Goofy Challenge 2011 - Part IV

Disney gave everyone who finished the marathon on Sunday free entry in to any park on Monday. All you had to do was show up at the ticket counter, show them your finisher medal and the pass they gave you at packet pick-up, and they'd activate the pass and let you in. We decided to go to Epcot with a bunch of my running friends to Drink Around the World. With 11 countries in Epcot's World Showcase, we figured this was as good a way as any to spend a day.

The plan was to meet up with everyone at Canada at 11am, so we decided to kill some time beforehand by taking a ride on the Test Track. We walked right up the singles line and found only two people in front of us. Things were looking great until the park ride gods looked down and realized Heather was in line. I don't have any other way to explain the fact that anytime she's on or in line for a ride, it's got a very high chance of breaking down. Sure enough, the Test Track ride broke, and after 20 minutes of "temporary closure," Disney finally closed it and sent us all out.

We got to Canada a little after 11, and ran into our second disappointment of the day: they don't start serving beer until 12. We killed time on some kiddy rides that Eva and Steve knew about. They have annual passes even though they live in New York, so yeah, they know their way around the parks. When we returned to Canada, we met a few other runners planning to around the world too. As the day went on, we met more and more people doing the same thing, including one group who started at Mexico and were going the opposite way around. We ran into them in Japan, about halfway around, and they were hurting. Starting with margaritas is not the way to go; much better to end with them.

We had a great time, half of us managed to have a different drink in every country, and we ended the night at England watching the fireworks and listening to the music. A great way to end a fantastic weekend!

Jeff, Matt, Maddy, Eva, me, Gina starting out at Canada

The gang at Italy

Me and Eva

Maddy & Mr. H

Eva, Maddy, Matt, Gina, Heather at Norway

With Senor Donald after our last drink at Mexico

The four of us completed the whole challenge!

A perfect pour at England

Goofy Challenge 2011 - Part III

Sunday morning was pretty much a repeat of Saturday: wake up at 330, get dressed, grab bag, walk to bus stop. The only real difference was the lack of traffic heading to the race, meaning we got to Epcot in fifteen minutes instead of an hour. Since it was 40 degrees out at the time, I found myself wishing I'd be spending the next half an hour on a warm bus instead of in a cold parking lot. I had no trouble finding Eva, Maddy, and the rest of the Dailymile/Twitter runners outside the bag check tent. While the rest headed off to the corrals at 430, Eva and I remembered our lesson from Saturday and waited until 5 before beginning our trek to the start. As expected, there were no crowds to be found at the porta-pottys or along the way, and we arrived at the start area with plenty of time to spare. I wished her a good race and wandered off to find my corral. I was tempted to jump into corral D with the 4:30 pace group since that's about the pace I planned on running, but I kept on walking up to corral B. The idea of standing around for any extra time just wasn't that appealing; I was ready to run!

In fact, I was too ready to run. I ditched my pants once the first wave started and pulled off my top just before we started. That turned out to be a mistake. The first mile or so takes the runners past some low-lying areas, and once the masses in the corral spread out, there's not much to block the chilly breeze blowing through there. I wasn't freezing, but I sure would have been a lot more comfortable wearing my cheap top for a while longer.

Unlike last year where there were two courses at the start, this year there was only one. Unfortunately, instead of using the left-hand course that I loved last year because it takes you around almost all of World Showcase in the dark and quiet of the morning, they used the right-hand one. That course runs underneath Spaceship Earth, around past Mexico, and then back out to the start area. It's not a horrible course, but it's not nearly as interesting and fun as the other one.

Around mile 2, I started talking to two women running with outfits similar to mine on Saturday, minus the wig. One had Texas A&M written on the back of her leg, and the other had UT. (Funny side note: when written, A&M's logo reads ATM, which totally confused several people later on. "Why do you have ATM written on your leg? Do you work for a bank?" one guy went so far as to ask her.) Delaney (A&M) and Kristen (UT) are best friends from growing up, are seniors in college, and were running their first Disney marathon together. I hate running alone over long distances and was quite thankful when they said they didn't mind me running and chatting with them for a while.

As we left Epcot and turned towards Magic Kingdom, Delaney's IT band was acting up. It wasn't so painful that she wanted to stop, but we did make sure to keep an easy pace so it didn't cause her any more discomfort. We stopped a few times along the way to take some pictures of Disney landmarks, and before we knew it, we'd covered 10 miles and were running down Main Street. The crowds were loud and cheering and screaming for everyone they ran by. Lots of shout-outs to the "tutu girls" were heard, demonstrating once again that the best way to get extra support from the crowd is to wear a pink tutu.

The lines were too long to stand in to get pictures with the princesses on one side of the castle or in front of the castle on the other side, so we just kept on cruising. Suddenly, just as we left the castle and headed for the rest of the park, a cast member jumped out, grabbed us, and pushed us off to the side for a picture. We didn't know they were taking pictures from there, but at that point, we figured we were already there and went ahead with it. It's not the best picture of the castle, but it's better than not having one at all.

Delaney, Kristen, me

We couldn't resist the Toy Story picture either.

After that, we left Magic Kingdom for the four mile journey over to Animal Kingdom. I really enjoy this part of the course, even if a lot of other people don't. There are woods along the side of the road at the beginning, a golf course for a few miles after that, and quite a few characters and other entertainers to amuse you along the way. They even put up signs with cute little sayings and ironic questions on them during the stretch where the characters can't get to. Kristen started reading the signs aloud to see if Delaney and I knew the answers to the questions. One asked, "why doesn't glue stick to the inside of the bottle?" As we thought about that for a second, this guy running by shouted out "because glue is activated by air." We wondered how he knew that, and he told us he saw the same sign last year and looked up the answer when he got home.

Somewhere between mile 14 and 15, Delaney and Kristen slowed down some. I'm not sure if her leg was hurting again or they just wanted to run slower, but they dropped back a little. I was feeling good with my 10 min/mile pace and kept on trucking. I figured I'd see them at the finish. Not too long after that, I had to make a quick pit stop, so they passed me back, giving me people to look for and keep me focused during the rest of the race.

As I started settling back in to my pace, I overheard the guy from the signs talking to one of the TNT coaches. He was struggling to get into a groove and not really doing too well in keeping his head in the race. I offered to run with him for as long as it was working for both of us, and his mood instantly improved. Over the course of the next few miles, I learned his name is Tim, he works in the theater industry in New York, and has run several races with TNT. I've had some pretty bad experiences with TNT coaches before, so I was pleasantly surprised with what I experienced running with Tim. All of the coaches that came up alongside us, whether they were from his group or a different one, were all very considerate of everyone else on the course. None of them cut another runner off to get to their runner, pushed anyone out of the way at a water stop, or said anything less than positive about anyone on the course. Tim's coaches from his group were terrific. They got cups of water for him, ran with him for a half mile or a mile at a time, and gave him a pep talk and mental boost the whole time. They were also surprisingly complimentary of me helping to pace him along like I was doing. I think they realized it was doing good things for Tim, and with getting him across the finish line in good shape being their primary goal, they didn't want to mess that up.

Unfortunately, Tim and I didn't make it to the finish together. He ended up having to stop at the bathroom outside France in the World Showcase, so I was on my own for the last mile. I felt great at that point and decided to pick up the pace and finish strong. I took the straightest, fastest line I could the entire rest of the race. I even got smart and went to the left-hand side of the finishing chute away from all the people trying to shake hands with Goofy at the end. That strategy worked like a charm. Not only did I have clear running room all the way in, I was visible enough that I got to hear my name called out by the announcer as I crossed the line. Now that's pretty cool in a race with 20,000 people in it.

I stuck around for a while after I finished trying to find Delaney & Kristen and Tim. I didn't have any luck, so once I was done with my post-race snack (mint chocolate mini Clif bars, yum!), I hopped on the bus to head back to the hotel. On the bus, I ran into the running skirt guys from Saturday wearing a different set of them today. They answered the question that everyone wants to know: yes, running skirts really are as comfortable as people say they are.

After an ice bath and a shower, Heather and I drove over to Downtown Disney for some real post-race refreshment. I really think they should start marketing this as the perfect post-race recovery drink. It's much tastier than chocolate milk. We spent the first part of the afternoon at Ragland Road and then moved up the hill to Paradiso, where we moved from stout and cider to tequila. Our bartender did an excellent job of suggesting new anjeo and reposado ones for us, one of which was Partida. Quite tasty, and went very well with our enchiladas and cilantro rice. Once we finished up there, we walked back to Raglan Road to have a few drinks with Eva & Steve before heading back to our room and crashing for the night.

My only real disappointment with this year's marathon was not being able to ride the Expedition Everest roller coaster in Animal Kingdom. We run right past it at mile 17, but unfortunately for me, it doesn't open until 9am. I was 20 minutes too early. Lesson learned for next year: move back a few corrals and start later.

And here's something cool that Disney just sent me. They've got a page set up for each runner with your time, pictures, and race certificate. That's pretty cool. Here's the link to mine. It would've been nice had I been in the middle of the picture instead of that other guy, but my one from the half turned out really well.

Goofy Challenge 2011 - Part II

There's not much to report about Friday. We slept in, had a late lunch, and made our way back to Disneyworld to check in at our hotel. After the crowds and long bus lines at All Star last year, we stepped up a level and stayed at Caribbean Beach this year. What a smart choice on our part. There was no line to check in, due in part to Disney letting you check in online in advance, and when we got to our building, the parking lot was practically deserted. No screaming kids running around, no one tromping past our room all the time, and a bus stop right across the lot - it's a perfect place to stay for a weekend like this. I imagine it's quite a bit busier during the summer being a beach resort and all.

Friday night, we drove over to Downtown Disney to have dinner at Portofino with Heather's parents. Just like last year, the place was packed. Even with our reservation, we had to wait 15-20 minutes before getting a table. If you didn't have reservations, you didn't stand a chance. They wouldn't even put your name on a list unless you were willing to come back in two or three hours. Needless to say, there were more than a few people stalking the lucky ones with seats at the bar. Kind of reminded me of the parking lot at the mall the week before Christmas. While we were waiting for our table, I was able to meet up with Eva to give her shirt to her. She and her husband Steve were even smarter about dinner than we were - they skipped Disney altogether and went out to Uno's instead. Next year, I think we'll do the same.

After dinner, we went back to our room, where I started putting everything together for Saturday's race. I still can't believe they put me in corral A. I assume they took my 4-hour marathon seed time, used some pace prediction calculator, and figured I'd run a sub-2 half. That makes sense if I was only running the half, but not as the first third of Goofy. 

Unlike last year, I didn't have to stress over the weather and try to decide what to do about long sleeves or tights. With the start temperature expected to be in the high 40s, shorts and short-sleeves are all that I needed. I did set out my throw-away clothes (courtesy of the sale rack at Sports Authority) since I figured I'd be chilly just sitting around the corrals before the start. The hardest part of getting ready was putting my costume in order. My wig had been stuffed into a plastic bag after the half at Disneyland, and it looked about as you'd expect when I pulled it out. Heather said I looked like I'd had a rough night in a dark alley. I'm not sure if she felt sorry for me or was concerned about me actually going out with such a mess on my head, but either way, she spent the next ten minutes trying to comb some semblance of neatness into the wig. When she was done, it looked pretty good, but I knew there was no way I'd be wearing it again after the half. A cheap wig can only handle so much sweat before it gets too sticky and gross to be worn. The tutu was in great shape, though. Tulle is pretty indestructible, especially the cheap kind.

The 330am alarm came way too early on Saturday. After delaying as much as I could in the room, I geared up, donned my wig, grabbed my bag and my Powerade, and walked off to the bus stop. There were only five or six other people there, and a nearly empty bus came by to get us within a few minutes. I sat down in the back for what I thought would be a short ride up to Epcot. Boy was I wrong. The traffic on Buena Vista Drive heading towards World Drive to get to Epcot was at a standstill. We crawled along slowly, moving a few feet every few minutes. I was supposed to meet my friends at the T bag check tent at 430. Before too long, I realized that wasn't going to happen. I sent them texts letting them know I was running late, and Eva said she'd stay behind and wait for me. Corinna told me she'd wait for me in corral C so we could run together. So as not to keep Eva waiting any longer than she was already going to, I took off my fleece sweats and stuffed them into my bag. It was warm enough on the bus that I didn't need them anyway, and changing in advance would save a few minutes at bag check.

Those of us on the bus could tell some people were panicking over making the start as we watched two of them run past the bus and head for Epcot on foot. It was only 450 at the time, and with a whole line of buses behind us, we knew we'd be fine. I think Disney puts the "you must be in your corral at 5am" line in the race program to prevent all 27,000 people from getting there together at the last minute. As it turns out, having everyone else get there early worked out perfectly for us late arrivals. I stepped off the bus, walked across the parking lot, and found Maddy, Eva, and Steve waiting at bag check. They weren't hard to find because there wasn't anyone else there. There wasn't even a line at any of the porta-potties on our way to the corrals. I made a mental note to not leave the bag check area until 5 on Sunday too. 

We made our way to the corrals pretty easily, I put on the rest of my costume, we said our good-byes, and I went off to find Corinna. She was supposed to be waiting for me at the entrance to corral C, but when I got there, she was nowhere to be found. I hoped she would be keeping an eye out for me (a guy with blue hair and a pink tutu should not be hard to spot) and started walking towards the front of the corral. About halfway to the front, I found Jenn, her husband, and some others in their lime-green WISH shirts, but no Corinna. I hopped the fence to hang out with them, sent Corinna a text letting her know where I was, and hoped for the best. Sure enough, she showed up about five minutes later, having seen my hair as I was walking past the corral. Next thing we knew, it was time to start. The fireworks went off and we were on our way.

Corinna was kind enough to run with me for a while to help keep me from going too fast. At least that was her story. In reality, I was the one slowing her down since she was hoping for a 2:10 and I wanted nothing faster than 2:20. Still, we had a great time together. The first few miles are in the dark and along the road with nothing much to see, so we told each other stories and chatted about whatever came to mind. As we approached the Transportation Center, we finally saw something worth looking at. A classic car group had set up a dozen or so old cars from the 50s and 60s, dressed up in poodle skirts, and were playing sock-hop music. Finally, some entertainment. The TC is also where I saw Maddy and her sign. 

After that, it was on to Magic Kingdom. To me, the best part of the half is running through Magic Kingdom in the dark. It's so much more peaceful and serene all lit up than it is during the daylight. These people didn't think it was all that serene, though. The woman on the left is doing everything she can to get away from me. She's probably just trying to be polite and get out of the picture, but it sure looks like she's appalled by my outfit.

Once we left Magic Kingdom and were on our way past the Grand Floridian, Corinna decided it was time for her to speed up and go run her own race. I wished her well and continued on my way. I thought I wouldn't see her until the finish, so I was quite surprised to see her standing in line to get a picture with some of the characters. I stopped to join her, and we got a great one. Check out how Chip is puzzled as to why a man would be dressed like me, and how Dale is checking out Corinna and is happy he got to stand next to the hot chick.

The rest of the half is pretty dull. You run on a road back to Epcot with only a few characters and bands and cheerleaders along the way. There were certainly more this year than last, not surprising given the weather, but it's still a pretty tedious slog. Somewhere around mile 11, I crossed paths with the 2:15 pace group. The lead pacer was a woman who was doing her best to keep everyone motivated and excited about the race and how close they were to finishing it. "Two miles! Only two miles! That's eight laps of a track! You guys can all run eight laps of a track!" I appreciate what she's trying to do and realize that's her personality coming through, but I'd go nuts if I had to run an entire half marathon listening to her. I didn't even think I could make it for two miles, so I stopped off for one last character picture. The poor ladies were freezing cold, but that didn't stop them from smiling and chatting with everyone who stopped.

One last trip across the parking lot, around the huge Epcot Christmas tree, past the choir, and the race was over. My Garmin said my running time was 2:16, not counting picture stops. A bit faster than I planned, but with stops, I was out there for 2:20, so it's all good.

I hung around at the finish for a little while to eat and drink some before heading back to the hotel. As I was leaning against a post changing out of my costume, I felt this guy tap me on the shoulder as he said, "it takes a real man to wear pink during a race." I turned around to see a guy and his running buddy both dressed in pink-and-white running skirts. Too funny, and probably a lot more comfortable than a wig and a tutu. Speaking of the wig, it was given a proper burial in a trash can in the parking lot. Two races of having its cheap polyester hair get sweaty and stick to my face and mouth was enough. I'll need something better the next time I wear a costume while running.

Getting back to the hotel was a breeze compared to last year. I walked right on to the Caribbean Beach bus without waiting in line, and the bus took off within five minutes of my sitting down. A few minutes later, I was back in the room having an ice bath and a nap while Heather went shopping at the outlet mall. To keep from being totally bored while I rested up for Sunday, Saturday afternoon we went to the movies to see Black Swan. We still ended up with some time to kill before dinner, but thankfully we didn't have to spend all day in the hotel room.

Goofy Challenge 2011 - Part I

After grocery shopping on Thursday morning, we drove in to Disney to hit the expo and then move on to the park at Universal. I decided to hit the expo early on Thursday morning. Last year, we were there just before noon and the lines and crowds weren’t bad at all. That wasn’t the case this year. The parking lot was completely full, and we ended up parking in the field across the street.

While Heather and her mother went off to the expo to do some shopping, Jim and I walked in to the Milk building (or whatever it’s called now) to get my packet. Like last year, it was much nicer to not have to go up and down the stairs to accomplish this. Paying that extra money for Goofy does get you a few perks. There was no line at all, so I walked right up, checked in, and was given an envelope that wasn’t quite the normal size you’d expect to contain bibs and other race instructions. I opened it up and read it while the guy helping me was busy getting my real packet. The envelope contained our park pass for Monday and instructions on how to activate it that morning. After being handed my other packet containing my bibs and D-tags, I was just about to sign the book verifying I had received them when I noticed the age printed on the outside of the envelope said “27.” I put down the pen and read the bibs and names on them carefully. Good thing I did. I had been given packet 4603, not my number of 3603. With that momentary panic behind me, we went off to find the ladies and do some shopping of our own.

I also had to make sure I found my friend Stan. He’s a guy I know from Dailymile and Twitter, and part of the group of five of us (Eva, Jenn, Devin are the others) that had shirts custom-made for Goofy. I’ve used Sport Science gear for years, and they were really great in turning around our small order very quickly. We used one of their designs, made the appropriate modifications for our 39.3 mile endeavor, and then asked them to print our usernames on the back. Even though none of us ran together, it was still pretty cool to know we all had the same shirts. I got some really good comments about mine during the race on Sunday.

I didn’t spend as much at the expo as I normally do. I always try to stock up on running shoes, but there weren’t any good deals to be found. The Kayano-17s that I bought in San Antonio for $100 were $140, and there weren’t any Kayano-15s in my size to be found. I could have bought some 16s for $99, but I’m not crazy about them. They don’t fit me nearly as well or as comfortably as the 15s or the 17s. I ended up buying a Goofy fleece top from Disney and a pair of compression shorts from CW-X, and that’s it. The expo got progressively more crowded while we were there, so we didn’t stay too long. Plus, we had an afternoon of rides and roller coasters to get to.

Speaking of which, the new Harry Potter section of Universal is excellent. They’ve done a fabulous job of recreating Hogwarts, the Three Broomsticks, Hog’s Breath, and all the other well-known landmarks from the books. It’s so close to what Disney does, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were ex-Disney employees who worked on it. The new ride is a good one too. Not as good as their Hulk coaster or the Spiderman ride, but still quite good. One word of advice - don’t wait in the very long line. Go up the singles line instead. Your wait will be a lot shorter that way.

Corral A?

I didn't think I was quite this fast. Yikes!



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The Kid Canoe

As with any flight to Orlando, our flight had more than its fair share of families and kids going to see Mickey Mouse. One child, unfortunately, was not happy the Star Trek transporters weren’t working and decided to throw a tantrum in the middle of the aisle. As Heather stood there waiting to for the parents to resolve the situation (i.e. shut the kid up and stuff him in a seat), one of the flight attendants remarked, “welcome to the kid canoe.” Too true. Other than that, not much of interest happened on the way to Orlando. Even with the traffic mess at the Orlando airport, we managed to get home at a reasonable hour.

I always find it strange walking in to our house here. It was our home base during our years spent overseas, so it’s very comforting to be here and not in a hotel our staying with family for days on end. Still, without a lot of the comforts of our current home, it doesn’t feel like home. Then I sit down on the couch and find dog hair left from when Holden was last here two years ago and realize that home is all relative.