First Drop in the Bucket List: a WDW Half Marathon 2013 TR UPDATE 4/30

[McDuck]

Hello, all! I am dipping my toes in the DIS Trip Report waters. Figured it was about time to document our Marathon Weekend 2013 trip. This trip was my baby--because I decided that doing a Half Marathon was on my bucket list. And, if I was going to do a Half, it had to be a Disney Half. Nay, it had to be the DONALD Half, because if I was going to be one and done, I wanted my main duck to be my medal!

But I'm getting ahead of myself. I suppose I should start by introducing the group!

Our cast was:
Me -- Jennie -- AKA Mommy, the instigator
DH -- Bill -- AKA Daddy, the support who didn't want to do the Half but did it because he loves me!
DD -- Miss K, the cutest kid in the world--okay, I'm biased....
Gigi -- my mom, Miss K's grandmother
Poppa -- my dad, Miss K's grandfather
Mamy -- my BFF, Miss K's godmother, AKA Amy, who also loves me so much she did the Half with me
Parrain -- my BFF's DH, Miss K's godfather

I will return with pics, just figured if I didn't get this started now, I'd never get around to it!

 

[McDuck]

Table of Contents

1.) Our Motley Krewe
2.) Straggling On In

 

[wiigirl]

In for your TR!

 

[McDuck]

In for your TR!

Welcome!!! Thanks for following along!

 

[McDuck]

I guess I will go into a little more detail on our motley krewe.

As I said before I was the instigator behind this whole thing. I never considered myself a runner. I was the one always holding my side and ending up last in the pack when we had to run in PE. My standard joke was that I would run when something big, mean, and ugly was chasing me. And, yet, I set myself the goal of completing the WDW Half Marathon. I still can't explain it, but I can say I have definitely gotten bit by the bug. I am in my late 30's....actually, you can't get much more late 30's than 39. Hee hee.



I'm going to skip ahead a bit in our cast list and talk about Miss K, since she's in the pic above with me. She is the iight of our life and the apple of our eye, the cutest girl in the world, but I'm biased. She's 3, and loves Disney. Is this where I mention this was her 5th trip?

Can't talk about Miss K without mentioning my DH Bill. If you can't tell from his haircut, he's a military man. He's a wonderful hubby and a great Daddy, and as I mentioned in my into, he runs for PT because he has to. He trained for the Half with me because he loves me. This is him after our first 5K together:



And here's a better pic with Miss K:


Which brings us to my parents. They are awesome parents and we love going to Disney with them. We all have so much fun together! Miss K calls them Gigi and Poppa:



And, last but certainly not least, we come to Amy and Steve, or Mamy and Parrain, as Miss K calls them. Amy and I have been best friends since college (lo these many moons ago), and Steve is her DH. I stood in her wedding and she stood in mine. They are Miss K's godparents.


Now, at this point, I must tell you we all straggled our way to Disney. But that's a story for another time.

 

[Mcbruns]

Looking forward to race details.

 

[blessedmom4]

Jennie!! I read this the other day, just didn't get to tell you! I am so excited yo uhave a PTR (well, a TR about your pre-trip plans)!

What great pics, keep them coming please!

 

[McDuck]

Looking forward to race details.

It was an emotional experience for me! I hope you enjoy reading it when I get there. Thanks for following along and welcome!!

Jennie!! I read this the other day, just didn't get to tell you! I am so excited yo uhave a PTR (well, a TR about your pre-trip plans)!

What great pics, keep them coming please!

Judy!! Glad you made it over! If I make good time on completing this TR, I may just have to start a PTR.... I hope to update some more tonight!

 

[McDuck]

I'll skip over the months of training from when I decided I wanted to do this, to registering, to trip time, and sum it up by saying we completed two 5Ks -- the Saints Back to Football 5K on Labor Day Weekend, and the Freedom Run 5K on Veterans Day Weekend. We trained using the Jeff Galloway Run-Walk-Run method, and found a sweet spot of two minutes running and 1 minute walking intervals. However, we did do three minutes running and 1 minute walking during our two 5Ks. It was challenging to find places to run as our mileage started tracking up to the 13.1 mark. I learned a lot about fueling, hydrating, and on one of my really long runs, learned my trusty 5K shorts were NOT a good choice for any distance over 10K. Can you say chafing?

We decided that we wanted to raise money for Team Gleason, which is a charity for ALS patients started by former NFL player Steve Gleason, himself an ALS Patient. I bought a Team Gleason running shirt to wear in the Half, and after the chafing lesson, also bought a pair of compression capris. I tried auctioning off a one-of-a-kind dress to no avail, and direct requests for donations resulted in a grand total of $270 raise out of the $500 minimum we hoped for. Well, $270 was more than nothing, but I found I am NOT good at fundraising!

So, anyway, fast forward to January 2013.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9

After almost a year of dreaming and several months of training, it was time to head to the World! We left our driveway at 4:30 AM to meet up with my parents at All-Star Music! My brother had agreed to watch our dog, who we usually board at the Best Friends Kennel at Disney, which saved us a chunk of money---and it saved us time on the road, as it was a lot easier not having Sadie with us.

Even at the crack of early, Miss K was pretty excited to be heading to Disney! Well, we all were!

http://youtu.be/mjOUV2GuyUs

Finally, in the afternoon, we made it to Disney and went to check in.



We asked to be in the same building as my parents at Music. To our delight--we were given the room right next door!!!! This worked out great as Mamy and Parrain were flying in that night and were going to be staying in our room, while Miss K was to stay in my parents' room. We got settled in, admired our Mickey head towel arrangement


and then headed over to Boatwright's for dinner! Now, I am from New Orleans, and I have to say the gumbo at Boatwright's was among the best I have ever had! (Okay, I stole tastes of the gumbo. I actually got crawfish etouffee.)






We enjoyed our meal (of which I only got a few pics) and then headed over to check out the Art of Animation Resort. Wow, just love walking around this resort at night especially the Cars area. They really outdid themselves!





Boy humor:












Soon we were exchanging text messages with Mamy and Parrain---their plane had landed and they were making their way to All Stars Music via the Magical Express! We left the lobby and gift shops of AoA and headed back to Music.

But not before somebody got a chipmunk thinking they were a nut stuck on their head:


What a pretty pretty


Mamy and Parrain made it to the room, we got Miss K settled in Gigi and Poppa's room, the coordinating shirts I had made were distributed (more on that later...), and catching up commenced. Finally, we all crashed, with a final training run on tap for the next morning.

 

[blessedmom4]

Posting this to all my friends who are REAL Moms! (My dinner is being prepared, so I may have to stop and continue afterwards)! I am SOOOO far behind! Forgive me!

​

 

[McDuck]

Awwww, thank you, Judy!!! I hope you had a blessed Mother's Day!

 

[blessedmom4]

Popped in to see if there were any more updates! Especially of the latest sewing creations! Have a marvelous day!

 

[McDuck]

Thanks for checking in, Judy. I have not had a chance to sit and write more...but when we are done traveling to visit family I will work on finishing it! Actually, it's tracking down the pictures and uploading them to photobucket that are slowing me down. Wish I'd have thought to burn them to disc and bring them with me.

 

[blessedmom4]

I will be here whenever you get time, you have been BUSY!!! Praying you are feeling MUCH better and you are having a great time!

Judy, Pete, Christian, David, Rachel and Lisa
​

 

[blessedmom4]

​

 

[blessedmom4]

Praying your feet are feeling better and Bill gets home soon!!
​