Team 'Ohana 2009: No One Left Behind

[Worfiedoodles]

Good Morning, Cousins!

How are we doing today? It's raining buckets, and I had a heck of a time getting up, but I'm looking forward to a nice, quiet morning. We have our family dental appt. early this evening, so hopefully it's not the X-ray one. We go twice a year and get X-rays once, and I can never remember if we just had them or not. I really, really dislike the X-rays, 'cause I have a very small mouth. We are lucky though, my dentist does the cleanings herself, which is rare and awesome. She also teaches at Tufts, and she seems to be quite proficient. I schedule the entire family back-to-back, so I know everyone got their cleaning and we only make one trip.

I didn't make it on the TM this morning. I did 4 mi the last two mornings. I may rest today and do a LSR tomorrow.

Richard -- I am loving Torchwood! I am actually a day behind because I Tivo the current episode. Lots of action and revelations -- Do you find yourself waiting for the Doctor to show up? I guess I shouldn't, but I do. I keep thinking he needs to come and save the day. Also looking forward to the Being Human premiere Saturday, and the Dr. Who premiere Sunday night. It seems like there was nothing for so long, and now it's a banquet of BBC goodies!

Debra -- We feel the pain of your Internet woes. Hopefully we will hear your robust sallies soon!

Corinna -- Your determination and love of running shows! How fantastic that you kept going in the rain!

Jeanne -- Well, at my level you don't get too many Loew's perks, it's pretty much free use of the health club, free paper each morning, and free room upgrades when available. They used to have a welcome gift which was edible, but they dropped that at the lower levels. I think we got the patio/balcony as an upgrade -- but we paid to stay club level. We thought it would be more efficient and less expensive than eating most meals out, and we found that to be true -- even if you were just going to eat breakfast and have a drink or two at the cocktail hour (you can also take a few beers back to your room), you would get your money's worth -- as opposed to buying food and beverages onsite. It's charged per room not per person, so the value depends on the composition of your party.

to Julie, Jen, JenB, JenG, Denny, Robert, Linda, Nancy, Jackie, Mel and all the cousins!

I'll try to continue and finish my non-TR TR this weekend. It seems like there's alway something else I have to do...

Maria

 

[chimera]

Uh oh...jeanne's gone from running naked to a naked hot tub party I don't think WDW will be the same after Ohana gets through this year

Jeanne...love the proposal and ring! Congrats to you and the family!

Debra...have fun at the sprint tri!

Richard...when's your 70.3?

I've decided my TM bites. I decided to run at the Y today since I was dropping off DD6 at camp. Their TMs are soooo much smoother and easier to run on. I did a full 3 miles, no walking except for the 5 min warmup! Never run 3 miles on the TM before! And I can run and walk about 0.5 mph faster than the TM at home. It's a whole lot more convenient to run at home, but really disheartening when it's such a struggle.

We're officially on vacation now. Off to WDW. We have FL resident water park annual passes so we can go every day but not til after 2pm. Should be cool! I'm really looking forward to doing the OKW to SSR run while there!

 

[tiberius]

Richard...when's your 70.3?

October 25th

 

[plutosmyfav]

There will be no skinny dipping for me. I'm just not that cruel to my fellow human beans.

 

[tiberius]

Aside from all the public nudity discussions on Ohana lately....

I broke down and paid my entry fee for the Longhorn Half Ironman 70.3 in Austin on October 25th. I will be doing this with some friends among whom I am the least experienced triathlete, but I don't mind pulling up at the rear of the group. Then again the view from the back isn't always a bad one...

I'm also strongly considering purchasing my WDW tickets for the marathon trip ASAP before any possible August ticket price increase. It's been a few years, but I am sure that the last time I went I don't remember the price to make the MYW tickets non-expiring as being that expensive. (Nearly $200 for the non-expiration option for a 10 day ticket--ouch, I can nearly by a new ticket for that price.) We will be there 9 or 10 days, but I think just buying a 10 day parkhopper is the way to go, even if we don't use a couple of days.
I still haven't purchased airfare, but plan to do that by the end of August so that I don't have to worry about it after that point. We are still working on our exact travel schedule.

 

[chimera]

Richard, would an annual pass be less expensive than a 10 day ticket? I think they go for about $450.

Speaking of...we got our renewals on this trip and it's always fun to see which character you get on your pass. Oddly enough, I got Goofy this time.

I've done the OKW to SSR 3 miler twice this week. DH went with me this morning so we crashed Treehouse Villas on the way back. Look nice, but I think the theming is more appropriate to OKW or Fort Wilderness than SSR. SSR allows them to charge more points though, I guess.

 

[tiberius]

Richard, would an annual pass be less expensive than a 10 day ticket?

Mel - Looking at Disney's website, the annual pass is $469, and the 10 day MYW ticket is $287 (with park hopper option) and is also $487 with park hopper and no expiration options). My trip will be for 10 days, but not all members of the family will stay for more than 7 or 8 days.
I had thought that if some of the tickets had a few days left it might be worth adding the non-expiration option, but not at that price difference to me! If we knew a future trip was coming in the next year, the annual pass woud be the way to go, but I don't know that would happen this year. I think I am just going to buy the 10 day park hoppers (which are only $9 more than 7 day park hoppers) just to give all the family the greatest flexibility, and then worry about adding the non-expire option when we are ready to leave if there are enough days on the ticket to be worthwhile to us.

 

[Worfiedoodles]

Aloha, Cousins!

No workout other than WiiFit today, I ran 4.5 miles the last 3 days and my body needs a break. That's an increase for me, I was doing 4 for my everyday workouts.

I'm not attending any naked parties -- I can't bear the screaming in horror at my entrance!

On the family front, my BIL and SIL (Dennis's stepbrother) have decided to come to WDW and do the Family 5K! It is turning into a party! Now we'll have both them and my SIL & BIL (Dennis's sister) to entertain. No one wants to go in any Parks, so I'm not exactly sure how this will work. I think we'll be getting plenty of time at DTD.

Has anyone done or cheered the 5K? We'd like to go cheer them on, I'm just not sure how it's set up?

Ok, back to the ton of work I have waiting. My boss's boss announced I would have a draft of a proposal by next week, so I'd better get busy!

Maria

 

[corinnak]

Aloha cousins!
I have two rules about skinny dipping:

1. Private property only - if we rented an Ohana vacation home, fine - I'm not interested in getting arrested or thrown out of Disney property for indecent exposure!!

2. I only take of my bathing suit AFTER I get in the water.

Now, my story of the day:

I was a Latin major in college and today, my run was interrupted. I was supposed to be doing a slow 9 miles but around mile 2, when things were just starting to loosen up and I was getting into my groove, my phone rang.

It turns out my 6 year old son had gotten a splinter under his fingernail in camp, about a mile and a half away. Someone actually came and picked me up because he didn't want anyone but me to help him with his splinter. Poor guy. Well, that was it for THAT run. Too bad.

I had a good 10K on Saturday. My mother was along with me and was my official photographer.

When we arrived it was cold and looked like it might even drizzle a bit, so I opted for the shirt with sleeves and left my WISH singlet in the car.

It seemed like the right choice, but 15 minutes before the race was set to start, I decided that NO, that was the WRONG shirt and I needed to change. I jogged back to the car which was parked on the other side of the drawbridge, which was thankfully down again before I ran over it:

So I changed, nearly forgot my number in the car but then remembered and went back for it and arrived at the inflatable start arch with time to spare.

I could not believe how quickly the temperature had changed. There were lots of people at the start because the 5K and 10K were starting at the same time and were the same course for a the first 3 miles. Unfortunately, I was in the back and ended up behind some slow-to-start people, a couple of kids....a dog. Unfortunately, the did not have chip mats at the start, only the finish, so my chip time and my own clock time (as I went under the start) are off by about 30 seconds.

My mom situated herself down by the canal and got some fun pictures of me with the lighthouse in the back:

Shortly after this, the 5K group turned right and the 10K group turned left. Someone in front of me changed their mind about which way they were going after they'd turned toward the 10K route! So it's all a bit of a blur, but there was an out and back section between miles 4 and 5 and I counted 5 people behind me. Talk about a fast field - I was pushing the envelope the whole time and was 6th from DLF??? Around mile 5.5, I passed a couple of guys running in pants and ties. Mormon missionaries, actually. They passed me back, though, in the last 100 yards.

My mom also got a photo of me near the finish:

I finished in just 1:04:56, faster than I would have suspected I could manage! When I checked the official results, there are only 3 people who finished after me. Not sure if two people didn't finish or if they were 5Kers who were walking home after the race! The last person across the finish line had a pace of 11:35. Talk about playing with the "big kids." This was it, for sure.

I also just registered to volunteer at the WDW Full.

 

[jeanneg]

Wow, what a pretty race course......where was it? Awesome photos....thanks for sharing!

 

[Worfiedoodles]

Corinna -- You look fabulous! And Mom takes great photos! You always look so happy while you run. It looks like a great time, even if the field was quite fast!

Maria

 

[corinnak]

Charlevoix, Michigan. I wish I had run with a camera - there were so many lovely parts of that course including theprivate association we got to run through and the lakefront on both ends of the course , but really, I was struggling to keep up as it was!

 

[corinnak]

Maria - here is the fact: I always muster up a smile for the camera, no matter how I'm feeling, cause otherwise, I look like an exhausted fish in the photos. There was one time they took the photo before I got my smile on and oh man -

 

[Jen117]

Hey all... pregnant lady here. I actually am not gaining much weight this time around, so I am happy about that. Oh... until I got to WDW in 2 weeks, then I know I will gain!!! On Tuesday I had my weekly workout with my friend. Now I know she is a friend and all... but she said I look good so I am running with it.

Corinna... I posted this on your Facebook, but have to say it again. YOU LOOK GREAT. Has the back healed? It looks like you are a running machine lately!!!

Now if I WAS coming to marathon weekend, I would definitely be in for ice Cream... but skinny dipping... well that's between me and the private hot tub we have at home. But if Jeanne did it FIRST...

 

[corinnak]

Jen - That is TOO sweet of you to say. And to remember my back as well - it is doing OK these days. My secret is the Gaiam resistance band workout - I think of it as "therapy."

I gained so much with my first son, I was much more careful not to eat too much when PG with my second. So much more comfortable, but sometimes it just is what it is. It's great that you're still getting your workouts in!

 

[jeanneg]

Hello all....just popping in to let you know that I will be out of town this weekend and will tally and post my July activity next week.

And we have a date for the wedding.....May 30th, 2010 right here in NC!

 

[MouseDogMom]

Jeanne - Hooray! The date is set. Now you have plenty of time to come to Indianapolis earlier in May and run the half with the WISH team!

Corinna - You really do look fabulous. And the course looks like a lot of fun. But man, they're too fast for me!

Jen - Congratulations on keeping the weight under control so far. And remember, you'll walk enough in WDW to burn at least some of the calories...

Things are not happy in my world. My computer absolutely will not connect to the Internet. Email comes in, but that's all. I'm borrowing DD's for an hour now just to catch up. Work is hell. There's no other way to put it. It looks like I get to do 2 jobs for another couple of months, and all I'll get for it is maybe a "thanks" when it's all over. I put in an extra 10 hours or so this past week and am still hopelessly behind.

Got home last night to find the power had been out for 5 hours - took them another 3 to get it back on. Went to bed at 10:15, woke up at 11:00 when the power went back off. On the phone with the power company who's telling me there are no outages in our area while I walk outside and down the street to talk to the crew who's working on it. The cable company hit the lines while they were repairing theirs (a huge tree fell during a storm yesterday down the street) and knocked the power back off to 3 or 4 houses - we were one of the lucky ones! So back inside to set backup alarms so I could get up for the run this morning. Just as I get comfy in the bed, the power company calls to confirm that the power is still out, as the lights come back on. I think I got about 4 hours of sleep, in spurts, before the alarm went off at 5:20 so I could meet the group for a 14 miler. Safe to say it was tough!

Jackie

 

[deekaypee]

Has it been almost two weeks since I posted? Well, it looks like the unstable, slow internet at home is going to be a fact of life for me, at least for a while. So I'll try to deal with it by going out to more coffee shops with free wifi. Yeah, that will save us money.

In the meantime, it's a new month and training for the fall races and Disney race weekend is beginning for some of us (Goofy) folk, so I expect more posting from all of us.

Jeanne: I just love the pictures of the proposal and the engagement ring. The idea of the bride's family paying for the big, fat Greek weddiing...not so much! Some traditions should be updated, and a May wedding in NC sounds absolutely beautiful. As for skinny dipping parties, that's also a tradition of sorts, right? Now, how should we update it to minimize the trauma..... (Or maybe that's not the goal. ) Edgar Sawtelle reminded me of a nugget of wisdom I learned during my MFA: first novels will include everything in them (the kitchen sink school of writing), and really need the firm hand of a strong editor.

Mel: How have your B2B runs and your stretch and strengthen program been progressing. I think starting as early as you have will help you tremendously. I know that our gym's TMs vary from machine to machine, let alone model to model. Is it possible to adjust your schedule to run at the gym more frequently! Also, yay for your vacation and trip to Disney. I'm jealous and happy for you at the same time. P.S. Of course your pass says Goofy. This is YOUR race!

Jen: Just wanted to let you know how impressed I have that you're continuing to be active during your pregnancy. Pictures of you all aglow are pending, right?

Corinna: I didn't realize you were doing a run in MI for your 5K. My, you've been traveling and racing a lot this summer season. (Thinking Groton, among the many others.) And congrats on your speediness, too! Oh, and I don't eat many donuts on an average day--although sometimes I get a craving for one--and can't imagine them post-race. (My iron stomach and constitution has weakened with age. ) And you've been racking up the impromptu races, too. I'm impressed. Oh, just saw your race pics. Girl, you are looking hot, hot, hot! And not just because of your smoking time, either. (And your mom's a great photographer.)

JenB: I know this is now old news, but don't you just love it when you have a good run that reminds you of all that you love about the sport?! Good luck with the DL 1/2! And how was the b-day party?

Richard: I'm so happy that your switch to a local school pool has been such a pleasure for you--and is contributing to some smoking times for your upcoming IM. Yay for signing up for the Longhorn officially and for getting your Disney tix for January. You're far ahead of us.

Jackie: I'm so sorry that work has been so stressful for you. And it sounds like there's no end in sight, either. We appreciate you, you know! Unfortunately, we don't sign your paychecks (would if I could, but they would bounce). I deeply empathize with the internet problems, as well. On the running front I'm so impressed at your training schedule. You did a rough 14 miles, but you did them! Woo hoo! You're gonna rock Richmond, not to mention the Goofy! And send my congratulations to Bill, too! I really had no doubts that he'd stick to a training schedule. Just needed the right incentive.

Maria: How was jury duty? Loved the non-TR TR. It came across my email so I was able to read it, though not respond. Seems strange to me that you needed to ask for bottled water but soda was easily available? How is your beloved TM time? I totally understand about August time-crunch commitments--especially with family visits. That's our August, as well.

Oh, what fun that you have family coming along with you on race weekend. DOOD and I are doing the 5K in addition to the Goofy, so the more the merrier. Isn't it a new course this year--Epcot? I think I read that someplace.

Sunny: Oh, but if we're all naked in the hot tub, we'll all be too self-conscious to notice each other. Right? Right? Of course, beer and bourbon goggles would help.

As for me: Well, there's lots I could tell you all, lots to fill in. But most of it's boring or too long to spend a lot of time with. Here are the highlights:
1) Just finished my first B2B run for the Goofy and my first weekend of training. It wasn't fun but there is a sense of accomplishment.
2) My parents, with whom my relationship can at best be described as tentative (as many of you know), are visiting us en route to seeing my brother, SIL and the new baby. They'll be here sometime tomorrow. I don't know where they're staying, for how long exactly, or what they want to do; it's all very much up in the air (or spontaneous, as they like to call their travels).
3) Our car quit on Thursday, so we ended up walking back from our gym after our WOs (including a 4 mile run for me & weight training). We've rented a car to make things easier while my parents visit (we wouldn't do so normally because we live local lives during the summer). Depending on what the mechanics say, we might need a new car; we think it's the end of the line for it. If so, our plans for Disney will have to change and might need to be cancelled.

And that's been my last couple of weeks.

 

[runprincess_run]

I'm so happy to finally be adopted! I have a family!! And I'm really slow so the motto of not getting left behind means a heck of a lot to me right now.

Real-Life Name: Linda
Location: Arkansas
Family/Household: Hubby, 2 boys (10-11)
Age: 35-ish
Day Job: woefully unemployed

Describe your running/walking/biking/swimming/XT background:Short version: walked a 1/2 marathon in 2003 got injured just now starting to try again
What accomplishments are you most proud of in 2008? (WISH related or otherwise) um...I was supposed to accomplish something? Oh, wait, I've got something! Writing a completed novel in 30 days
What are your WISH goals for 2009? Train consisently and not give up
Planned events for 2009/2010? (Event, place, date, distance) October 25, 2009: Mud Run, Little Rock, AR
(dreaming of the 2010 Princess 1/2 saving for the funds)

What do you do for fun (besides DIS)? read, write
Favorite DIS-friendly curse word. (With apologies to James Lipton.) Fudge, I suppose. I don't curse. Really. Even when I burn myself.
In the soundtrack of your life, your theme song would be…. It changes daily. Today? Lucky by Bif Naked
Interesting fact or anecdote about yourself. Blackmail-able stories are welcomed! Um.... I write fiction so be careful or you might find yourself a character in my book? My last novel was a semi-finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award competition. I'm not sure if that's interesting but it's the only thing coming to mind right now

 

[tiberius]

Linda - Welcome to Team Ohana!

Mel - It looks good, but I don't know if I have enough time for another web site.

Debra - I hope your parent's visit works out well, and also that you get into a better internet situation--I have lived at the mercy of free wifi supplies before, too, so I know how it feels. Most of all I hope your car situation does not cause you to miss out on Disney this January, but I am sure we all understand that life has certain priorities that have to be taken care of first.

Corinna - Good work on the running, love the photos! You were a one-time Latin major in college--wow that's unusual. Here's a little Julius Caesar for you to bring back memories. Gallia est omnes divisa in partes tres. OK, so my knowlede of Latin is reather limited...

Jen - Continued good luck with the pregnancy!