Wife Mother Runner Donald Duck Archives

2017 runDisney Walt Disney World Marathon…The First Half

January 30, 2017

The big race of the weekend was finally here! I was going to run the marathon with PK, Diana and our new friend Tami. It was PK’s first marathon and I was so excited for him! I told him that I would meet him at his hotel lobby at 4:10 a.m. He was staying right around the corner from me and right en route to the race, so it was perfect. So my alarm was set for 3:00 a.m. I had my tea, cinnamon toast and I packed a bag full of snacks.

I also had to put on several layers of clothing. I had on my long sleeve shrug, my Patriots shirt (in support of PK), a light jacket, a fluffy red sweatshirt and my XXXL men’s sweatshirt. I was also wearing my sign in honor of Lyla but I had to make sure that when I shed my layers I would have to re pin the sign and my race bib. It was crazy that in Florida I was dressing in so many layers. When I walked out to the car I was surprised that it wasn’t as cold as I was expecting. But I knew that waiting in the corrals I was going to feel colder.

PK and I drove to Epcot, had to park in one of the spots that was the FURTHEST spot away and we walked the journey to bag check, the runner’s area and then down to the corrals. Just before we entered the runners area I spotted Jacqui Kapinowski on her way to the wheelchair start! I was so happy to see her and she told me she had just been talking to Harry about me recently! I met Jacqui during Princess Weekend in 2014, and she was my first exposure to Achilles International, which I am not a volunteer for.

With this being his first marathon and his first Disney marathon he was surprised, like I was my very first time, at how much walking we had to do before even getting to the race. We got down to the corrals and hooked up with Diana and Tami. Thankfully we weren’t there too early. I believe we were in the corrals for about 20 minutes before they started moving us closer to the start. But just before they did we all go the pre-race porta pottie jitters so we all rushed over there just in time. I was right, it was cold in the corrals so we used the space blankets and I was glad that I had my throw away sweatshirt, gloves, and ear warmers. I talked PK into bringing his gloves and hat as well for the race.

PK, Tami, Diana and I trying to keep warm in the corral

Our corral took off at 6:23 a.m. and we were consistent with doing our walk/run intervals the first several miles of the race. PK and I planned to run ahead of Diana and Tami to the character or picture locations and then we would all decide if we wanted to wait in line or keep going. Since the first few miles were things that we had already seen in past years, and we wanted to increase the buffer of time between us and the balloon ladies, we skipped the first few stops. We did stop for Lightning McQueen and that’s where I ditched my first layer. Diana and Tami ran ahead and PK and I stopped for Jack and Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas.

My favorite thing is always running under the bridge that is the waterway to the Contemporary with the DJ and his big hands encouraging the runners. He never disappoints. We made our way towards the Magic Kingdom and waited just near Main Street for Diana and Tami and then we all ran down Main Street together.

While in Magic Kingdom, we used the real bathrooms, then Diana and Tami ran ahead while PK and I stopped for all of the character stops. We did end up finding each other around mile 10 at Bear Road (aka the water treatment plant). Just in time for Diana to get her picture with Wreck It Ralph! She was disappointed that earlier in the race they weren’t at the location we were used to seeing them at.

I found Sid around mile 6

On Bear Road there was a section of the race that had vintage ride cars. This was great. There was the ship from 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, a Rocket from Star Jets, a car for Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, Snow White, and a cart from The Skyway. This was one of my favorite picture spots. I heard Rudy announce that this was going to be around mile 10 and it was incredible to see these epic extinct rides!

After this point in the race we were approaching the out and back loop. i was unaware that this out and back was going to be so long. Last year it was a short distance until the turn around. This year, we had to make up some distance due to the construction going on in Hollywood Studios so the extra distance was on a long stretch of road behind Animal Kingdom. I was a little frustrated when I looked ahead and saw how far it went. But I put my head down and trudged forward. Again, we saw Diana and Tami at this part of the course.

We turned into the back of Animal Kingdom and this is where we were at the halfway point in the race. Stay tuned for part 2 of this blog post, the second half!

2017 WDW Marathon Weekend Day 2 – 5K

January 15, 2017

This year my husband, children and father joined my mother and I for the 2017 WDW Marathon Weekend 5K race. We woke up at 4:00 and I got the kids up around 4:20. They weren’t too keen about waking up that early; but the race start was 6:00 a.m. and I wanted to be on the road by 5:30. Everyone ate a little something to hold them over until the race was over and we were in the car by 5:30. I was running all of my races in honor of our friend Lyla.

Pre-Race Events

We took some pictures before the race and then the kids had the experience of witnessing hundreds of porta potties lined up in the runners area. It was funny to see their reaction to that. My mom and I were also dancing with the DJ playing, but my daughter thought it was silly of us to do that! I hope that age isn’t coming where the kids are becoming too cool for their parents!

The Race Start

When you register for the races, you have to submit a proof of time or an estimate of your pace. Based on that, you are placed in the appropriate corral. We had a variety of corral locations on our bibs, so in order to stay together we had to go to the lowest corral. For us, that was corral F.

As the corrals were being released each corral was released in a wave. So the kids were separate from us and we had to pull them back to our section. This is something new I hadn’t seen in past races. We finally started at 6:48 a.m. We walked the race and my daughter was a bit of a grump until we got into Epcot. It was a very cold morning and her feet were cold so she was struggling a little bit. But that changed once we got into Epcot!

Characters On Course

My son and husband were a little bit ahead of us. My son wanted to jog a little bit. We stopped for the first character stop with Thumper and Blossom. Then once we got into Epcot we stopped for a picture with the Vikings. As you can see, my mother wasn’t ready for that picture! Once we were in Epcot Adrienne cheered up and seemed to enjoy more of the race.

My mom was making this face because my dad was stepping on her foot!

As we continued through Epcot, which is so beautiful that time of day with the sun rising, we skipped past the other character stops. The characters in the countries were Minnie Mouse in Italy and chip and Dale in Morocco. But we could NOT skip the Donald Duck stop in Canada.

As we were in line we were warned that if we remained in line, the sag wagon was coming and we were at risk of not finishing. My parents were nervous about that; but I told them we’d be ok and we could out-walk them. Just near the fountain was Space Goofy, but we didn’t stop for him.

The highlight of the race for me, was spotting Mike Green on the course. I had written a blog post about him the week before the race. I had a chance to introduce myself to him before I had to catch back up with my family. I was so glad to see a member of Team Cigna out on the race course. We finished at 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Will We Do It Again?

Despite the early wake up and some of the groaning my daughter did early on the in the race (which I completely expected in advance), it was a good time and both kids want to do it again!

Have you done any of the runDisney Races with your family? Did you know you don’t have to run the entire distance? The 5K is a family friendly race that everyone can participate in!

2016 WDW Marathon Half Marathon

January 18, 2016

The second to last race of the Dopey Challenge is the half marathon. Once again I set my alarm for 3:30. For this race I made oatmeal for breakfast to hopefully hold me over. I was so hungry during the 5K and 10K races; even after having a small breakfast before I went to the races.

Diana and I were running this race together. Mandy would be joining us for the full marathon the next day. I arrived to the Epcot parking lot around 4:45 and met Diana down by the corrals. The crowd size doubles from the 5K and 10K to the half and full marathon sizes. The 5K and 10K have around 7,500 people. The half and full have 26,500 people. That does impact your course time when starting in a later corral.

Thankfully it wasn’t raining for this race, but it was extremely foggy. I wore my Donald Duck costume for this race and Donald sent us off at the start.

Diana and I at the corrals

Since we had run this course several time with the previous year’s Dopey challenge and running the Princess Half marathon two years prior, I was very familiar with the course. Not to mention that the full marathon also runs most of the same route for the beginning of the marathon. I am pleased to say that this year the change in character stops made the race more enjoyable.

I listened to Jeff Galloway speak at the Expo on Thursday and he mentioned that for the 5K and 10K it was ok to run; but he said for the half marathon, plan to walk the first few miles, then incorporate your run/walk intervals for a mile, walk a mile, then do intervals again, etc. So I discussed that with Diana and that was the plan. Well when race day comes around, sometimes plans get thrown out the window. We ran most of the first half of the race. Below shows our splits from the half marathon.

The first two miles of the race we made ourselves run slower. There also weren’t character stops at that point; just props to take photos of along the way. Between mile 3 and 4 is where we started to do the character stops for Wreck it Ralph and Oogie Boogie. Mile 5 lead us into the Magic Kingdom and we did stop for some photos and then miles 6-7 are up cone alley. It was VERY congested up cone alley. This year I think the cones were set up differently and weren’t the tall cones that were lined right up against each other because people were hopping over the cones and running in the lane that was dedicated for car traffic. So we just continued to do our walk/run intervals up cone alley as best as we could with the amount of people in that area. I also found Mike Scopa heading into the Magic Kingdom and played some leap-frog with him during the race. I’d stop for a character stop and then he’d pass me. Then I would spot him and I’d tag him and told him he was it. It helped pass some of the miles along the way! I also found Sid Busch out on the course and gave him some encouragement. He is such a celebrity now among the running community.

Miles 8 and 9 didn’t have anything too exciting so we pushed ahead and around mile 10 we decided to walk the rest of the race in to save our legs for the full marathon. We had gone over the overpass of World Drive at that point and saw the crowd still coming up the road and we knew we weren’t in any danger of being swept. At mile 12 we took a photo with Vacation Genie and that was it for character stops in Epcot for us.

It was a good decision to walk at that point. I was starving, though. I definitely did not have enough fuel with me for that race. All I could think about was making an egg sandwich back at the hotel room when the race was over!

After the race was over I drove back to the hotel and made the egg sandwich my mouth was watering for! Then I showered and wanted to hang out at the pool with my family. PK and Katie were going to be there for a little while so I wanted to spend time with them. After visiting with them I got cozy on the poolside chair and next thing I knew I woke up with my mouth hanging open, my sunglasses smashed against my face and drool going down my chin! I had fallen asleep for a long hard 2 hour nap! I looked around and saw my family’s items around but couldn’t find them anywhere! I finally located them and we noticed the dark skies were starting to roll in.

The plan that night was to go to Disney Springs to have dinner at Wolfgang Pucks and then head back to the room for an early night. We were watching the radar and packed our ponchos. Joe Pardo was also going to join us for dinner there. We arrived at Disney Springs around 5:00 but waited a long time for the boats to take us to from the West Side to the Marketplace side.

The balloon was tethered down because of the storms coming.

Half way to the Marketplace side they stop, which I wasn’t aware of. The kids had to go to the bathroom so we got off the boat there, used the restrooms nearby and put on our ponchos. We ended up walked through the pouring rain to Wolfgang Puck Express and met Joe. I had a cranky moment at this point in the day. I was frustrated with the rain, the boats at Disney Springs and I was hungry. So I had a moment of a mini meltdown. Once we had dinner I was better. We ordered the bar-b-que chicken pizza as a good pre-race meal with the protein and the carbs. After dinner my son wasn’t feeling too well. He had been battling a chest cough for several weeks and there were times during the trip where he just felt funky and wanted his mom.

Always my favorite view at night.

It was nice for Joe to meet my family. I talk about them all the time when Joe and I are at races and when we communicate in our every day conversations. After we said goodbye to Joe and boarded the boat to head back to our car I sat with my son on the boat and it cheered him up. I think it was also hard on him that I was going to be early and then not around when he woke up during the races. Once we got back to the hotel it was time for me to lay out my gear for the morning and call it an early night. I was in bed before 10:00 and I wasn’t feeling too anxious about the race. I did have a harder time falling asleep that night; but I blame that on the nap.

Coming up next, the big finale race of the weekend…the full marathon!

Dumbo Double Dare Donald Duck New Balance Sneakers!

August 30, 2015

source New Balance

I’m excited that Donald Duck is the character for the newest release of the NB runDisney special sneakers being released during Dumbo Double Dare Disneyland Half marathon weekend. Donald is my son’s favorite character and I know that they carry children sizes for these sneakers.

This model is the New Balance Boracay Fresh Foam, similar to the Tinkerbell model that was just released in may. The sneakers will be sold for $140 at the runDisney Health and Fitness Expo.

Source New Balance Love the hat tail like Donald’s hat coming off the back of the sneaker!

Source New Balance

How do you get your hands on a pair of these?

You can wait in line at the New Balance booth at the expo, or to help minimize the wait you can sign up for the virtual queue at NBvirtualqueue.com using your bib number starting Thursday, September 3rd, at 6:00 AM PST. The queue is also available on Friday and Saturday beginning at 6:00 AM PST.

The NBvirtualqueue.com will also provide you up to date information on inventory availability and updates throughout the weekend.

Check out all the latest releases of the special runDisney New Balance sneakers while you are at the expo as well!