An Unexpected Journey Part 1

*Author's note: This was started in late December BEFORE the Dopey, and I finished it after the Dopey to explain the first sentence.*

So as Jeff and I prepare (mentally and physically) for the Dopey next month… I thought it would be interesting to look at our journey over the last year.  Neither of us ever thought of ourselves are runners, or in my case in anyway athletically inclined.  As a freshman in high school they made us all run/walk a mile, I walked it, in 18 minutes.  I ran track for a short period of time in high school too and was a dismal failure, and of course the tour de force? I had to take a physical ed class in college and chose jogging… Yes folks, you are talking to the only person who has EVER failed jogging class.  Yep.  Me.  Of course after that dismal display I actually did start running at the college track and made it up to about 2 miles before “quitting”.  

Some "before" pictures, which shows WHY we started to run.  On the left is Jeff at Coaster Con 2009, (when it was in Branson/Kansas City), and then me in 2006 at Patriot Opening.

So to get back to this year… we ran our first 5K last January.  But the story doesn’t begin there either.  I actually started jogging (again), about 3-4 years prior.  I didn’t really keep track to be honest I wasn’t doing it (originally) to run any races (remember my prior experience in track…) I did it actually to lose weight.  

 It all started with an old pair of cargo shorts, a t-shirt and a pair of old tennis shoes.  I didn’t even know at this point there was such a thing as proper running attire (except for maybe the shoes part).  I got up to about 3 miles this time, running the streets around where I lived.   Jeff started running with me a bit, but claimed it was “boring”,  until he discovered the Little Blue Trace Trail.  About three years ago we started running there and made it up to about 6-7 total miles.  Again no plans to run an actual race, and by that time a race would have probably been a good thing, as there was nothing to keep us going.  So when school started, and it got cold, so we felt we “had” to quit. 

That winter I found the Sermon Center in Independence which had a small workout room with about 4 treadmills, membership was only $15 a year, it wasn’t a bad deal and kept us going off and on.

So back to October of 2012, we had come to Disney in January every year for about 10-11 years, a few years prior a fellow vacationer had mentioned the Disney Marathon races to us… and we had considered signing up for a 5K for a few months.  After all hadn’t we been running that distance for years anyway?  But there was a big difference between running for yourself and running among a bunch of other supposedly more highly qualified real runners.  We decided to take the plunge though and signed up…

 Our first race finish, the WDW 20th Anniversary 5K

January 2013. That’s where this story REALLY begins.  At that time a 5K was a major thing for us, I still think it is really for anyone, it’s easy to forget but 3 miles isn’t just a short little distance.  We finished that early January morning, at 10:25 a minute, not a bad time overall.  A friend of ours, Mark was signed up to run the Goofy Challenge later that weekend showed up to congratulate us at the finish line. We had asked if he wanted to go out for breakfast that morning assuming that he was also doing the 5K too, finding out he had not, that he had drive from Naples, FL to Orlando, at 6:30 in the morning no less just to see us finish a race was pretty amazing.  It still is.

Earlier that week at the Disney Health Expo (where we picked up our packet), Jeff and I had discussed our plans to expand our running goals.  I had thought the half marathon for the next January was a good goal… Jeff was a little more uh optimistic.  After hearing that Mark completed the Goofy Challenge, Jeff decided he wanted to try that too.  Mind you the Goofy Challenge was a half  marathon followed the next day by the full marathon.  Yikes.  But he wasn’t done.  And Neither was Disney.

For atleast the last few years there was an unofficial challenge named by the fans called the “Dopey” it involved running the 5K right before the Goofy.  For 2014 Disney adopted this unofficial race, kept the name and made it a 5K, 10K, half and full marathon… Why they had to do this, THIS year, is beyond me.  But Jeff being Jeff and trying to tackle crazy insane obstacles… decided we had to try this. And me… being the ever-obedient wife (HA!), DIDN’T AGREE.  In fact, it took about a full two-three weeks of “well you can do whatever you want but I am going to do it” coercing to get me to agree.

So… how do you get to that from a 5K in one year?

Very carefully obviously…

 

Look ma! Running in a Cave!

So our next goal after getting home from Florida was to get some distance into our races so we went right into training for our next race, the Groundhog Run 10K on January 27^th.  Our first goal was to get some training in and make sure we could actually run 6 miles.  Keep in mind we had run this distance before but it had been awhile.   SO we got home, ran that super long 6 miles (well it was long then!), and headed out the next weekend for the Groundhog Run.  I texted out on Facebook that all I wanted to do was finish!  Groundhog Run is a unique race in that it is all-underground, and is a double 5K through the Hunt Midwest Subtropolis caves (the largest man-made underground business complex).  It has the advantage of being a constant 65 degrees, which is a major plus for Missouri in January.  It also has the disadvantage of absolutely no breeze and a mild degree of humidity.  Overall it was a fun run, though it was disheartening to be lapped at mile 2.  We finished at about 1 hour 9 minutes.

*I just realized I should explain the term “Lapped” for those non-running initiated.  It means you are running not so fast, and another runner is running much faster, to a point that they are at mile 4 while you are at mile 2.  

A few weeks later on February 9^th, we ran the Sweetheart Shuffle the first of a six race series we would participate in, and another 10K, this time outdoors.   To be blatant, it was NOT warm, I believe it was just below freezing at race time, but we beat our 1^st 10K time by quite a bit at just over 1 hour 4 minutes, giving also Jeff (originally Jeff and I) a good corral placement for the Tower of Terror 10 Miler.   Though it wasn’t planned that way it also became our last 10K for the year.  We had planned to run the Plaza 10K later in the year but nursing school clinicals cancelled out that idea unfortunately.

Nursing clinicals and nursing school provided me with quite a challenge not only in races but also in training.  Not that the idea of 48.6 miles wasn’t a challenge enough, I was also working full time, and taking classes, all at the same time (and in some cases planning ACE events too!) Considering that though I did quite well.

One of our goals was to actually achieve a medal for a race; due to several circumstances this did not occur until our next race, the Sweetheart Run/Walk (4 Miler) at Wheeler Airport in Downtown Kansas City.  It was a rather slow run for us at 42.10 for the entire race time, about 10:30 a mile.

It was about this time that we decided to sign up for our first half marathon.  My thinking was that we needed to get a half marathon out of the way at least at the halfway point.  Kansas City has a three half-marathon series the Heartland 39.3 series, which for 2013 included Rock the Parkway, The Kansas Half Marathon, and Running with the Cows.   We set our sights on the May 11^th Running with the Cows, which is ran quite literally (it felt) in the middle of nowhere, where the cows outnumbered the people in Bucyrus KS. 

Prior to that though we had two more small races both 5K’s.  The first was the Easter Escapade 5K ran at Truman Sports Complex.  Jeff had to run this by himself (part of the reason it was a 5K and not the 10K), and I ran the virtual race.  This was part 2 of the 6 race Healthy Bodies series. The 2^nd 5K was out in Overland Park and was the Easter Egg 5K.  Completely innocuous name but filled with lots of Kansas hills.  Yes folks Kansas has hills. IT IS NOT FLAT. Total race time was 32:54.  Why so slow? Well the day before we had run our first 8 mile run, preparing for the afore mentioned half marathon.  It was our first time ever breaking the 7-mile maximum we had set about two years prior.

March and April were all preparation, pushing from 8 miles, to 10 miles, to 12 miles and finally 13.1 miles the weekend before our first 13.1 mile Race.  I remember at the time thinking how LONG 13.1 miles was, and it’s still definitely a significant distance, but not nearly as daunting as it was the first time around.  One mistake I think I made was directly tied to my fear of the unknown.  I drove out to Bucyrus KS (about an hour from our house) to drive the course.  It seemed SO HILLY, and it terrified me to little bits.  

The morning of the race came, and like ground hog, my goal was simple… finish.  One aspect that never fails to amaze me, is as terrible as the training runs are, race days themselves are actually MUCH EASIER.  I have no idea why.  But it works.  So even though we started out cautiously, I think around the 12 minute a mile or so pace group we reached the turn around hill (out and back course), run up the “never ending” hill into the straight wind and I was worried at that time it would be the end of me.  As we turnd, and headed back crossed into 8 miles, I knew at that point we would make it, it was a great feeling.   I also discovered not soon after that right about 11 miles my feet start to HURT.  At this time I simply blamed it on my older minimalist shoes.  But it seems to be a constant right between 11-13 miles.

That was a great day, perfect weather (though somewhat windy), and I immediately had to have my 13.1 car magnet.  

Jeff wanted me to tell the story behind these photos, so I will.  This is the finish line for Run for Rachael.  We ran together for most of the race (as we usually do).  However, there is "this guy" that Jeff kept noticing at almost every "Healthy Bodies" race we had been in.  He always seemed I guess to show up at the end of each race.  Well Jeff, noticed "this guy" closing in at the end of Run for Rachael and he WASN'T going to let "that guy" beat him.  So he split off running at the end... and did eventually beat "that guy".  I came "straggling" in after trying to keep up with Jeff's blistered sub-8 min mile pace... only a few beats behind him running my own personal "you are not going to beat me, tall lady" race.

If you remember we were also participating in the six run series sponsored by Healthy Bodies in Lee’s Summit.  Realizing I was in Nursing School and may not be able to run all the races I figured it would be a good idea to run the back up race.  The Run for Rachael in Blue Springs.  Only a 5K true, but I really thought the “hills” in Running with the Cows were hills?  Always be a bit worried when you ask the director of the race if the race has hills and they want you to pay first before they answer… Yeah that really happened and oh my gosh that was one REAL hill!  Still we finished with our first 5K under the 10 minute mark, at about 9:45 a mile, gigantic hillzzz not withstanding.

 Jeff with his 3rd place (age division) medal, for Boots and Daisy Dukes

June was full of several 5Ks,which is about the only type of race found in Kansas City in the summer months it seems.  June 1^st was the Color Run, followed by the June 9^th Boots and Daisy Dukes 5K.  Jeff hated me during this race, as I pushed the pace and he endeavored to keep up (which he did), once we finished he proceeded to tell me what he thought about my pace.  That was before he found out he actually placed 3^rd for his age division, entitling him to a bronze medal.  Overall time was just over the 30 minute goal, at 30:03.

 1)Finishing Firecracker Flight, and 2)Jeff by himself at the Double Road Race

The weekend of June 29^th and 30^th would be our last official races for awhile, but Jeff liked to call it his “mini-Dopey” preparation weekend.  It featured 3.5 races.  So how exactly do you get 3.5 races?  Here is how.  June 29^th we ran the 3^rd official race in our 6 races series, Firecracker Flight, a 5k, thought about doing it as a 10k, SO glad I didn’t.  It was ran near Blue River community college, and featured to date the largest and most difficult hill I have experienced on any race.  It was also at that point the only race we had walked on at that point.  However, with that being said… no one passed us.  Still our overall pace still was only 9:45 a mile, not to shaby.

That evening, we ran another 5K the Glow Run at Arrowhead Stadium, though it was a “fun” run we still ran a decent pace at about 10:30 (and it was PACKED). 

The following day I had a nursing clinical so I didn’t get to participate in the 2^nd half, of the race and a half (hence 1.5) also known officially as the Double Road Race, a 10k followed by a 5K, with only about 20 minutes in between the two.  Jeff still didn’t do to bad and I believe his pace was around 10:30-10:45 a minute for both.  Interesting enough… two Kenyan brothers broke the world record for the Double Road Race at the same race… yep… don’t care to know what their pace was!

With July, the weather started heating up, and with that pretty much the entire Kansas City racing calendar came to a jarring stop.  Jeff and I though, still kept up with our training runs, but they became harder and harder.  I was taking nursing classes during the summer too, which is difficult on top of work and running.

Come August, I had planned a trip to Hilton Head Island with my mom, in the days leading up to the trip I had planned two more runs on Monday and Tuesday, on the treadmill this time due to heat.  The first day was just fine but I felt sore right after running… the next day I found it hard to climb stairs or get in and out of the car… the next day I found it hard to walk period.  BAD.  Thinking back I think I hurt my hamstring, but I’m not entirely sure.  Problem was a week later while in South Carolina I had begun feeling better, and decided to run 3 miles, bad idea #2.  The next day was back to relearning to walk again.  So I took off from running for about two weeks.  Not usually a big deal, but we had thought our races would begin again with the Broadway Bridge Half Marathon, on September 8^th…   Due to my lack of running leading up to the race, we delayed in registering.  We waited too long (and there was notice that it was about to fill up which irritated me) and registration closed… Or did it?

Turns out we were able to get a spot if we showed up the morning of the race, but we were told we may not get a medal.  So we said sure, and planned on getting up Saturday morning to run.  Well Saturday morning came, with its brutal weather forecast, a high of 94 I believe was forecasted, and bright and early that morning we decided not to run.  Of course an hour later feeling bad we hadn’t ran, we went out for a practice run of 10 miles anyway! Oh and the high that day it wasn’t 94, it was 99!  It was the hottest day of the summer!

Broadway Bridge became the only race to date that we had agreed to run and didn’t actually run.  I later heard that the time limit (usually 14 minute mile) was extended due to weather conditions…

So with the weather in September still being warm and humid we started preparing again for the longer distances… After the debacle with the Broadway Bridge Half I was bound and determined to get signed up for another Half Marathon soon.  The Kansas City half marathon was coming up in October, and even though they stated officially there was no cap… I kept watching the KC marathon Facebook site and sure enough due to a record number of registrations for the half marathon they posted they were cutting off registrations soon.  So I jumped in and registered despite the official “no headphones” and terrifying Liberty Memorial Hill. Terrifying is well deserved… Liberty Memorial hill is so famous that its evil twin has a whole race series named after it (Hospital Hill). 

Jeff at Tower of Terror 10 Miler

Of course before all of this… Jeff got to run another somewhat long distance race. Back in February Jeff and I had signed up for the Tower of Terror 10 Miler at Walt Disney World.  We both signed up, but only Jeff got to go.  Why? Nursing School strikes again!  Of the 4 clinical groups for the Fall semester only one group conflicted with participating in TOT, guess which one I ended up in? Yep.  So I got to stay home, Jeff got to run at Disney.  Now with that being said I still ran a 3.1 distance and 10 mile distance on the same day, in 80 degree temps with 90%+ humidity (thanks Kansas City!) but only Jeff got the cool medals for it. :P

 
FREE Beer, FREE BBQ sandwich and Star Wars... really what else could we want for post-race entertainment?

So just 12 days later, and about 50 degrees cooler (THANKS Kansas City!) we were lined up outside Crown Center, prep’d for the Kansas City Half Marathon.  I was terrified, for the Cows I had ran a 13.1 distance just prior, for this one the longest run I had gotten in was 10 miles. (mind you several times) Plus, that stupid terrifying hill at 4 miles… I was worried.  We started REALLY slow, cautiously.  By the time we had gotten through “THE HILL” and hit 6 miles (about Westport) we realized that we could speed up easily, at 8 miles, I kept waiting for the wall to hit… it never did.  Due to our slow start we still ended up finishing at a time of 2:34, not great, but we crossed the line at a 8:20 pace, meaning there was probably a whole lot left unused.

What’s the old saying? There is always next year…

Jeff sprinting across the finish, I am right next to him on his left, just outside of the photo.  Jeff with his 2nd place finisher medal.

A week later, we were ready for the 4^th of our 6 race series, the Halloween Hustle 5K.  JUST a 5K, how funny that sounds compared to how terrifying that distance sounded in January.  The run was set up at Unity Village in Lee’s Summit MO, and our goal was a sub-9 time.  While running I was worried that time just wasn’t going to be possible… There were a fair amount of hills…as we found out after we crossed the finish line not only was it possible but we beat our goal considerably with a 8:40 a minute pace.  A 5K just became a sprinting run.  Jeff again proving that less women need to run, picked up 2^nd place in his age category… I came in 6^th.  If I had been one year younger I would have been 2^nd too, but oh well. 

Everyone has heard the saying about ignoring the 800-pound gorilla in the room right?  Well that’s what I have been doing for oh the last 2-3 pages.  See back in July there was a little race series (yep another one) that Jeff had become interested in… called the Space Coast, in Cocoa Beach, FL.  (Near Kennedy Space Center hence the name), it’s a series that if you ran the race 5 years in a row you got a special “milky way” medal.  For Jeff (ok both of us), it’s about the bling.  The Space Coast was a combination half and full marathon run at the same time.  We had wanted to do the half, but waited too long… so I posted on Facebook, should we try the full?  26.2 miles?  Could we do it?  No matter what we signed up… Now with it being October the realness of that distance was facing us dead on.

The race date was set for December 1^st, the weekend after thanksgiving. We flew down to Florida the Friday after Thanksgiving we were nervous. I had wanted to get a 20 mile run in before trying a marathon and whether it was I didn’t go out early enough in the day (my fault), or day light savings time causing the sun to set to early (uhh… the folks in the 18^th century that came up with that idea), I will blame both.  Space Coast check in and registration were at the Kennedy Space Center. It was completely disorganized… but we got our stuff, and of course took the whole tour of KSC, including the new Atlantis Space Shuttle experience. 

Somewhere between mile 21 and 25 on Space Coast...

Sunday… why are all Marathons on Sunday?  Bright and early we were up, I had picked up a bagel at the Dunkin’ Donuts the day before, so I was ready to go…Our plan was run 5 miles, walk a mile, then run 4 miles walk 1 the rest of the way.  That was our “plan”.  Yep you know how that goes.  The first five miles were extremely easy, it was slightly humid, but it was cloudy so there was no sun to really fight.  We then walked our one mile, and began running again… however, at around 8-9 miles… Jeff had this “fabulous” idea… lets run the rest of the first half of the marathon! It was so easy!  That’s where I should have put my foot down and said no.  But I didn’t.  I went along with it.  Yeah we know where that ends.  BADLY.  At about 17-18 miles Jeff began dying off, I wasn’t doing to bad though (I will be honest at the higher miles running is easier for me then walking), and so began our 8 mile er argument. 

 Sprinting for the finish, that's Jeff's shoe in the lower right corner.

One thing to know about Space Coast it is a double out and back course.  Meaning you ran out 7 miles, turned and ran back, then went out the other direction 7 miles, and came back.  VERY VERY BORING course.  Yep it’s the Ocean, but after 26 miles of Ocean, even that gets extremely boring.  First turn around was straight and to the point.  2^nd turn around, was around mile 20, and was a complete joke.  We see what we think is the turn around ahead and we are joyful, only it isn’t the turn around.  There is a turn and it keeps going, then we think we see the real turn around ahead, but it isn’t’ again!  Finally the 3^rd turn, ahh the real turn around! Thankfully that was about the 20-mile mark, so I felt some satisfaction that we were making progress.  Jeff wasn’t doing so well still, and we managed a 1 mile walk/1 mile run for the rest of the race.  My first thought after receiving my medal, and towel… Sitting Down never felt so GOOD! 6 hours 15 minutes after we began… Again not a good time at all… but we did it.

So after accomplishing the ultimate running feat of running, and after being recorded accomplishing the amazing feet of climbing stairs AFTER running 26.2 miles (thanks Mark), what did we do? We went to Disney World! Well. Ok. Not a park.  We went to Beaches and Cream, the ice cream holy land.  After all what’s the point of running that far, if you don’t get to eat some of the calories you just burnt?  (26.2 miles = about 2700 calories for me, quite a bit more for Jeff).  Overall, though the next day or two I sort of had to relearn walking again. It wasn’t to bad. 

Now about 8 months ago, we had spoken with a sales rep at the local running store in Kansas City, Garry Gribbles.  We had been told that it would be impossible to run the Dopey and even more crazy to do it only a month after our first full marathon.

I was concerned with this bit of advice, but honestly I am glad we did the Space Coast Marathon.  There is just no way to know what to expect with a Marathon until you do it.  While all the races of shorter distance are almost entire physical… Marathons are a big portion mental, you fight yourself, and fight the urge to give up when the distance seems just too long, but continue on because you know somewhere inside that you will be able to do it, despite the pain and fatigue.

Two weeks later was Nursing School graduation! Yeah! The same morning we had the final race of our 6 race series, the Candy Cane Course in Blue Springs.  Another 5k (because it WAS right before my graduation), it was 28 degrees at race start.  It was a slow run… because when its 28 degrees, and there were flurries the night before… yep its going to be slick.  Running this race was best described as “Left, Right, Left, Right, sllliiiidddeee….” And as we weren’t wanting to break anything before Dopey, (or graduation, though showing up in a cast at Nursing School graduation might have been kind of fun), we went SLOW, about 10:25 a minute slow.  Despite our slow speed Jeff came in at 4^th place, and I again came in at 6^th place.  The winning time was somewhere around 8:25 a minute or so, which is VERY slow for a 1^st place runner.