Disney's Goofy Race and a Half Challenge
Orlando, Florida: 6-7 January 2007
Part I

Race report from Frank Colella

 Given the warm weather we've experienced in the Northeast so far this winter, I didn't think Florida in January would be too stressful, climate-wise.  But as we stepped off the plane in Orlando, the unusually hot weather coupled with the palm trees made it seem like summer.  Also of note was the high humidity that hung in the air.  If this was an indication of race conditions, it would be two very long days of running.  The race reports I had read detailed the frigid starts of the previous two years.  Now the weather pendulum had swung in the opposite direction.

 The Goofy Challenge (Disney actually calls it the "Race and a Half") has runners complete the half marathon on Saturday and full marathon on Sunday.  It was introduced last year when the race organizers decided to hold the events on separate days.  All 3000 entries for Goofy sold out quickly.  This year Disney added a 5k family fun run on Friday morning - but either didn't get the logistics down or didn't imagine anyone would want to run three races in one weekend because it wasn't marketed to the Goofy participants.  I'll go out on a limb and predict next year we'll see runners doing all three - officially or not.

 Saturday morning I stood at the starting line of the half marathon completely drenched in sweat.  This was primarily a result of the temperature in the high 60's and 100% humidity.  But we also had to walk over a mile from the Epcot parking lot, the staging area for both races, to the corrals.  It was a long walk, and when we arrived we had at least 45 more minutes to wait for the actual start.  On the walk there I spotted a Marathon Maniac singlet and introduced myself as a fellow maniac - literally or figuratively, whichever fits.  When he told me his name I recognized him from his 2006 race reports posted on cool running.  He told me that this year he was posting his race reports in installments, which seemed very logical, given the multi-day aspect of the  Challenge.  Too bad I didn't have similar determination, or equipment for that matter, to report in quasi-real time.
 We both started in the same coral, directly behind the elite runners.  He introduced me to another MM, this one from Texas, when we reached the coral.  Given the darkness of the early morning and the big movie screen that served as the focal point for all race announcements, information, and entertainment, it felt like I was at a drive-in theater.  In fact, occasionally a couple of cameramen wove in and out of the coral to film the runners and project those images on the big screen.  Easily the most memorable moment had to be the guy who proposed to his girlfriend.  Lucky for him, she kissed him and said yes.  What a long 13 miles it would have been had she said I'll get back to on that one - ha.

 With that bit of romance to warm our already sweating hearts, Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and last but not least, Goofy himself, emerged two minutes from the start to officially kick off the half marathon.  They would also reappear, on cue, the next morning to officially start the marathon.  What added spice were the fireworks, after the Star Spangled Banner and again as the start gun went off.  After all that fanfare, off we went into the early morning darkness of the highway.  I realized it was going to be a tough 13 miles when I reached the first mile marker in 7:45.  Dripping in sweat and already laboring, I couldn't believe that was my actual split time!  I had some delusional belief that I could run this entire half at a 7:30 pace - and still keep something in reserve for the marathon.  The night before I had done an easy 3 miles on the hotel treadmill - at a 7:35 pace.  Granted that was in an air conditioned exercise room, and I had a t.v. to keep me company - but this first mile mercilessly crushed that 7:30 target.

 It was, in fact, my fastest mile of the entire half.  The next 3 miles were pretty much the same, bouncing between 7:45 and 7:50... lots of sweat, lots of humidity... but I was somehow still smiling.  In fact, the Contemporary Hotel loomed ahead - an imposing structure that straddled the monorail track.  Pretty hilarious was running downhill into an underpass alongside the hotel while craning my neck to take in that sight, only to have to climb out of the underpass a minute later.  Did I mention the hills on this course?  Well the dirty little secret is that they're not called hills.  They go by this completely innocuous term, "overpasses!"  Let's set the record straight - every overpass is a hill.

 But there was enough truly flat terrain to minimize the impact of the overpasses.  Don't know if it was the terrain, the Disney characters running loose in the Magic Kingdom, or the cumulative effects of the humidity, but miles 5 through 9 were all between 8:00 and 8:15.  It was in this stretch of mileage that I experienced my favorite moment of the race (I could easily say best moment of both races): running through Cinderella's castle.  I'm hardly sentimental, but the run through the castle and the sight of the beautiful Disney panorama lit up in Christmas-like colored lights set against the dawn was truly awesome.  My little reverie was suddenly broken as I emerged from the castle to be greeted by the seven dwarves in the midst of a synchronized wave!  That was pretty weird.  Even weirder was the sharp right turn the course took as we exited the castle - clinging to what could be called modest night vision - into the bright flashes of the official photographers taking our official photos w/the castle as a backdrop.  I hadn't reached the point in my personal race where expletives become a welcome diversion to the rigors of long distance, but I was willing to part with a few choice ones then and there when I almost crashed onto the faux marble steps navigating that exploding flashbulb minefield... phew!
 In any event, at about the 10k split, the course headed out of the Magic Kingdom and back onto the highway for our return to Epcot.  Daylight was upon us and as we retraced our footsteps on the southbound side of the highway, a long stream of runners approached the Magic Kingdom on the northbound side.  This was the third wave of runners - let loose from the start at 6:30 (wave two started at 6:10).  They were so full of enthusiasm that it was infectious - and they also cheered us on!  A classic long stretch of runners moving in opposite directions on an out and back portion of course - what a sight.  Despite the inspiration, I couldn't increase my pace.

 I don't remember what exactly overtook me at mile ten - maybe just had to test myself to see if I really could run "fast" - clearly a relative term in this context.  So cranked out a 7:52 mile for a ten mile split of 1:20 even.  Boy was I proud of myself for a few fleeting seconds.  But I smiled way too soon because mile 11 was an 8:35 - my slowest mile of the race.  In my defense, I will add that the biggest overpass of the course was in that mile.  Still, I quickly reigned in whatever misplaced enthusiasm I had, and ran a couple of 8:15 miles to finish up the race.  My official time of 1:46:07 was easily my personal worst performance for a half marathon.  But I was just so happy to get part one of the Goofy Challenge in the books that it really didn't matter.
 Actually, I still had some race logistics to deal with at the finish.  With the Donald Duck finisher's medal around my neck, I made my way to the Goofy tent and extended my right hand to the volunteers.  They expertly cut off the orange wristband I had worn since the expo, and replaced it with a blue one to wear for the marathon.  The only anxiety I experienced the entire trip was constantly checking to see I still had those wrist bands on.  The one significant rule applicable to all Goofy Challenge participants was to arrive at the finish line with wristband intact.  If it was broken, you'd be disqualified - or so that was the threat.  But a powerful threat it was indeed!  Given my delicate mental state during the race, had it broken on the course, I would have probably cried like a baby... phew.

Disney's Goofy Race and a Half Challenge
Orlando, Florida: 6-7 January 2007
Part II

Race report by Frank Colella

 For the second straight morning the wake-up call came at 3:00 a.m., and I rolled out of bed and got ready for another Disney race.  Yesterday had a cab to drive me to the start.  The cab was in front of the hotel at exactly 4 a.m., but the driver insisted he had to take me to Port Royale, the closest Disney hotel, and I would need to ride a shuttle bus to the start.  I was in no mood to argue with him, nor was I happy about that little surprise.  But I arrived at the start no worse for the wear - and that's really all that mattered.
 
 So marathon morning I expected to head over to Port Royale and again take the shuttle.  To my surprise, when I got to the lobby there was no cab!  Not only was there no cab, but there was no one at the front desk.  As the minutes ticked away, I stood outside and wondered how I would get to the start.  I was just about to call the cab company when a little compact car pull up right in front of me with a runner behind the wheel.  He leaned over and asked me if I need a lift to the start!  Honestly, you can't make this stuff up!  So I got in the and we drove over to Epcot! 

 The corals were located in the opposite direction from the half marathon start.  The walk was a little shorter than the mile we had walked to the start of the half, but not by much.  On the way there I found another runner in a Marathon Maniac singlet, and introduced myself.  Turned out he was from Florida, and also running the Goofy Challenge.  We were both in the blue start - which meant we ran through Epcot, while the red start ran around the park.  At about the 3.5 mile mark the two paths merged and everyone ran the same course from that point onward.

 There was a slight break in the humidity: 93% instead of 100% for the half.  That minor drop had a noticeable effect in the short run - it just seemed cooler.  As it turned out, ran a decent 3 miles before I found myself drenched in sweat.  But the major difference between the two days was the fog hanging over Orlando.  It was so thick that it effected visibility. It also lingered for the first 15 miles of my race.  My most vivid memory of the early miles was having to wipe the front of my glasses with my fingers, then a few minutes later, remove my glasses and wipe the inside of the lens with a corner of my soaked singlet.  Had to do that "glasses-cleaning" routine well over a dozen times in the first hour and a half of the race.

 It seemed that I was confronted with a myriad of technical problems that morning - such as making a dash for the porta-john as soon as the gun went off.  That was a record for the shortest race distance run before succumbing to bathroom break!  But it was planned because I was stuck at the front of my coral and there wasn't enough time to climb over the fence and make a dash for the trees before the start.  Given that little distraction in mile one, my split was 9:20.  Today I targeted 8:30 miles and felt pretty confident I could get through at least the first 15 miles well below that pace.  In fact, ran between 8 and 8:15 for miles 2 through 10 - with a 10 mile split time of 1:23:36.  Despite the fog, the foggy glasses, and the ever present humidity, felt much better, physically, than I did the day before.

 Retracing the half marathon course to the Magic Kingdom was humorous because the "sights" were hardly visible in the fog.  It was downright eerie approaching the Contemporary Hotel that I knew loomed over the monorail, and was such an imposing sight the day before, because I could hardly see it until we were practically at its front door!  The fog also dampened the Cinderella Castle experience.  A pale shadow of it's earlier self against the foggy morning - and the run through it didn't have that same sparkle because the most of the lights weren't visible as we exited.  Despite the murky sight-seeing conditions, I didn't feel as if I had missed anything because it was still so fresh in my mind from the day before. 

 On the highway headed to the Animal Kingdom, the sun had finally burned off most of the fog.  So between miles 12-15, the conditions progressively brightened and dried off.  Meanwhile, during the that particular stretch (miles 11-15) my pace slowed to 8:15 and 8:30 miles - with my split for 15 miles a 2:05.  At this point I found myself running in the middle of the 3:40 pace group.  I enjoyed the company, but had no serious expectation of a 3:40 marathon.  Lost my connection to the 3:40 pace group at 16 miles, just inside the Animal Kingdom.  I needed to make a quick pit stop at that point. 

 It turned out that 16 would be my last sub 9 minute mile until the finish.  Including the longer than usual pit stop - where I took advantage of nice dry toilet paper to get rid of the last drops of moisture from my glasses - mile 17 clocked in at a whopping 12:58!  After that small aberration, I basically settled into a routine of alternating 9 and 10 minute miles.  Midway through mile 20, I slowed down to a walk as I reached a GU station... but it wasn't the GU that caught my attention - it was the beer!  I reminded myself that this was Disney, and it was probably non-alcoholic beer.  But I compromised and had a Cola flavored GU, instead of the beer... I know that's pretty lame... and I spent 11:15 for that mile.

 This stretch was run on the highway between the Animal Kingdom and MGM Studios.  I had read race reports that found this portion uninteresting (a polite way of saying dull?), but I was amazed at all the stuff going on.  It also helped that the sun was out and the dreary grey skies were gone.  But right after the beer offer, I came upon a British cover band cranking out the Rolling Stone's "Satisfaction" (which in itself was a welcome break from all the Beatles tunes heard on the course).  On the short out and back stretch that was mile 21, I was offered strawberry Twizzlers (perfect!) at the turnaround by Disney's Wide World of Sports (site of the race Expo).  Since this  was an out and back, both sides of the road were lined with spectators and aid stations, making it pretty loud for an otherwise lonely stretch of highway.

 Nor was there was a lack of spectator cheering on the way to MGM Studios - but there was another one of those nasty "little" overpasses.  By the time we actually ran through MGM Studios, the park was open and starting to fill with regular (non-race connected) visitors.  The image I liked the most was my run past the fake New York subway station with Brooklyn as the destination.  Did they put that up just for me?  Also, the transition between MGM and Epcot was beautiful since it was run on a promenade alongside a clutch of Disney waterfront properties that encircled a lake.  With the sun shining, a more picturesque scene couldn't have been dreamed up.

 As I reentered Epcot, my mile 25 split was 3:47 and I could finish in under 4 hours if I  ran the last 1.2 miles in under 13 minutes.  My primary goal was to finish the race and complete state number 15 in my quest to run a marathon in all 50 states.  My second goal was to finish, blue wristband intact, and complete the Goofy Challenge.  I wasn't seriously concerned about my finish time.  But ego being what it is - a force of darkness, haha - instead of coasting home in that last mile, I dutifully picked up the pace and ran mile 26 in 8:49.  Needless to add - but I will just the same, I was very happy with my 3:57 finish!!

 I collected my Mickey Mouse medal at the finish, and a few wobbly steps later presented myself at the Goofy tent to collect the Goofy medal.  Nice deal, three medals for the price of two.  I would definitely recommend the Disney marathon experience to anyone.  In fact, this would probably be an excellent first marathon experience, given the incredible base of support thrown into the race by Disney.  But for the old timer (experienced marathoner), and jaded runners everywhere, take on the Goofy Challenge for something fun and different.

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