What Klys and Danger Do Next Is Kind of Dopey
Remember back to “The LGF RunDisney-StarWars-DarkSide Meet Up and Half Marathon”
Klys was musing on what she wanted to conquer next: A marathon. I was all for it - with proper training and all, and i’d help as best i could from 3,000 miles away.
Nope. Not so simple. She wanted her first marathon to be at Disney, in January 2019, and as part of the Dopey Challenge in the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend. That’s four races over four consecutive days. 5k, 10k, ½ marathon (13.1 miles), marathon (26.2 miles).
And ears. In addition to all the medals, you get Mickey ears too!
I said - “yer nuts.” I gave lots of reasons why, and they were all good ones. I think I said i’d still be her buddy for the marathon. and we moved on to lots of other stuff.
I went home after the DarkSide and did some research. You see, Dangerman is really quite risk averse. I learned some things. First that, after stepping back, the Dopey is actually quite doable. It turns out that around 7,000 people try it and they mostly aren’t elite runners. Neither are we. And that Klys, being young, strong and, oh so determined, could likely do it. Cause the first three days are really not all that to a regular runner and she is way well prepared for that much. So even if the marathon included a fair bit of walking, it all seemed within reach.
Then I thought, in some sort of perverse way, if im saying she could do it, why couldn’t i? Except i really, really didnt want to. Then it just chased me around and around and i came to the same conclusion - i could easily do a 26. i could easily do the three days so why not do the 3 days then an ‘easy’ marathon?
Sign me up, I was hooked.
Klys has arranged for a sort of simultaneous family reunion in Orlando. She’s gonna run the first three days with different family members for each race. I will assertively and not aggressively run those races alone. Easy, light and smooth, no muss, no fuss, no stress, not for anything near PR’s. Then we will run the marathon together.
I expect that for 1) her first, 2) not my first rodeo, 3) as part of the Dopey, we will do respectably well over the 4 days and finish with grace and style.
I haven’t run a marathon in 5 years. I vividly remember the last hour of that race saying to anyone who would listen that i had no desire to ever run another 26 again. And wasn’t liking to finish that one too much either. After the race, I scaled back.
In 2015 I was in pretty good ½ marathon shape. While running a local race I tore a calf muscle. I have no idea how i also managed to set a personal best and take a first in my division (M55-59) at the same time. Six months of no running, then a year rebuilding from scratch and so many questions: Would I be the same again? How much and how far would I go? How much did I want to run and how fast? Did I want to race or just ‘run’?
And now I’m completely turned around and enthusiastically in this thing we’re doing. I am now in the best running condition of my life. Far, far better prepared, and smarter, than 5 years ago and even much stronger than 2015. I run almost every day, averaging about about 55-60 miles a week and it’s not work. I look forward to getting up (almost) every morning and I totally enjoy what im doing. Klys has been quite the inspiration.
A month after Dopey, I expect to race to a personal best in the Ft. Lauderdale A1A marathon.
Stay tuned.