The Half Marathon Comeback Run-Final thoughts(1/21)
About This Page: This is a discussion on The Half Marathon Comeback Run-Final thoughts(1/21) within the Sharing the Adventure: Disney World Trip Reports, part of the PassPorter Community - Message Boards and Forums; In the thrill of the moment last year, after running the marathon and getting a PR, I registered for the ...

KimandMark · 01-02-2005, 10:05 AM

In the thrill of the moment last year, after running the marathon and getting a PR, I registered for the half. I sort of figured that it was a good way to get another trip and the medal is really cool and that if I decided not to do it I would only lose $80. (only???!!!!). I laid off running for a couple of weeks after the marathon, and then started some easy winter running, just trying to maintain a base. I joined a track club in the spring and began having the best racing season of my life. PRs all over the place, age group awards for the first time and some great new running friends.

And then.....

I ran a really hard 20K race in August, taking 2nd in my age group with some hearty competition. Perhaps I ran too hard that day, or maybe I was doing too many miles total or maybe God just wanted to shrink my ego a bit, but two days later I felt a pain in my foot and within hours was diagnosed with a stress fracture. My fall marathon (and what was planned as my Boston Qualifier) was out. My relay team would have to run without me in Michigan (where we still came in 12th out of 250 and down a runner), and Disney was looking iffy as well. I spent 9 weeks in a boot cast and did a ton of swimming. I even went to Disney with that cast!

I debated long and hard about trying to train for the half with really only 10 weeks to do it and some pretty weak legs. I decided that I would just do the bare minimum for training, enough to get me across the finish line and get my Donald medal. So I started over, running only 5 minutes as a time. I increased weekly, following the drs orders to a T. I didn't race, I didn't even run hard. I started doing longer runs in mid november and by mid december had some long runs of 10 miles under my belt, although they weren't as speedy as I would like.

It was around the same time that I started running with my group again, on the easy tuesday night runs. I was shocked when I was able to keep pace with some of the speedier guys, if only for a mile or two. Then I entered a local race series, not because I thought I would race, but because its a fun series in the middle of winter, there is always free good at the end, and lots of my friends were doing it (making my think of my mother, "if your friends jumped off a cliff, would you do it too?").

The first race was two weeks ago. A 10K in some nasty freezing rain. I'd been to a holiday party the night before and lets just say I wasn't feeling my perkiest. For the 1st mile people are blowing by me like I was standing still, I'm huffing and puffing and worried about a code brown out here in the cold and thinking "what have I gotten myself into". I can hear the timer at the first mile marker yelling out the times and was very pleasantly surprised to find that my first mile had been a 7:38. 7:38!!?? But I'm not racing...or am I? I decided to see what would happen, just try to stay even, not slow down, not push any harder. The second mile was 7:43, third was 7:35 and so on. Mile 5 was the slowest at 8 minutes, but there was a huge hill. I finished in 48:06, only 20 seconds slower than my best 10K ever and it was freezing rain and I was untrained. Hmmm....

The wheels start turning about the half, maybe I can do pretty well? Not as good as I could have last summer, but still not bad. I start thinking about 1:45 or 1:50 as a goal. I make a pace band to wear so I can stay on track. I do some harder runs. I increase my miles to a peak of 37 (still far off my pre-stress fracture peaks, but not too shabby either) for two consecutive weeks. I ran another race yesterday, attempting to feel out the right pace. I was good for the first 3 miles of the 7.5 and then just decided to enjoy a beautiful day and not push it, not with the big kahuna just a week away.

I've been checking the weather religiously. I was planning on running in shorts and a longsleeve turtle neck with my flame orange cap, but now might have to switch to short sleeves with temps that might be around 60 for most of the race. Given the rotten cold weather we've had in NY, 60 will feel postively tropical and I might have to just race in the sportsbra and shorts.

Anyway, I'm hoping that this is a confidence building race. I'm hoping that it preps me for a good spring racing season and is a building block for the fall marathon that should get me to Boston (if I don't tank, which is what has always happened before). That's a lot of pressure on Donald and I'm hoping the duck comes through for me!

Tara O'Hara · 01-02-2005, 10:39 AM

Kim!!

Have a terrific time, too!!

whoSEZ · 01-02-2005, 11:24 AM

Kim, best of luck to you!!

**DopeyGirl** · 01-02-2005, 11:42 AM

Best of luck to you in the half, Kim!!!

We'll be there the 5th thru 10th and DD is running the 200 yard dash!!!

(For 3-4 year olds)

Big Baloo · 01-02-2005, 12:10 PM

Good luck Kim! Maybe we'll see you in Boston this spring for the marathon! (My DH always runs it as a "bandit"). Have fun!

**DrDolphin** · 01-02-2005, 02:19 PM

Good luck Kim - sounds like you are right on track for recovery from your stress fracture. Hope to run into at WDW.

**MickeyMAC** · 01-02-2005, 02:37 PM

Good luck Kim, hope you have a great run.

luvnwdwgal · 01-02-2005, 03:26 PM

Good Luck Kim!!!

**wdwlovers** · 01-02-2005, 04:14 PM

Best of luck Kim!! Hope to see you down there maybe!

**Colexis Mom** · 01-02-2005, 08:57 PM

Can't wait to hear all about it Kim

Best of luck to you

KimandMark · 01-03-2005, 12:30 PM

More pre-trip:

I neglected to mention in my last post who we are! On this trip it will be Me and Mark and my parents. They just retired (and I mean just!). They both worked their last day on 12/23 and left today to drive to Orlando, picking up their camper in storage in Virginia on the way. They are beginning retirement by staying at Fort Wilderness for 4 nights and then moving their portable house to Clermont (sp?) outside of Orlando.

While Mom and Dad offered space in their camper, Mark and I decided that a room with normal sized bed was within our budget (not to mention our sanity). We are booked at CBR for three nights, hopefully in a corner room in Jamaica. Speaking of, I wrote a poem that copies everyone else who have been writing poems to room assigners but I'm debating sending it.

It was actually only recently that Mom and Dad decided to be there with us. Initially they believed my father would have to work into the new year, even for just a few days and they wouldn't make it to Florida in time. But in November that all changed and we arranged this by the seat of our pants, Jean from Magical Journeys doing some magic by getting 4 nights in what seems to be a sold out campground.

We brought my parents last year as a 40th anniversary gift, so this year should be a nice re-cap of that. We've planned to repeat some things we liked and do some things we missed. For example, we went to Chef Mickey's for breakfast last time and we all had a ton of fun, so this year we are going over right after the half marathon (PS @ 8:40 just to be sure!). We are also hitting TTS again, not that I think its good, but because it serves pasta and is near a good spot to sit for Spectro and then for Wishes. I need the carbs before the race effort and have never enjoyed the race sponsored meals, only because I want to forget about the race part for a little while and all those runners make me anxious.

Last time we also loved AK and plan on hitting it first thing on Saturday for early entry. Sadly, we missed Philharmagic last time so we are absolutely going to see this and I'm looking forward to Stitch! I even convinced Mom and Dad to go on be reminding them how funny he was in the movie (shame on me!). They can still remember when this was Mission to Mars.

On the last day, Mark and I are going to Universal. We went last summer for two days and purchased the power pass. What a deal!! $109 for basically a blackout days annual pass. I figured then that if we never came back I was only out the extra $10 and if we did come back it would be the bargain of our trip. I also purchased everyone 2 day parkhoppers with the PI option on them ($432 total).

I've planned a dinner at Spoodles for the first night, with just the two of us and a dinner at Le Cellier for the 4 of us on Sunday night. I'm hoping Mom and Dad will be up for PI, last year they bailed on us, but I think they would love the Adventurer's Club.

OOOOH!!! Check the 10 day forcast! High of 80, low of 60 for each day! Way better than last year's low of 38 for the race start. I can't wait til Friday!

**Jillybean** · 01-03-2005, 01:10 PM

Good Luck, Kim!!! Your plans with Mark and your parents sound great! I love Spoodles - - remember that you went there on your last trip!

Let us know how the half-marathon and the trip went!

Jill

luvnwdwgal · 01-03-2005, 08:36 PM

Sounds like you're going to have a great time with your folks!!

KimandMark · 01-04-2005, 12:50 PM

As for the costs....

You know, I never do a good job with this. I think its because I buy everything in pieces over several months. We booked the room and paid a deposit in October, the tickets were in Novemeber, I can't even remember the airfare purchase. We earn lots of rewards dollars on our Visa, we had $160 for last Jan, nearly $200 for the August trip, and we have about $120 again now. If you aren't having every bill you pay automatically charged to your Disney Visa you are missing out! We have our electric, phone, internet, cell phones and cable bill all charged to our cc. I also buy everything else on the card, although Mark still pays cash for most things he buys.

My best guesses for costs right now are as follows:

King room at CBR with a discount and tax ~$115x3= $345
2 day park hoppers (so hard to find and so good)= $219
parking (airport and Universal) = $14
airfare (now here's a doozy!) = $30

Perhaps you are wondering about that airfare thing...See, back when I broke my foot I had already purchases airfare to DC for the marathon I was training for. I knew we wouldn't be going and called AirTran to get a refund or voucher or what ever they would give me. Turns out I could get either, but I would have to lose $50 per ticket as a change fee. In passing I mentioned my reason for not flying to the nice lady on the phone and she told me to fax them a letter from my doc that stated why I couldn't run the race. She couldn't promise, but was pretty sure that I wouldn't have to lose the change fee. Well, she was right! So when we finally decided on this trip I booked some flights and they ended up $30 more than the voucher/refund. I realize that ultimately I paid more than that, but since I'd originally purchased the plane tickets last May, its almost like I never spent the money at all!!

Alright, so my total is about $608 for the weekend (and if you must be a stickler, add about $240 for the original cost of the plane tickets). Not bad!!

Those are the non-negotiable costs, the rest are optional costs. We are going on an Illuminations cruise with some other people, that's going to run us about $30 (already sent the check to some lady in PA!). We have $120 disney dollars, which will cover dinner on friday at Spoodles, lunch at AK on saturday and dinner on saturday at TTS, after that I think we'll have to start paying. We have breakfast at Chef Mickeys on sunday, ~$40, dinner at Le Cellier plus drinks (and, oh, will there be drinks) easily ~$80-$100, PI drinks (oooh, even more drinks, of course that's why I run), ~$50, breakfast at CBR on monday ~$15, lunch at Universal, ~$40, dinner in an airport, ~$20.

So the new total is ~$255 + ~$608 = $863.

I'm considering buying a 1/2 marathon hat that I liked and I probably won't buy anything else, but Mark always gets a Tshirt, so add another $50 for crap purchases and maybe $20 for snacks and stuff. Let's round off at $950, of which $454 has already been paid.

I hate when I do this, now I'm going to be all bent out of shape about my cc bill this month! Its a good thing stupid husband won his stupid fantasy football league and got a check yesterday for $300. Did I say fantasy football was stupid?

Sometimes I think about the new carpeting I could have or the new sofa or the beginnings of the new garage or the amount of my student loans I could payoff with my vacation money. Then I remember that I won't be on my death bed remembering the really great stain-free carpet I owned.

MontiMouse · 01-04-2005, 01:13 PM

You are so right Kim!! I would much rather have good vacation memories than stain free carpet. I hope you have a great trip!!

01-02-2005, 10:05 AM	#1 (permalink)
KimandMark Community Rank: Traveler Join Date: May 2002 Location: Rochester, NY Posts: 371	The Half Marathon Comeback Run-Final thoughts(1/21) In the thrill of the moment last year, after running the marathon and getting a PR, I registered for the half. I sort of figured that it was a good way to get another trip and the medal is really cool and that if I decided not to do it I would only lose $80. (only???!!!!). I laid off running for a couple of weeks after the marathon, and then started some easy winter running, just trying to maintain a base. I joined a track club in the spring and began having the best racing season of my life. PRs all over the place, age group awards for the first time and some great new running friends. And then..... I ran a really hard 20K race in August, taking 2nd in my age group with some hearty competition. Perhaps I ran too hard that day, or maybe I was doing too many miles total or maybe God just wanted to shrink my ego a bit, but two days later I felt a pain in my foot and within hours was diagnosed with a stress fracture. My fall marathon (and what was planned as my Boston Qualifier) was out. My relay team would have to run without me in Michigan (where we still came in 12th out of 250 and down a runner), and Disney was looking iffy as well. I spent 9 weeks in a boot cast and did a ton of swimming. I even went to Disney with that cast! I debated long and hard about trying to train for the half with really only 10 weeks to do it and some pretty weak legs. I decided that I would just do the bare minimum for training, enough to get me across the finish line and get my Donald medal. So I started over, running only 5 minutes as a time. I increased weekly, following the drs orders to a T. I didn't race, I didn't even run hard. I started doing longer runs in mid november and by mid december had some long runs of 10 miles under my belt, although they weren't as speedy as I would like. It was around the same time that I started running with my group again, on the easy tuesday night runs. I was shocked when I was able to keep pace with some of the speedier guys, if only for a mile or two. Then I entered a local race series, not because I thought I would race, but because its a fun series in the middle of winter, there is always free good at the end, and lots of my friends were doing it (making my think of my mother, "if your friends jumped off a cliff, would you do it too?"). The first race was two weeks ago. A 10K in some nasty freezing rain. I'd been to a holiday party the night before and lets just say I wasn't feeling my perkiest. For the 1st mile people are blowing by me like I was standing still, I'm huffing and puffing and worried about a code brown out here in the cold and thinking "what have I gotten myself into". I can hear the timer at the first mile marker yelling out the times and was very pleasantly surprised to find that my first mile had been a 7:38. 7:38!!?? But I'm not racing...or am I? I decided to see what would happen, just try to stay even, not slow down, not push any harder. The second mile was 7:43, third was 7:35 and so on. Mile 5 was the slowest at 8 minutes, but there was a huge hill. I finished in 48:06, only 20 seconds slower than my best 10K ever and it was freezing rain and I was untrained. Hmmm.... The wheels start turning about the half, maybe I can do pretty well? Not as good as I could have last summer, but still not bad. I start thinking about 1:45 or 1:50 as a goal. I make a pace band to wear so I can stay on track. I do some harder runs. I increase my miles to a peak of 37 (still far off my pre-stress fracture peaks, but not too shabby either) for two consecutive weeks. I ran another race yesterday, attempting to feel out the right pace. I was good for the first 3 miles of the 7.5 and then just decided to enjoy a beautiful day and not push it, not with the big kahuna just a week away. I've been checking the weather religiously. I was planning on running in shorts and a longsleeve turtle neck with my flame orange cap, but now might have to switch to short sleeves with temps that might be around 60 for most of the race. Given the rotten cold weather we've had in NY, 60 will feel postively tropical and I might have to just race in the sportsbra and shorts. Anyway, I'm hoping that this is a confidence building race. I'm hoping that it preps me for a good spring racing season and is a building block for the fall marathon that should get me to Boston (if I don't tank, which is what has always happened before). That's a lot of pressure on Donald and I'm hoping the duck comes through for me!

01-02-2005, 10:39 AM	#2 (permalink)
Tara O'Hara Community Rank: Legend Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Newtown Square, PA Posts: 17,661	Re: The Half Marathon Comeback Run-pretrip report Kim!! Have a terrific time, too!!

01-02-2005, 12:10 PM	#5 (permalink)
Big Baloo Community Rank: Trekker Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 1,158	Re: The Half Marathon Comeback Run-pretrip report Good luck Kim! Maybe we'll see you in Boston this spring for the marathon! (My DH always runs it as a "bandit"). Have fun!

01-02-2005, 03:26 PM	#8 (permalink)
luvnwdwgal Community Rank: Legend Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: North Central Ohio Posts: 17,414	Re: The Half Marathon Comeback Run-pretrip report Good Luck Kim!!!

01-03-2005, 12:30 PM	#11 (permalink)
KimandMark Community Rank: Traveler Join Date: May 2002 Location: Rochester, NY Posts: 371	Re: The Half Marathon Comeback Run-pretrip part 2 More pre-trip: I neglected to mention in my last post who we are! On this trip it will be Me and Mark and my parents. They just retired (and I mean just!). They both worked their last day on 12/23 and left today to drive to Orlando, picking up their camper in storage in Virginia on the way. They are beginning retirement by staying at Fort Wilderness for 4 nights and then moving their portable house to Clermont (sp?) outside of Orlando. While Mom and Dad offered space in their camper, Mark and I decided that a room with normal sized bed was within our budget (not to mention our sanity). We are booked at CBR for three nights, hopefully in a corner room in Jamaica. Speaking of, I wrote a poem that copies everyone else who have been writing poems to room assigners but I'm debating sending it. It was actually only recently that Mom and Dad decided to be there with us. Initially they believed my father would have to work into the new year, even for just a few days and they wouldn't make it to Florida in time. But in November that all changed and we arranged this by the seat of our pants, Jean from Magical Journeys doing some magic by getting 4 nights in what seems to be a sold out campground. We brought my parents last year as a 40th anniversary gift, so this year should be a nice re-cap of that. We've planned to repeat some things we liked and do some things we missed. For example, we went to Chef Mickey's for breakfast last time and we all had a ton of fun, so this year we are going over right after the half marathon (PS @ 8:40 just to be sure!). We are also hitting TTS again, not that I think its good, but because it serves pasta and is near a good spot to sit for Spectro and then for Wishes. I need the carbs before the race effort and have never enjoyed the race sponsored meals, only because I want to forget about the race part for a little while and all those runners make me anxious. Last time we also loved AK and plan on hitting it first thing on Saturday for early entry. Sadly, we missed Philharmagic last time so we are absolutely going to see this and I'm looking forward to Stitch! I even convinced Mom and Dad to go on be reminding them how funny he was in the movie (shame on me!). They can still remember when this was Mission to Mars. On the last day, Mark and I are going to Universal. We went last summer for two days and purchased the power pass. What a deal!! $109 for basically a blackout days annual pass. I figured then that if we never came back I was only out the extra $10 and if we did come back it would be the bargain of our trip. I also purchased everyone 2 day parkhoppers with the PI option on them ($432 total). I've planned a dinner at Spoodles for the first night, with just the two of us and a dinner at Le Cellier for the 4 of us on Sunday night. I'm hoping Mom and Dad will be up for PI, last year they bailed on us, but I think they would love the Adventurer's Club. OOOOH!!! Check the 10 day forcast! High of 80, low of 60 for each day! Way better than last year's low of 38 for the race start. I can't wait til Friday!

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01-03-2005, 08:36 PM	#13 (permalink)
luvnwdwgal Community Rank: Legend Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: North Central Ohio Posts: 17,414	Re: The Half Marathon Comeback Run-pretrip part 2 Sounds like you're going to have a great time with your folks!!

01-04-2005, 12:50 PM	#14 (permalink)
KimandMark Community Rank: Traveler Join Date: May 2002 Location: Rochester, NY Posts: 371	Re: The Half Marathon Comeback Run-pretrip part 2 As for the costs.... You know, I never do a good job with this. I think its because I buy everything in pieces over several months. We booked the room and paid a deposit in October, the tickets were in Novemeber, I can't even remember the airfare purchase. We earn lots of rewards dollars on our Visa, we had $160 for last Jan, nearly $200 for the August trip, and we have about $120 again now. If you aren't having every bill you pay automatically charged to your Disney Visa you are missing out! We have our electric, phone, internet, cell phones and cable bill all charged to our cc. I also buy everything else on the card, although Mark still pays cash for most things he buys. My best guesses for costs right now are as follows: King room at CBR with a discount and tax ~$115x3= $345 2 day park hoppers (so hard to find and so good)= $219 parking (airport and Universal) = $14 airfare (now here's a doozy!) = $30 Perhaps you are wondering about that airfare thing...See, back when I broke my foot I had already purchases airfare to DC for the marathon I was training for. I knew we wouldn't be going and called AirTran to get a refund or voucher or what ever they would give me. Turns out I could get either, but I would have to lose $50 per ticket as a change fee. In passing I mentioned my reason for not flying to the nice lady on the phone and she told me to fax them a letter from my doc that stated why I couldn't run the race. She couldn't promise, but was pretty sure that I wouldn't have to lose the change fee. Well, she was right! So when we finally decided on this trip I booked some flights and they ended up $30 more than the voucher/refund. I realize that ultimately I paid more than that, but since I'd originally purchased the plane tickets last May, its almost like I never spent the money at all!! Alright, so my total is about $608 for the weekend (and if you must be a stickler, add about $240 for the original cost of the plane tickets). Not bad!! Those are the non-negotiable costs, the rest are optional costs. We are going on an Illuminations cruise with some other people, that's going to run us about $30 (already sent the check to some lady in PA!). We have $120 disney dollars, which will cover dinner on friday at Spoodles, lunch at AK on saturday and dinner on saturday at TTS, after that I think we'll have to start paying. We have breakfast at Chef Mickeys on sunday, ~$40, dinner at Le Cellier plus drinks (and, oh, will there be drinks) easily ~$80-$100, PI drinks (oooh, even more drinks, of course that's why I run), ~$50, breakfast at CBR on monday ~$15, lunch at Universal, ~$40, dinner in an airport, ~$20. So the new total is ~$255 + ~$608 = $863. I'm considering buying a 1/2 marathon hat that I liked and I probably won't buy anything else, but Mark always gets a Tshirt, so add another $50 for crap purchases and maybe $20 for snacks and stuff. Let's round off at $950, of which $454 has already been paid. I hate when I do this, now I'm going to be all bent out of shape about my cc bill this month! Its a good thing stupid husband won his stupid fantasy football league and got a check yesterday for $300. Did I say fantasy football was stupid? Sometimes I think about the new carpeting I could have or the new sofa or the beginnings of the new garage or the amount of my student loans I could payoff with my vacation money. Then I remember that I won't be on my death bed remembering the really great stain-free carpet I owned.

01-04-2005, 01:13 PM	#15 (permalink)
MontiMouse Community Rank: Globetrotter Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Lafayette, LA & BCV Posts: 3,755	Re: The Half Marathon Comeback Run-pretrip part 2 You are so right Kim!! I would much rather have good vacation memories than stain free carpet. I hope you have a great trip!!

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