Marathon Weekend 2023

[kps7795]

I definitely use “just a 5K to go” at mile 10 of half marathons. We practically do 5Ks in our sleep, so it’s no big deal

This was the first thing that popped into my head. Nevertheless, you’re spot on!

https://gfycat.com/aggravatingperiodicjapanesebeetle

 

[sandam1]

Believe me I need to practice that trick frequently. But I think the practice makes for a mental boost when the real mile 22 (or whatever comes) during the marathon. At mile 20, I often hear somebody say "just a 10K to go now" and then I remind myself that I ran a 10K just 2 days ago, so I know how to handle the 10K. Whatever tricks you come up with to shut down the part of your brain that wants to be done will help you carry the day.

I use the manta "these are the miles that you've been training for."

 

[PrincessV]

While we wait for the race guide to come out… talk to me, please, about successfully finishing a marathon undertrained. Or, tell me if my idea of “undertrained” isn’t as undertrained as I think it is.

Here’s the deal: I won’t see a specialist until after MW for this autoimmune disease I’ve got that’s been causing enough joint & muscle pain and fatigue to keep me from doing the mileage I’m used to for a marathon. This would be marathon #7 in as many years, so not my first rodeo. I am not looking for any kind of time: just to finish would be nice if I happen to be having a good day. I’ve been building mileage since mid-summer, from 6 mile long runs up to 16 3 weeks ago, plus 2 4-mile runs and a 2ish mile session of hill or speed repeats each week. So I’m not coming right off the couch or anything - but I’m also not going to hit the 2 20-mile long runs I normally do in marathon training.

I managed 14 of a planned 18 before needing to stop last weekend. I tried taking more walk breaks than usual with the idea that it would help, but I felt better running than walking for the last few miles. I have 10 planned this weekend, but don’t know that it will happen. I was hoping for 18-20 the weekend after that, but again - not at all sure it’s going to happen. Is there ANYTHING I can do at this point to be better prepared? Should I just write it off ahead of time and spare myself the mid-race decision to stop? Is there a real possibility that I could actually finish by doing more rest and recovery at this point instead of trying to build more mileage?? I’m open to any suggestions and/or stories of overcoming the odds!

 

[Herding_Cats]

How much time per week have you been able to put in? Mileage is one thing, but us members of Team Not-So-Fast will point out that time-on-feet is what we train. I think Billy recently posted something about being able to do 6hrs in a week for a peak to have a good chance of finishing. And this is where I will also point out that I'm going into marathon #3 with a peak week of 30 miles and longest long-run of 13mi this training cycle (and 13.1 was my longest going into last MW.) BUT, that's a 3hr run for me.

What corral do you think you'll start in? Does running slower feel ok, or does you body just want to be in a certain pace until it decides it's all done? If your body decides it's not your day will you be ok with stopping? Even at mile 20+?

 

[cburnett11]

I think your experience will carry you @PrincessV . I'm not an expert by any means, but I think your cumulative fitness and past training will take care of you. For starters, you know the difference in something feeling difficult vs. something being seriously wrong. You know how to breathe, adjust your pace, hydrate, etc. That puts you ahead of others even with the lower amount of running this cycle. Perhaps I'm typing this out because I'm a bit in the same boat. I haven't run longer than 12 miles since October, so am getting a late start to MW mileage. But I'm pretty confident I can adjust my pace as necessary to make the marathon fun and do-able.

 

[azrivest]

@Herding_Cats is right:

In my experience with other runners, about 6 hours in peak week is where I put the cutoff. If you can do at least 6 hours in peak week, balanced across multiple days, and be consistent in your training otherwise, then as long as you can do a HM in under 3:05-3:10 I'd say you have a greater than zero chance of completing Dopey. The more training slips under 6 hours, or the more the fitness moves away from a 3:05-3:10 HM, the more nervous I get about someone finishing Dopey (or a solo event marathon).

 

[camaker]

While we wait for the race guide to come out… talk to me, please, about successfully finishing a marathon undertrained. Or, tell me if my idea of “undertrained” isn’t as undertrained as I think it is.

Here’s the deal: I won’t see a specialist until after MW for this autoimmune disease I’ve got that’s been causing enough joint & muscle pain and fatigue to keep me from doing the mileage I’m used to for a marathon. This would be marathon #7 in as many years, so not my first rodeo. I am not looking for any kind of time: just to finish would be nice if I happen to be having a good day. I’ve been building mileage since mid-summer, from 6 mile long runs up to 16 3 weeks ago, plus 2 4-mile runs and a 2ish mile session of hill or speed repeats each week. So I’m not coming right off the couch or anything - but I’m also not going to hit the 2 20-mile long runs I normally do in marathon training.

I managed 14 of a planned 18 before needing to stop last weekend. I tried taking more walk breaks than usual with the idea that it would help, but I felt better running than walking for the last few miles. I have 10 planned this weekend, but don’t know that it will happen. I was hoping for 18-20 the weekend after that, but again - not at all sure it’s going to happen. Is there ANYTHING I can do at this point to be better prepared? Should I just write it off ahead of time and spare myself the mid-race decision to stop? Is there a real possibility that I could actually finish by doing more rest and recovery at this point instead of trying to build more mileage?? I’m open to any suggestions and/or stories of overcoming the odds!

I ran my first marathon as part of the 10k plus Goofy in 2016. I had only run half marathons (3) up until that point and had torn my hamstring in the last one in September, 2015. Initial rehab from the tear meant that I wasn't allowed to run again until November. When I started running again my frequency, distance and pacing were strictly limited by my PT.

By the time MW 2016 rolled around, I was only allowed to run in 1/3 intervals and had only gotten back up to a max of 12 miles in training (once) as part of a max load of 24 miles per week. The first two races went reasonably well, but I was terrified at the start of the marathon. I almost stepped out of the corral a number of times before the start. I ended up deciding to start and see how it went. I could always pull myself at a medical tent. When it started, though, I was able to settle into a slow rhythm and focus on my surroundings rather than the mileage left to go. My confidence grew as I got past MK and by the time I hit halfway at AK I was floating on air and knew I was going to finish! That race is still the best running experience I've ever had.

This isn't your first rodeo and you've got a lot more mileage under your belt than I had going into that first marathon. My advice is to get out there and give it a shot. Slow down some, focus on the surroundings and experience rather than the overall race as a whole. If you can't make it, you'll find out and can pull yourself. There's absolutely no shame in that! I think you'll find out that you're capable of more than what you think you can do. I also find that races where I overcome challenges like injury, illness or undertraining end up being more meaningful experiences than the PRs I set when healthy and fully trained. Give yourself a chance to have that experience and make that memory.

 

[FFigawi]

While we wait for the race guide to come out… talk to me, please, about successfully finishing a marathon undertrained. Or, tell me if my idea of “undertrained” isn’t as undertrained as I think it is.

Here’s the deal: I won’t see a specialist until after MW for this autoimmune disease I’ve got that’s been causing enough joint & muscle pain and fatigue to keep me from doing the mileage I’m used to for a marathon. This would be marathon #7 in as many years, so not my first rodeo. I am not looking for any kind of time: just to finish would be nice if I happen to be having a good day. I’ve been building mileage since mid-summer, from 6 mile long runs up to 16 3 weeks ago, plus 2 4-mile runs and a 2ish mile session of hill or speed repeats each week. So I’m not coming right off the couch or anything - but I’m also not going to hit the 2 20-mile long runs I normally do in marathon training.

I managed 14 of a planned 18 before needing to stop last weekend. I tried taking more walk breaks than usual with the idea that it would help, but I felt better running than walking for the last few miles. I have 10 planned this weekend, but don’t know that it will happen. I was hoping for 18-20 the weekend after that, but again - not at all sure it’s going to happen. Is there ANYTHING I can do at this point to be better prepared? Should I just write it off ahead of time and spare myself the mid-race decision to stop? Is there a real possibility that I could actually finish by doing more rest and recovery at this point instead of trying to build more mileage?? I’m open to any suggestions and/or stories of overcoming the odds!

I wouldn’t give up just yet. You still have a month or so in which to maintain your base fitness. Sure, you’re not as trained as you’d like to be, but you’re more trained than probably a lot of other people. Show up on race day, go steady and easy, and take what your body gives you.

 

[PrincessV]

How much time per week have you been able to put in? Mileage is one thing, but us members of Team Not-So-Fast will point out that time-on-feet is what we train. I think Billy recently posted something about being able to do 6hrs in a week for a peak to have a good chance of finishing. And this is where I will also point out that I'm going into marathon #3 with a peak week of 30 miles and longest long-run of 13mi this training cycle (and 13.1 was my longest going into last MW.) BUT, that's a 3hr run for me.

What corral do you think you'll start in? Does running slower feel ok, or does you body just want to be in a certain pace until it decides it's all done? If your body decides it's not your day will you be ok with stopping? Even at mile 20+?

Great questions…

Time per week: it depends because I do cut-backs every other week, but the longest (highest time volume? Not sure how to phrase this…) weeks have been between 6-8 hours total. I’m slow, and hampered by the longest traffic light cycles on earth - some long runs add easily 30 minutes or more of pacing at signals that aren’t counted in my mileage/total time. Annoying, but works in my favor, lol?!

I should be in a an early-middle corral, but I’m not worried about being swept: if it’s a bad pain day, I’ll have stopped long before the sweep gets near me. You hit on it: running slower increases pain enormously, as does long periods of walking, so my moving pace is nearly impossible to change.

I really will be ok with stopping if I need to: I’m mostly attached to the fact hat I shelled out this $$ and want all I can have of the experience if this winds up being my last marathon. I do suffer greatly from Race Brain, though, so if I have a worry, it’s that I won’t be good at seeing it’s time to stop until I’m stuck in a terrible place to stop (hi, Western Way), and then I’ll be stressed about how best to call it a day and get back to my car to start recovery. I think once we have the course map, it’ll help: I can start plotting ahead of time and pick points at which it’s time for an assessment, if that makes sense?

I think your experience will carry you @PrincessV . I'm not an expert by any means, but I think your cumulative fitness and past training will take care of you. For starters, you know the difference in something feeling difficult vs. something being seriously wrong. You know how to breathe, adjust your pace, hydrate, etc. That puts you ahead of others even with the lower amount of running this cycle. Perhaps I'm typing this out because I'm a bit in the same boat. I haven't run longer than 12 miles since October, so am getting a late start to MW mileage. But I'm pretty confident I can adjust my pace as necessary to make the marathon fun and do-able.

Look at you coming in with logic and reason! This is all stuff I’d totally be telling someone else in my position, but that is SO hard to turn around to myself, so thank you!! You’re 100% right: experience and fitness are on my side. I know how to fuel, how to pace, how to exercise mental toughness when needed, and aside from these autoimmune flare ups, I’m in great shape (which, BTW, is especially annoying). It’s really going to be as simple as either “this is uncomfortable but I’m fine” or “nope, this is BAD and it’s time to stop.”

@Herding_Cats is right:

Makes total sense. And as I mentioned above, I send a lot of extra time in training runs standing and pacing at intersections, so I’m actually getting a lot more time on my feet than my run data indicates (because you bet I hit pause for those 10-min traffic light cycles - I don’t need that calculated into my avg pace lol!)

Thank you all, and @camaker and @FFigawi , too - IDK where your quotes went. This is all such great talk, suggestions,and questions and EXACTLY what I needed right now! What I could really use to get out of my own head is… a long run. My brain is suffering so much from not getting enough of that, I may be more than ready by marathon day to shut it off entirely for 7 hours lol!

I’m also going to try an older, but so very reliable, pair of shoes with a higher drop than I’ve been using the past year - my rear chain has been taking the brunt of the pain lately, so maybe that’ll give it a little less load to handle? And more time on grass, off concrete to reduce the pounding on my spine. Worth a shot.

 

[GuinnessRunner]

Is there ANYTHING I can do at this point to be better prepared? Should I just write it off ahead of time and spare myself the mid-race decision to stop? Is there a real possibility that I could actually finish by doing more rest and recovery at this point instead of trying to build more mileage?? I’m open to any suggestions and/or stories of overcoming the odds!

I can't offer advice that hasn't been given already but can share my experience as well. When I was doing Dopey in 2020 I had some bad hip issues following MCM in October that really limited any training I could do in November/December. Having missed the HM and Marathon in 2019 because of injury, I was determined to give it a try and figured I had enough base it was worth a shot. I went into each race morning saying that I will simply take what my body could give me that day. If that meant not finishing or getting pulled, so be it and that was ok. I adjusted pace in each race as needed and just tried to really enjoy the experience. I will say that as I finished each race, I wondered if I feel like this after "x" miles today, how am I going to do "y" tomorrow. But then I reminded myself that my goal was to simply give what my body would give me and so it was ok no matter what. As it turns out, I felt better during the marathon than I had any of the three prior races (other than the surface of the sun temp issue that year) and finished.

So my advice is to take the pressure off yourself and just give it a shot. You know yourself well and will make sure you don't do anything that could cause injury, so what do you have to lose crossing the staring line? It may mean 5 miles or 26.2 miles, but even if you don't finish for some reason and are disappointed, I suspect you will be much happier than you would if you decided not to start at all.

 

[jpeterson]

I can't offer advice that hasn't been given already but can share my experience as well. When I was doing Dopey in 2020 I had some bad hip issues following MCM in October that really limited any training I could do in November/December. Having missed the HM and Marathon in 2019 because of injury, I was determined to give it a try and figured I had enough base it was worth a shot. I went into each race morning saying that I will simply take what my body could give me that day. If that meant not finishing or getting pulled, so be it and that was ok. I adjusted pace in each race as needed and just tried to really enjoy the experience. I will say that as I finished each race, I wondered if I feel like this after "x" miles today, how am I going to do "y" tomorrow. But then I reminded myself that my goal was to simply give what my body would give me and so it was ok no matter what. As it turns out, I felt better during the marathon than I had any of the three prior races (other than the surface of the sun temp issue that year) and finished.

So my advice is to take the pressure off yourself and just give it a shot. You know yourself well and will make sure you don't do anything that could cause injury, so what do you have to lose crossing the staring line? It may mean 5 miles or 26.2 miles, but even if you don't finish for some reason and are disappointed, I suspect you will be much happier than you would if you decided not to start at all.

As I sit here struggling with hip issues post W&D, wondering how in the world I'm going to do Dopey in a month; this post gave me some much needed encouragement!

 

[andrea0407]

I usually don’t post here, but I just wanted to thank everyone for all of their posts and willingness to share— I’ve been dealing with a hip flexor issue after a half in September and lost about a month and a half of training before my first full in January. PT has helped tremendously, and I did a long run of 9 miles free of any pain and discomfort this week.

I’ve been going back and forth between being excited I can run and feel good at the end of them, and terrified because the longest run I’ll fit in before the full is 12 miles (not counting my September half). Reading all of your posts has been so comforting— the only goal is to finish and enjoy myself, and as long as I get to the start line and listen to my body, it’ll be a victory regardless. Thank you all!

 

[Ariel484]

I'm another one battling a hip issue. It's been bumming me out so much that I stopped posting here (but have still been reading) because like others have said, it's been hard to get excited about Marathon Weekend.

Mine started in late September/early October and I was lucky to get an appointment with a great PT who has been a really huge help. I've mostly been doing walks for my scheduled "short runs" and some combination of walking + Peloton spin classes for my "long runs." I just started running again a few weeks ago and this morning did intervals of running 4 minutes/walking 1 minute with no pain. FWIW: my PT has taught me that glute strength and core strength, and bracing one's core, matter A LOT when it comes to running.

I feel like I have the cardiovascular fitness to finish the marathon, but I'm definitely not use to the pounding from running on pavement for long distances, so I'm not sure how things will go. My longest run I actually completed was 15 miles on October 1, and that was run/walking the first 7-8 miles - until my hip started hurting - and then walking the rest. And my ENTIRE BODY hurt after that one.

Anyway...thanks so much to @PrincessV for posting about this and to everyone who has responded. It's very helpful to read the encouragement. And now I am off to do my PT exercises!

 

[Herding_Cats]

My optimism is gone. I don't think we are getting an event guide until next week. Booooooo.

 

[dobball23]

My optimism is gone. I don't think we are getting an event guide until next week. Booooooo.

Agreed. But maybe they'll surprise us. I guess my optimism isn't completely gone.

 

[Marebear_runs]

Agreed. But maybe they'll surprise us. I guess my optimism isn't completely gone.

I just got an email about the virtual queue for the expo so maybe there’s still hope for tomorrow….? I’m wasting too much of my time hitting refresh here!

 

[PrincessV]

Is 2022 the Year of the Hip?! Hi, I’m V, and my pain last week manifested in my right hip. I’m sorry so many of y’all are experiencing it, too! Mine decided this morning to move to my SI joint, which is a LOT more painful, but historically easier to run with ( don’t ask - I have no idea why), and while my wish for usall is NO pain, maybe we’ll all settle for a different location of pain that’s more manageable?!

Hang in there, Hipsters! Apparently we can still do this thing.

 

[Ariel484]

"Hipsters"

 

[Let's Get Kronk]

I'm another one battling a hip issue. It's been bumming me out so much that I stopped posting here (but have still been reading) because like others have said, it's been hard to get excited about Marathon Weekend.

Mine started in late September/early October and I was lucky to get an appointment with a great PT who has been a really huge help. I've mostly been doing walks for my scheduled "short runs" and some combination of walking + Peloton spin classes for my "long runs." I just started running again a few weeks ago and this morning did intervals of running 4 minutes/walking 1 minute with no pain. FWIW: my PT has taught me that glute strength and core strength, and bracing one's core, matter A LOT when it comes to running.

I feel like I have the cardiovascular fitness to finish the marathon, but I'm definitely not use to the pounding from running on pavement for long distances, so I'm not sure how things will go. My longest run I actually completed was 15 miles on October 1, and that was run/walking the first 7-8 miles - until my hip started hurting - and then walking the rest. And my ENTIRE BODY hurt after that one.

Anyway...thanks so much to @PrincessV for posting about this and to everyone who has responded. It's very helpful to read the encouragement. And now I am off to do my PT exercises!

Do you mind sharing where you feel the pain in your hip? I fear that I have now developed a hip injury. It started on my 14-miler on Sunday. I started to feel this annoying pain on the outside of my hip on my left side. I finished the run and was fine, but I woke up on Monday with a lot of pain in that area. I took some NSAIDs, stretched it and rested until yesterday when I did 8 miles. The first 5 miles or so were fine, but the pain started to come back and was pretty intense for about .25 miles until I severely backed off on my pace for the last two miles. I noticed it seemed worse when I was going up a slight incline (my running route is pretty flat; thanks Texas!) but did not seem as bad when I went downhill. It doesn't hurt today even when I walk, so I have no idea what's going on. I am hoping it doesn't develop into something that prevents me from finishing Goofy next month.

 

[Let's Get Kronk]

Also, SAFD (I'm so behind on this thread): My only goals for MW are: 1) finish both races for Goofy, and 2) ride everything new since I was last at WDW in 2019 (this would for sure include RotR, Smuggler's Run, GotG, and Remy but open to other new rides I may have missed).

It's my first runDisney event, so I am really looking forward to just soaking in the atmosphere and trying not to overdo it at the parks before the races. I am going to try to do HH (I am staying at Beach Club), but sadly have to miss DATW because I am flying out that morning. I may try to make one or more of the pre-race meetups, but no promises.