After running the Goofy Challenge at Walt Disney World in January, I began thinking about what future races I wanted to run. I started to set my sights on the World Marathon Majors – the six biggest marathons in the world – and began to contemplate which of them I could run. I had already run the NYC Marathon in 2011 and started looking at the other five – Chicago, Boston, London, Berlin, and Tokyo. Since the closest and most accessible was Chicago, I chose to run it.
Every year in New York City, the marathon is a major event that runs 26.2 miles through all five boroughs. The second biggest race for the New York Road Runners is the NYC Half Marathon, a 13.1 race around Manhattan that 14,500 runners had to run four out of five of the previous year’s five borough races or enter via lottery. In 2012, I ran four of the races (Brooklyn, Bronx, Staten Island, and Queens) in order to run this year.
For the past two years, I’ve headed down to Walt Disney World to run during the Marathon Weekend. In 2011, I ran my first half marathon (the Donald) and in 2012, I ran the full marathon around Walt Disney World (the Mickey), but having completed both, there was one other possible goal to achieve during the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend, and that’s the Goofy – running both the half and full marathons in a single weekend.
With the year slowly drawing to a close, and realizing I had run eight qualifying races for the 2013 NYC Marathon (including the credit for the canceled marathon), I decided I wanted to run one more time to get the guaranteed entry for the 2013 marathon, even though entrants of the 2012 marathon were being guaranteed entry for the 2013 marathon.
Although the NYC Marathon was canceled this year, I wanted to continue to run. I trained for months for that race, but it’s not the only race and after a month I wanted to get back out on the courses, which I did for the Jingle Bell Jog.
It’s been over a week now since the ING NYC Marathon has been cancelled. Between needing some time to put my thoughts together and traveling, I haven’t had a chance to put down my thoughts about the marathon’s cancellation. Finally I have had to time go behind the keyboard and express myself in words to post here.
Last year, I came back from the Disneyland Half Marathon to run the Staten Island Half Marathon. After doing well in Disneyland, I was able to come back to New York to run in the fifth and final of the Five Borough Series and set a personal record (PR). Just like last year, I came back from Disneyland, where I had set a new PR of 2:05:11, to run the Staten Island once more.
I started running after a brunch in February 2010 then ran my first half marathon in January 2011 at Disney World. A year later to the day, I ran my second marathon around Walt Disney World and through its theme parks for another 26.2 miles.
On January 8, 2011, I came down to Florida to embark on my most ambitious run to date. For 13.1 miles, I ran around Walt Disney World and through the Magic Kingdom and EPCOT to complete my first half marathon. It was an amazing experience that drove me to run three more half marathons over the course of the year and the NYC marathon. Now I’ve returned to Florida to run the full Walt Disney World marathon.