I was born a procrastinator. If my mom hadn’t been induced on her due date with me, I would have procrastinated my own arrival I’m sure. I always say it’s because I work better under pressure, but that doesn’t apply to today’s example. I procrastinated (or maybe I just didn’t think ahead) – and there was a price to be paid for my inaction.

As I’ve mentioned before, we try to always submit a proof of time for runDisney races that accept it (half and full marathons). For the Wine & Dine Half, we used a 10K time from last fall – easy peasy! When Joseph and I registered for the Dopey Challenge and the marathon portion of the entry asked for proof of time from either a half or full marathon run after January 2018, I realized I should have thought of this much sooner…like last winter! We skipped a favorite December half in Lafayette, Louisiana last year and we should not have done that. Now I needed half marathon race times for Joseph and I and didn’t have them. I checked the deadline for submission – October 8th.

I’d just have to find a half for us to run before the deadline. Easier said than done! I checked the half marathon calendars for four states and found only one possibility – The Walkons Independence Bowl Kick Off K’s Half Marathon in Shreveport on September 28th. I got us registered and started waiting for some fall weather. It never came. Everyday the meteorologist on TV kept saying the temperatures were 10 degrees above average with no break in sight. September 28th arrived with a low of 76-degrees and a projected high in the low-to-mid 90’s. With a 7:00 am race start, we could at least hope to finish the race before the thermometer hit 80.

WDW Marathon 2020 – Proof of Time

In spite of the hilliness of the course, which started at mile 3, we made good time in the early miles. We grabbed water at every opportunity and snacked on Sport Beans somewhere around mile 7. Shortly after that, we mixed some Tailwind into our water at the next aid station. After that, we (mostly I) had issues and we slowed WAY down.

Backing up for a second, our original plan was to finish in 2:15 to 2:20. We’d done it before and were sure that if we had any break in the heat, we could do it again. When the weather was making our training runs nearly unbearable, we cheered ourselves up by believing there was no way the low temperatures could keep being in the mid-70’s. It was almost October – we were bound to catch a break! Oh, it was not to be.

If only we could have kept our average for the first 8 miles going. We would have finished in just under 2:17. Instead, we started taking walk breaks and whining (again, mostly me) about pain, heat, and generally feeling like we were running on the surface of the sun. We crossed the finish line together (I did ask Joseph to leave me to die a few miles earlier, but he stayed with me to the bitter end) in 2:27:26. The temperature when we started was 78 and 80 when we finished with 80% humidity. On a funny note, I still scored a 3rd place age-group prize from Orangetheory Fitness. I managed to beat some of the other old ladies, so there’s that.

Proof of time has officially been submitted for Dopey 2020. Maybe we won’t be in the last corral. We’ll see. Technically, our time was too slow to really make a difference, but we’re hoping for a bit of pixie dust anyway.

I dusted off the old YouTube channel and put this all in video form, which you can find here if you’re interested. I promised Joseph I’d buy him pizza at his favorite restaurant and after 13.1 miles, nothing could have tasted better!

Guess what this weekend’s weather is supposed to be? Yup, lows in the 60’s. Back to training for the Wine and Dine Challenge. Anyone else going to be there with us?