Runners Take Over the World--WDW Marathon Trip Report January 06 COMPLETED

[Lan]

hey -- great trippie! Congratulations on a great race!! I am doing the half and your report was very helpful in knowing what to expect. I'm even staying at POFQ! Thanks for the inspiration; it really helped while I was out running today to have a better vision for what I'm going to be doing.

HMHunters,
Now we have someone to bother about details of the race

 

[aladdinsgirl]

HMHunters,
Now we have someone to bother about details of the race

Only 6 weeks and 5 days until the big dance!!!!!

 

[aladdinsgirl]

Day 6—1/11

The Plan: Wednesday January 11th—Magic Kingdom, ADR Whispering Canyon 1:40, afternoon break, ADR ‘Ohana 7:00, Magic Kingdom evening.

Reality: Since we’re still on vacation and on vacation time, we decided to meet at the extremely early hour of 10:00. We figured the crowds were so light this week that there really was no point in trying to kill ourselves by getting to the parks early. I think I rolled out of bed at 9:00, my foot looked much better today, the swelling had gone down quite a bit and there wasn’t any pain. I guess my pool water therapy worked. It was still warm today and we everyone dressed in shorts and short-sleeved shirts. I didn’t go tanning before this trip like I usually do and wouldn’t you know it, I wore shorts every day.

We had a small wait at the bus stop before we were on our way to the Magic Kingdom. Once we were on Main Street, we couldn’t pass up getting a picture on our photo pass, so we waited a few minutes for a photographer. We shouldn’t have wasted our time, the pictures were terrible because the sun was so bright and all 4 of us were squinting in the pictures, even with sunglasses on. Oh well, we have lots of pictures in front of Cinderella Castle. We were planning on hitting the Magic Kingdom pretty hard-core today, this was our last full day at the Magic Kingdom and we hadn’t done any of the major attractions yet. Up first was Frontierland and the wildest ride in the wilderness, which was a complete walk-on. The park was so dead today that all the fastpass machines were covered up because the lines were too short. I love days like that. After Big Thunder Mountain, we went on my favorite ride in all of Walt Disney World: Splash Mountain. I love the story of Brer Rabbit and I love the detail and themeing of this ride. The colors are so vibrant; it’s like being in the pages of a storybook. Even though I hate to get wet, I break my rule for Splash Mountain, besides you don’t usually get THAT wet, (unless you are Stephen and take a big hit in the face ).

After Splash Mountain, we decided to make our way to the Haunted Mansion and Fantasyland. We were slightly detoured in Frontierland by the Country Bears, Brer Fox, Brer Bear, Brer Rabbit, and some friends who were dancing and doing the Hokey Pokey in the middle of the street. One of the Country Bear’s came over to my Mom and started doing the Hokey Pokey with her where we were standing, but one of the cowgirls grabbed Stephen’s hand and pulled him in the middle of the street with the rest of the characters to dance. It was so much fun and a truly magical experience. Have I said lately how much I love Walt Disney World?

After doing the Hokey Pokey, we continued on our way to the Haunted Mansion, which was of course a walk on. Since we were so close to Fantasyland, we decided to take a gamble that that section of the park would be crowd free as well. We passed the restrooms between Liberty Square and Fantasyland and everyone but me decided to take advantage of them. While they were using the facilities, I took everyone’s tickets to get fastpasses for Peter Pan’s Flight. My jaw dropped when I walked to the front of the attraction and saw it was only a 5-minute wait. A 5-minute wait for Peter Pan in the middle of the afternoon!!!! It’s usually a 75-minute wait. When I walked back to the rest room without the fastpasses, everyone assumed they were gone for the day and didn’t believe me when I said how short the line was. After confirming that I wasn’t seeing things, we got right in line and walked through the entire queue. Peter Pan’s Flight is one of my favorite attractions at Walt Disney World. Yes, it’s a very simple ride and since it’s over 40 years old (well, the one in Disneyland), it isn’t the most high tech attraction, but I still love it. Peter Pan is one of my favorite fairy tales; I never want to grow up myself. We decided to skip it’s a small world and head for Mickey’s PhilharMagic, we happened to glance across the walkway and saw that Dumbo was a walk-on. Yes, it was 11:45 in the afternoon and we walked right on Dumbo the Flying Elephant! I have never seen the crowds so light in all my visits to Walt Disney World. When we got off of Dumbo, we walked right into Mickey’s PhilharMagic, waiting only for the next show to begin.

When we left Fantasyland, we walked to the left of the Castle and to Tomorrowland, I tried to get someone to do the Mad Tea Cups with me, but know one would. I needed my sister Jessica, the more it spins; the happier she is! The first stop in Tomorrowland was the Carousel of Progress, I know most people think the Carousel of Progress is lame and boring, but I love it and I have to do it at least once every trip. I’m a big history buff and I find it very interesting to see how people used to live 70 or 100 years ago. I do think the “future” scene is in need of a dire update, since it’s outdated now, but other than that, I think it’s a perfect attraction. After the calmness of Carousel of Progress, we need to get the heart rate up and engage in a little combat on Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. I don’t remember our scores, but I know I did not win, I used to know a way to max out my score, but I can’t find the big point targets anymore. Stephen doesn’t let me forget it either. We were hungry for lunch, but Stephen and I wanted to take a ride on Space Mountain before eating lunch, neither one of us is prone to having a weak stomach, but we didn’t want to take the chance either. Just like every other ride in the park, Space Mountain was a walk-on and we were on and off in less than 15 minutes. It was another great ride and much to Stephen’s dismay, I did keep my hands up the entire time and guess what--I did not crack my wrists on any low hanging I-beams, like he always claims I will.

Stephen and I found Mom and Dad in the store Space Mountains exits into and we decided what to do about lunch. Mom and Dad were going to go to Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe; I was in the mood for Chinese, so Stephen and I walked over to Tomorrowland Terrace Noodle Station only to find it closed. Grrrrr. So back to Cosmic Ray’s we went, getting in line just as Mom and Dad were getting their food. We wanted to eat light for lunch, since dinner was at ‘Ohana tonight, we went to the Chicken counter, Stephen ordered the grilled chicken sandwich and an iced tea and I got the turkey and bacon wrap and a Diet Coke, lunch for us was about $18. Stephen and I found Mom and Dad at a table; Stephen set the tray down and went to the restroom to wash his hands. If you have never eaten at Cosmic Ray’s, then you don’t know how tiny the tables there are, there was no way we had room for 2 trays, 4 sandwiches, 4 drinks, etc. I sat our tray on the chair while we tried to rearrange the table to fit everything on. As I was picking the tray back up, I knocked Stephen’s grilled chicken breast to the floor. After we stopped laughing, I picked up the piece of chicken, wiped it off and put it back on the bun. KIDDING!!!!! I threw the chicken away and went back up to order another grilled chicken sandwich, as I was coming back from the counter, Stephen was walking back to the table. When I told him what happened, he shrugged and said, you could have kept the chicken, I would have eaten it. GROSS! I’m sure he was just joking. After that little mishap, we sat down to enjoy our lunch. It was okay, nothing exciting or great, my turkey wrap was turkey lunchmeat, a piece of bacon, cheese and I think either mayonnaise or ranch dressing. I only about half of it, it was a big wrap and Stephen finished it up for me.

Refueled, we walked back to the Hub to take some pictures of Cinderella Castle and then into Adventureland and Dad’s favorite attraction: The Jungle Cruise. We had an okay skipper on the cruise, he wasn’t as energetic as past skippers, but he certainly wasn’t a complete bore either. I enjoy The Jungle Cruise with it’s corny jokes and rudimentary audio animatronics, I hope this attraction is never taken out, yes there are other far superior attractions technologically speaking, but it’s neat to see where that technology originated from and I think it’s important to remember that. After the Jungle Cruise, we decided to start making our way out of the park, stopping at the Island Supply Company to see if we could find anything fun to wear to ‘Ohana tonight. Stephen didn’t find anything, but I found a really cute skirt, it was a lime green (my favorite color ) tiered crinkle skirt, I thought it would be great for the atmosphere of ‘Ohana, and even more importantly, it had an elastic waste so I could eat to my heart’s content. Stephen also grabbed 4 leis for the 4 of us to wear tonight. I used my Visa rewards card to pay for the skirt and leis and we continued on our way out of the park.

We got back to the resort a little after 4:00; Stephen decided he wanted to work out, so he headed to Muscles and Bustles Health Club after changing. Mom and Dad were going to catch some rays at the pool, but I decided to stay in the room and read, maybe sleep. After a couple of minutes, I got bored, so I headed down to the pool with my book. Once I got down there, I couldn’t find Mom and Dad, figured they changed their mind too, but I decided to stay down there anyway and work on my tan while I read my book. I ended up spending more time people watching than reading in the hour I was down there; it was a very relaxing break in the day. I got back to the room at 5:30, just as Stephen was getting back from his work out. We both got cleaned up and waited for Mom and Dad to come down to our room, they got there a few minutes after 6:00 and we were on our way to our favorite meal in Walt Disney World: ‘Ohana.

We arrived at the Polynesian in a few minutes; valet parked the car and headed into the resort. We purposely got there a little early so we could take some time to enjoy the Polynesian. I love the Polynesian, it is my hands down favorite resort, Stephen and I have stayed here twice and if the budget permitted, we would stay here every trip. We walked around the lobby, taking pictures and checking out the new store, the BouTiki. After a few minutes we made our way upstairs, Stephen checked us in at the podium while Mom, Dad, and I snagged chairs in the Tambu Lounge. Stephen came back with a pager and after a short wait our pager started blinking: let the feasting begin! Stephen and I had been to ‘Ohana since the new menu started in September 2005, ‘Ohana was our favorite restaurant with the old menu and with the new menu; we fell in love even deeper. This was Mom and Dad’s first time with the new menu and I was sure they would love it too and you know what, by the end of the meal, I was right.

We followed our cousin to a wonderful table in the main room, we were right next to the wood floor where all the action place and in the second row by the picture window over looking the Volcano pool and Cinderella Castle. But we aren’t here for the view; we’re here for the food! Our servers started us off with soft drinks, the wonton chips with 3 dipping sauces and the salad with honey lime dressing. I really like the wonton chips especially with the peanut sauce, I could drink a bowl of that stuff it is that good. Dad and Stephen only got a little bit of the salad, (have to save room for meat, you know) but Mom and I ate quite a bit of it, in fact I know we got at least another bowl of salad during the meal. I am a big salad eater and this one did not disappoint, especially the honey lime dressing, it was delicious.

Shortly after the salad and wontons were brought out, the honey-coriander wings and sweet and sour shrimp made their debut. I love the honey-coriander wings; the sauce they are basted in is delicious—a little tangy and a lot sticky. I usually only eat 3 or 4 wings because they are a hassle to eat, but I enjoy every single bite. Mom and I don’t eat shrimp, so that plate was placed between Dad and Stephen and they killed it, in fact they killed both servings our server brought to us. My Dad had so many shrimp peels pilled up around his plate; you could barely see his plate. I think at one point our server came over and cleaned his area up in the middle of his meal so he would have room for more food. In all of my 27 years, I have never seen my Dad eat so much, I guess he liked it! After the wings and shrimp, the meat on skewers started making their way over to us. I love the turkey and pork here, I usually eat 2-3 pieces of each meat, both are fabulous in the peanut sauce. The Hawaiian pork sausage is okay, not my favorite and I usually only eat a bite or 2, I really want to like the sausage, but I just don’t care much for it. Oh well, it’s not like I was starving. That leaves us with the steak. The steak at ‘Ohana is served between medium-rare to medium, I just can’t do that much blood (I was proud of myself when I upgraded from well done to medium well), so I usually eat the edges that are cooked more and give the centers to Stephen, who eats his steak medium. While we were eating the meat, the server brought out the scalloped potatoes and the stir-fry veggies. We all ignored the veggies, since they were mostly celery, but the potatoes were devoured. They are so rich, buttery and cheesy, and so good. I was disappointed when the stir-fried rice was taken away for the potatoes, but the potatoes are so much better than rice, I don’t miss it anymore. Everyone was really enjoying ‘Ohana, Mom and Dad loved the new menu; this was definitely the best meal of our trip. And the best part was still yet to come: the dessert! Once we were finished our servers completely cleaned off the table and brought our clean plates and silver ware and fresh drinks for the preparation of the bread pudding with Banana’s Foster sauce. This is my favorite dessert ever. I love bread pudding and I love Banana’s Foster even more. If I could eat this every day, I would be very, very happy. Our server brought us a huge square of the bread pudding, a bowl of vanilla ice cream, and a small pitcher of the Banana’s Foster sauce. We of course ate it all and didn’t leave a crumb of bread pudding or a smidgen of caramel. It was almost embarrassing how much we ate this meal and we really felt the effects when we stood up. Wow, was I full, but the uncomfortable feeling was completely worth it. Dinner for Stephen and I was $52.00 before the DDE discount and $42 after the discount. We heaved ourselves up from the table and slowly made our way out of the restaurant.

We all made a pit stop to the restrooms before walking out to catch the monorail for the Magic Kingdom. We made it onto Main Street at 8:45, plenty of time to catch Wishes. While we waited, we took pictures, the pictures we took that night were some of the best of the week. Wishes started right on time and it was another great show and I’m sure I shed a tear or two. After the show was over, we made our way up to the Castle to hang out and enjoy the ambience of the Magic Kingdom at closing time. We even started slow dancing (Mom and Dad and Stephen and I—not the 4 of us together) to “A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes”, a memory I will cherish forever. We stayed up by the Castle for probably about 30 minutes before slowly making our way down Main Street. We caught the resort monorail back to the Polynesian to pick our car up and then drove over to Downtown Disney to pick up our newly engraved marathon medals.

Our medals were ready and they were so nice! We had our names, finish time, and placement engraved into the back of the medals. Since no one was really tired, we decided to go shopping at the World of Disney. We were there for probably 30-40 minutes before deciding to pack it up and call it a night. We drove back to the Boardwalk; Stephen dropped us off and went to park the car. I said goodnight to Mom and Dad and headed to our room while they headed down to the Screen Door General Market. Once back in the room, I stepped out on the balcony to enjoy the view, I heard Stephen come in and in his hands were 2 ice cream cones from Seashore Sweets. He got my favorite: cookies and cream in a sugar cone, I was so not hungry, but that ice cream tasted so good. We ate our ice cream on the balcony and spent the time talking about the vacation. When we were finished, we headed to bed, actually setting a wake up call for tomorrow.

 

[Lan]

Only 6 weeks and 5 days until the big dance!!!!!

 

[crashbb]

I've only finished your first day - but wanted to say that I was enjoying the report greatly. I am considering running the marathon in 2008, and I love reading about your experiences.

 

[aladdinsgirl]

Day 7—1/12

The Plan: Animal Kingdom, ADR Rain Forest Café 2:30, break, Magic Kingdom evening.

Reality: We decided to get up fairly early this morning and try to make it the Animal Kingdom right at park opening, or shortly after. It was hard actually setting the alarm for 8:00, but we had been sleeping in every day since Monday, so it wasn’t that bad. Normally Stephen and I drive to the Animal Kingdom, but we decided to take the Disney busses today. We met Mom and Dad a little before 9:00 (okay, so we’re not making park opening) and walked down to the bus stop. It was another warm day today and we were all dressed in shorts and short sleeves. I couldn’t get over how wonderful the weather was on this trip, the first 2 days were chilly, which was perfect for the marathon, but the rest of the week it was in the upper 80’s and no rain at all—it was awesome.

We only had a short wait for the Animal Kingdom bus; we ended up being the only people riding. The bus stopped at the Swan and then the Dolphin where a family consisting of a grandmother, a mother, and a daughter who was about 7-8 years old joined us. Since we were the only 2 families on the bus, we could hear every word of their conversation, it proved to be quite amusing. The mom and grandma had not been to Walt Disney World since the early 80’s, and apparently didn’t do much research before this trip. They didn’t look at the name on the bus, which clearly said “Animal Kingdom” and they thought they were headed to the Magic Kingdom, or as they called it Disney World. Then the mom kept telling the daughter that grandma knew a special way to sneak into Epcot without paying. They talked about this plan all the way to the park. When the bus pulled into the Animal Kingdom, everyone in the bus stood up to walk out. Either the mom or the grandma discovered this was not the Magic Kingdom aka Disney World and started throwing a fit. When the bus driver tried to talk to her, to let her know there are several busses at the resorts every morning that go to all the different parks, she said that his bus said Disney World and started screaming to talk to a manager. As we were walking away from the bus depot, we saw another cast member and the bus driver talking to the party. I sure hope their day got better after that! And I wonder if they snuck into Epcot.

We made our way into the Animal Kingdom and through the Oasis. The plan was to walk over to Kilimanjaro Safari to get fastpasses and maybe do the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail while we were waiting for our fastpass time. We walked back to the safari and were completely shocked to see a wait time of 10 minutes. I knew crowds had been light so far that week, but no one was expecting a walk-on on the park’s largest attraction an hour after park opening. Needless to say we didn’t get a fastpass and just got in line and walked through without stopping. We had an awesome safari experience, the animals were out in full force; we saw tons of giraffe and zebra and we even saw the elusive cheetah and the lions. But the best part of the safari was seeing the baby elephant that was only a couple of months old, it (I don’t know if it was a boy or a girl) was standing underneath its mother and they were both eating. It was so sweet.

After the safari, we made our way over to Camp Minnie-Mickey for today’s first show of the Festival of the Lion King. The Festival of the Lion King is one of my favorite things in Walt Disney World, definitely my favorite attraction in the Animal Kingdom and my favorite show on property. We got to the theatre right when the doors were opening, so we got really good seats, in the Lion section. The only disappointing part was during the “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” section, the female “bird” did not fly, and instead they did a floorshow using ribbons. I’m assuming there was just something wrong with the cable, so it was completely understandable that she didn’t fly, but it’s one of my favorite parts of the show and I would have loved to have seen it. Despite that, the show was fabulous and got two huge thumbs up from the four of us.

After the Festival of the Lion King, we decided to walk around the long way to Dinoland USA; we went through Asia and past the nearly completed Expedition Everest. We missed the annual passholders sneak preview by only a couple of weeks. We explored Asia for a little bit, hoping not to see Devine, I know a lot people are in awe of her, but truthfully, she freaks me out. We finally made it back to Dinoland USA and got in line for Dinosaur. I really like Dinosaur and look forward to riding it every trip. Ever since I was a little kid I have loved and been amazed by dinosaurs, I even toyed with majoring in anthropology in college, history has always fascinated me. Thankfully everyone survived Dinosaur and made it out in one piece. Mom spent some time in the store at the exit looking for something for my 2 nephews who love dinosaurs and “boy” things. Once we were finished, we spent some time exploring the little trails across from Donald’s Breakfastosaurus. If you have dinosaur fans in your family, they are some really neat treasures back there.

We were all getting hungry, so a stop for lunch was in order. Mom and Dad didn’t have a preference for lunch, so Stephen and I gladly chose Flame Tree Barbecue, our favorite counter service place in Walt Disney World. There was a line at Flame Tree, like there usually is, but we got through pretty quickly. Since there is not a table service restaurant at the Animal Kingdom, we were able to use our DDE card, which was nice. Stephen ordered the ½ slab of ribs and I got the smoked pork sandwich, we were planning on sharing both items and we also got a side of onion rings because I just can’t fight the temptation of Flame Tree’s onion rings. Our lunch was about $24.00 before the discount and about $20.00 after the discount. That little card has more than paid for itself over the past year. Dad ordered the ribs as well and Mom got the smoked chicken, since she doesn’t eat pork. Lunch was pretty good, after we sat down, I saw someone with the fruit salad plate, and it looked wonderful. Mom and I were both wishing we had gotten that instead. This was the first time I have ever ordered the smoked pork sandwich, I usually get the ribs, and it will probably be my last time. I love pork, it’s probably my favorite meat, but my pork sandwich was so fatty, by the time I picked all the fat off, there wasn’t much meat left to eat. But don’t worry, I didn’t starve, there were plenty of other things to eat.

With lunch and our 3 must do’s out of the way, we took some time to just stroll around the park without any real purpose. We stopped to watch It’s Tough to Be a Bug, and then spent probably half an hour to 45 minutes exploring the Tree of Life, walking the trails and taking pictures. I have seen the Tree of Life many times, but it never ceases to amaze me and question “how did they do that??” it really is the perfect icon for the park. I stopped to get one of my favorite treats: chocolate covered frozen banana—yum!! Mom and Dad made a face when I got one, that is until they tried a bite and then they got one too. They are delicious, and quite addictive. We enjoyed our desserts while at the base of the Tree of Life and left the park afterwards, around 4:00, I think that is the latest Stephen and I have ever stayed in the Animal Kingdom. We both love the park, but usually end up leaving around 2:00.

We took a bus back to the Board Walk and took a couple hour break in our rooms before heading to the Magic Kingdom for the evening. Stephen spent the break time messing with our laptop, on Tuesday the start button just fell off, we have no idea why or what caused it to fall off. Stephen messed with it enough that he was able to get the computer turned on by inserting a safety pin into the exposed portion of the motherboard and pressing down on the inner start button with the tip of the safety pin. Ah, the joys of being married to an engineer. Once we were able to get the computer back on and burn cd’s of the pictures we had taken (thankfully we brought 3 or 4 blank cd’s with us), Stephen called Gateway to file a warranty claim and made plans to ship the laptop back to them, since it’s less than a year old. Mom and Dad stayed for some of the “surgery” before going back to their room to relax for a little bit.

Mom and Dad came back to our room before 6:00 so we could make it over to the Magic Kingdom. We only had 2 things on our agenda for tonight: Spectro Magic Light Parade and Wishes. We walked down to the bus stop and waited only a few minutes for a bus to the Magic Kingdom. By the time we got to the Magic Kingdom and through the gates, it was close to 7:00, so we decided to just find a place to sit and wait for an hour for the parade. The best place to watch the Spectro Magic Light parade is definitely on Main Street, but the second best place to watch is in Liberty Square, across from the Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe. It’s great to sit in front of the parasol cart, the cart blocks you off from the walk way and you have a little bit more room to stretch out. The only bad part is people see an area that’s inches by inches across and they think they can fit 5 people and a stroller in there, so you have to have a backbone and tell people there is no room for them. Or you can lie and say that more people are coming. The parade was wonderful and even better since we had a little bit of room to stretch out. The characters were great, coming up to us and giving us high fives and waving to us.

Right after the parade, we made our way out to the Hub for Wishes. I was a little sad, as this was our last night in the Magic Kingdom. I know that Stephen and I vacation here quite a bit, but I still get sad the last couple of days because I know the magic will soon be ending. Stephen and I usually start planning our next trip on the flight home. Wishes was wonderful, like always, but I didn’t really expect anything less. We slowly made our way down Main Street, USA taking our time and savoring the evening.

The bus for the Board Walk came after a short wait as we decided what to do about dinner. We hadn’t eaten since our lunch at Flame Tree and we were all more than a little bit hungry. We decided to just eat at the Spoodles pizza window, which proved to be a huge ordeal. Before we ordered our dinner, we went up to our respective villas to change our clothes and grab the laptop. The night was a little chilly, but clear and we wanted to eat outside to enjoy the ambience of the Board Walk one last time. I grabbed 2 tables while Dad and Stephen went to Spoodles to order dinner and Mom went to the corn dog cart to get chicken fingers, as she wasn’t in the mood for Italian. Stephen was planning on getting calzones for us and my Dad was getting an Italian sub, which is what we always get at the Spoodles pizza window. Imagine their surprise when they got up to order and saw that Spoodles had a menu change and only serves pizza—no calzones or sandwiches. Dad and Stephen came back to the table to ask if pizza was fine with me, I didn’t really care one way or the other, so back to the pizza window they went to order a large pepperoni pizza. Stephen orders a pizza, which is on the menu and the CM at the window told him that they only have slices left. Stephen said fine, take the individual slices and make a whole pie out of them. The CM said that they didn’t have enough slices for a whole pizza and just looked Stephen. It was about 9:00, maybe 9:30 when all this was happening and the pizza window is open until at least 11:00. Were they hoping that 5 pieces of pizza would last them a couple of hours? Stephen asked if they could please make us a pizza as we wanted a whole pizza, the CM rolled her eyes and huffed and puffed, but took the order, gave Stephen a pager and told him it would be about 30 minutes before the pizza would be ready. We spent the time waiting for the pizza by talking about our vacation and looking at the pictures we had taken so far. After about 25 minutes our pager started to light up and Stephen went to get our pizza. It was burnt and I think they changed something—either the dough or the sauce because it wasn’t as good as it used to be, but we were so hungry that we just didn’t care.

After we ate dinner, we went up to our villas to pack up our clothes and get ready for bed. I couldn’t believe that our vacation was almost over!!

 

[HMHunters]

Yay! So glad to come back to another installment. My DH doesn't DIS, but I printed out the portion of your trip that described your half marathon and read it to him on our drive to OH. He loved it and now is even more excited to run the half this year, as am I. Then my DD chimes in from the back seat that it was so cool that SHE wants to run the half next year! You've inspired a lot of people; thank you !

I always hate to read about the end of a trip, but I know you've got another one coming very soon! And I'll be there too!!

 

[aladdinsgirl]

HMHunters--You made my day!!! I'm so glad you like the trip report and can get something out of it. Before the half in January, I didn't really know what to expect and that added to some of my anxiety--I don't like going into a situation blind, so I'm really glad my play by play is helping somebody. I'm working on day 8, it takes a lot longer to write a trip report than you would think.

How is your training going? Are you hanging in there with the upper mileage? I have 18 this weekend and I'm scared to death!!

 

[HMHunters]

HMHunters--You made my day!!! I'm so glad you like the trip report and can get something out of it. Before the half in January, I didn't really know what to expect and that added to some of my anxiety--I don't like going into a situation blind, so I'm really glad my play by play is helping somebody. I'm working on day 8, it takes a lot longer to write a trip report than you would think.

How is your training going? Are you hanging in there with the upper mileage? I have 18 this weekend and I'm scared to death!!

I'm glad I brought you some . Good luck with your 18 - holy cow!!! We were in northern Ohio for Thanksgiving where it's nice and flat so it was really easy to run. Now I'm back to hilly NC and it's amazing what a difference that can make. I imagine you've got some hills around Cinci. (I went to Miami U and spent a couple of years living in Blue Ash after that.) I'm glad to see you're not a Bengals fan; Steeler are acceptable, esp with Ben, my fellow alum. Still, I have to stay loyal to my Browns no matter how painful that can be!

Let us know how the 18 goes! I'll use you as my inspiration when I'm out doing my hour and a half this weekend.

 

[Lan]

Please let us know how the 18 goes. I am also glad of your description of the 1/2. Where the amount of water stations plenty?

 

[aladdinsgirl]

Please let us know how the 18 goes. I am also glad of your description of the 1/2. Where the amount of water stations plenty?

There is water and Power Ade every mile on the course. From what I remember, the Power Ade is first on the table, but the volunteers did a great job yelling out where the Power Ade was and where the water was. As far as food goes, there were banana halves around mile 6 and Clif Shots at mile 10. That is not nearly enough food to keep your energy levels up, so you will need to bring more with you to eat along the course.

 

[Lan]

There is water and Power Ade every mile on the course. From what I remember, the Power Ade is first on the table, but the volunteers did a great job yelling out where the Power Ade was and where the water was. As far as food goes, there were banana halves around mile 6 and Clif Shots at mile 10. That is not nearly enough food to keep your energy levels up, so you will need to bring more with you to eat along the course.

Thanks for these tips. If you have any more, please share!!!!!

 

[ultramickeymouse]

Great Report! Such detail reminds me of the races(06Goofy) and gets me ready for 07 Goofy.

Robert

 

[latexscooter]

There is water and Power Ade every mile on the course. From what I remember, the Power Ade is first on the table, but the volunteers did a great job yelling out where the Power Ade was and where the water was. As far as food goes, there were banana halves around mile 6 and Clif Shots at mile 10. That is not nearly enough food to keep your energy levels up, so you will need to bring more with you to eat along the course.

Actually this isn't quite right. According to the Marathon Weekend Race Program there are 22 beverage stations (I think they start at about mile 4 after the two starts converge) that have Water and PowerAde.

There are only 4 food stoops on the course. Oranges and candy at 13.2, CLIF SHOTS at 16, bananas at 19, and candy at 23.

There will also be sponges at mile 16.

This is the info specific to the full marathon itself.

For the half marathon there are 9 beverage stations with water and PowerAde. There are only two food stops; bananas and candy at 6.3 and CLIF SHOTS at 10.1.

Hope this helps.

 

[ultramickeymouse]

If you are a slower 1/2 or full runner/walker(like myself) it is important to bring some gels/bars with you. The gel flavor they gave me made gag. Luckily I had my own. I carry stuff that is "tried and true" from being tested in training. Anything new can cause issues

 

[sramille]

I'm thoroughly enjoying your report. I, too, did my first half marthon at WDW in '06 and this is helping me relive my experience too!

 

[aladdinsgirl]

Sorry!! I have not abandoned the thread! I do most of my writing at work and I have been extremely busy. Hoping to finish up by this weekend.

Lan and HMHunters--I had to cut my 18 miler short last weekend. My IT band started hurting around mile 11 and I finally just called it quits at mile 13. I hurt my IT band last spring while training for the Flying Pig Half, so I knew the importance of not pushing through the pain. Oh well. This weekend is a taper back, so I only have 8 and then next Saturday is the big 2-0!!!

 

[HMHunters]

Lan and HMHunters--I had to cut my 18 miler short last weekend. My IT band started hurting around mile 11 and I finally just called it quits at mile 13. I hurt my IT band last spring while training for the Flying Pig Half, so I knew the importance of not pushing through the pain. Oh well. This weekend is a taper back, so I only have 8 and then next Saturday is the big 2-0!!!

Funny how your perspective changes!! "I only have 8" Do you hear yourself?!? You are definitely a runner!!

Take care of the IT band! You can do this with a little less training, but you can't do it with a serious injury. My biggest fear right now is getting injured, so I'm being very careful. So far so good!

 

[latexscooter]

Lan and HMHunters--I had to cut my 18 miler short last weekend. My IT band started hurting around mile 11 and I finally just called it quits at mile 13. I hurt my IT band last spring while training for the Flying Pig Half, so I knew the importance of not pushing through the pain. Oh well. This weekend is a taper back, so I only have 8 and then next Saturday is the big 2-0!!!

Aladdinsgirl, are you training with one of the charities? I see your training schedule appears to be about the same as mine and I'm running with the Joints in Motion folks.

 

[Lan]

Sorry!! I have not abandoned the thread! I do most of my writing at work and I have been extremely busy. Hoping to finish up by this weekend.

Lan and HMHunters--I had to cut my 18 miler short last weekend. My IT band started hurting around mile 11 and I finally just called it quits at mile 13. I hurt my IT band last spring while training for the Flying Pig Half, so I knew the importance of not pushing through the pain. Oh well. This weekend is a taper back, so I only have 8 and then next Saturday is the big 2-0!!!

Please take care of yourself. We have less than 30 days to go, I think.