Every pursuit of a crazy idea has to begin somewhere. Mine is no different. Before I get into where I am starting from… I think telling you a bit about where I have been might provide a better idea of why my pursuit to Get Goofy is going to be quite a challenge for me.
For the most part I am moderately athletic in nature and have taken on some interesting challenges in the past. A friend in Vermont got me interested in both mountain biking and triathlons many years ago. (Thanks Mike S.!) I have off and on over the years run both Sprint and Olympic distance races to stay in shape. Of course were a natural off-shoot of this, as well as just straight running events. In every race I have ever run, my goal is always the same; to merely finish (without great bodily injury I might add). I have successfully finished every race I have entered so far. In all of those races, I have never come close to the leader board, nor have I ever finished in the top half of the racers either. I am completely fine with this, which is absolutely amazing to me sometimes. As my friends will attest, I am extremely competitive. Let’s put it this way… have you ever played Cranium before? For me… it’s a contact sport!
Going back to the theme that I tend to do things not necessarily in the easiest manner, you can add my training and completion of a marathon to that list. The main purpose for running the marathons was to that I thought it would be a good way to keep me in shape over the winter. (We will come back to this sentence a bit later.) Basically for my first (and only) marathon, I selected to earn a Mickey Mouse medal, which in itself seemed like a great idea. Florida in January, is a fantastic place to run. Sunshine, palm trees, and tropical breezes, what more could one ask for while running 26 miles? So far no problem right? My typical trathlon training consists of six days a week, one short, one long in each event. I am never outside more than an hour and a half, except for running the races themselves. Needing advice to train for a marathon, I turned to “The Man” (Hal Higdon) and followed his novice training plan. Everything with the plan just fell into place on the calendar and I was well prepared for the race. Near the end, the long runs were approaching 20 miles, so given my moderate athletic ability, it took a bit of time to complete. Still, it’s not sounding bad huh? Now let’s go back to what I said earlier, “…it would be a good way to keep me in shape over the WINTER!” See… I live and train in Michigan year round. For those of your who aren’t familiar with Michigan, well we get a real winter here. You know, lots of snow, freezing rain, gusting winds… all those things that make spending long periods of time outside truely enjoyable! I swear there were many days that I returned from my runs I had to count my fingers and toes to make sure they hadn’t frozen and fallen off at some point during my run. It was pretty brutal at times. Evidently I either have selective memory, or I just didn’t learn anything because the second marathon that I intended to run (the second day of my quest to get Goofy) will require me to once again train over the winter.
As you can see, I have some solid experience to draw upon in my quest. In my next post, I will talk more about where I am starting this challenge from.
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