Countdown to the Marathon - T Minus 14 Weeks

Training at T Minus 14 weeks (Oct 3-9)

Another week of training for the Disney Marathon coming up on January 13, 2013. My training log for T Minus 14 weeks (Oct 3-9):

Miles ran:  21.2 (6mi, 13.2mi, 3mi- hills)

Miles scheduled: 25

Cross training: Circuit Training x 1

Total miles run since training began: 190

My weight:  X-2 (weight seems to be staying the same; much to my dismay)

Running song o’ the week:  Pretty Girl Rock by Keri Hilson.

Audiobook: I’m about 1/10^th of the way through Life of Pi by Yann Martel. This is the first fiction book I’ve listened to while running. I’m enjoying it, but I find it doesn’t motivate me to run faster. Seems to be good for my long, slow runs. This is not the normal type of book I read (um, have you met me? I read/write/breathe romance), but expanding your mental boundaries is good, right? Right??

General Notes: So I totally kicked butt at the Crawlin’ Crab Half Marathon on Sunday (read about it here). Beat my half marathon PR by over 8 minutes!  Averaged a 9:15 min/mile pace, which I would’ve said was impossible for me, but evidently if I don’t listen to my brain tell me I’m tired then I can maintain a fast pace much longer than I thought.

All this PR stuff has me thinking about my goal time for the Disney Marathon.  In 2011 I ran it in a ridiculously slow time of 5:18:44 (12:09 min/mile pace average). But, that was my first marathon ever and mile goal was just to complete it. Goal accomplished. 

In January I plan to definitely PR. Barring some injury or other cataclysmic race event (like 90 degree weather or hailstorms), there is no reason why I shouldn’t have a faster time. I know I can trim at least 15 minutes off my time by not stopping to take pictures. Honestly, the amount of pictures I took in my last Disney marathon was ludicrous – some people take a week-long vacation and don’t take as many pictures as I did. I’ve included some (only some!) of them for your viewing pleasure here -- and yes, all of these were during my marathon.

The fear of public failure part of me wants to set a goal time of anything under 4:45:00. That would be an average pace of 10:52 min/mile. There should be no reason why I can’t do that. 

But a secret part of me wants to aim for under 4:30:00. That would be a pace of 10:17 min/mile. Significantly more difficult for me to maintain for 26.2 miles. Despite that I’m saying this in public blog, I find it very difficult for publicly announce this as my goal and begin to chase it. Maybe as I continue to train I’ll get more confident in my ability to reach this goal.

Or maybe I’ll just let it totally go and be happy with the 4:45:00 goal. Cuz I’m a coward.

Please Don't Let Me Win the Lottery...

This week I played the lottery.  And while everyone else hopes they win the lottery, I kinda hope I don’t. 

That probably has to do with the fact that if I win my lottery I don’t get any money. As a matter of fact, if I win I have to pay money. Hundreds and hundreds of dollars by the time it is all said and done. 

To run in the 2012 NYC Marathon. 

I applied for a non-guaranteed entry spot into the NYC marathon which will be held on November 4, 2012.  I am not fast enough to qualify for a guaranteed entry spot; in order to do that I would have to run a half-marathon in 1 hour 37 minutes (my fastest half-marathon time is 2:09).

Epcot - 5:30am

I have only run one other marathon: Walt Disney World in January 2011. That was a great experience (except for the wanting to die around mile 22 part). At the WDW marathon you get to run through all four of the theme parks: first through Epcot, then Magic Kingdom, the Animal Kingdom, and finally Hollywood Studios. Running through the parks makes it almost worth having to be at the start line at 3:30am.

Stopping for pics...

The Disney marathon is exceptionally well-organized and a truly magical experience. I would suggest it to anyone who wanted to run a marathon – especially people, like me, who aren’t fast. Unlike Boston, Disney loves the five hour marathoners too. (I would like to say in my defense, I probably could’ve done it in about 4:30 if I hadn’t stopped to take so many pictures with Disney characters).

NYC will of course be very different from Disney.  The NYC Marathon is one of the “Big 5” marathons (for those who don’t speak Runner’s World, the Big 5 marathons are those part of the World Marathon Majors: NYC, Chicago, Boston, London, and Berlin). NYC will actually be shown on live television this year, for the first time in 20 years. Probably because they heard I’m applying.

Besides Disney, NYC is the only other marathon I’ve ever been interested in running. It is on my Bucket List. The course is completely fabulous and goes through all five boroughs.  It begins on Staten Island, crosses into Brooklyn, up through Queens, flips around in the Bronx and ends in Manhattan smack in the middle of Central Park. 47,000 people ran the NYC marathon in 2011 and will again in 2012.
The marathon basically shuts down the entire city for most of a day. 

I have to be honest; my chances of winning the lottery are not good.  The marathon organizers estimate the percentage of accepted lottery applicants will be between 8-12%. So there’s a 90% chance I won’t have to run the hundreds and hundreds of training miles needed to adequately prepare for a marathon. I would get to keep all my toenails this summer, not have to get up at 6am to run before it gets too hot, and could eliminate the words foot cramps, runner’s gel and porta-potties from my regular vocabulary. 

The good news for me is this: I will run the NYC marathon.  They used to have what I call the “three strikes, you’re in” policy. If you apply and are denied entry for three consecutive lotteries, you move into the “guaranteed entry” section for the fourth race.  I applied in 2011 and was rejected. That means if I am denied this year and 2013, I will automatically be able to run in 2014.  I’m fortunate because the race organizers eliminated the policy in 2012(because of the growing number of applicants), so I am in the last group who will be grandfathered in.

I’ll be sure to announce in late April when I hear if I "won" the lottery.  And if I do, I'm sure I'll be complaining about my luckiness all the way to the first weekend of November...

You Get to Sleep With Liz Tonight!

I have been friends with Vinnie for over 20 years. He and I worked together at a movie theater in Atlanta in the early 90s. I think he had a crush on me (of course, most did at that time – look at how cute I was) but we never dated.  My loss, I’m sure.

Janie & Vinnie - Disney World 1992

Twenty years ago Vinnie & I pulled off the near impossible. As teenagers in the summer of ‘92, we each somehow talked our very conservative parents into allowing us (along with two other friends who also worked at the movie theater) to take a road trip to Orlando.  We convinced them to let us stay at a hotel for two nights (boys AND girls in the same hotel room?? <gasp> the scandal!) and basically have a weekend of fun.

Looking back on it now, I realize we were all over 18 and could’ve done whatever we wanted, with or without our parents’ consent. But not having their consent never occurred to us. We thought we had achieved something wonderful, whether due to our gifts of persuasion, use of the Force, whatever. We didn't really care why they said yes, just that they did.

To many, probably most, the joy of this little escapade – our sheer delight at being allowed to carry it out, will be lost. It was a different time, the world was a different place.  We had an absolute blast. We did every possible stupid teenager thing you could imagine – ate junk food until we were sick, talked our way into a movie theater without paying, drank WAY too much caffeine, and went to all the Disney parks in one day.

The infamous Liz with whom everyone got to sleep...

If you went to Disney in 1992 and had a camcorder, you might want to check to see if you have a shot of some random teenager saying, “You get to sleep with Liz tonight!” (Liz was a co-conspirator on our trip). For some reason we said that next to every camcorder we saw that day. And each time we thought it was HILARIOUS in that way only stupid teenagers can find stupid stuff funny.

Now, twenty years later, Vinnie & I have pulled off the near impossible again.  Calling upon our gifts of persuasion, or the Force, or whatever, we have somehow talked our spouses into allowing us to run in this crazy race from Miami to Key West. And although there won’t be any hotel rooms, we may still throw in a couple of “You get to sleep with Liz tonight!” if we see a camcorder.