Goofy Challenge training blog on iamtri.com

Over the last 16 weeks (well, not quite 16 yet, but that's how many weeks I will have been training come race day) I've been doing some pretty heavy marathon training for an upcoming marathon.  I've run a few marathons before, and never trained this much, or much at all really.  I came across a book called "Run Less Run Faster" and gave it a quick read.  I was hooked.  I decided to try out their half marathon training plan for the Disneyland half marathon last September.  I was actually doing the training for a half-iron distance triathlon to be held in Tempe, AZ, but the dam exploded and the lake was no more.  So, at about the halfway point in that program, I had to change my goal race to Disneyland.  Well, like I said earlier, this was the first time I had really done proper training for an event.  My results were amazing!  I shaved off over 20 minutes from my previous half marathon PR.  Unfortunately, this began to fill my head with some crazy ideas.


I had already registered for this race called Goofy's Race and a Half Challenge, held during Disney World Marathon Weekend in January.  The Challenge entails running a half marathon on Saturday, and a marathon on Sunday.  My goal since signing up for the race was just to finish, without even considering time.  But, once I did so well at Disneyland, I began to think that I shouldn't waste this opportunity to run as good of a race as I possibly could.  In comes the "Run Less Run Faster" book again.  I decided I might as well set my goals high to keep myself motivated.  So I decided on qualifying for Boston.

Qualifying for Boston may not mean much to people who don't run.  To those who do run, it's sort of like the marathon's Super Bowl, but something that anyone can participate in, not just go spectate.  At my age, to qualify for Boston, I have to finish a qualifying marathon in 3:10:59 or less.  It just so happens that the Disney World marathon is a qualifying race!  Well, this book has specific training plans in it to qualify for Boston, so I decided to follow that.  However, due to the nature of my race weekend, I had to adjust the plan a bit.  Normally, those trying to qualify for Boston don't run a half marathon the day before their qualifying race.  It's just not a good idea.  But like it said, I set my goal pretty high.  And truth be told, I'm doing what is unofficially called the "Dopey Challenge".  This is the Goofy Challenge, with the Family Fun 5k added in on Friday.

So back to the title of this post.  I've been writing a weekly blog about my training.  If you're interested in just how much work I've put in to try and be successful at this, then feel free to check it out here.  Whether or not I'll be able to qualify, it's been pretty amazing to find out how I can run if I actually train.  I'm almost done with week 4 of my training (the weeks count backwards from 16, so I'm almost done), and this is really the last hard week.  Now, it's time to rest and hope that all the work I've put in will pay off.

*Click on the book cover and it will take you to author's website...