News to me! I stopped precisely twice for maybe 5 seconds in the first several miles. But I guess you would know better than me. This board is really something special, thanks to the person who anonymously pointed it out to me in my blog comments. I'm sure you had nothing but my best interests at heart considering someone on here suggested I check out the forum so I could "learn something about proper training" as if I'd done no research whatsoever and randomly decided one day to run a marathon. A sincere thank you to those of you on here who saw that I was trying to make the best of a shitty situation. So truth time. Was I "woefully unprepared"? Hell yeah I was. That's what happens when you land at the orthopedist six weeks before the race with hip bursitis and femoral acetabular impingement syndrome (google it, it's a fun one). Was it also a case of too much too soon? Sure, but a little ambition never killed anyone. Or at least it didn't kill me. I'm not going to spend my time negating every untrue thing said about me on this forum, but the assertion that I spent the whole race tweeting isn't true either--Disney sends out race splits that I linked to my Twitter account. I still have mixed feelings on the fact that Disney forces (yes, forces) a medal upon you even when you don't finish and I felt insincere wearing it for those couple hours that night, but 21 miles is still an accomplishment. It's something I never would've thought I'd be able to do a year ago and I'm proud of what I did achieve. But thanks for the feedback. Maybe the next time you fall short of your goals a bunch of strangers will take the time to kick you while you're down, too.
News to me! I stopped precisely twice for maybe 5 seconds in the first several miles. But I guess you would know better than me.
This board is really something special, thanks to the person who anonymously pointed it out to me in my blog comments. I'm sure you had nothing but my best interests at heart considering someone on here suggested I check out the forum so I could "learn something about proper training" as if I'd done no research whatsoever and randomly decided one day to run a marathon. A sincere thank you to those of you on here who saw that I was trying to make the best of a shitty situation.
So truth time. Was I "woefully unprepared"? Hell yeah I was. That's what happens when you land at the orthopedist six weeks before the race with hip bursitis and femoral acetabular impingement syndrome (google it, it's a fun one). Was it also a case of too much too soon? Sure, but a little ambition never killed anyone. Or at least it didn't kill me. I'm not going to spend my time negating every untrue thing said about me on this forum, but the assertion that I spent the whole race tweeting isn't true either--Disney sends out race splits that I linked to my Twitter account. I still have mixed feelings on the fact that Disney forces (yes, forces) a medal upon you even when you don't finish and I felt insincere wearing it for those couple hours that night, but 21 miles is still an accomplishment. It's something I never would've thought I'd be able to do a year ago and I'm proud of what I did achieve.
But thanks for the feedback. Maybe the next time you fall short of your goals a bunch of strangers will take the time to kick you while you're down, too.
Welcome to RA my friend. Not that my opinion matters one way or the other, but I think you did fine. You thought you'd give it a go and there's respect (IMHO) in just attempting it. Back in 2011 I too was woefully unprepared for my 1st half marathon....There was great trepidation on my part as to what the hell I was doing there, but I did it (paid the price too....weeks of pain).
I enter races to "test my mettle" and have a good time. I will probably never qualify for the Boston Marathon, but that's not what it's all about (at least to me that is).
Just keep doing what you're doing if it makes you happy...and that is truly all that matters. Once again....welcome.
The Cape Cod Marathon in Massachusetts has a similar half + full challenge if you want to run a different one: http://www.capecodmarathon.com/chowdah.php edited to fix link
The Cape Cod Marathon in Massachusetts has a similar half + full challenge if you want to run a different one: http://www.capecodmarathon.com/chowdah.php
edited to fix link
thanks for the link. now i need to check with the other folks that I am running with and see their thoughts. This one is priced much better
”Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.”
“Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're right.”
Tomas
That race is actually harder than Boston but is a blast. They say your name when you finish. The first time I ran it they gave me a case of beer after.
yeah the whole tweeting thing is something I will never do. Ever. I can walk and text at the same time, but i hate that also. What ever happened to the concept of being where you are?
Well we can ask her since shes here, was she tweeting herself or did she sign up for one of those services that automatically sends updates, facebook posts and or tweets for you. I loved that service, signed up for it last year and it did facebook updates for me when I crossed the 10k mat, the half mat and the 20k mat, it also sent my wife a text message to where I was. She knew when to expect me and when I would finish was wonderful and all I had to do was run across the mat.
Hi, and welcome to RA.
FYI, I definitely did not post your blog (which is public) to make fun of you. I ran a 5:50 at Disney last year on very iffy training and was not at all sure that I could finish. I posted it here to show people that a marathon is hard work, and that you have to respect the distance, if your goal is finishing. Like you said, your goal was to get to mile 20, and you did, which is great.
I hope you stay and post here more often, and I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings.
All I know is that if you blog something in public or post on message boards in public or post stuff in facebook... random strangers are going to critique it.
If that is unacceptable, you should reconsider writing stuff for public consumption. Not everyone is going to be YOU GO GIRL about everything. There's always someone ready to go with the Instant Parade Rain.
I am sorry I do not believe anyone can force a medal on you, I am sure goofy wasn't there with a gun saying wear this medal or else and you just admitted to wearing it for several hours that night. Again did goofy follow you around for several hours arms crossed making sure you didn't take it off.
I am glad for you achieving something you didn't think possible but you still took something that you did not earn. I would say why not train right and rerun the race next year at least you know what to expect now. You might find you like it you might find you hate it but at least you will have truly finished one. I always say I hate marathons the week after but then that part of me that wants to do better takes over and slaps the other part of me around. I ran my first in 4:58 and was not happy at all, rushed my second got injured and walked the last 5 miles with a 5:30. Still not happy I ran my third better trained and got a 4:18. Give it a fair shot you didn't do that. You didn't train right, you didn't run it right so give it a fair shot and if you still don't like it at least you know you gave it a fair shake.
I was mostly bothered by her taking a finishers medal, it is a FINISHERS MEDAL,
It is in lots of races, but apparently it is not at Disney and rnr races where they will give you a medal if/when you get swept. It is a "thank you for coming" thing. You can disagree with this... lots of folks do... but if the org is handing them out irrespective of finishing, then you are simply wrong and you should perhaps not be so damn judgey.
Mostly harmless
I am sorry I do not believe anyone can force a medal on you, I am sure goofy wasn't there with a gun saying wear this medal or else and you just admitted to wearing it for several hours that night. Again did goofy follow you around for several hours arms crossed making sure you didn't take it off. I am glad for you achieving something you didn't think possible but you still took something that you did not earn. I would say why not train right and rerun the race next year at least you know what to expect now. You might find you like it you might find you hate it but at least you will have truly finished one. I always say I hate marathons the week after but then that part of me that wants to do better takes over and slaps the other part of me around. I ran my first in 4:58 and was not happy at all, rushed my second got injured and walked the last 5 miles with a 5:30. Still not happy I ran my third better trained and got a 4:18. Give it a fair shot you didn't do that. You didn't train right, you didn't run it right so give it a fair shot and if you still don't like it at least you know you gave it a fair shake.
Holy crap! Judge much?
"It doesn’t matter how often you do it or how much you accomplish, in general, not running is a lot easier than running." - Meb Keflezighi
Quote from Love the Half on 1/29/2013 at 11:02 AM:
My main thought, BTW, was a reinforcement of the reality that signing up for a Disney race is one of the dumber things you can do in life.
Actually, you can say it is one of the dumber things you (as in YOU) can do in life. "signing up for a Disney race is one of the dumber things I could do in life". By saying it the way you said it, you are prescribing this for all, and it is kind of a shitty thing to say.
But considering the source, there you have it.
I have finished a shit load of Disney races. I had a blast. Not dumb. And for people considering them, I always say "your love of this race will be directly proportional to your love of Things Mouse". Some people like them, some don't... but universally saying that it is one of the dumber things someone could do in life?
Dude, GET OVER YOURSELF. It's just running. I'd say there is a list of about 1,000,000 dumber things.
It is Dizz. Considering our journeys with the man regarding training and whatnot and Internet Drama, it is kind of funny seeing him become The Judge of Marathoning.
You still don't have to take it, you still don't have to wear it for several hours, part of you has to know its wrong to take something you didn't earn. I am so glad STG does not give a finishers medal to the people they sweep. I can't change what the org does or doesn't offer all I can do is in respect for myself and not take something I feel I didn't earn.
Here is a weird subplot of that, I volunteered for the IM last year and it had massive chop so much so a lot people missed the swim cutoff and normally they would sweep them and not allow them to continue on. But they took into factor that the chop caused the missed cutoffs and so they just took their timing chips and let them continue on and would not be official finishers. They still gave out medals for those who finished even if they missed the swim cutoff as long as they finished. That's the grey area, would you take a medal then even though you did finish but missed one of the cutoffs?
Good to know, I haven't actually run it! But keeping it in mind because I like the idea of the half + marathon but I'm turned off by Disney (because of $$ and I find the characters creepy).
Dizz, that's an interesting situation. By chop do you mean choppy water? Sorry, I don't know anything about open water swimming. I wouldn't treat that any differently than a hot day.
race obsessed
^ This ^