Any Idiot Can Run. It takes a Goofy kind of idiot to run a marathon and a half! About This Page:

[Colexis Mom]

Great pics of your room and from AK!

[OCEANGRLLG]

We love the tusker house! Great update and pics!

[mom to 3 princesses and 1 prince]

Sorry we only had a quick minute to say hi. Rick even asked later,"Where's Tanya?" I told him I'd seen you at the buffet and he was disappointed that he'd missed you. I the food there, and your interaction with Mickey reonald was awesome! I talked with Goofy about how I'd run his race last year, but he and I both agreed it was too much running!

[disney_duke]

Originally Posted by num1DVCfan

Great Mickey interaction! I love how Mickey & Donald really play up their competition on who is #1.

Originally Posted by roaminggnome

Great update. The interaction with the characters is always so much fun. Can't wait to hear what the decision in for dinner. There are to many yummy options.

Yes, we had a good time with the characters!

Originally Posted by Cam22

What a beautiful room! Great safari pictures!

Originally Posted by bsblady01

great update more please

Originally Posted by shazza

The Royal Room looks good. And, glad Tusker House was good (even if you did miss Daisy).

Looking forward to reading about the next race.

They've done a nice job with the Royal Rooms, for sure.

Originally Posted by Amy L

Great updates! Thank you for posting pics of the Royal Room at POR. I now know what they look like! Sadly, our family of 5 is too big to stay in those rooms. I was shocked when I learned that they don't have the trundle beds like many of the other rooms there do.

Yes, I was hoping they'd add trundle beds there too as we are a family of 5 as well.

Originally Posted by lauriep

Too bad you got stuck in the back room at Tusker House. I've never eaten there since it became a character meal, but the food sounds fantastic. Guess I'll have to do it one day!

The food really is very good. A little different, but not too far off the beaten bath!

Originally Posted by cubfancolleen

Lunch sounded great! Love your tshirt!

Thanks! I got many comments on that shirt. It's just my kind of humor.

Originally Posted by lsugirlinutah

I have never eaten at TH, but now I know where to sit! I was also so careful with what I ate before running; I have heard some pretty awful horror stories. Glad you were sticking with the easy carbs!

Yes, food is fuel!

Originally Posted by chezp

What a shame you got such a lonely table at Tusker House.

It was kind of a bummer, espcially with this being Amanda's first visit. I've eaten there for breakfast before in the main room.

Originally Posted by Colexis Mom

Great pics of your room and from AK!

Originally Posted by OCEANGRLLG

We love the tusker house! Great update and pics!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by mom to 3 princesses and 1 prince

Sorry we only had a quick minute to say hi. Rick even asked later,"Where's Tanya?" I told him I'd seen you at the buffet and he was disappointed that he'd missed you. I the food there, and your interaction with Mickey reonald was awesome! I talked with Goofy about how I'd run his race last year, but he and I both agreed it was too much running!

Aww, how nice of Rick to ask. I was impressed with the food there as well, variety enough for everyone! Mickey was hilarious. I'm glad you had fun with Goofy too!!

[disney_duke]

I won't have many photos in this first update, so I'll follow up right away with the next one as well, the start of the Half marathon!


Friday January 11th, part 3: Dinner decision, and sleep?

We stayed in the pool till about 4pm or so. It really was very nice. I would have loved a couple cocktails, but alas, I couldn’t. Not with a Half marathon the following morning! After perusing the menus on AllEars, we decided to go with the original plan of the Poly. This is where having a car was nice. We just hopped in and drove off directly to the Poly. 10 minutes later, however, the nice guard at the gate said unless we had reservations for a restaurant, we could not park there. Restricted parking for some reason. (I've since read that they're updating the rooms there, so that explains that) I did notice that half their parking lot was full of construction equipment, or something. Maybe not construction, but something. We could park at the TTC and then either walk over or monorail over. That would mean more walking which I was not up for. So I drove away with the AllEars menus in my head thinking where, where else can I get simple noodles or rice/chicken? I had a thought but since you can’t check the internet on your phone and drive at the same time, I pulled into the Hess station to play on my phone.

Art of Animation. Not only did I want to check out the place anyway, but I understood their food court was very intriguing. Amanda and I looked over the menu and decided we could each find something decent to try there. Off to Art of Animation then! I swear, 5 minutes later I was finding a parking spot. See? It’s nice to have rental car sometimes!

The lobby is pretty much identical to the other Values, so I knew exactly where to go to hit the food court! I had a quick chuckle at the very long line for the build your own pasta dish. Yes, I know, you’re supposed to carb load before a race. And here I was looking for rice or noodles. My reasoning is that rice and noodles sits well in my tummy, and that’s more important in the 12 hours leading up to race time. Any carbs you take in that close to race time won’t really have processed in your body enough to provide you the fuel/energy you’ll need. See the idea is to carb load in the week leading up to the race, not necessarily the night before. 24-48 hours before is still good, but not immediately prior. Hopefully these runners were here for Sunday’s marathon.

Anyway, Amanda ordered the Tandori shell on shrimp, and they make it fresh so she had to wait for it. I think she had the pickled veggies too. They gave her a buzzer, just like a real restaurant! Classy. It took about 10 minutes for her order to come up. I ordered the Mongolian Beef with basmati rice and slow cooked lentils. And of course the naan bread that comes with it too, score! The flavors were a little out there for me, but overall, it was a good choice. The beef was actually very good as were the lentils. There was an unfamiliar spice in the lentils, so being cautious I just didn’t finish it all. I could have had more naan bread though, yum! Once again, Amanda was impressed with the food selections at a hotel food court. Go Disney!

We wandered around the Cars section after dinner for some photo ops as her husband loves the Cars movies. Pretty sure this is where they’ll be staying some day down the road….. And hat’s off to Disney though, really. This area is phenomenal! And we were there at night too, and it just looked so cool all lit up!












Well, we really had to head back now as I needed to get some sleep.

Back in the room, I laid out my clothes for the morning as Amanda and I discussed how the morning would work. Because car rental keys are so huge and bulky, there was no way I could drive to FQ and then keep the keys in my running belt. Amanda, being the awesome friend she is, volunteered to drive me to the meeting point on Bonnet Creek road where I would meet up with Liz and friends. How awesome is that? So I set the alarm for 4:10 (busses stop running at 4, but we were walking!), got in bed and closed my eyes and almost fell asleep. In fact I may have already been asleep.

And then Amanda coughed. And coughed again. And again. Now I was awake. It was only 9:30, so I had time yet. OK, take a drink of water, roll over, and start over again. I’m not the best sleeper to begin with. We can’t all hit the pillow and be out like a light (Princess Sharon, I’m talking to you!). I’m a very light sleeper. So I laid there, and soon enough, Amanda started to snore. Not loudly like an old man snore, just like having a cold and I can’t breathe well snore. And she did have the start of a cold, so I can’t fault her for that. But it never stopped. I tried to wake her and it would stop but she’d be back asleep 2 minutes later. This went on and on and on. I played on my phone, I went to the bathroom, I was getting really frustrated!! I finally hard-core woke her up at 12:30 (yes, 12:30 and I wasn’t asleep yet!) and asked her to stay awake 20 minutes so I could fall asleep. Didn’t work, she was back at it 10 minutes later. Eventually, I did fall asleep, but the last time I looked at the clock it was 1:08. And of course, much, much too soon, my alarm was going off at 4:10. 3 hours sleep and a half marathon to take care of. Yikes!

Coming up: The Half Marathon!

[disney_duke]

Saturday January 12th, part 1: The Half Marathon, the beginning!

After not such a good sleep, I still managed to get going OK. (You know, after you have babies and then go back to work you learn how to function quite well on very little sleep!) Besides, I knew I’d make up for it later. And since Amanda was helping me out by driving me to the meeting point, I couldn’t really be too upset. So I got myself ready, make up and hair (gotta look decent for the photos!), and we headed down to the car. I must admit, I was a bit nervous as to whether or not the runDisney police would allow us through or not. Liz was nervous too, and she was texting me at 4:20 saying she was there already, but it looked like it wouldn't be a problem. We agreed to meet at 4:45! Amanda and I agreed that she would drop me off on Bonnet Creek drive, right in front of FQ. That way she could just pull a quick U-turn and head back to POR easily. So that’s what she did. I ended up having to walk about a half a block to the stoplight where Liz was waiting for me.

And we were not the only ones doing this! I’m bad at estimating numbers, but I’d say at least 25 people were doing this within the same 5 minutes it took for us to walk over to the corrals. Oh, and Beth, those VIP busses? They were parked over here. Liz and I walked past them as we headed up to the A corral. We realized the snow fences (I don’t know what they’re really called, those temporary plastic like-flexible fences?) went aaaalll the way up to the starting line and we did not need to go that far. So we hopped over the snow fence and ended up in corral B. There were runDisney police in there (as there should be) and we assured her we were heading back to D where we belonged! We figured out that tomorrow, we would walk to the left instead of the right, and we should be able to hop over the snow fence directly into the D corral.

We couldn’t believe that here we were, in the corral already, and it was just 4:50something, like :53. It took all of 8 minutes to get into our corral. And we took the long way. And the corral was empty! Where was everyone? Yes, afterwards, we heard about that dreadful walk from the Epcot parking lot to the corrals that took 1 hour. It’s only 1 mile, folks. That’s how insanely crowded it was! I guess the DJ manning the party (or whomever makes these decisions and announcements) should have sent off the runners sooner, or something, I don’t know. I just know it was crazy crowded and very stressful, especially for those runners in the first corrals, A and B. Liz and I were just enjoying ourselves, catching up on things, and finishing our breakfasts. I took off my throw away sweatpants, but kept on my long sleeve for a little while longer. I haven’t mentioned the weather much yet, but it was gorgeous. Others will tell you it was hot, and maybe to them it was. But it was just perfectly beautiful to me. I wasn’t worried about the heat today. After all, the race is done before it really warms up anyway.

By the time they were singing the National Anthem, must have been darn close to 5:30 race time, there were still mass crowds of runners making their way into the corrals. I mean mass crowds. You could easily spot the A and B runners since they were literally running up to get into their corrals. Fireworks going off, the wheelchair racers were on their way. It was 5:30! (And still folks trying to get to the start of the race.) This year, there were 7 minute intervals between releasing each corral. A started promptly at 5:35, I believe, and then we all slowly moved up. Fireworks for B, move up. Fireworks for C, move up. Off to the left of the start line is the stage where they sing and make the announcements and stuff. Mickey, Donald, and Goofy were all up there! Finally, fireworks for D and we were off!











Because Liz and I were in the corral early, we were right in the front of corral D, so we crossed the start line at 5:53 (on my watch). We usually run the first mile together, just to get one done, and then we split up to do our own thing. When the first hill came along, I walked it and she kept going. But then she said she saw me pass her as she was waiting in line for the first character, Captain Jack Sparrow and his pirate ship! I believe this was around mile 2, just before or just after. I think it may be the only character she stopped for during this race.

This portion of the race is a bit dull and a bit dark! The funniest part of the darkness is all the runners, ladies included, who run for the bushes for a potty stop! Rightfully so, the lines for the Portapotties are always long. I’ve learned over the years to train as such so I don’t have to go until I’m near a real facility inside the theme park. This means not too much liquid with breakfast, as the facilities are usually not until mile 5 for a Half, or mile 10 for a Full! Therefore, I hydrate the day before like crazy!!!




Anyway, I kept up with my running/walking intervals which were probably something like run 10 minutes, walk 2 minutes, until I forgot that I’m doing the Full tomorrow, so I’d better hold back a bit and walk more than run. Took me till the Magic Kingdom toll booth to remember this little tidbit. Duh.


So I spent the next mile doing some quick math and came up with run 6, walk 4. I pretty much held to this ratio for most of the race unless a water stop or hill got in my way. Then I’d just do more walking. My other rule is to always run through the parks. Because I can walk in a park any old day, but how often can you RUN through the parks?!

The route takes us through the middle of the parking lot, mile 3, with some entertainment on bikes.


This is where Jack Skellington also was, so that was a new one I’d never seen before!


We come up through the TTC (first real facilities! And a line too) and the spectators here are awesome!! There’s a ton of them and they’re so loud. Kudos to them for waking up so early just to cheer on a bunch of strangers. And their loved ones too, of course. Then it gets dreadfully quiet and dangerous as we head out onto World Drive that leads up to the Contemporary. It’s only a 2 lane road to begin with, so the runners get one half, cars get the other half with police controlling their direction. It’s incredibly crowded here for the runners and so very difficult to pass a slow one or a walker. There’s always the grass, but you’re taking your chances with holes!

This road goes downhill under the waterway and then back uphill coming up right by the Contemporary where it finally opens up again.

The DJ on the bridge. He's there for every race. Love his gloves!

I admire those runners that can run up this hill as it’s a challenge just to walk it! Again, this is a fantastic spot with spectators. They are just lined up from the top of the hill all the way to the stoplights by the entrance to the CR. And they are fantastic! Somewhere in here, I saw someone’s running belt on the ground. Uh oh, I hope they dropped it intentionally and didn’t have anything important in there – like a phone!! This is about mile 5 and then we turn the corner and enter the MK, through the side door!!!

Coming up: The rest of the Half marathon! (you thought it’d never end, right?)

[mom to 3 princesses and 1 prince]

I can't wait to check A of A out in June! We have plans to eat dinner there after a day at Animal Kingdom.

Sorry you couldn't sleep; I had that same problem but I can blame it on anyone else. I just couldn't get to sleep!

Glad it worked out to walk to the start!

[roaminggnome]

Great pics and update. Can't wait until we head down to the world again so we can poke around AoA. Looks awesome.

[lfredsbo]

GReat update!!!

Love the pics from AoA in the nighttime - all the pics I have seen are daytime - I really hope to make it over there to check it out (have lots of Cars Scrapbook paper to use up!!!)

I am getting so excited rooting you on from my seat!!! can't wait to hear more!

[cubfancolleen]

Sounds like your plan of walking in to the corrals was the right one! I don't think I'd feel right (even though I might feel BETTER) peeing in the bushes at WDW - even if it is outside of the actual park!

[Cam22]

Great nighttime shots around Art of Animation! Sorry you had such a rough time getting some sleep. Cool pictures from the start of the race.

[shazza]

Can't believe you are now doing the half marathon, as a warm-up to the Full!!! Way to go!

Your pics make me want to visit AoA, for sure.

[lsugirlinutah]

Good night before meal! Sorry about the lack of sleep. It's so irritating to have someone snore, no matter how much you love them.

When I passed all those landmarks, it was light, so it's weird to see them in the dark. I also refused to wait for the porta potty, so I used the real bathrooms in Tomorrowland. It's so cool to get your take on the race!

[Amy L]

More great updates Tanya!! I am right there with you with taking the time to really think about what to eat the day (night) before a race. All food I look at during that time screams "DANGER" to me. The last thing any runner wants in a race is tummy troubles! You will get a kick out of this: when I first read your post about the corrals I thought you guys were in Corral A

Can't wait to read more!

[lauriep]

I can't believe you're running the half with about 2 hours' sleep! I sure hope you sleep better before the full marathon. Definitely good going with your plan of crossing the street and missing the long walk to the corrals. AOA looks great at night! So much like Carsland at DLR.