Running Disney

**PoohsPal** · 06-20-2008,06:22 AM

We have a few DVCNews members that will be doing tehir first Disney race (Princess half Marathon) next March and several of us who have done one or more DIsney Rces already, going from ToT 13k to the Full marathon.

Just wanted to start a thread fro anyone who has any questions about running and/or walking Disney.

To start, I just got a PM about food on the course for the Princess (or Porncess, as many of us are saying due to the deluge of all things princess from Disney lately) and if I carry my own.

They have Powerade and water at all stops. They are about every 2 miles. Looks like there should be one food station. That usuallly means fruit (bananas and oranges) and Gu.

I take my own. In warm weatehr, I take 2 to 3 oz of water or powerade every 0.5 miles. For teh Minnie, I carried my own. We have an amphipod fuel belt. I put 2 - 8oz bottles on and refilled once or twice. For marathon adn all other races, I am spoiled. DH goes with me and takes the fuel belt. I do carry Gu's and other supplies with me but I must admit they are not as heavy.

As for Gu, I tend to have one every for miles (~45 min). So, waiting until mile 10 woudl not do for me. There are many who can survive a half on Powerade and water alone, although it's not recomended to run any further than a half without more than that). I'm not one of those, though.

Let us know if you have any other questions!

**lllovell** · 06-20-2008,07:08 AM

For those that think only runners can do these sorts of races, that isn't so. I am purely a walker (ok - I run downhill letting gravity do some of the work).

It is a GREAT form of exercise for me and my past experience with running is that I HATED it. I might transform into a runner at some point when I am no longer getting anything from my walking, but we will see.

The water during the 1/2 was well spaced. I would take two cups. One went over my head and the other I drank. There were also people there giving out Powerade, so I had to make sure I grabbed water

For those of you that have never been in a race, you might be startled to find that your first name is on your bib number. Know why? All along the race, you will get people screaming for you - encouragement with a personal twist. It was amazing to hear such personal cheering!

I will post more things as I think of them too.

Hope others will as well.

Laura

**nono** · 06-20-2008,10:25 AM

HEY! A place where I can put my weekly ravings about running, life etc.

I should copy my last few emails to a couple folks up here. Could spur some discussion....but they aren't related to Disney running per se. Anyone interested?

**PoohsPal** · 06-20-2008,10:33 AM

I am! Doesn't have to be Disney. WIth so many of us training for Disney events, though, I figured we were justified in calling it Disney RUnning.

**nono** · 06-20-2008,11:35 AM

I think one thing I wish people would have told me up front is that running hurts sometimes. But that hurt doesn't necessarily = injury. If you think about it, when we start down this path of rediscovering one of our most basic forms of transportation, we're clueless. We're a few generations away from when folks would "run to the next town" and mean it! So, it's not like we've been bred for this lately. ;-)

So yeah, it's not going to be great all the time. Your body will speak up a lot! I like to think there's three stages of this talking...sensation, which in the beginning you might perceive as pain. What would I consider sensation? Well anything that goes away within a mile of rearing its head and doesn't return with a vengeance post-run.

Pain is where you've not done any injury, but you've really asked your body to do something extraordinary. For me, that's what I feel the day after a run when I drink booze at night and don't hydrate properly. ALL my fascia actually aches acutely in the morning (planar fasciitis, ITBS, etc). And it HURTS!

Injury is obviously something that needs to be cared for and coaxed back to health so that you can continue on your path. One thing I will say is that most sports med docs these days embrace an "active recovery" so don't sweat that you might get injured. If you do, you'll still likely be able to cross-train and run some while recovering.

Oh and docs, not all docs run or know a whit about running. So, while they know a lot about whatever their specialty is, if they don't run, they aren't qualified to give you an opinion on your running. I kept my podiatrist, a non-runner, because he said just that to me -- and he said if the time comes, he's got buddy podi-runner who we can conference call in on an appt. The time hasn't come.

But it's nice to know if it does, I've got a shot at getting good info!

Something to read -- there's a few really good ones out there. I've lost a lot of my bookmarks so I don't have my old favorites...

http://www.therunningdoctor.com/runinjuries.htm

**PoohsPal** · 06-20-2008,11:47 AM

Great info nono!

Pain - One of my rules of dealing with pain is that if everythign hurts, you're ok, if it's one specific area, start paying attention. If it doesn't go away ro gets worse, you may want to look at it. If anything hurts enough that you alter your stride, stop immediately! Running with an altered stride can lead to serious injury fairly quickly.

Motiviation - One of the favorite things I picked up trainign for my fisrrt marathon was teh 10 minute rule. When you really don't want to go out, use the 10-minute rule. Tell yourself that you only have to go for 10 minutes. You can quit after that. usually, you are feeling good after 10 minutes and want to continue. If not, though, just give it up and realize your body needed a rest. Most of the time, though, it's easy to motivate to only do 10 minutes and you will end up doing more.

**Rozzie** · 06-20-2008,03:54 PM

Yeah, who do I see about a butt transplant?

I am not in the best of moods, so I probably shouldn't even be posting, but I think I need to make a comment on the pain thing.

Just a little background on my situation. Last Sunday had immediate pain in left buttock. Finished run, and was miserable. Have not run since. Did some yoga twice this week, and walked a snail's pace on the treadmill. Finally got in to see the ortho guru of the Armpit today. NOT good news. Instead of going with my self diagnosis of sciatica, he said he think it's a disk and I need a MRI. No exercise until he reads the report. MRI can't be done until Wed. Then he was booked on Friday, and going out of town all of next week. I then totally freaked. You mean you want me to sit on my butt, for 3 weeks, without test results? I can sit on my butt for a specific time period with documented evidence that running can hurt me. Not just waiting to see if it will hurt me. Does that make sense? So I did what any emotionally stable adult does, started crying. I guess I was in such shock, I was really thinking it was just a nerve. Of course, crying in the South to someone's mama still works.

I was fit in on next Friday before he leaves to go out of town with the P.A. by his appt scheduler who shared her box of kleenex.

I guess I say all of this is to say, running is addictive. Race walking too. When someone tells you it might be taken away from you, you really realize how much you love it. I am going to do these races, I may not finish them, but I am going to do them.

Okay, my pity party is over. Back to race talk.