I DID NOT just buy that...
In 2009, I ran the Disney Goofy Challenge.
For those of you who are unaware of what that is, it is an especially silly challenge where you run the 13.1-mile half marathon on Saturday and then run the 26.2-mile marathon on Sunday.
When I did it, I was called many things a whole lot less nice than “Goofy.”
Few months afterward, wrecked my knee, blah blah blah… jump ahead to the Disney Expo 2011.
My cousin Jeff, who in 2009 told me he’d never run a marathon, purchased the shirt in the picture above. ”In Training: Goofy Race and a Half Challenge: 2012.”
Bling bling!
“Jason, we’re doing Goofy next year,” he said.
“Oh crap,” I said. “I don’t know.”
“Great. Go ahead and challenge him. He’ll do anything if you challenge him,” my wife chuckled.
Needless to say, the photo above is of MY “In Training” shirt.
Today, I signed up for the 2012 Goofy Challenge on January 7-8, 2011.
Now, I’ve written here — and said on my podcast countless times — that my doctor told me I couldn’t run marathons any more. That was before he told me I could do “whatever I feel I can do.” I’m trying to meet with him sometime soon.
A few things have changed since he gave me that directive. I’ve lost 25 pounds, and with minimal running, I’m as fit as I was before I ran Goofy back in 2009. I have no doubt I can do Goofy. The real hang-up will be my training plan.
Can I do Goofy on a Hanson-Furman FIRST-style training plan with a max of about 30-35 miles a week? I don’t know. I’ve started sketching out a training plan where my peak mileage is 42 miles, with most in the low 30s. I’ve been doing 20-mile weeks with no problem at all. While looking back at my Buckeye Outdoors training log from late 2008, I never ran more than 30 miles when I did Goofy last time. I’m sure I got more miles in over a few weeks during that time, but the review did surprise me – especially since I finished the half in 2:27 and the full in under 4:40. Those were both decent times given my overall fitness at that point.
After the 2009 race with the challenge's namesake!
The other major change will be that training for Goofy will begin as soon as my Augusta Ironman 70.3 will be complete. If I’m not in the best shape of my life, lean and fit, and even lighter than the 176 pounds I am now, it will be shocking.
I’ll talk more about my training for Goofy this summer, after I get a sense of my fitness and what my knee can handle.
But I’m signing up. March 15. The day registration opens. Who’s with me? Apparently my cousin and his brother-in-law will run with me, as well as possibly my cousin’s wife and her sister. We might have a big crowd of people to drag me across the line.
I’m not Goofy. I need to be involuntarily committed.
