Team 'Ohana--No One Left Behind: The Continuing Adventures

[FFigawi]

No start problems whatsoever. We got on our bus at 420, were at the drop-off area shortly thereafter, and had plenty of time to kill once we dropped off our bag. I think I sat on the curb in my corral for at least 20-25 minutes waiting for things to get going. It was nice to run a big race with so few people relative to the last few I've done, as strange as it sounds to say 14,000 people isn't very many.

The race itself was really nice too. We got to spend plenty of time going through the parks, which is one of the big draws of a Disney event. Lots of characters and cast members out cheering for everyone and keeping us all entertained. Unlike Goofy, I actually stopped several times along the way to take pictures with the characters. The only one I wanted but didn't get was the one with the Star Wars stormtroopers. The line was 15-20 people long, which was longer than I wanted to stop for. My only real complaint is about the dullness of the street running out to the baseball stadium and then back. Not a whole lot to see and not as much crowd support either.

Here's one of my funny moments from the race. As you can see from the pic, I was racing in costume. About the 11 mile mark, as we were running through the tunnel under the highway, I saw a guy dressed as Elvis a little bit in front of me. I said to myself that there was no way I was getting beat by a guy dressed like Elvis. I thought I said it to myself until the guy next to me said "there's no way I'm getting beat by you!"

 

[Rose&Mike]

John--love the picture! Sounds like you had a great time! How did you keep the tiara on? I had trouble enough with me headband.

 

[FFigawi]

It was pretty tight and just stuck really well to the hair in the wig. I hardly even noticed it was there. I was too busy trying to keep the hair from sticking to my face as it got sweaty. I was telling a random woman at the finish line about it and said now I know what women feel like when they run. She said that wasn't quite true and that I needed to wear a bra filled with weights to make the whole experience realistic.

 

[Rose&Mike]

It was pretty tight and just stuck really well to the hair in the wig. I hardly even noticed it was there. I was too busy trying to keep the hair from sticking to my face as it got sweaty. I was telling a random woman at the finish line about it and said now I know what women feel like when they run. She said that wasn't quite true and that I needed to wear a bra filled with weights to make the whole experience realistic.

That is so true!!!

 

[jbucci]

John: nice to meet you in person this weekend-- you looked fabulous

We had a great time at Disneyland, just what the doctor ordered to get me out of my funky mood. We had a nice family vacation week with tons of park time and side trips to Legoland and Seaworld. Corinna was an awesome cousin and ran with me for the half. We stopped for tons of pictures and had lots of fun even if we weren't running quite so fast. The race was really nice-- the only flaws were they ran out of medals for the 5K folks and had some corral issues with the DEF people all seeming to mush into C but otherwise the race went really smoothly. Crowd support was awesome (dare I say better than in WDW?) One WISHer even had a group of friends from his work set up a huge cheering station decked out in lime green and handing out Twizzlers and pretzels-- it was amazing. The weather was perfect with a nice, hazy morning keeping the sun from poking out until almost everyone was finished running. Prior to this race I vowed this was our last DL trip for a while, now I'm not so sure...

 

[tiberius]

Congrats to all the cousins at DL, you sure made me wish I was out there as well! I spent Sunday evening reading through DIS, blog and Facebook posts as I prepared for my Monday morning tri. John, that photo is definitely a keeper!

I have completed my (rather long) race report, with photos. Instead of putting it all here and taking up lots of space, you can find it at my blog by clicking here. While I can't say it was the highlight of my weekend, it was a nice bonus to meet 4 time Olympian Sheila Taormina [swimming, triathlon (twice) AND pentathlon] with a swimming gold medal and get a photo with her while I wore her medal!

 

[corinnak]

Hi Cousins! I'm back as well - and full swing into the school routine again today! I feel amazingly good, though: refreshed and ready to be HOME for a while. Also, the weather here is pleasantly cool, windy and from time to time, rainy.

I agree with everything that has been said so far about the Disneyland Half Marathon experience...except I would make one small change to this phrase:

J We stopped for tons of pictures and had lots of fun even if we weren't running quite so fast.

I believe we had lots of fun because we weren't running quite so fast.

Seriously, this was 100% more enjoyable than the last half marathon that I ran, and I think that is partially due to cloud cover, partially due to running with a very fun cousin and partially due to really making a conscious effort not to care much about whatever our time turned out to be. It's a totally different experience, and I walked away from it feeling energized rather than ill. Refreshing, I tell you. I had a PR....in FUN.

I definitely agree on the WISH bonus refreshments station - I got a little choked up by the magnitude of the gesture at that point in the race. Even though I was feeling good, man, those pretzels really hit the spot.

I've got a couple of photos as well:

Jen and I HAD to stop for this one, for obvious reasons!

This one too - they aren't exactly wearing lime, but the Green is there!

And then our little Ohana family reunion photo at the finish. Butch gave us some crazy "motivation" and....I'm apparently the only one who was taking the direction cause I'm the only one looking, well, crazy. Also, note my race number: 29.95!!!

In other news here: we had had a cat go missing last week. He has a microchip and this afternoon, I got a call from the animal control officer in my town. She had found a cat matching his description a few blocks away, but he wasn't very happy with anyone. I said "That sounds just like Nova." DH went to check him out and it is either our cat or his identical cousin. So, that's a relief. Though now we have to live with His Grumpiness again. Our other cat Luna will be happy to see him, at least!

John - I was going to ask how you could stand running with all that hair in your face - I can barely tolerate my own, I know. You must be a lot more tolerant than I am. I am convinced that you NEED to do the Princess Half at some point. You'd be the belle of the ball, for sure.

Rose - Nice work on your Half Marathon!

Richard - So glad your Tri went well! We wished you could have been with us in Cali as well, of course.

Mel - I was reading the Hunger Games over the weekend. That is, I finished the first book on Sunday and had to walk to the far side of Downtown Disney to buy the second book in the series. Fastest 4 hour flight I was ever, ever on, I tell you. Those are some page-turner books. I just got Mockingjay today. I don't know if I would want my 11 year old to read these books - he's really quite sensitive and some parts of Hunger Games had me weeping!

Did I say it before? It's GOOD to be home.

 

[FFigawi]

John - I was going to ask how you could stand running with all that hair in your face - I can barely tolerate my own, I know. You must be a lot more tolerant than I am. I am convinced that you NEED to do the Princess Half at some point. You'd be the belle of the ball, for sure.

I'd LOVE to do the Princess Half. Maybe I can even get you and Jen to dress up with me. I'll have to see if I can talk my wife into it next year. Since we have a house outside Orlando, I don't imagine that'll be too hard.

My long weekend race report can be found here. Like Richard, I don't want to take up all the space here.

 

[Worfiedoodles]

Awesometastic photos! I love them all!

It looks like a grand time was had by all, I'm so glad everyone had a blast!

I'm catching my breath between my vacation and my conference. I'm working tomorrow and Friday, and then flying to Denver Monday for a week. This is a pure work conference and while an interesting and needed topic, it promises to be somewhat dry with an abundance of pedantic presentations. Let's just say I won't be sad to fly home Friday.

I feel like then, I can finally get back to normal. I did run 4M Monday, but other than that...tomorrow and Friday don't look good, so I'm just going to hope for a nice long run Saturday.

Today was the first day of school for ds, and it wasn't pretty. He did fine, but...yeah, I don't have time to type all the things that didn't go as planned. Let's just say I have high hopes for a better tomorrow!

Maria

 

[corinnak]

John - House near Orlando? Sounds like the perfect set-up to me!! I keep thinking I have got to lay off the Disney races, but something (I'm not sure what!!!) keeps drawing me back in.

Maria - I'm so sorry DS's first day of school did not go more smoothly. He'll get the hang of it soon, I'm sure. Better to learn these things at the start of the year when everyone is getting oriented, I figure. We have had situation after situation this week of forgotten and misplaced items. Hopefully tomorrow will be better for your DS.

If you are interested in seeing the whole bunch of photos, I posted them all here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=217601&id=614837720&l=e79ff236d4

Enjoy your few days between trips - they always go too fast!

 

[FFigawi]

"Awesometastic" - I love this! What a great new word!

 

[deekaypee]

Not dead and gone, just behind schedule.

More tomorrow, but some shout-outs...

To Corinna, JenB, Butch, John, and Richard – AWESOMETASTIC jog on your events! I was rooting for all of you! Especially the cute chick with the blue hair.

And

Happy, Happy Birthday to Jackie!


(I'm off to a "party" myself – read networking event – and will try to catch up tomorrow.)

 

[FFigawi]

Happy birthday Jackie!!!

 

[princessbride6205]

Congrats on everyone's recent races! I'll be off to FB to check out more photos.

Happy Birthday, Jackie!

I'll be back for more soon, just wanted to pop in tonight before bed.

 

[Worfiedoodles]

Happy Birthday, Jackie!

Maria

 

[jbucci]

John: you have me tempted to do Princess again if only to see your princess attire. I might be talked into a tiara but not too much else.

Happy belated birthday Jackie

I am finally readjusted to east coast time. Despite saying this would be my last DL race I am tempted to go back again because we had so much fun. Next up is Philly RnR half on the 19th then Wine and Dine. Trying to decide what to do on our "adult" Disney weekend. We are debating doing the huge backstage magic tour on Fri, opinions?

 

[tiberius]

Happy new football season, Team!

My plans for W&D are firming up. The bad news is that Darcy will not be joining me (she won't admit it but I think she doesn't quite trust her siuster to help check on her father for several days--btw he is still making continued improvements and is asserting his independence where he can at work and his own care). The good news is that the quirks of airfare pricing have made the lower airfare of flying out Monday instead of Sunday about an even offset for adding an extra day at the resort, therefore I now plan to leave Monday instead of Sunday. I would like to do MSSSHP one day (and had planned to do it Friday, though have not bought tickets and am not even sure they are still available).

That is all the planning I have done thus far, so I am open to suggestions after that on the planning front.

 

[corinnak]

A very belated to Jackie!!!

Jen - don't you want to be a Warrior Princess in 2011???? I also went into this DL saying "Not sure I'll do this again" but I had so much fun, I know I'd love to go again next year. There is something about Disneyland....

Ooh - Adult weekend at WDW! I always love Jellyrolls, of course. Now that Pleasure Island is a mall, what else is there, really? Not to mention going around World Showcase and seeing a bunch of shows in the evening. That's something my kids don't go in for so much. I do think it would be cool to do one of those tours - I never have, so I can't give much of an opinion. DH always wants to do the Segway tour in Epcot.

Richard - That's really nice that the airfare worked out to give you and extra day in FL! MNSSHP is lots of fun - I think the Friday nights tend to be the most packed, if that makes a difference to what you choose to do. My family had a great time the one year we got to go to a MNSSHP - the parade is my favorite of all time, I think. Also, Happy New Football Season to you too.

Maria- safe travels this week! I hope the conference goes smoothly and the food is not too difficult.

 

[chimera]

Did we ever decide on any Ohana get togethers for W&D? How 'bout marathon weekend?

 

[tiberius]

Did we ever decide on any Ohana get togethers for W&D? How 'bout marathon weekend?

I don't remember a plan for W&D, but I'd love to meet up.

Corinna - Thanks for the party input, with a Monday flight out Sunday night becomes a possibility...if I don't mind burning a full park day on a partial day Friday. Maybe I'll do both!