Lessons Learned: Third Marathon

My third marathon came in January 2017 at the Walt Disney World Marathon weekend. I had planned to do this marathon as part of the Goofy Challenge (half marathon on Saturday morning & full marathon on Sunday morning). This race had been on my bucketlist for a really long time, so needless to say I was really excited when the race came! Although, the half was ‘officially’ cancelled due to some really scary thunderstorms, I still managed to get in my 13.1 miles late Friday evening (I think I ended my run around 11:30pm?!?) and was really prepared to run a potential PR Sunday morning….Spoiler alert: it definitely did not turn out that way at all!

I learned that not all races will be PRs. This was a tough pill to swallow in the moment, but I do remember being really dang proud of running through the entire race!

Finding a training plan that works well for you will make a huge difference. I followed the Run Disney training plan and it honestly just didn’t suite me as a runner. I think there’s a plan for everyone out there and this one wasn’t the best fit for ME.

This will be the first marathon that you actually ENJOY. You’ll stop to take character photos and wish at the end that you had stopped to take more!

This marathon was THE ONE. The one that ‘hooked’ you at the 26.2 distance, the one where you pushed through the pain, the where you pushed through the frigid weather, the one where you’ll cross that finish line and experience all the happy tears.

This race was the one that gave you confidence that maybe, just maybe, you can actually break 4 hours in the marathon and 2 hours in the half marathon (spoiler alert: it will take a while before this actually happens!).

You will train your butt off for this race and while not being able to ‘officially’ complete both of the distances, it will spur you on to sign-up for some other really really crazy distance challenges in the future!

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Anyone else experience the magic that RunDisney races provide?

Anyone else have Dopey Challenge or other ‘big crazy distance races’ on the bucket list like me?!?