Magical Miles to the Marathon! Comments welcomed

[Blue Caterpillar]

Part 3

After leaving animal kingdom, I knew it was a while before Hollywood studios, but I was in a good place and was so happy the weather had cleared. For this race I was wearing Saucony Endorphin Pro, and the upper is basically mesh, you can see your socks through it. My feet dried super quick. I skipped the bananas and the sport beans. I wish they would have the honey stinger waffles on course instead.

I was mixed up regarding my character stops. Onward fella was outside Hollywood. Don’t hold me to being accurate with the rest either. I should have started this recap sooner as my memory is fading. Anyhow number 5 was Sofia the first. I don’t know why there were so many junior characters. I at least watched a few episodes of this when my niece was young. Stop 6 was my challenge namesake Fancy Goofy!



Was Blizzard beach around this time? It is in my mind anyway. It was not as terrible as it was for me in 2023, but that year I was super hot. Stop 7 was Anna & Elsa, I think this may have been my longest line.



Stop 8 was Nick & judy. I love Zootopia.



My next Stop 9 was Miguel. I always make a point to watch Philharmagic and the Coco scenes are my favorite. This was a terrible photo of me. Stop 10 (Goal Met ) was onward, right before Hollywood studios not animal kingdom.

What is his name?

 

[Blue Caterpillar]

I didn’t stop to get a photo with Tower, but I did get a fairly good racing photo. I was past the point when I noticed the green spots for a static shot. Next year.


In a blink we were out of HS and in epcot! Character 11 for Mirabel and Bruno. Another horrid picture my ego is currently stopping me from sharing. Bonus stop for the Blessed ball. I was feeling really great still and now had the buzz of yes I was going to finish! My last Character was Gamora. Guardians are my favorite of the superhero movies.



Here I am all alone in front of a wall, but happy about it.



And the finish! I’m not sure what I am doing with my arms. Last year I had no good finish line photos, with people putting their arms out and covering my face. I remember thinking I didn’t want to do that to anyone, so I guess I did this I finished in a bit of an empty bubble, I have way more photos than last year, but most have me doing this weird arm thing, of only that far up.


But I was Happy and ready to crush some plastic cheese!

 

[Naomeri]

What is his name?

that’s Ian Lightfoot

 

[GollyGadget]

Congrats on a great race!

You did a much better job remembering characters than I did. As I was reading your recap, i kept asking myself if I saw that character or if they were on break when I went by. Literally do not remember at least half of the characters this year. Maybe it’s because there were so many junior characters of which I have zero connections.

I had weird finish line arms last year and it was because I didn’t put them up before the finish line so all the photos were while I was still lifting them.

 

[Blue Caterpillar]

Some thoughts on Marathon weekend:

I had a super hard time sleeping before the marathon. It began Wednesday as I had to catch a 6AM flight from EL paso Thursday morning, and even though I was exhausted I just couldn’t sleep. Doing the half half only, I did feel fresher on Marathon morning. That combined that this is my only trip only trip most years to WDW, and I really would like more park time, I think I shall make it a Marathon focused trip in 2025. That way I can spend more time in the parks and since I won’t have to come as early before I can stay longer after the Marathon. I didn’t get nearly as much park time as I would have liked, and it felt awfully busy this trip. I got sick at the tail end of this trip as well, so my last days were sadly spent in a hotel room. (it wasn’t covid- but I still felt awful). Fueling more during the race really made a difference. I felt great the whole race, though I did end up skipping my last gel. I was pretty sick of them by then and it was around mile 24, so I risked it. I did much better this time with hydration as well. In 2023 I over hydrated and had to stop multiple times for bathroom breaks. If I am going to stop, I want it to be for a character! After the marathon, I did the dessert party for HEA. I loved it! I ate so much cheese! There were a few other runners as well. I think I will do that again. And maybe book a character meal after the race to get picks with the medal.

Returning to the real world was rough. Especially as Marathon weekend is one of those vacations that when you come back, you feel you need time off to recover.

I was trying to resist the Disneyland Halloween run. It is the weekend I normally go to Disneyland anyway, and I love Haunted mansion with all my heart. So I shall try to register and not be too upset if I can’t register. I have booked flights and made hotel reservations. I bought park tickets before the last price hike, so that is taken care of.

I decided to run The San Diego rock n roll marathon. I feel this could be a bridge from Disney to regular marathons.

It took me a couple runs before I felt my legs weren’t dead but I am back on schedule. Hunting season is over here, which normally means I won’t find as much good stuff. This week I found .04 and a New Mexico license plate. That is license plate number 6 I think, but my first New Mexico one. (Ilive like 3 miles from the state line) It is one with raised letter/numbers so it is an older one.

 

[GollyGadget]

A dessert party sounds like a great way to celebrate!

 

[Scootin'By]

Stop 8 was Nick & judy. I love Zootopia.

I am so jealous of this photo! *melts*

I didn’t stop to get a photo with Tower, but I did get a fairly good racing photo.

This one is awesome!!

 

[Blue Caterpillar]

It’s so amazing to me, even now how much faster time flies than when I was a kid. How is it already February?

It’s been a terrible couple of weeks for finding things. Nothing of note, but I am up to .27 cents. Running has been going well. I am trying Hanson’s advanced first timer again. I started on it during last marathon weekend but once we got to the holiday-ish portion of the year, it was too much for me, so I dropped back to their regular one. So far so good. Saturday’s long run was only 8 miles, but it was in my worst weather- WIND. I hate wind, it never seems to help you as much as it feels it impedes you, But I did it! Had my first “speed” workout of .25-mile repeats today. That went well.

And I wasn’t chased by any dogs on those routes!




Last year I was kinda in a dark place, with both my parents being unwell, and just staying home too much. My resolution this year is to do more things, even if most of the time it means I must drive a bit. There are lots of pros of living in a town of 700 but being close to things like movie theaters, concerts etc. aren’t one of them. It is very easy to become a huge homebody. I saw Soul in 3d last week for the first time. I liked it but it didn’t really feel like a kid movie. It was better than Wish (I was a little disappointed in that, I felt like it had the right ingredients to make it good but just didn’t. And the songs weren’t as catchy as others). Tomorrow I am headed back to “Town” it’s the nearest place with movies, shopping, banks, grocery stores it is only an hour away to meet up with my sister to shop a bit or maybe see a movie. Then I decided to go to Albuquerque for USTAF track indoor championships, Feb 16/17th. It’s only 5.5 hours away and the hotels were surprisingly cheap. Also, Next week I hope to be successful in registering for the Halloween half.

 

[Blue Caterpillar]

I got in the for Halloween challenge! I’ve never done a 10k at Disney so that will be a first. It has been an expensive day, I also did David’s Rental for the week after Marathon weekend. I tried for Boardwalk studio, Riveria standard tower but there was none available for the dates I need. I ended up at Old Key West. (if everything goes through) I was just watching Karen bee’s youtube @dancingtodisney where they stayed there and it seemed really nice, and the price is way less than on Disney’s site. Thanks to the Marathon thread, or I wouldn’t have even thought at renting points. ( I will be at pop for the actual marathon once again. I love how many runners are there!)

Also Sunday I paid my registration for the San Diego rock n roll 5k and marathon (and finisher’s pic). Running has been an expensive habit this week! I decided to cancel my Albuquerque trip to make me feel a little better about all this spending.

A

 

[Blue Caterpillar]

So far this year has been very disappointing in terms of finding stuff. I am up to .78 cents.

I got another cold, very terrible. I haven’t ran for a week. I didn’t even feel like online shopping for Disney deals! I am finally feeling a bit better and will try a very easy run tomorrow.

So not much to update really.

I am thinking of doing a half on March 10th. I think I will see how the next week and a half will go. I really want to try and get POT for marathon weekend. Which means I need to be three minutes faster than my last half. Though I don’t think I am quite there yet it may give me an idea of where I am at.

So far I have resisted the Disney sets in lego. But I think my lego hibernation will be at an end soon. I want this set so bad!

 

[Blue Caterpillar]

Ugh. I am trying to remind myself that there is always ups and downs during training for a race, especially when its as long as it is for the marathon. But I really feel ive been in a valley since I got sick. And I had a terrible half yesterday, but I did finish. I started out fine, but it was in Tucson, and it started getting hot(to me). Where I live in Arizona is much cooler. I haven’t ran in temperatures above 50 yet. And by the end it was at least 70. Which during the summer I would be thrilled with. I was really feeling the heat. It wasn’t my worst ever half in terms of time, but I think I felt the worse. I do like the medal, which always makes the race better.

 

[Cabius]

Ugh. I am trying to remind myself that there is always ups and downs during training for a race, especially when its as long as it is for the marathon.

I feel you! It can be rough when you hit those doldrums where everything seems hard and you feel like you aren't making progress, or are even regressing. Your head knows the truth -- just getting out and doing the work is the important thing, and you can trust the process to work in the long run -- but it's hard to connect that to your heart, or to your legs. You've got this! Good job gritting it out in a tough HM.

 

[Blue Caterpillar]

After my not-so-great half, I took an extra day off before returning to my plan. After my speed intervals on Wednesday Garmin decided to bless me with an increase in VO2. Only to take away two points today! We get terrible wind here, and I truly hate it. I was lucky that today was only 4 easy miles. But Garmin was very judgmental to me. Honestly, I would rather run in 100 degrees than strong winds. Recently I have been experimenting with continuous running rather than run/walk. I am interested to see how I do with continuous running during my 12 mile this weekend. Though I like to add a 30 sec walk break every mile. So I guess it is still run/walk.

I really thought I would be able to do a marathon focused weekend. But I am already thinking about goofy. I will need to add a day to my reservation at pop. The last few times I went to WDW I used a travel agent. It was fine, but since I never had a lowering in price and it was always a bother to make to payment, I decided to just do it myself this trip. (I realize that maybe there never was a discount that could have been applied.) I really like being able to log on and make a payment with any old amount. I have finally been able to use up some old Disney gift cards that I was too lazy to do anything else with that only had less then 10 dollars on. This year, I am playing the game that anytime I sell something on mercari/posh mark/ebay I use my profits and immediately make a payment of the same amount to my trip. Which of course means my trip will be basically free.

I feel like I have lost my finding stuff power. Nothing of note but am up to 1.12. I can’t wait for hunting season to return.

Also thinking about bringing in some dumbbells to work. I work alone and there are often times when nobody is at the library, and I could quickly do a set of something or two. I really need to add some sort of strength training.

I tried to price a quick trip to Disneyland this month, but I couldn’t make it work. I feel like it’s been forever since I had a Disney fix but it hasn’t even been 3 months since marathon weekend!!

 

[Blue Caterpillar]

Time is flying, and I have been terrible about updating this.....

Whew! I’m in for Goofy! Since I was originally planning on the marathon, I need to add a night to my reservation, but since its crazy since they released some discounts, I am going to wait to change it. Though I really want to do it NOW. And awaiting flights to be released from Southwest.

I get so much anxiety on registration day, Once I register, I feel spent for the day, yet also accomplished.

Now I need to figure out if I will try for a POT. Back when it was 2:08 ish it felt so far away, I didn’t worry about it at all. But my half from December is only a minute and a half off. I’m in AZ and this is not prime race season. I am running (crosses fingers) the San diego rock n roll full but it seems way scarier to try for a sub 5 (June 1). There is a half in early May in the phoenix area, but it doesn’t even start until 8 AM! Which would be way to hot for me, as I live a in part of AZ that is much much cooler, especially in the morning. The next option would be a half in Albuquerque On May 5th. I just did a half there this past Saturday and I think the course is somewhat in the same area. It was brutally Cold and windy (I had to carry my hat it wouldn’t stay on my head) and I finished in 2:27 plus change, not pushing it. So, I think maybe if I really gave it the old college try, I might be able to go around 2:22. But then would that ruin my full? (first non-Disney one) Or fly up to relatives in Utah at the end of June to do a half then) so much to think about.