Disney!

I ran the Disney Princess Half Marathon with my friend Paula the weekend of February 23rd, back when the corona virus was something happening in a distant corner of China. Nice to remember happier times, when things were normal and the world had not been thrown into turmoil. 

Saturday morning I drive to Disney. I go straight to the expo, park, get my bib and race shirt. I walk around the expo but there’s nothing I want. There are zillions of little kids getting ready for the kid races in Prince Charming outfits, princess dresses. So cute. Back in the car, I drive to the hotel, stand in line to get a magic band, park the car, and find the room. I’m sharing a room with Paula and she came a few days ago to run the 10k.

Hi Paula! As soon as I’m settled we head straight to Disney Springs, the giant shopping area. We have lunch at Paddlefish. I have a Grouper sandwich, mmmm, and we both have cocktails. We spend the afternoon walking around looking at stuff. Lee likes my Mickey sweatshirt with the fleece lining but I can’t find one for him (turns out it’s only for girls, sorry Lee). I buy Leo a Mickey baby, but there’s nothing else I want. We have dinner at Terralinda where we split spaghetti and a salad.

Sunday at 2:30 am I’m up to get ready for the Princess Half. We’re on the bus by 4. The traffic is terrible but we’re not stressed since we’re in a later corral. It’s chilly but I’m wearing the giant throwaway sweatshirt I bought at Target and that keeps me toasty.

The race is really fun. We’re not really racing, mostly running at an easy pace because we’re just having fun and it’s so crowded we really can’t run all the time anyway. We stop for so many character pictures....mice from Cinderella,

wicked stepsisters,

Cinderella and Prince Charming. 

 We get our pictures taken in front of the castle, and even attempt a jump, definitely not my forte!

Just fun fun fun. It gets warmish and I wish I hadn’t worn tights. Only thing with stopping so much is getting stiff while standing in line. The line for Cinderella and Prince Charming is especially long, almost 20 minutes. We start talking to the people around us and I show them how to do the exercises that I’ve been doing for my back. They really do feel great!

Snow White!

I have to get over the anxiety that waiting in line in the middle of a race causes, however. The first few times we stopped I just tried not to look at all the people running by us. Part of me was going, “I’m faster than them!” For the most part I kept my ego under control. But in the line for Cinderella the women in front of us were tracking the balloon ladies (people that run with balloons at the back of the race to mark where the cutoff is and where people behind them are in danger of being pulled). “Balloon Ladies?” I thought. “I’ve NEVER had to worry about them!” But we were at least an hour ahead of them so that was never an issue.

Dopey!

My Garmin watch said that I actually spent about 2.5 hours running, but my race time was over 3.5 hours! That’s a lot time getting our pictures taken!

At the end I dash happily across the finish line, actually racing for a couple minutes.

 Then Paula tells me I have to get fairy dust sprinkled in my hair. The things that make a Disney race special! 

At the end there are lots of princesses with which to get your picture taken. I’m content to just sit down and eat snacks while Paula gets her picture with Aurora, Pocahontas and Jasmine (who?). Then she says I need to get my picture with Ana and Elsa from Frozen so yes I do, Ada will like it anyway. Then there’s Merida from Brave, the Scottish princess, and she has such great hair that I get one with her too.

It’s starting to get late and we need to get to our lunch reservation so it’s back to the hotel, a quick shower, and then we grab an Uber to Animal Kingdom for the afternoon. Lunch at Tusker House, an all you can eat buffet, with an African theme. We’re starving and it’s soooooo good. For my first round I have chicken, rice, root veggies, and various salads. For my second round I have salmon baked in banana leaves, Mac and cheese, and then dessert too, and a cocktail. Yeah not hungry anymore.

During the meal we are visited by Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. They are both very sweet, which surprised me a little since Donald is pretty cranky in a lot of the cartoons. But I guess you wouldn’t want to frighten the children!

After lunch it’s time for our safari. It really is very neat. We get in a big truck/bus that looks and rides like a big Jeep. The animals live on a big nature preserve in the middle of Animal Kingdom. There are all kinds of animals just going about their business, happy and unstressed, seemingly oblivious to the big vehicles bouncing in their midst. I especially enjoy the elephants and the lions. 

Then it’s time for Avatar. I’ve never seen the movie but I know the basic premise. Just walking through Pandora is so cool, it’s totally fake but very well done and beautiful. But Avatar, oh my God! It begins with a typical Disney setup with fake scientists setting the scene. Then we are ushered into a room, and told to sit on a  stationary motorcycle-like vehicle. We are strapped in, don 3D glasses and we’re off. We FLY! My rational brain knows it’s an illusion, but my primitive brain is going holy shit! Over the woods, through the trees, across the plain. Over thundering herds, through masses of vines, in between trees, over the water (which includes a light spray of water for the full effect). We even”surf” through a giant wave. When it’s over I stagger out in a daze.

Next up is Everest, which terrified me 3 years ago. Back then I was tired and cranky and didn’t really want to do it but I had FOMO so I did. Afterwards I felt bad about my childish behavior so I was determined to do it again with a positive attitude. Paula kept trying to tell me about it and reassure me but I kept saying I don’t want to talk about it or think about it I just want to do it.

As we got into our seats she said you should lift  your hands for the picture, but I said nope! She said come on, but no. I screamed, I opened my eyes briefly, closed them, screamed again. Soon enough it was over. Positive attitude yes, hands free no. Would I do it again? Noooo. I’m glad I did it one more time though!

Now it’s time for dinner at Tiffins, a fairly nice restaurant . We weren’t really that hungry after such a huge lunch, so we just had appetizers. My pumpkin soup was delicious, so was the middle eastern breads and the salad we shared. I didn’t like the lobster Mac and cheese that much but Paula thought it was ok.

We intended to go back to the hotel after dinner but we decided we wanted to walk around Pandora again in the dark. In the dark the weird fake flowers and plants are lit with black lights. It’s hard to explain how weirdly beautiful it was. 

One of the neat things about Pandora is walking into and out of the area. As you walk into it the sounds change to otherworldly insects and distant animals. As you leave Pandora the strange sounds dissipate. It’s a nice touch!

Then we decided we wanted to go on this river of lights thing and Paula managed to get us Fast passes for it.  However they weren’t for an hour so we walked to the other side of the park to get ice cream and just happened to run into the nightly light show on this lake. Wow it was beautiful and a total surprise! Then we walked back across the park once more to ride on the river of lights. It was basically more Pandora special effects only while gliding on an underground river with music.

Finally it was time to say goodbye to Animal Kingdom. On the bus back to the hotel we both dozed off. We were so tired from our long fun day. I had almost 50,000 steps on my Garmin! We were both in bed by 9pm

Monday morning we took it very slow. I woke up at 6:30 but we didn’t really get going until close to 8 when we were hungry. We went to the hotel restaurant where I had a Mickey bounty platter,  and lots of coffee. We took our coffee back to the pool and sat in the sunshine for awhile, until it was time to get on the road and go back to Safety Harbor.

Dopey Challenge 2017 - The Monday After

We were doing Animal Kingdom with our friends today, but I was very very tired and didn't want to rush. I really wasn't that sore, just exhausted. So Paula went on ahead and I took my time, eating, stretching, rolling, and getting partially packed for my flight home on Tuesday. Eventually I was ready to go to Animal Kingdom. I made it there just in time for our fastpass on the Dinosaur ride. This was a fun ride, not scary, with very realistic dinosaurs growling ferociously around every turn. Diane's granddaughter Alair loves dinosaurs. I hope some day she gets to go on that ride!

After Dinosaur it was time for another roller coaster - Everest. I think I was on roller coaster overload, because I had been dreading this ride for several days. It was another themed ride, the search for the yeti on a runaway train through the Himalayas, but you could see it from far away, and hear the people screaming too. I said I didn't want to go on it, but then at the last minute I changed my mind. I didn't want to be mad at myself for missing the experience.

To tell the truth I can't say I enjoyed it, but it was a very good ride, with some really scary components. I actually wish I could have another chance to ride it, when I was more well rested and less anxiety ridden. Who knows, maybe someday!

After Everest we made our way to the Nomad Bar. Tucked away in a corner of Animal Kingdom, this is another aspect of Disney for Grownups. A quiet and peaceful, beautiful, romantic hideaway, right in the middle of an amusement park. We sat on the comfortable couches and drank some delicious and unusual cocktails. In fact all of our drinks were so interesting that we passed them all around so that everyone could have a taste!

It was time for dinner and our luck held. It was close to the time for our reservation and we found the bus we needed to take in no time at all. Off to the Polynesian Resort we went, to their wonderful restaurant with an all you can eat Hawaiian feast. They brought us salad, bread, potstickers, veggies, Singapore noodles. They came around to the table with skewers of steak, chicken and shrimp. They brought bread pudding with caramel sauce and ice cream for dessert. We tried to pace ourselves, but it was hard. What a feast!

The plan for the evening was a monorail pub crawl. It sounded like a great idea, and I really wanted to go on at least part of it, but I just couldn't. I didn't want anymore alcohol and all I really wanted to do was go back to the hotel and go to sleep.

I hugged my friends and tried to thank them for showing me such an amazing time. How do you thank someone for planning and executing such a great vacation? I'm still in awe.

My flight home was trouble free, although it was a bit of a shock to see the cold grey snowy expanse of New Hampshire spread out below me when we landed. Lee met me at the airport with the dogs and it was so very very nice to see all of them, my family, furry and otherwise.

Well I'll have to put the Dopey Challenge right up there with Philly and New York in my top marathon experiences. Not by time, but this wasn't about time. 48.6 miles, 70,000 Fitbit steps in one day, 190,000 Fitbit steps in one week. Four parks, 7 days, 4 races in a row. Setbacks, triumphs, running in the resorts to get our 13.1 miles with 100's of other runners. 6,500 Dopey Finishers, 75 Dopey women in the 60-64 age group. My last marathon before I graduate to the 65-70 age group!

I don't know what the future holds. My leg is still somewhat sore, and I've got to take it easy for awhile and hopefully let it heal. I have no idea if I have any speed left in me, but the endurance is certainly still there, and I think I've got more training and racing smarts to employ. I know I need to start allowing for some of the disadvantages of aging, allowing more time for recovery for one thing. But I don't have any intention of stopping, not yet, maybe not ever. I love running. Who would have ever thought that un-athletic uncoordinated kid would end up as a marathon runner? Pretty darn incredible, that's all I can say!