3DisneyKids
More Drink, Less Run...Since 2008
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2005
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- 7,936
Day Two Part Two
When we last left our rag-tag group, we were just leaving DHS in order to get to the Expo. But first we had to get all of our luggage (and I do mean ALL) from Bell Services at the Swan and then check it at BWV. More tipping!
Once at BW, we HAD to stop and think of Lisa. We went up to her beloved Boardwalk Porch and took this photo. We even thought about getting a fruit plate to complete the picture!
Our room was in a PERFECT location. First floor and walked out right to the main pool. OMG. Heaven. And at the beginning of those notoriously long hallways, so just popped out the other side and we were on the Boardwalk itself. Could not have been better. But there was not time to hanghad to get to the Expo.
So we loaded into EEs behemoth of a rental and off we went. I LOVED the Expo. OMG, anything and everything for the runner. SO many fun shirts with great sayings, etc.
Ok, backing up. First we had to all regroup and then we went on in. Disneys Wide World of Sports is actually a beautiful facility. We got to the entrance of the Expo and there were two men dressed as Princes to escort us in and welcome us to the Expo. Pics, natch.
Walked in the door and this is what we saw. Vendors GALORE. OMG, the shopping that was to be done! But business first. Had to go check in for the race and get our bibs and goody bags. Registration was by bib number (which you got via e-mail a few weeks before). We al l had wildly different numbers. So I go get my bibOMFG I am in Corral A! A! This is where they put the fast runners! Um, do they know me? I submitted proof of time, but A?!!? No freaking way. I was STOKED. Check in with all of the rest of the Goddesses. Liz and Amy were in Corral C, Paula, Kat and EE were together in Corral D, and Nancy Nancy was in Corral E! The Dead Last Corral. WT F?!?! Nancy is the fastest of all of us! How the hell did she get shoved way back there?! Mostly we are happy because none of our first-timers/walkers were in the last corral. This is a huge help because it automatically gives a nice cushion in case you get off pace. There is no way anyone will be swept, so that feels great.
Now it was time to SHOP the Expo! And man, there was a lot to see and buy! BUT. Nancy. She could. Not. Get. Over. Being in the last corral. And really, I couldnt blame her. It would have chaffed me as well. And the rules are really clear. You can NOT move up a corral in order to run with friends who got placed in an earlier corral. The runner in the higher corral would have to drop down to yours. And there was NO WAY Nancy was going to let anyone drop down to be in E with her. Just wasnt going to happen.
So she and I are shopping the Expo and she cant let it go. So finally I said, lets go talk to someone. It cant hurt to ask, right? So we abandoned shopping and went in search of a race worker. We found Steve and explained our storycomplete with pathetic looks on our faces. He sent us over to Sue. Well, Sue was a Total Goddess. We explain the whole situation to her and Nancy explains that she even has proof of time from and old Half Marathon. Sue says, ok heres what you do. Go over to those computers over there, find your proof of time from an old race, and bring it back. But come see me only. Ha! We are ON IT. We fly across the exhibit hall to the computers. I tell Nancy a website to go on to find her old race results from 2004 no less and they are there! Pay dirt! BUTthere are like thousands of runners listed. 29 pages worth! Crap! Nancy quick calls Stephen. Nate answersand you should have heard Nancys voice. The PANIC. Nate, good kid that he is, gave Nancy the information she needed to find her time. We printed it off and ran back to Sue. She looks at the race results and says How old are these? (Because proof of time has to be within 2 years). And Nancy and I just say Old. But so are we! Sue loves us! She looks at me and says What Corral are you in? I proudly answer A! (As if you couldnt tell! Ha!) So she prints out a Corral A tag for Nancy! YES! We did it! This was just one of the first of many adventures of Nancy and Erika! And now Nancy and I both have the choice of starting in any corral that we choose, so that is awesome.
We quickly fly through the rest of the Expo, making sure to get some of the basics like BioFreeze and Body Glide, but had little time for real shopping. Met up with the rest of the team and headed back to BWV for some down time.
At BWV, we quickly pop open some beerspre-marathon carb loading you knowand head for the hot tub. Between traveling and park touring for 2 days, we need to start taking care of our muscles before race time. Spent a good long, time in the hot tuband had more beer. The hot tub had several college boys. And they were totally awed by us when we told them we were doing the Half Marathon the next day. So we were having fun chatting with them when we realized it was time for dinner.
Hmmm. Our reservations were for DTD. But really, we had been running around so much all day we wanted to stay close. Being the planning Goddesses we are, we also had reservations at Il Mulino, the Italian restaurant in the Dolphin. But they lost our reservation and were being nasty to Liz on the phone. So after deliberating, we decide on Big River Grille right on the BW. Quick stroll over, wait for maybe 15 minutes and get seated.
I cant speak for everyone, but Liz and I each had the shrimp and pasta dish and it was totally sub-par. But the company was lovely and we had a nice time. Time to head back to the villa and get to bed early. That 3:30 wake up call is going to come EARLY.
At this point, Nancy and I are in slight panic mode. Both of us are going over our checklists both silently and out loud Shirt, check; bib, check; sneakers and socks, yes; body glide, band aids, and so on. Pre-race stuff, post-race stuff. On and on and on.
We had said goodnight to Paula earlier and she was going through her own little freak out. And Amy was taking care of Kat and EE and making sure they had all of their stuff. That left Liz. Liz was, well, CALM. Eerily calm. In fact, her calm was FREAKING ME OUT. Nancy and I kept pulling each other aside and were like, Do you think Liz is ok? and What do you think this means?
Finally, we got into bed about 9:30. It was hard to fall asleep. Liz and I were sharing a bed and we kept getting the giggles! Finally drifted off around 10 or 10:30. Then I woke up like every 2 hours all night long. Finally woke up at 3 and just waited for the phone to ring for the wake-up call.
When we last left our rag-tag group, we were just leaving DHS in order to get to the Expo. But first we had to get all of our luggage (and I do mean ALL) from Bell Services at the Swan and then check it at BWV. More tipping!
Once at BW, we HAD to stop and think of Lisa. We went up to her beloved Boardwalk Porch and took this photo. We even thought about getting a fruit plate to complete the picture!
Our room was in a PERFECT location. First floor and walked out right to the main pool. OMG. Heaven. And at the beginning of those notoriously long hallways, so just popped out the other side and we were on the Boardwalk itself. Could not have been better. But there was not time to hanghad to get to the Expo.
So we loaded into EEs behemoth of a rental and off we went. I LOVED the Expo. OMG, anything and everything for the runner. SO many fun shirts with great sayings, etc.
Ok, backing up. First we had to all regroup and then we went on in. Disneys Wide World of Sports is actually a beautiful facility. We got to the entrance of the Expo and there were two men dressed as Princes to escort us in and welcome us to the Expo. Pics, natch.
Walked in the door and this is what we saw. Vendors GALORE. OMG, the shopping that was to be done! But business first. Had to go check in for the race and get our bibs and goody bags. Registration was by bib number (which you got via e-mail a few weeks before). We al l had wildly different numbers. So I go get my bibOMFG I am in Corral A! A! This is where they put the fast runners! Um, do they know me? I submitted proof of time, but A?!!? No freaking way. I was STOKED. Check in with all of the rest of the Goddesses. Liz and Amy were in Corral C, Paula, Kat and EE were together in Corral D, and Nancy Nancy was in Corral E! The Dead Last Corral. WT F?!?! Nancy is the fastest of all of us! How the hell did she get shoved way back there?! Mostly we are happy because none of our first-timers/walkers were in the last corral. This is a huge help because it automatically gives a nice cushion in case you get off pace. There is no way anyone will be swept, so that feels great.
Now it was time to SHOP the Expo! And man, there was a lot to see and buy! BUT. Nancy. She could. Not. Get. Over. Being in the last corral. And really, I couldnt blame her. It would have chaffed me as well. And the rules are really clear. You can NOT move up a corral in order to run with friends who got placed in an earlier corral. The runner in the higher corral would have to drop down to yours. And there was NO WAY Nancy was going to let anyone drop down to be in E with her. Just wasnt going to happen.
So she and I are shopping the Expo and she cant let it go. So finally I said, lets go talk to someone. It cant hurt to ask, right? So we abandoned shopping and went in search of a race worker. We found Steve and explained our storycomplete with pathetic looks on our faces. He sent us over to Sue. Well, Sue was a Total Goddess. We explain the whole situation to her and Nancy explains that she even has proof of time from and old Half Marathon. Sue says, ok heres what you do. Go over to those computers over there, find your proof of time from an old race, and bring it back. But come see me only. Ha! We are ON IT. We fly across the exhibit hall to the computers. I tell Nancy a website to go on to find her old race results from 2004 no less and they are there! Pay dirt! BUTthere are like thousands of runners listed. 29 pages worth! Crap! Nancy quick calls Stephen. Nate answersand you should have heard Nancys voice. The PANIC. Nate, good kid that he is, gave Nancy the information she needed to find her time. We printed it off and ran back to Sue. She looks at the race results and says How old are these? (Because proof of time has to be within 2 years). And Nancy and I just say Old. But so are we! Sue loves us! She looks at me and says What Corral are you in? I proudly answer A! (As if you couldnt tell! Ha!) So she prints out a Corral A tag for Nancy! YES! We did it! This was just one of the first of many adventures of Nancy and Erika! And now Nancy and I both have the choice of starting in any corral that we choose, so that is awesome.
We quickly fly through the rest of the Expo, making sure to get some of the basics like BioFreeze and Body Glide, but had little time for real shopping. Met up with the rest of the team and headed back to BWV for some down time.
At BWV, we quickly pop open some beerspre-marathon carb loading you knowand head for the hot tub. Between traveling and park touring for 2 days, we need to start taking care of our muscles before race time. Spent a good long, time in the hot tuband had more beer. The hot tub had several college boys. And they were totally awed by us when we told them we were doing the Half Marathon the next day. So we were having fun chatting with them when we realized it was time for dinner.
Hmmm. Our reservations were for DTD. But really, we had been running around so much all day we wanted to stay close. Being the planning Goddesses we are, we also had reservations at Il Mulino, the Italian restaurant in the Dolphin. But they lost our reservation and were being nasty to Liz on the phone. So after deliberating, we decide on Big River Grille right on the BW. Quick stroll over, wait for maybe 15 minutes and get seated.
I cant speak for everyone, but Liz and I each had the shrimp and pasta dish and it was totally sub-par. But the company was lovely and we had a nice time. Time to head back to the villa and get to bed early. That 3:30 wake up call is going to come EARLY.
At this point, Nancy and I are in slight panic mode. Both of us are going over our checklists both silently and out loud Shirt, check; bib, check; sneakers and socks, yes; body glide, band aids, and so on. Pre-race stuff, post-race stuff. On and on and on.
We had said goodnight to Paula earlier and she was going through her own little freak out. And Amy was taking care of Kat and EE and making sure they had all of their stuff. That left Liz. Liz was, well, CALM. Eerily calm. In fact, her calm was FREAKING ME OUT. Nancy and I kept pulling each other aside and were like, Do you think Liz is ok? and What do you think this means?
Finally, we got into bed about 9:30. It was hard to fall asleep. Liz and I were sharing a bed and we kept getting the giggles! Finally drifted off around 10 or 10:30. Then I woke up like every 2 hours all night long. Finally woke up at 3 and just waited for the phone to ring for the wake-up call.
I am with E, want to see 2006 and 2010 side-by-side. I can't believe the difference, and it is even more noticeable in person (speaking from someone who saw you 2008 and 2010!). 
) was completely uninspiring. 
