Tags
disney, disneyland, disneyside, healthy living, pixie dust challenge, race recap, race review, rundisney, running, running costumes, tinkerbell 10k, weightloss
16 Thursday Jul 2015
Posted Race Recaps
inTags
disney, disneyland, disneyside, healthy living, pixie dust challenge, race recap, race review, rundisney, running, running costumes, tinkerbell 10k, weightloss
27 Friday Feb 2015
Posted Race Recaps
inTags
disney world, epcot, glass slipper challenge, half marathon, magic kingdom, princess half marathon, rundisney, running, running costumes, team sparkle
The big morning was finally here! The Princess Half Marathon and the second leg of the Glass Slipper Challenge. When I woke up, one of the first things I did was open up my TimeHop App where I saw pictures of a nervous and scared Jes getting ready for her first runDisney race weekend one year ago: The Inaugural Enchanted 10k and Princess Half Marathon. Here I was a year later back at the scene of the crime. Except this year, it meant I would be running my tenth half marathon in 365 days. I wasn’t nervous at all. I knew I could do it, and I knew there was no pressure of a finish time. Realistically, my only goal was to finish in three and a half hours so I was still within the official time limit, because I STILL felt bad about going over during Goofy.
My sister Jennifer and cousin Paige were across the hall getting ready for their first half marathons, so they were nervous. Especially since they did not train, at all. Once we were all ready, we piled into the car and headed over to Epcot. There was a bit more traffic today, but I just closed my eyes and tried not to worry about being late.
Once we were parked, it was about time to head over to the reunion area and make our 20 minute walk to the corrals.
We snapped a quick picture before heading off on our journey. As we got closer to the corrals, it was time for us to split up. I went to the left to Corral H and Jen and Paige went right to Corrals K and O respectively (yes, my sister was placed in Corral K, without submitting any type of proof of time, just by me saying she would finish in less than 3:15 when I registered her, making me believe the proof of time submission is a bunch of nonsense and making me kind of mad that I was placed in Corral M for the Disney World Half when I submitted a 2:48 half time).
I decided to stop in at a port-a-potty before I got in my corral, even though it was almost 5am, when the corrals were supposedly closing. I had to go, and I didn’t want any issues like I had during marathon weekend.
I made it to Corral H at 4:59 exactly, and was shocked that it was practically empty. Where the heck was everyone? We were supposed to be in the corrals by 5am, and here I am showing up at 4:59 and managed to get all the way to the front without issue. So weird. Since I got there pretty late, it wasn’t long before the announcers started their little show, and soon announced the 2016 Disneyland Paris Half Marathon. I texted Tim and told him I wanted to go to France so we could say Croissant. He told me I didn’t really want to go to France. I told him I knew that. And then it was time for the Star Spangled Banner and the race was off!
I’ve got to say, crossing the start line at 5:57 was a lot nicer than 6:19, and even though I am now convinced that Proof of Time means absolutely nothing to Corral Placement, I still need to go out and get a new 10k PR since mine is about to expire because I don’t want to take any chances. My plan for this race was simple really. I was going to do my 1 minute run/1 minute walk intervals until I hit the Magic Kingdom and then frolick around and take as many pictures with as many characters as I wanted, then resume 1/1 intervals after leaving MK until mile 9, where I would then walk until my sister caught up so we could cross the finish line together. She was starting only 14 minutes behind me, so I figured it would be pretty easy for her to catch up in the last leg of the race if I stopped to have some fun. I know I could have just started back in Corral K with her, but really, I wanted to get some good pictures after barely taking any at all during the marathon.
As I headed for the Magic Kingdom, I passed the familiar sights, The Mission: SPACE sign.
The overpass with the DJ. He was playing Uptown Funk as we ran through.
The Parade Bus I was pretty sure Paige would get on.
And then there it was off in the distance! The Castle!!
Almost as soon as I entered the Magic Kingdom I saw my Mom and Aunt. My Mom was repping the Nuun Love.
I stopped to say hi and take a picture, and my Mom asked what I was doing. I told her I was in no rush now, and pranced off towards the castle.
I of course had to stop for my Castle selfie.
Then I headed off into TomorrowLand where I saw the first character stop. It was Buzz Lightyear again, and since I got him last time, I decided to pass, there would be plenty more stops… Or not.
I ran past the Mine Train.
Some girl literally jumped in front of me/knocked me out of the way to get her picture taken. She almost tripped me. I’m sure her picture is really nice with me in the background making a WTF face 🙂
Then I spotted my favorite! Woody! In Frontier Land, I had to stop and have an awkward moment.
And then, that was it, I was leaving the Magic Kingdom, and there had only been two character stops. It was a little disappointing, but I knew there would be more on the narrow road back to Epcot, so I would allow myself more stops. By this point, I was just passing the 10k mark and my sister was about a mile and a half behind me, I knew I needed to slow down. Paige had crossed the 5k mark and was tapping out just past mile 4 and was getting in a van to head back to Epcot.
I saw a huge huge line on the side of the road and it was for Mary Poppins! I really should have stopped and waited in line, I had the time, but I didn’t. Instead I just took a picture.
The sun was coming out and things were starting to heat up, by the view was lovely.
Next I saw the guys in tuxedos with the glass slipper. They had a huge line too, and I didn’t really feel like waiting for non-Disney characters so I pressed on.
And then I spotted him! Up ahead! It was VACATION GENIE!!! OH MY GOSH OH MY GOSH! At this very moment I was really wishing I had figured out how to make a vacation Genie costume work (I don’t know if you noticed, but I did Genie AND Goofy only because I had failed at trying to combine them without needing to paint my face blue or wear multiple hats). I’ve never seen vacation Genie out before (he is my other favorite), so I was really excited and sprinted ahead to get in the line!
At this point I knew I had to cut out the intervals and just walk if my sister was going to catch up. I told her I would be all the way to the right and that she should text me at every mile marker so I could figure out how far away she was.
After I hit the 15k mat I really slowed it down even more.
When I hit mile 10, I was hoping that a 15k text for my sister would come through soon, but it didn’t. So I stopped by this sign.
Still no text. Then my sister told me she never got a 15k text. I asked her where she was, still not to mile 10. I was at the top of the overpass looking down at the mile 10 marker now.
I waited a couple of minutes and then pressed on. I told her that I needed to cross the finish line at 9:27 so I could maintain the minimum pace.
When I hit mile 12, she texted me to say she had just gotten to mile 11 and that her knee was hurting so she wasn’t going to catch up. I still wanted to give her a chance though, so I never started to run again.
Soon I was entering back into Epcot and at the last water station.
As we were coming out of the backstage area, I saw this sign for the second time in the weekend and knew I just had to take a picture.
It is now hanging proudly in my cubicle because I’m a nerdy Safety Engineer. My co-workers think its hilarious, but I’m sure no one else does.
I then stopped to take another picture with the ball.
Just after this someone else jumped in front of me/between me and another woman to get near a photographer. There’s a lovely picture of my making my “excuse you” face on Marathofoto. Seriously, people were being ridiculous. Do not endanger other people to get a picture that you’re probably not even going to buy!
And then made my way towards the Gospel Choir.
I contemplated waiting here for my sister, but knew I would go over the 3:30 mark if I did, so I just went ahead. When I rounded the corner and saw the finish line, I decided to go ahead and run across the finish line.
I collected my medal and got fairy dusted and waited off to the side for my sister. After about 10 minutes I spotted her in the crowd, her first half marathon was done.
Yay! (My hair is frizzing everywhere, hello, humidity!)
When we got back to the hotel it was time for showers and room service!
Half Marathon #10 was in the books!
I’ll be back next week with a recap of the rest of the trip, not relating to the running!
05 Friday Sep 2014
Posted Race Recaps
inTags
2014, coast to coast challenge, disneyland, disneyland 10k, disneyland half marathon, dumbo double dare, race recap, race review, rundisney, running, running costumes
Dumbo Double Dare weekend has come and gone, and I am officially counting down 125 days until I return to Disney World to take on the Goofy Race and a Half Challenge (yes, I’ve lost my damn mind).
But before I hurry along into my next Disney countdown, its time for a Dumbo Double Dare Race Recap! I will skip over all the dramatics (which are STILL on-going) of our travel days and Disneyland antics for now, and only focus on the related events of the weekend.
Tim and I arrived at the Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend Expo at the Disneyland Hotel on Thursday afternoon. We headed downstairs to pick up my packet along with Matt’s packet for the Dumbo Double Dare. Matt and I had bib numbers that were close together, so it was just one line for both of our packets, but there was no line at all, so I walked right up to the window! When signing for my bib, I noticed that there was no spot to sign off for my Coast to Coast Medal wrist band! I asked the volunteer that was assisting me and she flagged down a runDisney staff member and he brought me over to the Runner Relation’s Booth. I had to wait in a bit of a line, but eventually I made it to the front and the woman at the booth was able to look up my Princess Half Marathon race results and put the green Coast to Coast wristband on me.
After that, we went up to the vendor area of the expo and browsed around. There was quite a bit of a line for the official merchandise, and since I wasn’t planning on buying anything from there I decided not to wait and figured I would come back on Friday or Saturday to check out what was left. We headed back to the Paradise Pier Hotel for showers and naps before dinner.
On Friday morning, Matt joined us at the hotel and we spent the day at the parks. We were probably out a little to late for the eve of the 10k, but we weren’t planning on actually racing the 10k, just having a good time and taking lots of pictures.
On Saturday morning we woke up around 4:15 and got ready for the 10k. Matt and I headed out and followed the mass of runners towards the start line, and Tim would join us later at the finish line. While it is much nicer being able to sleep in and then just walk to the corrals at Disneyland and not have to wait for a bus like you do at Disney World, the start area seemed much more congested and compact compared to Disney World. We got in our corral just after 5am and waited for the start. I was in corral C just like I was for the Enchanted 10k, so I expected we would start at 5:50 again, but they set off the corrals much closer together at Disneyland than they did in Disney World, so we ended up starting at 5:44 instead.
We were off, headed through the streets of Anaheim and eventually into a back entrance of Disney California Adventure to hit up Cars Land. Soon we were headed towards Paradise Pier and stopped for pictures by World of Color. I can’t really recall any character stops, except some people dressed up as Elvis? I saw some pictures on the runDisney Facebook page that there was a stop for stitch who was dressed up as Elvis, and Chip and Dale. It was a little disappointing considering I was actually planning to stop for character photos this race, and there just weren’t any to be had.
As we headed out of Paradise Pier into Carthay Circle towards the 5k time pad, I spotted them, the trolley tracks. I was in the middle of making a mental note in my head to be careful not to trip when I felt myself going down. Everything seemed to go in slow motion as I felt my ankle twist in the track and my water bottle flew out of my hand. I realized I was about to lose my iPhone and tried to gently skid it across the ground. SLAM! I tore up my left elbow on the ground and my knee twisted. I could feel my four race medals slipping away. I sprang up from the ground as quickly as I could.. Maybe no one noticed? I was bleeding. My ankle was throbbing. Runner’s were asking if I was okay. One yelled to me that I had a great recovery. “I’m okay, I’m okay!” I repeated to everyone who asked. Two or three Disney worker’s tried to convince me to go with them to a nurse’s station, but there was no way I was stepping off course, I was getting those medals! We kept moving and hit the 5k pad. I looked down and realized I had ripped my bib half off. I started to poke holes in it so I could repin it and Matt asked if I wanted to stop and work on it. No, we had to keep moving. If I stopped, I was afraid I wouldn’t start back up again.
We left California Adventure and headed into the Magic Kingdom. We ran/hobbled/walked/jogged down Main street USA, past Its A Small World, Toon Town, through Sleeping Beauty Castle and out of the park. We ran through Downtown Disney towards the Disneyland Hotel and out to the finish line. We collected our medals and hurried back to the hotel for showers before our breakfast reservations.
I was able to clean up my arm a bit and put some neosporin on it. My ankle and knee seemed okay enough and after breakfast at Steakhouse 55 we headed back over to the Expo. I checked out the official merchandise, but nothing really shouted to me BUY ME NOW! Especially at those prices, the three shirts that came with my packet would be good enough for me.
We then spent most of the day in the hot parks on our feet which probably wasn’t the best idea for day before Half Marathon activties, but I’ve never been to Disneyland, I had to make the most of the entire weekend! We made sure to carbo-load at a pasta place (hooray for reservations!) in Downtown Disney and then turned in early for the night.
The next morning was much of a repeat of the morning before. 4:15am wake up call, followed by getting ready and herding like cattle to the corrals. I told Matt he wasn’t allowed to stay with me. I knew he could run much faster than I could, even if I was attempting a PR. Since my leg was still in questionable shape, I ditched my PR goals and refused to let him stay with me.
I started out very slowly, and was having bad muscle spasms in my leg that I hurt. I feel like they were more related to being dehydrated and on my feet all day then to falling, but either way it was quite painful. We made our way through the streets of Anaheim once again, and then into California Adventure. After taking it quite slow the first 5k and getting an alert on my phone that my anticipated finish time was three hours and 10 minutes, I sped things up just a notch.
I settled into a run 1/10 mile, walk 1/10 mile intervals. My leg seemed to spasm every time I stopped to walk. I wasn’t paying too much attention to the sights around me, mostly focusing on making sure I was okay to finish. When I hit the 10k pad my estimated finish time was 3:03:56… Better, but still, I wanted to try to get under 3 hours! I ticked it up another notch, besides, walking seemed to be more painful than running.
There were some lovely spectators handing out red vines and orange slices which was really nice. It felt good to have something in my mouth besides a gooey ShotBlok.
Then we hit the classic cars and there were spectators with pretzels and jolly ranchers! I grabbed one of each of those and thanked them!
Soon we were on the Santa Ana River Trail and approaching Angel’s Stadium and hit the nine mile mark. They were handing out Clif Gels, but I passed on those since I had my ShotBloks and all the goodies from the spectators. We entered into the stadium and I paused off to the side for a selfie.
After exiting the stadium we hit the 15k pads and my estimated finish time was 3:00:29… Ugh, still not good enough. I was going to have to finish this race out much stronger than I started if I wanted to get below the three hour threshold, so I cranked it up just a bit more. My leg was a little mad, but I was almost there!
Finaly we were running towards the Disneyland Hotel and almost at the finish line. I pulled out my headphones and heard people shouting “GO GENIE!!!” so go I did.
I crossed the finish line in 2:57:53, no where near a PR for me, but only three seconds slower than my Princess Half Marathon race where I wasn’t injured and didn’t stop for any pictures.
I saw Tim as I crossed the finish line, but there was no easy way for him to meet up with me in the finisher’s area, so we agreed to meet back at the hotel. I collected my Disneyland Half Medal, headed for my Coast to Coast Medal and then over to the Dumbo Double Dare Medals. I tried to find Matt but he got kicked out of our planned meeting area because he finished so far ahead of me in 2:04:15 (he’s so speedy, but thinks he’s not!). He sent me a message through Instagram that he was over near ESPN Zone and I told him to just come meet me back at the hotel.
I hobbled along nearly in tears as my leg kept spasming, but people kept congratulating me on my medals and complimenting my costume, so I couldn’t cry! I had to wait a couple minutes to cross the race course to get back to the hotel, and when I finally made it upstairs I took a picture with all of my medals and then hit the shower. My leg was seizing up and I got my compression socks on. I am usually not too sore after running a half anymore, but this pain was a new kind of pain. I took some Aleve and downed a bottle of water with Nuun and then settled in for an hour nap before our lunch reservations.
When I woke up my leg was feeling so much better, it just needed a little rest and electrolytes I think. We headed over to the Magic Kingdom for a celebratory lunch of all you can eat ribs and chicken at the Big Thunder Ranch BBQ. During lunch Woody (my favorite!!!) came out and I was able to get a picture with him, which made me happy!
Later on, we headed back to Carthay Circle and I was able to do a dramatic reenactment of tripping on the trolley tracks, which I cursed every time we saw them for the rest of the weekend.
Overall Dumbo Double Dare weekend was a success. We had a lot of drama at a couple points during our travel, but I’ll get to that next week. 🙂
Only 125 days until Disney World!!!!!!
29 Tuesday Jul 2014
Posted Race Recaps
inTags
5k, kidrobot, labbit, minion, race recap, race review, ridiculous obstacle challenge, roc race, running costumes, sparkle athletic, star trek, team sparkle, teamsparkle, washington dc
Ahh, The Ridiculous Obstacle Challenge 5k, aka ROC Race. I first saw this in the summer of 2013, and I wanted to do it, and I wanted to do it NOW! But, by the time I learned about it, it was basically sold out anywhere within driving distance, so I resolved to do it in 2014. The big balls, the glorious giant slides, that huge moon bounce, I just had to do it.
I believe it was January when registration opened, and I rounded up my friends to sign up ASAP. I signed up myself, my sister and Tim. I convinced Amanda and her sister to register, and also my co-worker Tricia. Patty and Chard were going to register, but their lives were pretty busy with their new baby, so they never did.
I was so excited as this race approached, and I was trying to talk everyone into costumes. Tim decided he wanted to be Captain Luke Picard from Star Trek. Tricia wanted to be Loki, I decided my sister was being a Minion from Despicable Me. I hadn’t decided on my costume yet, as I was busy with my ODDyssey Half Marathon costume planning (which was one week before). Amanda and her sister decided they wouldn’t be attending the race about a week before.
After I wrapped up the ODDyssey half marathon, I got to work on Tim’s costume. I got him a pair of black shorts from Old Navy and a red Champion shirt from Target. Tim picked up a black collared shirt from Wal-Mart which I cut up and sewed to the top of the red shirt. It wasn’t my best work, but it got the point across. I sewed a felt Star Trek emblem to the shirt, and installed four brass colored paper fasteners for his ranking pips, which I randomly remembered I had tucked away in my old gym bag from my Dad’s 60th birthday party two years prior.
I helped Tricia make her tutu the week before as well, and then got to work on my sister’s minion shirt. I used a yellow Champion shirt from Target and then sewed on the minion features with felt. I let her borrow my royal blue sparkle athletic skirt to complete the look.
Finally it was the night before the race and I still didn’t even know what I was going to be. I finally decided I wanted to be a labbit. For those that don’t know, labbits are a toy from KidRobot that I am mildly obsessed with. I looked through all of my running clothes to see what color I could pull off. Since I had a black Champion shirt, black Old Navy compression capris and a black sparkle athletic skirt, black seemed to be the best choice.
I decided I would sew a tail and a butthole (yes Labbit’s are notorious for their buttholes, I’m sorry) to the skirt, and then the rest of the costume would be all in the hat. I got a plain black hat from Target, which I sewed felt eyes to. I hot glued on a moustache to the rim of the hat which I cut out of felt. Then for the trickiest part, the ears. I quickly sewed two ears out of black fleece and then filled them each with a piece of cut up pool noodle. I sewed these to the sides of the hat, and the Labbit costume was born.
My sister spent the night at our apartment, and in the morning we picked up Tricia and drove down to DC. I made us get there super early, because last year when I ran Run or Dye with Patty and Chard at RFK Stadium, parking was a nightmare. This year, we basically pulled right in, which was a relief. But it was a good thing we got there early, because there were lots of lines to wait in!
We waited on line to pick up our packets. Then we walked back to the car to drop off our t-shirts and pin on our bibs. Then we had to wait in line for our wave, while the wave before us was slowly going off. Finally our wave started to go off. Every few minutes they’d let a few more people through. Then it was our turn, and we trotted off slowly, to the first line at an obstacle. There was basically a short line at every single one.
On the second obstacle, the big balls, I barely made an attempt. It was pretty high of a jump, and I wasn’t about to injure myself two days before New York City Marathon training was to start. My sister followed suit. Tim however, went all out and lept too high. He hit the top, and then slammed down real hard on his shoulder. He looked like he was in a lot of pain, but he tried to play it off, and we went off to complete the rest of the obstacles. Nothing really stood out in my mind as super exciting. I certainly don’t think this race was actually a 5k, because between doing all the obstacles and waiting in line for them, and not really putting much hustle into getting from one to another, we finished too fast for it to be a 5k.
The slides were fun, but other then that, meh. We didn’t see any photographers anywhere which was disappointing, but later on this picture of me at the Wrecking Ball surfaced, so I guess there was at least one. We couldn’t find any other photographs of our group anywhere.
It was a pretty chilly day, so getting wet wasn’t much fun, and when we unceromoniously finished, we went back to the car, cold, damp and sleepy. We made the drive back from DC to northern Maryland and that was that. Tricia and my sister were falling asleep in the backseat and Tim looked like he was in a lot of pain still. We would later find out that he had dislocated his shoulder and torn his cartlidge.
Overall I would say this race is over-priced and over-rated. Maybe I had just hyped it up too much in my mind, but I was disappointed with it. Over a month later, and Tim is still recovering from his injury, though he is feeling better every day, it probably wasn’t worth it and we won’t be doing it again.
23 Wednesday Jul 2014
Posted Uncategorized
inTags
10k, california, coast to coast challenge, disneyland, disneyland half marathon, dumbo double dare, half marathon, rundisney, running costumes, the price is right, vacation
Five weeks from today will be my last day of work before my vacation to California! I am ridiculously excited for a number of reasons.
1. I NEED A VACATION!
2. I’ve never been to California. Okay, well maybe I was there for a couple of hours in October 2012 when I was visiting my sister in Las Vegas and we drove to Los Angeles for a taping of The Price Is Right!
Yes, I made awesome shirts that landed us in the front row behind contestants row. No, I didn’t get to “COME ON DOWN” (number one on my 30 before 30 list). And yes, I gave Drew Carey a doll that I made to look like him, which he promptly shoved down his pants?
We spent most of the day sitting in lines, and then drove back to Vegas, so I wouldn’t exactly consider it a trip to California.
3. Since I’ve never been to California, I have obviously never been to DISNEYLAND!!! We are staying at The Paradise Pier Hotel.
4. I will be running the Dumbo Double Dare and earning my Coast to Coast Medal after also running the Glass Slipper Challenge in Disney World.
5. Matt is driving up from San Diego to run with me. He’ll be super disappointed when he realizes I move much slower than he does, but I’ve never run a race with someone before, so maybe with his help I’ll be able to get a new PR!
6. I am making awesome costumes. Can you guess what one of them is?
I really do need to get my crafting act together and finish these up, five weeks will go by fast!
So those are the reasons I’m excited for this trip. I’ve made us dining reservations each night for dinner. We will be eating at Steakhouse 55, Blue Bayou, Naples Ristorante e Pizzeria, Tortilla Jo’s and Wine County Trattoria. If anyone has any suggestions for lunch and dinner please let me know! Also, are there certain things I just HAVE to do while I’m in Disneyland??? (You know, besides the two races and expo).