The Disney Goofy - Part 1

Expo

Milkhouse

What do I say about an event I decided to run in October 2008. It was over the St. George Marathon weekend I saw the ad in the Runner's magazine. It seemed like such a good idea and fun adventure then. It did not disappoint.

Mel, Sue and I arrived in Florida on Thursday afternoon, Jan 7, 2010 to participate in the largest endurance event in the world. As our flight was on approach I all of the sudden got very nervous. So nervous I wanted to cry and couldn't talk. Once we landed I calmed down a little bit. We rented the car and drove straight to Disney's Wide World of Sports to pick-up our race packets and go to the Expo. First stop was the Milk House. I found the Goofy area and got my envelope with my numbers, signed the waiver, and the nice man put my wristband on for me. You wear the wristband until the finish of the half and then they put a second one on that's a different color for the marathon. This is how they know you've done both events qualifying you for the coveted Goofy medal. Mel and Sue picked up their Half packets. From there we headed to the Expo.

The Expo was huge with lots of vendors, marathon booths and things every runner needs. Before we got sucked into the booths we picked up the swag bag with our race shirts, etc. For the Goofy you get 3 shirts. Then we perused the official Disney race items. Of course, there were a few necessary items to be purchased there. We spent enough time in the Expo booths to buy some new sunglasses and a "stick" to roll my legs. Then it was time to escape the crowd and start our search for food.

Now a word about the weather. Let me first say all I really wanted to do was run these runs in shorts and tank tops. That's all. That's' it. The weather gods had a different idea. While there Florida experienced a major cold spell. A cold spell of record porportion. Coldest temperatures since they started keeping records. So cold the Orlando weatherman got to use the four letter word "snow." Cold like Utah cold. Cold like I'd been training in the past few months. Frankly, cold I'm tired of. I'd watched the weather forecast before leaving and packed everything but the kitchen sink. Fleece, long pants, hats, gloves, and a tank and shorts just in case. I should have left the tank and shorts home. I wore everything else. Race days the weather was in the 20's at the start. During the Half it rained a little at the start, then stopped, then rained at the finished. The following day for the marathon it was still cold, but dry. By cold I mean cold enough the cups of water at the waterstops had ice in them. Cold enough the water froze on the roads and the nice volunteers were spreading sand and cautioning runners of the black ice so we wouldn't fall down. I think I've made my point. My final comment on the cold is, however, that it wasn't so cold it kept us from having fun. We bundled up and had a great time despite it all.

Sue completed her first half marathon. She did great! We timed it just right to get to the start about 10 minutes prior to our wave starting. The start line was probably about a mile from where we parked and a half mile from the finish line and bag check area. Mickey, Minney, Donald, and Goofy were there to send us off with fireworks. We stayed together for a while between Epcot and the Magic Kingdom. Running down Mainstreet and through the castle were definite highlights. Sue and I were able to meet up to run through the castle together. Disney had a lot going on along the course. High school bands, cheer squads, hot air balloons, Disney employees, characters inside the park and out. It was really fun and definitely never boring. It went by really fast. Before I knew it we were headed back toward Epcot and my mind started to shift to the marathon. It actually was a good preview for the next day. Since I was doing that solo, it was nice to know how things worked and where I needed to be.

Let's briefly talk numbers. Over 12,000 participated in the Half. Over 24,000 participated in the full marathon with 7,000 of them being Goofy runners. That's a big crowd to get lost in...