SAFD:
Redo: 2011
Disneyland Half. As my first race of any distance, I had no clue what to expect. In addition to my pre race decision to skip all photo ops due to a fear of not finishing, I dealt with my fears by starting out far too fast, nearly injuring myself, and almost destroying every future race I have ran since that day. Everything hurt for the remaining 12.5 miles or so, but I did cross that finish line.
Honorable Mention: 2019 Giant Race San Francisco. Actually, this is my PR at the half, but after a conservative training plan designed to keep me injury free and ready for Dopey training I went into the race with the sole objective of letting the race come to me and just finishing. I did exactly that and wound up shaving 4 minutes off my PR. However, I place it as a redo if only because I wonder how the race might have gone if I had been able to train properly after a summer illness forced me to start from ground zero in early July.
Relive: 2020 Walt Disney World Marathon. Like all of my races, this one was a solo race, but I chose it because of how strong I felt throughout that race in spite of how brutally hot and humid it was. Even in those conditions, I knew I had the strength to accomplish my goal. For a while after learning that I was behind the cut off point, I struggled with what meaning if any there was about me not formally getting to 26.2, but I fairly quickly made my peace with it because I realized that all the walking to the corrals and then to the start line from my corral far, far away guaranteed that I had absolutely put 26.2 miles in albeit in a different manner.
Honorable Mention: 2019 Walt Disney World Marathon. But only after mile 25. I was feeling every bit of the 21 miles when I exited Wide World of Sports, but knew that I I had come too far to just give up. So I fought through every single one of those remaining miles. I got far too excited, even for me, to see the spires of Galaxy's Edge rise in the distance and found every little thing I could to just distract my body from the heat, the tiredness, and all the soreness. Once I got into Epcot with nary a peep about the balloon ladies, I knew I was safe so long as I just kept moving. At this point I had also grown very tired of the taste of water and powerade. I continued to tolerate it only because I knew the alternative was much, much worse. And then I discovered the tropical fruit smoothie stand in Morocco. It possessed the virtue of tasting completely different from water and powerade and being icy cold. Shortly after this, "Let's Go Fly a Kite" came on over the PA system and I felt like I was either flying or quite possibly hallucinating, but either way knowing that I was about to finish the marathon. I suppose it's the very definition of the runners high. So I want to relive that, but not necessarily everything leading up to it. Although as I think about it, I'm not sure that I would have obtained that experience without everything leading up to it.
) sub-2 Half. It was the 60th/Diamond Anniversary celebration. Just so so so much fun!
