To all of you headed this weekend to Walt Disney World for any of the races, let me extend my best wishes to you. I am insanely jealous and more than a little sad that I will not be there to meet you. Since I started this podcast, so many people have supported the show and I’ve enjoyed communicating with a lot of you. But now, on the weekend that gets my heart pumping, I will not be in attendance. Of course, I made this choice. My work situation prevents me from making this trip an annual one, and I am committee more than ever to running Goofy in 2011. But that doesn’t soothe the sting of missing this wonderful event, and worse, not being able to shake the hands of those of you running. I will miss running beside you (or behind you!) and I will regret not being able to spend time chatting in the pre-dawn hours before the race.
So I wish you all the best, that you will have the run of your lives and an experience that matches it. Disney was my first marathon, and it was not easy to finish. But I now realize that with every stride that I took last January, I was changing my life forever. I hope that your Disney running experience is just as magical as mine, and that your race is full of laughter, surprises, and good cheer.
I wish you all a magical time at the most magical race on Earth!
Run Happy! And run like a kid!
This Running Life 
I just started to follow your podcast and I am loving it so far. I will be running the half marathon in Disneyland for the second time in September and I am pretty excited to see if I can beat my last time.
Can't wait to run the WDW Marathon in Jan 11.
Plugged your voicemail number into my iPhone so I can send you a race report! We'll miss you this year but see you in 2011!!
I've been listening to your podcast for a while now and loved your race report from Disney last year. Okay, so you made me cry while I was listening to it and running; people must have thought I was even more crazy. Last year I ran my first 5K there with my oldest daughter. We did the Circle of Life 5K. This year for Christmas she got us the ESPN 5K at Hollywood Studios. I am oh-so excited. As a former couch potato, smoker, and terribly overweight girl who thought running was horrible, I am thrilled to be where I am today.
Sorry you won't be there this weekend, but I can't wait until your 2011 report!
AWESOME! Great words of encouragement, I hope to see you at the Goofy in 2011.
Thanks Gordon!! We'll miss you this year, but think of this weekend as your countdown to 2011. Race report will be dutifully filed (at some point on Sunday!).
Thanks Gordon – appreciate all of the tips you have provided!
Gordon- if you ever make it out West for the Disneyland half, let me know! Heck I'd love to see you and yours in my cheering squad in June for the Duathon! lol 🙂 Thanks for all the inspiration. Keep it comin'!
Good post Gordon. Would love to be there too, but can't wait for Goofy 2011.
Albert
Have fun! I can't wait to be back in Disney for the Princess half in March!! Such a magical fun place!
oh I missed the part that you WON'T be there 😦 I'm insanely jealous with you!
Great post Gordon! I wish you were coming this year too, but I'll see you next year when we kick our collective butts with the Goofy challenge.
Your podcast is great, it's so nice to listen to someone who's not elite and has the same problems, worries and victories that I could have.
Gordon,
Thank you for the words of encouragement, can't wait to run the Goofy with you in 2011. Am looking forward to my 1st marathon with you as my coach….
This was such an awesome post, Gordon. I, too, wish that you were going to be here for the race because you were one of the first resources that I found last year when searching “Disney Marathon”. Your podcasts became my source of inspiration, and I have been listening since October of '08.
Thank you for saying two things:
1) “run like a kid”. I remember when you talked about that in a podcast. Kids run because they CAN!
2) ” I now realize that with every stride that I took last January, I was changing my life forever.”
This will, no doubt, ring in my ears from mile 20 thru the finish.
I've been following you for a while and love your podcasts. You make me both laugh and cry as I am running. I ran my first marathon last year at Disney and it was such an amazing experience. I miss not being there this year but I am hoping to do Goofy 2011. I can't wait!!!
Wow a really inspirational blog. I had to lose alot of weight due to health issues as well (being obese the first 20 years of one's life is never good!) and really got into running. I'm hoping to run my very first marathon in London next year and your blog is a great source of motivation and inspiration! If you do want to have a look, my blog is:
http://run2011.blogspot.com/
How did you raise so much money? $85,000? That is amazing!
Gordon thanks for all of your podcasts and your tweets. I did the half at Disney this weekend and I would have never felt like I could do it if it wasn't for your podcasts keep it up. I am even contemplating the Goofy next year, but if not the Goofy then for sure the Full Marathon.
Courtney S
Gordon, thank you for your inspiration…Mom and I made it through the race…we had some issues here and there, but I am ready to run another full! I will post pics and a review in the next few days after work is caught up…Going to try to find a way to go goofy with you next year!
I missed you – had a great race and plan to send you a report soon!
Be glad you missed the bitter cold this marathon weekend. It was still fun to do the 5K and 1/2, but man I don't know if I'll ever warm up!