Racing and vacationing-how do you do it?

[Brancaneve]

How do you balance enjoying the parks while keeping your legs fresh for the race? We are thinking of arriving to DISNEYLAND on Saturday and enjoying DD so we don't tire out our legs. I am imagining that DH and I will be too tired to visit the parks after the race on Sunday and will therefore save our big park day for Monday and Tuesday. Since our kids will be joining us, we will.take a family member to watch them, who will take them to the parks so they don't have to sit around watching us recover. Ok, so how do you do it? How do you recover so you can get back out there?

 

[Dug720]

I've found it's best to keep moving. After the race I go back to wherever I'm staying and get a quick shower and bite to eat, then head out. I'm never as tired as I think I'm going to be, and the continuing walking helps to break up the junk that causes soreness.

 

[jbucci]

I have to agree with the keep moving plan. We try to walk minimally the days before a race (although we always fail in this, we are in DISNEY, we can't just sit around). After the race DH and I go back to the room and shower. We usually plan a character brunch then hit the parks. It is nice to walk around with your medal, get congrats from castmembers, and smile at other hobbling around with you.

 

[FFigawi]

Add a third vote for keeping moving. If you let yourself lie down and sleep, it's hard to get up and going again. I go back to the hotel, grab an ice bath and a shower, relax briefly, and then head right out again.

 

[johde]

Add another one to the "get out there" camp. I did something similar to what you are thinking about last year except I flew in on Saturday. I ended up doing too much walking on Saturday. Went out too fast on Sunday, bonked just after Angel Stadium and walked most of the section from where until the edge of Disney property where I started running again. After spending a little while at the family area, longer than I wanted because I sat on the floor and had trouble getting up. I ended up going straight to the parks to ride a couple of rides and grab a couple of fast passes before returning to the hotel to shower and change (I had stowed a change of clothes and some wet ones in my checked bags at the race so I had wiped off and put on some cologne before going to the parks). Upon returning to the parks later I ended up staying through the fireworks.

One thing to remember is at least last year, Fantasmic only ran Fri-Sun that week, no show on Monday. So, if you want to see Fantasmic and Fireworks Sunday may be your only chance.

 

[kim3339]

Ditto everyone else. I usually go back to the hotel and shower and go back into the parks. I'm usually a little sore but still walkable after the race, but this year after Tink I was surprised and didn't have a lot of problems walking around after. Now down stairs and standing up after some of the rides were a little tougher. If you are sore and don't feel like walking all over, use Sunday to do things like Aladdin (which is really good by the way) the Tiki Room, parades, go around on the monorail, or even take it easy and roam through DTD. Another thing you could do is split the park up and pick areas to do Sunday and do the other 1/2 on Monday and go back to the 1st 1/2 if there are rides you want to go on again. I did that in January and it worked out well ~ went down on Friday, but Friday I did Tomorrowland and Toontown and then Saturday morning I did Fantasyland, Frontier, Critter and NOS. The rides are closer together than in MK so it's much more doable than it sounds. If you get there when the park opens on Monday, you could do all the rides in Fantasyland in about 1 hour.

I get there on Friday, so my schedule is a little different, but Saturday, I do the 5k, go back to the hotel and shower and then go into the parks for awhile and stick to 1 1/2 of the park so I'm not going back and forth. I usually go back to the hotel around 2 or 3 and hang out either at the pool or in the room w/ my feet up on pillows (I do that the whole weekend whenever I'm in the room even when I'm sleeping) then early evening I go get something to eat and go back to the room. Another thing I do is bring epsom salts and soak my feet before I shower/go to bed. Did that last year in WDW and found it really helped.

Also, make sure you wear tennis shoes Saturday so you feet are a little cushioned as opposed to flip flops.

 

[Brancaneve]

Good to hear that many of yoj have the mobility and energy to enjoy the parks. I will certainly plan for the parks on Sunday.

 

[Dug720]

This was our schedule last year just as an idea of what we did:

Thursday ~ We all arrived (from different locations) by around 1pm. Headed over to Disneyland for the afternoon/evening. (I think we did Fantasmic! that night...but it could have been Friday.)

Friday ~ I did the Galloway meet while my sister and our friends did some of DCA. We met up at the expo so my running partner and I could get our bibs and do the "Buy the 'I did it!' shirt and hand the bag unopened to sis" thing. Then we went back into DCA (I'd entered with them before the Galloway meet because I was getting in on one of their Main Gate passes - so I entered, got my hand stamped, and left.) for the rest of the evening. We might have done Fantasmic! this night...I can't remember exactly.

Saturday ~ We went down to some cafe on a pier near Balboa Island for breakfast, walked around Balboa Island, then drove to Laguna Beach for some sightseeing. I guess we just hung out around the hotel that night...I don't recall us doing much of anything after Laguna.

Sunday ~ Race, back to the hotel for showers and changing, then over to Trader Sam's for celebratory drinks and munchies. After, we went back into DCA and ended the evening with dinner and World of Color.

Monday ~ We all split and flew back to our respective homes.

 

[Disfan11]

I've done both Tinkerbell and the Disneyland 1/2, so here's my 2 cents worth.
Fly in on Thursday or early Friday AM.
You want to hit the Expo as soon as it opens to be able to get what you want (especially the Doony & Burke purses if that's your thing).
We go to the parks after that.
We go to the parks on Saturday and stay until around 5:00PM, get dinner and then crash early (you still probably won't get much sleep, but at least you are relaxing!).
Run on Sunday.
Go back to the hotel and take a shower. If you can walk back to your hotel (depending upon how far away it is), that's good for your muscles.
Then we hit the parks again.
You do need to keep moving around.
We usually fly out on Monday evening so we can get some park time in then as well (not as many crowds).

We try and take it easy before the race, but hey, it's Disney and we want to get in as much as possilbe!