To Infinity and Beyond - Becoming a Better DopeyBadger (Comments Welcome)
- Thread starter DopeyBadger
- Start date
DopeyBadger
Imagathoner
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2015
Doing some digging, it looks like I probably oversold what it's doing. It looks like I set the watch for "Auto Detection" when it comes to maxHR and it's using that plus "%maxHR" or "%HRR" to set up the zones.
Garmin 245
Garmin 935
Garmin 945
Garmin 945
My last Garmin 235 run
My first Garmin 245 run without me giving it any inputs
My first run post-Madison M
My most recent Garmin 245 run
Looks like I was wrong and the Garmin 245 had me pegged almost from the start. There was minimal ebb/flow from there. The zones showing up on my post-run activity do not match the zones I see when I view the Garmin 245 settings in Garmin Connect. If I view Marathon Tempo as the threshold between Zone 3 and Zone 4, then I think it's about right. Since recent historical data shows my M Tempo around 145 bpm and HM Tempo around 148 bpm.
dobball23
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2006
Agreed! Good luck tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday. You have the entire RunDisney DisBoards community rooting you on.
Sleepless Knight
Jedi Knight Seeking His Jedi Princess
- Joined
- May 15, 2008
Have a great race with G tomorrow. I'm confident you will both set a PR in awesomeness!
JAMIESMITH
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 26, 2011
Best of luck to you and G this weekend.
DopeyBadger
Imagathoner
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2015
2022 Princess Weekend Trip Report and Race Recaps
-Training Plan
-Training Plan Update
Sunday, February 20th – Flight to Disney, EPCOT
Monday, February 21st – Part 1 DHS, Part 2 MK
Tuesday, February 22nd – Disney Springs, DHS
Wednesday, February 23rd – AK, EPCOT
Thursday, February 24th – Expo
Friday, February 25th – Part 1 5k, Part 2 5k, Part 3 DHS
Saturday, February 26th – 10k, HH Meetup, EPCOT
Sunday, February 27th – Part 1 HM, Part 2 Disney Springs, MK
Monday, February 28th – Grand Floridian, Flight home
Trip Review
Apologies as I fully intended to write notes throughout the trip for a great recap, but I got super busy with the actual vacation. So, this is almost exclusively from memory.
This was my 7th runDisney weekend. The other six were all Marathon Weekend (5 Dopeys and 1 solo Marathon). So I was interested to see how a different runDisney weekend felt. This was also a dream come true race event for me. My daughter and I would be running her first 5k.
In addition to the racing weekend, this would serve as a Disney Vacation for my wife (Steph), daughter (Gigi), in-laws (FIL, MIL, BIL, and SIL). This is the longest since our last trip (2 years) since the gap between our honeymoon in 2010 and Dopey 2014.
Next Post: Sunday, February 20th – Flight to Disney, EPCOT
-Training Plan
-Training Plan Update
Sunday, February 20th – Flight to Disney, EPCOT
Monday, February 21st – Part 1 DHS, Part 2 MK
Tuesday, February 22nd – Disney Springs, DHS
Wednesday, February 23rd – AK, EPCOT
Thursday, February 24th – Expo
Friday, February 25th – Part 1 5k, Part 2 5k, Part 3 DHS
Saturday, February 26th – 10k, HH Meetup, EPCOT
Sunday, February 27th – Part 1 HM, Part 2 Disney Springs, MK
Monday, February 28th – Grand Floridian, Flight home
Trip Review
Apologies as I fully intended to write notes throughout the trip for a great recap, but I got super busy with the actual vacation. So, this is almost exclusively from memory.
This was my 7th runDisney weekend. The other six were all Marathon Weekend (5 Dopeys and 1 solo Marathon). So I was interested to see how a different runDisney weekend felt. This was also a dream come true race event for me. My daughter and I would be running her first 5k.
In addition to the racing weekend, this would serve as a Disney Vacation for my wife (Steph), daughter (Gigi), in-laws (FIL, MIL, BIL, and SIL). This is the longest since our last trip (2 years) since the gap between our honeymoon in 2010 and Dopey 2014.
Next Post: Sunday, February 20th – Flight to Disney, EPCOT
Last edited:
DopeyBadger
Imagathoner
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2015
Sunday, February 20th – Flight to Disney, EPCOT
The beginning of every trip starts with the flight from Wisconsin to Orlando. Some years we’ve flied from Madison (more local) and some years from Milwaukee (about 75 min away). This year we tried a new flight design. We dropped a single vehicle off at the Madison airport (not our normal three) on Saturday (day before the trip). Then, my BIL/SIL rented a Honda Odyssey for a one-way rental that we would drive to Milwaukee Sunday morning. But then our flight home would come into Madison. So we’d cut out the terrible drive home post-trip from Milwaukee to Madison.
So with that being said, we were up at 3:30am to prepare for my SIL/BIL to pick us up to head to the Milwaukee airport. G was up before the alarm even went off. She was so totally stoked for the trip.
She was given a list of requests from her 2nd grade classmates.
They wanted pictures of princesses, Minnie/Mickey, droids, her having run, slinky dog, planes, trains, food, Yeti, horses, etc.
My BIL/SIL picked us up a few minutes later than expected (around 4:30 I believe), but we were ready for them and got loaded up. Never been in a Honda Odyssey before, but I have to say I was impressed with the vehicle. We drove to pick up my MIL/FIL at their place. I have to say the Honda did really well with the luggage. We had seven people, eight full bags, and eight carry-ons. It was tight, but we did it.
Our flight was scheduled for 7:30am. I think we got to the airport around 6:00am. Dropped off the rental, and then checked our bags. We got through security, and then headed to the gate. I had enough time to get a water and use the bathroom, and then it was immediately time to get on the plane. So, the timing was about as tight as I’d ever want it. I didn’t even sit down pre-flight. But it all worked out. Got on the flight, and we headed for an on-time take-off. Until we didn’t. Something was wrong with one of the engines and so we had to head back to the gate. The mechanics fixed it, and then we were off about an hour later than planned.
Landed at MCO around 12:30 local time. We got all our bags (hooray!), and then headed to pick up our rental car for the week. This was our first time using a rental car at Disney since I was a kid (pretty sure we used to drive from GA). And Steph’s family hadn’t used a renal at Disney in forever either. So, this was a new experience for us. We ended up choosing a Chevy Suburban. It was an absolute tank of a vehicle, but it worked well for us. There were some dents/dings in it, but after pointing out the company we were good to go. I was designated the “Navigator” because I have a tendency to get car sick if I sit in the back of a vehicle. Although at points that title of “Navigator” became “Negotiator”. Which didn’t make a ton of sense. Apparently, I was negotiating with the road. LOL.
We made it to Saratoga Springs in no time. It was surprising how quick the drive was compared to when we used to take the Magical Express. Only SIL/BIL had been assigned a room yet. So we parked the vehicle at SS and then headed to the quick service (The Artist’s Palette). I had an Italian BMT and it was decent. We watched the WI vs MI basketball game on an iPhone. Afterwards, we walked around and passed the front of SS where a concierge was. We asked them if our room was ready despite not yet getting a text notification yet, and low and behold they pushed it through and got our room ready. FIL/MIL would get there room slightly later in the day. We were in The Grandstand 8500 building. It worked out really well. The only drawback was our pool was under renovation. But otherwise, we were really close to a bus stop (used sparingly), close to the main building, close to the main pool, and close to the runDisney bus stop. I think for being a touch out of the way, it was a really good spot. We also had a view from our first floor patio of the 18th hole of the golf course. The FIL/MIL had a view of the 10th hole tee.
At some point G ran into the wall in the hallway (she was distracted and then just turned right into it). But thankfully no bruise formed.
We didn’t know if we were going to be in the same room since we had two SS reservations (the trip was going to be a split stay at two resorts, but then we just did SS the whole time). So we didn’t unpack in case we had to switch rooms. The Garden Groceries were delivered while I waited in the room, and then we divided the delivery amongst the rooms. Didn’t order nearly as many bananas as the 2017 overorder disaster. Once everyone got settled, we headed out to EPCOT for our first park in our rental car.
It was the last day of the Festival of Arts. So, we walked around and checked out the different art work.
We did the Three Caballeros as our first ride for this trip. The line wasn’t too bad. Maybe 15 min at the most. I joked with G that this was the ride with the big waterfall drop. She wasn’t convinced. I like this ride because of the hidden Mickey in one of the last rooms in the skyscrapers. It’s a nice one since the animatronics are in the opposite direction. So it’s one that is commonly missed.
The plan was to get dinner at one of the EPCOT stands as we walk around. Which means anyone could stop at any stand and get what they wanted. THIS NEVER WORKS. We’ve tried this in the past. I always reiterate how this strategy while good in theory never works for us. We choose one place in advance, and we all eat there. When we try this “walk and graze” strategy undoubtedly someone leaves disappointed or something. We stopped at America and everyone was going to eat the Beef Wellington. I was standing in line as well, but then at the last moment I dropped out and headed to the BBQ restaurant instead. I got a standard sandwich, some side I can’t remember, and a smore’s cupcake dessert. When I headed back to meet up with everyone else, the jealousy was palatable. The beef wellington ended up being tiny. I left satisfied, and everyone else left hungry. And they paid more than I did for the meal. MIL wanted to get a dessert in France, but the line was crazy long. So we headed around the remaineder of the countries, and didn’t end up getting anything else. We just headed to the exit. So in the end we did Three Caballeros, checked out some art, and ate some underwhelming Beef Wellington. It was ok, but maybe an unneeded visit to the parks. We headed back to SS in the car. With a 3:30am wake-up call, and a flight, everyone was pretty exhausted. So we were in bed at 7:45pm, and asleep by 8:40pm.
Total Sleep night prior: 6:48 hrs
Total Steps today: 13,386 steps
Total Miles today: 6.9 miles
Next Post: Monday, February 21st – Part 1: DHS
The beginning of every trip starts with the flight from Wisconsin to Orlando. Some years we’ve flied from Madison (more local) and some years from Milwaukee (about 75 min away). This year we tried a new flight design. We dropped a single vehicle off at the Madison airport (not our normal three) on Saturday (day before the trip). Then, my BIL/SIL rented a Honda Odyssey for a one-way rental that we would drive to Milwaukee Sunday morning. But then our flight home would come into Madison. So we’d cut out the terrible drive home post-trip from Milwaukee to Madison.
So with that being said, we were up at 3:30am to prepare for my SIL/BIL to pick us up to head to the Milwaukee airport. G was up before the alarm even went off. She was so totally stoked for the trip.
She was given a list of requests from her 2nd grade classmates.
They wanted pictures of princesses, Minnie/Mickey, droids, her having run, slinky dog, planes, trains, food, Yeti, horses, etc.
My BIL/SIL picked us up a few minutes later than expected (around 4:30 I believe), but we were ready for them and got loaded up. Never been in a Honda Odyssey before, but I have to say I was impressed with the vehicle. We drove to pick up my MIL/FIL at their place. I have to say the Honda did really well with the luggage. We had seven people, eight full bags, and eight carry-ons. It was tight, but we did it.
Our flight was scheduled for 7:30am. I think we got to the airport around 6:00am. Dropped off the rental, and then checked our bags. We got through security, and then headed to the gate. I had enough time to get a water and use the bathroom, and then it was immediately time to get on the plane. So, the timing was about as tight as I’d ever want it. I didn’t even sit down pre-flight. But it all worked out. Got on the flight, and we headed for an on-time take-off. Until we didn’t. Something was wrong with one of the engines and so we had to head back to the gate. The mechanics fixed it, and then we were off about an hour later than planned.
Landed at MCO around 12:30 local time. We got all our bags (hooray!), and then headed to pick up our rental car for the week. This was our first time using a rental car at Disney since I was a kid (pretty sure we used to drive from GA). And Steph’s family hadn’t used a renal at Disney in forever either. So, this was a new experience for us. We ended up choosing a Chevy Suburban. It was an absolute tank of a vehicle, but it worked well for us. There were some dents/dings in it, but after pointing out the company we were good to go. I was designated the “Navigator” because I have a tendency to get car sick if I sit in the back of a vehicle. Although at points that title of “Navigator” became “Negotiator”. Which didn’t make a ton of sense. Apparently, I was negotiating with the road. LOL.
We made it to Saratoga Springs in no time. It was surprising how quick the drive was compared to when we used to take the Magical Express. Only SIL/BIL had been assigned a room yet. So we parked the vehicle at SS and then headed to the quick service (The Artist’s Palette). I had an Italian BMT and it was decent. We watched the WI vs MI basketball game on an iPhone. Afterwards, we walked around and passed the front of SS where a concierge was. We asked them if our room was ready despite not yet getting a text notification yet, and low and behold they pushed it through and got our room ready. FIL/MIL would get there room slightly later in the day. We were in The Grandstand 8500 building. It worked out really well. The only drawback was our pool was under renovation. But otherwise, we were really close to a bus stop (used sparingly), close to the main building, close to the main pool, and close to the runDisney bus stop. I think for being a touch out of the way, it was a really good spot. We also had a view from our first floor patio of the 18th hole of the golf course. The FIL/MIL had a view of the 10th hole tee.
At some point G ran into the wall in the hallway (she was distracted and then just turned right into it). But thankfully no bruise formed.
We didn’t know if we were going to be in the same room since we had two SS reservations (the trip was going to be a split stay at two resorts, but then we just did SS the whole time). So we didn’t unpack in case we had to switch rooms. The Garden Groceries were delivered while I waited in the room, and then we divided the delivery amongst the rooms. Didn’t order nearly as many bananas as the 2017 overorder disaster. Once everyone got settled, we headed out to EPCOT for our first park in our rental car.
It was the last day of the Festival of Arts. So, we walked around and checked out the different art work.
We did the Three Caballeros as our first ride for this trip. The line wasn’t too bad. Maybe 15 min at the most. I joked with G that this was the ride with the big waterfall drop. She wasn’t convinced. I like this ride because of the hidden Mickey in one of the last rooms in the skyscrapers. It’s a nice one since the animatronics are in the opposite direction. So it’s one that is commonly missed.
The plan was to get dinner at one of the EPCOT stands as we walk around. Which means anyone could stop at any stand and get what they wanted. THIS NEVER WORKS. We’ve tried this in the past. I always reiterate how this strategy while good in theory never works for us. We choose one place in advance, and we all eat there. When we try this “walk and graze” strategy undoubtedly someone leaves disappointed or something. We stopped at America and everyone was going to eat the Beef Wellington. I was standing in line as well, but then at the last moment I dropped out and headed to the BBQ restaurant instead. I got a standard sandwich, some side I can’t remember, and a smore’s cupcake dessert. When I headed back to meet up with everyone else, the jealousy was palatable. The beef wellington ended up being tiny. I left satisfied, and everyone else left hungry. And they paid more than I did for the meal. MIL wanted to get a dessert in France, but the line was crazy long. So we headed around the remaineder of the countries, and didn’t end up getting anything else. We just headed to the exit. So in the end we did Three Caballeros, checked out some art, and ate some underwhelming Beef Wellington. It was ok, but maybe an unneeded visit to the parks. We headed back to SS in the car. With a 3:30am wake-up call, and a flight, everyone was pretty exhausted. So we were in bed at 7:45pm, and asleep by 8:40pm.
Total Sleep night prior: 6:48 hrs
Total Steps today: 13,386 steps
Total Miles today: 6.9 miles
Next Post: Monday, February 21st – Part 1: DHS
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DopeyBadger
Imagathoner
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2015
Monday, February 21st – Part 1: DHS
Disney Hollywood Studios day! We were up early because we planned to rope drop DHS. So the alarm clock went off at 6am, and then we prepped to head out. Steph was going to head to the quick service to get me some eggs/sausage. So she put me in charge of trying to get a LL+ for Rise of the Resistance. I’ll be honest, I didn’t really know what I was doing. But I knew it started at 7am, it was going to cost us $15 per person, and it sells out really fast. So I had the phone ready to go, and then the link became available. I clicked and was given a time of 9:50am. I was like, alright, that’s pretty good. Confirm. Then it asked which people, and I confirmed the people. It said 12:30pm. And I was like, ok… that’ll be ok. Then I clicked on payment and it said 2:30pm. And I was like, ummm that’s starting to push it since we have MK in the evening, but we can make it work. And then I paid and got confirmation of 7:50-8:50pm. UMMM WHAT? LOL. So that’s how it’s going to be. I just spent $115 on something we absolutely won’t be able to use. Ugh… frustrating. Lesson learned. Press as fast as possible and ignore everything. Oh well. Behind us and moving on.
The park opened for general at 9:00am, and 8:30 for park guests. We got there sometime between 8:30am and 9:00am. We paid for preferred parking with our rental car, and we got placed in the first row of the parking lot. So a very short jaunt to the front entrance. It was nice to learn that purchasing preferred parking carries over for the remainder of the day at any park.
G was dressed in her Rey dress from Taylor Joelle. Great dresses if anyone is looking for quality stuff. Way better than the Disney dresses from ShopDisney.
We made our way down the main street. The back and forth prior to entering DHS was whether we were still going to go to Rise or head to Mickey/Minnie instead. We were making our way towards Mickey/Minnie down main street and a cast member stopped us. Said hey ya’ll if it were me I’d be headed towards Rise right now. We asked him how long the wait would be, and he said it’ll never be shorter than right now. If you want to do it, then head there. So we quickly pivoted and headed towards Rise. When we got in line, the line was barely under the bridge between the Muppets area and SW area. The line ended up actually being really short. It only took 25 min to get to the ride itself. It was most everyone in the party’s first time (only Steph and I had ridden it before). G was loving it. The cast member in the prison scene asked for a background check on her (since she was dressed as Rey). The rest of the ride truly blew her away. Until… I said, alright here comes the drop. Wait, what?!?! A drop?!?! She gripped my hand super tight and screamed her head off. No no no never again! LOL. She loved 90% of the ride, but she hated the drop. Which let’s be honest, is barely much of a drop. But whatevs.
The cast member was right. Going to Rise was the correct decision despite not showing up quite right at rope drop. Once the park officially opened the wait time was around 2 hours.
Afterwards, we soaked in more of the Star Wars atmosphere.
The storm troopers were giving her a hard time, but she didn’t give them anything back. It was surprising because G isn’t normally reserved in these types of situations. Normally she’s all for banter back and forth.
We had a droid appointment at 11:30am, so we headed to Toy Story Land to check on Toy Story Mania. The line was relatively short (like 45 min or so), so we decided to do that. Steph and I ran through our high score strategy pre-ride. We did alright. We didn’t quite do as well as I wanted, and we missed out on the meteor shower, but we did ok. Ended up as the highest score of the hour.
Once that was done we headed back towards Star Wars land. We walked around the shops a little, and then got Ronto Roasters. They were decent. G wasn’t pleased because she wanted ketchup. So Steph got some from Toy Story Land, and then G was willing to eat it. I ended up eating 2.5 roasters which is probably way more than I should of. The droid appointment was at 11:30, but it was only 11am. So everyone else left G and I, and we just needed to waste a little time. We walked around the droid shop, and then we saw Chewie outside.
Eventually at like 11:15am, I headed in and got us checked in (under the hope they’d take us early). And they did. We got to choose between the ball droid (like BB-8) or leg wheel droid (like R2-D2). The downside was that they only had one head available for the ball droid (black). It wasn’t really what G wanted, but she REALLY wanted a ball droid over a wheel droid. So she settled for the black head. They tried to upsell the personality chip plus extra carry case, but I didn’t think it was worth the +50 upcharge. We headed to the conveyor belt and she built herself a purple ball droid. It was a decent process, but it was incredibly loud in there. So it was really hard to hear anything. But it was a good experience. We did decide to buy a personality chip afterwards for $15. Which I think was the right way to go about it. The droid worked really well, and based on how it works, I think G made the right decision with the ball droid since it can move in 360 degrees rather easily. It’s such an interesting build. She decided to name it GB-8.
Everyone else was at Brown Derby and weren’t done with their meal yet. So, G and I headed for ice cream. We looked for ice cream in a dish to avoid getting ice cream on the dress. But the Brontosaurus ice cream shop wasn’t open yet. So, G got a Mickey ice cream bar from a stand. She did spill on herself almost immediately. LOL, hand to forehead! What are you going to do…
Then, everyone else was done with their meal. So, we met up and headed back to SS around noon.
Next Post: Monday, February 21st – Part 2: MK
Disney Hollywood Studios day! We were up early because we planned to rope drop DHS. So the alarm clock went off at 6am, and then we prepped to head out. Steph was going to head to the quick service to get me some eggs/sausage. So she put me in charge of trying to get a LL+ for Rise of the Resistance. I’ll be honest, I didn’t really know what I was doing. But I knew it started at 7am, it was going to cost us $15 per person, and it sells out really fast. So I had the phone ready to go, and then the link became available. I clicked and was given a time of 9:50am. I was like, alright, that’s pretty good. Confirm. Then it asked which people, and I confirmed the people. It said 12:30pm. And I was like, ok… that’ll be ok. Then I clicked on payment and it said 2:30pm. And I was like, ummm that’s starting to push it since we have MK in the evening, but we can make it work. And then I paid and got confirmation of 7:50-8:50pm. UMMM WHAT? LOL. So that’s how it’s going to be. I just spent $115 on something we absolutely won’t be able to use. Ugh… frustrating. Lesson learned. Press as fast as possible and ignore everything. Oh well. Behind us and moving on.
The park opened for general at 9:00am, and 8:30 for park guests. We got there sometime between 8:30am and 9:00am. We paid for preferred parking with our rental car, and we got placed in the first row of the parking lot. So a very short jaunt to the front entrance. It was nice to learn that purchasing preferred parking carries over for the remainder of the day at any park.
G was dressed in her Rey dress from Taylor Joelle. Great dresses if anyone is looking for quality stuff. Way better than the Disney dresses from ShopDisney.
We made our way down the main street. The back and forth prior to entering DHS was whether we were still going to go to Rise or head to Mickey/Minnie instead. We were making our way towards Mickey/Minnie down main street and a cast member stopped us. Said hey ya’ll if it were me I’d be headed towards Rise right now. We asked him how long the wait would be, and he said it’ll never be shorter than right now. If you want to do it, then head there. So we quickly pivoted and headed towards Rise. When we got in line, the line was barely under the bridge between the Muppets area and SW area. The line ended up actually being really short. It only took 25 min to get to the ride itself. It was most everyone in the party’s first time (only Steph and I had ridden it before). G was loving it. The cast member in the prison scene asked for a background check on her (since she was dressed as Rey). The rest of the ride truly blew her away. Until… I said, alright here comes the drop. Wait, what?!?! A drop?!?! She gripped my hand super tight and screamed her head off. No no no never again! LOL. She loved 90% of the ride, but she hated the drop. Which let’s be honest, is barely much of a drop. But whatevs.
The cast member was right. Going to Rise was the correct decision despite not showing up quite right at rope drop. Once the park officially opened the wait time was around 2 hours.
Afterwards, we soaked in more of the Star Wars atmosphere.
The storm troopers were giving her a hard time, but she didn’t give them anything back. It was surprising because G isn’t normally reserved in these types of situations. Normally she’s all for banter back and forth.
We had a droid appointment at 11:30am, so we headed to Toy Story Land to check on Toy Story Mania. The line was relatively short (like 45 min or so), so we decided to do that. Steph and I ran through our high score strategy pre-ride. We did alright. We didn’t quite do as well as I wanted, and we missed out on the meteor shower, but we did ok. Ended up as the highest score of the hour.
Once that was done we headed back towards Star Wars land. We walked around the shops a little, and then got Ronto Roasters. They were decent. G wasn’t pleased because she wanted ketchup. So Steph got some from Toy Story Land, and then G was willing to eat it. I ended up eating 2.5 roasters which is probably way more than I should of. The droid appointment was at 11:30, but it was only 11am. So everyone else left G and I, and we just needed to waste a little time. We walked around the droid shop, and then we saw Chewie outside.
Eventually at like 11:15am, I headed in and got us checked in (under the hope they’d take us early). And they did. We got to choose between the ball droid (like BB-8) or leg wheel droid (like R2-D2). The downside was that they only had one head available for the ball droid (black). It wasn’t really what G wanted, but she REALLY wanted a ball droid over a wheel droid. So she settled for the black head. They tried to upsell the personality chip plus extra carry case, but I didn’t think it was worth the +50 upcharge. We headed to the conveyor belt and she built herself a purple ball droid. It was a decent process, but it was incredibly loud in there. So it was really hard to hear anything. But it was a good experience. We did decide to buy a personality chip afterwards for $15. Which I think was the right way to go about it. The droid worked really well, and based on how it works, I think G made the right decision with the ball droid since it can move in 360 degrees rather easily. It’s such an interesting build. She decided to name it GB-8.
Everyone else was at Brown Derby and weren’t done with their meal yet. So, G and I headed for ice cream. We looked for ice cream in a dish to avoid getting ice cream on the dress. But the Brontosaurus ice cream shop wasn’t open yet. So, G got a Mickey ice cream bar from a stand. She did spill on herself almost immediately. LOL, hand to forehead! What are you going to do…
Then, everyone else was done with their meal. So, we met up and headed back to SS around noon.
Next Post: Monday, February 21st – Part 2: MK
Last edited:
DopeyBadger
Imagathoner
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2015
Monday, February 21st – Part 2: MK
Most of the family was headed towards the pool, and I was headed out for a run. Looks like I started running around 1:20pm.
Conditions - ☀ Clear, Wind 8mph to 10mph
Start: Temp+Dew = 80°F + 61°F; FL - 80°F
End: Temp+Dew = 80°F + 60°F; FL - 80°F
The goal was 7.5-8 miles or around 60 min. The weather was toasty, but it wasn’t all that bad. I did loops around the SS property which ended up being 0.83 miles per loop. I was aiming for a long run effort and felt relatively comfortable at 7:43 pace. I was slowly speeding up and had to hold back to keep my effort in line. I was pleased with the run overall. Good pace, and the HR was a little high at 143 bpm, but given the weather wasn’t unreasonable. Going from -15F to T+D 141 could have felt worse than it did in the end.
After my run I headed back to the room and got cleaned up. Steph confirmed with the resort that we wouldn’t be changing rooms, and so I spent the time unpacking everything. Before long everyone else got cleaned up and we were headed out to MK. I don’t quite remember what time we left (maybe around 5:00pm). Since we had preferred parking from DHS that morning, it meant we automatically got it at MK that evening. The downside is we still had to park at TTC to get to MK. So the benefit of having a car was somewhat nullified by this. My SIL had a big village meeting that evening, so she headed to the Contemporary so she could do that. It was a big meeting since they’re considering adding an enormous Amazon Warehouse.
It was extra hours for Deluxe guests (10-12 pm), and we had some special fireworks viewing setup from my FIL’s friend. He worked on some guy’s Mercedes whose daughter is someone high up at Disney. So, they pulled some strings to get us two special things for my FIL’s 71st birthday.
I think we got to the Main Street area around 6:20-6:30pm or so. We didn’t need to show up to the fireworks spot until 7:30, but FIL/MIL were too excited not to head there a little early. So, we asked someone in the handicap area southwest of the castle. FIL/MIL showed them the email communication they had with the exec, but the cast members there thought we were likely in the wrong place. So, they sent us over to the dessert party area southeast of the castle. So, we walked over there. Those cast members didn’t have us on their list, so they didn’t think we were suppose to be there either. They told us to head to the southwest side instead. A different cast member over heard and said they’d take care of us. He walked us over to the VIP area for the fireworks (where VIP groups normally sit) and talked to the cast members there. They viewed the emails, didn’t have us down either, but verified the veracity of the email and personal phone number being used to confirm that our info wasn’t made up. So, they let us in and we ended up seated in the VIP area for the fireworks show behind the handicap area southwest of the castle. At some point the head of the VIP area headed over and wanted to see the email information for our second VIP experience for EPCOT on Wednesday. They wanted that info so that we could be placed on the list and not have to deal with the hassle again. As they were reviewing it they realized we aren’t in the VIP area for the EPCOT show. We’re in the Super VIP area. As in the place that’s super exclusive on the boat pier. So they couldn’t help us, but said we should be all good. As time passed, more people showed up, but honestly there was TONS of space. Maybe 70 or less people compared to the dessert party area which seemed like it had 500 or so people.
The experience was awesome. Such an easy/open view with no one else crowding around us. SIL missed out on this because the village meeting was still ongoing. This was our first time seeing this show, and I liked it. It was beautiful.
After the show was over, we headed to hit up some rides. I can’t remember the order in which we did these. I think we did Barnstormer first. G had promised many years in a row to ride this ride, but every time we get right up there she chickens out. But not this time! She got in line and we were committed to doing it.
She hated it! LOL! She is not a roller coaster girl.
I think we also got to ride on Pirates, Haunted Mansion, It’s a Small World, Winnie the Pooh, Carousel, and then got in line for Peter Pan at 11:59pm. SIL/BIL/Steph rode Seven Dwarfs Mine train.
We got our money’s worth with tons of rides with little wait. We headed back to TTC via monorail, and then headed to the car. You know you shut down the park when you head to the parking lot and see this around your car.
They parking lot cleaning Zambonis were out it was so late. We made it back to SS and everyone was tired. Made it to bed at 1:23am. Shocking to think in a few days I’d be waking up at this time instead of going to bed at it…
Total Sleep night prior: 9:14 hrs
Total Steps today: 32,329 steps
Total Miles today: 18.9 miles
Next Post: Tuesday, February 22nd – Disney Springs, DHS
Most of the family was headed towards the pool, and I was headed out for a run. Looks like I started running around 1:20pm.
Conditions - ☀ Clear, Wind 8mph to 10mph
Start: Temp+Dew = 80°F + 61°F; FL - 80°F
End: Temp+Dew = 80°F + 60°F; FL - 80°F
The goal was 7.5-8 miles or around 60 min. The weather was toasty, but it wasn’t all that bad. I did loops around the SS property which ended up being 0.83 miles per loop. I was aiming for a long run effort and felt relatively comfortable at 7:43 pace. I was slowly speeding up and had to hold back to keep my effort in line. I was pleased with the run overall. Good pace, and the HR was a little high at 143 bpm, but given the weather wasn’t unreasonable. Going from -15F to T+D 141 could have felt worse than it did in the end.
After my run I headed back to the room and got cleaned up. Steph confirmed with the resort that we wouldn’t be changing rooms, and so I spent the time unpacking everything. Before long everyone else got cleaned up and we were headed out to MK. I don’t quite remember what time we left (maybe around 5:00pm). Since we had preferred parking from DHS that morning, it meant we automatically got it at MK that evening. The downside is we still had to park at TTC to get to MK. So the benefit of having a car was somewhat nullified by this. My SIL had a big village meeting that evening, so she headed to the Contemporary so she could do that. It was a big meeting since they’re considering adding an enormous Amazon Warehouse.
It was extra hours for Deluxe guests (10-12 pm), and we had some special fireworks viewing setup from my FIL’s friend. He worked on some guy’s Mercedes whose daughter is someone high up at Disney. So, they pulled some strings to get us two special things for my FIL’s 71st birthday.
I think we got to the Main Street area around 6:20-6:30pm or so. We didn’t need to show up to the fireworks spot until 7:30, but FIL/MIL were too excited not to head there a little early. So, we asked someone in the handicap area southwest of the castle. FIL/MIL showed them the email communication they had with the exec, but the cast members there thought we were likely in the wrong place. So, they sent us over to the dessert party area southeast of the castle. So, we walked over there. Those cast members didn’t have us on their list, so they didn’t think we were suppose to be there either. They told us to head to the southwest side instead. A different cast member over heard and said they’d take care of us. He walked us over to the VIP area for the fireworks (where VIP groups normally sit) and talked to the cast members there. They viewed the emails, didn’t have us down either, but verified the veracity of the email and personal phone number being used to confirm that our info wasn’t made up. So, they let us in and we ended up seated in the VIP area for the fireworks show behind the handicap area southwest of the castle. At some point the head of the VIP area headed over and wanted to see the email information for our second VIP experience for EPCOT on Wednesday. They wanted that info so that we could be placed on the list and not have to deal with the hassle again. As they were reviewing it they realized we aren’t in the VIP area for the EPCOT show. We’re in the Super VIP area. As in the place that’s super exclusive on the boat pier. So they couldn’t help us, but said we should be all good. As time passed, more people showed up, but honestly there was TONS of space. Maybe 70 or less people compared to the dessert party area which seemed like it had 500 or so people.
The experience was awesome. Such an easy/open view with no one else crowding around us. SIL missed out on this because the village meeting was still ongoing. This was our first time seeing this show, and I liked it. It was beautiful.
After the show was over, we headed to hit up some rides. I can’t remember the order in which we did these. I think we did Barnstormer first. G had promised many years in a row to ride this ride, but every time we get right up there she chickens out. But not this time! She got in line and we were committed to doing it.
She hated it! LOL! She is not a roller coaster girl.
I think we also got to ride on Pirates, Haunted Mansion, It’s a Small World, Winnie the Pooh, Carousel, and then got in line for Peter Pan at 11:59pm. SIL/BIL/Steph rode Seven Dwarfs Mine train.
We got our money’s worth with tons of rides with little wait. We headed back to TTC via monorail, and then headed to the car. You know you shut down the park when you head to the parking lot and see this around your car.
They parking lot cleaning Zambonis were out it was so late. We made it back to SS and everyone was tired. Made it to bed at 1:23am. Shocking to think in a few days I’d be waking up at this time instead of going to bed at it…
Total Sleep night prior: 9:14 hrs
Total Steps today: 32,329 steps
Total Miles today: 18.9 miles
Next Post: Tuesday, February 22nd – Disney Springs, DHS
Last edited:
DopeyBadger
Imagathoner
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2015
Tuesday, February 22nd – Disney Springs, DHS
The dreaded Day 3 of the trip. No matter what we try and do, this always seems to be the day that something happens. Some drama/tift between people that always puts the rest of the trip at risk. I won’t get into details, but without fail Day 3 strikes again.
Didn’t get up until 8:37am. So, despite the really late night, still got some decent sleep. We had a relatively relaxed start to the day. We made this morning our Disney Springs day. It was a nice easy walk from SS to DS. Took about 10 min to get from our room to the edge of the SS property, and then another 10 min or so to get to DS and through security. So all in all, about 20 min walk.
I had suggested we head over to the Lego store, since that’s where G really wanted to go. But instead we bummed around a bit at some of the other stores closer to security. Eventually we did make our way to the Lego store, and low and behold they had an outside line to get into the store. So that took about 10-20 min. G took some pictures of her favorite Lego displays.
She picked out a few Legos to buy with her own money. We walked around a few other stores (Lululemon and a make-up store) from memory, and then we made our way back to SS. Everyone else was going to get some food, and then do some swimming. I was going to do a short run.
Looks like I started the run at 12:45pm. A little warmer than the day prior.
Conditions - ☀ Clear, Wind 9mph to 11mph
Start: Temp+Dew = 81°F + 67°F; FL - 84°F
End: Temp+Dew = 82°F + 66°F; FL - 84°F
I was aiming for a nice/easy 35 min run. I took the same route as before. I could definitely tell the difference between the T+D 141 on Monday and the T+D 148 today. Could easily have been less clouds today than Monday as well. But it was toasty. I ended up doing a comfortable 9:30 min/mile for 3.6 miles, 35 min, and HR of 125 bpm. Not bad all things considered.
I went and got food at the quick service, took it back to the room and had lunch.
Eventually everyone else was done with swimming and headed back to the room to get cleaned up as well. BIL/SIL were golfing, and so we timed seeing them around 4:15pm at hole 10 when they would pass MIL/FIL’s room. So, we got to cheer/heckle them when they came by. Before long, it was time to head back to DHS. Since BIL/SIL were still golfing, we had to take a bus to DHS. We waited about 40 min, and then it took another 20 min or so to get there. So in all the trip took us about 60 min. It reinforced to us how much we enjoyed having a rental car instead of taking the bus.
I don’t remember what time we got there. Sometime around pm I’d bet.
From memory, I believe we headed to the Muppets show. G had seen it before, but she didn’t remember it. She thought it was funny. Afterwards, we headed through Star Wars land. Pretty sure this was the evening we ate at Docking Bay because the Ronto Roasters place was closed temporarily. It was alright. I think I had some rice dish which was a nice change of pace from the other meals I had been eating this trip thus far.
After Star Wars land we headed through Toy Story land. I think we walked on through and then ended up at the Walt Disney story video. They had the Descendents outfits on display and G just had to see them.
Just right before the video started, we checked on wait times and saw that Mickey/Minnie Running Away Railroad had just restarted (it was down for a bit). So, the wait time was really low. After the Disney video (which was a nice bit of history) we headed towards Mickey/Minnie and hooked back up with SIL/BIL. We got in line at like 7:45pm or so, and I think we waited in for like 45 min (which was the posted wait time). While in line we got a text from Wine Bar George with some instructions for our reservation for the next (Wed) night. We informed them we had two reservations for three and four people, and preferred to sit outside. They told us they could accommodate us as a table of 7 outside, and we were ecstatic about it.
I really like the MMRR pre-show. We ended up in the last train car (furthest from Goofy) in MMRR. It was alright, but some of the scenes seemed like it would have been better to be in the first two cars instead of the fourth car. Almost like the ride experience would have been better if there were only three cars total. That became especially true in the last scene. In which our car was hanging out in the entrance to the room so we actually couldn’t see anything with Mickey/Minnie during their picnic. We did eventually drive by them in the train car, but it just felt like we missed out. The ride was overall good, but an unfulfilling experience from where we were seated.
We came out of the ride and the DHS nighttime show had just started. So, we popped a squat and watched that. I liked it. After it was over, we had like 8-10 min before the park closed. So, the debate was whether we headed to RnR or to Smuggler’s Run. We decided to head for Smuggler’s Run, but I thought it was going to be close as to whether we’d make it there before the 9pm cutoff. Steph was leading us, and I was lagging. We went the Muppet’s route from MMRR. As we got into Star Wars land Steph was probably a good 50m ahead of me. I realized she was going to be taking the long route, so I directed everyone to head left at the fork instead of right. So, everyone started following me even though I was slower. We cut through the shops and made it to the entrance at 8:58pm. Problem was, Steph wasn’t there. So, we called her and was like what’s up. And she said she was following a different group and wasn’t quite there yet. We said, you’ve got 1 minute to make it here. So, then she came sprinting around a corner and we quickly got in line with barely any time to spare. I think there were only like 2-3 groups of people let in behind us. Steph was a little peeved at me, because she wanted me to lead, but I can’t help my slow walking legs. It all worked out in the end. We only waited like 10 min or so. We were going to try for “Chewie” mode, but it was too much for us to be able to figure out before the ride started. I was the left/right pilot, G was the up/down, FIL/BIL were gunners, and SIL/Steph were engineers. We did alright. It took a few moments to get used to it. G did lots of screaming even though I explained to her pre-ride that it was just a video game. She froze up a few times and I was leaning over trying to do left/right and up/down at the same time. We ended up getting one canister, and were close to getting the second but failed. We left feeling satistifed. In retrospect, G would probably be better in one of the jobs not right in front of the screen and such a pivotal role. But it worked out. Maybe next time there’d be less screaming. LOL.
Once we got off the ride, it was pretty empty.
There were a few people with their new lightsabers taking nighttime pics in a near empty park. Eventually we made our way to the exit and left the park sometime after 9pm (probably closer to 9:30pm by that time). We made our way back to SS via our rental car (because that’s what SIL/BIL drove to the park in post-golfing). We were in bed at 10:40pm.
Total Sleep night prior: 7:12 hrs
Total Steps today: 28.542 steps
Total Miles today: 18.4 miles
Next Post: Wednesday, February 23rd – AK, EPCOT
The dreaded Day 3 of the trip. No matter what we try and do, this always seems to be the day that something happens. Some drama/tift between people that always puts the rest of the trip at risk. I won’t get into details, but without fail Day 3 strikes again.
Didn’t get up until 8:37am. So, despite the really late night, still got some decent sleep. We had a relatively relaxed start to the day. We made this morning our Disney Springs day. It was a nice easy walk from SS to DS. Took about 10 min to get from our room to the edge of the SS property, and then another 10 min or so to get to DS and through security. So all in all, about 20 min walk.
I had suggested we head over to the Lego store, since that’s where G really wanted to go. But instead we bummed around a bit at some of the other stores closer to security. Eventually we did make our way to the Lego store, and low and behold they had an outside line to get into the store. So that took about 10-20 min. G took some pictures of her favorite Lego displays.
She picked out a few Legos to buy with her own money. We walked around a few other stores (Lululemon and a make-up store) from memory, and then we made our way back to SS. Everyone else was going to get some food, and then do some swimming. I was going to do a short run.
Looks like I started the run at 12:45pm. A little warmer than the day prior.
Conditions - ☀ Clear, Wind 9mph to 11mph
Start: Temp+Dew = 81°F + 67°F; FL - 84°F
End: Temp+Dew = 82°F + 66°F; FL - 84°F
I was aiming for a nice/easy 35 min run. I took the same route as before. I could definitely tell the difference between the T+D 141 on Monday and the T+D 148 today. Could easily have been less clouds today than Monday as well. But it was toasty. I ended up doing a comfortable 9:30 min/mile for 3.6 miles, 35 min, and HR of 125 bpm. Not bad all things considered.
I went and got food at the quick service, took it back to the room and had lunch.
Eventually everyone else was done with swimming and headed back to the room to get cleaned up as well. BIL/SIL were golfing, and so we timed seeing them around 4:15pm at hole 10 when they would pass MIL/FIL’s room. So, we got to cheer/heckle them when they came by. Before long, it was time to head back to DHS. Since BIL/SIL were still golfing, we had to take a bus to DHS. We waited about 40 min, and then it took another 20 min or so to get there. So in all the trip took us about 60 min. It reinforced to us how much we enjoyed having a rental car instead of taking the bus.
I don’t remember what time we got there. Sometime around pm I’d bet.
From memory, I believe we headed to the Muppets show. G had seen it before, but she didn’t remember it. She thought it was funny. Afterwards, we headed through Star Wars land. Pretty sure this was the evening we ate at Docking Bay because the Ronto Roasters place was closed temporarily. It was alright. I think I had some rice dish which was a nice change of pace from the other meals I had been eating this trip thus far.
After Star Wars land we headed through Toy Story land. I think we walked on through and then ended up at the Walt Disney story video. They had the Descendents outfits on display and G just had to see them.
Just right before the video started, we checked on wait times and saw that Mickey/Minnie Running Away Railroad had just restarted (it was down for a bit). So, the wait time was really low. After the Disney video (which was a nice bit of history) we headed towards Mickey/Minnie and hooked back up with SIL/BIL. We got in line at like 7:45pm or so, and I think we waited in for like 45 min (which was the posted wait time). While in line we got a text from Wine Bar George with some instructions for our reservation for the next (Wed) night. We informed them we had two reservations for three and four people, and preferred to sit outside. They told us they could accommodate us as a table of 7 outside, and we were ecstatic about it.
I really like the MMRR pre-show. We ended up in the last train car (furthest from Goofy) in MMRR. It was alright, but some of the scenes seemed like it would have been better to be in the first two cars instead of the fourth car. Almost like the ride experience would have been better if there were only three cars total. That became especially true in the last scene. In which our car was hanging out in the entrance to the room so we actually couldn’t see anything with Mickey/Minnie during their picnic. We did eventually drive by them in the train car, but it just felt like we missed out. The ride was overall good, but an unfulfilling experience from where we were seated.
We came out of the ride and the DHS nighttime show had just started. So, we popped a squat and watched that. I liked it. After it was over, we had like 8-10 min before the park closed. So, the debate was whether we headed to RnR or to Smuggler’s Run. We decided to head for Smuggler’s Run, but I thought it was going to be close as to whether we’d make it there before the 9pm cutoff. Steph was leading us, and I was lagging. We went the Muppet’s route from MMRR. As we got into Star Wars land Steph was probably a good 50m ahead of me. I realized she was going to be taking the long route, so I directed everyone to head left at the fork instead of right. So, everyone started following me even though I was slower. We cut through the shops and made it to the entrance at 8:58pm. Problem was, Steph wasn’t there. So, we called her and was like what’s up. And she said she was following a different group and wasn’t quite there yet. We said, you’ve got 1 minute to make it here. So, then she came sprinting around a corner and we quickly got in line with barely any time to spare. I think there were only like 2-3 groups of people let in behind us. Steph was a little peeved at me, because she wanted me to lead, but I can’t help my slow walking legs. It all worked out in the end. We only waited like 10 min or so. We were going to try for “Chewie” mode, but it was too much for us to be able to figure out before the ride started. I was the left/right pilot, G was the up/down, FIL/BIL were gunners, and SIL/Steph were engineers. We did alright. It took a few moments to get used to it. G did lots of screaming even though I explained to her pre-ride that it was just a video game. She froze up a few times and I was leaning over trying to do left/right and up/down at the same time. We ended up getting one canister, and were close to getting the second but failed. We left feeling satistifed. In retrospect, G would probably be better in one of the jobs not right in front of the screen and such a pivotal role. But it worked out. Maybe next time there’d be less screaming. LOL.
Once we got off the ride, it was pretty empty.
There were a few people with their new lightsabers taking nighttime pics in a near empty park. Eventually we made our way to the exit and left the park sometime after 9pm (probably closer to 9:30pm by that time). We made our way back to SS via our rental car (because that’s what SIL/BIL drove to the park in post-golfing). We were in bed at 10:40pm.
Total Sleep night prior: 7:12 hrs
Total Steps today: 28.542 steps
Total Miles today: 18.4 miles
Next Post: Wednesday, February 23rd – AK, EPCOT
Last edited:
DopeyBadger
Imagathoner
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2015
Wednesday, February 23rd – AK, EPCOT
AK rope drop to get on Flight of Passage. Problem is we stayed up late the night prior. AK opened at 8am, and early entry was at 7:30am. I contested that we should probably want to leave earlier than 7:30am to make it in time to get the early entry. But then because it was so late the night prior no one really wanted to get up any earlier. I didn’t think it would work out for us. I was up at 5:50am. And we headed out at 7:30am as planned earlier.
We arrived at AK at like 7:45am, got preferred parking which was relatively close, and then made it to the entrance at like 7:55am. Everyone went to the left lanes to scan in and I went to the right lanes. ALWAYS go right for early entry AK. People line up on the left because they want to go to FOP, but it’s always quicker to go right. I beat everyone else through scanning by like 90 seconds. We made it through and were walking back to FOP by about 7:58am. I think we got to the FOP line at like 8:04am, and then only seconds after getting in line there was a huge rush of people from general admission. So, we BARELY made it. I had estimated the line would take us 45ish min. But I bet the FOP general people waited far far longer. We really pushed it, but it worked out in the end. Got lucky.
The line did end up being 45ish min, which isn’t half bad. G was nervous. The ride went ok, but about halfway through G got really nervous and started screaming. She wasn’t enjoying it. And then her glasses were falling off her face. So, I had to take those off her face, so they didn’t fall on someone else below us. It was alright for us, but I don’t think she’ll want to do it again for a bit.
After FOP we headed back to the Safari, but the wait was over 60 min. None of us were interested in doing it. Instead, we headed on the walking trail to see the new baby gorilla.
D1
There really wasn’t anything else in AK that we wanted to do. The park is really limited these days. They had the new kite show, so we headed to watch that.
There was like nearly an hour or more before the show was supposed to start. I wasn’t keen on just blowing an hour by waiting around. Especially since the temps were supposed to soar in the afternoon, and I still had a run. In hindsight, I should have left and went on my run because I missed out on doing crafts at SS (which I would have rather done than the kite show). As for the kite show, it was alright. Nothing spectacular. It was hot and in the sun. The others seemed to like it just fine. We left after that and headed back to SS in our car.
Looks like I started my run around 1:00pm.
Conditions -
Partly Cloudy, Wind 4mph to 5mph
Start: Temp+Dew = 82°F + 70°F; FL - 86°F
End: Temp+Dew = 84°F + 69°F; FL - 86°F
The temps were higher today than the past two runs, and it was definitely noticeable. I aimed for a 3.5 mile WU, and then did 6 x 400m at 10k pace with 15s resting intervals. Everything was mostly alright, but doing intervals with 15s RI is tough because of road crossing, people, and bikes. Right as I was ending the workout an older man and woman whom I had passed twice during the hard portion of the run, said “Hey I saw your twin over there.” I was like, “Oh him, yea he’s the fast one.” He said, “Oh no, you’re definitely fatser than him.” I said, “Oh don’t tell him that, he’ll get so mad.”. LOL, It was some friendly banter with a stranger. I ended up doing 6.1 miles, 51 min, 8:23 pace, and HR of 139 bpm. The intervals hovered around 6:30-6:40 pace mostly. Based on HR, it was a pretty tough workout. But since it was a short duration, the recovery was only 30 hrs (from memory). Going into the tail end of training, it felt like I was in a good place all things considered. Not as fast as I was 2.5 weeks ago, but in a good place.
I headed back to the room after picking up some lunch. I had intended on joining them at the community room for crafts, but time was short. Eventually we all got ready and headed out to Disney Springs for our reservation at Wine Bar George.
This was to be FIL’s 71st birthday celebration. He was pretty excited about eating at Wine Bar George. We got there and checked in at like 4:45pm for our 5:00pm reservation. After waiting around a bit they called Steph and informed her that seating seven people outside (like they had changed us to last night) was going to take a really long time. Since we had the EPCOT Super VIP experience later that evening, we couldn’t wait around much longer. So ultimately, we had to eat inside on high top tables near the bar. It wasn’t the experience that FIL wanted, and you could tell it left a sour taste in his mouth. They got an $80 bottle of wine to share, we got some appetizers (hummus, mac balls, and meatballs if I remember correctly) and then we had two things of steak to share. FIL got the short ribs. FIL was not impressed by the short ribs. Despite it being $$$ much expensive he felt like the meat at Docking Bay 7 from Star Wars land at DHS was the same cut of meat. I think for the seven of us the meal ended up being around $475. It honestly didn’t feel worth that. It was good. But it wasn’t THAT good. There was also more drama towards the tail end of the meal and that cause some pre-fireworks fireworks.
We did make our way through DS back to SS and back to our rental car. We then headed towards EPCOT. We got there around 6:45pm or so, and burned lots of time. Our instructions were to meet at the pier of the boat dock at 7:30pm (to the right of the number 25 in the picture below).
At 7:30pm, we made our way down to the pier entrance, and the fireworks team member down on the dock walked up, confirmed it was us, and then let us on. So, we walked down the pier on the water and had our viewing area there. It was crazy.
We were so close to the show. He warned us to be careful about how some of the fireworks would shoot right over our head since we were in an area not normally for spectators. The show was outstanding. I thought it was better than the MK show. Afterwards, the worker informed us that there were a few hidden Mickey’s in the show itself and asked us if we saw any. G said she saw three and explained to him when they occurred. He confirmed they were real and said he was really impressed she saw any of them. There are apparently nine total. It was extra Deluxe hours at EPCOT so we headed over to Remy’s. The UW basketball game against Minnesota was on, so we watched that in line. I think we waited like 30-40 min at the most. Not bad at all. I thought Remy’s was awesome. Really cool ride all around. G loved it.
Afterwards, we headed towards the exit. We were going to do Soarin, but we didn’t want to walk all the way there. So we opted to do the EPCOT ball ride instead. It was walk-on, and almost 10pm by that time I think. It’s one of G’s favorites. And then after that we headed back to the car and back to SS. I was in bed at 11:40pm.
Total Sleep night prior: 7:10 hrs
Total Steps today: 30,681 steps
Total Miles today: 17.4 miles
Next Post: Thursday, February 24th – Expo
AK rope drop to get on Flight of Passage. Problem is we stayed up late the night prior. AK opened at 8am, and early entry was at 7:30am. I contested that we should probably want to leave earlier than 7:30am to make it in time to get the early entry. But then because it was so late the night prior no one really wanted to get up any earlier. I didn’t think it would work out for us. I was up at 5:50am. And we headed out at 7:30am as planned earlier.
We arrived at AK at like 7:45am, got preferred parking which was relatively close, and then made it to the entrance at like 7:55am. Everyone went to the left lanes to scan in and I went to the right lanes. ALWAYS go right for early entry AK. People line up on the left because they want to go to FOP, but it’s always quicker to go right. I beat everyone else through scanning by like 90 seconds. We made it through and were walking back to FOP by about 7:58am. I think we got to the FOP line at like 8:04am, and then only seconds after getting in line there was a huge rush of people from general admission. So, we BARELY made it. I had estimated the line would take us 45ish min. But I bet the FOP general people waited far far longer. We really pushed it, but it worked out in the end. Got lucky.
The line did end up being 45ish min, which isn’t half bad. G was nervous. The ride went ok, but about halfway through G got really nervous and started screaming. She wasn’t enjoying it. And then her glasses were falling off her face. So, I had to take those off her face, so they didn’t fall on someone else below us. It was alright for us, but I don’t think she’ll want to do it again for a bit.
After FOP we headed back to the Safari, but the wait was over 60 min. None of us were interested in doing it. Instead, we headed on the walking trail to see the new baby gorilla.
D1There really wasn’t anything else in AK that we wanted to do. The park is really limited these days. They had the new kite show, so we headed to watch that.
There was like nearly an hour or more before the show was supposed to start. I wasn’t keen on just blowing an hour by waiting around. Especially since the temps were supposed to soar in the afternoon, and I still had a run. In hindsight, I should have left and went on my run because I missed out on doing crafts at SS (which I would have rather done than the kite show). As for the kite show, it was alright. Nothing spectacular. It was hot and in the sun. The others seemed to like it just fine. We left after that and headed back to SS in our car.
Looks like I started my run around 1:00pm.
Conditions -
Partly Cloudy, Wind 4mph to 5mphStart: Temp+Dew = 82°F + 70°F; FL - 86°F
End: Temp+Dew = 84°F + 69°F; FL - 86°F
The temps were higher today than the past two runs, and it was definitely noticeable. I aimed for a 3.5 mile WU, and then did 6 x 400m at 10k pace with 15s resting intervals. Everything was mostly alright, but doing intervals with 15s RI is tough because of road crossing, people, and bikes. Right as I was ending the workout an older man and woman whom I had passed twice during the hard portion of the run, said “Hey I saw your twin over there.” I was like, “Oh him, yea he’s the fast one.” He said, “Oh no, you’re definitely fatser than him.” I said, “Oh don’t tell him that, he’ll get so mad.”. LOL, It was some friendly banter with a stranger. I ended up doing 6.1 miles, 51 min, 8:23 pace, and HR of 139 bpm. The intervals hovered around 6:30-6:40 pace mostly. Based on HR, it was a pretty tough workout. But since it was a short duration, the recovery was only 30 hrs (from memory). Going into the tail end of training, it felt like I was in a good place all things considered. Not as fast as I was 2.5 weeks ago, but in a good place.
I headed back to the room after picking up some lunch. I had intended on joining them at the community room for crafts, but time was short. Eventually we all got ready and headed out to Disney Springs for our reservation at Wine Bar George.
This was to be FIL’s 71st birthday celebration. He was pretty excited about eating at Wine Bar George. We got there and checked in at like 4:45pm for our 5:00pm reservation. After waiting around a bit they called Steph and informed her that seating seven people outside (like they had changed us to last night) was going to take a really long time. Since we had the EPCOT Super VIP experience later that evening, we couldn’t wait around much longer. So ultimately, we had to eat inside on high top tables near the bar. It wasn’t the experience that FIL wanted, and you could tell it left a sour taste in his mouth. They got an $80 bottle of wine to share, we got some appetizers (hummus, mac balls, and meatballs if I remember correctly) and then we had two things of steak to share. FIL got the short ribs. FIL was not impressed by the short ribs. Despite it being $$$ much expensive he felt like the meat at Docking Bay 7 from Star Wars land at DHS was the same cut of meat. I think for the seven of us the meal ended up being around $475. It honestly didn’t feel worth that. It was good. But it wasn’t THAT good. There was also more drama towards the tail end of the meal and that cause some pre-fireworks fireworks.
We did make our way through DS back to SS and back to our rental car. We then headed towards EPCOT. We got there around 6:45pm or so, and burned lots of time. Our instructions were to meet at the pier of the boat dock at 7:30pm (to the right of the number 25 in the picture below).
At 7:30pm, we made our way down to the pier entrance, and the fireworks team member down on the dock walked up, confirmed it was us, and then let us on. So, we walked down the pier on the water and had our viewing area there. It was crazy.
We were so close to the show. He warned us to be careful about how some of the fireworks would shoot right over our head since we were in an area not normally for spectators. The show was outstanding. I thought it was better than the MK show. Afterwards, the worker informed us that there were a few hidden Mickey’s in the show itself and asked us if we saw any. G said she saw three and explained to him when they occurred. He confirmed they were real and said he was really impressed she saw any of them. There are apparently nine total. It was extra Deluxe hours at EPCOT so we headed over to Remy’s. The UW basketball game against Minnesota was on, so we watched that in line. I think we waited like 30-40 min at the most. Not bad at all. I thought Remy’s was awesome. Really cool ride all around. G loved it.
Afterwards, we headed towards the exit. We were going to do Soarin, but we didn’t want to walk all the way there. So we opted to do the EPCOT ball ride instead. It was walk-on, and almost 10pm by that time I think. It’s one of G’s favorites. And then after that we headed back to the car and back to SS. I was in bed at 11:40pm.
Total Sleep night prior: 7:10 hrs
Total Steps today: 30,681 steps
Total Miles today: 17.4 miles
Next Post: Thursday, February 24th – Expo
Last edited:
DopeyBadger
Imagathoner
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2015
Thursday, February 24th – Expo
Expo day! The goal was to be to the Expo by 8:00am with the opening of the Expo at 10:00am. I figured I’m going to wait in line for two hours or so whether it’s first thing or later in the morning. So why not do it on a nice comfortable carpeted floor than either the hallway or outside in the heat.
I was up at 6:46am and we were leaving around 7:45am. The drive was easy. BIL missed the drop off area at WWOS and so instead he just drove towards the parking area and I jumped out. Totally confused the worker. I think we arrived at 8:04am. When I got inside to the line it was around 8:10am, and I was 635th in line (based on a line counter later).
I think a lot of runners went from the Yoga experience to the Expo, because why not. They were already awake, so why not. I met some nice people in line. Talked running, training, strategy, runDisney, etc. Eventually the man/son ahead of me asked if I was DopeyBadger and low and behold it was another DIS’er. What are the odds! Additionally, I saw @The Expert and @azrivest in line too! Around 9:50 or so they started letting in the first wave of people. I think around 10:30am is when I was let in. Everyone was super courteous and the reputation which proceeded Princess did not live up to those standards. I didn’t have anything I had to have personally. I just perused the options, and got a bunch of things of G’s first 5k. I got us some matching long sleeve hoodies as well. Some of the things will fit her now, and other things will fit her in a few years. All in all I didn’t feel like I missed out on anything. I also saw @Livelovedance right before I checked out. I walked out of the rD merch area around 11:00-11:10 and headed towards the bib pickup.
The bib pickup was super easy. Got in line for G and mine’s 5k bibs. Oddly enough like every other 5k line had like 3 or less people, but my line just so happened to have like 20 people. It didn’t make a ton of sense and I was just unlucky in that regard in terms of who showed up when I did. Then I picked up my Challenge bib (no line) and saw that I was on the first page of signatures. That’s pretty cool!
After bib pickup I headed over to the VISA center for my free shirt and if any vendor items spoke to me. Nothing really did. I bought some water (I felt dehydrated), and then called Steph to see where they were. They had rope dropped MK, and BIL went golfing at Grand Floridian. Steph said they were at Wilderness eating lunch and that I should head that way. So I got on an expo bus from WWOS and headed to Wilderness. I believe I left around 11:50am or so. So in all the expo experience took about 4 hours from drop off to leaving.
Arrived at Wilderness and got some food from Roaring Forks (sandwich and salad I believe). We waited around until FIL showed up, and then BIL was done with golfing. BIL came and picked us up and then we drove back to SS. Originally, I was going to do the community center fun with G, but she wanted to swim instead. So, I decided to go for a short run instead of painting by myself.
Conditions - ☀ Clear, Wind 6mph to 8mph
Start: Temp+Dew = 85°F + 65°F; FL - 87°F
End: Temp+Dew = 85°F + 64°F; FL - 87°F
I started the run at 2:40pm and went for an easy 30 min run. I ended up doing 3.4 miles, 30 min, 9:06 min/mile and HR of 130 bpm. Not bad at all considering the weather.
Once I got back to the room, Steph said G was ready for the community room painting if I wanted to partake. But I said based on the time, we should probably get all of our stuff ready for the 5k the next morning. So I told them to keep swimming and then come back when they wanted to. This ended up being the right decision, because from the moment I got back into the room until the moment I went to bed at 6:20pm I was busy getting ready for the next day pinning stuff together, gathering G’s costume, gathering my costume, eating dinner, etc. It was towards the end of the process that I double checked my cape. It wouldn’t work with the battery pack, but then when I plugged the cape into the wall first, it would work. But then the fairy lights app wasn’t working and I couldn’t change the lights programming. Eventually I got the app to work, the battery pack to work, and everything was good. As long as I didn’t unplug the lights once I started them, then I should be good to go.
G got in bed at like 6pm. She was like there’s no way I’m falling asleep right now. We explained to her that it was normal bed time. She got up and looked out the window curtain and was like, guys it’s still light outside! This isn’t normal bed time. But within moments of making this revelation around 6:15pm, she was sound asleep. Finally, I put my head to the pillow and it was bed time around 6:20-6:30 for me too. I actually fell asleep relatively quickly. With a 2am wake-up call, I was on track to get some decent sleep.
Well…. About that. In the middle of the night I was dreaming like normal, and then in my dream someone came up to me and said, “Your contacts are still in.” As soon as they did, I woke up. I was like, don’t open your eyes, don’t open your eyes. ****, I’m awake. Do I really still have my contacts in? No way that’s true. That was just your dream. Ughhh…. My eyes are crusty. Ugghh…. I do have my contacts in don’t I. I got up and low and behold I did. After all that work, how could I leave my contacts in! Took them out and then headed back to bed. Didn’t fall back asleep. So I was really happy I originally fell asleep at 6:20am, because now I was up at 12:40pm. I laid in bed, but I didn’t fall back asleep until my alarm went off at 2am. I was shocked when it went off because I didn’t think that 1:20 hrs really passed.
Total Sleep night prior: 6:59 hrs
Total Steps today: 15,848 steps
Total Miles today: 8.9 miles
Next Post: Friday, February 25th – Part 1 5k
Expo day! The goal was to be to the Expo by 8:00am with the opening of the Expo at 10:00am. I figured I’m going to wait in line for two hours or so whether it’s first thing or later in the morning. So why not do it on a nice comfortable carpeted floor than either the hallway or outside in the heat.
I was up at 6:46am and we were leaving around 7:45am. The drive was easy. BIL missed the drop off area at WWOS and so instead he just drove towards the parking area and I jumped out. Totally confused the worker. I think we arrived at 8:04am. When I got inside to the line it was around 8:10am, and I was 635th in line (based on a line counter later).
I think a lot of runners went from the Yoga experience to the Expo, because why not. They were already awake, so why not. I met some nice people in line. Talked running, training, strategy, runDisney, etc. Eventually the man/son ahead of me asked if I was DopeyBadger and low and behold it was another DIS’er. What are the odds! Additionally, I saw @The Expert and @azrivest in line too! Around 9:50 or so they started letting in the first wave of people. I think around 10:30am is when I was let in. Everyone was super courteous and the reputation which proceeded Princess did not live up to those standards. I didn’t have anything I had to have personally. I just perused the options, and got a bunch of things of G’s first 5k. I got us some matching long sleeve hoodies as well. Some of the things will fit her now, and other things will fit her in a few years. All in all I didn’t feel like I missed out on anything. I also saw @Livelovedance right before I checked out. I walked out of the rD merch area around 11:00-11:10 and headed towards the bib pickup.
The bib pickup was super easy. Got in line for G and mine’s 5k bibs. Oddly enough like every other 5k line had like 3 or less people, but my line just so happened to have like 20 people. It didn’t make a ton of sense and I was just unlucky in that regard in terms of who showed up when I did. Then I picked up my Challenge bib (no line) and saw that I was on the first page of signatures. That’s pretty cool!
After bib pickup I headed over to the VISA center for my free shirt and if any vendor items spoke to me. Nothing really did. I bought some water (I felt dehydrated), and then called Steph to see where they were. They had rope dropped MK, and BIL went golfing at Grand Floridian. Steph said they were at Wilderness eating lunch and that I should head that way. So I got on an expo bus from WWOS and headed to Wilderness. I believe I left around 11:50am or so. So in all the expo experience took about 4 hours from drop off to leaving.
Arrived at Wilderness and got some food from Roaring Forks (sandwich and salad I believe). We waited around until FIL showed up, and then BIL was done with golfing. BIL came and picked us up and then we drove back to SS. Originally, I was going to do the community center fun with G, but she wanted to swim instead. So, I decided to go for a short run instead of painting by myself.
Conditions - ☀ Clear, Wind 6mph to 8mph
Start: Temp+Dew = 85°F + 65°F; FL - 87°F
End: Temp+Dew = 85°F + 64°F; FL - 87°F
I started the run at 2:40pm and went for an easy 30 min run. I ended up doing 3.4 miles, 30 min, 9:06 min/mile and HR of 130 bpm. Not bad at all considering the weather.
Once I got back to the room, Steph said G was ready for the community room painting if I wanted to partake. But I said based on the time, we should probably get all of our stuff ready for the 5k the next morning. So I told them to keep swimming and then come back when they wanted to. This ended up being the right decision, because from the moment I got back into the room until the moment I went to bed at 6:20pm I was busy getting ready for the next day pinning stuff together, gathering G’s costume, gathering my costume, eating dinner, etc. It was towards the end of the process that I double checked my cape. It wouldn’t work with the battery pack, but then when I plugged the cape into the wall first, it would work. But then the fairy lights app wasn’t working and I couldn’t change the lights programming. Eventually I got the app to work, the battery pack to work, and everything was good. As long as I didn’t unplug the lights once I started them, then I should be good to go.
G got in bed at like 6pm. She was like there’s no way I’m falling asleep right now. We explained to her that it was normal bed time. She got up and looked out the window curtain and was like, guys it’s still light outside! This isn’t normal bed time. But within moments of making this revelation around 6:15pm, she was sound asleep. Finally, I put my head to the pillow and it was bed time around 6:20-6:30 for me too. I actually fell asleep relatively quickly. With a 2am wake-up call, I was on track to get some decent sleep.
Well…. About that. In the middle of the night I was dreaming like normal, and then in my dream someone came up to me and said, “Your contacts are still in.” As soon as they did, I woke up. I was like, don’t open your eyes, don’t open your eyes. ****, I’m awake. Do I really still have my contacts in? No way that’s true. That was just your dream. Ughhh…. My eyes are crusty. Ugghh…. I do have my contacts in don’t I. I got up and low and behold I did. After all that work, how could I leave my contacts in! Took them out and then headed back to bed. Didn’t fall back asleep. So I was really happy I originally fell asleep at 6:20am, because now I was up at 12:40pm. I laid in bed, but I didn’t fall back asleep until my alarm went off at 2am. I was shocked when it went off because I didn’t think that 1:20 hrs really passed.
Total Sleep night prior: 6:59 hrs
Total Steps today: 15,848 steps
Total Miles today: 8.9 miles
Next Post: Friday, February 25th – Part 1 5k
Last edited:
DopeyBadger
Imagathoner
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2015
Friday, February 25th – Part 1 5k
Well, here it is. The day that the last nearly 10 years have been building towards. I wanted to have kids. I wanted to be a good father and be present in my kid’s life. My doctor told me in 2012 that my health was not in a good place, and in order to accomplish my life goals, I needed to make changes. So, I did. And here I am today, getting to fulfill that desire by running with my daughter in her first 5k.
As I said in the last post, I was up at 12:40pm. So, I ended up getting 6-ish hours of sleep. So, despite getting up 1:20 hrs earlier than originally intended, I did alright on the sleeping front. I got up, showered, ate a PB bagel with banana, and got my outfit on. G was up as well and super ready to go. Despite it being 2am, she was ready to do this thing. I plugged in my cape and… it didn’t work. I gave it a few tries and I could only get a few blips from it. The battery was fully charged, but the lights and pack just didn’t want to talk to each other. Ughh… oh well. Out the door at 2:50am and headed to the SS rD bus stop. We got there at 3:01am just as the first bus was pulling away. So it was the second bus for us, and it left SS at 3:10am. We got to EPCOT in short order and then made our way towards security.
My lights didn’t want to work, so I gave up trying to get them to do so. But G was getting so many comments and attention that it was worth it. Lots of people were giving her kudos and a few asked to take pictures of/with her. G just loves talking to people, so she was eating it up. I let her know that she should also comment on their costumes as well to make them feel good about their hard work too. So she started doing that and people loved it.
We made our way through security, and then to the DIS meetup spot under the lightpost (around 3:40am or so). No one was there yet, so not being on the first bus wasn’t detrimental. From memory, eventually @The Expert (and family), @Livelovedance, @Naomeri, and @azrivest made it to the meetup. Sorry if I’m forgetting anyone. Nice chats, loved the costumes, and then G and I headed to gear check. They were doing stickers on the bag, and one for you. I was totally confused as to where I should put the sticker. In the past, they would write our bib number on the bag. Not sure why they changed it. Anyways, I put the sticker on the back of my bib. They also used trucks for gear check, whereas in the past they had a tent and stuff. Infrastructure wise I’ve got to imagine the trucks are easier even though they’re not actually transporting stuff anywhere. Headed back to the meetup, and then it was time for everyone to go about their ways around 4:15am because those in s1 would start making their way to the start around 4:30am. G and I were in s2 with our 10-12 min/mile estimated pace.
We headed to the porta-potties and G had a meltdown. She wasn’t about to use that potty. I put the light in there (because it was too dark), and then once she was what it looked like in the light, she was even less willing to use it. There were tears, but eventually everything was ok as I explained to her that I wouldn’t force her to use it if she didn’t want/need to. We made our way to the s2 group by then, and got inside there somewhere around 4:25am. We actually stood next to a woman wearing a spider-man spirit jersey for a bit, but she never commented. It filled up relatively quickly, and we didn’t really get any chance to do a pre-race stretch. We started making our way as a group towards the start line around 4:55am just after the national anthem and such. G got to meet the Jack Sparrow guy.
Slowly but surely each mini-wave was released. G had lots of fun explaining to everyone how we had made the costume, and the headpiece had LEDS, and on and on and on. Kid likes to talk. I had predicted that we would start running around 5:30am, and indeed that was when we did start running.
Conditions -
Clear, Wind 3mph to 7mph
Start: Temp+Dew = 64°F + 63°F; FL - 64°F
End: Temp+Dew = 64°F + 64°F; FL - 64°F
I had told her pre-race that our ability to stick to structured run/walk like we had done in training (30/30) would be partially dictated by those around us. It was going to be relatively busy, and so we may not be able to start/stop exactly when we wanted to. So we went into it with the strategy with we’ll run when we want to and walk when we want to. For the first 0.7 miles, we kept a pretty even effort around a 15:45 min/mile. Then we saw an insanely long line, and a man with a bullhorn so it was a picture stop for three characters (Merida, Pocohontas, and Moana). I told G it was decision time. Do we want to wait in the line, or keep going? She wanted to wait, so we did. It was about 5:40am when we stopped, and I knew the last runners would start around 6:00am, and that it would take them about 10-11 min to reach our location. So I was expecting to see the last runners around 6:10am. We settled in and watched the other runners pass us by. G had lots of fun talking to the other runner’s around us. We saw two other Wanda’s and she called them out. It was the Multiverse. That’s the only way multiple Wandas could be running around in the same place. She made quick friends with a group of ladies in their early 20s in line with us. It was 5:50, then 6:00, then 6:10 rolled around and we saw the last of the runners passing us. At that point, you were either further ahead on course or in line with us.
I had originally told Steph that we would finish around 6:10am as she was planning on meeting us at the finish line. So since the time had come, I texted her just to let her know we were at Mile 0.7. She originally thought it was a delayed text. But then I confirmed 0.7 miles. As in, 0.7 miles left?? No, no. Like we’re in line at Mile 0.7 and have 2.4 miles remaining in the race. LOL! We’ve got characters to take pictures with! I could tell there was some conversations amongst the officials as to whether they should have cut the line earlier, and whether they should find a place in the line to tell people to start moving along. They decided not to kick people out of the line, and that was the right decision. Because as we began running, they had already cutoff lines further ahead. So if people didn’t get these three princesses, they likely wouldn’t have been able to get in line for other ones. It would have been a cluster, but it was avoided.
Based on Strava, we didn’t start running again until 58 min. So that means we were in line for 47 min total. We got our pics with Merida, Pocohontas, and Moana, and then we were off again.
As soon as we started running again, it was OPEN roads. It was glorious. There was no one around us. It was awesome. Originally, I was worried standing in a 47 min line was the wrong decision. But ultimately, we got three princesses and then we had open roads. And honestly, the 5k doesn’t sweep, so we had nothing to worry about. I wouldn’t change a thing.
Once we started heading towards Test Track we saw some Tiki Statues. Apparently, this was where Lilo and Stitch were.
Just after that picture stop was the Mile 1 marker. We finished the first mile in 1:01:55! LOL! A 62 min/mile! Go us!
Next Post: Friday, February 25th – Part 2 5k
Well, here it is. The day that the last nearly 10 years have been building towards. I wanted to have kids. I wanted to be a good father and be present in my kid’s life. My doctor told me in 2012 that my health was not in a good place, and in order to accomplish my life goals, I needed to make changes. So, I did. And here I am today, getting to fulfill that desire by running with my daughter in her first 5k.
As I said in the last post, I was up at 12:40pm. So, I ended up getting 6-ish hours of sleep. So, despite getting up 1:20 hrs earlier than originally intended, I did alright on the sleeping front. I got up, showered, ate a PB bagel with banana, and got my outfit on. G was up as well and super ready to go. Despite it being 2am, she was ready to do this thing. I plugged in my cape and… it didn’t work. I gave it a few tries and I could only get a few blips from it. The battery was fully charged, but the lights and pack just didn’t want to talk to each other. Ughh… oh well. Out the door at 2:50am and headed to the SS rD bus stop. We got there at 3:01am just as the first bus was pulling away. So it was the second bus for us, and it left SS at 3:10am. We got to EPCOT in short order and then made our way towards security.
My lights didn’t want to work, so I gave up trying to get them to do so. But G was getting so many comments and attention that it was worth it. Lots of people were giving her kudos and a few asked to take pictures of/with her. G just loves talking to people, so she was eating it up. I let her know that she should also comment on their costumes as well to make them feel good about their hard work too. So she started doing that and people loved it.
We made our way through security, and then to the DIS meetup spot under the lightpost (around 3:40am or so). No one was there yet, so not being on the first bus wasn’t detrimental. From memory, eventually @The Expert (and family), @Livelovedance, @Naomeri, and @azrivest made it to the meetup. Sorry if I’m forgetting anyone. Nice chats, loved the costumes, and then G and I headed to gear check. They were doing stickers on the bag, and one for you. I was totally confused as to where I should put the sticker. In the past, they would write our bib number on the bag. Not sure why they changed it. Anyways, I put the sticker on the back of my bib. They also used trucks for gear check, whereas in the past they had a tent and stuff. Infrastructure wise I’ve got to imagine the trucks are easier even though they’re not actually transporting stuff anywhere. Headed back to the meetup, and then it was time for everyone to go about their ways around 4:15am because those in s1 would start making their way to the start around 4:30am. G and I were in s2 with our 10-12 min/mile estimated pace.
We headed to the porta-potties and G had a meltdown. She wasn’t about to use that potty. I put the light in there (because it was too dark), and then once she was what it looked like in the light, she was even less willing to use it. There were tears, but eventually everything was ok as I explained to her that I wouldn’t force her to use it if she didn’t want/need to. We made our way to the s2 group by then, and got inside there somewhere around 4:25am. We actually stood next to a woman wearing a spider-man spirit jersey for a bit, but she never commented. It filled up relatively quickly, and we didn’t really get any chance to do a pre-race stretch. We started making our way as a group towards the start line around 4:55am just after the national anthem and such. G got to meet the Jack Sparrow guy.
Slowly but surely each mini-wave was released. G had lots of fun explaining to everyone how we had made the costume, and the headpiece had LEDS, and on and on and on. Kid likes to talk. I had predicted that we would start running around 5:30am, and indeed that was when we did start running.
Conditions -
Clear, Wind 3mph to 7mphStart: Temp+Dew = 64°F + 63°F; FL - 64°F
End: Temp+Dew = 64°F + 64°F; FL - 64°F
I had told her pre-race that our ability to stick to structured run/walk like we had done in training (30/30) would be partially dictated by those around us. It was going to be relatively busy, and so we may not be able to start/stop exactly when we wanted to. So we went into it with the strategy with we’ll run when we want to and walk when we want to. For the first 0.7 miles, we kept a pretty even effort around a 15:45 min/mile. Then we saw an insanely long line, and a man with a bullhorn so it was a picture stop for three characters (Merida, Pocohontas, and Moana). I told G it was decision time. Do we want to wait in the line, or keep going? She wanted to wait, so we did. It was about 5:40am when we stopped, and I knew the last runners would start around 6:00am, and that it would take them about 10-11 min to reach our location. So I was expecting to see the last runners around 6:10am. We settled in and watched the other runners pass us by. G had lots of fun talking to the other runner’s around us. We saw two other Wanda’s and she called them out. It was the Multiverse. That’s the only way multiple Wandas could be running around in the same place. She made quick friends with a group of ladies in their early 20s in line with us. It was 5:50, then 6:00, then 6:10 rolled around and we saw the last of the runners passing us. At that point, you were either further ahead on course or in line with us.
I had originally told Steph that we would finish around 6:10am as she was planning on meeting us at the finish line. So since the time had come, I texted her just to let her know we were at Mile 0.7. She originally thought it was a delayed text. But then I confirmed 0.7 miles. As in, 0.7 miles left?? No, no. Like we’re in line at Mile 0.7 and have 2.4 miles remaining in the race. LOL! We’ve got characters to take pictures with! I could tell there was some conversations amongst the officials as to whether they should have cut the line earlier, and whether they should find a place in the line to tell people to start moving along. They decided not to kick people out of the line, and that was the right decision. Because as we began running, they had already cutoff lines further ahead. So if people didn’t get these three princesses, they likely wouldn’t have been able to get in line for other ones. It would have been a cluster, but it was avoided.
Based on Strava, we didn’t start running again until 58 min. So that means we were in line for 47 min total. We got our pics with Merida, Pocohontas, and Moana, and then we were off again.
As soon as we started running again, it was OPEN roads. It was glorious. There was no one around us. It was awesome. Originally, I was worried standing in a 47 min line was the wrong decision. But ultimately, we got three princesses and then we had open roads. And honestly, the 5k doesn’t sweep, so we had nothing to worry about. I wouldn’t change a thing.
Once we started heading towards Test Track we saw some Tiki Statues. Apparently, this was where Lilo and Stitch were.
Just after that picture stop was the Mile 1 marker. We finished the first mile in 1:01:55! LOL! A 62 min/mile! Go us!
Next Post: Friday, February 25th – Part 2 5k
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DopeyBadger
Imagathoner
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2015
Friday, February 25th – Part 2 5k
It took a whole post just to cover Mile 1. But now we’re moving and grooving. We made it to Mexico and it looked like there was a photostop there that was empty. And a second one in the Norway area (Anna/Elsa) that was also empty. We did see Snow White in Germany, but the line was close by the time we got there. Rapunzel was also swapping out with Snow White there. I think we saw Tiana, as well, but don’t remember which country (US?). At some point near here we ran in G’s 20 year old friends. She raced ahead at a blazing pace to catch up to and pass them. We came out the backside of France and that’s where the Cinderella and a female mouse were.
G didn’t want to wait in that line, so we kept moving. We stopped for a picture outside of the security area. Someone was nice enough to take our picture for us.
Just as we started to get to the security area the 20 year olds came up behind us and said “see ya” to G and she put on the boosters and sprinted ahead. The 20 yo jockied back and forth with her until G “Freeze” them. Hard to beat a kid who uses her Chaos magic on them.
We did the second mile in 14:52 pace.
Around Canada is when the 20 year olds caught back up with us. She was having fun with them again. They ended up getting a pic together.
We stayed with them up until just past the POP restaurant when we saw Joy/Sadness. The line wasn’t terrible, so we stopped. We let the 20 yo go and didn’t see them for the remainder of the run. Thanks for the memories ladies!
The Joy/Sadness line moved quickly. The lady in front of us was dressed as a skyliner. It was great. She dressed as Wanda and Agatha for the Wine and Dine 10k. She had a great character interaction with the TOT bellhop and showed us the video. Such a great cast member moment. By the time it was our turn, Joy had left and it was only Sadness. How sad…
We kept moving along the course. We saw three musketeers Mickey/Donald, but the line was already cutoff. We rounded the EPCOT ball and made our way to the finish line. There were a group of people just hanging out at the bathrooms right before heading to the finish line. I’ve got to imagine they were all jockeying to be some of the last finishers.
We headed down the last stretch. Saw Steph and family. And then crossed the finish line. Our 5k was done! We completed it in 1:41 hrs at a 32 min/mile! That’s what I’m talking about!
What a great experience. G had a blast. I had a blast. The costumes were a big hit. It was perfect in every way possible. I wouldn’t change a thing about the experience.
This marked the completion of the highest goal from my list of 102 running related goals. Goal #4!
4. Run a 5k or longer with my daughter, Gigi - Completed February 25th, 2022 at the runDisney Princess Weekend 5k!
Next Post: Friday, February 25th – Part 3 DHS
It took a whole post just to cover Mile 1. But now we’re moving and grooving. We made it to Mexico and it looked like there was a photostop there that was empty. And a second one in the Norway area (Anna/Elsa) that was also empty. We did see Snow White in Germany, but the line was close by the time we got there. Rapunzel was also swapping out with Snow White there. I think we saw Tiana, as well, but don’t remember which country (US?). At some point near here we ran in G’s 20 year old friends. She raced ahead at a blazing pace to catch up to and pass them. We came out the backside of France and that’s where the Cinderella and a female mouse were.
G didn’t want to wait in that line, so we kept moving. We stopped for a picture outside of the security area. Someone was nice enough to take our picture for us.
Just as we started to get to the security area the 20 year olds came up behind us and said “see ya” to G and she put on the boosters and sprinted ahead. The 20 yo jockied back and forth with her until G “Freeze” them. Hard to beat a kid who uses her Chaos magic on them.
We did the second mile in 14:52 pace.
Around Canada is when the 20 year olds caught back up with us. She was having fun with them again. They ended up getting a pic together.
We stayed with them up until just past the POP restaurant when we saw Joy/Sadness. The line wasn’t terrible, so we stopped. We let the 20 yo go and didn’t see them for the remainder of the run. Thanks for the memories ladies!
The Joy/Sadness line moved quickly. The lady in front of us was dressed as a skyliner. It was great. She dressed as Wanda and Agatha for the Wine and Dine 10k. She had a great character interaction with the TOT bellhop and showed us the video. Such a great cast member moment. By the time it was our turn, Joy had left and it was only Sadness. How sad…
We kept moving along the course. We saw three musketeers Mickey/Donald, but the line was already cutoff. We rounded the EPCOT ball and made our way to the finish line. There were a group of people just hanging out at the bathrooms right before heading to the finish line. I’ve got to imagine they were all jockeying to be some of the last finishers.
We headed down the last stretch. Saw Steph and family. And then crossed the finish line. Our 5k was done! We completed it in 1:41 hrs at a 32 min/mile! That’s what I’m talking about!
What a great experience. G had a blast. I had a blast. The costumes were a big hit. It was perfect in every way possible. I wouldn’t change a thing about the experience.
This marked the completion of the highest goal from my list of 102 running related goals. Goal #4!
4. Run a 5k or longer with my daughter, Gigi - Completed February 25th, 2022 at the runDisney Princess Weekend 5k!
Next Post: Friday, February 25th – Part 3 DHS
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DopeyBadger
Imagathoner
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2015
Friday, February 25th – Part 3 DHS
After our awesome race experience, we headed back to SS to get ready for the rest of our day.
I think BIL was golfing again, so I think we took the bus to DHS. Pretty sure we started our day at Indiana Jones Spectacular. We were some of the last people in, so our seats weren’t great. But G enjoyed the show.
After the show, we debated what to do next. We ended up deciding on leaving DHS, taking the skyliner to Riveria, and having lunch at their quick service. It was a little out of the way, but it was a relaxing time. I played bocci ball with G. She’s pretty good at it. I also met some runners there. It was there first rD weekend and first 10k. So I was calming their nerves with advice as best I could. I think they left the conversation feeling much better about everything. We ate lunch, and then we headed back to DHS.
We made our back into DHS.
We headed to Toy Story MM. We had Disney Genie+ so we had been stacking rides on the backend. So we did TSMM and I rode with SIL this time. We did better this time than the last and I was best this hour again.
We were getting ready to leave and were going to head towards the exit via Ariel route. But then Steph was like, nah let’s take the long way around through Star Wars land again. As were making our way through she ran into someone she follows on Instagram. I had been giving her grief for not DM’ing some of the Disney Instagram people she follows to see where they’d be the week we were there. But now she got her opportunity. I had told her a few days earlier not to chicken out if she got the opportunity to say hi. And to her credit she didn’t chicken out. But she did totally fan-girl the lady. She was like OMG, I follow you on insta, and my daughter is wearing your mom’s mask-chain.
Steph was shaking she was so excited. LOL! So glad we went that way, so Steph could have that moment.
BIL joined us at some point from golfing, and we headed to the exit of DHS. They were going to drop me off at SS, and then head over to EPCOT where they had some more LL reservations. Problem is, BIL didn’t remember where he parked the car exactly. So that took about 20 min of walking around the parking lot trying to figure out where we parked. LOL. Eventually we did find the car and headed over to SS. I want to say it was around 4:30pm or so. I got a light salad for dinner, and then headed to bed. I remembered to take my contacts out this time. The rest of them headed to EPCOT and got some more pics.
I was in bed at 6:15pm. I remembered to take my contacts out this time.
Total Sleep night prior: 6:10 hrs
Total Steps today: 26,251 steps
Total Miles today: 13.3 miles
Next Post: Saturday, February 26th – 10k, HH Meetup, EPCOT
After our awesome race experience, we headed back to SS to get ready for the rest of our day.
I think BIL was golfing again, so I think we took the bus to DHS. Pretty sure we started our day at Indiana Jones Spectacular. We were some of the last people in, so our seats weren’t great. But G enjoyed the show.
After the show, we debated what to do next. We ended up deciding on leaving DHS, taking the skyliner to Riveria, and having lunch at their quick service. It was a little out of the way, but it was a relaxing time. I played bocci ball with G. She’s pretty good at it. I also met some runners there. It was there first rD weekend and first 10k. So I was calming their nerves with advice as best I could. I think they left the conversation feeling much better about everything. We ate lunch, and then we headed back to DHS.
We made our back into DHS.
We headed to Toy Story MM. We had Disney Genie+ so we had been stacking rides on the backend. So we did TSMM and I rode with SIL this time. We did better this time than the last and I was best this hour again.
We were getting ready to leave and were going to head towards the exit via Ariel route. But then Steph was like, nah let’s take the long way around through Star Wars land again. As were making our way through she ran into someone she follows on Instagram. I had been giving her grief for not DM’ing some of the Disney Instagram people she follows to see where they’d be the week we were there. But now she got her opportunity. I had told her a few days earlier not to chicken out if she got the opportunity to say hi. And to her credit she didn’t chicken out. But she did totally fan-girl the lady. She was like OMG, I follow you on insta, and my daughter is wearing your mom’s mask-chain.
Steph was shaking she was so excited. LOL! So glad we went that way, so Steph could have that moment.
BIL joined us at some point from golfing, and we headed to the exit of DHS. They were going to drop me off at SS, and then head over to EPCOT where they had some more LL reservations. Problem is, BIL didn’t remember where he parked the car exactly. So that took about 20 min of walking around the parking lot trying to figure out where we parked. LOL. Eventually we did find the car and headed over to SS. I want to say it was around 4:30pm or so. I got a light salad for dinner, and then headed to bed. I remembered to take my contacts out this time. The rest of them headed to EPCOT and got some more pics.
I was in bed at 6:15pm. I remembered to take my contacts out this time.
Total Sleep night prior: 6:10 hrs
Total Steps today: 26,251 steps
Total Miles today: 13.3 miles
Next Post: Saturday, February 26th – 10k, HH Meetup, EPCOT
Last edited:
DopeyBadger
Imagathoner
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2015
Saturday, February 26th – 10k, HH Meetup, EPCOT
I was up at 1:38am, and ready to go. It was a few minutes before I wanted to get up, but not too bad. Ate breakfast first (sticking with 2 hours before last porta stop), then showered, then out the door at 2:40am, and at the bus stop by 2:50am for the first bus. We left promptly at 3:01am and headed to EPCOT. Through security, made it to gear check, and then to the DIS meetup spot. The only other person there was @Novatrix. I stuck around for a little bit, but then I ducked out quick to make sure I could get prime position for the 10k. I used the porta around 3:45am. Stretched in s1 towards the front. Did a quick 8 min WU. Hit the portas again. Then eventually found my spot towards the front of s1 at 4:20am. We eventually started moving towards the start line at 4:30am. I had my Maurten 320 caff gel at 4:50am, and then before long it was 5:00am and we were off running. I was one row behind the start, and everything was clean off the line.
Conditions - Clear, Wind 2mph to 3mph
Start: Temp+Dew = 63°F + 63°F; FL - 64°F
End: Temp+Dew = 62°F + 62°F; FL - 64°F
The legs felt decent from the start. Good cadence. Good breathing. I checked in and saw I was in the 6:20-6:30 area and was pleased. There were only a handful of people in front of me, and then suddenly two young guys went blazing by everyone. We all looked like we were running in sand in comparison to them. It was crazy how much faster and smooter they looked than the rest of us. Eventually another pack of two showed up behind us and moved smoothly through the crowd too. The three top ladies formed a group and were in lock step and Mile 1. For me, I finished Mile 1 in 6:27 pace. I was pleased with that given the conditions. I kept the pedal down as best I could. A guy in pink and a guy in a Snow White dress were stopping at the character stops and still running faster than me. It was fun to see. The second mile didn’t feel as easy as the first. It had the cambered downhill in it. I could see that the lead woman had started to pull away from the pack a bit. I came in at 6:39 for the second mile. I wasn’t pleased, so I ratcheted up the effort level higher. I was running pretty hard now. My legs were quick and I was trying to stay as relaxed as possible. We headed up the cambered uphill and I was passed by one other person here. So I figured I was in about 14th-15th place at this point. The third mile came in at 6:41. So I was maintaining despite the increase in effort. Around Mile 3.5 is when I couldn’t see anyone in front or behind me anymore. It was kind of interesting because it was just me and the medical bike running along side me. He followed me for the next mile or so. I finished the fourth mile in 6:45. I kept the pedal down as much as I could, but I could tell things were falling for me. I was running around the Boardwalk, saw a bunny, and as I was passing Beach Club could see someone just a few meters behind me. Slowly reeling me in. Finished Mile 5 in 6:57, and things were getting tough. Somewhere inside EPCOT is when the guy behind me passed me, and I was ok with it. At this point it wasn’t going to be a great performance, and I still had a HM the next day. So I pulled back slightly, but still a good effort. Finished Mile 6 in 7:08, and then it was time to coast into the finish. Finished in 42:11 in 6.23 miles at HR of 154 bpm. I ran the tangents really well, and came away pleased with that. The effort level was high (evidenced by the HR). So that was close to a max effort under the race day conditions. Not what I wanted going into it, but that’s what I was given. Finished in 16th place overall and 2nd place AG. Too bad they don’t do AG awards anymore. I’ve got some thoughts on why the race went the way it did, but I’ll save those thoughts for the end.
I drank some chocolate milk. Congrats a few other runners, including the Women’s winner, and then made my way to the bus. I did some stretching before getting on. And then sometime after 6am they released our bus to head back to the resort. I got back to SS, and then to the room. I made it back before G even got up, so she was shocked when I told her that I had already run a 10k before she awoke from her slumber. I got showered and ready to go. We had a relaxing day on tap, so we just hung around the room and then made our way to the pool around 10am. We hung around the pool for quite some time. Ate some lunch from the SS QS at the pool. At some point later in the day, we made our way towards EPCOT.
I was going to head to the HH meetup at Beach Club. So we drove to Boardwalk and told the person we were there to shop. I left the family at Boardwalk and then I headed to HH. I ran into @princesspirate and her husband just before the meeting. Then at the meetup was @Tiggerette, @SheHulk, @Novatrix, @striker1064, @Sleepy425, and one lurker who made a brief appearance. Always fun to put faces to screen names. We left each other around 3:45pm and I made my way back to EPCOT to meetup with everyone else.
They had Genie+ again, and they all rode Test Track. We then headed to DHS where we had a RnR reservation. But it was like 5:10pm and I was running on fumes. My body score was in the single digits which I haven’t seen since I’ve gotten my watch. So once we got off the skyliner I headed to the bus. It took me about an hour between waiting for the bus and actually arriving at SS. Much longer than I wanted, but oh well. I got dinner at the QS SS, and headed to my room. Ate some pasta, meatballs, and garlic bread. The UW vs Rutgers game was on so I watched the first half before heading to bed at 7:20pm.
They were at DHS and got some pics.
Total Sleep night prior: 7:21 hrs
Total Steps today: 25,506 steps
Total Miles today: 15.5 miles
Next Post: Sunday, February 27th – Part 1 HM,
I was up at 1:38am, and ready to go. It was a few minutes before I wanted to get up, but not too bad. Ate breakfast first (sticking with 2 hours before last porta stop), then showered, then out the door at 2:40am, and at the bus stop by 2:50am for the first bus. We left promptly at 3:01am and headed to EPCOT. Through security, made it to gear check, and then to the DIS meetup spot. The only other person there was @Novatrix. I stuck around for a little bit, but then I ducked out quick to make sure I could get prime position for the 10k. I used the porta around 3:45am. Stretched in s1 towards the front. Did a quick 8 min WU. Hit the portas again. Then eventually found my spot towards the front of s1 at 4:20am. We eventually started moving towards the start line at 4:30am. I had my Maurten 320 caff gel at 4:50am, and then before long it was 5:00am and we were off running. I was one row behind the start, and everything was clean off the line.
Conditions -
Clear, Wind 2mph to 3mphStart: Temp+Dew = 63°F + 63°F; FL - 64°F
End: Temp+Dew = 62°F + 62°F; FL - 64°F
The legs felt decent from the start. Good cadence. Good breathing. I checked in and saw I was in the 6:20-6:30 area and was pleased. There were only a handful of people in front of me, and then suddenly two young guys went blazing by everyone. We all looked like we were running in sand in comparison to them. It was crazy how much faster and smooter they looked than the rest of us. Eventually another pack of two showed up behind us and moved smoothly through the crowd too. The three top ladies formed a group and were in lock step and Mile 1. For me, I finished Mile 1 in 6:27 pace. I was pleased with that given the conditions. I kept the pedal down as best I could. A guy in pink and a guy in a Snow White dress were stopping at the character stops and still running faster than me. It was fun to see. The second mile didn’t feel as easy as the first. It had the cambered downhill in it. I could see that the lead woman had started to pull away from the pack a bit. I came in at 6:39 for the second mile. I wasn’t pleased, so I ratcheted up the effort level higher. I was running pretty hard now. My legs were quick and I was trying to stay as relaxed as possible. We headed up the cambered uphill and I was passed by one other person here. So I figured I was in about 14th-15th place at this point. The third mile came in at 6:41. So I was maintaining despite the increase in effort. Around Mile 3.5 is when I couldn’t see anyone in front or behind me anymore. It was kind of interesting because it was just me and the medical bike running along side me. He followed me for the next mile or so. I finished the fourth mile in 6:45. I kept the pedal down as much as I could, but I could tell things were falling for me. I was running around the Boardwalk, saw a bunny, and as I was passing Beach Club could see someone just a few meters behind me. Slowly reeling me in. Finished Mile 5 in 6:57, and things were getting tough. Somewhere inside EPCOT is when the guy behind me passed me, and I was ok with it. At this point it wasn’t going to be a great performance, and I still had a HM the next day. So I pulled back slightly, but still a good effort. Finished Mile 6 in 7:08, and then it was time to coast into the finish. Finished in 42:11 in 6.23 miles at HR of 154 bpm. I ran the tangents really well, and came away pleased with that. The effort level was high (evidenced by the HR). So that was close to a max effort under the race day conditions. Not what I wanted going into it, but that’s what I was given. Finished in 16th place overall and 2nd place AG. Too bad they don’t do AG awards anymore. I’ve got some thoughts on why the race went the way it did, but I’ll save those thoughts for the end.
I drank some chocolate milk. Congrats a few other runners, including the Women’s winner, and then made my way to the bus. I did some stretching before getting on. And then sometime after 6am they released our bus to head back to the resort. I got back to SS, and then to the room. I made it back before G even got up, so she was shocked when I told her that I had already run a 10k before she awoke from her slumber. I got showered and ready to go. We had a relaxing day on tap, so we just hung around the room and then made our way to the pool around 10am. We hung around the pool for quite some time. Ate some lunch from the SS QS at the pool. At some point later in the day, we made our way towards EPCOT.
I was going to head to the HH meetup at Beach Club. So we drove to Boardwalk and told the person we were there to shop. I left the family at Boardwalk and then I headed to HH. I ran into @princesspirate and her husband just before the meeting. Then at the meetup was @Tiggerette, @SheHulk, @Novatrix, @striker1064, @Sleepy425, and one lurker who made a brief appearance. Always fun to put faces to screen names. We left each other around 3:45pm and I made my way back to EPCOT to meetup with everyone else.
They had Genie+ again, and they all rode Test Track. We then headed to DHS where we had a RnR reservation. But it was like 5:10pm and I was running on fumes. My body score was in the single digits which I haven’t seen since I’ve gotten my watch. So once we got off the skyliner I headed to the bus. It took me about an hour between waiting for the bus and actually arriving at SS. Much longer than I wanted, but oh well. I got dinner at the QS SS, and headed to my room. Ate some pasta, meatballs, and garlic bread. The UW vs Rutgers game was on so I watched the first half before heading to bed at 7:20pm.
They were at DHS and got some pics.
Total Sleep night prior: 7:21 hrs
Total Steps today: 25,506 steps
Total Miles today: 15.5 miles
Next Post: Sunday, February 27th – Part 1 HM,
Last edited:
DopeyBadger
Imagathoner
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2015
Sunday, February 27th – Part 1 HM
Up at 1:30am, and ready to take on the HM. I took a shower, ate breakfast, got dressed and was out the door at 2:25am. Got on the second bus around 2:35am, and we were off not too long after. The driver asked how to get to EPCOT which made me a bit nervous. Then he was driving and picking up runners along the exit route from SS. But in the end, it didn’t matter. He knew where he was going, and we made it without issue. Got there around 3:00am probably. Through security, did gear check, and made it to the DIS meetup spot. I stuck around for longer and had nice chats with those that were there. Nice to see the costumes.
Headed over to the start line area with @striker1064. Hit up the restrooms, and then made my way into the s1 group. I set my water down, did some stretching, and then did a quick 5 min WU. Headed to the restrooms for one last stop, and then was up at the front start line around 4:25am. This time they had s1 lined up right on the start line in the EPCOT parking lot. No one gave me much guff cutting through the crowd to get right up on the tape. I hung around there. At 4:45am, I pulled out my Maurten 320 caff drink. I had a sinking feeling that the race would be delayed, but they hadn’t said anything yet. Figured it would be a new traffic pattern like Marathon 2020 and there would be issues. I stuck with my timing and drank my drink. And then moments later is when they announced that the race would be delayed 15 min. That was going to mess with my liquid and caffeine timing. Slowly but surely the edge to need to use the restroom creeped in. But eventually everything subsided and it was time to run.
Before the race, I came up with a strategy. Run hard to the MK castle and then reassess. If things were going well, then continue to push hard. If things weren’t where I wanted them to be, then I’d start to stop for character photos.
Conditions - Clear, Wind 3mph to 7mph
Start: Temp+Dew = 61°F + 60°F; FL - 62°F
End: Temp+Dew = 60°F + 59°F; FL - 62°F
The race start was clean and I was feeling good at the outset. The leaders in the race were gone quick, but I never expected to stick with them for long. I was focused on my own race. The first mile came in at 7:06 and I was really pleased. My body felt much better today than it did for the 10k. I was sticking hard to the tangents unlike the few runners around me. Not sure why there were running really bad tangents. They’ve got to be runDisney newbies because they really weren’t paying attention at all. The second mile came in at 7:02, and I was liking where I was at. The body was feeling good. I had a few people around me, but not many. The third mile at 6:54 was fabulous. I was loving it. The breathing and legs were feeling decent. The fourth mile is when we went through the TTC. There was a slightly smaller crowd then I was used to, but still supportive. The fourth mile was 6:54. Still going good. Things were a touch tougher, but not impossible. The down/up outside of Contemporary got to me. I had to avoid a fast moving wheelchair. As I was running through the MK bus area and I started to think, how do I feel? Am I going to continue on this pace? I was probably on pace for a third fastest HM. Could I keep this up? Do I want to keep this up? Do I want some pictures? I got on to Main Street and was keeping an eye out for @PreincessPirate ‘s husband. I ran around Tomorrowland and Fantasyland. I was coming up on the castle and then I made the decision I was going to stop.
As I ran towards the Photopass area, they informed me that I was officially the first person to stop for a castle pic! Awesome! The photographer wasn’t ready for me. She was like, oh wait someone’s here. LOL! It was so hard to hold still for her. It felt like an eternity, but it was probably like 10 seconds. Eventually she got everything figured out and took my pic.
And then I blasted off. The legs/lungs felt so much better after this very short break. I was flying again. I saw Jessie? maybe but didn’t stop for her in Frontierland. I saw the Queen of Hearts as I was exiting MK and I was like, yea let’s do that one. So I made a heart with my hands.
Finished Mile 6 at 7:04. Which means I must have been flying because that included two character stops (Castle and Queen). Hit up the aid station and kept the train moving. I think during Mile 7 I took pictures with Anna/Elsa and Periwinkle/Tinkerbell.
I was jockeying with two other runners (older than me male and a female around 16-18 years old). I would stop for a character, and then pass them, and then stop, and then pass them. I was having a good time out there. Mile 7 was 7:15 pace with two character stops and an aid station stop. Mile 8 I stopped for Tiana and Princes Naveen. I was going to do a proposal picture, but then I saw Naveen and thought better of it. So then I tried to pretend to be a frog, but let’s just say what I thought I looked like and what I actually looked like wasn’t even close.
Mile 8 was 7:09. The ninth mile was tough because there was a long stretch with no characters and no aid stations. Which meant I didn’t have a reason to stop. My body was starting to struggle a bit without the break, but I kept pushing through. I did this mile in 7:12, which was actually slower than the previous mile despite having a character stop and aid station in it. Possibly the tail end of Mile 9 or start of Mile 10 is where the Princess from Bug’s Life was.
Mile 10 was a long straight away and I was getting lots of hoots and hollers from the runners at Mile 1.5. Finished it at 7:25 which was the slowest mile and I’m not sure why. During Mile 11 we headed up the cambered on ramp. I was still with the older guy and younger girl, and was slowly pulling ahead of them again. We’d been together for closing in on four miles now. Once we hit the top of the ramp (Mile 10.5) a single runner passed me, and I pointed out to the group that we could see the sweepers and the balloon ladies at Mile 1.25. Soak it in everyone, there won’t be many times we’ll see the balloon ladies. Finished Mile 11 at 7:10. Feeling good on the downhill. I saw Genie at 12.5 and he looked lonely. So I stopped to take a picture with him.
Finished Mile 12 at 7:25. Around this time I saw Jasmine/Apu and stopped for them. The photographer and crew didn’t even realize I had stopped. They were all looking at their camera, and then I was like, “hey ya’ll we doing this?” LOL! They realized I was there and took the picture. Although I never got that one, so I think her camera truly wasn’t ready (or having issues maybe?). Oh well. I kept things up and saw Musketeer Mickey/Donald and stopped for them.
I was just cruising to the finish line soaking everything in. I saw the choir, and then I saw the finish line. I looked around me and saw it was empty behind me. So I decided to go for the finish line jump pick.
Finished the race in 1:35:20, 7:10 pace, HR of 147 bpm, 51st overall, and 8th AG. When I combined my 10k+HM time, I finished in 9th place overall amongst Challenge runners. So, a Top 10 Princess Challenge finish. Can’t complain about that!
A solid run and solid experience all around. Officially fourth fastest of 19 HMs. So that’s terrific. A relatively warm HM, and I stopped for characters, and I still had a 4th/19th fastest HM performance. I went through the finisher’s area. Ran into Farron (VP) and shook his hand and thanked him for a great race. Said hi to Clarissa as well. Found the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place HM females and congratulated them as well. Made my way through the finish area with a big smile on my face. Got to the bus area and did some stretching. Knew the buses weren’t likely to be leaving anytime soon. Eventually we were headed off after waiting something like 20 min or so (around 7:30am). We headed to OKW first, and the driver and coordinator got into a tiff. Not sure what was said, but she got off the bus screaming at him saying he couldn’t talk to her like that. Episode lasted like 2-4 min, and then finally cooler heads prevailed, and we were off. We made it to SS, and then I got off the bus around 7:50am. Headed back to the room.
Next Post: Sunday, February 27th – Part 2 Disney Springs, MK
Up at 1:30am, and ready to take on the HM. I took a shower, ate breakfast, got dressed and was out the door at 2:25am. Got on the second bus around 2:35am, and we were off not too long after. The driver asked how to get to EPCOT which made me a bit nervous. Then he was driving and picking up runners along the exit route from SS. But in the end, it didn’t matter. He knew where he was going, and we made it without issue. Got there around 3:00am probably. Through security, did gear check, and made it to the DIS meetup spot. I stuck around for longer and had nice chats with those that were there. Nice to see the costumes.
Headed over to the start line area with @striker1064. Hit up the restrooms, and then made my way into the s1 group. I set my water down, did some stretching, and then did a quick 5 min WU. Headed to the restrooms for one last stop, and then was up at the front start line around 4:25am. This time they had s1 lined up right on the start line in the EPCOT parking lot. No one gave me much guff cutting through the crowd to get right up on the tape. I hung around there. At 4:45am, I pulled out my Maurten 320 caff drink. I had a sinking feeling that the race would be delayed, but they hadn’t said anything yet. Figured it would be a new traffic pattern like Marathon 2020 and there would be issues. I stuck with my timing and drank my drink. And then moments later is when they announced that the race would be delayed 15 min. That was going to mess with my liquid and caffeine timing. Slowly but surely the edge to need to use the restroom creeped in. But eventually everything subsided and it was time to run.
Before the race, I came up with a strategy. Run hard to the MK castle and then reassess. If things were going well, then continue to push hard. If things weren’t where I wanted them to be, then I’d start to stop for character photos.
Conditions -
Clear, Wind 3mph to 7mphStart: Temp+Dew = 61°F + 60°F; FL - 62°F
End: Temp+Dew = 60°F + 59°F; FL - 62°F
The race start was clean and I was feeling good at the outset. The leaders in the race were gone quick, but I never expected to stick with them for long. I was focused on my own race. The first mile came in at 7:06 and I was really pleased. My body felt much better today than it did for the 10k. I was sticking hard to the tangents unlike the few runners around me. Not sure why there were running really bad tangents. They’ve got to be runDisney newbies because they really weren’t paying attention at all. The second mile came in at 7:02, and I was liking where I was at. The body was feeling good. I had a few people around me, but not many. The third mile at 6:54 was fabulous. I was loving it. The breathing and legs were feeling decent. The fourth mile is when we went through the TTC. There was a slightly smaller crowd then I was used to, but still supportive. The fourth mile was 6:54. Still going good. Things were a touch tougher, but not impossible. The down/up outside of Contemporary got to me. I had to avoid a fast moving wheelchair. As I was running through the MK bus area and I started to think, how do I feel? Am I going to continue on this pace? I was probably on pace for a third fastest HM. Could I keep this up? Do I want to keep this up? Do I want some pictures? I got on to Main Street and was keeping an eye out for @PreincessPirate ‘s husband. I ran around Tomorrowland and Fantasyland. I was coming up on the castle and then I made the decision I was going to stop.
As I ran towards the Photopass area, they informed me that I was officially the first person to stop for a castle pic! Awesome! The photographer wasn’t ready for me. She was like, oh wait someone’s here. LOL! It was so hard to hold still for her. It felt like an eternity, but it was probably like 10 seconds. Eventually she got everything figured out and took my pic.
And then I blasted off. The legs/lungs felt so much better after this very short break. I was flying again. I saw Jessie? maybe but didn’t stop for her in Frontierland. I saw the Queen of Hearts as I was exiting MK and I was like, yea let’s do that one. So I made a heart with my hands.
Finished Mile 6 at 7:04. Which means I must have been flying because that included two character stops (Castle and Queen). Hit up the aid station and kept the train moving. I think during Mile 7 I took pictures with Anna/Elsa and Periwinkle/Tinkerbell.
I was jockeying with two other runners (older than me male and a female around 16-18 years old). I would stop for a character, and then pass them, and then stop, and then pass them. I was having a good time out there. Mile 7 was 7:15 pace with two character stops and an aid station stop. Mile 8 I stopped for Tiana and Princes Naveen. I was going to do a proposal picture, but then I saw Naveen and thought better of it. So then I tried to pretend to be a frog, but let’s just say what I thought I looked like and what I actually looked like wasn’t even close.
Mile 8 was 7:09. The ninth mile was tough because there was a long stretch with no characters and no aid stations. Which meant I didn’t have a reason to stop. My body was starting to struggle a bit without the break, but I kept pushing through. I did this mile in 7:12, which was actually slower than the previous mile despite having a character stop and aid station in it. Possibly the tail end of Mile 9 or start of Mile 10 is where the Princess from Bug’s Life was.
Mile 10 was a long straight away and I was getting lots of hoots and hollers from the runners at Mile 1.5. Finished it at 7:25 which was the slowest mile and I’m not sure why. During Mile 11 we headed up the cambered on ramp. I was still with the older guy and younger girl, and was slowly pulling ahead of them again. We’d been together for closing in on four miles now. Once we hit the top of the ramp (Mile 10.5) a single runner passed me, and I pointed out to the group that we could see the sweepers and the balloon ladies at Mile 1.25. Soak it in everyone, there won’t be many times we’ll see the balloon ladies. Finished Mile 11 at 7:10. Feeling good on the downhill. I saw Genie at 12.5 and he looked lonely. So I stopped to take a picture with him.
Finished Mile 12 at 7:25. Around this time I saw Jasmine/Apu and stopped for them. The photographer and crew didn’t even realize I had stopped. They were all looking at their camera, and then I was like, “hey ya’ll we doing this?” LOL! They realized I was there and took the picture. Although I never got that one, so I think her camera truly wasn’t ready (or having issues maybe?). Oh well. I kept things up and saw Musketeer Mickey/Donald and stopped for them.
I was just cruising to the finish line soaking everything in. I saw the choir, and then I saw the finish line. I looked around me and saw it was empty behind me. So I decided to go for the finish line jump pick.
Finished the race in 1:35:20, 7:10 pace, HR of 147 bpm, 51st overall, and 8th AG. When I combined my 10k+HM time, I finished in 9th place overall amongst Challenge runners. So, a Top 10 Princess Challenge finish. Can’t complain about that!
A solid run and solid experience all around. Officially fourth fastest of 19 HMs. So that’s terrific. A relatively warm HM, and I stopped for characters, and I still had a 4th/19th fastest HM performance. I went through the finisher’s area. Ran into Farron (VP) and shook his hand and thanked him for a great race. Said hi to Clarissa as well. Found the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place HM females and congratulated them as well. Made my way through the finish area with a big smile on my face. Got to the bus area and did some stretching. Knew the buses weren’t likely to be leaving anytime soon. Eventually we were headed off after waiting something like 20 min or so (around 7:30am). We headed to OKW first, and the driver and coordinator got into a tiff. Not sure what was said, but she got off the bus screaming at him saying he couldn’t talk to her like that. Episode lasted like 2-4 min, and then finally cooler heads prevailed, and we were off. We made it to SS, and then I got off the bus around 7:50am. Headed back to the room.
Next Post: Sunday, February 27th – Part 2 Disney Springs, MK
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DopeyBadger
Imagathoner
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2015
Sunday, February 27th – Part 2 Disney Springs, MK
Steph was planning to head to Gideons for opening (10am) and the advice we had gotten was to get to the opening of Disney Springs at 9am. I was feeling good, so I was ready to go at 8:40am and headed to DS with everyone else. Made it to DS and people around me were surprised I was already in DS at 9am after having run the HM that morning. We quick walked to Gideon’s and were about 20-30th in line around 9:10am. We waited until 9:36am or so and then they opened early. We didn’t wait much longer (maybe 10 min) and then we were inside and ordering.
We didn’t hold back. We ordered six cookies (2x PB, 2x coffee cake, Choc Chip, and Choc/Pistachio), and one slice of PB cake. Yum!
We hit up the pearl stand. The stand in Japan and on the Boardwalk were both closed, but thankfully this one was open. Our tradition is to get a pearl for every trip G has been on. So this was her 10th trip. The pearl she got was large and iridescent! Absolutely fitting for the 50th anniversary trip.
We did a little bit of shopping, and then around 10:45 we got in line at Polite Pig (first in line). We got the meat sampler platter. Delicious!
We did a little more shopping, and then we headed back to SS to get in the rental car. We headed out for our last theme park day at MK. We got there around mid-day, and did preferred parking at TTC again. G wanted to dress up in her Scarlet Witch costume again. We saw Mickey and friends in their 50th celebration outfits when we entered.
We headed down Main Street and took a group photo.
I believe we had Genie+ reservations for Jungle Cruise. Fairly normal Jungle Cruise ride with comedic timing. Wanda even got a shout-out. Afterwards, we headed towards getting some Dole Whip but the lines at both locations in Adventure Land were insanely long. I think this is when we split up and me/BIL/SIL/Steph went to Big Thunder and FIL/MIL/G went to Haunted Mansion. The line at Big Thunder moved relatively quickly with our Genie+ reservation. We were in the front car so the ride was relatively tame. I’m not complaining.
After Big Thunder, we made our way towards Haunted Mansion to reconnect with G and others. Their Genie+ reservation time came up so we walked them to the entrance. The LL line was super long, and so was the non-LL line. The non-LL line was like 60 min, and according to the cast member the LL line was probably like 45 min at that point. So G and the others decided to ditch their LL for Haunted Mansion and move on. As we were walking through Frontierland we saw a photopass photographer and stopped for some photos with G in her costume.
After that, I think we headed towards Tomorrowland, and did the Laugh Floor. G was really hoping to get to talk, but she was never selected. FIL was really really hoping to be selected for “That Guy”. He was even wearing his “That Guy” shirt. But I think we got in too late and he wasn’t selected. He’s been chosen multiple times. Probably because he has a tendency to look like a grumpy older man whose unapproachable.
After the Laugh Floor, we hung around Tomorrowland for a bit until our Genie+ at Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin. I’ve never excelled at this ride but did better since I read some online tutorials about where the big point targets were. Still not great though.
We left Tomorrowland and the stage show had restarted so G and Steph watched that. The debate was where to sit/stand for the fireworks show. It was about 6:30pm or so, so we still had some time before the fireworks started. There was a really good spot on the southeast side of the castle where the path was raised and had some seating along a fence line with a fairly unobstructed view. Steph had read that watching from the 50th celebration Stitch by the Purple Instagram Wall was a good place too, but after scoping it out myself, I didn’t think it was great. We ended up settling on the seating outside The Plaza Restaurant. I’d say for a seated location, it's a pretty decent location because the path north of the seating is kept moving. So you have a fairly unobstructed view. Not as great as the VIP seating, but still decent. We got Casey hotdogs for dinner, and for the cost, it actually wasn’t half bad.
After the fireworks show we headed towards Dumbo for some of our last rides of the trip. We had a Genie+ reservation, but it was fairly useless since the ride was walk-on anyways. I rode it once, everyone else did it twice. G and Steph rode the Carousel, and then we headed back up towards the exit. Goodbye Magic Kingdom.
This was one of my first experiences doing the monorail back to TTC at around closing (and not extra hours). It was fairly busy, but all in all wasn’t terrible. It took us two train loads of people before we were able to get on one. So we waited for like 10-15 min at the most. All considered, not bad. Got back to the TTC in a sea of people, got to the car (not an empty lot this time), and then headed back to SS. Headed to bed around 11pm.
Total Sleep night prior: 6:08 hrs
Total Steps today: 45,823 steps
Total Miles today: 27.9 miles
Next Post: Monday, February 28th – Grand Floridian, Flight home
Steph was planning to head to Gideons for opening (10am) and the advice we had gotten was to get to the opening of Disney Springs at 9am. I was feeling good, so I was ready to go at 8:40am and headed to DS with everyone else. Made it to DS and people around me were surprised I was already in DS at 9am after having run the HM that morning. We quick walked to Gideon’s and were about 20-30th in line around 9:10am. We waited until 9:36am or so and then they opened early. We didn’t wait much longer (maybe 10 min) and then we were inside and ordering.
We didn’t hold back. We ordered six cookies (2x PB, 2x coffee cake, Choc Chip, and Choc/Pistachio), and one slice of PB cake. Yum!
We hit up the pearl stand. The stand in Japan and on the Boardwalk were both closed, but thankfully this one was open. Our tradition is to get a pearl for every trip G has been on. So this was her 10th trip. The pearl she got was large and iridescent! Absolutely fitting for the 50th anniversary trip.
We did a little bit of shopping, and then around 10:45 we got in line at Polite Pig (first in line). We got the meat sampler platter. Delicious!
We did a little more shopping, and then we headed back to SS to get in the rental car. We headed out for our last theme park day at MK. We got there around mid-day, and did preferred parking at TTC again. G wanted to dress up in her Scarlet Witch costume again. We saw Mickey and friends in their 50th celebration outfits when we entered.
We headed down Main Street and took a group photo.
I believe we had Genie+ reservations for Jungle Cruise. Fairly normal Jungle Cruise ride with comedic timing. Wanda even got a shout-out. Afterwards, we headed towards getting some Dole Whip but the lines at both locations in Adventure Land were insanely long. I think this is when we split up and me/BIL/SIL/Steph went to Big Thunder and FIL/MIL/G went to Haunted Mansion. The line at Big Thunder moved relatively quickly with our Genie+ reservation. We were in the front car so the ride was relatively tame. I’m not complaining.
After Big Thunder, we made our way towards Haunted Mansion to reconnect with G and others. Their Genie+ reservation time came up so we walked them to the entrance. The LL line was super long, and so was the non-LL line. The non-LL line was like 60 min, and according to the cast member the LL line was probably like 45 min at that point. So G and the others decided to ditch their LL for Haunted Mansion and move on. As we were walking through Frontierland we saw a photopass photographer and stopped for some photos with G in her costume.
After that, I think we headed towards Tomorrowland, and did the Laugh Floor. G was really hoping to get to talk, but she was never selected. FIL was really really hoping to be selected for “That Guy”. He was even wearing his “That Guy” shirt. But I think we got in too late and he wasn’t selected. He’s been chosen multiple times. Probably because he has a tendency to look like a grumpy older man whose unapproachable.
After the Laugh Floor, we hung around Tomorrowland for a bit until our Genie+ at Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin. I’ve never excelled at this ride but did better since I read some online tutorials about where the big point targets were. Still not great though.
We left Tomorrowland and the stage show had restarted so G and Steph watched that. The debate was where to sit/stand for the fireworks show. It was about 6:30pm or so, so we still had some time before the fireworks started. There was a really good spot on the southeast side of the castle where the path was raised and had some seating along a fence line with a fairly unobstructed view. Steph had read that watching from the 50th celebration Stitch by the Purple Instagram Wall was a good place too, but after scoping it out myself, I didn’t think it was great. We ended up settling on the seating outside The Plaza Restaurant. I’d say for a seated location, it's a pretty decent location because the path north of the seating is kept moving. So you have a fairly unobstructed view. Not as great as the VIP seating, but still decent. We got Casey hotdogs for dinner, and for the cost, it actually wasn’t half bad.
After the fireworks show we headed towards Dumbo for some of our last rides of the trip. We had a Genie+ reservation, but it was fairly useless since the ride was walk-on anyways. I rode it once, everyone else did it twice. G and Steph rode the Carousel, and then we headed back up towards the exit. Goodbye Magic Kingdom.
This was one of my first experiences doing the monorail back to TTC at around closing (and not extra hours). It was fairly busy, but all in all wasn’t terrible. It took us two train loads of people before we were able to get on one. So we waited for like 10-15 min at the most. All considered, not bad. Got back to the TTC in a sea of people, got to the car (not an empty lot this time), and then headed back to SS. Headed to bed around 11pm.
Total Sleep night prior: 6:08 hrs
Total Steps today: 45,823 steps
Total Miles today: 27.9 miles
Next Post: Monday, February 28th – Grand Floridian, Flight home
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