The Goofy strategy

What's the plan for this race, you ask? Plan the race, race the plan! Fail to plan, plan to fail! (Don't those cute little sayings get on your nerves sometimes?)

The official Goofy Challenge:
Complete a half marathon on Saturday and a marathon on Sunday.

The unofficial Dopey addition:
Add to it a 5K on Saturday.

First off, I'm in no shape to run the whole blinkin' 42.4 miles, so you can just forget that. Besides, I wouldn't have a lot of fun going hard the whole way.

I'm talking about it in the singular, one race, since I'm trying to look at it as one continuous 42.4-mile ultramarathon, with an extra-long rest stop after the first third of the way.

Day 1 plan: The half marathon course is basically flat and boring. The only interesting parts are miles 5-7 through the Magic Kingdom, and miles 12 - 13.1, through part of Epcot. Cutoff is 3:30 (210 minutes). 3AM - 4AM wakeup, monorail to 6AM start (ugh!).

• HM Miles 0-5: Run:walk at 5:1 intervals starting in first mile, for relaxed 14 min/mile pace (70 min). Twilight begins 6:54AM; sunrise 7:19AM.
• HM Miles 5-7, Magic Kingdom: Walk and take pictures for 20 min/mile pace (40 min).
• HM Miles 7-12: Run:walk at 5:1 intervals, 14 min/mile pace (70 min).
• HM Miles 12-13.1, Epcot: Walk and take pictures for 20 min/mile pace (22 min).
• HM Finish: 202 minutes = 3:22, or 8 minutes to spare before the cutoff.
• Collect Donald medal and Goofy wristband at finish line!
  

Then wait around for the 5K start at 11:00 AM. This means a 98-minute wait from my projected half marathon finish time at 9:22AM, so if I'm feeling badly for any reason, I'll probably skip the 5K and just go back to the hotel.

• 5K: Walk the whole thing, or perhaps slow jog in the more boring sections. Collect 5K medal!
  

Recovery: Monorail back to the hotel (Polynesian Resort). Ice feet and take a lazy swim in the pool if the weather is not too cold. EAT lots of good recovery foods before 6-7PM!

Day 2 plan: The marathon course is equally flat, with several long boring stretches. Areas of interest: Miles 0-3 through Epcot in the dark; twilight begins 6:54AM; sunrise 7:19AM; miles 10-11 through the Magic Kingdom; miles 16-18 through the Animal Kingdom park; then Mile 22.5-23.5 through the Disney-MGM Studios area is likely to be a small respite of interest; then mile 24.5 heads through the Yacht Club and Beach Club resorts, with the final stretch from mile 25 to the finish through Epcot. Cutoff is 7 hours (420 minutes). 3AM - 4AM wakeup, monorail to 6AM start (ugh!).

Allowing 4 miles of straight walking at 20 min/mile (80 minutes), and finishing 10 minutes before the cutoff (410 minutes total), that leaves me 330 minutes to go 22.2 miles, which yields a 14:51 average pace for the rest of the course.

I'll probably slow down considerably on the marathon course from a) fatigue; b) fatigue; c) boredom; d) foot pain; and e) sightseeing in the 2nd half.

• Maintain 14:00 min/mile pace most of the way using 5:1 run:walk intervals, try to hit the halfway mark about 3:10-3:15; and then hang on from there until the marathon finish line. If I feel extra good (highly unlikely), don't run continuously until leaving Animal Kingdom at Mile 18 - then run ~7 mile leg through Downtown Disney until entering Epcot.
  
• Collect Mickey medal and Goofy medal!
  

I'll bring with me a single pace chart both days which will be based on a minimum average pace to make the cutoffs of 15:38 min/mile (leaving me 5 extra minutes for the half marathon and 10 for the marathon) just to prevent me from getting too far behind my minimum pace in my sightseeing on either day. If I need to power-walk it in, I can usually do about a 15-16 mpm walking pace when I hustle, so that should keep me out of cutoff trouble.

How does that sound for a strategy?