Running Renaissance: One Skip Ahead of my Doom

[col1]

That’s cool I hope they have the medals for your visit

 

[GollyGadget]

Summer of Strength + 5K
Weeks 7-11

I somehow failed to simultaneously have both the energy & time to update this for over a month. Whoops. The important thing is that I more or less did stay consistent with my running. Strength training was another story, but I did learn what works and what doesn't which will be important as I head into half marathon training. Several weeks ago, I decided against signing up for a race to cap off this training plan. None of them were really calling to me and I instead used the money to sign up for the local turkey trot.

For completeness sake, below is a quick summary of what I did the last 5 weeks.

Week 7: 12.7 miles + 36 min strength
Photo of the week: Iowa State Fair Butter Sculpture


Week 8: 17.4 miles + 24 min strength
Photo of the week: Selfie with pigtails because my new haircut demands them


Week 9: 14.8 miles + 52 min strength
Photo of the week: Hattie drafting my fantasy football team


Week 10: 22 miles
Photo of the week: My very first Budweiser ever.


Week 11: 13.2 miles
Photo of the week: Boarding the Disney Magic. More about that trip soon (hopefully).



Happy running y'all!

 

[GollyGadget]

Disney Summerween Recap - Day 1
Several months ago, my SIL asked if I'd go on a Disney cruise with her. She's a Disney TA and wanted to know what it was like. I don't need to be asked twice to go on vacation. I don't remember how, but we decided on a September cruise on the Magic.

We took a 5AM flight and arrived to MCO very early. I never sleep well before vacation and this allowed us to maximize our vacation time. We were on WDW property by 9AM and our first stop was the front desk but it was no surprise that our room wasn't ready. After a quick change in the pool locker room and dropping our bags off, we made our way to Typhoon Lagoon to take advantage of our free admission.



We basically went around the park counter clockwise and rode every slide that was open. Nothing had a line. It was a Monday in September so I'm sure that had a lot to do with the lack of crowds. After the slides, we had a lunch break and then spent some time in the lazy river. The lazy river is massive and we didn't even make it halfway before we decided to go relax on our lounge chairs. The timing was fortuitous because all attractions were evacuated due to lightning in the area not long afterward. Since we had already done all the rides, we decided to go back to the hotel instead of waiting out the storm.

We bummed around the resort before taking a bus to MK. The evening plan was exploring the MK resorts before checking out the Chip n Dale Campfire Singalong. Mostly my SIL checked out all the pin trading boards. I can't remember if she made any trades or not but it gave us a fun little mission. The campfire was adorable and I'm glad we went. It was a fun little free diversion for our first night.



Usually I like to spend my free evening on the beach at the poly watching the fireworks and electric water pageant. It was nice to do something different, plus the ewp was mysteriously cancelled last January when I went and I didn't want to live that disappointment again. I debated sticking around the campground for the electric water pageant, but especially after the early morning, I was ready for bed. We quickly found our way onto a boat to the MK. Our boat stopped just before the water bridge for quite a while. At first, I assumed there was another boat crossing the bridge and we had to wait our turn. That was sort of true, but it wasn't just any boat. It was the water pageant . They weren't playing they music but I still got a private viewing of all the floats.



Perfect ending to my first night of vacation.

 

[GollyGadget]

Disney Summerween Recap - Day 2
Day two started with a sunrise run around hourglass lake. I still remember it being extremely humid and wondered how Floridians survive these awful conditions. After my run, we hopped on the skyliner to do some exploring around CBR & Riviera. I ate second breakfast at CBR and my SIL did some more pin trading.

After an hour or so, we headed back to pop because I needed to meet my grocery (I.e. wine) delivery. I tried to schedule it for first thing in the morning, but it didn't end up arriving until 10:30. Luckily, we didn't have any big plans anyhow. While waiting for my delivery, the character caravan showed up and I showed off a photo of my costume to Daisy. She was very impressed.



My supplies arrived quickly thereafter and we dropped them in the room before hitching another ride on the skyliner. We did some more resort exploring & pin trading around crescent lake. After a not so quick lunch at Riviera, we headed back to our room to rest before MNSSHP. I think I may have even taken a nap by the pool?

Around 3 we decided we had nothing better to do and headed for MK. We arrived quickly and I sat on the ground in the holding corral waiting for entry. This was also when I first realized how much attention our costumes were going to get. We received lots of compliments, kids waving, and even some finger pointing. It's probably as close as I'll ever get to feeling like a celebrity and it was very odd. I could tell people were gawking and talking about us from a distance. Under the circumstances, it didn't bother me but I'm glad I'm not actually famous.

Neither of us really cared about meeting Jack & Sally so we skipped that line and headed straight to Space Mountain since it was a walk on. Afterwards, I wanted to meet the famous Ducks to get a photo in our costumes. I knew the party character lines could get quite long and there was no dedicated Donald meet so the circus was our best option.

We caused an absolute scene. The characters and attendants loved our outfits. At one point, Donald started jumping up and down trying to get Daisy's attention from across the tent. It's been a long time since I laughed so much. My favorite photo was with Goofy trying to pretend that he also had tail feathers. Pro tip: always include the tail in your costume





Of course we also met Daisy who told us we had a very bright future. Minnie and I made plans to have a sewing party since we had both made our own outfits .





I really don't remember what happened next. The character meets were definitely the highlight of the night. We rode most of the rides we wanted, did some trick or treating, enjoyed the fireworks & the parade. The first parade was cancelled due to rain/storms and the Hocus pocus spelltacular was shortened but we still enjoyed it. The most important lesson was to stay flexible in our plans since the weather was unpredictable. I had an absolute blast despite the weather.