No Category selected Things have gotten a little Goofy around here

    Things have gotten a little Goofy around here

    SHARE

    When I wrote this article for the magazine back in February, I truly was just toying with the idea…but then conversations started to happen, including the famous “I will if you do!”  Before I knew it, I was registered.

    That’s right, I signed up for Goofy’s Race and a Half Challenge.

    For those of you who haven’t heard of “Goofy,” it is when one runs the Walt Disney World Half Marathon (the Donald) on Saturday of marathon weekend, and the Marathon (the Mickey) on Sunday.  That’s 21.1km one day, 42.2 the next, for a total of 63.3km in less than two days.

    You might wonder how an event like this would come about. When I was at the Disney Wine and Dine Half Marathon in October, I had the opportunity to speak to a number of the people behind the runDisney events, and I asked that very question. Bob Hitchcock, Sports Public Relations Manager for Disney told me that in the beginning, the Donald and Mickey were on the same day.  Before long they reached capacity with how many people could do the events – there simply wasn’t enough physical space to raise the caps – so they decided to run Donald on Saturday and Mickey on Sunday so that more people could experience the magic.

    In a meeting, someone said, “You realize there will be some people crazy enough to want to do both…” and someone else said, “Hmm. How many, do you think?”  The answer? “I dunno, a couple hundred maybe?”  And so they decided to make the Goofy an official event.  And it sold out that year.  And every year after that.

    For 2013, there are 2,500 spaces in the Goofy, and it sold out last week.  That just goes to show you that there are an awful lot of “goofy” people out there!  iRun’s founder, Mark Sutcliffe, did this in 2012, and now, in a little over 17 weeks, I plan to count myself among the Goofy.

    SHARE
    Previous articleRun for yourself, Run for others
    Next articleRunning for Mental Health
    A runner for just over four years, Karen has already completed a marathon, two half marathons and a variety of 5k and 10k races. She describes her first marathon - the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon last September - as "a nightmare." However, she met a very interesting person in the process - a man named Sydney who was running his 152nd marathon! Although the race didn't go as well as planned for Karen or Sydney, he showed her that no matter how experienced a runner you are, you can still have a bad day. "Does that mean we shouldn't bother to prepare, or maybe just shouldn't bother at all? Of course not!" says Karen. "In the end, it is what we make it." We like her optimism!

    4 COMMENTS

    1. You’re right…it is Goofy! But it is just such a great experience. It was such a fun way to do two big races when I did it last year…but be warned; everyone you mention it to will assume you’re beyond goofy!!

    Comments are closed.