On Jan. 11-12, longtime Wellington resident Angee Lohmann was in the Orlando area to participate in the 32nd Disney Marathon race weekend with one main goal: finish each race.
For the 20th consecutive year, Lohmann ran, jogged and walked the half-marathon (13.1 miles) on Saturday and the full marathon (26.2 miles) on Sunday. For the first 19 years, she accomplished her goal of running the 39.3 miles in two days and earned a medal for completing the “Goofy’s Race and a Half Challenge.”
This year, it wasn’t going to be easy for her. Lohmann’s biggest obstacle was recovering from knee surgery in late November, which has been hampering her preparation and training.
On Tuesday, Nov. 26, Lohmann had surgery on her right knee for a displaced meniscus. Her surgeon told her that her recovery would take four to six weeks, and she told the surgeon that she was focused on participating in the Disney Marathon weekend in mid-January.
“The surgeon said it was doable if I did my therapy and the healing went well,” recalled Lohmann, 59, who works as a teacher at Glades Day School in Belle Glade.
Well, Lohmann was able to achieve her goal of completing both races. At the beginning of the weekend, only 52 contestants were trying to earn the Goofy title for the 20th consecutive year. She is not sure how many of them achieved that goal, but she did.
On Saturday, Jan. 11, Lohmann and her youngest daughter Hana, 19, began the half-marathon race in cold and rainy conditions. The race began in waves.
Angee started at 5:33:30 a.m. Her mile-per-minute pace was 14:45. At 8:46:47, she crossed the finish line, completing the race in just more than three hours (3:13:17, to be precise).
At 5:46:44 a.m., Hana began the 11.1-mile trek. At 8:39:37 a.m., Hana finished in 2:52:54. Her mile-per-minute pace was 13:12.
After resting for the balance of Saturday, Angee and her oldest daughter Brianna, 31, began focusing on final preparations for the big Disney Marathon on Sunday, where they were joined by more than 30,000 other participants. It was Brianna’s first-ever marathon.
Just like the day before, their starting times were very early. It was pre-dawn and dark at the start of the marathon.
Both met their goals of finishing the race. Angee’s time was 6:32:26, while Brianna was faster, finishing in 4:44:45. Overall, Brianna was the 745th fastest female, while Angee was the 4,334th fastest female. In their respective age brackets, Brianna was 121st while Angee was 176th.
Looking back, Angee agrees that her goal was a lofty one, but she realized that she had to scale back on her actual running in order to finish each race.
“It was great running weather, but I had to walk most of the races both days,” Angee said. “After the half, I seriously doubted I could do it, but I was able to keep it under the required 16 minute-per-mile pace.”
Time will tell if Angee decides to enter both races again in 2026.
“I will have to see if my injuries will heal up for me to make it 21 years next year,” she said.
Until then, Angee has earned the right to be called “Goofy” yet again. It’s a nickname that she earned one step at a time.
