The Somewhat Goofy 2006 Disney World Marathon
Races
by Bob Kopac
“Build
it, and they will come.” from Field of
Dreams movie
Lynne and I traveled to Orlando, Florida to visit
Lynne’s sister Jan and for Lynne to run a half marathon at the Walt Disney
World Marathon races (marathon, half marathon, Family Fun Run 5K and Kids’
Races). There were 16,000+ half-marathon and 14,000+ marathon preregistrants. The
half marathon finishers would receive the Donald Duck medal, and the marathoners
would receive the Mickey Mouse medal.
This year, for the first time, Disney decided to have
the half marathon on Saturday and the marathon on Sunday. Since these races would be held on different
days, it was possible for a runner to run both races. For all runners who
wanted to attempt that challenge, Disney created the—what else—Goofy’s Race and
a Half Challenge, with runners who completed both races receiving a Goofy medal!
During the pre-race Q&A session at the Runners’ Expo,
Disney officials said they had thought at most several hundred runners would
want to do both races. However, they were surprised when they ended up with 2,956
Goofy’s Challenge preregistrants. At the Q&A, the announcer asked for a
show of hands of who was doing the Goofy’s Challenge. This unscientific poll
showed that the majority of Goofy’s Challengers were men in the 40’s, 50’s, and
60’s; that is, they were old enough to know better.
An attendee asked what a runner would get if he
decided to run the half, the full, AND the Family Fun Run 5K. The surprised
officials said they had not considered that anyone would want to do such a
thing, so there was no additional medal. However, they joked that such an
individual probably deserved a Dopey medal.
And perhaps you had to be Dopey, or at least somewhat Goofy,
to want to run in the cold weather. Cold in Orlando? Yes! With a predicted low of 34 degrees with a
wind chill factor of 25 degrees on Saturday and a low of 32 degrees on Sunday,
the Walt Disney World races would be colder than both the 2005 Boston (April) and
New York City (November) marathons!
The runners were requested to be at the staging area
by 4 AM for a 6 AM start. This meant a lot of cold runners who resembled the
Disney character Sleepy. Fortunately, Saturday’s predicted wind did not appear
until midway through the half marathon, so the cold was bearable—at least to
Northern runners such as Lynne. Southern runners suffered, however. They could
be seen huddled together in packs trying to stay warm, or heard due to their chattering
teeth.
The green toy soldier from the Toy Story movie directed runner traffic at the staging area. He gave
orders such as, “You runners are known for moving, so I want you to move NOW to
the corrals. Move it!” It was a 20-minute walk from the staging area to the
corrals. Before the race, several of the runners relieved themselves in the
woods, even though course officials warned the runners of the possibility of
poisonous snakes as well as other nasty creatures. Spectators were not allowed
at the half-marathon starting location. Instead, Disney broadcast the race
start on a large screen at the staging area.
The half-marathon course was not as scenic as the
marathon course, which went through 4 Disney parks (Magic Kingdom,
Animal Kingdom, Disney-MGM Studios, and Epcot). The half marathon was staged mostly on service
roads, which, due to safety and security reasons, were mostly closed to
spectators. Commenting on the long stretches on the course without spectators,
Lynne likened it to a long training run with multiple running partners. The
half marathon course did run through two parks: the Magic
Kingdom and Epcot Center.
There were pockets of spectators by the Disney resorts
and on the service roads. Lynne saw high school cheerleaders and a band. There
also was a cheering section where the volunteers were dressed up as running
brides and grooms, with the males dressed in black sports clothes with top hats
and Mickey Mouse ears and the females dressed in white sports clothes with
veils and Minnie Mouse ears.
Coaches for various charity teams were allowed on the
restricted course to cheer the runners. One Leukemia Team in Training coach had
streaked her hair purple. Poughkeepsie,
NY Train to End Stroke Coach
Larry Knapp and other TTES coaches cheered on the runners.
Due to the road closures, Larry had to be at his
position at mile 11 by 4 AM. Since this was also ¾ of a mile from the start, he
was able to see the runners going out and coming back. Larry said he probably
ran a good 10 to 12 miles at the half marathon, running for 1½ miles with Train
to End Stroke members from around the country before returning to his position
on the course.
The Train to End Stroke coach from Pittsburgh, who was an ultra-marathoner, ran
both the half and the full as a pacer/sweeper while dressed as Minnie Mouse.
Running at a 13-minute pace, she helped the last runners finish in 3 ½ hours
for the half and 7 hours for the marathon before the course closed down. For
the marathon, Larry walked the last 10 miles as a sweeper with a Leukemia Team in
Training coach.
Larry, whose father had passed away due to a stroke,
started running in 2001 to get in shape, and became a TTES coach in June 2003.
Over time, Larry has trained up to 100 people to run marathons for TTES. (For
more information about the Hudson Valley, NY Train to End Stroke program,
contact Kelly Heaney of the American Heart Association at 518-869-4046 or via kelly.heaney@heart.org e-mail address.)
In the Magic
Kingdom, the half
marathoners traversed Main Street,
then ran behind Cinderella’s castle and exited through the castle entrance,
where two of the mice characters from the Cinderella movie encouraged the
runners.
Spectators were allowed to take the Monorail to Main Street to
cheer the runners. Lynne did not see the exotic dancing of Chip and Dale on Main Street as I
did. However, she said she had the opportunity to high-five Captain Hook, which
I thought would have been very painful.
While on Main
Street, I photographed Bekkie Wright of Manchester, CT.
She was dressed as Minnie Mouse with white gloves, mouse ears, a red dress with
white polka-dots, and yellow sneakers with red bow ties. Bekkie, a member of
the Hi-Tek Racing Team (see http://www.hitekracing.com),
later e-mailed me, “I actually did the Goofy Challenge – Half Marathon on
Saturday and Marathon on Sunday in 2 separate outfits (both Minnie) and did a
cartwheel across the Finish Line both days. Lucky I didn’t pass out on the 2nd
day…When I did the marathon on Sunday I almost finished with Supergirl, Batman
and Spiderman. Now that would have made a good picture. At least I beat the
Japanese guy dressed as Minnie.”
The Hanson’s Running Team dominated the half marathon.
With their distinctive yellow and black singlets, the team members were easy to
spot, especially since they were at the front of the pack. The top 3 male
runners were Hanson’s Running Team members: Josh Eberly in a time of 1:08:12,
Josh Moen in 1:08:12 (and a fraction of a second), and Jeff Gaudett in 1:08:21.
On the women’s side, Hanson’s Running Team members Melissa White and Dorothy
McMahan finished 1st and 2nd in 1:18:33 and 1:19:01.
Lynne did very well, setting a PR of 2:17:49, breaking
her previous PR set in 2001 (before cancer) by 50 seconds and finishing 13
minutes faster than her 2005 More Marathon half-marathon time. She said it was
due to the track workouts of Coach Steve Perks and to runs led by Bob Dinsmore.
There was a sad event at the half-marathon finish
line. 43-year-old professional golfer Willie Kane of Tucson, Arizona,
collapsed and died after finishing the race. An autopsy later showed he died due
to an undiagnosed heart condition.
On Sunday, 27-year-old Adriano Bastos of Sao Paulo, Brazil,
became the first 3-time winner of the WDW Marathon, finishing in a time of
2:19:44. The female winner was 23-year-old Paige Higgins of Littleton, Colorado
in a time of 2:51:36.
The race results on the Internet did not list the finishers
of the Goofy’s Challenge. Understandably, the top runners of the half marathon
did not appear in the list of the top runners of the marathon. However,
18-year-old female wheelchair athlete Kristen Messer received the Goofy medal
by finishing 1st in both events (2:00:42 for the half, and 4:09:11
for the marathon). 45-year-old female wheelchair athlete Bobbie McKinney also
was a Goofy’s Challenge finisher, placing 3rd in the half (3:32:23) and 2nd
in the marathon (6:40:25). In the hand-crank division, male athlete Mackey Tyndall
placed first in both events (1:00:04 and 2:11:07), and Dick Pace placed 3rd
in the half and 2nd in the marathon (2:00:45 and 2:11:10). It may
seem strange that Dick Pace’s time for the marathon was less than 1 minute more
than his time for the half, but since he finished the half in the same time as
Kristine Schroeder, my guess is that he rode with her at her pace for the half.
Remember that I had said earlier that there were
16,000+ half-marathon and 14,000+ marathon preregistrants? The Internet results
showed there were 11,761 half-marathon finishers and 10,131 marathon finishers.
Lynne was surprised at the large number of DNF’s. My theory is that since both
races are run before the Disney parks open, and since the finish lines are outside
of the parks, that meant there were
4,239+ half marathoners and 3,869+ marathoners who dropped out of the race
while inside a park. They then hid in the bathrooms until the parks opened.
Disney could prove my theory by counting the number of toilet paper rolls used on
race days. I will bet the number will be far greater than on non-race days.
Lynne’s Donald Duck half-marathon medal was serious
bling bling—golden, heavy, and in the shape of Donald Duck’s head. Goofy’s
Challenge finishers received the Donald Duck medal, the Mickey Mouse medal, and
the Goofy medal—enough medal to weigh down their suitcases and set off the
airport metal detector alarms. So, if you are interested in heavy medal and are
Goofy enough for the Goofy’s Race and a Half Challenge, try the Walt Disney World
Marathon races.
