The Running Thread - 2019

[KevM]

ATTQOTD: I’ve always been a Disney fan. A re-release of Bambi is the first movie I can remember seeing in the theater (looking it up it was July ‘88, so I would have been 6). My grandfather traveled to Japan a lot for his job, so he always had a lot of frequent flyer miles, which were used to go to Disney about every other year when I was young.

 

[Barca33Runner]

Fun Friday QOTD:

This was really fun to think about and I can’t exactly place my finger on the hows and whys I’ve become such a Disney fan.

The first movie I saw in a theater was Oliver and Company. I don’t know that I had a profound impact on me at the time, but I still remember it fondly and am probably one of the few kids in exactly the right age range to recall Oliver and Company as somewhat “my” Disney movie.

Growing up we lived in a rural area that couldn’t receive cable TV. Going to my grandparents house and watching Disney Channel seemed like a huge treat. I can’t express how much I wished we had Disney Channel and Nickelodeon when we got home and no longer had them. Fortunately, I had Ducktales every morning and Disney Afternoon when I got home from school. Perhaps the only show I watched more than those programs was Saved By The Bell (basically because it is the greatest television program of all-time, by a wide margin, this is indisputable). So, I guess the indoctrination was fairly obvious if I was really paying attention.

We weren’t wealthy by any means, but my parents did well by my brother, sister, and I. Disney World was pretty much THE vacation when we were little and we were able to go twice when I was a kid. I remember loving some of it, being a completely ungrateful brat for other parts of it, and generally thinking it was pretty cool. After our trip in 1995, however, we grew into the too-cool-for-school, Disney’s for babies, etc. stage and I never really gave it a second thought.

During the intervening years I maintained a love for Disney movies, even if I didn’t register that’s what it was. I’m a sucker for animated movies, happy endings, and saccharine sweetness.

Anyway, Summer 2011 my sister decides she wants to run the WDW Half Marathon the coming January. I never knew anything like that existed but, more than anything, I can’t believe how fast I was all-in for the trip and anything that needed to be done to get there (in this case traversing 13.1 miles). I was 29, about 265 lbs., and can’t tell you the last time I’d walked/run a distance of any measure; but I wasn’t going to miss my 3 year old nephews first trip to Disney.

Well, I got hooked. Hooked on WDW, hooked on runDisney, and even hooked on the Disney brand at large. I guess I have that sort of personality. Since then I’ve been back at least once every year. I’ve been an AP and currently have an AP (although I’m almost certain to let it expire). Ive run at least one race every Marathon Weekend since then and am currently Perfect Dopey and plan on keeping that Dopey streak alive as long as I can.

I’m a fan in the sense that I love Disney and want them to make good content and continue to provide that ever elusive magic, not that I blindly believe in everything they do. I don’t view Disney as escapism or idealism, it’s not my place to forget the world or imagine how perfect it could be; it’s just a place to have fun and be optimistic, all the while seeing humanity exaggerated to some of its highest highs and lowest lows.

 

[FFigawi]

New Disney virtual race announced!

https://unclewalts.com/florida/wdw-street-view-virtual-marathon/

 

[Disney at Heart]

Hmmm. I loved Disney’s Wonderful World of Color when I was little. I was born a few months before Disneyland opened, so it was fun to see Walt touting each new addition to the park, but it was in California and that may as well have been Mars! I also loved the nature shows and Davy Crockett and such. When I got old enough to meet friends at the local theater, I was allowed to go only if it was a Disney movie or Elvis movie . Then WDW opened when I was in 10th grade with little notice from me. I went off to college, married a man who had marched down Main Street with his high school band, had children, and saved up enough to take them to WDW along with Mama and two sisters’ families. We had a great time, so when my running DH saw that Disney was about to have its first marathon a couple of years later in 1994, we hopped on the train that has led us here.
We started with a once a year trip for DH to run Marathon Weekend, which grew into my first TOT 10 miler, MW, W&D, and Star Wars Challenges, DL Dumbo Double Dare and Avengers races. Through the years we gained a DIL who was proposed to, married at, and honeymooned at WDW. (They are way ahead of us with D23 attendance, several Disney cruises, stand alone resorts- Hilton Head, Vero Beach, Aulani, and Disney Destinations tours including WD studios and around LA and the Disney family museum in San Francisco.)
With 3 race weekends coming up, We DID just bite the bullet and renew Annual Passes.
(We have never run Princess)

 

[JulieODC]

We did WDW a few times as a kid, but I distinctly remember watching free sessions of the Disney channel and seeing jungle cruise on the commercials and being hooked!

We just got home from 2 weeks in Europe and our 11 night U.K./Iceland/Norway/Sweden/Denmark cruise and it was AMAZING. Trip of a lifetime - I can’t even say enough about how awesome it was. And I ran in all of the countries we visited!

 

[Kazrak]

Race report: Summer Breeze 10k

My hopes upon registering for this a couple months ago were that I could push for a Corral D time. I'd realized that wasn't really an option fairly quickly, but I still had hopes for a renewed Corral E time.

Then, about 2 weeks ago, my knee started complaining during my training run. Weird, shortened the run and went on from there.

Knee was still iffy for the Monday and Tuesday runs, but not enough to stop. Tuesday with the trainer, we took it easy on the knee. Thursday, the knee started out okay but started having problems after a mile and a half. I decided at that point to take the rest of the week off and see how it was doing on Monday.

Monday, I bailed out of the run about a quarter-mile in. Okay, take the week off and hope the knee is happy in time for the race on Saturday.

So, with that as our backstory, we get to today. Parking for Summer Breeze is a pain, but we knew enough to grab a parking space early instead of going in too far and having to loop back. We got there with plenty of time. Daughter was running the half marathon with a goal of getting PoT for Princess Half. My knee still felt a bit off so my goal was to finish in 2 hours. My wife's goal for her 10k was sub-10:00 kilometers, total time under 1:40.

Weather was reasonably cool and cloudy, but it was clear that as soon as the clouds burned off it was going to get warm.

I did some knee bends as we were getting ready to launch, and was sure I was going to end up walking. The air horn went off, we started running...and the knee was fine. It didn't give me any grief for the whole race.

I realized early on that my hopes of a Corral D time weren't going to happen - I couldn't sustain the 11:00 pace needed while running, much less with walk breaks. Corral E had potential, though. I was doing okay for a while, but then had to slow down to a pace closer to 12:00. With that as a running pace, there was no way to hit the 12:05 pace needed for a 1:15 finish. Around mile 4, I gave up on that and decided to just finish the race with what speed I could.

Final time, 1:18:10, a bit over 3 minutes above PoT. Average pace 12:36, 16th of 19 men in my age group, 246th of 357 overall.

Wife came in about 15 minutes later at 1:35:36, well within her goal. She thinks she did the first 5k in just about 45 minutes even.

Daughter came in about 45 minutes after that, having started 15 minutes before us. She was racing toward the line trying to beat 2:40 - she'd mis-heard the PoT line. And so, she crossed the line in 2:39:11, getting herself into PoT-level corrals with 5 minutes to spare.

 

[dis_or_dat]

Also just back from a family trip. We upgraded and the room was beyond amazing! I never wanted to leave. The only thing it didn’t have was its own private gym. The temp was 90s with a dew point of 80, so no outdoor running for me. I love the hotel gym’s treadmills though with their built in fans etc since mine is completely no frills. Sad to come back but at least now I can run outside!



Here are a red crab and fish floatie they gave us - I named them Sebastian and Flounder.

 

[lauraleh]

July totals: 61 miles. I have taken the last two weeks off of running because my knee and hamstring are both not feeling great. I am planning on taking another week off and then officially starting my Wine and Dine training. I've also done lots of elliptical and some yoga this month but it's hard to not run.

Previous QOTD: Fueling. I am terrible at this. I have run three half marathons and never even thought about fueling. I am changing that in my current training because I definitely feel like it will improve my experience.

FFQOTD: I grew up in the 90s with some of the greatest Disney movies ever made. I was fortunate enough to get to visit about 3 times as a kid/young adult and I loved it. I think WDW has always been a special place for me because of those family trips and when my daughter turned 3, we decided to take her and haven't stopped going since. When I heard about runDisney I always wanted to do it but didn't think it was going to happen anytime soon. The time just worked out this year for me to do Wine and Dine and I'm so excited to experience a different side of Disney.

 

[CDKG]

May I ask an addendum to yesterday's QOTD - so I guess ATYQOTD?! Here it is:

Has anyone tried using peanut butter as fuel mid-race? I always feel like some protein in the middle of my very long marathon might help keep my blood sugar a bit more stable, but the one time I tried an Uncrustable mid-run it gave me stomach cramps: too much. But I'm thinking maybe just a tablespoon of PB in a little baggie? Maybe with a little honey drizzled in, too? I have a cast-iron stomach, so I'm never worried about anything really awful happening, but that stupid Uncrustable just felt like a rock sitting in my gut, which wasn't comfortable.

Yes! I love RXBAR’s peanut butter. They offer other flavors too...

https://www.rxbar.com/shop/peanut-butter-box-of-10.html

 

[BuckeyeBama]

Sigh - Strava will not sync my Garmin run data today. Did all the normal things like disconnecting and reconnecting, adding another activity in Garmin, etc - still no luck. I have that Strava does not report sync errors.

 

[DopeyBadger]

Sigh - Strava will not sync my Garmin run data today. Did all the normal things like disconnecting and reconnecting, adding another activity in Garmin, etc - still no luck. I have that Strava does not report sync errors.

https://status.strava.com/#day
They're having issues right now with delayed uploads it appears.

 

[JulieODC]

My morning walk isn’t showing up in Strava either!

 

[BuckeyeBama]

https://status.strava.com/#day
They're having issues right now with delayed uploads it appears.

Thanks - It took over 3 hours, but my run finally came over.

 

[sky13]

Does anyone else do mental arithmetic during their run or is it just me?

Realised that as I run I tend to look at my time and pace and start doing maths like:
- Oh, I'm running at a pace of 6:40 a kilometre... how fast is that if I convert to miles?
- How long does it take me to run 100 metres at my current pace?
- At the 3 km mark, I'll look at my time and convert it into my pace per km
- At the 3.2 km (or 2 mile mark) I'll look at my time and convert it into my pace per mile
- At various points in my run I'll start calculating what my final time could end up becoming if I continue my current pace, or if I speed things up a bit... Like for my last 10k run I hit the 8.4 km mark at 55 minutes, and realised if I ran my last mile in 10 minutes (which I know I can do if I run fast) I would make the 10k in 1:05... or today when I hit the 4 km mark at 27:30 I was like, well if I continue on at my current pace I'll still hit 5 km under 35:00...

Possibly the maths helps to take my mind off the running as I run!

 

[BuckeyeBama]

Does anyone else do mental arithmetic during their run or is it just me?

Realised that as I run I tend to look at my time and pace and start doing maths like:
- Oh, I'm running at a pace of 6:40 a kilometre... how fast is that if I convert to miles?
- How long does it take me to run 100 metres at my current pace?
- At the 3 km mark, I'll look at my time and convert it into my pace per km
- At the 3.2 km (or 2 mile mark) I'll look at my time and convert it into my pace per mile
- At various points in my run I'll start calculating what my final time could end up becoming if I continue my current pace, or if I speed things up a bit... Like for my last 10k run I hit the 8.4 km mark at 55 minutes, and realised if I ran my last mile in 10 minutes (which I know I can do if I run fast) I would make the 10k in 1:05... or today when I hit the 4 km mark at 27:30 I was like, well if I continue on at my current pace I'll still hit 5 km under 35:00...

Possibly the maths helps to take my mind off the running as I run!

I do a lot of math if I start to struggle. It takes my mind off my run and gets me back in a positive mindset. I am pretty good at math, so I do really complicated stuff in my head. If I get dehydrated, basic math becomes hard. It is one of my ways of figuring out if the problem is mental or physical.

 

[steph0808]

My morning long run won't upload to Strava either. Hopefully it will sometime this morning.

Does anyone else do mental arithmetic during their run or is it just me?

I don't do it as much anymore, but I do math a lot while running. - "Huh, I'm running 9:30, what would I run a marathon in if I did every mile at 9:30?" etc.

 

[garneska]

Yep I do the same. I agree I think it takes my mind off the running giving me something else to think about. Yes I tend to do it more when I am on the struggle bus, like this morning.

While I was on the struggle bus, I was still glad I got it done. It was one of those days I did not want to get out of bed. I had a harder than expected run yesterday, so I did not want to do my 8 today. I convinced myself to go out and do it by saying just get through 4 miles it’s better than nothing. I was hoping once I got started I would do all 8. I did but I was ready to be done. Not quite as fast as I should have but yesterday was a lot tougher than I planned so I figure it was ok for the slower run.

Proud of myself for getting it done. Also excited that we brewed cold brew coffee for today so I am enjoying that.

 

[rootbeerkid]

ATTQOTD: Origins of a Disney fan. In August 1974, a friend took me to Melbourne to play golf with his family. One day, the family went to MK. I was not happy as I saw it as a lost golfing day. Two things stand out from that day and changed my attitude - A band rose out of the floor where Sonny Eclipse stands, and the Haunted Mansion. It opened a portal into a higher level of imagination and anjoyment. While golfing interest has waned over the years, Disney interest has increased. I can still suspend disbelief and be a kid.

 

[KevM]

Does anyone else do mental arithmetic during their run or is it just me?

Realised that as I run I tend to look at my time and pace and start doing maths like:
- Oh, I'm running at a pace of 6:40 a kilometre... how fast is that if I convert to miles?
- How long does it take me to run 100 metres at my current pace?
- At the 3 km mark, I'll look at my time and convert it into my pace per km
- At the 3.2 km (or 2 mile mark) I'll look at my time and convert it into my pace per mile
- At various points in my run I'll start calculating what my final time could end up becoming if I continue my current pace, or if I speed things up a bit... Like for my last 10k run I hit the 8.4 km mark at 55 minutes, and realised if I ran my last mile in 10 minutes (which I know I can do if I run fast) I would make the 10k in 1:05... or today when I hit the 4 km mark at 27:30 I was like, well if I continue on at my current pace I'll still hit 5 km under 35:00...

Possibly the maths helps to take my mind off the running as I run!

Yep, I do math while running too, especially if it's a run I;m not feeling good on.

 

[SheHulk]

Does anyone else do mental arithmetic during their run or is it just me?

Realised that as I run I tend to look at my time and pace and start doing maths like:
- Oh, I'm running at a pace of 6:40 a kilometre... how fast is that if I convert to miles?
- How long does it take me to run 100 metres at my current pace?
- At the 3 km mark, I'll look at my time and convert it into my pace per km
- At the 3.2 km (or 2 mile mark) I'll look at my time and convert it into my pace per mile
- At various points in my run I'll start calculating what my final time could end up becoming if I continue my current pace, or if I speed things up a bit... Like for my last 10k run I hit the 8.4 km mark at 55 minutes, and realised if I ran my last mile in 10 minutes (which I know I can do if I run fast) I would make the 10k in 1:05... or today when I hit the 4 km mark at 27:30 I was like, well if I continue on at my current pace I'll still hit 5 km under 35:00...

Possibly the maths helps to take my mind off the running as I run!

Yup absolutely