Goofy

This weekend my son-in-law proved that he is indeed goofy. He completed Disney’s Goofy challenge by running the half marathon on Saturday and then the full marathon on Sunday. That is 13.1 miles Saturday plus 26.2 miles on Sunday for a total of 39.3 miles of running. The reward for this effort was a Donald Duck medal for the half, a Mickey Mouse medal for the full and a Goofy medal for doing a marathon and a half. This marathon was more about fun than time and we all had a wonderful weekend.

Race days began at 3am. The early wake up call got us to Epcot for the 6am start. Runners had to be in place no later than 5am.With 18,000 runners and their many fans there was a bit of a traffic jam getting everyone in place. It was a lot earlier than this retired lady normally gets up, but the energy and excitement were contagious and it was a wonderful adventure. Many of the runners dressed in costume. We saw many of Disney’s cartoon characters running by us. One sweaty, well built young man ran in only a white speedo. All the women admired him. One group of happy runners was dressed like pink flamingos. Most runners stopped along the way and had their pictures made with the Disney characters that were all along the route cheering for them. The spectators were all a wonderful cheering section. I really enjoyed watching the finish. Runners who could hardly move suddenly had a great burst of energy when they saw the finish line and ran with renewed strength. Others joined hands and ran across together with upraised, joined hands. A few could hardly move and fellow runners would slow down and run beside them encouraging them to find energy for those last few yards. I was really quite moved by the camaraderie of all the participants. The happy, sweaty finishers wore their medals with well deserved pride.

The top picture shows the runners going up main street in the Magic Kingdom

The middle picture is high fiving Pluto at the finish line.

The last one show our happy finisher and his number one fan.