned off my Garmin while I was talking to the officer and forgot to turn it
back on until I had covered almost 2 ½ miles according to the markers. Using map markings and trail markers I ended
up doing between 13 and 15 miles. The
trail ran along the Withlacoochee and
Suwannee Rivers. It was really lots of
fun despite the constant rain. I was
really tempted to cross the GA line just to say I did and then run south to the
Stephen Foster Park but my training schedule said I wasn’t supposed to do over 13
miles. I didn’t want to overdo training less than a week before the big race so
I decided to run it some other time.
All of
these state trails, Appalachian Trail,
etc., made me decide that one of my retirement goals is going to be to do a
portion of such trails in as many states as possible. Obviously I can’t really
set a distance goal because, for example, 37 miles in Florida takes a whole lot
less time than 37 miles through the Ozark Mountains or up the Appalachian
Trail. I have a life-time senior pass
for National Forests and Parks. That gives me ½ price on camp sites, etc. There’s a National Forest or Park in every
state, so I might start there.
I decided
that I’d be covering enough ground walking through the Disney theme parks that
I’d only do a few fun miles in the evenings.
(Out of curiosity I used my Garmin one day at Disney and found that I
generally cover at least 7-9 miles.) On
Monday and Tuesday I went to the parks and on Wednesday I went to Typhoon
Lagoon where I swam with the sharks and got beaten up in a wave pool. While the
wave doesn’t look that big in pictures, when you’re neck-deep in water and
there’s this massive wall of water at least 6’ or more above your head tossing
bodies around like ping pong balls, it really looks big and you wonder what in
the hell you were thinking to be there. I
couldn’t believe that I stayed there for so long allowing that wave to toss me
around. And people call trail runners crazy?!
My daughter arrived on Wednesday evening and we
spent much of Thursday at the race expo. It was typical Disney – i.e. extremely
well organized and lots of vendors.
Somehow, when I called and changed my registration to the Goofy, the
person cancelled my daughter’s marathon registration. They not only cancelled it but somehow
removed her from the database. According to the terrific man who quickly fixed
everything, there should have been no way she was removed from the database. On Friday I did my usual carb loading and
hydration ritual. Oatmeal for breakfast,
an Ensure and banana at 10am, large salad and P&J for lunch, Ensure and
banana at mid-afternoon and high-carb dinner. We went to the Rainforest Café for
dinner and I was in bed by 6pm.
My alarm went off at 2am Saturday morning and by
3:15am I was at the staging area. The race went very smoothly and I felt
good. I did it in 2:33:31. That was actually faster than I planned but I
felt good and didn’t believe it would cause any problems in the next 26 miles. It
was hard to keep my pace down starting in corral B. I ran between the 2 hour and 2:15 pacers for
most of the race. I dropped behind when
we hit an off ramp that is so steeply sloped that I walked it. The ramp is infamous and everyone hates it. It
aggravates the arthritis in my hips something fierce! It was just beginning to get light as we
passed the Polynesian Resort at mile 8. The heat wasn’t bad but the humidity
was something like 80%. The race directors were worried about the heat since
most runners had trained under much cooler conditions. Going through the
hydration stations, I always took two Powerade cups and a water. I would drink the Powerade and pour the water
over me. This doubled my fluid intake on the course and didn’t slow me down.
I started rehydrating as soon as I crossed the
finish line and was eating before I got to the “family reunion” area about two
blocks from the finish line. I had to
replace 1,400 calories in carbs and proteins in the next six hours plus try to
store up some carbs for the next part of the race, which means I had to consume
at least 3,000 cal. Actually it isn’t
easy to get 3,000 good calories in less than 6 hours. I had a massage at 1pm and was in bed by 6pm. The massage was terrific. Disney resorts keep a staff of licensed
therapists with different specialties. The woman who worked on me specializes
in sports therapy and was called in especially to take care of runners.
I arrived at the staging area at 3:10am on Sunday morning. The 26 mile
portion of the race was lots of fun. I really enjoyed it. Jeff Galloway, Frank Shorter and Keith
Bradley were there. Jeff Galloway signed my Wine and Dine bib. We ran through
the Magic Kingdom, Disney Speedway, Animal Kingdom, ESPN Sports Complex, Disney
Hollywood and EPCOT. I’m glad that I’m not sensitive about my age. We ran through
the Atlanta Braves training area and stadium. They had a sensor as you entered
the stadium so they knew who you were. As I ran by home base the announcer said
“And Russell Vance, 66 years young.” Evidently they do that for anyone over 65. However, one of the greatest experiences of
this race was that I GOT TO CARRY THE OLYMPIC TORCH!!!! A
young English women, who carried the torch in the Olympics, was running with it
and allowed other runners to carry it for short distances. It weighs a ton! I carried it across the Magic Kingdom parking
lot. Definitely a magic moment!! Unfortunately there was no way to get a
picture.
In all honesty I was really a bit concerned about
the back-to-back. As I’ve said before,
it wasn’t the 63km that concerned me but the back-to-back. Thankfully my
training program did its job and I really felt good as I crossed the finish
line. There were 6,000 Goofy (back-to-back) runners out of the almost 80,000
runners. I think I told the story about
my daughter stopping within feet of the finish line to have a picture taken at
the Princess Marathon, well . . . . .
My daughter, Kelly, ran the last leg of the race with me. As we came
around the corner and could see the finish line I saw Mickey standing there. I knew what was going to happen. We had to stop to get a picture. In the
picture I do look like I’m ready to bolt, but I wasn’t setting any records so I’ll
admit it was a fun thing to do. My time for the entire 39.3 mile Goofy
Challenge was 8:31. That’s far, far from fast but the rules permitted 10:30 so
I was thrilled. I grabbed a beer as soon
as we got back and Kelly and I went to the swimming pool to cool off. I know a lot of people think I’m crazy, but I
really did enjoy the running and would do it again in a heart beat.
I knocked around Disney until Wednesday. I did daily runs but I kept them to 5 miles. It
took all day Wednesday to make the trip to Key West. My challenge included doing a bicycle ride up US-1,
but I couldn’t make the trip because the pedestrian/cycle bridge between the
first two islands was closed. However, I
didn’t find any problem doing the miles promised. In the old town portion of
Key West bicycles rule the roads. I had
logged the miles easily on the Key West island by Thursday evening and over 80
miles by the time I left.
The Key West ½ Marathon was as low budget/low tech
as Disney was high budget/high tech. That’s not being derogatory. It was well
organized, well executed and lots of fun! The pick-up and “expo” was on part of the old historic wharf between two
restaurants. Since we were on an island
we had to share the road with traffic, but there were lots of volunteers and it
wasn’t a problem. I would definitely recommend this race.
I would have loved to have spent a lot more time in
the old Key West but had to leave on Monday.
I wasn’t retired when I made the reservations so I wasn’t thinking like
a retired person. Nevertheless, I left
and drove through to a rest stop just south of the Lake City, FL. The next day
I drove to Red Top Mountain State Park in Georgia, spent a day running trails
and then home.
A wonderful 22 days of running and sun! I had a great time. I pushed myself to the max and came away
feeling great. You don’t know until you
try. More proof for my new favorite
saying, which is embroidered on a winter running cap, “Someday I’m not going to
be able to do this. Today is NOT that day!”
Great running!
Russ
