WDW Marathon Expo X 3

I somehow managed to make three different trips to the expo for Marathon Weekend.

I planned for my mom and I to spend some extra time at Disney World this year when we went for Marathon weekend so that we could make sure we did everything we wanted to do.  I was doing the 10K and full marathon, so I wanted to make sure we had an extra day at the end in case I was really sore on Monday. So I planned for us to go Wednesday to Wednesday. Traveling east across the country can take all day, so I figured we'd go to the expo Thursday and I'd do the 10K on Friday. 

We ended up on a red eye with a connecting flight Wednesday at 1:00 AM and arrived in Orlando at 9 something in the morning. Despite the fact that I was exhausted and somewhat cranky from not getting any sleep, I managed to get my second wind once we arrive at the Boardwalk. 

Our room wasn't ready, so we ended up heading straight to the expo. I've been to Disneyland race expos right when they open, so I was expecting a total shit show, but it was nice and calm. I think we even ended up inside early.

The 5K and 10K bib and shirt pick up were outside in the stadium, so we went there first to get my 10K packet. Easy peasy. Some of the vendors were set up there, as well, which was different than other e pos at WDW that I've been to. I haven't been to Marathon Weekend since 2013, so things were a bit different since then.

Next, we made our way to the Jostens center so we could get official merchandise. I swear, no matter what race I'm doing, the other races have better shirts. I saw a really cute Dopey pull over that I liked but the marathon merch was just...meh. I did end up buying a shirt and the medal pins for the 10K and full. I had also preordered the jacket, which I wasn't in love with, but it came in handy later because it was COLD in Orlando.

After doing some damage at the expo, between merchandise and fuel, I went back to the other building to pick up my bib. There was no line so all I had left to do was go back to Jostens to get my marathon shirt. 

Side note: how irritating is it that the 5K, 10K, Goofy and Dopey all,have shirt pick up where the bibs are but the half and full marathon Runner's have to go to another building to pick up their shirts?  Normally, this wouldn't irritate me that badly, but I hadn't had any sleep, we'd already been there for hours and I walked outside to go grab my shirt and saw this:

This was what I encountered when I went to just go grab my shirt. Holy wow. No way was I standing in that mess. I certainly didn't want to make an additional trip to the expo, but there was just no way I was willing to wait in that ridiculous line.

So my mom and I headed over to Disney Springs to check out the Hangar Bar, which was really cute. The food was decent but nothing amazing. I enjoyed it, but I don't know if I need to go back since there are so many other places I have yet to try!

We headed back to the hotel to go to bed early so we could hit up Epcot first thing in the morning and try to get on the revamped 'Soarin, which I loved. 

We spent the morning at Epcot. I finally rode the ride with Figment, which was entertaining, even though it was dated. We rode the Frozen ride, which is cute but not mind blowing. I needed this picture while we were waiting in line.

The ride is really cute and I'm glad we went on it but we didn't really feel the need to go on it again during our trip. Now Soarin' is another story. We definitely wanted to do that again.

Next we were headed back to Disney Springs to have a late lunch at Raglan Road. I've been there twice now and both times, I've had the Shepherd's Pie and it is so, so good there. Plus, the ambience is great. If you go at night, they have Irish dancers that are really good. I'll definitely be adding this to my rotation.

I chipped one of my nails and I literally had just had a gel manicure hours before we boarded our flight. It was annoying me and catching on things, so I figured It couldn't be that complicated to get it fixed. Well, just so yo know, there aren't that many places to get manicures. 

Since we were at Disney Springs, Saratoga Springs is right across the "lake" and they have a spa. So we headed over there and wow, is that resort cute! Especially for a horse crazy girl like me!

My mom took one look at the spa and got sucked into not only a manicure, but a pedicure, as well. I figured this would be an excellent time to hear back to the expo to get my marathon shirt. 

It was much better this time around. Luckily I had thought to bring my bib with me that morning when we left for Epcot. Picking up my shirt was a breeze since it was the evening of the second day.

My mom ended up having the longest mani/pedi in history so I wandered around for a ridiculous amount of time waiting for her.

I spent more money that I should have, but I also stumbled across the world's most amazing running belt that is not only great for races, but awesome for hanging out in the parks if you are like me and like wearing running pants while riding rides. I need to do a separate post on this belt. It turns out they are a local company for me and their warehouse is like 15 minutes from my house.

Finally, my mom arrived at the expo and we headed back to the Boardwalk since I had to be up early for the 10K. We had snacks at the hotel and called it a night!

I made my third trip to the expo on Friday after the 10K to exchange my shirts for a smaller size. Luckily, I was still able to get a medium 10K shirt, even though the race was over. 

Three trips is way more than I want to be making to an expo, let alone one at WDW, where it's a production to get there. 

Next up: the 10K recap.

In With The New

I must say, 2017 has started with a bang. But before I get into that, I need to complain about a First World Problem. So, I got myself an iPad Pro. And no, I certainly don't have the spare cash to shell out the money for this top of the line, 256G, lightweight piece of amazingness. Sometimes our vendors pay us in "award points" rather than cash and we can buy things.

Usually we like just getting paid actual money since award points can't pay my mortgage, but the flip side is that now I have a super cool new toy that is the best iPad out there and I can totally justify its existence. Now I can retire my third generation of the original iPad, which weighs approximately 68 pounds and freezes all of the time because it's only 32G and there's not even room for iOS 10 on it.

You might be asking yourself why I need a 256G and the answer is this: because I wanted it. Here's the thing... I wouldn't ever be able to justify actually outright buying this iPad. But because I used points, why not get the best one? I most likely won't upgrade for years. Secondly, now that we can download things from Netflix to watch offline, I'm downloading stuff like crazy. And that takes up a lot of room.

So my actual problem here is that when I set up my new iPad Pro from iCloud, I thought everything transferred just fine until I went to actually follow through with my New Years resolution to get back to regular blogging and noticed that my favorite app is missing!!!

A few years ago, I purchased an app called Blogsy, that was ah-maz-ing. It made blogging on the go so super easy, even adding pictures with captions. The app wasn't free, either, but so worth the money. I can't remember how much it was when I downloaded it, but it was totally worth it.

So I went to the Apple App Store to just get it from the cloud and *GASP* it is gone! Imagine my utter shock and dismay. I mean, I might have even teared up a bit. That app was the best and it's nowhere to be found. All of the other blogger apps have horrible ratings, but I love writing blog entries from my iPad rather than an actual computer. Plus, my laptop is from like, 2011, and in computer years, that's prehistoric. You don't even want to know what happened to the speed of that thing after I downloaded Windows 10. It's terrible.

So, my dear blogger friends, can anyone recommend an app that works well with the Blogger (Blogspot) platform? I've heard the actual website works okay now on Apple devices but I haven't figured out how to add captions to my pictures (or really even upload pictures from my device) and things like that, and I'll be honest here, captions on pictures make my world go 'round. I just need them, okay? (Updated from the Atlanta airport where I downloaded a brand new app called BlogPal which also doesn't seem to have an option to adjust pictures or add captions. We'll see how it goes...)

I'm currently writing this from up in the sky on my way home from Marathon Weekend at Disney World (Spoiler Alert- awesome, awesome, awesome time with PRs, but I'll recap those separately) using the Pages app that came on this iPad. It's pretty cool and seems to work just like a regular Word document. Maybe I can use this to just cut and paste and my world won't actually come to a screeching halt because Blogsy has disappeared from the blogosphere.

So, in conclusion, I'm attempting to follow through with my New Years resolution to get back into regular blogging and reading other blogs (yes, I know, I've been so terrible about ignoring my blogger friends! I'll change, I swear! Please take me back!) and I feel as if the world is trying to thwart my efforts!

Speaking of New Years resolutions... I actually followed through on the one I made going into 2016. I gave up soda (not club soda because that's what I use to get my bubble fix) and didn't have a single sip of that sugary deliciousness in all of 2016. I'm carrying that on into 2017. I don't even want it anymore. 

Notice I did not give up wine or champagne? No, siree. Not happening. 

And in case you're wondering, no I'm not giving up alcohol in 2017, either. Just throwing that out there, especially since I consumed plenty last week. This is called a HippopotoMai-Tai and I had it at Trader Sam's at the Polynesian. I don't usually go for mixed drinks, but I had to have the souvenir glass which you can not buy without the drink. And no, you can't substitute. I asked if they could put prosecco in there instead, but no dice. So I took it like a champ. Had to celebrate a 10K PR!

Bye for now, bloggerinos. I'm off to do some recapping while on my journey back across the USA.

The Scottsdale Half Marathon- A Tale Of Bad Life Choices

I know that I claimed that I was going to be better about blogging, but A) work, riding and life have been super crazy and B) I'm a liar. The WDW Marathon is looming on the horizon like horrible monster with razor sharp teeth and blood red eyes, so there's plenty to write about, I've just been so swamped that I just...haven't.

I've actually been doing a fair amount of consistent running, but I haven't been great about doing long runs. I planned to do the Hot Chocolate Race for the hoodie to get in a 15K run, but I waited until the very last minute to sign up and it sold out. I also planned to do the Scottsdale Half Marathon the next weekend, but I wasn't excited about it and they had race day registration, so again, I waited until the last minute.

This is how my weekend went down and it includes just about every scenario you should avoid before running a half marathon. I am the running equivalent of a D.A.R.E. commercial. Don't drink and run, kids.

If you happen to be stopping by my blog for the first time ever, I will preface this story by telling you that I am an avid rider (as in horses, not bicycles. Ew.) and my barn mates take weekend brunch very seriously. And by "seriously", I mean that we discovered a new restaurant that serves bottomless mimosas from 10am until 2pm for 12 freaking dollars. And it's not even like you have to reorder! They wander around and just constantly refill your glass, so you never really know how much you've consumed until you realize it's now dinner time and you then order yourself dinner.

So last Saturday, I still hadn't committed to the race on Sunday morning by the time we decided to go to brunch, which could probably be considered lunch since it was 1pm with only one hour left of bottomless mimosas.

Don't mind my riding clothes and really dirty nails from being at the barn.

 

I figured that I couldn't get into too much trouble because we only had an hour. Well, they kept serving us until around 3:00 and then we waited a couple of hours to leave.

I even made sure that I ordered water to counter the mimosas, but I didn't even finish one glass.

 

This is the conversation at the barn that led to this debacle:

Kelly: we still have an hour left for bottomless mimosas!

Me: okay, but I can't drink too much. I might sign up for a race.

Katie: running is dumb.

Me: yeah, it is. Let's have mimosas.

At some point in the middle of all of this, I decide to register for the half from my phone while completely buzzed. Champagne buzzes don't last too long, but being the professional champagne drinkers that we are, we are definitely capable of putting away more than the average person. So even though we sobered up pretty quickly, it certainly doesn't help your energy or hydration levels when you're planning on running 13 miles in the morning.

Basically, I went home and went straight to bed.

At 5:30pm.

Like a boss.

Then I remembered that my running clothes were dirty, so at least I managed to get a load into the washer and got my socks and underwear out for the morning. Then I went back to bed.

I slept until midnight and woke up with a killer headache. Now I'm kicking myself because I know I'm going to feel terrible in the morning. I get up and chug two glasses of water and pull my running clothes out of the washer to hang up to dry. It then occurs to me that I don't know where my visor is and I'm sure my iPod needs to be charged. And where the hell is my running belt?!

So I was awake from midnight until 4:30am, watching Happy Endings on Hulu, and my alarm was going to go off at 5:45. The race started at 7:30. Pretty sure this is part of Meb's routine, too.

I finally fall back to sleep for about an hour, my alarm went off, and I got ready to race. My headache was much improved but still present and I felt very tired. I think this is why I signed up from my phone while tipsy at the bar. I knew there was no way I'd get up and go register before the actual race, but if I had already spent $85 less than 24 hours prior, there was no way I was wasting that money.

As I was leaving, I realized that I had no fuel of any kind. I stopped at the Circle K and loaded up on Clif Bars, coffee, water and giant Sweet Tarts (Sweet Tarts actually made good fuel!). I was the only one in the store and the lone employee watched me like I was a tweeker on some all night binge buying up all the snacks in sight.

Possible fuel choice for the WDW Marathon.

 

So off I went. I made it to the Scottsdale Civic Center at 7:10, picked up my bib and shirt, then checked the shirt and remainder of my snacks in the gear bag provided, and made it to the start by the skin of my teeth.

 

I won't bore you with a mile by mile recap, since most of my race was not monumental. Spoiler alert: I survived my first hung over half marathon and it wasn't as horrible as I imagined it would be.

This race used to be the Fiesta Bowl Half but changed this year to the Scottsdale Half.

 

It's a fairly small race, but well run. They only had aid stations every 2 to 2.5 miles, which is way less than I'm used to since I usually run really large races, but I can't complain too much about that since it was a small race.

The course was through a pretty nice part of town, which was enjoyable.

 

The crowd support was pretty much nonexistent, which made it hard to distract myself from the fact that I was trudging along for 13 miles, sweating out champagne though my pores.

 

I actually didn't do too badly considering my race preparation, or lack thereof. Like I said earlier, I've been running consistently, but I think I survived this race as well as I did because I've dropped about twenty pounds since this summer, which has helped my stamina immensely (but sadly, has not really made me faster). I'll write more about that in another post.

 

I'm no speed demon, that's for sure, but I still squeaked across the finish line in just under 3 hours. I hit a big wall at about mile 10, but that wasn't a shocker, considering. I walked all of miles 12 and 13. My legs were toast.

Berry champagne is pretty delicious.

 

 

But then there were free mimosas at the finish line, so my pain floated away and dissolved into a cloud of happiness. And they were not skimpy on the champagne, either. That drink is like 7/8 berry champagne, which is where the color of this drink comes from, and 1/8 orange juice. Frankly, this is the proper mimosa ratio, in my professional opinion. None of that 'splash of champagne in the O.J.' bullsh*t for this girl.

The irony of all of this is that when I ran the Tink Half in May, I totally did everything right. I ate very carefully the day before the race, I drank tons of water, did a lot of relaxing, didn't use effing Sweet Tarts for fuel, and you know what? I was still sick as a dog for half an hour post race in the porta potty, just like every half marathon (or longer) that I run.

This time, my stomach totally felt great and my headache disappeared somewhere around mile 10 and unicorns appeared in the sky, etc. Maybe I've stumbled upon my new pre-race routine, because once I was in that mimosa garden, I felt like a million bucks. And you're welcome, by the way, for always doing things in the most stupid way possible so that you don't have to. That's public service, right there.

 

Then I went home and spent my afternoon in the most cliche way possible: as a 40 year old spinster cat lady with Chinese take out. The end.

 

My selfie skills are seriously sub par.

 

 

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Once Upon A Time

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away (we'll call this land Arizona) there lived a girl. ("Girl" in this instance refers to a recently turned 40 year old spinster cat lady in a mid life crisis.) This girl had a blog and said blog was loosely running themed. (The term "running" is used loosely simply because there was a whole lot of not running happening.) I'm like that person that decides they are going to take up fly fishing so they buy all the books and equipment, but never actually goes fly fishing. I possess all of the equipment - basically two feet and some shoes- and I've even got the blog! But to have a running blog, it's probably ideal that it be maintained by, you know, someone that actually pauses Netflix long enough to run somewhere.

I just spent several amazing days with some friends at a waterfront condo in Panama City Beach, Florida. I was telling these wonderful people (who clearly know I'm a bizarre weirdo but pretend like I'm an entertaining and interesting individual) about this one running experience that I had where this guy was wearing an elevation mask but was all creepy and Darth Vader-like. I couldn't remember exactly what happened, so I looked up the blog entry and read it to them. They thought it was hysterical.

Well, this response fed my narcissistic, ego maniacal soul perfectly. So I read them a few more entries and again, they thought the entries were great. All joking aside about my ego, I had forgotten how much I enjoyed writing some of those entries and how much I missed being a part of the blogosphere.

I even went running on this trip, which rarely happens for me on vacation. Panama City Beach is an odd, eclectic tourist town and right now must be in the off season because the place was deserted. Also, Panama City has the most miniature golf courses I have ever seen in my life. Like, there's so many of them that it feels like maybe it's a cover up for something else. I mean, c'mon, this octopus looks shady as shit.

Pretty sure he was hunting me as I ran by.

 

Also, wtf with the color of this water? This mini golf course was right by condo and I must have mentioned the color of the water approximately 376485 times. I'm not sure why I was so obsessed with it, but it's certainly suspicious.

 

And not only that, but it wasn't the only mini golf course with the same color water. That, my friends, is the color of toilet water that is spiked with some sort of non-environmentally friendly concoction. In fact, I can't remember the last time I actually used a toilet with water that color, so maybe there's a chance it has been outlawed as an eco hazard, causing three eyed fish and double tailed squirrels and the perfect place to hide the surplus is at the 4536 miniature golf courses in the small tourist town of Panama City Beach.

 

I swear I was coming to some sort of point here, but that point has eluded me since boarding my second flight on my journey home and finding out it is SANS WIFI. Why, Southwest, WHY? That's what I love about you! You pay one fee and you have wifi access for the whole day, even after changing planes. Of course, that's assuming all of the flights you're taking that day have wifi on them. I feel so robbed. Anyway, making a point here...

I've struggled on and off over the years since I began writing this blog with trying to define what kind of blog this is. I suppose the original intent was to write a running blog because A) I had found so many blogs helpful when I was training to run my first half marathon and B) all the cool kids were doing it and we all know how cool I am.

If this doesn't scream, "cool," then I don't know what does.

 

The problem is that as far as training and ability goes, I really have nothing to offer most runners. I am not what some would call educated in really any aspect of running or working out and if we're really being honest here, no one gives two shits what my sets, reps or splits were on any given day.

BUT if you want to know what kind of crazy, outlandish and stupid shit that goes through my mind while I'm trying not to hurl myself in front of on coming traffic during a long run just to end the pain, then I'm your gal. I certainly have nothing to offer any reader as far as a training plan goes, but feel free to use me as an example of how not to do things. I'm pretty open and honest about my stupidity when it comes to my training cycles. I can also justify pretty much any completely insane dream or idea, so I also provide services as an enabler completely free of charge. #communityservice

Regardless, I'm here for you.

 

There's also a good chance that I reside somewhere on the psychological spectrum when it comes to illusions of grandeur because I rarely believe I can't do something. I might not be ready or capable at this very moment in time, but to me, that is not synonymous with being incapable. There is a difference between being incapable and untrained/inexperienced/unprepared. I don't doubt for a minute that I am capable of training hard enough to complete an Iron Man. I certainly couldn't do it right now, but I don't doubt that I could do it if I wanted it badly enough.

And likewise, I rarely believe that others can't do something. I hear it all of the time; I could never do what you do. And that, kids, is simply not true. Choosing not to do it is one thing, and I'm not being flippant when I say I have respect for that. But if you didn't try simply because you think that you can't, then you're robbing yourself of the victory. There is no victory quite like the victory that stems from a place of conquering fear, doubt, and a lack of faith. It's life changing and the feeling is so potent that when it happens, it's very hard to describe in the retelling.

And maybe that's the point here. Maybe it never was about splits, reps and PRs for me, but rather doing something simply because I had the idea that I could do it and therefore, would do it. I certainly have a flair for the dramatic, but it hurts my heart a little when I hear people say they can't do it, whatever the "it" happens to signify. Your road may be harder/slower/longer/more painful and that applies to so many aspects of life.

This could be the background for a motivation meme, right?

 

The answer is more often yes than people realize.

I'm running the WDW Marathon in January. Anyone that has crossed a marathon finish line knows what an insanely emotional experience it is. As much as I have a that flair for the dramatic, I think just about anyone that has crossed the finish line of a marathon will tell you that it is a life changing event; the good, the bad, and the ugly. I'm not in horrible shape going into this and I have more to say on that topic on another day, but I will leave you with this spoiler alert: I already have my race shirt picked out. Priorities, my friends.

Wow, I don't even know how this post got so damn serious, but I better put my bitch face back on before you guys start thinking I'm some sort of nice person. I can't go ruining my street cred. Helpful side note: sunglasses and a resting bitch face help keep people from sitting next to you on airplanes.

 

The point of this post got completely derailed like a runaway train, but I guess what I'm saying is that now seemed as good of a time as any to jump back into the blogosphere with this 26.2 mile trek of life defining misery glaring at me from the upcoming horizon. I follow many of my blogger friends on Instagram, so I've been following many of you and your adventures there. Likewise, many of you are already aware of some adventures I've had this summer that includes a humongous milestone for Louie The Magical Unicorn and myself, which deserves a stand alone blog post. Until next time, bloggarinos.

I should also note that I wrote this on Sunday while I was traveling and am just now getting around to actually posting it. Since I haven't posted anything for like, 4 months, I suppose this is par for the course with me.

 

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Marathon, Marathon, Marathon

I made hotel reservations for the 2017 Disney World Marathon Weekend yesterday for my mom and myself. Luckily for me, my mom likes to travel in style. I did a bunch of research on various resorts like the Polynesian, Beach Club, and Yacht Club but in the end, my mom wanted to stay at the Boardwalk again like we did for Wine & Dine. So that is where we are staying. I'm certainly not complaining because A) that would make me an asshole and B) if I was paying for it myself, I'd only be able to afford a value resort...barely.

I found this on my phone and must have gotten a little carried away with a bokeh app at some point...

Anyhoooooo, my mom and I are both doing the 10K on Friday and I'm going to do the full on Sunday. This is also a bonus for staying at the Boardwalk- the marathon route goes past the hotel. Making that reservation got me super excited.

I really need this on a mug. Or t-shirt. I'm not picky.

 

This will be my third marathon and official training is right around the corner. Even though I've been neglecting my blog and have been a bad blog reader, I have not been totally slacking off. I'm finally using the gym membership that I signed up for....a year ago. Better late than never, right?

 

The gym opens at 4:30am and it's on the way to the barn, so I've been going to the gym and then to the barn to ride at 6:30 and then to work by 8:30. Yes, I'm patting myself on the back here, because I'm tired all of the time now.

 

I'm not sure what he's so cranky about, he only has to work out once a day! Free loader.

 

I was smart enough to sign up for a winter marathon rather than a fall marathon because I'm super over doing long runs in the summer here. OVER IT.

Nope, nope, nope. This was on Sunday.

 

My gym has wifi, so I can camp out on the treadmill and watch Netflix. Yes, I can move faster than 3.6mph but I can't do that and take a picture. #priorities

In case you're wondering- that's Pretty Little Liars

 

I don't necessarily recommend watching something like Game of Thrones while on the treadmill because other people can see and well, if you are a GoT fan, you know there is a lot of violence and a lot of s-e-x.

So yeah. I'm getting pumped for my marathon adventure and making that reservation made me happy.

At the Tink Expo

 

I hope the medal for 2017 is pretty like this one.

 

Time to start actually formulating a plan. I'm hoping for a PR since my other two marathons were in terrible conditions and took me way longer than they should have. But I've learned that just because you train really hard, doesn't mean you're guaranteed a PR. We'll see what happens. Is anyone else doing WDW Marathon weekend?

 

 

 

 

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