Lap 9 - Dave McMillian

Date: Thursday, March 21, 2013, 6:00 PM
Temp: 45 degrees
Time Up: 34:30
Time Down: About 30 minutes

Sanitas is back!

Just a short little catch up for people that either haven't read my blog before or don't remember.  Last year I committed to doing laps of Mt Sanitas (in the Winter) in order to raise money for the running team that I'm part of, Team AllEars.   Some amazing friends of mine generously donated to the cause and because of that I had committed to doing all these different laps of Mt Sanitas.  Well I was deep in the training for the Disney World Goofy challenge and I had a lot more donations than I thought I'd get.  So basically I didn't finish all the laps.   Anyway, two months later, here am I, training for the Desert Rats Trailrunning Festival in Fruita, CO.   I figured now was a good time to get in some more hill work and to finish up the laps I owe people.  This lap is being run in the name of my good friend David McMillen and his wife Mishi.

As I said, I am right in the middle of training for a half marathon out in Fruita.  It's going to be on April 20th.  I'm not running it alone, in fact quite a few local Colorado friends are planning on running it with me (Michael Kelly, Andrea Oakley, Rebecca Boozan, Kate Bierbaum, Jenny Bitzan, Karen Lipisky to name a few).  It's a trail race so we have been trying to get in as many off road training sessions as we can.  Since the weather was so nice today and we wanted to work on practicing our downhill running, Andrea and I decided to head up to Mt Sanitas.

 We had a bit of snow and rain earlier in the day, but you couldn't tell.

Such a difference to be training with light once again.  Andrea showed up at my house at 5:30 and we headed out from there.  Still plenty of light once we got up on the hill.  I think it may have been around 50 degrees when we started but it was a bit breezy.   Still a beautiful day out.  Tuesday both Andrea and I did a pretty hard hill repeat workout so our legs were still recovering a bit today.   Also Andrea hadn't had enough to eat and I was recovering from a wicked hangover from the previous night (the wine bottle and I had a fight and the wine bottle won).  The plan was to take it easy on the way up, but then to go down the backside and really practice some good downhill running.  This is important as the Fruita course has a wicked elevation gain around miles 8-11 and then a steep downhill right after that for about 2 miles.  We were trying to get some wear and tear on our legs to mimic the course.

 I think she just enjoyed getting warm in the sun

For some reason my lungs didn't feel at 100% today.  I hope I'm not getting sick and that it was just something that was hitting me today.  We stopped about halfway up so I could snap a few pictures.

 Boulder sure is beautiful almost all year round

For the most part my training for the race has been going really well.  I took about a month off after the Disney World Marathon and didn't do any serious running during that time.  Since about mid-Feb I started back up training for this race.

 Look how good of shape the trail is in for being mid March

While the trail was in great shape, my wife just informed me that we have a few days of rain and snow rolling in.   At least it looks like its a recovery week on the schedule so while I do have to get runs in, this is a week to rest.

 Woohoo!  The top, again!

Felt really good getting to the top again.  The last time I was up here was our moonlight jaunt. I still owe Laura one more lap and I hope that we can plan another moonlight run up sometime in the future. Heading back down I seconded guessed myself (like I do often) and took the wrong path.  Andrea and I backtracked and with the nice help of a local young Boulder hipster, we found our way back down.  Andrea was dealing with a bit of a side cramp but still managed to push hard through the rest of the run.  I'm so proud of that girl, I probably would have just walked it. =P

Part of the hill we were bombing down

Anyway, I'm sorry it's been so long since I've blogged.  I had a bit of burnout in general after the marathon this year.   I'm trying to get back into habit of blogging more often.  I did want to take the time to mention another cause that I'm fundraising for this year, totally separate from Team AllEars.

There is a group of us friends that had recently gotten together.  Not only are we all runners, we are also all total nerds (if you didn't already know I was a nerd, well...you just don't know me very well).   We sort of informally call ourselves the Nerd Herd.  We have a website if you want to check it out as well as a Facebook group.  Since we are all runners and we live all across the US, we have decided to put on a virtual racing series this year.  Each race has its own theme.  The first one is called the "May the 4th be with you 5k".   The second one later in the year is the "Happy Birthday Harry Potter 5k and 10k".  The last one is the "Banned Book Week 5k and Half Marathon".  All the profits to these races will be going to charity.   Registration should be opening very soon so if you are interested in helping out a good cause and want to get fit at the same time, please consider signing up.  If you are curious how a virtual race works, we have a FAQ located here.  I'll be posting more information on this soon.

Marathon Weekend 2013 - Monday/Tuesday and Final Thoughts

Just thought I'd finish up a quick blog entry talking about the rest of my trip after the marathon including some final thoughts about the race weekend.

We woke up Monday morning with some pretty exciting plans for the day.  Our good friend Shane and Steve are getting married at WDW in October.  They invited us to go with them over to the wedding pavillion to meet with their wedding planner.   In addition it was check out day at Animal Kingdom Lodge.  As a surprise to Joelle I booked us one night at the Polynesian hotel.   This meant we were not able to make our breakfast meet with Team AllEars at Kona Cafe that morning.  We ended up packing up and checking out of Animal Kingdom Lodge and heading over to the Poly.  We quickly checked in and went to our room to throw our luggage in there before heading over to the wedding pavilion   Wow, what a room.  By now we have stayed at quite a few Disney resorts but by far the Polynesian has the best and biggest rooms. I've always thought it would be my favorite resort, but this one night stay cinched it.  I want to come back someday.

Lei time!  I do love the poly....

After checking in and dropping off our luggage we walked over to the wedding pavilion.  After stopping by the front desk we found out that the time for our appointment was a bit mixed up.  Instead of 9-12, our appointment wasn't until 1.     Not a big deal as we didn't have any huge plans that day.  We decided to hop in the car and head over Disney Hollywood Studios.  I hadn't got much time all weekend to ride many rides so no one had an issue with me heading over there and getting some rides in.  I think I ended up riding Tower of Terror and Rock-n-Roller Coaster.  After that we went and grabbed pictures with the Wreck-it Ralph characters.  I don't remember doing much other than that.  We did walk around a bit and had got some lunch.

Pictures at HWS with Vanellope and Ralph!

After touring a bit, we headed back to the Wedding Pavilion to make our appointment.  I think at this point I expected to be a lot more tired than I really was.  My legs were sore, but it wasn't horrible.  I also hadn't gotten much sleep all weekend but it hadn't caught up to me yet.

We were quickly met by Shane's wedding planner and they brought us back to a small room and started to the process.  It was actually really interesting.  Basically you plan your entire wedding with the exception of food tasting (though we did have a cake tasting) in one sitting.   I'm not sure if anyone got bored but I found it pretty fascinating    It took about 3-4 hours and by the end of it I think Shane had most of the details worked out.   Our wedding planner did say that the next DVC (Disney Vacation Club) property that was to be build would be the Poly.  Now if I was rich, I'd invest in that. :)

Yes, if you want to pay $2400 you can arrive in a white coach to your wedding

After the marathon wedding planning session I think Joelle and I just bummed around our resort.  We ended up getting dinner at Captain Cooks and then decided to hang out on the beach on the Poly watching Wishes from a hammock.  It was a very relaxing way to end a very busy trip.

Yay Stitch!

After we watched Wishes some of the Nerd Herd was heading out to Jellyrolls down on the boardwalk.  It is a dualing piano bar.  I had never gone before but we ended up having a blast.   Cover was $12 but the piano players were really talented.  Julie, Erinn, Christine, Sara and Erinn's friend ended up showing up.  We stayed until probably midnight.  By then I think the races were catching up to all of us and we were turning into pumpkins.  After wishing a very happy night to the Herd I headed back to our room and crashed out.

Our awesome room!

The morning we leave seems to usually always be a bit rough.  Joelle likes to sleep in a bit (who can blame her) and I usually have a few things I want to do before heading out.  Sometimes it's watching the opening show at Magic Kingdom, sometimes it's hitting a park to get in a few more rides.  Due to some poor communication we missed the opening show but we did get checked out.   We had a few hours so we headed over to the Magic Kingdom anyway.   We played some Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom and I got to ride Space Mountain.

Shortly after that we headed to the airport and headed back to Colorado.

Messed up pupils at the airport from touching my eye after applying a Transderm Scōp patch on Joelle

Some final thoughts about marathon weekend in general.  I really enjoy this weekend as I have so many friends I've made over the last three years that I get to see.  Doing the Goofy is fun, but it ends up making the weekend a really full weekend.   I pretty much felt like I was go go go all weekend long.  We did have some friends down and did some really special things as well.   To really do your best on the Goofy it takes a lot of downtime to rest.  Next year if I go back I think I'm going to go with a different plan.  The plan is to backload the trip like I did this time and not plan hardly anything the first few days.  I am planning on doing the 5k with some friends but then I think I'll skip the 1/2.  I haven't done just a marathon yet and I think I really want to focus on a good marathon race.   Of all the race weekends, I think this is probably my third favorite (just talking about the RunDisney portion of it).  Wine and Dine is still my first, I think it's an excellent time of year and it's a great race.  Tinkerbell out in Disneyland comes in second due to crowds and weather. I'm not 100% sure I'll be back next year, but I think it's pretty likely.   I just hope overall if I do come back that we have better weather.

Thanks to everyone who followed along with my posts about race weekend.  I've got some fun things coming up including the 2013 Princess Half Marathon as well as training for the Fruita Half Marathon.  I'll be having some more Sanitas updates soon including a triple lap with Mike Kelly.   Look for those soon!

Ears Up!

Marathon Weekend 2013 - Sunday - Full Marathon

Well this cold has been kicking my butt but I really wanted to get around to finishing my blogging about the WDW marathon weekend.   Anyway, once again it started way too early.  The alarm went off at a bright and shining 2:45 am.   While the first two early mornings I manged to sneak out without waking up Joelle, this third morning luck was not on my side.  She manged to wake up enough to wish me good luck, roll over and head back to sleep.

Again, too fricking early.  Up at 2:45 am.

Once again I decided to drive to the start but I ended up leaving a bit later than the day before.  Still traffic wasn't really an issue and I got a parking spot right next to the entrance of the waiting area.  Once inside I gathered up with the rest of Team Allears.   Instead of waiting around we learned our lesson from the day before.  A few of us decided to head out quickly after the team picture.   Eddie and I headed to our corral and while we got there early, I preferred that to getting there right before the race started.  Of all the parts of marathon weekend, I really do enjoy hanging in the corral watching the fireworks and listening to the music.  In fact, one of my best memories from a RunDisney race was Tower of Terror weekend hanging in the corral dancing with my TAE buds.   I even got a great shot of my friend Jamison dancing.  Someone remind me to get that up on youtube....

Me and Eddie hanging out waiting for the start

Much like the day before, it was darn humid for the start of the race.  The good thing is it felt a bit cooler, maybe high 50s rather than 60s.   From the day before I had a few choices to make.  I could go for a flat race (same pace) the entire way through.  Or I could preload a bit of speed and get through as much of the course before the sun came up.  Not sure if it was the best choice but I decided to to do the latter.  Ended up basically going out at the same pace that I did the half marathon in.  Until the sun came up, I felt great.  The first six miles went by really fast, faster than the day before.  The magic kingdom was beautiful and in fact I liked it better than the previous year just because it was dark when I ran through it.  I love running through the parks when it's dark (probably the reason that the Wine and Dine 1/2 is my favorite race).

After pulling out of the Magic Kingdom you have a few miles to run down along the back of the Grand Floridian and the Polynesian Hotel.  I ended up hanging with a group of high school track runners.  They were really nice and we got to chatting for a bit.  Finally they decided enough with this slow pace and took off.  I could tell that this race wasn't much of a challenge for them.   

I think mile 9 or so we headed into the Richard Petty Speedway.   This was a new part of the course and a welcome addition.   The humidity was so bad that you couldn't even seen all the way across the speedway as there was a layer of fog in the center.  We probably ran close to a mile around it and they had a bunch of old cars lined up as well.   

After the speedway you run a few miles on the back road near the water treatment plant.   By now the sun was starting to come up and it was getting light out.  I still felt pretty good and ended up joining a group of Galloway pacers.   They were having a blast.  Probably 30 people or so and they were just joking having a good time.   I think I lost them when heading into the Animal Kingdom at mile 12.   

Of all the parks, this park was probably the most disappointing.  Not sure why, it just wasn't that much fun to run through.   We came in through the back, ran through Asia, then Dinoland and back out through the parking lot.  I'd say this is when I started to struggle the most.  The pace started to seem a bit difficult and I was really looking forward to seeing Joelle and the TAE cheer squad at mile 15.

Like last year, my wife was hanging with the Colorado Sisters (and Bryan) at mile 15.  I knew that by about now the sun would be up (came up over the horizon around mile 13).   I decided to give her , a towel, a shirt, pair of socks, my hat and my sunglasses.  To keep myself entertained, pretty much from mile 13 to 15 all I could do is rehearse in my mind the order that I wanted her to give me stuff when I saw her.  I came up and was like, "Towel, then shirt, then hat!".   Pretty much dried off, switched shirts.  Maybe I hung out for 2 minutes max.  

Feeling good at Mile 15 (only cause my wife gave me a new shirt)

After then the race sort of turned into a blur.  It started getting hot.  I was pretty much okay until mile 19 and the my body started acting up.   Let's just say my system was not working as it should.  I knew I would slow down for the rest of the race but I slowed down a bit more than I had hoped.   I made it through the Wide World of Sports (we were in there for like 4 miles).   Then headed up to Disney Hollywood Studios.   I ran by the chocolate stand but by now there was no way I could eat it.   Finally we got to Epcot, one of my favorite parts of the course.  Too quickly after that it was all over.

Compared to the year before, I felt 100 times better.   Got some food and water down.  After getting my checked bag and drying off a bit I took a visit to the massage tent.  Normally after this I go back into Epcot and have some lunch but I knew we still had a Magic Kingdom meet along with dinner and then a desert party.  Decided to jump in the car and grab some food back at the hotel.  At the last minute I took a detour and stopped by a McDonalds and wolfed down a 20 piece mcnugget.  Normally I try and eat like a vegetarian but I knew that my body wanted chicken.

Peter Pan proclaimed Daniel won the goofy.  It must be true.

After food, a brief nap we headed over to the MK for a quick meet before dining at Be Our Guest.  We ended up riding Pirates and then went and did a quick photo op with Peter Pan.  Peter proclaimed Dan the winner of the goofy, which he totally was. ;)

A bunch of us headed over to Be Our Guest where I got to dine with my Nerd Herd buds, Sara, Julie and Christine.   Totally fun.  Then Lee, Laura and myself headed over to get a picture with Goofy.  It's sort of become a tradition for us that whenever we finish a race, we get picture with the character that sponsored the race with our medals on.  We did it for Tink and also the DL 1/2 I believe.

Goofy was thanking Lee, Laura and myself for running in his race.  He decided to just fly...

The night finished up with a lovely evening watching Illuminations, again this time seated with the infamous Nerd Herd.  I had expected to feel a lot more tired at this point but really I felt pretty good.   Joelle and I took a nice stroll out the front of the park and headed back to the TTC with Jan Pepe to our car.  It was a great ending to a very very long day.

Lap 8 - Andrea Oakley

Date: Saturday, January 26th, 9:00 PM

Temp: 41 degrees
Total Time: 1:35 minutes

So we tried to do this back in December but I sort of bailed on it.  The idea was to do one of my laps of Sanitas during a full moon at night.   I think it was cold that night and I was sort of peaking out with my training for the Goofy at the time.  I just didn't have much in my legs.  Anyway, Andrea looked at the calendar and went ahead and scheduled a repeat attempt for January (thanks again for picking up the ball on this).  Since the marathon two weeks ago I had come down with a really nasty cold.  This week has been really nasty for running as I couldn't seem to get rid of this cough.   Today especially not only has the cough really been getting me down but also I seemed to have almost no energy.  Woke up at 9:00 am and by noon I felt exhausted.  

Spent most of the day hanging with friends but was a bit worried about my energy level for the late night run. Ended up picking up Kate and Michael and met up with the rest of the runners (Andrea, Rebecca, Laura and Lindsay).  

On a side note, Michael and I had decided to once again go without sugar for a month.  Rebecca was in our original bet back in November but I hadn't seen her in a few weeks.  Once she heard that we were back on the no-sugar bandwagon, she agreed to join as well.  It's nice to have friends willing to give up cookie dough for each other. ;)  Anyway, the bet is 50 bucks and ends the same weekend as the Princess 1/2.

The crew getting ready to head up

When we started out, we had just finished getting a little bit of a drizzle here in Boulder.  Oddly even with the drizzle it wasn't that cold.   I'd say I even overdressed a bit.  The smell of the fresh rain still hung in the air and already I was feeling better.   

This picture screams instagram filter

We took our time with the ascent.  I started off using my headlamp but quickly I ended up turning it off.  The moon had just enough light that most of the time I was fine without it.   Some of us had been up to the top of Sanitas before.   Others it was their first time.  I was glad they picked tonight to do it as it was a beautiful night.  In fact, I so prefer running at night I'm not sure I want to do it again during the daylight. ;)

Relaxing a bit at the top before heading back down.  

Once we got the top we sat around looking at the view for a bit.  I tried to snap a few pictures but the lighting conditions were not cooperating with my Iphone.  

Wow..I guess that reflective gear on my jacket really works....

A few of us were getting cold so we decided to start heading back down.  Instead of going down the front side, we decided to head down the backside.   While the start of that trail was a bit more sketchy, eventually it opens up into the Sanitas valley trail which is a really nice downhill where I normally run my hill repeats with Fast Forward.

Boulder at night

There are places around the country right now that have a few feet of snow, it's below freezing.  Here in Boulder it's rather pleasant out, no snow on the ground and we are blessed with such a gorgeous view.  I'm not sure there is anywhere else I'd rather live.  

Finally able to open it up running down the backside.  

Once we got down to the valley trail we all opened it up a bit and coasted the last mile back down to the parking lot.  There we were treated to libations and hot cocoa from Andrea.  I was about to partake when my good friend reminded me that hot cocoa has sugar in it and that would have cost me my 50 bucks.  Michael, thinking quick on his feat mentioned that we were allowed sugar in our post-workout recovery drinks.  We let him get away with it since especially he had already completed a 6 hour bike ride  earlier today and was replenishing his fuel supplies.  

Thanks Andrea for the post workout refreshments 

Yay!  We don't have to do it a second time...

After the run driving home I realized that I while I felt crappy all week, this is the best I've felt physically all week.  I think I'm finally recovering from both the cold and the Goofy.  Tomorrow my goal is to get in the pool and try adding some swimming to my workout routine.  

All in all probably the most leisurely but also most enjoyable lap of Sanitas that I've done.  I can't wait to do it again in the future and this summer it might have to become a regular outing.  Thanks again to all my great friends who came out last night to join me, not to mention all my friends that helped and supported my journey with Team Allears.  I still have four laps of Sanitas to go (one with Laura, a triple lap with Michael) and I'm hoping it doesn't end there.  

2013 Fitness Goals and Races

So taking a break a bit from the marathon weekend recap and I just wanted to talk about goals.   I believe goals are really important to improving one self.  It's not to say that someone that doesn't have goals can't get fitter, lose weight or improve but I feel like goals (and stating them publicly) can really get over a hump or a plateau.

I think the key to setting successful goals (for myself at least) is to make sure that they are achievable and have actionable steps I can take along the way.

Goal #1 - Lose weight
One of my goals is that I'd like to improve my speed while running.  While there are numerous ways of doing this, one way is to lose weight.  I'd like to get down to a racing weight of around 150 lbs.  I'm sitting at 163 right now and the lowest I've been is 157.   I've been sitting around the 160-165 range for over a year and for my height I know I should be less than I am now.  I think eventually I'd like to get under 150 but I'll set 150 as my goal for now.  There is a lot of variety that talks about weight loss and speed but the general consensus is that you can run 20 seconds per mile faster per 10 pounds you lose.  My target date is the Fruita half marathon in April.

Steps that I will take to achieve this:
1.  Once again cutting out sugar.  Mike K and I have recommitted to no sugar for the next 30 days.
2.  Eat smaller portions.
3.  Eat more salads.

Before (2008) weight was 210ish.  After (2013) weight is 165

                                                                                               

Goal #2 - Run more often at or above my race pace.  Concentrate on effort and speed over distance
While I do have some longer races coming up (see below) I'm going to try and not focus on distance in my training.  Instead I want to focus on running faster for shorter periods of times.  I do have a few key workouts that I will do that are longer for the Fruita half in April, that won't be my focus.

Steps I will take to achieve this:
1. Work on my Yasso 800s.  It's a workout that I've never done before but I think it will help focus me on speed.
2.  Try to incorporate some sort of discomfort in all of my workouts from Feb 15th on (up until Feb 15th, I'm really trying to just recover physically and mentally).  This doesn't have to be speed every time.  It can be hills or tempo as well but really get used to running with more discomfort that I'm used to.  No more fluff workouts, I don't need them right now.
3.  Cut back the mileage a bit to help with mental fatigue.
4.  Keep attending track nights.

Goal #3 - Race more 5k/10ks
My big A race of the latter part of the year is going to be the Disneyland 10k in Sept.  I'm not super comfortable racing at this distance so I need to practice some beforehand.

Steps I will take to achieve this:
1.  Once my rest period is over from the Marathon, find a 5k to sign up for.
2.  Race at least two 10ks before Sept.

Goal #4 - Do a sprint triathlon before the end of the year:
I figure it's time to try out a triathlon   It will be fun and I think doing something other than just running will be good for me.

Steps I will take to achieve this:
1.  Work on my bike so it's ready to ride.
2.  Take at least one swimming lesson here in the spring.
3.  Once I figure out what tri I want to do (I need to decide on one before March 31st) come up with a training plan and stick with it.

So those are my goals, I thought I'd mention which races I have coming up.

Princess 1/2 Marathon - Feb 24th. - This is not an A race by any means.  I'm meeting some friends down there and will most likely run with them.  If anything I may decide to race the last 5k just for fun.

Me after the Princess 1/2 last year

Fruita Desert Rats Trailrunning Festival - April 21st - This is my next big race of the season.  We have been working on our hills and talking about some really great key workouts to get in before this race.  I have high hopes of performing well this weekend.   I will have about two solid month to train for it once I've recovered enough from the Goofy.  My good friends Michael and Andrea are running it with me plus I believe several others (like Karen).   Should be good times all around.  I loved this race last year and am looking forward to it again this year.  I would consider this a B race for me if not an A race.

Sunrise before the 1/2 last year in Fruita

Disneyland Dumbo Double Dare - August 31st, Sept 1st - Normally this weekend is the Disneyland half marathon but this year they added a 10k onto Saturday.  If you run both it's like a mini-Goofy but they call it the Double Dumbo Dare.  My wife Joelle wanted to run the 10k otherwise I would have skipped it this year.    I decided that I'm planning on racing the 10k as my A race for the year.  Then the next day I'll run the half but at a more enjoyable pace.  The double dumbo dare sold out in a record few hours today when it opened up.  Just the 10k sold out a few hours later and the half is already at 75%.

This is how happy I want to be after the Disneyland 10k

Not sure what other races I'll end up running but those are at least the next few coming up.

Marathon Weekend 2013 - Saturday - 1/2 Marathon

Okay, let me just say I love Disney races (duh, I'm sure you figured this out by now).  But, one of the things I really really really don't love is how early you need to get up in order to go to these races.  Because you run through several of the theme parks and they only have so many roads (and over 25k racers) for logistics the races have to start early.  Also they are a bit limited in their staging areas so not only do you have to show up early, you have to walk a bit to get to your corrals.  I think that is the one thing that I'd tell anyone that wants to try running a Disney race, just plan on getting up early, really early.   Basically my morning looked like this:

2:30 - Alarm goes off
3:15 - Drive to the start to avoid traffic (you can also take a bus, they leave from 3:00 to 4:00 am from Disney resorts).
4:15  - Team AllEars Photo and Meetup
5:35 - Corral A Start

So this trip I actually decided to drive instead of taking a Disney bus like they suggest.  I liked it quite a bit better.  My car was right outside where all the runners gathered so after the race I could head back to my car and quickly change into comfortable clothes and such without having to really bag check a lot stuff.  Once I got there my running team was already starting to gather.  The temp. that morning I think was around 61 degrees at 4:00 am.  It was going to be a hot day.  At the expo the day before I had asked to move up from corral C to corral A.  It's not that I was planning on running really fast, but I figured if I could start a bit earlier, I'd finish before it got really hot out.  In retrospect I think it was a great idea and I'd do it again if I had to.  Not only did I start earlier, I also avoided some of the crowding of the course that lots of other runners experienced. =(

Once we had gathered and taken our team picture, after talking for a few minutes, we headed to the corrals. We tried to stay together but eventually Brian Camphouse and I split off to try and make it to Corral A.  We knew we were cutting it close as the national anthem was playing as we walked up to our corral.   After about 10 more minutes of waiting, they sent us off in our waves.   One of the cooler things is for each wave the have a huge send off with fireworks.  Pretty exciting way to start a race.

Heading into the staging area

Jorge, Eddie and myself pre-race

Knowing I had a marathon the next day, and I had done some park touring already I had planned to take the course pretty conservative.  I was thinking I was going to do around a 2:15-2:25 half time.   I'd walk parts, take pictures and just enjoy it.

Once I started running, it was a bit of a different story.  I was worried about the heat and humidity and honestly I just plain felt good.  I also think my predicted time above was based on a level of fitness that was just no longer realistic.  I picked up the pace and was running at just over a 9 minute pace, predicting to finish the race in just over 2 hours.  While my cardio felt totally fine (heart rate was actually really low) I was a bit worried about my legs so I decided to start stopping for characters.  It was actually a lot of fun!

Jack and Sally - Don't get to see them very often!

As I was running I got to see our faboulous Team AllCheers squad all over the course.  They were setup at Mile 1 and 11, Mile 6 in the magic kingdom and a few other places as well.  Let me tell you it was really a morale booster (especially during the marathon) to have them cheering for us.

Around mile 6 you head through the Magic Kingdom, down Main Street, around through Tomorrowland and Fantasyland and then through the castle.  My good friend Brandon was stationed just through the castle waiting for his wife and good friend Paul to come through.  I just barely caught him yelling my name so I stopped and had him take a quick picture.

Just ran through the castle

After the Magic Kingdom the course gets a bit more difficult.  You run out the back of the theme park and then down near the Grand Floridian, the Polynesian hotel and then down World Dr.  The road really narrows and can get pretty congested.   This is sort of when I save up any sort of mental fortitude to just pound through it.  I think the first few times I ran this course I dreaded this part but I've gotten to really enjoy it lately.

The Green Army Men at the top of the overpass

After World Drive you head up this overpass onto Epcot Center Dr.  I think it is right around mile 10.5.  If it's your first half marathon and especially if you don't run with a lot of hills, this can really suck.  It's long and actually fairly steep.  The Disney folks do a good job and put the Green Army Men on this hill to shout encouraging things as you run up it.

Race #1 down!  26.2 to go

After that hill it's pretty much downhill from there.  There is one more overpass but just over 2 miles to go.   Not to mention at the end of it you get to run through Epcot and they even have a actual Gospel choir singing for you at mile 13 right before the finish.  

I ended up finishing in around 2:07 I think.  I was a bit worried that it might have been too fast but honestly I felt pretty good and I just wanted to stay out of the heat.  After I finished up I quickly got a massage from the massage tent, changed and headed into Epcot as per my now normal ritual.  I ended up grabbing fast pass for Soarin' and had some breakfast at Sunshine Seasons.  A few other of my running friends finished up and joined me for breakfast and we all went on Soarin' together.  I went back in the park and cheered on the runners for a bit before heading back to my hotel for an ice bath and nap.  

Brr, it's cold in here, there must be some Toro's in the atmosphere...

My wonderful wife Joelle was heading out to the parks with our friends Shane and Steve that day but she was a sweetie and went and got a bunch of ice for my ice bath.  I think I was a bit of a wimp and didn't have the water cold enough to start with and so she ended up dumping more and more ice in the tub (much to her cackles of glee).   After the ice bath I ended up getting in about an hour nap before heading out to our main team meet. 

Waking up a bit late from my nap, I quickly headed out the door to the team meet over at the Dolphin.   The main team meet is where we announced the total that we have fund raised as a team for Avon Walk for Breast Cancer.  This year, we ended up making an all time high of 78k from a team of around 100 people.  It was pretty amazing.  I wasn't sure if we would beat the previous year's total or not.  Thank you to everyone that helped us get to this goal, especially to everyone that donated to make me run out Mt Sanitas (I still have a few Sanitas laps to do over the next few weeks).   

After finishing up the meet, some of the team (Go Nerd Herd!) was headed into Epcot for a few beers and some snacks.  Myself I was avoiding the alcohol until after the full but I know I needed some more calories before the full the next day.  We ended up getting pretzels in America and then hung out in Germany trying to stay off our feet.  

Go nerd herd!

A few of us decided to do the single rider for the new test track before heading out to get sleep.  After all I'd be up at 2:30 am again the next morning for the marathon....

Marathon Weekend 2013 - Friday - WDW Marathon Meetup and Wild Africa Trek

So Friday morning was another really early day.  Earlier in the week a few of Team AllEars had stalked the RunDisney twitter account and got accepted into the WDW Marathon Meetup with Jeff Galloway.  It is a marketing/social media event that RunDisney does for all of their races.  Basically certain prominent bloggers get invited with the media and then RunDisney does a first come first serve for the rest.  They invite about 100 people.   We were asked to show up at Disney Hollywood Studios at 6:30 am.   Once they got us checked in they gave us special 20th anniversary marathon t-shirts.  Four of my running team were invited to be there, myself, Eddie McCoy, Christine Griffin and Heather Melito-Dezan.  The sun was still down so the park was almost completely dark.

The crowd for the marathon meetup

After checking in and talking to Joe Taricani from the Marathon show for a bit, we got to line up and get pictures with Mickey, Donald and Goofy in their RunDisney costumes.  Also there were a few other running celebrities around to mingle with including Jeff Galloway, Desiree Davila (Olympic Marathoner), and a 7 time winner of the WDW marathon, Adriano Bastos. After pictures and such, they divided us into two groups.  A 9 minute pace group and a 12.5 minute pace group. Then we set off on our run.    

Me and Runner Mickey racing

We ran about 2.4 miles around Hollywood Studios.  I wasn't wearing my Garmin but I was told that we were running much faster than a 9 minute pace.  Ended up stopping in the middle to get a picture outside of Toy Story Mania with Woody and Buzz.  Then we ended up finishing the race in Light's Motor Action.

Christine Griffin's boy band idol, Joey Fatone

By now it was about 9:00 am and they had some water, juice, coffee and tea set out.  Also they had the food truck from the Wide World of Sports there as well.  While it was nice that they fed us, the food that they served was not the best.  We then sat down and they started bringing up the speakers.  At this point I'd say it was half good information, half their sponsors getting to talk.  I felt like especially since it was free, that was fine as there was some good info.  Joey Fatone (from N'sync) came out and actually spoke for a while.  His wife usually runs the Goofy but she injured herself so he decided to run it for her.  It was actually a really cute story.   I was never a N'sync fan and I didn't watch dancing with the stars but Joey was really entertaining to listen to.  

I'm not going to go through everyone that came suffice to say that there were two other notable standouts.  First, Drew Carey ended up coming up to speak.  Normally he runs the marathon but this year he had injured himself so he couldn't do it.   He ended up telling a really funny story about the Price is Right that was a bit dirty.  It felt like the Disney people running the event were trying to usher him off the stage but he kept on telling the joke.  He's a really funny guy and I'd love to see him in person doing standup one day.

Lastly they had a panel of running legends including Bart Yasso, Jeff Galloway and 4 others.  This part of the meetup had the most "meat" in it for me as a runner.  Unfortunately we were running out of time so by the time they all introduced themselves we only had about 20 minutes of questions with them.  

Drew Carey

Since this meetup was fairly last minute for me we had scheduled the Animal Kingdom Wild Africa Trek at 10:20.   So as soon as the meetup was over, I ran over, grabbed my goodie bag that they provided to us which was very generous.  It had a brand new Ifitness belt, some H20 products, a one day park hopper pass usable that weekend and a few other goodies.  I then raced to my car and headed over to the Animal Kingdom.

Shane, Steve, Richenda and Joelle were already checked in an waiting for the Wild Africa Trek.  I won't go into details of the trek (there are numerous blogs about the trek) but I did want to quickly weigh in on it. It's a paid 3 hour trek where you get to go backstage of the Animal Kingdom and get some up close look at the animals.   They had rope bridges that we had to cross as well as some really neet roped-in experiences where you can hang out and look down at alligators and hippos.  Then you board a special bus and get to go out on the Savanna.  

Me on one of the bridges at the Wild Africa Trek.  I was scared of the alligators below.

After cruising around for a bit on the savanna, you stop at their hut and they serve you a little snack (actually it felt like a full meal and was quite delicious).  You got to hang for about 45 minutes out here in a nice relaxed setting.

Grubbing out on the savanna at the Wild Africa Trek.  Yummy!

All in all I felt like the Wild Africa Trek is expensive, but I'm glad I did it.  I probably would not ever do it again on my own volition but like most tours at Disney, I think they are worth doing at least once.  You really did get some up close experiences with animals that you normally wouldn't be able to.  Standing on a rope bridge over alligators is also another experience that I'm not sure you'd be able to ever do anywhere else.

After the Wild Africa Trek I stopped off at the Dawa Bar and got a mojito.  This is turning into a tradition for me.  While the drinks aren't quite as good as at La Cava, I'm now a huge fan of stopping here when I'm in the Animal Kingdom and want to relax a bit.  I highly suggest it.  After getting my mojito and getting my wife a iced chai, we headed back to the hotel for a much needed shower.

Shane and I toasting the lovely mojitos at the Dawa Bar (I love this place)

After showering, we headed out to the Mickey Miles Podcast meet.  It was over at the Beach Club and I am so happy they are doing so well.  I expected a turnout for the meet, but I didn't expect as many people that actually showed up. They are on episode 33 or so and if you are planning on ever running a Disney race, I suggest taking a listen.   I was really happy to meet Steve Bernhardt, one of the co-hosts.  He turned me onto the idea of walking from Port Orleans French Quarter to the corrals for the marathon.  Also he has this pretty awesome website called sockgeek.com that has pretty much any type of running sock you might want.  We hung out there with a bunch of our friends for a while but eventually left and headed over to Sunshine Seasons for dinner.

At Sunshine Seasons we met up with two of my most favorite people that I've met doing RunDisney races, Lee Zimmerman and Laura Gilbreath.  I met Lee and Laura a few years ago but it really was at the Tinkerbell half marathon last year that we got to spend some quality time with them.  They hosted some of the meetups there and ended up spending some good quality time with them throughout the weekend.   Since then whenever we go to a RunDisney race we try and fit in at least one dinner with them.  In fact, we had a wonderful meal at Kouzzinna last November for my birthday.   Lee and Laura were also the two people (along with Michelle) that peer pressured me into doing the Princess Half Marathon this Feb.  After a lovely dinner we strolled out of Epcot and headed back to our hotel for an early night's sleep.  

Next up - Disney World 1/2 Marathon