Lindy Haffner's Goofy Challenge

First of all, if you didn't read Joe's sweet post, and don't know what Goofy's Challenge is, it is a Half Marathon on Saturday and a Full Marathon on Sunday, they also have a 5K on Friday for the ambitious (crazy) which we did as well. I somehow convinced my friends Regan and Diana to sign up for this crazy weekend in January 2008. My friend Kim came too but she is an old pro, having done the Goofy’s Challenge for 3 of the 4 years it has been offered!!We have been planning this race for a year and a half. It is a big commitment financially and physically. Just to register for the Half and Full Marathons came to $250!! I trained with my friends Regan and Diana. We logged some seriously twisted runs, including a back to back 8 mile/16 miler, a 5K race one Saturday morning followed by 15 miles in really cold weather then 12 miles on the treadmill on Sunday because of the snow and then hosting a taco dinner for a family Christmas celebration right after my treadmill run!! We ran in 6 inches of slush for 8 miles and it took us almost 3 hours (picture running in really cold sand for 8 miles!!) When there was a lot of snow, we would run a portion on the treadmill and then meet to run for the rest of the mileage. There was some whining as we were literally freezing our butts off and comparing this training to what we would experience in Florida! But how much whining can you really do when you are going to Florida in January!! My friend Kim has done the Goofy's Challenge for 3 of the 4 years it has been offered. We relied on her wisdom and insight in planning our trip. We didn't seek her advice on training, however. She ran a 5K and a couple of 5 mile runs in between last year's goofy and this year. That is crazy. We saw shirts on the course that said "Running Stupid! I didn't train for this!" We thought Kim needed one too. But she finished all 3 races and didn't seem any worse off than we were.

The 5K starts at 7AM so we were up at 5AM. Which feels like 2AM Seattle time. We had taken a red eye on Wed night though so we had no trouble going to bed by about 10PM Florida time on Thursday night. We did the 5K and then went to Hollywood Studios for the day. We rode the Aerosmith Rockin' Rollercoaster (twice), Tower of Terror, and several other rides. We posed with some power rangers and had a lovely dinner at Mama Melrose's. We came back to the hotel, got our clothes ready for the Half Marathon and went to bed. We were up at 3:00AM (yes Florida time, so feels like midnight!) and we caught the bus to the start at 3:45. The race started at 6AM and Regan and Diana and I all started the race together. Kim ran with her friend Tony who she runs with at all the Disney races (he carries a US flag the whole way!). We got our pictures taken with several characters including Pooh, Cinderella and family, Goofy, Mickey, Donald, Pluto and Chip and Dale among others. We spend a lot of the race trying to get around walkers (and stopping for photos didn't help our cause). We crossed the finish line together, holding hands at 2:48:41. We ran through the Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom. It was nice weather with a decent breeze and we had a great run. We finshed, I found an instructor at the massage booth who wailed on my IT band for about 20 minutes (I paid for 11 minutes) and we headed off to shower and sit by the pool. We all felt pretty good except the bottoms of my feet were sore. I wore old shoes because I accidentally washed (and DRIED) the shoes I was scheduled to wear and they were a size too small. So I chose less cushioning old shoes over losing toenails. We got up Sunday Morning (same time) to do it all again (but twice as far!) I wanted to take it pretty easy on Sunday and we stuck together for the first half of the race. I had Regan's camera and I asked her if she wanted to take it and go ahead with Diana or if she wanted me to hold it. She said I could hold it. Well Diana and Regan just had more left at the halfway point than I did and they kept up the pace. I just did what i could. It was hot and muggy and my feet hurt. So once they were off I just enjoyed the race and got as many pictures with characters as I could. I think I counted 25 pictures with characters over the whole trip and 2/3 must have been during the races. I figured if I was taking my time, I might as well take pictures. I even had to wait a long time in Epcot to get my picture taken with Aladdin while a mom complained about how you have to walk all over the park to get pictures with characters and she wasn't even taking a picture of her daughter, then when her daughter was done and it was the runner ahead's turn she had her daughter go back for a picture because "we never see Aladdin!" So that added some time!! So when we get all the pictures from Regan's camera I will actually post a photo more recent than 1979 on my page.
Diana and Regan finished in 5:44 and I finished in 6:44 just 10 minutes ahead of Kim who didn't train!! Kim's mom and aunt were down there and we happened to get on the same bus to the hotel as they did. They bought us each a drink at the pool side bar and we enjoyed our cold beverages before we even showered!! That was the best drink I have ever had. Nevermind that it was only about 1:30 in the afternoon (we won't count it as 10:30 Seattle time!!).
So we had a wonderful dinner at Wolfgang Puck's that night and my very sweet husband jumped through hoops (more than you would have thought necessary) to have the restaurant give me a congratulations card and buy a round of drinks for us Goofy Girls! We slept well that night. On Monday it was my birthday and Kim had balloons in our room when I woke up and a big Happy Birthday sign. I got to wear a Happy Birthday pin and got into Epcot for free (free admission to a disney park on your birthday in 2009!) Everyone at Epcot wished me a Happy Birthday and it was a truly magical day. We wore our Garmins (GPS tracking) while at Epcot on Monday and we logged almost 13 miles (and that didn't count our indoor miles) on our rest day! We all had so much fun.
So what I have taken away from this weekend is that anyone can do this. I don't care if you can't walk or run, you can do this. I saw a guy out there on crutches (he probably injured himself training but wasn't willing to quit). I saw people who were concerned that they were going to get picked up by the sag wagon (if you don't hit certain mile markers by a given time, they pick you up and you can't finish the race). I don't think everyone has to do this but I think everyone should challenge themselves to do something out of reach. Maybe it is a longer distance race, maybe it is consecutive races, I don't know. But I do know it feels great to have completed the challenge that seemed so big. Now I better get my shoes out and start thinking about the Seattle Rock n Roll Marathon (my 3rd marathon in 8 months) in June!! Run on friends!