Keep Knowing & Keep Kicking, Kiddo – A 2015 Princess 5K PTR/Mini-TR ~ Completed 5/1

[SarahDisney]

See the Running Journal Here!

Not a very good run - hard, painful, and slow. But I did it, and that's what counts, right?

 

[SarahDisney]

Congrats on crossing over that goal! I am so impressed you are still getting out there in the cold.

Thanks! It's been hard for me to go out in the cold, but I'm bundling up and hoping for the best. We'll see if it lasts when the weather drops into the single digits...

 

[SarahDisney]

See the Running Journal Here!

I was surprised by how many people were out in the cold - quite a few football games going on at my local park.
Maybe the sight of other people encouraged me - I really don't know - but this was my best run in a while!

Bad news is, I think I realized today that I won't be able to make it down to Florida for the 5K. Not 100% sure yet, but it's getting less and less likely every day.

 

[SarahDisney]

Mini Planning Update​

Yesterday I saw the medals posted on the RunDisney FB page. I want one! (Well, really I want the Kids Races one, but the 5K is a close second). Even though I had almost given up on the trip, seeing the medals pushed me to keep trying to make this trip happen.

Looking at airfare and hotels, I think I can do this trip for less than $2500 total for the two of us (at least as of when I priced things last night – I can’t guarantee that all those prices are the same now). Right now I have us flying Delta, coming down Thursday, leaving Tuesday, staying at All-Stars Music (I’d cancel the room I have at Caribbean Beach for Thursday night), with 4 park days (Friday, Saturday night, Sunday, Monday). Now all I have to do is get my sister to agree – which will be hard since she hates Delta and I don’t know if she can get 4 days off of work.

If my sister doesn’t come, I’m thinking about booking it as a solo trip. While I think it will be more awkward, I want to do it. Solo the trip will probably be about $1500 or so (I didn’t price it out, but that’s a guess based on park tickets, airfare, and spending). I could also go down Thursday and come back Friday for about $400 (airfare – I’d skip park tickets, assume I’ll spend less than $100 while I’m there, and I already have a hotel room for Thursday night), but it gets me back to NY at 2:43 PM, which is cutting it close (although not as close as I thought – I thought I had to be home by 4ish the latest, turns out I have until almost 5 – which means that assuming no delays, I can make it home and shower in time).

So it looks like this weekend may be decision weekend. Here are the questions I need to deal with:
1 – Can I make it happen? Budgeting is a big deal (which is why I may actually have to wait a little bit to figure out a different issue, but whatever).
2 – Will my sister come with or am I assuming this is a solo trip?
3 – If it is a solo trip, am I more comfortable doing no parks and coming back Friday or staying through Tuesday and doing Shabbos in my room (because I can’t use the electronic door lock, I can’t leave the room for 25 hours)?

Hopefully I’ll have some good news soon … we’ll see.

 

[SarahDisney]

See the Running Journal Here!

Good News:
ACHIEVMENT UNLOCKED: 3.1 miles! I am officialy 5K ready ... and in less than 40 minutes! Still working on getting down to just running, no walking, but ... as it stands now, I could do 5K. Yay!

Bad News:
No water at the park! I need to remember to complain to the city Parks department.
A few weeks ago I discovered that the water fountains didn't work ... but then I found one that did. Now even that one doesn't. I went to a playground near my house (well, not so near, but whatever), but that water fountain wasn't working either. Since I had already gone through 2/3 of my water bottle on my walk to the park ... I had to get through 40 minutes of walk/run and 15 minute walk home with only 8 oz of water. Not cool, park, not cool.

 

[hmack]

Just stopping by to say "hi" and that I believe in you!

 

[SarahDisney]

See the Running Journal Here!

It was kind of a "blah" run, nothing special, except for one interesting thing - mile #1, at 11 minutes and 57 seconds, appears to be my fastest full mile ever. That's pretty cool. I'm on track to run the 5K in about 38 minutes or so, although I'm sure the actual 5K will take longer because I plan to stop to characters.

If I ever manage to book the trip, that is ...

 

[SarahDisney]

Just stopping by to say "hi" and that I believe in you!

Hi! Thanks for stopping by!

 

[IheartDDuck]

Hi there! Saw you had a running PTR going so I wanted to stop by.

I'm signed up for the 5k and the Princess Half. Didn't want to do the glass slipper challenge and do the 10k, because I want to make sure I enjoy the half. Using the 5k for a training run for the 13.1 we'll be doing on Sunday. Sounds like your training is going pretty well. Doing a 5k under under 40 minutes is great! I run them a little slower now, because I run for distance during training and not speed, but I always aim for hitting the 5k at about 40 minutes on my distance runs, because then I feel like I'm on track.

 

[SarahDisney]

Hi there! Saw you had a running PTR going so I wanted to stop by.

I'm signed up for the 5k and the Princess Half. Didn't want to do the glass slipper challenge and do the 10k, because I want to make sure I enjoy the half. Using the 5k for a training run for the 13.1 we'll be doing on Sunday. Sounds like your training is going pretty well. Doing a 5k under under 40 minutes is great! I run them a little slower now, because I run for distance during training and not speed, but I always aim for hitting the 5k at about 40 minutes on my distance runs, because then I feel like I'm on track.

Hi!
I'm amazed at people who can do the glass slipper ... that's just too much for me. 5K as a training run for the half makes a lot of sense ... I may end up doing that once I work my way up to the 13.1 distance.

I think 40 minutes for a 5K is a really good pace for distance because you're not overdoing yourself, but because I'm just doing the 5K, I actually want to see if I can do it a little faster.
My goal for the 5K is 35-37 minutes if I don't stop for characters, and under an hour if I do stop (I'm assuming the characters will have lines). I'm not quite there yet, but I'm hoping to be there by February.

Thanks for stopping by and saying hi!

 

[SarahDisney]

See the Running Journal Here!

Cold out yesterday, and I wasn't feeling great, but I survived.

I'm hoping to have a planning update soon ... I don't think my sister is coming with me (or at least she hasn't said more than two words to me in the past week and a half, even when I sent her planning questions), so I'm going to start pricing out a solo trip, and I'll post it here when I think I have the plans down.
Paying for it is a different story entirely ...

 

[SarahDisney]

Tentative Plan​

I can’t book it yet (because of a few considerations, the primary of which is financial), but here’s the tentative plan I have for the trip as a solo trip.
All prices/plans are as of about 11 AM EST on 12/10/14

Trip Dates: Thursday 2/19 – Tuesday 2/24 (Race Day: 2/20)

Flights: JetBlue, departing LGA on Thursday early afternoon, arriving in Orlando around 4:15 PM; departing MCO on Tuesday afternoon arriving in NY around 7:00 PM
Total Flight Cost: $308.96

Hotel: All-Star Sports, 5 nights (I’ll cancel my CBR reservation – or more likely, call Disney and ask them to make the switch).
Total Hotel Cost: $636.10
This and Music were the two cheapest options, and I picked Sports because that way I get to do it and my sister, who is not a sports fanatic like me, doesn’t have to.

Tickets: 5-day Magic Your Way from Undercover Tourist (same price as 4 day – so I figured I might as well)
Total Ticket Cost: $309.99
I know that buying my tickets from not Disney means I wait longer to get them, and unless I order ASAP I probably won’t be able to make my FP+ at 60 days out, but … the only ones I really need that will “sell out” are 7DMT & TSMM (really, TSMM is the only one – I’m planning 2 days at MK so I can afford to wait on line at 7DMT), and I’ll just have to try and hope I can get an FP+ for one person.

Total Cost: $1255.05
If I keep my spending low, I can probably get the whole trip (including food & souvenirs) in for less than $1500, which could be manageable … maybe.

Of course, prices will probably go up by the time I’m ready to book, but who knows, maybe I’ll win the lottery (or get a job) today and can book tomorrow…

As an extra bonus, current daily plans:
Thursday 2/19 – Princess 1/2 Expo, Downtown Disney, early bedtime
Friday 2/20 – Race, Hollywood Studios until 4:30ish – HS must do’s are TSMM and MuppetVision, RnR Single Rider line and Frozen sing along if I have time (leaving early for Shabbos means no Fantasmic!, which is sad, but I’ll survive)
Saturday 2/21 – Magic Kingdom from 8 (or whenever I can get there – Shabbos ends around 7, and then I have to pray, change, and get ready to go) to 12, including MSEP and staying in the park past closing (to knock “be in a park after midnight” off my bucket list) - I should be well rested from my Shabbos afternoon nap, so being up past midnight won't be a problem
Sunday 2/22 – Epcot – will try for early (don't know if I can make rope drop after staying up past midnight) to hit Test Track (I’ll FP+ Soarin’ because I can do TT single rider … but I still don’t know how long that line will be on a Sunday) – want to do TT twice if I can, and spend a lot of time seeing characters in World Showcase (because Epcot is usually travel day for me, so I usually don’t have time once I get to World Showcase)
Monday 2/23 – Magic Kingdom – not sure if I’ll try to rope drop – I may take this as my day to “sleep in” and then head to the park around 11 (although it closes at 9, and the idea of not being at MK for 12 hours is weird to me)
Tuesday 2/24 – Animal Kingdom – Kilimanjaro Safaris first, then Expedition Everest, then I’ll see what else I have time for before I have to go back to the room for my DME pickup. DME pickup will probably be around 1:30, so I want to be back at the hotel by 12:30, and I’ll get my carry-ons from luggage assistance (I’ll use Resort Airline Check-In for my checked bags and then drop my carry-ons before I go to the park)

So, those are my tentative plans. Feel free to comment, critique, offer encouragement, etc.
I’m crossing my fingers and hoping I get to book soon!

 

[SarahDisney]

See the Running Journal Here!

Not my best run by far ... I didn't even make it to 5K. The ground was slippery (it snowed a little here yesterday), it was cold and a little windy, I was sniffling the whole time ... so I took it slow. I expected my pace to be about a minute slower than usual - which is about where it was.

Funny picture of the day:

This is what my hair looked like when I took off my hat (I usually fold my hair up under the hat). I really need one of those hats with a hole for my pony.

 

[SarahDisney]

Mini-Update: Mickey (Incredibles) Mail
​

This came in the mail today …

I think it’s especially funny because I don’t have any tickets attached to my account, just the 1-night hotel reservation for Thursday night. I wonder if it will actually let me make FP+ reservations on 12/21… (I’m guessing not, but if I happen to be up anyway, I’ll try).

Today I started thinking about what I would do differently on a solo trip versus the trips I take with my sister … hopefully I’ll write something up on that next week.

 

[SarahDisney]

See the Running Journal Here!

2 things:

1 - I realized today that I always start strong and then fade out. I really need to work on consistency.

2 - Last week (or 2 weeks ago?) I sent an email to my sister with ideas for trip plans. After getting no response, I started to plan as a solo trip. This morning I got an email from her - "Still open for discussion?"
So what happened next? You'll just have to wait and see (hopefully I'll have an update up tomorrow or Wednesday - depends on how insane my tomorrow is)

 

[SarahDisney]

BOOKED!​

So, as of approximately 4:15 PM on Monday, December 15, 2014, the trip is booked!

Here are the details:

Guests: Sarah and Sarah’s Sister (aka Beth)
Dates: February 19th-24th (5 nights)
Hotel: All-Star Sports, Standard Room
Tickets: 4-day Magic Your Way (bought as part of a package, so we get the magical extras)

We haven’t booked a flight yet, but hopefully my sister will be here this weekend and we can do it then.

The process behind the plans:
Basically, Beth had been so insane the past few weeks she didn’t have time to think about it. When she emailed me, I started looking again at Deluxes for Shabbos (because of the extra room and balcony – if we can’t leave the room because we can’t use the electronic magicband, at least we can get fresh air), but the cheapest was AKL, which Beth had no interest in and was pretty expensive. Beth has a friend who did Shabbos at Disney recently, so she reached out to her friend about what they did re: leaving the room. The friend told her that she wore the MagicBand (which she said could be acceptable because it’s jewelry – similar issue to a watch with a battery, and something I hadn't thought of) and just asked other people to open the door for her (because that is definitely a problem). Beth said she couldn’t wear the MagicBand (because she doesn’t wear bracelets, so it would be something abnormal - it's kinda super complicated and I'm trying to oversimplify it), but I said I’d wear it, and I’d find an outfit that matches my MB so that it really is part of my outfit. Still not my default choice, but if this friend says it’s acceptable, I trust her.
There are still some Shabbos-related (and other) issues to be resolved, but at least now we know it’s possible.

Anyway … since we can now leave the room, we’re willing to stay in a smaller room … and that means value. So we search, we find that All-Star Sports is the cheapest (it’s not our first choice, but this is a value trip), and we decide to book. I call Disney to try to transfer my existing CBR reservation to the new reservation, but it doesn’t work because I’m going from room-only to package, so they have to cancel the CBR, refund the money, and take new money for the package. I’m not willing to pay the full amount right now – I just paid the deposit – and we may still cancel if it doesn’t work out, but now instead of there being a 25% chance of the trip happening, there’s a 75% chance it will happen.

So … yay!

 

[Disneychix]

Hello! I've been following and I'm excited you are going to be able to go!

Have you tried to book through one of the travel agencies? I'm not sure if they even still have discounts at this point but it's worth a shot.

 

[SarahDisney]

Hello! I've been following and I'm excited you are going to be able to go!

Have you tried to book through one of the travel agencies? I'm not sure if they even still have discounts at this point but it's worth a shot.

Hi! Thanks for stopping by!

I thought about using a travel agency, but it makes me a little nervous because I'm afraid then I'll have less control (I'm a little bit of a control freak and having less control makes me a bit anxious). Since this is our 5th WDW trip we're planning ourselves, I figured it was easier to just stick to what we're used to and if that means we miss out on a little bit of a discount, I'm okay with that.

 

[SarahDisney]

See the Running Journal Here!

I did a lot better with the consistency today - I still need some work, as I fizzled out at the end, but I'm definitely making progress towards a consistent pace!

I'm thinking about Disneybounding as Anna for the 5K ... I was going to not bother with a DB or costume because I didn't want to spend too much, but ... I have blue pants (although my preference would be to wear capris - but these pants I should be okay in, especially because early it may be a little chilly), I can dig up a black t-shirt, and then I just need a purple jacket or something for her cape. Or I can wear my seafoam shirt (close enough to blue...), a black t-shirt, and a purple headband and be close enough. I think I can make it work ... probably.

Hoping to have some more plans to share soon ... we're hoping to get some planning done this weekend.

 

[ksl5f123]

Congrats on booking! Your 5 day plans look great! I think it is wonderful that your sister will be joining you. It sounds like things are starting to come together.