Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Marathon Weekend Approaches

One more day at the office and then its time to head south for marathon weekend at Walt Disney World. This trip will bring a few new experiences. On Wednesday night I will be catching Yeehaa Bob's show over at Port Orleans Riverside with Lisa and Trace. Hopefully Andy from Minnesota will be stopping by as well. Andy and I poked a little fun at each others home states once in a awhile on All About the Mouse. It all started when he said "there's nothing in Iowa but corn." To which I replied 'that's not true, we also grow soy beans."

It turns out that Andy has been working at Epcot while participating in Disney's college program. Today is his last official day to work but his family is coming down for a few days. Hopefully Andy can make it to Yeehaa Bob and if he can't then I hope we can meet up somewhere while I'm down there.

Also new this year is that I'm adding the 5K on Friday. I just could not resist signing up when I found out the theme was Three Caballeros. I will also be dressing up for that event. The plan for the 5K is just to enjoy and take it easy...


... The real work comes during the half. I'm actually more nervous about this run than I was going into the Des Moines Half last October. The holidays brought on a number snacks which my will power slipped on numerous times. The cooler temps here had pushed me into the gym and onto the elliptical for awhile. I did realize that for me the elliptical was not going to cut it come race dance. It helped with weight managment but as I mentioned a couple posts back, I learned that my breathing was way off when I converted back to the road. So it's been nothing but treadmill and open road when the weather has been nice.

Goals for the half.

Primary Goal: Beat this years Des Moines Half finish time of 2:29. That would put me 20 minutes ahead of my best Disney time.

Secondary Goal: Beat my 2008 Des Moines Half finish time off 2:22. This would be a personal best.

Where am I on reaching these goals? I feel pretty confident about my primary goal. My only concern is that Florida will be more humid that Des Moines was in October.

As for reaching the secondary goal. It is certainly possible. My long runs has been averaging a pace between 10:20 and 10:34. That puts me right in the ballpark. I would really like to meet this goal but I would be just as happy to break that 2:29.

Had a little photo shop fun with the course map below. It's pretty accurate. The finish is wrong and it appears to loop around Magic Kingdom but otherwise the roads lines up nicely. I created this because I wanted to see how the water stops lined up. I've always pictured the the first and second stops to be the furthest appart. Looks like I was way off. Its actually the stops after mile 7 and 9 making those two full miles apart.


The ten day forcast in Orlando is calling for great temps. 50s in the morning and 70s in the afternoon. Everyone remember to keep hydrated going into the weekend. See you all soon.

4 comments:

Chris said...

The weather is a blessing and a curse. I think it was a little cooler for the half last year if I remember it correctly. Although, I completely overdressed for that, so it might have been similar. I know the full this year will be much warmer as I was freezing my rear end off last year in shorts and t-shirt! Like you said, just keep hydrated and everything will be just fine.

As far as humidy is concerned, I don't recall it being all that bad in general down there, but yeah, sure it's more than the dryness of the great white north!

sambycat said...

i’m so proud and also insanely jealous of you. you are proof that your hard work is paying off. see you tomorrow!

Amanda said...

You're going to do awesome Jeff. I have no doubt all your hardwork is going to pay off.

I'm actually worried about the weather - it's pretty warm, especially for the full. We shall see I suppose :).

See you soon!

Rae! said...

just have fun