Walt Disney World Goofy's Race and a Half Challenge 2012

Thursday
I took a Thursday morning direct flight out of LAX. I flew with Virgin America, my favorite airline. It was a pretty nice flight with in-flight TV and Angry Birds on my Kindle Fire. With the time difference, I landed in Orlando around 4pm. I walked over to the line for the Disney's Magical Express bus service. Visiting Walt Disney World is very convenient when you stay at one of their resorts. There's really no need to rent a car.

Virgin America

The lines begin!

Disney's Magical Express

This year, I stayed at the All Star Music resort. Reviews warned that the waiting time for buses can be longer than normal since they shared the same buses with the other All Star resorts, Sports and Movies. I did online check-in this year. It made things really fast except they were short-handed. Once I finally saw someone at the desk, they pretty much just handed me a packet with everything that I needed for my stay. I stayed in the Broadway Building number 8 which was pretty far from the transportation and the lobby. Next time, I'll probably request a closer building.

The room was nice. Pretty much identical to my room that I had when I stayed at Pop Century. There was food stains on the carpet near the bathroom. One of the beds looked crooked as if people had been jumping on it a little too much. I'm guessing a bunch of wild little kids stayed in my room. The housekeeping always leave Disney towel figures or symbols. I got Mickey Mouse this time.

All Star Music Broadway Building

One of the beds was messed up, too much jumping?

Mickey Mouse

I had a little over an hour before the expo closed. So I thought I'd take care of the race packet pickup. I got on the bus for the expo held at the ESPN Wide World of Sports. The bib pickup for Goofy's Race and a Half Challenge was again upstairs in the HP Field House and separate from the regular pickup. This year we were given one bib for both races. After getting the packet, you had to go over to the Josten's Center for the goodie bag, shirts, and the expo. I went through all of the booths and the only thing that caught my attention was the registration for the Disneyland half marathon. They had opened up registration early for $150. They were giving out a Coast to Coast bag for registering. So sure, why not? I'm a legacy runner and it's my annual birthday run. I looked at all of the official merchandise to buy a polo shirt, but they didn't have any Goofy themed ones this year. Since I was about $160 lighter, I thought I'd get the heck out of there before I spend any more money.

Goofy's Race and a Half Challenge packet pickup

Expo loot

Just like last year, I stuck to eating at the resort cafeteria, the Intermission Food Court. I got the roasted half chicken. It was pretty good stuff, better than what I'm used to at work cafeteria. The carrots and string beans were very buttery. They must have been soaked in butter for hours.

Thursday dinner - half roasted chicken

Friday
Next day, I headed back to the expo to meet up with a couple of my running friends. I got there early to visit the booths again. This time I bought a Coast-to-Coast tech shirt and a Goofy's Race and a Half Challenge cap. I haven't worn a cap in a long time. I also got to meet a pair of Survivor winners. I took a picture with them even though I've never ever seen the show. :) My friends and I took the bus to Coronado Springs then another bus to Downtown Disney to get their car. We then headed to a Sweet Tomatoes to load up on a late lunch. I had 3 plates of salad and some clam chowder.

Goofy cap and Coast-2-Coast shirt souvenir

Survivor winners, Jenna Morasca and Ethan Zohn

Do not use the fountain if you have diarrhea! :)

Downtown Disney Mickey Fountain

Friday lunch at Sweet Tomatoes

I relaxed for most of the day in my room watching TV. I came out of my room to eat an Angus bacon cheeseburger and some nasty character cookies. The burger reminded me of the burgers that I used to eat at the various university cafeterias. I would not feed the cookies to kids. Yuck!

Friday dinner Angus bacon cheeseburger

Saturday - Half Marathon
My internal clock was pretty out of whack, but I got up at about 1:30am to get ready for the half marathon. A little after 3am, I walked over to resort lobby for the bus ride over to the starting area near Epcot. We were dropped off in the parking lot and we had to walk over to the staging area. There was about an hour to kill before having to head over to the corrals. I got in line to get a photo with Pluto. They had Tony Horton, inventor of P90X, leading folks in some pre-race warm-up activities. I skipped that crap and hit one of many pottapotties in that area before checking my gear bag and heading over to the corrals.

Pluto before the race

I started in corral B. Since I haven't been running at all in between races, I ran the 1st mile at a comfortable pace to feel out the right ankle. Since it felt ok after reaching the first mile marker, I sped up a tad. Around mile 2 and 3, I passed the two Survivor winners, Ethan and Jenna. I told them that they'll catch me later in the race. My lack of endurance started catching up near the 10k mark. My right ankle started feeling very sore as I got closer to mile 8. It was here that I got passed by Ethan and Jenna. I kept backing off on the pace to ease the discomfort. I had to take more frequent walk breaks. I had hope to finish around 2:15, but a 2:20ish is good enough for me. I just wanted to complete the half and save as much as I could for Sunday's marathon.
1: 9:21
2: 9:02
3: 9:16
4: 10:00
5: 9:25
6: 9:56
7: 10:37
8: 10:27
9: 11:39
10: 13:24
11: 12:49
12: 12:16
13: 12:19
13.1: 0:59
Finish: 2:21:30

I love Disney races especially for how efficient they move people and take care of logistics. After getting my very cool Donald Duck medal, I head through the finisher's chute where they gave out lots of stuff. I took a bottle of water, Powerade, and a can of Coke. I had a lot of other stuff that I skipped.

Half Marathon completed!

For lunch, I decided to eat at Planet Hollywood at Downtown Disney since they gave me a $15 coupon as one of the perks for booking my stay with Disney. But I thought the menu was a joke. The prices for everything was jacked up. I ordered the Shrimp Alfredo. It was good, but the portion was tiny. Regular price was $19.99. I would not eat here without the coupon.

Planet Hollywood - Shrimp Alfredo

I walked around Downtown Disney a bit to keep the legs loose before taking the bus back to my room to relax. I went back to the cafeteria to eat dinner. I had the salmon and a yogurt. The salmon was their best food for the weekend.

Saturday dinner Salmon

Sunday - Marathon
I again awoke around 1:30am and boarded the bus for the starting area at around 3am. This time I took picture with Chip and Dale. I also got in line to take a picture with Daisy Duck.

Chip and Dale before the race

It was slow going from the very first step. I made sure to keep my pace above 10 min per mile at the beginning. I just wanted to survive the race and beat the cutoff. I ran into my co-worker shortly after running through Cinderella's Castle. I'm glad I got a picture with Rapunzel, Flynn Rider, Dug, and Russell during the race. When I got to mile 20, I started to pick up the pace. But as I got to mile 22, there was a sharp stabbing pain in my right arch. I had to pretty much walk the rest of the way in. I could not even manage a trot with that pain. But walking helped relieve the pain and I was able to run parts of the last mile.
1: 10:14
2: 10:06
3: 10:10
4: 10:37
5: 10:08
6: 11:00
7: 12:22
8: 12:58
9: 12:32
10: 12:43
11: 14:46
12: 14:34
13: 15:07
14: 18:33
15: 16:03
16: 16:10
17: 14:41
18: 16:16
19: 16:29
20: 15:30
21: 14:55
22: 16:46
23: 19:14
24: 18:22
25: 18:45
26: 16:53
26.2: 2:22
Finish: 6:18:18

Rapunzel and Flynn Rider

Dug and Russell!

I got my hard earned medals and got my picture taken so I could update my Goofy picture. The right foot felt okay walking around, so I guess I didn't hurt anything. I grabbed my stuff from gear check and headed back to my hotel on the bus.

Goofy's Challenge Completed!

Let the post-race eating begin!
I was going to meet up with my friends for dinner at the House of Blues. But I had been craving a turkey leg for weeks, so I decided to get over to Downtown Disney a little bit earlier. I bought a turkey leg for $9.75 and had myself a very delicious pre-dinner snack. It was huge and as good as advertised! I got a lot of stares from the people around me. Several people came up to me to ask where I bought the leg. There was no meat left on the bone! :)

Turkey leg before

Turkey leg after

For dinner, I got the Seared Ahi Tuna Chopped Salad. It wasn't my favorite kind of salad, but it was decent.  It was surprisingly spicy.

House of Blues - Seared Ahi Tuna Chopped Salad

Monday - ride, eat, and drink our way around the world!
The next day, I went over to Epcot. I was meeting up with my friends, but they were running a little late. So I went and took some pictures with characters. Then I went to watch Captain EO, which I haven't seen since the 80s.

Epcot

Captain EO

I then met up with my friends and we went on a bunch of rides, Spaceship Earth, Journey into Imagination with Figment, Test Track, and Mission: Space. Then we began eating and drinking our way around the world starting with lunch in Mexico heading clockwise.

For dinner, I was very fortunate that my friends had a reservation at Le Cellier Steakhouse in the land of Canada. My friends got me the beer flight trio which was really food, even though I've already had several drinks from each of the different countries minus UK and Morocco... I think. Don't make me do math problems or remember things when I've been drinking. :)

I got the bone-in ribeye, medium rare. Good stuff. I think my friends successfully convinced me to return next year. I'm thinking I don't have to run the Goofy's Challenge. I could just run the marathon. But the Walt Disney World half marathon is one of my favorites... so, we'll see. I was a little wobbly getting up from the table. Good thing I was not driving anywhere. Before I went to sleep, I made sure to drink some Powerade.

Le Cellier - beer flight trio

Le Cellier - bone-in ribeye

Tuesday - time to go home
The next day, I woke up feeling pretty good. I packed and relaxed in my room until check-out time. My flight wasn't until later in the evening, so I headed over to Downtown Disney for one last time to eat lunch. I tried out Raglan Road. Lately, I've been branching out from my usual porters and stouts. The Kilkenny cream ale was pretty darn good. I ordered the St. James salmon salad and the Dalkey Duo. Both were good. I would come here again to eat. The salmon was cold smoked... good stuff, just the way I like it. Even better was the Dalkey Duo appetizer was a bunch of beer-battered sausages with a mustard mayonnaise dipping sauce. Definitely goes well with the beer.

Raglan Road - Kilkenny cream ale

Raglan Road - St. James salmon salad

Raglan Road - Dalkey Duo

I took the bus back to my hotel to catch the Disney's Magical Express bus to the airport. So sad to leave, but my bag was heavier and my wallet lighter. I hope to come back again next year. Being the big Disney fan that I am, the chances are good that I will return. Also next year will be the 20th edition of the marathon. My friend's dad is a legacy runner. It would be great to be there for all of the celebration. Hopefully they'll have a special medal for the marathon.