Disney Marathon Weekend 2011 Post Race Wrapup

Disney Half 2011

All in all it was a successful and very enjoyable Marathon trip this year. I always enjoy my time with Matt and this year we did many attractions that we had never done together or done at all, so that made the trip special as well. He seemed to enjoy the time away very much and he had the added bonus of not have to get up and run the race this year. When it is just the two of us we can make decisions pretty quickly about where to go, what to see, what to eat, when to get up, etc. I always like having my wife and daughter with us but things can be a lot more streamlined when only two opinions are involved. I’m not sure who is coming down with me next year, but it may just be a two person event again.

As for the race, I learned a few things this year. First, I need to loose a few pounds. I was hovering around 199 at the time of the race, which is not huge, but I could definitely feel the extra weight on my knees by the time I crossed the finish line. I have been under 200 for going on 15 years now but my ideal weight would be around 180 so I have set a goal of 185 by the end of February. I would actually like to get down to 175 but I will probably put on 5 pounds or so of muscle with the weight program.

I plan on doing some calorie counting, which I have never done before and will enlist the help of the ‘MyFitnessPal’ application on my Android phone. I checked into a few apps including Calorie Counter from FatSecret (terrible name), but I liked the interface and more accurate barcode scanner of My Fitness Pal. I will do a review of my progress in the coming weeks.

The second thing I learned was I am not very good at pacing. I had planned on running with the Clif Bar pace group to hit my 2:15 goal and had stopped at their booth at the expo to meet then and confirm that there would be a group in my corral. They said there was and to look for the girl holding the stick with balloons and the 2:15 sign. I was all psyched to run with them since I was going solo this year, but when I got to the ‘C’ corral, there was no pace group. I spotted a two hour group in the ‘B’ corral but nothing in my area. So long story short, I went out way to fast and went off the pace at about mile 8. I know I can’t depend on others all the time so I need to get better at pacing myself and knowing how my body is doing even without a watch.

Speaking of a watch, my Garmin ForeRunner 305 was pretty much useless this year, which was a bit disappointing. I wanted to compare my three times (D-TAG which clips to your shoe, Runkeeper on my phone and the Garmin), but only the DTAG and my phone were accurate. The Garmin was telling me I had gone a mile when I still had about 100 yards to go. This my be my excuse to try the 310XT or to look for something completely different. I love RunKeeper, but the phone can be a bit heavy to lug around sometimes.

As painful as those races are, I can’t want to go down in 2012 and try for a new PR with whoever I can get to run with me. It was only about 3 hours after this years run that I decided I wanted to do it again next year. So if you are interested in joining me in the Magic Kingdom next year, leave me a comment and lets plan to race together.

Disney Marathon Weekend 2011 Is Almost Here

 

Only two more days till I leave for Florida for the Disney Marathon weekend. I am both excited and sad at the same time because I always have a great time at that event, but none of my family is running with me this year. I will be posting throughout the weekend like I did at last years event, this being the one year anniversary of starting my blog.

I will have various technology with my like I always do and I am going to try a few tracking solutions so those who are interested can track my progress or if you are not up at 5:30am on January 8th, you can at least view my path when I have finished.

One of the technologies I will be trying is from InstaMapper.com . Instamapper lets me post my location in near real time for others to see. My location is posted every 60 seconds so you need to refresh your browser if you are following along as I run, or you can just click around the map if you are viewing post race. Instamapper is made more for tracking me while driving but I want to see how it works while running.

 

The other technology is from RunKeeper which is made for tracking workouts including running. I tried this during the Bonefield Express on Thanksgiving but I don’t think I gave it enough time to lock onto the GPS as my chip time and the Runkeeper time were way off.

Regardless of what tech I use, or no tech at all, I will still be posting what Matt and I experience this weekend. Good luck to all the participants in this years , Half Marathon, Full Marathon and Goofy (running both the half and the full).