Preparing For A Half Marathon

Barrichello's busman's holiday

Many F1 drivers have well-known training regimes. Jenson Button famously frequently takes part in triathlons which involve 1.9km swim followed by a 90km cycle ride. Mark Webber is renowned for being a cycling fanatic who broke his leg in 2008 during a mountain bike competition in Australia. Having raced in more Grands Prix than any other driver it's no surprise that Rubens Barrichello 's training schedule is a little different to that of his colleagues. He can be found in Florida's theme parks preparing for racing but the exercise is far from Mickey Mouse.

Barrichello is a theme park fanatic and has been a regular visitor to the Disney World complex in Orlando for over 25 years. He has already been there several times this year and flew from Orlando to last month's British Grand Prix.

From his Twitter page Barrichello has linked to photos of him and his family standing in front of the world-famous Cinderella castle and there's good reason that he enjoys it. Despite the castle sitting inside the Magic Kingdom, the world's busiest theme park with an estimated 17m visitors last year, Barrichello doesn't get mobbed by fans there due to F1's low profile in the United States. "It's very peaceful and my kids enjoy it so much," he says.

Sport is never far from Barrichello's mind, even when he is on holiday, but in January last year he began to mix business with pleasure when he ran a half marathon from Epcot, Disney's science-themed park, to the Magic Kingdom. "I did it for pleasure and fitness," says Barrichello adding "it was my first one." Despite this, he still finished in 1,671st place out of 17,143 runners but was pipped to the post by another famous face from F1.

Former Jaguar driver Luciano Burti ran with Barrichello but was ranked 1,383rd. They had an unexpected factor hampering progress as the weather in Orlando was far from what would usually be expected of the 'sunshine state.' Instead, temperatures hovered around zero during the race as the runners were pelted with snow and rain. It didn't put Barrichello off and he ran again this year finishing in an improved 1,208th place.

Half Marathon Training Week 2 Recap

Happy Monday! I hope all of y'all had a good weekend! For many of us it was the last weekend of summer vacation. Class starts Wednesday here in Starkville. I don't have any classes this semester, but I will be way busy writing my thesis, preparing for and giving my defense, and preparing, editing, and submitting manuscripts for journal publications. And some football thrown in there too of course! Sunday was the 5 miler. I was a little irritated because I am a morning runner...and by morning I mean 7/8 am...NOT 9/10 am. My running partner (<3) is not a morning person at all, and I know it's a big sacrifice for him to wake up early to run with me when he'd much rather go at night. And I REALLY appreciate that he does this without complaint. But just because it's Saturday doesn't mean we can wait until 9:45 to start a 5 mile run! I am extremely heat sensitive when I'm working out, and the later we go the hotter it gets. I'm fine with the heat all day long...but not at all when I'm running. So the 5 miles didn't go as well as I was hoping. We left so late I was hot the whole time, and I was really worried about Zoe getting heat exhaustion...she was panting way more than usual and kept stopping to walk and her tail was not wagging. I was kind of frustrated, but managed to push through my irritation, finish 4.8/5 miles, and brought Zoe home to cool off. We agreed we have to go earlier on Saturdays...at last!

Good job girl! I know what you mean about the heat, I am totally heat sensitive also. I am loving the cooler weather right now, I am a night runner and it was just perfect tonight! Love Zoe's new collar and congrats on the fuel belt, I don't have one yet so let me know how you like yours! I am wondering if it's too heavy and juggles around?

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