Never Tell Me The Odds!: From the Hospital Bed to Club 71

Congrats, marathoner!
Thank you. And you as well.

Great pre recap and what an awesome effort! I do chuckle that the marathon experience is the same for so many people regardless of pace - lots of work getting there, Ann enjoyable first half, getting unpleasant around mile 16, dow right horrible for a period, then that most amazing feeling at the end.

Well done!!!!
I didn't know what to expect on race day other than it would likely test me at some point. But I felt prepared and therefore confident. While I didn't know what the wall would feel like, I had been advised by @DopeyBadger and @OldSlowGoofyGuy that at some point everything will hurt and I'll want to be done, but to keep going. Honestly, I have never met either of them in person so I don't know what their voices sound like, but I could hear them in my head frequently.

In hindsight, I was confident in my physical preparation, felt like I had a good handle on the mental aspect, and had a plan to deal with the wall if and when it came.

The fascinating thing to me is that while I felt like I was barely moving on those later miles around mile 20 and such, as best I can tell my mile marker stop photos indicate that I didn't drop off anywhere near as much as I thought I did.

YOU ARE A MARATHONER :dogdance::cool1::banana:

I'm with ya on the powerade. I was so sick of it. I didn't even take a bottle of one in the runner's chute.
THANK YOU! I still smile when I think about what that experience was like. And congratulations to you too!

I usually reach that moment of hating powerade and water around mile 10 or so of a half, so I'm really glad that it didn't kick in until after mile 20 of the marathon. To be honest, I think the volunteers do a really good job of keeping the powerade and water from getting downright hot. It's at least a semi tolerable temperature considering the heat and what runners have been doing. I still believe that smoothie would taste great today, but at that point of the marathon, it was quite possibly one of the greatest things I have ever tasted in my entire life.

Congrats Dopey! I can't wait to see some pictures.
Thanks. Pictures are coming. I wanted to make sure that I wrote down a more detailed race recap and trip report so I don't forget things first. But now that's out of the way, so I've downloaded some photos and can work on a race report here.

As a side note, I talked to a friend at church yesterday who has run Disney 10Ks and when I told him about Dopey, he asked me "How? How in the world did you do that?"

Congrats, Dopey! I know you put a lot of hard work into this weekend, and I'm so happy you were able to achieve this goal. Well done!
Thank you so much. All of the trials and tribulations of training feel very different at the finish line.
 
Just wanted to say congratulations!! You crazy folks who run your first marathon as part of a Dopey Challenge are a special breed! :thumbsup2 Well done!
 


Congratulations! Looking forward to reading about your race!
Thanks. I have one other project I'm working on before I can start the race report with photos, but it should finish up in the next 2-3 days.

Just wanted to say congratulations!! You crazy folks who run your first marathon as part of a Dopey Challenge are a special breed! :thumbsup2 Well done!
Thank you. For me, my first marathon as part of Dopey came down to a few factors. First, I told myself years ago that if I ever ran a marathon, it would be at Walt Disney World. The 7 hour pace helps given how slow I run. Second, Disney World in January is tricky for me, so I realized that the WDW Marathon might be a once in a lifetime thing. And if I enjoyed the marathon, then I'd probably want to try Goofy and/or Dopey, but if I can only make it to marathon weekend once that would be a problem. But many people explained to me the logistics of a first marathon as part of Dopey and having finished 5 multi race weekend challenges, I already had a handle on how to deal with that, albeit without everything the marathon entails.

So yes, it's most definitely crazy. But as a few people told me, Dopey training isn't a whole lot more miles than marathon only training. So I went for it and succeeded. At least for me, I think my usual multi race weekend strategy of early bed before each race helped me immensely during the marathon.
 
Slowly but surely I'm getting back into the swing of things.

As I thought could well happen, I did not run at all in February through April. Without a race immediately after the April deadline, the extra long work hours combined with working long hours 6 days a week proved to be too much.

With the onset of May, I'm getting back out there. I still have to improve my consistency on a regular basis, but I do think I'm slowly getting better. Most of May I ran 2-3 times a week. June is a bit hectic with two different vacations and a 3 day work conference, so I'm not certain how June will look, so I'm looking to be consistent when I'm in town. The good news is that both June vacations are at Disneyland, so those days will involve plenty of exercise.

Total May miles: 38
Increase over miles in the previous 3 months combined: 38
2019 Miles: 94.4

Mountain House Kite Run 5K Race Report

This was a family fun run. As I was the only one in the family not battling pain or injury of some sort, I was responsible for making sure that my 8 year old nephew maintained a pace appropriate to his fitness level for the distance. We knew he would want to do his best Dash impression from The Incredibles so I needed to make sure he didn't wipe himself out.

I'm still working on getting back to where I was in January, so this worked well. There were no mile markers so while I don't know when it exactly it occurred, my nephew began to tire out so we slowed down from run/walk to walk only for the rest of the race. My nephew wanted to sit down a few times, but I didn't want to stop so instead we walked slower.

We crossed the finish line and would find out after the rest of my family finished that my nephew placed first in his age group, so he collected a 1st place medal in addition to his finishers medal. Since the race was themed to Star Wars, they held a costume contest and my Darth Vader tech shirt with a lightsaber attached to my running belt got me second place. I also somehow wound up 5th in my age group, which may well be an all time highest finish. This is also my 5K PR owing entirely to it not being a runDisney race.

I'm excited about my costume contest prize, thrilled about my nephew winning his age group, and encouraged by a good mark of my overall current progress. I know I could have gone faster today. But today was about making sure my nephew didn't overdo it. This also doubled as my June 5K for the runDisney summer virtual 5K series.

Next live race is the Giant Race Lou Seal Challenge in September consisting of the Half Marathon at 7:00am and the 5K at 11:00am. I'm only now beginning to realize how much work lies ahead of me to be ready for that race.
 


I've spent my afternoon reading through your journal. Amazing job running Dopey! It's refreshing to read about the journey of a fellow "back of the pack" runner.
Thanks. I hope to provide something encouraging to my fellow back of the pack runners. I never would have even attempted a runDisney event if not for other runDisney veterans providing encouragement. And there's no way I could have even finished the marathon without the encouragement and guidance from so many runners far more accomplished and experienced than I.
 
Time for another belated update from me. I knew June was going to be rough with almost 2 weeks of the month spent out of town. Except it turned out even worse than I feared. I went to Disneyland the first week of June with some friends, which was great especially when they invited me to visit Galaxy's Edge with them. Even though 4 hours was nowhere near enough time to really soak in the area, I still enjoyed it.

I came back from Disneyland only to catch a very nasty summer cold. I think it took me two full weeks to mostly recover. It was so bad that I had cancel a planned second short visit to Disneyland to see my brother and his family that I haven't seen in 2 years. So that was tough. About the time I was physically recovered from the cold, I had a 3 day work seminar out of the office so that finished off a rough June wherein I logged a meager 7 miles of running, basically the first Saturday of the month and the final Saturday of the month.

July is fortunately off to a better start than June. I'm still working on finding my running groove again, but I am getting out there. 3 runs the first week of June and 2 runs last week. I had tentative plans for a 3rd run this past Saturday, but after a very difficult week in the office dealing with software upgrades that took about 7 or times longer than it should have, I decided I was really tired of life in general.

So I ran away. Namely to Disneyland and only for one day, but that proved to be the escape I needed. This time I spent almost all day in Galaxy's Edge and still have not been able to experience it all, not counting the yet to be opened ride. I loved all the little details I found that I truly didn't have time to catch the first time there.

In running related news, my runDisney Marvel summer series medals arrived. They are even better in person, so I'm glad I opted to go for the challenge.

My ranking of the Marvel virtual 5K medals:

1. Captain Marvel or Black Panther. I love both immensely.

3. Iron Man. Still quite cool, just not quite up to the other ones for me.
4. Challenge Medal. Honestly, I'm not sure what they were going for with this one. Celebrating 80 years of Marvel is cool, but no characters at all on the medal and it just being the Marvel Logo with 80 underneath it didn't work for me.

Hoping to get a full 5 days of exercise in this week.
 
Time for another update. After a disastrous June, July is going much better. Though I'm not yet back in my running routine, I'm much closer. A new plan from coach came last week and I'm feeling as it's almost too easy, but I can hear him tell me "Easy isn't easy unless it feels easy."

I had hoped to avenge my less than desired performance from last year's Giant Race at this year's Giant Race. My disastrous June of missing 3 weeks due to a nasty cold derailed those plans, so I've adjusted that to just finishing and seeing if I can have a more enjoyable race experience this year even though my time will probably be worse. And I wonder if in all honesty I already avenged last year's less than desired Giant Race performance by successfully applying the lessons I learned from that race into finishing the marathon.

At the very least, whenever I feel bad about needing to adjust my Giant Race goals, I tell myself that it's really just training for Dopey 2020 which will lead into Star Wars Rival Run 2020 and those are my next 2 major races.

With all the excitement over the marathon weekend medal design reveals this week, here are links to the Giant Race medals and race swag.

Giant Race Half Marathon

For the 10th anniversary they've introduced a Half Marathon or 10K/5K challenge named after Giants mascot Lou Seal. Basically if you finish the Half Marathon or the 10K since both races start at 7:00am and then the 5K which starts at 11:00am, you get the Lou Seal medal.

Lou Seal Challenge Medal

The first 10,000 registrants receive the Lou Seal runner bobblehead this year.

Lou Seal Runner Bobblehead

They're also doing a 100 mile challenge for the 10th anniversary of the Giant Race which involves running 100 miles before the end of September. I'm still undecided if I actually want to sign up for that one. Mostly due to mixed feelings about the medal. I like the baseball bats element to it, but am not sure about the 100 being much more prominent than the Giants SF logo.

100 Mile Challenge
 
I'm kinda meh on the 100 mile medal (the 100 is definitely too big), but I love the other two. And that bobblehead!!!!
That's my entire issue with the 100 mile medal. The 100 overshadows everything when I feel like something else should be the focus.

I was curious, so I looked at the race swag and offerings of other MLB teams and what I could find told me the following. A few teams offer races, but most do not even let you on the field at all. And quite a few of them only offer 5K or 10K races. And not every team offers runner bobbleheads.

I need to post more pictures later of other medal offerings. The Giants also offer a Spring Training run in Arizona, a Single A run in San Jose, a AAA run in Sacramento, and there are special medals for Turn Two (SF and San Jose), Three Bagger (all 3 California races), and the Series Sweep (all 4 races). Since all races are available as virtual options, my little sister and I signed up for the Series Sweep. Plus we're doing the 5K with our dad, and are really looking forward to being on the field with him.

In baseball related news, my little sister and I are going to the following baseball games for assorted good reasons.

1. Marvel Night 2 with a Hulkbuster Giants themed bobblehead against the Phillies.

2. Nephew Day with the Giants. 2 days later, we're going to the game with our nephew and it will be his first Giants game.

3. Star Trek Night. We're going for the special promotion on this one that gets us a Giants themed Star Trek messenger bag and more importantly a Jean Lou Picard bobblehead of Lou Seal as Jean Luc Picard from Star Trek The Next Generation. My sister isn't really a Star Trek fan, but she loves Lou Seal and thinks the bobblehead of him sitting in the Captain's chair is awesome.

4. Batman Day. Another special promotion that gets us a Batman Giants themed bobblehead and a Batman themed baseball bat. Fun fact: Before changing their name to the Giants sometime before the 20th century, the team used to be known as the New York Gothams.
 
I was curious, so I looked at the race swag and offerings of other MLB teams and what I could find told me the following. A few teams offer races, but most do not even let you on the field at all. And quite a few of them only offer 5K or 10K races. And not every team offers runner bobbleheads. .

I ran the Phillies one this year. They only offer a 5K. You do get to take a cool down lap around the warning track at the end. As for what they give, they don’t give a bobblehead. They give a tech shirt and 20% I think it was that much) discount that could be used the entire weekend. You also got 4 free tixs to a game (you could choose from 4 or 5 games). I liked the medal too. 458D9FA5-9852-4285-9486-FDD8CAFF1913.jpeg
 
They only offer a 5K. You do get to take a cool down lap around the warning track at the end. As for what they give, they don’t give a bobblehead. They give a tech shirt and 20% I think it was that much) discount that could be used the entire weekend. You also got 4 free tixs to a game (you could choose from 4 or 5 games). I liked the medal too.
The Giant Race finishes on the warning track and they let you stretch on the outfield grass and take pictures galore in the Giants dugout. The infield is roped off so you can't go there, but otherwise they allowed us to wander the field freely. Their email also makes it very clear that if runners don't respect the privilege they've been given, it can be taken away.

The Giants give tech shirts to runners, but do not offer even one ticket, so the Phillies race is probably a better deal. Giants tickets without promotions tend to run between $25-30 at the least expensive and that depends on who they're playing.

I agree with you on the medal. The home plate design with the runner on it is sweet.

I sort of kick myself for not running the Giants race in any of the years after they won the World Series. The medals those years were shaped like World Series rings.
 
July 2019 Update. After travel and illness dominated June, it feels really good to be back on track for July.

50 miles
15 hours of running/walking
There was also a little bit of strength training in there as well.

August Goals:

Incorporate more consistent strength training into my exercise routine.

Continue preparing for the Giant Race in September including a better focus on what I need to do so I reach the start line of that race in a good place mentally. I was mentally exhuasted for the Giant Race last year and my early struggles in that race sort of defeated me. I still finished that race and actually set a PR, but it was a long and miserable race despite some incredible sights along the way since we ran by the Golden Gate Bridge and the beachfront along the San Francisco Bay.

I've said before that my struggles in that race proved invaluable in helping me prepare to deal with the mental struggles that the marathon would bring, but I'm curious to see how I apply those lessons to a race that is now for fitness purposes instead of being a goal race.
 
An exhausting week finally came to an end. It got unusually hot for this area, so I had to sleep with the windows open more than I would like which exacerbates my allergies. So I had to deal with serious allergy headaches off and on all week. It threw my schedule out of whack, but I still got all my runs in for the week, albeit in a different format than the schedule calls for.

Friday also marked the official completion of the runDisney virtual summer shorts series as I have now run a 5K distance in June, July, and August. I might take the medals to California Adventure for character medal photos later this month since guests can meet Captain Marvel and Black Panther there.

This coming week poses a different sort of challenge. Namely, juggle running with all the fun things going on.

Thursday I'm going to the Giants game with my little sister. It's Marvel Comics Night and we get a Hulkbuster Giants bobblehead.

Friday evening is the Weird Al Yankovic Strings Attached Concert. Weird Al always puts on quite a show and this time he's decided to add a full orchestra to the performance.

Saturday afternoon is another Giants game, this time with my nephew.

So it's going to make for quite the interesting week. But I'm looking forward to it.
 
Week in Review:

Monday: 2.5 miles
Tuesday: Off
Wednesday: 2.5 miles
Thursday: Walk to and from the Giants game, so approximately 2.2 miles total. Giants beat the Phillies so that was nice.
Friday: Walk to and from the Weird Al Yankovic concert. Roughly a 1 mile walk, but very much uphill one way so around 2 miles total. The concert was so much fun. Weird Al Yankovic concerts are not simply a live performance of his songs including the parodies that he's most famous for. He also features multiple costume changes, random video clips on the screen behind him and this time he's using a full orchestra at every venue.

Saturday: 6.2 mile run before the Giants game in the afternoon. More walking to and from the game, so it was quite the week step wise. It was my nephew's first Giants game, so we made sure to get him a first Giants game certificate. Anyone who ever attends a Giants game in San Francisco can pick one up for free just by going to guest relations on the promenade level inside the park. We also got there early enough to get a fog globe. If you're wondering what a fog globe is, just think of a snow globe, except they changed the mixture enough to make it look like fog. Inside is the Giants ballpark on one side with the Golden Gate Bridge on the other side. Giants also won this game, so they're now 2-1 on the season when I attend. For a few years, they managed to either get blown out or blow a late lead in games I attended so I like this new trend.

Looks like the week ahead will be busy again, but at least not in the 2 consecutive late nights followed by a very early morning kind of busy.
 
I love first game certificates. I have one from Citi Field (even though it wasn't my first Mets game by a long shot ... it was my first game at Citi Field) and one from a minor league team in Delaware. I forgot to ask about them at the two new stadiums I went to this year, but I'm hoping to get one when I go to the Phillies next week.

Great job keeping up with the running!
 
I love first game certificates. I have one from Citi Field (even though it wasn't my first Mets game by a long shot ... it was my first game at Citi Field) and one from a minor league team in Delaware. I forgot to ask about them at the two new stadiums I went to this year, but I'm hoping to get one when I go to the Phillies next week.

Great job keeping up with the running!
My nephew was very excited to get his certificate. They're a fun way to remember a first game or something like those people who go to every single MLB park.

We also took him to see the 2010 World Series trophy. He was an infant when the Giants won it all that year and the night they won the World Series, ring around the rosie took on a very excited tone when the word Posey came up since catcher Buster Posey had just helped the Giants win their first title in San Francisco.
 

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