It is never too late to be what you might have been.

Thanks for documenting this. I've ran some marathons, but this will be my first runDisney event since I ran a half at Disneyland many years ago... and I'm doing the Dopey, so it's always great to compare my training to others. I'm training with my bro-in-law who's also running it, and we are trying to get about 28 miles a week in right now - so similar to what you've been doing. We hope to escalate throughout the fall. Oh - and you're not alone in the lawn-cutting department... I always seem to do my mowing right after my long run for the week :crazy2:
 
8/22 Check-In

7 Miles on the TM last night. I am still trying to make up my missed run from Monday, but the late nights are making that difficult to get a double in. I think tomorrow will be my last chance to try a double. I originally planned to have Thursday off and run a short run Friday with the race Saturday night. If I run a double tomorrow, Ill take Friday off to be well rested. I prefer not to run 5 days straight at this point, especially with a race on the 5th day.

I am nearing my goal for 100 miles in a month. Currently I am at 85.25 miles and should hit the 100 mark during this weekends race! I also realized I have a shot of hitting another goal which is to hit 125 miles in a month. I originally planned for that to happen in September but I've added a few miles here and there and if I hit it, it will be just by a small margin.

Weight-In today has me below 225 again. I was up a little yesterday. Heres what we have 235/222.0/210. Doing really well in this area so far. I imagine things will start to slow soon but for now I am averaging 2lbs per week.

I'll check back in on Friday to discuss my runs from today till then and to talk about my upcoming race this weekend.

@a-mad Thanks for the post and reading along. That's a good amount of miles for this time frame. Starting in September I should not go below 30 miles except for one week where we will be at WDW. I hope to get a few miles in during the trip, but we rope drop and usually close the parks. This will be our first trips with naps planned at the resort so maybe I wont be as tired.
 
Just caught up on your journal! Running with a double stroller looks so hard. I don’t know how people do it.
 
8/22 Check-In

7 Miles on the TM last night. I am still trying to make up my missed run from Monday, but the late nights are making that difficult to get a double in. I think tomorrow will be my last chance to try a double. I originally planned to have Thursday off and run a short run Friday with the race Saturday night. If I run a double tomorrow, Ill take Friday off to be well rested. I prefer not to run 5 days straight at this point, especially with a race on the 5th day.

I am nearing my goal for 100 miles in a month. Currently I am at 85.25 miles and should hit the 100 mark during this weekends race! I also realized I have a shot of hitting another goal which is to hit 125 miles in a month. I originally planned for that to happen in September but I've added a few miles here and there and if I hit it, it will be just by a small margin.

Weight-In today has me below 225 again. I was up a little yesterday. Heres what we have 235/222.0/210. Doing really well in this area so far. I imagine things will start to slow soon but for now I am averaging 2lbs per week.

I'll check back in on Friday to discuss my runs from today till then and to talk about my upcoming race this weekend.

@a-mad Thanks for the post and reading along. That's a good amount of miles for this time frame. Starting in September I should not go below 30 miles except for one week where we will be at WDW. I hope to get a few miles in during the trip, but we rope drop and usually close the parks. This will be our first trips with naps planned at the resort so maybe I wont be as tired.

It's been great to follow along with yours and others training journals to get an idea of how I'm doing as I prep for marathon weekend. This has been such an awesome, welcoming community - everyone has offered such great advice. Continued good luck with your training and enjoy your week in Sept at WDW! (rope drop to close the parks? the only way to go!)
 


Just caught up on your journal! Running with a double stroller looks so hard. I don’t know how people do it.

The double stroller is a whole different animal than the single I used to run with. I ran at least 1-2 runs a week with the single stroller and while it slowed those runs down some, they were usually just recovery runs or a easy run for that day. It did make my other runs seem not so bad. The longest I've ever taken the single out for was in the 14 mile range. I run my long runs around LSU and the lakes by it. So we would run a few miles and stop to feed some ducks. Run a few more and stop by Mike the Tiger, then finish and have a little breakfast picnic with DD. Looking back on it, those were some good times! The double requires two hands for almost every turn and when its windy outside it act like a giant sail. Our oldest is 40+ lbs and the baby (currently one) is around 25 lbs. Figure that, with the weight of the stroller and I'm pushing 90+lbs. It's much more difficult, and since I am just getting back into shape I limit how often I do it for now. By October I will try to get them in the stroller once or twice a week. They both enjoy it a lot so why not.
 
8/24 Check-In

Tomorrow is race day! My goal for the 10 mile night time trail run was originally 1:30:00, and since I originally came up with that goal have revised it to 1:35:00. I feel pretty good about being able to stay around the 9:00 - 9:15 pace range, but doubt that I can go at it much faster at this point. Looking at the forecast for tomorrow night, it is supposed to be around 82 at the start of the race and winds out of the south. Since the race is along Lake Pontchartrain which is near the GOM I take that as a sign it will me humid for the run. My current training paces also suggest I can hit these paces and make the distance in a race setting. We shall see what happens, but most of all I am just happy to be back into a race.

This race is a stepping stone towards a road race of 10 miles in early October, which is the one I have circled as important. It's most likely that the October race will be the run I use to submit as a POT. Goals are all over the place from 1:20 to 1:15:00 range. I'll have a better idea the week of that race.

Ran 3.25 miles this morning and things were a little tight still from Wednesdays run. Feel like I loosened things up and feeling better. I gave up on being able to make up my missed run on Monday and just accepted that for the most part this week is a recovery week. In the weight loss department I hit a new low on this journey with a weigh in today at 220.9. As of today that bring the total loss to 14.1 lbs in 6 weeks.

With my race ending sometime between 10 and 10:30PM, plus some recovery time, and a 1.5 hour drive home I probably wont have a report on my day till Sunday/Monday unless I really surprise myself, then I may be inclined to post sooner lol. Until then, Hope everyone has a great weekend and thank you for reading my journal!

EDIT

I also forgot to mention that by the end of the race this weekend I will be able to check of two of my goals on my list. 100 miles in a month and having a POT race. There is also a chance that at the end of the month I could hit the 125 mile mark, but that would require a extra mile or two somewhere along the way.
 


Q50 Races Bleua Moon Trail 10 Miler Race Report:

This past Saturday was the first time in a while that I ran a race that I trained for. The race was at Fountainebleau State Park in Mandeville, LA which is about a hour and a half from my home. The race starts at 8:30 PM which is a little different from most races that I have run. To start the day off, instead of running the family and I went to the farmers market to get some goodies for the week. Got home around lunch time, ate a light lunch and finally got around to installing baby locks on the cabinets. Took a nap around 4 PM and started to prepare for the race around 5:15. Left home for 6:00 and arrived shortly after 7:15. Picked up my bib and shirt and took in some sights. Meant to take a picture along the lake of the sun setting but I missed it. Instead all I got is this moment right before the sun finally went down.
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After I took this photo I went to my truck and changed into my race stuff, applied a lot of bug spray and went for a nice easy warm-up mile. During my warm-up a saw a few deer which is always nice! I went back to my truck and got my fuel belt, took a GU and some fluids and went to the starting line. According to the race director this was the largest turnout for this race. They have two options for this race, a 5 or 10 miler. The 10 milers run the same route twice, after the first 5 miles you are required to check in before going back out. The race starts in a open area and you run towards Lake Pontchartrain, and then along it for a short distance. This part was nice as you get a nice breeze. You then turn away from the lake and run through some sand and mostly grass. Two things I learned quickly here, sand will kill you pace, the other OMG the amount of bugs was out of control. Once we got into the woods the bug were no longer a problem and shortly after I hit mile one (9:47). My goal was 1:35:00 which would have been around a 9:30 pace. The first mile was also a bit crowded so I was not overly concerned at that moment. The next few miles are spent in the woods. Since I am taller than most, the spider webs at my head level have not been knocked down by the runners in front of me, so I got to deal with that lol. As I approached mile 2 I realized that styaing on goal pace was very unlikely to happen. Mile 2 (9:56). During mile 3 I had my first few sips of water and decided to change my goal up to just running on the effort I would a 10 miler on pavement. There were to many things for me to overcome with roots, holes in the ground that are hidden by the grass I decided to take it a little slower and hit mile 3 in (10:29). Mile 4 I took down another GU and finished my second bottle of water. At this point I am drenched, it did not feel hot outside, but it was humid. I think it was around 82 at the start of the race. I make it back to the check in point. I decided to fill up my water bottles with some water and then take back off. Starting back out, the bugs were gone now!!! Was very happy about that development. Mile 4 (10:34), mile 5 (10:05), mile 6 (10:18) all went well enough. Took my last GU during mile 7 (10:51) and did a little walking during mile 8 (11:11) when I felt something burning in my left foot. So I lost a safety pin before the race and looked all over for it. During this point of the race I thought I had found it and it was bothering my foot as I run around with it. Decided not to completely stop since I was almost done, mile 9 (10:53). The last part of the race is mostly out of the woods so I was able to pick things up a bit and finished with a 10:01 pace. My overall pace was 10:25 and per my Garmin the distance was short at 9.68 miles. Close enough for me for a trail run. My Garmin finish time was 1:40:51, which I started when I crossed the starting line, but since the race was not chipped time the gun time is the only thing they went by. Official finish time is 1:41:00 which I think is the first time I finished a race with zero seconds lol.
Post race I grabbed a water and head to my truck to figure out what exactly was in my shoe. Turns out nothing was in my shoe, but I did have a blister! I havent had a blister from running in years, so maybe that explains why I did suspect that earlier during the run. Grabbed my chocolate milk out my ice chest and head back towards where the post race activities were happening. They had cold pasta salad and seafood gumbo. I passed on both as I cant have the gumbo and not a fan of pasta salad. Stuck around for awards, which I did not win any and did not expect to. Before heading home I changed out of my wet running clothes and prepared for my drive home. Below are post race pics with finishers medal which happen to be a homemade medal. Thought it was really cool. Also is a picture of the route.
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Overall I am pleased with my experience. It is a bit out of my comfort zone, but I achieved my primary goals which was get a POT race and get into decent enough shape to do so. According to @DopeyBadger s thread on POT this race should be good enough for corral D placement which is 4:30 -5:00 marathon. I also can cross off another goal after the race which was to run 100 miles in a month. When the race was completed I had 104.28 miles so far for August.

Weight wise I weighed in this morning at 220.9. This is a good sign because I typically weigh the most on Mondays and this is where I left off before the weekend. I may also give 125 mile for the month a run before the end of the month but that will require adding a few miles here and there to my current schedule so we shall see.

Thanks for reading along and hope you enjoyed.

Next Race is Space City 10 Miler on October 7. Last chance to move up a corral or two hopefully!
 
Congrats! Sounds like you definitely adjusted to unexpected conditions at the race. Bugs, spider webs, and not-so-fun surfaces ... yikes.
Maybe I'll see you in corral D :) (or not ... hopefully you'll move up a corral with your next race!)
 
Congrats! Sounds like you definitely adjusted to unexpected conditions at the race. Bugs, spider webs, and not-so-fun surfaces ... yikes.
Maybe I'll see you in corral D :) (or not ... hopefully you'll move up a corral with your next race!)

Thanks! It was a fun adventure. I'm just happy to have a POT currently! My real drive to move up in corrals, is so I can get back into the parks sooner lol.
 
The spider web part had me laughing! As a short person, I always feel like tall people have such an advantage over me. But I guess in this instance you don't. Sounds like a fun and different race!! And the handmade medal was really cool! Great job!!
 
Eeewww to spider webs. Those things stick to you and are so hard to get off. Great job with your race!
 
It has been a while since I've posted here. We recently took a trip to WDW! The week before was very busy and it kept me from having a chance to run, then a week at Disney, and now just trying to find some free time to get a run in. It will happen sooner than later though. But, thats not what I wanted to talk about today. Today I wanted to share some pictures and a very brief recap of our trip. We left 9/11 at 2:15 AM for our drive over. After getting settled we made it to Epcot around 4:00 PM for our first ever trip to F&W! The food we had was awesome! Heres a few of things we tried out that afternoon.
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I think my favorite may have been the slider from Hawaii!

While we are on food DD loved the Mickey Beignets from POFQ. The only thing she liked more was popcorn. When I asked what was her favorite thing at WDW, popcorn is the answer... she may be more of a Disney food person than ride person. lol She also had her first Dole Whip, and while she did not care for the one from MK, the one at AK was more to her liking.
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Speaking of food I of course had my standard trip to Gastons for a cinnamon roll, some Mickey ice cream bars in DHS, and no trip is complete without a stop at Club Cool!
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She really enjoys the red flavor, I think strawberry. I of course had my standard Beverly lol. We did a little experiment one day. DW went back to the room with DS, and DD and I went to Epcot for a few reasons. She specifically asked to go to club cool lol.

Our second the last day we went to MK in the morning and MNSSHP that night. It's a great event! I wish I had taken some additional time to plan things out for that night, but I just couldn't find the time to get it done before we left so we ended up just winging it. Heres some photos of the day.
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A really fun trip overall. DS did much better than I expected! He like the rides we took him on and he pointed a lot lol. DD is scared of anything that has a special effect that blows air or a smell at you, as well as any ride that drops, including pirates and FEA. Not really sure what to do there. She did ride Slinky and the Alien ride. She only like the Alien ride though.

Earlier I mention a experiment. Well I wanted to see how things would go with just the two of us in the park for a few hours. It went well and even got to experiment with restroom time without a family restroom near. After talking about it with my wife, DD and I will take a trip towards the end of March for 3 park days and fly down. I'm in the process of picking out a room for us and flights. Looking at All Star Movie since I think DD would appreciate it a lot. For the time being we have Marathon weekend to look forward to. The reason for March is because our AP's expire in April, and I do not have a week I can go at that time. So that trip would conclude our "Year of Disney".

PS: I promise we rode rides, I just dont have a ton of pics lol.
 
Oh my goodness, how adorable! I am so glad y'all had a good time. Your daughter is exactly right that popcorn is the best snack! LOL
 
AWESOME family picture!!! Disney popcorn is the best. I don't know what they do to it, but it is so addicting.
 
Sounds like a great trip. The MNSSHP photo is great. Character photos while guests are in costumes are always so much fun. And very rare for adults.
 

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