For the last 19 years, longtime Wellington resident Angee Lohmann has run hundreds of miles as she has trained to earn being called “Goofy.” Every year, dating back to January 2003, Lohmann has entered and competed in the Disney Marathon weekend in Orlando. Since 2005, Lohmann has been one of the many Disney marathon participants who have pursued the Goofy’s Race and A Half Challenge, which means runners must complete the 13.1-mile half-marathon race and the 26.2-mile marathon race on consecutive days during the Disney Marathon weekend.
For the 20th consecutive year, Lohmann, who teaches English, technology and journalism at Glades Day School in Belle Glade, is focused on completing the two races on Saturday, Jan. 11 and Sunday, Jan. 12. In essence, it requires running 39.3 miles in two days.
“I have done it every year since they started the Goofy’s Race and A Half Challenge 20 years ago,” Lohmann said. “This will be my 20th Goofy, so I am determined to get it done.”
Fortunately, Lohmann will not be alone this year during each race. Her 19-year-old daughter Hana, a collegiate soccer player, will be running with her during the half-marathon. And, in Sunday’s marathon race, Lohmann’s oldest daughter Brianna, a former collegiate softball player at Dartmouth, will be running the 26.2-mile race with her. It will be Brianna’s first-ever marathon race.
In a way, this will be Hana’s second half-marathon with her mother. “I was eight months pregnant with Hana when I ran the half-marathon at Disney in January 2005,” Lohmann recalled. “Hana was born a few weeks later in early February.”
Lohmann is quite confident that she will be able to cross the finish line in both races, but she will not be setting any personal best times this year.
“I had a pickleball knee injury, so it will be mostly walking this year,” explained Lohmann, whose career as a marathon runner started in April 2002 at the Nashville Country Music Marathon in Tennessee and also includes three entries in the Boston Marathon.
On both days of the half-marathon and the marathon, the first wave of runners will start at 5 a.m.
To be ready to run each race, Lohmann plans to get as much sleep as she can and have a runner’s dinner.
“I’m having pasta with veggies for dinner on both nights prior to my morning races the following days,” she said.
It’s a plan that will give Lohmann the best chance to earn the right to be called “Goofy,” once again.
