PaDisneyCouple
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2006
Hello there! DW and I have signed up for our 3rd runDisney race weekend: Dark Side 2018.
Over the years, we've had the great fortune to get to know and even meet many DIS friends from the DCL, runDisney, and restaurant boards. We thought we'd start a journal, to share our journey to race weekend, learn from everyone, and document our training/race experiences along the way.
I haven't been able to do such a good job at posting photographs since the boards changed format a few years ago. If you have tips/how-to, we're interested.
Likewise: just when I thought I'd figured out hyperlinks, things changed, my schedule changed, and it fell off the radar.
If this worked, you'll be able to say hello to Max below:
Max is our inspiration. He's a retired racing greyhound. Around age 4, he retired, and joined our family. That first year, on our walks, when the weather was to his liking, he'd run a little. Well, "a little" for Max is a pretty good pace for most humans. He's not even mouth breathing, and I'm about in a sprint.
We identified at least 6 gears, plus Mach 1, during that first year together. For Max, 3rd gear is like a canter, where he's bounding up and down front and back. He's clearly just taking it easy at this pace. At this time in our lives, we didn't have anything like a Garmin, but I'm pretty sure 3rd gear was faster than a 9-minute mile pace. The speed increases in what feels like exponential fashion with each gear until you hit what must have been race pace: Mach 1.
We only ever saw Mach 1 once. Our back yard, though fenced, is too small to allow him to really light it up. Again, it was that first year, and we went to a local dog park, where there are fenced areas around 3 acres each. On that day, DW and I ran along ahead of Max, and he came 'a runnin' up to us. We stopped and walked a moment together, and then DW and I tried to run ahead again.
The sound coming up behind us was like the sound of a running horse in the movies. As Max passed us, it happened: everything in his stride cycle... it just instantly doubled in speed. In one instant, he was fast, in the blink of an eye, he was twice as fast. He sped away at what had to be well over 35 mph. We stopped and laughed uncontrollably. The eyes of the guy in the corner got REAL big as he closed the distance in seconds. Then he turned south with no perceptible loss in speed.
We were afraid that the tree roots he was approaching would be a problem, or the pack of dogs playing in there would want to chase him. But he turned back to us and trotted directly back, barely winded. To watch a professional sprinter, every part designed for speed, is amazing. He has supreme control of his body; able to speed past us in our yard at a distance of single-digit inches away from our legs.
So to start our story without giving Max his due would not be appropriate.
Over the years, we've had the great fortune to get to know and even meet many DIS friends from the DCL, runDisney, and restaurant boards. We thought we'd start a journal, to share our journey to race weekend, learn from everyone, and document our training/race experiences along the way.
I haven't been able to do such a good job at posting photographs since the boards changed format a few years ago. If you have tips/how-to, we're interested.
Likewise: just when I thought I'd figured out hyperlinks, things changed, my schedule changed, and it fell off the radar.
If this worked, you'll be able to say hello to Max below:
Max is our inspiration. He's a retired racing greyhound. Around age 4, he retired, and joined our family. That first year, on our walks, when the weather was to his liking, he'd run a little. Well, "a little" for Max is a pretty good pace for most humans. He's not even mouth breathing, and I'm about in a sprint.
We identified at least 6 gears, plus Mach 1, during that first year together. For Max, 3rd gear is like a canter, where he's bounding up and down front and back. He's clearly just taking it easy at this pace. At this time in our lives, we didn't have anything like a Garmin, but I'm pretty sure 3rd gear was faster than a 9-minute mile pace. The speed increases in what feels like exponential fashion with each gear until you hit what must have been race pace: Mach 1.
We only ever saw Mach 1 once. Our back yard, though fenced, is too small to allow him to really light it up. Again, it was that first year, and we went to a local dog park, where there are fenced areas around 3 acres each. On that day, DW and I ran along ahead of Max, and he came 'a runnin' up to us. We stopped and walked a moment together, and then DW and I tried to run ahead again.
The sound coming up behind us was like the sound of a running horse in the movies. As Max passed us, it happened: everything in his stride cycle... it just instantly doubled in speed. In one instant, he was fast, in the blink of an eye, he was twice as fast. He sped away at what had to be well over 35 mph. We stopped and laughed uncontrollably. The eyes of the guy in the corner got REAL big as he closed the distance in seconds. Then he turned south with no perceptible loss in speed.
We were afraid that the tree roots he was approaching would be a problem, or the pack of dogs playing in there would want to chase him. But he turned back to us and trotted directly back, barely winded. To watch a professional sprinter, every part designed for speed, is amazing. He has supreme control of his body; able to speed past us in our yard at a distance of single-digit inches away from our legs.
So to start our story without giving Max his due would not be appropriate.