To Infinity and Beyond - Becoming a Better DopeyBadger (Comments Welcome)

[FFigawi]

G says 42:00 for the 10k.

Damn, she’s good

 

[nancipants]

Amazing time! You finished before I started.

 

[DopeyBadger]

G guesses 1:35:00 for tomorrow

 

[DopeyBadger]

2023 Princess Weekend Trip Report and Race Recaps





Wednesday, February 22nd – Flight to Disney, Magic Kingdom
Thursday, February 23rd – Expo, Blizzard Beach, DHS
Friday, February 24th – 5k Race Recap, Disney Springs, AK
Saturday, February 25th – 10k Race Recap, EPCOT, Meetup, DHS
Sunday, February 26th – HM Race Recap, VIP Tour
Monday, February 27th – Switching hotels to Wilderness, First Hair Cut, Horseback riding, EPCOT
Tuesday, February 28th - MK and Swimming
Wednesday, March 1st – Flight home from Disney
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 8th runDisney weekend. Six were Marathon Weekend (5 Dopeys and 1 solo Marathon), and I did Princess 2022 as well. We hadn’t planned on returning to Princess in 2023 going into the 2022 trip. But after my daughter did the 5k in 2022, she convinced my wife to give up her ideas about a Hawaiian vacation and we were heading back for Princess 2023. My daughter wanted to go bigger and better on the costumes, and so we tried.

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).

Next Post: Wednesday, February 22nd – Flight to Disney, Magic Kingdom

 

[DopeyBadger]

Wednesday, February 22nd – Flight to Disney, Magic Kingdom

The real question leading into the trip was whether the trip was going to even happen. We were scheduled to fly out to Disney out of Madison, WI on Wednesday. By Saturday/Sunday of the week prior it was looking clear that there was going to be a massive snowstorm hitting the Midwest sometime around Wednesday/Thursday. By Monday, the predictions were going from as little as 1 inch to as much as 10-22 inches, maybe ice, maybe high winds. There was a lot of uncertainty. We investigated flights going out of other airports, or other days, but we were talking about at least $1000. I told Steph (my wife) to stop doom scrolling the internet about the weather. We live in the upper Midwest, and I felt reasonably comfortable that if the conditions were “safe” then we were likely to fly out. So, I wasn’t overly concerned.

Wednesday rolled around and things were looking iffy. It was hard to tell from the forecast when the weather would start to hit. Our flight was scheduled for 11:45am, and the bad weather was supposed to start around the same time. So, we all held our breath as the hours ticked by. Leaving out of Madison was nice because it’s not a far drive from where we live compared to Milwaukee. But the downside is there are fewer options if something goes wrong (like inclement weather).

Since the flight was mid-day, I was able to get in a 60 min run on the treadmill before we headed out. I think we left the house around 9:30am, got to the airport around 9:50am or so, got through security. I was interested to see how security would go since the one carry-on had all the electronic components for the Ms. Marvel and Shang-Chi costumes. They didn’t even take a second look. The Maui hook was in the checked luggage in a hard covered suitcase. It has a middle compartment, and then I surrounded the hook with semi-ridged foam core board. We went and got some snacks/water, and before long we boarded our plane. The weather wasn’t terrible, but as they were de-icing the plane the ice started to fall outside. So, we got out of there right at the right time. Although when we landed and checked our doorbell cameras, it didn’t look all that bad. So, we probably would have been fine regardless.



My recollection is that we landed around 4pm local time. We had dining reservations at Grand Floridian Café at 6:00pm. Based on prior experience, expecting us to make something within 2 hours from landing it right on the cut line. We got off the flight and picked up our checked luggage. I double checked the Maui hook made it in one piece (It did), and then we headed to Alamo for our car rental. We had 7 people in our party, so we needed a reasonably large vehicle. Last year we got a Chevy Suburban, but they didn’t have any of those available this year. Instead, we were given a Jeep Grand Wagoneer. Admittedly, this is a nice vehicle. It seemed a touch smaller than the Suburban, but it didn’t help that my BIL brought his golf clubs on the trip via checked luggage instead of having them shipped like he did last year. But even still all our bags did not fit in the trunk, and some had to be placed on people’s laps.

For this trip we did a split stay at Saratoga Springs and Wilderness. We had originally booked the second leg of the trip at the Polynesian, but changed that at some point in the lead-up based on the price difference between the two. I feel like we made it to Saratoga around 5:35 and agreed we had no more than 10 min to drop our bags and get back in the car back to GF. We had requested The Grandstand 8500 building. That’s where we stayed for last year’s trip and the walk to the main building, main pool and runDisney pickup spot was no more than 8 min or so. The main pool was down for renovations for this trip, but the ease of getting to the runDisney bus spot was a plus. We ended up getting assigned the 9100 building which was only a touch further away. It took about 10 min from leaving my room to getting to the runDisney bus spot.







We dropped our bags, snapped a quick pic of the room, and then we were off to GF Café by 5:50pm. The drive was easy enough. Got to the gate and confirmed our dining reservation with the attendant. I think we were a touch late (maybe 6:10), but we checked in and were seated in short order. While this may come as a shock, for many of us on the trip, I believe this was our first indoor dining (not patio dining) that we’ve had anywhere (not just Disney) since March 2020. So, it’s been a while to say the least. We ate at the GF Café for breakfast at the last trip, so we were eager to try it for dinner. I ordered a salad (simple Caesar?) that seemed kind of small when it arrived, but it was deceiving. It was pretty good. But since I hadn’t eaten lunch and it had been a really long time since a real meal, about anything would have tasted good at that moment. The table also got free bread, and I ate several of those. For my main meal, I ordered the NY Strip Steak, G did as well, and Steph got Shrimp and grits. I ordered the steak medium, and G’s was ordered well. But when they came out, both of ours were very medium. G actually really liked it. It’s been a while since I’ve had a restaurant steak, and it was really really good. That was the agreement around the table for this meal. A solid 10/10, A+ across the board. Despite all having different meal choices, everyone left It satisfied. No dessert, paid the check and we were on our way to MK.

MK had late hours, but how late we felt like staying was up in the air. We took the monorail from GF over to MK. Scanned in around 7:25pm, and then snapped this lovely picture of the family.







Visitors were getting prepared for the fireworks show on Main Street. So, we veered to the right and headed through the overflow area to avoid the congestion. We made our way over to Tomorrowland. We didn’t have any specific goals for the evening but to ride some rides. We decided to open the trip with some People Mover action.







Then made our way over to the Tomorrowland Speedway. I sat this one out because sometimes the loud sound and smell can bother me. Oh no, we’ve got a tween driver on the road!





I stood outside the Cheshire Cat stand next to the tea cups and snapped this picture of the Cheshire Cat moon!







We went and rode Dumbo during the fireworks for some great views! We did Ariel’s ride, and then we headed over for some Tea Cups action. G certainly didn’t seem Mad to me.







G was hankering for a Mickey ice cream bar. So BIL went and got the two of them each one. When G opened the package, it broke off the stick immediately and hit the ground. Splat. Tears were shed about the loss of poor Mickey. But BIL pulled a solid and gave G his.







By now it was about 9pm. The fireworks has just ended and the line for Pirates of the Caribbean was showing about 10 min. When we got to there from Fantasy land, there was a steady stream of people entering the queue, but the wait posted was still 10 min. I posited that it was unlikely to be 10 min, but the group decided to forge ahead anyways. It ended up being closer to 40 min. G had started to develop some blisters from her short socks/shoe combo and she was getting worn out. So POC was a good ride, but in retrospect I think everyone would have agreed that we probably should have skipped it and headed to the exit. We did leave after POC. We arrived around 7:25pm and got on 6-7 rides in about 2hrs time. We all left pretty satisfied with what we had accomplished in such a short period of time.


We exited MK, boarded the monorail, and made our way back to our Vehicle at GF. We made it back to Saratoga by around 11pm (?), and then Steph and I unpacked the bags. According to my Garmin I was asleep/in bed at 12:06am. The hard part was going to be that I intended on getting up the next morning (Friday before the 5k) around 1:15am. So, I was almost at the time I planned to be waking up at in 24 hrs. So how much sleep should I try and get? If I sleep in, then I may have a ton of trouble getting asleep at 6-7pm. If I get little sleep, then maybe I fall asleep easier at 6-7pm, but maybe not? We decided to aim for a ~7am wake time for a solid but not complete 7 hrs of sleep.


Day’s Stats:
Sleep the night prior: 8:05 hrs
Total Steps: 23,822 steps
Total Miles: 14.0 miles
rHR: 48 bpm
Body Battery: 76 entering the day, and 33 at bedtime


Next Post: Thursday, February 23rd – Expo, Blizzard Beach, DHS

 

[DopeyBadger]

Thursday, February 23rd – Expo, Blizzard Beach, DHS

I was up at 7:10am and felt pretty good. The day was going to be a bit of a flex day because I had no idea when I was going to be headed to the Princess Expo. They were using a new virtual queue system for the runDisney merch area of the Expo which debuted at the 2022 Wine and Dine weekend. They also used it as Marathon Weekend. After last year’s purchases, I wasn’t anticipating buying much official merch. Last year was G’s first 5k. But now this was old hat. BUT… when the merch preview came out, Steph said she wanted “all the stuff” again. So, I had to be ready for the VQ. Last year I just got dropped off super early and waited in an in-person queue until they let us in. The VQ was a means to stop that behavior and instead your ability to get into the official race merch area was at the whims of your fast fingers. I watched a few YouTube tip videos on how to snag fast VQs. Don’t use Wi-Fi, and make sure you have five bars were the two most important. In order to get five bars, I had to walk out onto our patio. Then come 8:28am I opened the app, selected me as the only member of the party going to the expo, and then just hit the refresh button. Steph did the same on her phone for me as well. Instead of tapping whenever the “refresh” button appeared, I just kept button mashing that location. So, my app was refreshing faster than Steph’s was until she followed suit. Then once the real button became available, we both just slammed it continuously without double checking anything. Mine came up with an error and I tried a few more times to get in, but then eventually my error informed me that I was already in this virtual queue and couldn’t be double booked. Which meant Steph must have gotten me in. I checked my VQ and I was BG 3! Woot woot! Based on the timing, my estimated call back was actually 9:25am despite the expo opening to non-club runDisney members at 10:00am.


Once that was taken care of, Steph shared the other good news. They had gone to talk to the front desk about the pool situation. The main pool was down for reno. According to the SS Facebook pages, there was quite the competition for chairs at the small pool outside the Grandstand. People were leaving towels on chairs despite not even being present, and this was true right at opening. Cast members were removing towels from unattended chairs. It was my FIL’s 72nd birthday, and part of the plan for the day was some pool time. So, they asked the front desk whether we could travel to a different resort to use their pool since the main pool was down. The front desk explained that OKW has been complaining about SS sending their guests and requested they not do that anymore. So, the front desk person says give me one sec, walked to the backroom, and then came back and informed Steph that she had just put free passes to Blizzard Beach for all of us on our Magic Bands only redeemable that day. So that was cool. I feel like the last time I was at BB was in 2010 for my honeymoon.


With BB opening at 10am, and me having an estimated call back of 9:25am at the expo, we loaded up the car not long after I had my confirmed BG. They decided to drive me to the expo since they were already headed in that general direction, and because the expo buses weren’t scheduled to start until 9:30am. So to take advantage of my early BG, I may not have been able to rely on runDIsney transportation. Admittedly, I’ve had some pretty terrible luck when it comes to runDisney expo bus transportation from the resort to the expo. Lots of delays. Waited over an hour (maybe more) for a bus to come. This was just easier.


I want to say I got to the ESPN WWOS (where the expo was located) around 9:15-9:20am. My estimated call back had been pushed back to what seemed like 9:50-10:00am. I wish there was some signage for drop-offs at the expo. I feel like it was an issue last year on not going to the right place, and then similarly this year as well (got out too early and got scolded). I made my way to where you get your BG checked and mine still showed a wait time, so they didn’t let me pass. The cast member suggested heading to the bib pickup since my estimate said something like 30 min. I headed up that way, but then just had this gut instinct to check again at 9:25am since that was the original estimate an hour earlier when I originally got it. And to my surprise the screen had changed and my BG had been called. Never did get a notification or anything. Glad I looked on a whim.


I headed back to the BG check area, verified my BG, and then headed inside to the large holding room. It was a little pass 9:30am when I was in there. I was in the first row of people. I think they let us inside around 9:45-9:50am or so. I grabbed a shopping basket (ended up being two stuck together so I had to make my way back), and then just took my time perusing things. Checked out things I wanted, things I didn’t want, and things I didn’t know I wanted until I saw them that weren’t in the previews. I ended up grabbing a few XS or S tanks for G, and a new hoodie sweater for myself (my badger hoodie is over 13 years old at this point). The one thing that seemed to be in high demand was the black track jacket that was 2023 Princess specific since quite a few women beelined right for it. Based on the discussion there only seemed to be L or XL remaining, which at first blush was a bit shocking since I was one of the first non-club runDIsney people in the shopping area. But with a bit of retrospect, it was pretty clear that’s all there was for that particular item since not much shelf space was devoted to it. My guess is that it never shipped/arrived in time for Day 1. I got all my items and then made my way to the 2nd building for bib pickup.


There wasn’t much of a line in the holding room for bib pickup and it generally kept moving. Maybe 10-15 min tops. Interestingly I saw someone who seemed to be recording/live streaming and for 0.5-1 second saw I was in line with the camera, so I wondered if I was captured in line. I later saw it posted in a Facebook group and indeed there I was. It’s a small world after all. Got downstairs where the bibs were and got in line for G and my 5k bibs. Showed my expo pass, my ID, and then got my bib. Then I showed G’s expo pass, and the volunteer got really confused. I think the young guy thought I was trying to pull a fast one because he never confirmed the second pass. He paused, looked at me, and then just went looking for it. Not sure if he didn’t realize that we could pick up minor’s without them present. Not really sure what he was thinking in the moment, but all was well. Got in line for the Challenge bib after that. Saw @Bree in line and briefly chatted about the weather. I got my Challenge bib and then it was off to the third building.


The third building had the free race shirts for pickup. Got in the building, made my way past the vendors, and then to the free shirts. I got in line for the Youth pickup, but the lines were becoming a bit amorphous and then was a photo stop right where the youth line would be. So it was a bit awkward. I asked a woman if she was in the youth line and she gave me some snarky response like “do I look like a kid, no I’m clearly an XXL” or something to that effect. It was weird. Got G’s shirt, and then picked up mine as well. Used the restroom, and then headed towards the resort buses. Based on my text messages, I was headed to the buses around 10:55am. So, all in all it took me about 90 min from being let into the expo building to walking out of there. I was back at SS around 11:30am, and then was at the bus stop by around 12:03pm or so.




Everyone else was still at BB and they wanted me to join them. But the only free way to get to BB is by going to Animal Kingdom, and then taking a second bus from there to BB. So, I got on a AK bus, got there, and then got on a BB bus. Timing wise I’d say I had minimal downtime waiting in either place for a bus. I arrived at BB around 12:50. So, the total trip was about 45 min or so to get from SS to BB. So certainly not the most convenient place to visit.


Steph gave me the locker spot and combo. I found it and dropped off my items inside, knowing that once I placed my phone inside, I was going to have a hard time finding everyone else. Steph had told me that they were to the right of Joffrey’s at the wave pool in the corner. Well, it may come as a bit of a difficult trick when I checked the map and saw no Joffrey’s listed. I did find an unbranded coffee-ish stand outside of the wave pool. I did a couple laps in the area to the right of that in the corner. After about 20-25 min of walking around, I finally spotted everyone else in an area that I wasn’t looking in. Turns out Joffrey’s does exist on the other side of the wave pool despite not being on the map. Additionally, her directions were correct (on the right side in the corner) but our definitions of those are probably a bit different. Regardless, after some searching, I found them. But if this were one of those disaster movie situations and the group gets split and then miraculously finds each other in a different state, pretty sure we’d be SOL here. LOL.


The family laid out how cool BB had been up to that point. They arrived right at opening, and pretty much everything was walk-on. So, they rode quite a bit in the short time they had been there (about 3 hrs at that point). We had some fun in the wave pool, G did some rope traversing over icebergs, we rode the ski lift to the top of the mountain (which clipped my calf upon exiting), we rode the family raft ride (upon which I tortured Steph by rotating it to make sure she was always facing backwards and did all of the ramp ups), explained my stretch marks to G, and then did the racing slides. Got back to the locker and was shocked to see it was only 2:15pm. So we did a lot of things even in the short time I was there. For it being free, it was definitely worth our time. But even so, I’m not sure what the regular cost is, but rope dropping it on a warm day would probably be worth the money.








We made our way back to SS, got cleaned up, and then we headed to DHS around 4pm. We headed over to the Brown Derby patio and got put on the list for an outside table. They told us it would be about an hour wait, so we made our way over to The Muppets. Enjoyed the Muppets and then my SIL saw she had a text from Brown Derby that our table was ready so we headed back over. Took a pic with Edna on the way.






When we got to Brown Derby they had given our table away since it had taken us too long to get back and SIL didn’t respond to the text. But it wasn’t a big deal because they put us back on the list and then called us a few minutes later. I got the Heirloom Tomato and Burrata Salad to start. Not what I was expecting. I didn’t know Burrata was a chesse. I probably wouldn’t order it again, but it did give me some veggies. I got the Braised Short Rib. It was good, but I’ve had better. There was a restaurant I would frequent in St. Louis when I used to travel that had Beef Bourgeon and I compare all similar dishes to that standard. It was such a great dish. It had cubed bacon! But this meal at Brown Derby didn’t compare. I think we made our way out of the park after this. G and I had an early morning wake-up call for the 5k on tap. Despite everyone else originally having these grand plans of what they were going to do for the evening, I’m pretty sure everyone else also went to bed relatively early.


According to Garmin, I had gotten into bed around 7:30pm with a planned 1:15am wakeup call for me. I was so so close to falling asleep around 8:30pm or so, but then I had the urge to use the bathroom, so I did. Unfortunately, I didn’t end up falling asleep until after 10:30pm. So, I was going to be running on pretty low sleep come Friday.


Day’s Stats:
Sleep the night prior: 6:58 hrs
Total Steps: 15,064 steps + an hour at BB without watch on
Total Miles: 7.8 miles + an hour at BB without watch on
rHR: 45 bpm
Body Battery: 85 entering the day, and 33 at bedtime

Next Post: Friday, February 24th – 5k Race Recap, Disney Springs, AK

 

[DopeyBadger]

Friday, February 24th – 5k Race Recap, Disney Springs, AK

Well, hello there 1:15am wakeup call. Ended up getting maybe 3 hrs of sleep, but probably a little less. I had originally planned on waking up a little later, but then I knew the Shang-Chi rings were going to take some time to get on. So, I shifted my plans and woke up 15 min earlier. I took a shower, ate some PB Bagel/banana and then started getting my costume on. I woke G up around 2:15am as well as Steph. Steph helped me put the rings on (it’s a two-person job). I think G and I were ready around 2:40am and then we headed towards the bus spot.

My recollection is that we were on the first bus that morning and were shipped out at 3:00am. We got a few comments on the costumes while on the bus, but once we got close I started turning all the LEDs on and then I heard some audible oohs and ahhs. We made our way through security and then snapped this picture in front of the EPCOT ball.





We had a few people recognize the Ms. Marvel costume on our way. The big question G had was whether we would see any other Ms. Marvel or Shang-Chi costumes. I thought it was possible, but probably not.

We made it to the DIS meetup spot around 3:30am. My recollection was @Naomeri, @azrivest (and family), @QueenFernando, and others (?) were there. Good to see everyone in person again. G met @azrivest’s kids. We got on the topic of future race costumes and then @queenfernando’s husband mentioned, “You know what I haven’t seen yet. I haven’t seen anyone run in a fully mechanized Ironman outfit.” G’s eyes lit up, and she was like, “Yes. Yes, exactly that. WE should do that. You could be a fully mech Ironman and I could be a fully mech Ironheart.” I was like whoa whoa whoa. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Sounds like a great idea but without a 3D printer and $3000 that sounds a bit out of our league. Maybe we need to build up to that.

It wasn’t long after we were there that it was time to head to the corrals. G and I were assigned Corral B of D with our estimated pace of 10-12 min/mile. We made our way over to the portas. G had zero interest in using it. When we exited and were heading to the B corral, I saw a woman out of the corner of my eye that might have been dressed like Ms. Marvel. So, we made a beeline and low and behold she was!





G was so stoked to find another Ms. Marvel. We also ran into at least two Captain Marvels along the way as well. G was sure to say, “I’m your biggest fan” to them as she passed them.

We made our way into the corral and then just hung out until it was our time to get moving towards the start. The A corral was released from the holding area at 4:30am, and then we were released around 4:45am or so. G and I made our way to the starting line. I had G line up on the right side of the walk to the starting line because then she would pass by all the runners that had already passed the hairpin turn headed towards the start line. This allowed us to see more costumes from other runners and call them out. We talked to a nice woman at one point about the Ms. Marvel costume, and then at some point we were talking to a group of women on the other side of the fence about G’s costume. We also saw @lookingforsunshine as she ran up behind us in the walk-up and introduced herself to us. It didn’t take long and then it was coming up on our time for our mini-wave to get started. We saw Carissa on stage and waved but didn’t get any acknowledgement of G’s costume. We started at 5:26am.





Conditions - Broken clouds, Wind 0mph to 1mph
Start: Temp+Dew = 67°F + 65°F; FL - 67°F
End: Temp+Dew = 67°F + 67°F; FL - 67°F


The plan for the race was to maximize our time on course. Stop for all the characters as long as the line was still open. If we stopped for something early on and it had a super long line, all the better because then there wouldn’t be anyone on course with us anymore. I found during the 2022 race that the 47 min long line we stood in before mile one helped thin out the course. So, despite most other character stops being closed when we got to them in 2022, our action shots on course looked really good because there weren’t other runners around us. Plus, instead of getting one or two where we could be seen, we would get 5-10 from each photographer. And these pictures always turned out better than the character stop pics anyways. At least that was the plan.


The run started off fine. We used run/walk but unstructured. So, we ran when she wanted to run, and walked when she wanted to walk. It always took some convincing that we had to be sure we zipped over to the edge before we walked. When we were running, we were usually running quite a bit faster than those around us, but then when we walked, we would be passed by others. So, it was always just about finding some appropriate space to do either thing. All along the way I was keeping an eye out for the first characters. It was a bit surprising when we passed the spot where the three princesses were in 2022 and there was nothing. Based on the reaction of the runDisney staff in 2022 to that photo location, I’m not overly surprised. I think they weren’t pleased with the length of the line and that we were blocking the road for exiting buses for longer than they had originally planned. So, it seemed like in 2023 they pivoted to keep us from blocking that road past when they wanted by not having any characters there. I think the first group of people we passed was a band at around the one-mile mark just outside the back of Test Track. We finished the first mile in around 16 min. So, despite no character stops we were definitely taking our time.





The first character stop was Mulan and Mushuu at the China pavilion. It looks like we got in line around the 23 min mark, and then left the line around 41 min. So, in total it took us about 18 min. The big change we noticed was that the lines formed after the character stop and they had a sign saying who the line was for. Both were a big help because then you weren’t blindly getting in a line. We noticed that G’s Ms. Marvel fist had turned off, so we opened it up and plugged it back in. The USB stick tends to become unplugged from the power source has the connection isn’t very strong. But it was an easy fix. By the time we got close to our picture Mulan had left and it was only Mushuu. They gave us a return time for Mulan (I feel like it was 6:15am) which would have been another 10 min or so if we wanted to wait. We decided to push on and just get the Mushuu pic.







G did quite a few jump pictures early on, but because the course was still relatively crowded it was a bit tricky. We had to try and time the gap between us and others in front of us. And a few times she jumped way too late or got way too close to the photopass person for the picture to be useful.





Next up was the Japan pavilion and Duffy Bear. I think it was somewhere around here that we passed @lookingforsunshine again and G yelled something at her as we passed by. We got in line for Duffy at 47 min and exited at 58 min. So the line took about 11 min. In line we saw another Shang-Chi costume (with his sister too). He was using little glow sticks for his ten rings. DIdn’t get a picture together. But the super impressive one was the Namor and Namora costumes.





Next Post: 5k Part 2

 

[DopeyBadger]

5k Part 2

After that we got our picture with Duffy and then were on our way.



There were still people making there way along the course when we exited Duffy. So unlike 2022, we were still within the crowd as we were moving along through EPCOT. The next character stop we came up to was Cinderella, Prince Charming, and Perla the mouse (I had to look this one up as I didn’t know her name). We got in line at 1:00 hr and left the line at 1:29 hr. So in all this line took 29 min. This is the one that thinned the crowd out. As by the time we left the line there really weren’t any people left behind us. G made a friend in the line and they chatted the whole time. I also snapped a picture of G with the French pavilion as the background.



Then we got our picture with Cinderella and friends.



Now we had some wide open road and plenty of opportunities to ham it up on course with photographers. G did one of her jump photos but she hurt herself on the landing. She isn’t one to admit she’s hurt, but she was limping, so it was pretty obvious. She has a tendency to run and walk on the ball of her foot. So my guess is that she jumped and then came down without touching her heel to the ground and probably over stretched her tendons on the bottom of her foot. Thankfully all was fine after a little bit and we moved on.

IMAGES

Mile 2 was somewhere around Cinderella and the French pavilion and we did that mile in 60 min according to my Garmin.

We passed the Skyliner and then made our way through UK. I think around here is where Prince Naveen and Louis were out (I believe Tiana was in and out here). We decided to pass this one up and move on. We made it to the end of World Showcase and that’s where Knight Donald was. The cast member said they would be closing the line at 7:30am, and that it was currently 7:05am with an estimated wait of 10-15 min. So, we jumped in line. We got in line at 1:40 hrs and left line at 1:50 hrs. So, it indeed took about 10 min. Time stamp shows we got that picture at 7:16am.





Knight Donald was the last character stop that we saw. From there it was smooth running to the finish line and more hamming it up with photo people. Got lots of great pictures from here to the finish.





Next Post: 5k Part 3

 

[DopeyBadger]

5k Part 3

Mile 3 was finished in about 39 min according to the Garmin. All along I was texting Steph because they were waiting for us at the finish line. I told her in 2022 we’d finish in line 40-50 min, and we finished in 1:35 after waiting in line for over 47 min for the three princesses. So this time I told her we’d probably be closer to 1:35 like last year. So much for that. We finished in 2:05 hrs! As we were crossing the finish line G got a shout out from Carissa. She said:

“Go Ms Marvel Go. From Avenger-Con to the finish line of the Princess 5k!”

That was pretty quick witted for an in the moment response. We got lots of good pictures at the finish line too. I would guess there were only 100 or so runners behind us out of the ~12,000 to 15,000 runners that did the race.










View attachment 744387

All in all, it was a fabulous race experience. The race played out a little different than 2023. We ended up getting more character pics because it seemed like they kept the lines open longer than last year. But the first character stop was much further into the race, so we had less opportunities for open road running. So, it was different than last year but I loved the experience just the same. Plus, how many other times in life are you going to do a 5k in 2:05 hours!

We met up with Steph and family and made the trek back to the car. They drove from SS which is SUPER easy for the 5k since the outer EPCOT road isn’t closed. They said it only took about 6 min. We made it back to the hotel and then I believe we headed out to Disney Springs in relatively short order. I don’t think we made it right when the rope drop happened, but was able to make it to Gideon’s before the line got too long. I think we were there around 9:30-9:40 or so, and they opened around 10am. It wasn’t long before we were inside. We thought it was a limit of 4 per person, so between the three of us we were trying to decide which cookies to get. But once inside we saw it was 6 per person and realized it wasn’t going to be an issue. I got a PB Cookie, Cookies/Cream, Triple Chocolate, and Chocolate/Banana. I also got a piece of PB Jelly Cake. I ate them over the case of the next few days. The PB Cookie was amazing. The other three were good. The PB Jelly cake was good, but the amount of frosting on it was just too much for me to be able to finish. I think I’ll probably only get PB cookies moving forward (if I remember) because they’re just the best of the bunch.



After Gideon’s we did some shopping at a few stores, and then around noon made our way back to SS. Saw some women on the walk back who asked about the logistics for the 10k the next morning and I gave them some advice. We had purchased Genie + for our Animal Kingdom day and then had been stacking all of our choices into a short window of time in the afternoon. This allowed us to do other things in the morning, and then maximize the time we were in AK with all the best rides. It was funny because literally 5 min before Steph had something along the lines of, perfect the timing is exactly how I want it. See that’s the benefit of Genie + vs old systems. I feel like I can set it on the day of and not worry about it for months in advance. And then literally she was changing her previously perfect timing to something else. But no matter.

We made it back to SS, had some lunch, and then looks like we arrived to AK just before 2pm. We snapped some pics at the tree.





Then we made our way to the Safari. The lighting lane looked long, but it only took maybe 8-10 min. Pretty funny to hear G complain about how long the line was taking us. Rode the Safari and saw some animals. We were keeping an eye out for any of the animals from the Vet Disney + show we watched. Can’t say I saw any I recognized. Then we took a little trek around the Gorilla path and checked out some animals.

Before long we were on our way to Pandora. We rode the Navi River journey. Then the group split and some of us went for a snack, while others headed to ride Everest. Then the group rejoined by Flight of Passage, and we rode that. Then we exited the park. We did a mobile food order as we were leaving AK so that when we arrived at SS our food would be ready for pickup at the main eatery. It was pretty slick because we didn’t really have to wait and we got out, got the food, and then headed back to our rooms. I feel like we were inside AK for only about 2.5 hrs and we did the Safari, Gorilla path, Navi River, Everest, and Flight of Passage. I feel like that’s a pretty efficient use of time.



We ate some dinner in the room. I feel like I had a chicken salad and a pizza. Pretty sure G didn’t like her pizza because it was too spicy. Then I got all prepped for the next morning, and then G/Steph left to go to the parks and I went to bed around 7pm. They drove to DHS, took the Skyliner to EPCOT, and had some bakery in France. They got home around 9-10pm and woke me up for a touch, but I went back to bed pretty quick.

Day’s Stats:
Sleep the night prior: ~3:00 hrs
Total Steps: 25,931 steps
Total Miles: 14.3 miles
rHR: 48 bpm
Body Battery: 67 entering the day, and 24 at bedtime

Next Post: Saturday, February 25th – 10k Race Recap, EPCOT, Meetup, DHS

 

[DopeyBadger]

Saturday, February 25th – 10k Race Recap, EPCOT, Meetup, DHS

10k race day. I was awake at 1:25am per my Garmin. I feel like I had set my alarm for around 1:30ish, but I don’t remember. Got showered, ate my breakfast, got dressed, and was out the door by 2:40am. I got to the bus-stop around 2:50am and was literally the first person not on the first bus. I was like 30 seconds too late to beat the other person. But the person in charge checked with her manager who told her to hold the first bus until 3am anyways. So, they held that bus and more people joined me in line for the next bus. At some point a woman in line realized she had forgotten something in her room. So, she asked a stranger to hold their place in line and gave them her bib. I thought that was super unnecessary. I have no idea what she was thinking. Because if she didn’t make it back in time like everyone was going to be super confused about what to do with the bib. I also chatted with a nice family from one of the Carolinas and talked logistics and timing of the race.

They let the first bus go at 3am and then we loaded up on the second bus. The group “holding a place in line” boarded the bus with the ladies bib. The bus got fuller and fuller until we were just about to leave and the lady came running up and got one of the last seats on the bus. She was frantically asking if those people were on this bus with her bib and she seemed to be super relieved when they were. But honestly, that whole situation was moments from disaster.

A nice woman sat next to me and we chatted about runDisney and goals for the weekend. We traded some advice and then we were each on our way when the bus deboarded. Made my way through security and to the DIS meetup spot. From memory, @Naomeri, @cburnett, @Livelovedance were there. There were likely others, but I can’t remember at this point. I didn’t stick around for long as I wanted to get up towards the front of Corral A.

I dropped my bag at gear check around 3:40am, headed to the corrals, hit up the portas one last time around 3:50am, got into Corral A and It was already relatively busy in the front left corner where they normally remove the barrier for the ticker tape holding. I saw @cburnett as I was doing some dynamic stretching. So, we chatted for a bit. I continued stretching until 4:06am, then I did a brief 6 min WU until 4:12am with a few strides mixed in. By the time I finished it was relatively busy and I didn’t get up as far as I would have liked. In retrospect they actually removed the entire barrier not just the front left corner for the ticker tape. So, I could have been much closer to the start if I had gone and stood by the barrier. I’ve seen it done both ways, but I think moving forward just be as close to the barrier as possible and as far left as you can be. Those two together will maximize your chance of being on the ticker tape. They started moving us around 4:30am.

I did my best to try and stay close to the front during the walkup. I got pinched in the hairpin turn and probably would have been better off a little further left in the walk up. But at the same time, the walk-up narrows as you get closer to the start line and the loss of space comes almost exclusively from the left side. Ultimately, I was probably 10-15 rows of people back from the start line. What didn’t make a ton of sense is the timing mat that was like 5-10 ft ahead of the actual start line since once they started the race we were still walking over that device when people didn’t start running until they hit the under the start line area. The discrepancy between my Garmin time and official time seems to indicate that that mat actually was the official start. Oh well.

Conditions - Clear sky, Wind 0mph to ?
Start: Temp+Dew = 67°F + 65°F; FL - 68°F
End: Temp+Dew = 66°F + 65°F; FL - 68°F

The conditions weren’t great for PR level for this northerner. I prefer if the T+D is less than 100, but over 130 and I really start to notice an aggressive decline in my performance. Not being on the start line cost me some since there were a lot of people to weave in and out of. I get it. You get Corral A and you want to be seen at the very very front. But things get tricky with a lot of different paces up there together. I was standing next to an >80 yo woman who her family was giving advice to about how to start her race and all I could think was I’m hoping she makes it out of the start chute unscathed. Because I doubted she was planning on going as quick out the gate as many others around us.

I had a Maurten caff gel right before the start of the race, and drank some water as well.

The one thing not being at the ticker tape did do, is it forced me to start slower. Last year I busted out the gate at sub-6 pace which was far too aggressive, and then faded to the finish line. But this time around I was doing 8-10 min/mile pace through the first minute of the course. It took some time (maybe 0.25-0.5 miles) before the course thinned out and I wasn’t trying to run fast and dodge others. But eventually I did settle in. I kept an eye on my watch as my lap pace continued to drop over the course of the first mile as I was certainly running faster than I started, but it was hard to gauge exactly how fast I was running. Post-run analysis says I was doing 6:30-6:50 pace which is pretty much where I wanted/expected to be. My top end 10k pace is around 6:27-6:30, and given the conditions would predict a top end of 6:38 or 41:33. I was hoping to stick in the 6:40s for the majority of the miles.

The first mile came in at 6:57 and honestly with the slow start I was pretty pleased with that. Additionally, that was a much more sustainable pace compared to my mid-6:20s that I did last year. I kept the pedal down and was continuously passing other runners. I actually enjoyed being the hunter over the hunted a bit. The downside of the slow start though was that I didn’t have a great view of the number of runners ahead of me. Last year it was pretty easy to count the number ahead, but I just didn’t have a great idea this time around. But since I was the 35th fastest challenge qualifier instead of the 15th like last year, I anticipated that there were quite a few faster runners out here. In the second mile we had a short highway uphill. I decided instead of slowing down I wanted to increase my effort level. Use my hill running to my advantage. I’m good at uphill and bad at downhill. So, let’s use that. So, I increased the effort and powered up the hill. It was during this uphill that I had the only two runners pass me (girl and guy dressed in Belle outfits). But as soon as we hit the downhills I increased the effort again and left them behind. Per Strava, I was doing low 6s on this downhill and started opening a gap between me and the others. I came through the second mile in 6:42 (13:40 total) and was feeling good about it. Last year I hit mile 2 at 13:07. So, I was about 33 seconds behind at this point.

Mile 3 was mostly a straightaway and then an uphill to an overpass. The uphill and previous downhill are challenging not in their elevation gain, but rather the camber of the roads. The camber is pretty aggressive and can tear your ankles up if you’re not careful. I remember that I had a few runners ahead of me and I was just trying to Pac-Man them as I went by. Chomp-chomp. I hit the 3rd mile in 6:46 (20:27 total) compared to last year in 6:40 (19:48 total).

Mile 4 was a bit of a downhill as we headed towards DHS. I was pleased with where I was at. Staying consistently in the 6:40s. I saw a guy ahead of me who looked like he could have been in the same age group as me so I made it my mission to catch and pass him. He could be the difference between 3rd and 4th place I told myself. So, I chased him. Based on the final results he wasn’t a 35-39 runner. I’d bet he was the 34th overall and in the 30-34 age group. But alas I didn’t know that in the moment and used him as motivation to keep pushing the effort. Pace always seems to slow inside the parks because of the tighter turns and more frequent turns. I came in at 6:45 for the 4th mile (27:13 total) compared to 6:44 (26:32 total) last year.

Mile 5 is when I got up and passed my ghost. Somewhere on the path from DHS to Boardwalk. I was still putting in a pretty good effort, but I was really happy with my consistency of splits. I remember trying to run the tangents really well and staying tight to the corners. Just before we entered EPCOT was the end of this mile. I came in at 6:51 for the 5th mile (34:04 total) compared to 6:57 (33:30 total) last year. So, this was the first mile I was faster than 2022. I was still about 34 seconds behind which was roughly where I was after Mile 2.





Mile 6 was all about the fight to the finish. Zooming through EPCOT and trying to catch anyone else I could. It’s all a blur at this point. I finished this mile in 6:56 (41:00 total) compared to 7:08 (40:38). So, I was definitely having a better finish in 2023.

Just rounded the corner and finished off the race. Total was 1:47 vs 1:36 so an additional 11 seconds picked up in the extra 0.02 miles I did in 2023 vs 2022. The end of the 10k course was slightly different so it’s hard to directly compare them. In all, I finished at 42:48 per my Garmin and 42:53 per official results (probably a matter of the start timing mat location).

Official Time: 42:53
Final Placement: 32/11735
Gender Placement: 19/1932
AG Placement: 4/304





My AG was really competitive at the top. The top 3 were 37:16, 37:57 and 37:58 representing 6th, 7th, and 8th overall. Honestly, I had no chance at a sub-38 time. So, I had no chance at Top 3 no matter what I tried to do. My 42:53 would have been 5th in the AG lower and 1st in the AG higher. I’ve still got a few years before I enter my 40s.

As a review on the race, I’m actually pretty pleased with it. Yes, I was slower than last year’s 42:11 finish. But I felt like I ran a better more consistent race under worse conditions (last year T+D was 126 and this year 132). I didn’t get Top 3 AG like I had hoped, but after seeing the results and knowing there wasn’t anything I could have done about it, I’m not going to sweat it.

One of the benefits of finishing fast is that the post-race characters have practically no lines. So I slow ran through the finish chute and then made my way to the characters. I got Cinderlla, Belle, Vanellope and Cinderella’s Carriage in like no time. Time stamps say I finished at 5:43pm, Vanellope at 5:51, Belle at 5:52, Cinderella at 6:00, and Carriage at 6:01. I wasn’t in any rush since the buses back to the resorts didn’t start running again until 6:30am anyways. So it was a good use of my time and didn’t harm my final race time stopping for characters mid-race.









Next Post: Saturday, February 25th – EPCOT, Meetup, DHS

 

[DopeyBadger]

Saturday, February 25th – EPCOT, Meetup, DHS

I boarded the bus and we headed back just a little after 6:30am. I got back to SS and Steph had good news. She was able to secure BGs for Guardians of the Galaxy. We were BG 27 with an estimated time of 11:30am. Everyone was slowly getting ready and at some point Steph rechecked her BG information and saw that the new estimated and been shifted up to 9:08am and we were called. So, we had an hour (although likely some wiggle) to get to EPCOT. So, everyone quickened up and loaded up into the car.

I don’t remember exactly when we got to EPCOT but it was probably around 9:20-9:30am. Got in to the Guardians ride and the wait wasn’t terribly long. The queue was fun, and not what I was expecting. The pre-ride shows were pretty cool. I’ll admit it, this was not something I was looking forward to. I get motion sickness and I fully expected this ride to hit me really hard. The only saving grace and only reason I gave it a chance was because it is in the dark. We rode in the very very front which according to some Youtube videos should have the least motion sickness. BTW, you can request this and they have a little holding area for you. A few people in the group did all of the pre-show stuff and then bailed right as we got assigned everything (which they have a path for that too already planned out). So, they really did think of everything.





The ride itself was awesome. Hard to describe other than it’s like nothing I’ve ever been on before. Although I definitely can’t do it again. It wrecked me BAD. My brain and balance were mush. I had to get a Mickey pretzel quick to get a shot of salt in me. It ended up taking 2 hours to get over the motion sickness symptoms. We rode the EPCOT ball after Guardians and even that gentle ride wrecked me because of the aftereffects from Guardians. THE EPCOT BALL was too much for me after Guardians. Woof. We decided to call it a day for now and head back for some pool time. Originally the plan had been pool time then EPCOT, but Guardians switched things on us. We got this weird globe pic.



We got back to SS and everyone else went swimming. I stayed at the hotel room and cranked up the cold to help and try to get my brain right. Eventually I was better and headed to the pool with everyone else. But literally as I walked up to their table I got a text from Steph (who was 5ft from me) hey when you come, can you bring G’s nose plugs. Steph literally turns around and there I am. I was like, sure I’ll head back. And then I walked back to the room, got the plug, and then walked back. I had a simple breakfast at the pool. Steph had the nachos and they tasted like barf. They were so so so bad.

After long it was time for me to head to the meetup at HH at 2:30. I think I left the pool area around 1:05pm, got to the bus stop around 1:25pm. Bus wasn’t until 1:44 for DHS, so I probably had just missed it. The other option was to walk to Disney Springs and take their bus directly to Yacht and Beach. But I ended up sticking to the original plan and waited for the DHS bus. It came a little earlier than 1:44 (like 1:38). I got dropped off at DHS and then started my walk to HH. It was estimated at 22 min. I think it was around 2:10 when I got dropped off so it was right on time.

Walked up to HH at almost exactly 2:30. Found @Naomeri and then slowly others trickled in as well. My best memory says @Bree and husband, @azrivest, @stitchandco?, @MrIncredible?, @princesspirate? and husband, @WillRunForPizza and mom. It was a good meetup. Lots of good convos. I think I ended up leaving just after 4:30pm. I made my way over to DHS to catch the bus back to SS.

While I was at the meetup the rest of the family headed over to Port Orleans French Quarters for beignets and gumbo.



They headed to DHS afterwards. They got on TOT so it wasn’t a priority for Sunday’s DHS day anymore.







I made it back to SS and got some spaghetti and meatballs from the eatery. I headed back to the room and ate my dinner and then got ready for bed. I was in bed around 7:15pm with a planned wakeup around 1:15am. Steph/G got home around 9-10pm and woke me up for a touch, but I went back to bed pretty quick.

Day’s Stats:
Sleep the night prior: 6:21 hrs
Total Steps: 31,089 steps
Total Miles: 18.5 miles
rHR: 51 bpm
Body Battery: 56 entering the day, and 8 at bedtime

Next Post: Sunday, February 26th – HM Race Recap, VIP Tour

 

[DopeyBadger]

Sunday, February 26th – HM Race Recap, VIP Tour

I woke up at 1:15am. Showered, ate my breakfast, got dressed, and double checked that the hook was working. Left the room at around 2:15am and got to the bus stop before the first bus left. We left around 2:30am. I got a couple of comments on the hook while sitting on the bus.

In short time we arrived at EPCOT, deboarded and got through security. I made my way through the staging area and to the DIS meetup spot. Got there around 3:00am or so. Hung out with a few others @Naomeri, @azrivest, @cburnett, @Z-Knight come to mind. Chatted until about 3:30am or so and then headed to the gear check and then to the second holding area before they let us go to the corrals. I hit up the portas. Came out and saw @azrivest who had just gotten a notification from @lookingforsunshine that she missed us at the DIS meetup. So, we hung around for an extra bit and her and her friend caught up with us. So, we all chatted as we head towards the start line. Just in case you forgot @lookingforsunshine, but your epic costume idea was a Tamatoa shell costume where the shiny things were all medal replica pins from prior years. That would be epic. We got to the second set of portas and everyone split up.

ETA - Some pre-race pics with @lookingforsunshine (link)

I used the portas again, and it was around 3:55-4:00am at this point. I did have a single sip of water at the meetup because I was mixing my Maurten 320 for later and wanted to do so before dropping my bag at gear check. But I was feeling good. Walked through the grass to Corral A. Got in corral A and then did some dynamic WUs. This was the first time I was carrying something (Maui hook) but also the first time I was wearing my bib on my shorts. Well as soon as I raised me leg up for some toy solider stretches the bib ripped in the corner and came loose. So nope, can’t do that. I fixed it and held back on doing similar stretches. I didn’t do any WU running either (not that I was worried about breaking the bib more). I found @cburnett towards the very front of the corral. We hung out and chatted up there. I got a couple of looks about the hook and could hear a few times people ask others if I planned to run the whole thing with the hook. I think the hook was deceivingly light. Fun to see the other runners and look at bib numbers as everyone was eyeing each other up pre-race. Before long it was almost time to start the race. I chugged my Maurten 320 and then before long we were off.

Conditions - Clear sky, Wind 0mph to ?
Start: Temp+Dew = 62°F + 60°F; FL - 62°F
End: Temp+Dew = 60°F + 59°F; FL - 62°F

Temps were better than the last two days. Not great, but not terrible either. The goal was to run fast and free through the first half. Get to the castle and then re-evaluate the plans once I got there.

I held up my hook at the start hoping that it would be caught in the pre-race photos, but best I can find it didn’t. I pulled it down just a tad early. I started off pretty good and just tried to settle into something that felt sustainable. That ended up being low 7s. I knew in order to get Top 5 in my AG I would have to be faster than a 1:32 finish. So, at about 13.34 miles that’s 6:54 pace. So, I knew if I was off that pace then the motivation to try and run really fast was a little less and I should focus on taking pics instead. As much as I worried about carrying the hook it was so close to a non-issue. It was so light it was barely noticeable if I held it at the balanced middle (not the grip). If I tried to run at the grip though it flopped around quite a bit. So that wasn’t sustainable for running. The first few miles clicked off quickly. I did them in 7:02, 7:03, and 7:05 before we started hitting the TTC and seeing some spectators. I really tried to ham the crowd up and they really responded. I was feeling good and having fun. I kept the pedal down through the next two miles into MK at 7:07 and 7:10. I actually turned off my music as I entered MK just so I could really soak in the crowd. I really tried to give the crowd a show when I entered. @princesspirate filmed me running down Main Street.

Video (will try to link at a later time)

I was doing 6:30s pace down Main Street and that was not sustainable. As soon as I turned into Tomorrowland and out of eye shot of Main Street I actually stopped for a brief walk. That was exhausting both physically and from an adrenaline standpoint. But before long I was running again. I did some photo ops in Tomorrowland.











Made my way through other parts of MK to the castle. I was hoping they could capture multiple photos and they didn’t disappoint.









Headed out to Frontierland and found my friends Woody and Jesse.






Bolted out of MK and found some “fellow villains”.





Ugh, I feel like I screwed this one up. I yelled to them as I came up, hey some fellow villains. And then as I ran away, I was like, is Maui really a villain though? Whatevs.

I feel like this was the first aid station that I started feeding off the volunteers. On multiple occasions I would run up to the aid station and then yell, “Don’t worry humans. Your hero has arrived! Maui is here!”

Based on time stamps, it looks like Anna/Elsa was next.




Apology to Anna as raising my arm like that probably wasn’t the kindest thing to do. I did wear deodorant though.

Next Post: HM Part 2

 

[DopeyBadger]

HM Part 2

I did 7:52 and 7:34 pace through MK and cone alley. I found Tink and Fawn outside of GF. FYI, Fawn talks to animals.



Not much further down the road I found Aurora and Prince Phillip. She seemed quite awake to me.



And then Princess Atta. As I ran up I said, “Maui is hero to man, woman, and BUG!”



I did the 8th and 9th miles in 7:42 and 7:37 pace. At this point it really wasn’t about the pace as much as it was running from one character to the next and then yelling things at other runners, cast, volunteers, or characters. I saw Goofy next.



And then Pluto, “Maui is hero to man, woman, and DOG!”




I think it was around here that they were handing out some sort of nutrition. So, as I ran by I yelled, “Thanks for the offer. Has anyone seen Heihei? I’m kind of getting hungry!” That line was always met with some audible groans from people. Mile 8.5-9.5 was where things got really fun. This is when the runners double back on the route close enough to see runners behind them. So instead of running clean tangents, I ran to the other side of the highway and was yelling at the other runners. I got lots of “Maui, Maui, Maui” chants. Anytime I saw a Moana I would yell, “I’m Sorry!” or “I’m not boarding your boat!”, or “You’re Welcome!”. Anytime I saw Heihei I would yell, “Heihei get back in the boat!”, or “Hey look, it’s food!”, or “Anyone seen Heihei, I’m hungry!”. I also saw a few Tafati as well and told them I was sorry. If I didn’t see anyone, then I’d just yell that their hero was here and stuff like that. One of my favorites to yell was, “I’m Maui. I’m here to bring you the sun.” Inevitably someone would say, “Thank You”, and then I would sing back “You’re Welcome!”. I was totally teeing people up with that one. Honestly I had a blast in this section interacting with the other runners further back. It was a highlight of the race. But boy was it exhausting to be running at a decent clip and be yelling back at other runners with quick quips.

Finally, we made it towards the end of the race. We did the cloverleaf overpass to get going towards EPCOT. There was a hype woman here who didn’t know who I was. So then I yelled back, “Maui, demigod, hero to man and woman, yada yada” and she was like whoa whoa I’m sorry. LOL! The girl running alongside me chuckled at me. I figured she was having a good time with my quips and stuff because we were running alongside each other for quite the way at this point given there weren’t any character stops. So she got to hear a whole assortment of odd things for me to say. Miles 10 and 11 were done in 7:45 and 7:47 pace.

I think this whole section was helped with the lightup Maui hook. Like it was so unmistakable at this point who I was and what I was carrying that it made other people’s reactions much easier.

Hero to man, woman, and COW! It’s Clarabelle!



Oh, lest we forget we are a hero to man, woman, and MONKEY as well. Apu!



I showed Fancy Nancy how to be a wayfinder.



Did some running through EPCOT and then towards the end found myself not a man, not a woman, but a ROYAL DETECTIVE!



That was the last on-course character I would get as I came up on the finish line.

Next Post: HM Part 3

 

[DopeyBadger]

HM Part 3









I did the 12th and 13th miles in 7:47 and 8:06 pace. I saw Farron Kelly as I was getting close to the finish and gave him a thanks. As I got close to the finish line I stopped running and was egging up the crowd. The announcers asked what I was doing walking into the finish. Maybe he just wants to soak it all in? I’m not really sure what I was doing. I was just trying to amp the crowd. In retrospect I should have gotten them started in a “Maui” chant. Regardless, I looked back and saw there was an opening with zero people coming, and then I sprinted towards the finish line and hammed up the cameras.













Official Time: 1:40:21
Final Placement: 97/14546
Gender Placement: 51/2617
AG Placement: 17/441

Jeff Galloway was at the finish line. So, I stopped and thanked him for what he does for runDisney. We gave each other a fist bump. I made my way through the chute, collected my items, and then was quickly on my way towards the post-race characters. I had a few people approach me post-race and say how much fun it was to run alongside me as I made all my statements and such. So that was nice to hear.

Next Post: HM Part 4

 

[DopeyBadger]

HM Part 4

I got in line for pics with Moana as quick as I could because those were going to be the most costume relevant. So I’d get a pic, get back in line get another pic, and then get back in line and get another pic. Looks like the lines took me about 5-7 min per.









Then I headed over to the carriage and got a quick pic.






Snapped one with Cinderella.





Couldn’t miss Rapunzel and made sure to tell her how my daughter was about to get her first haircut. Additionally, that she is my daughter’s favorite princess.






Got a pic with Raya!




And some medal pics.







I finished at 6:41am, and then spent until 7:24 taking pictures. I knew the first bus didn’t leave until 7:30am so I wasn’t in any rush. This is my new post-race strategy. Why rush to the buses knowing they aren’t leaving anyways. Might as well just stand in short character lines if I already have the Memory Maker package. Not long after, the bus left. Met some nice people on the bus who saw me at MK and loved my energy. A different group said they saw me at the finish and wanted to know why I walked it in. Before long we were back at SS and there was no rest for the weary.

I quickly showered, ate some food and then we were off for a very unique experience.

Next Post: VIP Tour

 

[DopeyBadger]

VIP Tour

We had been gifted a VIP experience by a friend. We were joined by two other family members (UIL and AIL) for a total of nine for this experience. We decided to meet our VIP guide at DHS at 11am. The plan was to try and get on as many “A” rides as we could in DHS, EPCOT, and MK. Random G with a dog (has a hidden Mickey on it)!



Our guide’s name was Michael. He had been with Disney for 10 years, and been doing VIP tours for 4 years.



He felt like our plan was ambitious but as long as we stayed flexible we could see what we could get accomplished. Since we had so much planned, we decided to walk and talk. So he explained the VIP process and what he thought was doable. It was at this moment that I think Michael realized what type of day he was going to have. Because G talked. And talked. And talked. And talked so more. Like at one point she had talked soooo much that her face had turned red and I asked her if she had taken a breath any time recently. LOL! This continued for the entire 7 hour VIP experience. I’m not sure if G ever stopped talking to him.

We headed to Rise of the Resistance first. Michael scanned his phone at the Lightning Lane kiosk and then we just followed along behind him. The two non-riders said the line was a ride on its own and had fun experiencing it. G did lots of screaming during the end drop.



IMAGE

Next was Smugglers run. This one we had 6 riders with 3 sitting it out. We did alright, but nothing special. Up next was Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railroad. We passed through Toy Story Land and Michael treated us to Mickey bars and waters.





We had the chance to ride Slinky, but only 1/9 was really interested. So we skipped it. All of us rode Mickey and Minnie’s. It is one of our favorites. Michael pointed out a few of his favorite hidden Mickey’s along the way. We got to ride in the front car (just by chance) which was a nice change from being in the back car like I’ve been the other two times I’ve done this ride.





Michael took us backstage by Lightning McQueen’s to our sprinter (apparently this is a Housewives’ term) van which had enough seats for 14 people-it was crazy! Michael drove us over to EPCOT and we pulled up right behind the Guardians of the Galaxy show building. There were cast members there waiting for our arrival with baskets of snacks. We walked right up to GotG and Michael scanned us in-this time we only had 4 riders and everyone else was able to walk through the line. We had “I Ran (So Far Away)” as our song. After that we loaded back up in the van and Michael drove us backstage around to The Land Pavilion to ride Soarin’ and eat lunch. We all rode Soarin’ and then ate at Sunshine Seasons. We tried to pay for Michael’s meal but the mouse doesn’t allow that.

After lunch, we walked over to Ratatouille. As we were making our way through Canada, we ran into an unexpected person. It was Owen from G’s class back home in WI. We actually live in the same neighborhood as Owen. We knew he was in Disney and had been in communication with his mom to try and meetup, but the timing never worked or we weren’t in the same park. The kids figured out they were both going to Disney just from a brief conversation in school one day. So, it was all by happenstance. We looked his mom up on Facebook and then started communicating once we realized we were both going to be there. But since Sunday was there last day and we were on the VIP tour we didn’t have any expectations, we’d see them. But as we’re passing through Canada, Steph bumps and asks if that is Owen. So, I just started yelling, hey Owen is that you. And then he looked at me, and his mom looked at me, and low and behold it was them. So, the kids chatted for a brief moment and then got a quick picture together before we went along our ways. His mom said she finally understood now why I was always running in the neighborhood.



We made our way to Ratatouille. Michael scanned us in and then he sent us down a single rider lightning lane line that skipped by everything. So, it took us right to the front of the line. Everyone rode Ratatouille and then we were leaving EPCOT. We headed back to the van outside of Soarin’ and then loaded up heading to MK. Michael was happy with the pace we were going and felt like we would be able to do most everything we wanted inside MK before the time was up. He was hoping we’d be leaving MK at 5:35-5:45pm so that we could make it back to DHS by our 6pm cutoff. Otherwise, we could catch bus transportation from MK to DHS.

When we got to MK then was a group of people waiting to greet us with more snacks. Like chips, cookies, and stuff. Name brand, and a little higher end than standard chips (like ruffles/Cheetos) but not like Disney branded stuff. Although they did have a Mickey rice krispie Once inside the park we decided to head towards Fantasyland and attack things in that area. Michael was keeping an eye on the clock for us. We got into Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Many but not all of us rode that.





Then we headed over to It’s a Small World. This was my MIL’s mother’s favorite ride. She was the one who passed away recently. So, this was an important ride for my MIL and a few tears were shed. Afterwards we headed over to Haunted Mansion. Michael asked us if we wanted to see the stretching room, otherwise he had a shortcut. We didn’t need to see if and he took us in a side entrance exit to cut past everything right to the front of the line to get on the Doom Buggy.



Once we were done with Haunted Mansion we were running low on time. He said we’d probably have to choose between Jungle Cruise and Pirates because JC usually takes about 30 min or so. We let G choose and she chose JC so that’s what we went for. We got to JC and he took us through the exit for a quick entrance after taking to the cast members. We asked Michael to ride with us since this would be our last ride and he obliged. Our driver was quite good. Even had a few quips for Michael. After we got off Michael looked at his watch and said we were still good, so we could do Pirates as well. So we got through the line pretty quick and rode Pirates.





Made our way through MK towards the van, and then I said hey what about a picture. So Michael stopped with us in front of the castle and we snapped this one off.



And then we were off to DHS via the van. We literally hit the backside of DHS and parked the van at 6:00:00 on the dot. Like he’s so so good at what he does. It really was a fantastic VIP experience and Michael excelled in it in every way. Essentially the VIP experience was like an unlimited lightning lane with helpful quick transportation between the parks.



Afterwards, we had to decide how to play out the rest of the evening. DHS was open until 9pm. We wanted to watch Fantasmic at ~8:15pm, but everyone also wanted to eat some dinner and the hotel. I did some quick math and told everyone that if we left now we’d have about 30 min upon arriving at the resort that we’d need to get back headed towards DHS to make Fantasmic. That sounded good to the group so we left DHS, drove to SS, ate a quick dinner, headed back to DHS, and then walked over to Fantasmic. The timing worked great because our seats were decent, but we only had to wait about 10 min before the show started. The show was good. I feel like the last time I saw it was a few years ago.

There was still time before the park closed so we rode on Midway Mania (it was walk-on), then Alien Saucer Swirls (it was walk-on), then headed back to Smuggler’s Run and UIL and SIL were the last two people to get on the ride. They actually did a two-person ride of just pilots and apparently everything else was automated. And that was it. The whirlwind day was over. We headed back to the car and then drove back to SS. I got into bed because I was exhausted. By the time my head hit the pillow (10:45pm) I had been up for 21.5 hours.

Day’s Stats:
Sleep the night prior: 5:26 hrs
Total Steps: 50,238 steps
Total Miles: 30.0 miles
rHR: 50 bpm
Body Battery: 36 entering the day, and 5 at bedtime

Next Post: Monday, February 27th – Switching hotels to Wilderness, First Hair Cut, Horseback riding, Magic Kingdom

 

[DopeyBadger]

Monday, February 27th – Switching hotels to Wilderness, First Hair Cut, Horseback riding, EPCOT

After a restful 8.5 hrs of sleep it was time to hit up a new day. We were switching hotels today, so we packed everything up into the car and made our way to the Wilderness hotel. When we arrived at the Wilderness that morning our room was already ready, so we got checked in and dropped off our bags. Then we headed over to MK for G’s very first official haircut! I believe we rode the boat from Wilderness to MK.

Before the haircut, we had some time to waste, so we rode the MK train around the park. It was nice to have it up and running again now that Tron is essentially finished.


Then it was off to her appointment at the barber shop. She wanted a before and after.





She had fun. And here was the after.








The horror at how much they cut off. LOL!

Then it was off to Fort Wilderness to go on a horse ride adventure. We rode the boat back to MK, then took a bus from Wilderness to Fort. We had planned on walking it, but apparently that’s not a thing anymore as there’s no path between the two. It looks like the path exists in portions, but other portions are in areas of construction. So good thing we didn’t try to walk it. But doubly so, because the ranch where the horses used for the trail rides are is much further than we anticipated. So if we had walked, we would have never made it in time. Instead, the bus from Wilderness got us there in a timely manner. Steph and G got all checked in, and then it was time for them to go on their 45 min trail ride.








They had a good time on their trail ride. Steph said despite it being alright, she probably wouldn’t do it again.

Afterwards, we got back on a bus to head back towards Wilderness. It was time for some pool fun! Their pool was nicer than the SS pool. I went in for a little bit, and then hung around the chairs for some rest and relaxation.


We had dinner at Roaring Forks and then headed to EPCOT.


G got her traditional pearl. She has one pearl from every Disney World trip she’s ever been on. Question is though, what do we do for Disneyland trips??? Guess we’ll see.




We rode on The Three Caberellos, Test Track, Frozen Ever After, and Ratatouille before we called it a night.




It was a good more relaxing day overall. We were in bed at 11:30pm.


Day’s Stats:
Sleep the night prior: 8:37 hrs
Total Steps: 19,799 steps
Total Miles: 10.2 miles
rHR: 45 bpm
Body Battery: 59 entering the day, and 38 at bedtime


Next Post: Tuesday, February 28th – MK and Swimming

 

[DopeyBadger]

Tuesday, February 28th – MK and Swimming

Our last full day of the trip! We got up around 7:30am and decided we’d go to MK in the morning. It was just G, me and Steph. Everyone else was either too tired or wanted to just lounge around. My throat had the tiniest tickle to it, but it went away after 30 min or so, so I didn’t pay much attention to it. As we were getting ready the fire alarm for Wilderness went off. Thankfully we were almost ready anyways so we quickly got everything we needed and headed out towards the boat. The alarms did go off after like 10 min or so, so no big deal. We got on the MK boat and headed that way around 9:00am.



Since G actually liked Seven Dwarfs we convinced her to give Big Thunder a try. The wait was about 10 min by the time we got up to it, and it wasn’t much longer than posted. G was a little nervous.




G didn’t like it.





It wasn’t smooth enough for her. But I guess that makes sense since this ride is known to be able to shake loose kidney stones. Not the smoothest thing in the world for sure.

We did make some bear friends along the way.





We headed over to the Carousel and rode that around, and then made our way over to Monster’s Laugh Floor. G’s joke didn’t get picked but a different woman did because she got all excited when they called her out. Then we finished off our morning of MK with some shopping down Main Street. G bought even more things and I was started to get worried about whether it would fit in our luggage and whether we were going to stay under our 40 pound per bag weight limit for Frontier.

Then we left the park, got back on the boat and headed back to Wilderness. We got our swim clothes on, and then I ate some lunch. We did some swimming. I taught G how to dive down and touch the bottom. When we started, she couldn’t touch the bottom at 4 ft. Then we worked our way to 4 ft, then 4.5 ft, then 5 ft, and by the end of it she could go down touch the bottom at 5ft four time and then come up. She made a lot of progress in short time. She was also able to swim for 10-15 seconds from one side to the other without assistance. So definitely a better swimmer than year’s prior.

After swimming was starting to die down, G and I went to the arcade and burned through some games. The arcade at Wilderness Is decent. I’d still put the one at Yacht club as the best I’ve been to on property. Art of Animation is good too. Boardwalk is not great at all.

We then did some walk up dining at the restaurant along the waterfront. Got a nice table, had some nice dinner. I had the Bison Burger which was decent. Not bad, but not amazing either. Middle of the road. We had some ducks that really wanted to be our company. They were so well trained (not in a good way) as they would immediately approach the table once the food was delivered. And they just made the rounds as each table got their food.





Afterwards, we had some smores from a campfire. Then we boarded a boat and headed back to MK for one last hurrah. We got a Lighting + for Seven Dwarfs since G liked it so much. But before it was time for that we went on Dumbos ride.





G preferred Seven Dwarfs when she rode up front and during the daytime. That way she could see what was coming and because then the ride would ease into the declines and such. We rode at night and in the back and she didn’t like it as much.





We rode on Haunted Mansion after that.





With the fireworks ongoing and about to end, we decided to head to the exit and see if we could beat the traffic home. So, we headed out the park and they sent us through the overflow on the west side of Main Street which was a different experience. They had a bunch of ride vehicles and stuff. It was interesting.

Got on the boat just as the fireworks ended and we were out of there. As we were riding the boat back to MK my throat had that tickle again. Was this fatigue from the trip, lack of hydration, or something more? We got back to Wilderness and caught the Electrical Pageant on the water outside the restaurant. Can’t say the last time I sat down and watched it, but it was fun enough.

Then it was time to head upstairs and go to bed. We had an early wakeup as we had an early flight out of Orlando back home. We were in bed at 10:40pm.


Day’s Stats:
Sleep the night prior: 7:59 hrs
Total Steps: 14,857 steps
Total Miles: 7.7 miles
rHR: 43 bpm
Body Battery: 100 entering the day, and 33 at bedtime


Next Post: Wednesday, March 1st – Flight home from Disney

 

[DopeyBadger]

Wednesday, March 1st – Flight home from Disney

Early morning wakeup at 5:00am. Had packed most everything the night prior. Took a shower, ate a snack, and then headed down to the car to meet everyone else. I had a tickle in my throat again, but like the last time it was gone pretty much 20-30 min later.

It’s always the debate as to how early you should arrive at Orlando to not be so crazy early, but also not cutting it too close. We loaded up the car and were on our way around 5:50-6:00am. BIL typed in some odd directions because it gave us a non-toll path. The IL toll works with the FL toll so we were fine there, but he just didn’t notice when he punched it in. So, things got a bit stressy for some because the drive took a little longer than planned. Maybe an extra 15-20 min. We got to the airport and dropped off the car.

We got to the cluster that is Frontier bag check, and the line was just past the kiosks for luggage tag check. It seems like every year some people mistakenly get in the international line that has people helping, and don’t get in the domestic line. Everyone was stressing whether we’d make our flight on time. I wasn’t overly worried just yet. The line looked longer than it actually took. Maybe 15 min or so. By the time we were done checking our luggage the line was WAY WAY longer. Like easily 45 min. It wrapped past the bathrooms all the way to the TSA line and then looped back towards the original line (like a big circle). It was HUGE. TSA didn’t take too long and was a breeze compared to some years.

We ended up making it to the gate with time to spare (maybe 10 min before boarding). UIL and AIL said they got there about 10 min before us and there was no wait at the Frontier line. So the difference between them (0 min) and us (15 min) and just a touch after us (45 min) was quite the increase.

Unfortunately, it didn’t matter in the end because our plane hit a bird on the way in and so they had to check the engine. It took them about 1.5 hrs because they found some loose items in the engine that needed a quick fix before we were on our way. Rather safe than sorry. We finally boarded up and headed out.

Got home a little later than expected but not too bad. We went and picked Dizzy up from Doggy Daycare and she was happy to see us. Then we went and got Culver’s (fast food) for lunch since we hadn’t had a meal yet. I felt that tickle again in my throat when I got home and decided to do a COVID test. Yep, positive. Took a second, and it was too. So, looks like I brought some extra luggage home with me. First time with COVID in the three years since the pandemic started, but it was bound to hit me eventually. As of Saturday of this week, I have since passed it to Steph but G hasn’t gotten it yet. No one else on the trip got it, so I’m guessing it was probably when I was solo at some point (riding a bus to the meetup or races?).

So that was kind of a downer way to end the trip, but I guess better there than anytime prior in the trip. Plus we all masked in the airport and on the flight so it reduced the chance that I spread anything unknowingly too. So that was good. In hindsight you can really tell the difference in my body battery stress values during Tuesday night compared to other nights. Very clearly my body was fighting something off. But with that it marked the end of the trip.

Day’s Stats:
Sleep the night prior: 6:28 hrs
Total Steps: 3265 steps
Total Miles: 1.7 miles
rHR: 51 bpm
Body Battery: 53 entering the day, and 14 at bedtime


Next Post: Trip Review

 

[DopeyBadger]

Trip Review

The consensus was that this was a good trip for everyone involved. We got to do some new things (VIP Tour, Horseback riding, GOTG, and Haircut to name a few). And the races went well overall. G and I took a really long time and got lots of great pics. I ran hard during the 10k and was satisfied with my effort. I had a blast running the HM as Maui and being in character for large portions of the race. All in all, there’s not much to complain about. It’ll be at least 1.5-2 years before we’re back because we’re heading to Disneyland in 2024. So probably 2025 before we’ll be back to Disney World, but I’ve said things like that before and then Steph has us on a plane heading back six months later. So, we’ll see.

Some summary stats:

Total Steps: 180,800 steps
Average Steps: 25,828 steps
Total Miles: 102.5 miles
Average Miles: 14.6 miles

Despite feeling like it wasn’t that many miles walking this time around, we still did quite a bit. Averaging nearly 15 miles a day of walking/running.

I just want to say thanks for reading!