Running Route Review: Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort

Hi again!  I’m freshly back from our long summer vacation at Disney World…

… our worst Disney vacation ever.

 So bad, we sought refuge in the Tiki Room.  The TIKI ROOM, people!  It doesn’t get much worse.

(See that middle guy up top – with the drum?  That’s what I looked like for nine days.)

It was HOT.  And CROWDED.  And RAINY.  And there was a whole lotta Magic missing. 

Seriously- Worst. Disney trip. EVER.

I have many thoughts about what went wrong, what was within and outside of Disney’s ability to control and how things could be vastly improved… but, frankly, I’m sick of wasting any more energy on such a crappy vacation.  I just want to move on, y’know?  Truth is, we’re local, WDW is a cheap getaway, and I’m already invested thanks to DVC and annual passes; we’ll go back and Mickey knows it. 

Instead of griping about what went so spectacularly wrong, I want to share what went RIGHT – the couple of training runs I put in!

It’s crazy, I know, but morning temps in central FL are more pleasant than at my home on Florida’s Gulf coast.  Still humid, but cooler and with some movement to the air.  So, despite that fact that it was, indeed, a HOT trip, my morning runs were almost refreshing.  If by “refreshing” one means temps in the mid-70s and 100% humidity.  Trust V – that trumps high-80s and 100% humidity!

Run 1: short run at Saratoga Springs Resort

I went into this one with absolutely dead legs and feet that hurt from the start; speed was not going to happen.  I decided I’d settle for 35 minutes of whatever type of forward motion I could muster and set out just after sunrise, around 6:40am.

I'd gotten a jogging map from the front desk, but didn’t need it; I know my way around pretty well at this point and I was just planning to run loops until I hit my time goal.

Our room was in the Grandstand section of Saratoga Springs Resort (SSR), so I walked a bit from there and then took a loop through the Treehouse Villas, thinking it would make for a shaded and scenic first mile or so.  Meh.  It is shaded, but not so scenic; mostly road and tall pine trees.  No sidewalks and a fairly narrow roadway, so I paid close attention to buses coming and going.

Leaving the Treehouses behind, I ran back past the Grandstand and over to the Springs, which houses the main pool, restaurants, golf shop, front desk, spa and DVC preview center.  There were a few sleepy folks there getting coffee and the maintenance team was setting up the pool deck, but I had plenty of room to run at that early hour.

Crossing back behind the Springs, I looped around Congress Park, which features a lovely view across the water of Downtown Disney.

From there, I crossed the main street and made a partial loop through the Paddock.  I really liked that section – plenty of shade, a nice breeze off the lake and these super-cute markers that measure distance in furlongs!

 

I made it through 35 minutes, 11 seconds for a total distance of 2.75 miles.  Yeah, that’s a 12:48 average pace. Bleh.  But I was happy to have gotten it done.  I was happy right up until I faced the first set of stairs at Typhoon Lagoon an hour or so later.  I do not recommend a water park after running.  Trust V.

Run 2: 6 miles through SSR and Downtown Disney

My training plan called for 6 miles at the tail end of my vacation.  I considered saving it for when I got home, but I was tense and irritated from the aforementioned issues at WDW and thought a good, long run was just what I needed.  I was right.

This time, I ran my SSR loop in reverse, partially looping the Grandstand, up to the Springs, over around the Paddock and Willow Lake, and down the lake side of Congress Park.  From there, I continued on the path instead of circling back and landed at the far end of Downtown Disney's Marketplace.  As I neared the Marketplace, I heard my iSmoothRun app’s voice tell me I’d hit 2 miles.  I planned to do my Galloway Magic Mile in mile 3, so I focused on that instead of pausing for pictures as I continued down through the Marketplace, Pleasure Island and into Downtown Disney’s Westside.  Sorry.

FYI - Downtown Disney?  Hilly.  I feel pretty sure there are no natural hills there, but Disney placed all sorts of ups and downs, including one torturous climb up to Pleasure Island, in the landscape.  Had I known this, I’d have done my Magic Mile elsewhere.  But once I’d committed, I pushed hard and produced a pace of 11:21 for mile 3.  That’s 11 seconds faster than my previous Magic Mile – but with hills!  And on deaddeaddead Disney legs!  Yeah, I’m pretty happy with that.

Wiped out, I finished the rest of my run at an easy pace, reversing my course back through Congress Park and the Paddock, around the Grandstand, through a partial loop of the Treehouse Villas, and back to the Grandstand, where I filled a laundry bag with ice and gave my legs a good cool down in an ice bath.

In the end, I cut the run to 5.56 miles in 1:10:04.  Add in my warm-up and cool-down walks, not to mention the couple miles walked later in the day, and I’m totally fine with five and a half instead of six.

We moved to Port Orleans Riverside (POR) that morning, which was, admittedly a little rough – hauling luggage up and down stairs after running was not fun.  But then I crashed at the POR pool for a few hours, which I HIGHLY recommend!  Getting off my feet in a lounge chair or floating weightlessly in the cool pool water made for a great recovery.  I was tired that night, but woke the next day feeling up to tackling Blizzard Beach and its many, many stairs.

I had a third run planned for our final morning at POR, but I bailed on it.  We stayed out late the night before and sometimes sleep trumps a run; that was one of those times.

But… we’re still planning to go back to POR over July 4^th.  And I’ve got a short run planned while there.  So you can bet I’ll be back with another Disney running route review!

My Fake-Africa Run: Route Review, Animal Kingdom Lodge

Everyone has a fantasy run, right?  Maybe it’s a race of special significance.  Or hitting a super-fast personal record. Or, perhaps most often, a picturesque location far from home.

My fantasy run falls into that last category – and it looks like this:

“If I know a song of Africa, of the giraffe and the African new moon lying on her back, of the plows in the fields and the sweaty faces of the coffee pickers, does Africa know a song of me? Will the air over the plain quiver with a color that I have had on, or the children invent a game in which my name is, or the full moon throw a shadow over the gravel of the drive that was like me, or will the eagles of the Ngong Hills look out for me?” 
- Isak Dineson, Out of Africa

Yes, I dream of running in Africa.  So, when a quick weekend trip to Walt Disney World landed Leo and I at the Animal Kingdom Lodge for our lodging, there was no question that I’d put in my scheduled Saturday run.

For those who’ve not yet been, Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge and Villas includes two large buildings constructed and detailed in a meticulously rendered African theme, Jambo House and Kidani Village.  Both are nothing less than stunning.  (For a full array of photos, I highly recommend a visit to allears.net’s Animal Kingdom Lodge and Kidani Village pages.)  The public spaces, rooms and eateries are all gorgeous in their own rights.  But.  The outdoor space is what really sets Animal Kingdom Lodge apart from other resorts – how’s about an African savanna right outside your window?  In Central Florida?!

Okay, okay – this is not a trip report and it’s not an advertisement for a hotel; it’s a running route review, right? On with it already…

Now I knew I wouldn’t be running with the giraffes.  And I’ve stayed at both Kidani and Jambo House often enough that I don’t need a map to get around.  But I’ve never before run there.  And I might have been a teensy bit excited about the prospect of doing so.  Remember – my African running dream?

My convoluted route - Jambo House on the far right, Kidani Village to its left, illicit trespassing on the far left.

I began in the porte-cochere of Jambo House and followed the paved path from there to Kidani Village.  This seemed like a loooong walk when Leo and I shuffled back from Jambo to Kidani after our Expedition Everest Challenge, but it fell far short of “long” while running – only a quarter-mile before I hit the Kidani parking garage.  Knowing that the garage traveled a decent distance under the Kidani building, I ducked into the garage and ran its length and back.

Not real exciting.  Certainly not Africa-like. Hmph.

Emerging form the parking garage, I hadn’t yet hit a mile, so I followed a path leading to the pool and circled back, outdoors, to a sign that pointed to the barbeque and sports courts across the drive from Kidani.  And I still hadn’t hit a mile.  And it still wasn’t feeling very Africa-ish.

But… a road leads to the sports courts.  And… it keeps going beyond them.  Okay, there’s a sign warning that only WDW vehicles are allowed past that point… but I wasn’t in a vehicle, was I?  So it didn’t apply to me.  I kept going.

Hey, this is kinda Africa-like!

MUCH better!  It was silent back there, apart from the tweets and twitters of birds and the occasional splash of a fish or turtle in that small pond.  The road was “paved” in the sense that there had once been a layer of asphalt poured down, but is now sun-bleached to light gray, beleaguered with pot holes and dusted with dirt.  It felt more like “trail” than “road” especially coupled with the wooded area to my left.  A truck full of hay bales passed me as I reached a fork in the road, but it didn’t stop and no one admonished me for being there.

At the fork, the truck entered a fenced-in area while I turned left, deeper into the woods.  Or so I thought.  Bleh.  A big, dirt patch with a handful of truck trailers in the middle.  Time to turn around.

I followed the road back to Kidani, took another loop around the pool, and then followed the path back to Jambo.  Just over two miles.  My goal was four. GAH!

Down to the bus stops, back up to the Jambo lobby.  Through the lobby (walking, not running – though I powered down the stairs…), around the pool deck, out to the savanna overlooks, back around the pool, through the lobby…

Three miles.

I thought about heading back down to Kidani, but opted to run a few speed laps up and down the parking lot.  When I finally made it to 3.75, I called it good and did another walking lap of the lobby and pool to cool down.

My feeling about running Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge?  Meh.  There just isn’t enough prime real estate to make more than a mile or so happen easily.  I really enjoyed the road away from the buildings… but I wasn’t supposed to be there, right?  Guess I’ll continue to fantasize of a run in real-Africa; fake-Africa just didn’t cut it.

However, never before have I had such a nice post-run snack/rest period.

View from our studio villa's balcony!

Who ran Disney? I did!

Well folks, I’m freshly back from a fantastic 10 days at Disney World and happy to report that I continued to train during that time!  I had four runs planned – three short and one long – and pulled off three of the four, including the long run.  Sadly, my feet were just too worn out from theme parking to do the last run – a route to which I was very much looking forward.  :(  Oh well, there’s always next time, right?

Our trip began with two nights at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort (CBR), so that’s where I did my first short run.  I set out a few minute before sunrise, about 6:25am, and caught this gorgeous view as I began my run…

The CBR route is pretty straightforward: loop around the lake as many times as necessary to meet your time or distance goal.  A full loop is about 1.2 miles.

Mine was a time goal of 30 minutes, which resulted in about three loops with a detour through the center island because it’s pretty in there.  The CBR path is paved and well-maintained and mostly shaded – a major plus on a hot, mid-summer Florida run.  There were a few minor hills along the way, which spiced things up a bit, and lots of maintenance workers out sprucing up the beaches, hosing down pool decks, and keeping the beautiful resort looking tidy.  It was nice to see their smiling faces and hear their “Good morning!” greetings as I ran by. 

I give the CBR a solid A for a short run; the landscape is stunning and I ended my run feeling fresh and ready to take on the day!

Next up was my long run.  I was scheduled to do 7.5 miles, but after four Disney days, I was beat.  We took it easy the day before, spending lots of time off of my feet, but I was not feeling the running love by the time my alarm went off at 5:00am.  I decided to go for 5 miles… if I felt good at that point, I’d keep going; if not, 5 would be plenty with all of the walking I was doing in the parks.

We’d moved to the Beach Club Villas by then, so I used a few of the Epcot Resorts running routes to put in my miles.

I started with half a loop around Crescent Lake at sunrise – so pretty!

Just past the Boardwalk, I switched over to the Boardwalk Canal path and took it all the way down to Disney’s Hollywood Studios.  I ran all the way up to the entrance plaza, which was neat – lots of activity up there as security and the bus drivers did their respective checks to get the park ready for opening.

From Hollywood studios, I backtracked along the canal and picked up the Crescent Lake loop again, completing the circle back to the Beach Club.  From there, I exited the resort and ran the 2.4-mile Epcot Resorts Blvd. and Buena Vista Dr. route, which brought me up to 5 miles by the time I reached the Beach Club again.  That’s a very pretty, somewhat shaded route with sidewalk for all but about 20 feet of it; beware, though, of the many short but steep little hills that run along the Swan and Dolphin properties!  Still, by the time I hit 5 miles, I was loosened up and feeling fine, so I did another loop around the lake, took a few paths through the Yacht and Beach Club properties and, yes, finished the full 7.5 miles!

My finish line – couldn’t be prettier:

After a cool-down walk to my room, I took an ice bath, ate a second breakfast and took a long shower.  I could have easily called it a day and lounged around the hotel the rest of the day, but I’d promised Leo a night at Hollywood Studios and, really, I knew it would be better for my legs to walk a bit.  Right?

Right!  I ate every calorie I’d burned earlier at the Hollywood Brown Derby and ended the night with a nod to the upcoming Tower of Terror 10-Miler.

Amazingly enough, I felt pretty okay the next day… but not okay enough to tackle a theme park first thing.  It’s not that anything hurt so much as I was just exhausted; just getting to the quiet pool right outside our room took monumental effort.  By evening, though, I was ready for a walk around Epcot to stretch the legs.

My third and, as it turned out, final Disney vacation run was a short one, so I circled Crescent Lake a couple times and did the Boardwalk Canal loop for a total of 2.5 miles.  We moved to the Villas at Wilderness Lodge for our last two nights and my final run was planned for the trail that runs between the Wilderness lodge and Fort Wilderness.

I was really excited for that one and planned it for our final morning at WDW, before checking out.  But we chose to stay out late at the Magic Kingdom the nightbefore and the combination of a late night and 10 days of being on my feet was just too much; I knew I didn’t have a mile left in me, let alone 2 or 3. 

All in all, I had a really good time running Disney and highly recommend it to anyone looking to stay on track on their Disney vacation!  I also feel like I learned some valuable things for my future long runDisney races:

1.       All of that walking adds up and means stress on your feet, if not your entire lower body.  I’ll be sure to resist any temptation to wander around parks the day before a big race.

2.       Fettuccine Alfredo the night before a long run is not a great idea.

3.       Pay no attention to the teen marathoners with ¼% body fat between the three of them lapping you 5 times in an hour.

4.       Have fun, have fun, have fun – you’re running at Disney World!

All of this will really come in handy now, too… because I am officially registered for the 2013 Princess Half-marathon!  No rest for the weary now; Princess training will commence within weeks after finishing the Tower of Terror 10-Miler.  Bring it.  :)

Breaking News - you want to do WHAT?!

Well, color me stunned.  Amazed.  Shocked.  Flummoxed, even.

Leo, my 10-year-old son, and I had a little chat last night.  About future Disney planning.  He was browsing our most recent issue of the Disney Vacation Club member magazine and came across a runDisney page that lists all of the upcoming WDW races.  Leo wanted to know which long ones I’ll be doing and when he and I might do another race.  The next possible one we could do happens to be Mickey's Jingle Jungle 5K associated with the Wine & Dine Half-Marathon in November.

“Cool!” Leo exclaimed when I explained that the Jingle Jungle 5K will be run through the Animal Kingdom park, “Let’s do that one!”

“Cool,” indeed!  Except that we’ve been planning a return trip to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party at the end of October and my budget simply can’t cover the expense of that and a race weekend within weeks of each other.  Now, I love me some Not So Scary partying, but we’ve been doing the party for years; I’d be okay skipping it this time.  But I was quite sure Leo wouldn’t be.  Still…

“Leo, we can’t afford to do both the Halloween party weekend and the Jingle Jungle weekend.  Which would you rather do?”

And that’s when the shock came…

“The race!” proclaimed Leo, with a grin the size of a Buick.

Really?!  My boy would rather do a silly 5K race than party down with the Mouse in full Halloween regalia?  Give up the stellar Boo to You parade and mesmerizing Hallowishes fireworks display in favor of a cheap, over-logoed T-shirt and a rubber finisher’s medal???

Yep.  I asked again this morning, thinking he may have changed his mind after sleeping on it, but no – he’s all about doing the race instead of the Party.

What a neat kid.  Bring on the Jingle Jungle!

2012 Expedition Everest Challenge – Race Recap

Goodness – where do I start?!  There’s so much to tell about this race. 

Day 1 – May 4  We opted to make a weekend out of the event and arrived at Walt Disney World (WDW) early Friday morning.  Like, really early: out the front door at 6:45am to battle rush hour traffic through Tampa.  We made it to the Magic Kingdom (MK) just after it opened and spent a lovely morning doing our favorite rides with a friend who was on her last day of vacation.  My plan was to take it easy on our feet, and I know we walk and stand less at the MK than at any other WDW park.  We left after lunch to go to packet pick-up.

The Expedition Everest Challenge (EEC) packet pick-up area at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex went smoothly.  We grabbed our packet and shirts, took a couple pictures in the photo-op area, and signed the giant poster. 

"Chilling" at Base Camp

Temps were soaring and it was HOT at the sports complex!  We were more than ready to get off our feet and into a nice, cool pool.  Our resort of choice was Animal Kingdom Villas at Kidani Village.  Animal Kingdom Lodge was a host resort for the race, meaning that buses to and from the race would be available to guests staying there.  Since the race didn’t start until 9:30pm, I thought it best to let Disney do the driving and the nice lady checking us in confirmed that race buses would pick up at both the Lodge and Kidani Village.  Remember that.

A quick change in the room and we enjoyed an hour or so at the pool, where Leo sailed down the slide repeatedly and I pored over a cheesy tabloid magazine.  With no real plans for the evening, we decided to wing it for dinner and headed over to Disney’s Hollywood Studios.  In retrospect, that was a bad idea; it wound up being way too much time walking and standing the day before our race and my feet paid for it.  But at the time, it was nice to grab some pizza and salads at Pizza Planet and ride Star Tours before getting to bed.

Day 2 – May 5  Race day!  But we had an entire day to kill first.  Yet, I wanted to preserve our feet and legs.  What to do, what to do… after a late-for-us wake up around 8:30am, and after breakfast in our villa, Leo and I decided to use our Disney Vacation Club pool-hopping perk for the first time and drove to the Polynesian Resort to enjoy its volcano-themed feature pool.

We need to do that more often!  For two hours, Leo swam and played with other kids, while I read in a beach chair and generally blissed-out.  I don’t what it is about that place, but I think it might be the most relaxing spot in all of WDW.  

I could have stayed there all day, but we needed some true down time, so after eating a quick sandwich lunch at the Polynesian, we went back to our room for showers and sleep.  Or, in Leo’s case, lying in bed pretending to sleep.  He sure did try, but he was too excited to really zonk out.  At least we were off of our feet for several hours.  Mine were swollen and achy from the heat – did I mention it was in the mid-90’s all weekend? Ugh. – and not even rest, elevation and an ice pack did much to help.

We got up about 5pm to eat dinner and get ready.  Oh, and to watch the Kentucky Derby!  We love the Triple Crown races, so how better to get ready for our own race than to watch those gorgeous equines run for the roses?  None of our picks won, but it was still fun to watch.  All geared-up and ready to go, we walked out to Kidani’s bus stop just as an Animal Kingdom bus arrived – score!  Or not… it was a regular park bus, not the race bus.  The driver had no idea what we were talking about when we, along with another team trying to get to the race, asked if we were on the right bus.  Just then, another team walked by and told us the race buses were only picking up at the Lodge, not Kidani, and would be in front of the resort, not at the bus stops.  Grrrr.  The Lodge is about a quarter mile walk from Kidani; we had plenty of time and I wanted to go back to the room, get my car keys, and drive to the Lodge.  I just knew that walk would be brutal in the wee morning hours, coming back from running a race.  But Leo somehow convinced me to just walk over and we did. 

We found the bus and enjoyed a very short ride over to the race staging area in the Animal Kingdom parking lot.  It was around 7:20pm and the race wouldn’t start until 9:30, with our wave – Wave 4 – not starting until around 9:55.  We had a lot of time to kill and not much with which to kill it.  There were photo ops, but Leo’s in a phase of not wanting to pose for pics, so that was out.  A DJ was playing lots of good dance tunes, but Leo hates to dance in public, and I wanted to get OFF of my feet, so that was out.  The sun was still up and the blacktop was HOT – with more than two hours to wait, we were already feeling overheated and sweaty.  Once the sun went down, it got a little more comfortable, though the pavement remained awfully hot for sitting upon.  I may or may not have burned my backside.  I’m not telling.  We were there much too early, though being so early did mean a very short wait to check a bag.  Next year, I’ll plan to arrive later and not check a bag at all.

The infamous Wall o' Potties

Okay, enough of my blabbering – let’s get this race started!  Finally, around 9pm, they loaded Wave 1 into the chute and started the race.  Hooray!  Fireworks, cheers, pumping music with every wave.  All under the Super Moon, glowing its big, cheesy heart out.  It looked like utter chaos in the staging area as people made their way toward the chute, awaiting their wave’s announcement, but I was surprised to find that when the DJ said to load up Wave 4, people shifted around and we had no problem making our way in.  I decided to skip my Runkeeper app, since I’d be using my iPhone for pictures, and got my new Timex GPS watch ready to go… 3… 2… 1… and we were off! 

Through the big, bright Start sign, past the DJ booth, under the fireworks… and into a quiet, dark parking lot.  Talk about shifting gears!  It was nice, actually, after all of the loud lead-up, to have a mile of relative quiet.  Leo and I adjusted our pace, found our groove and were feeling good when we reached the first obstacle.

Hay bales.  One bale high.  Up and over.  Easy-peasy.  I’ve long fancied myself a hurdler (despite being 5’ 1”), so I channeled my inner Jesse Owens and hurdled those bad boys like a boss.  Leo wisely did the one-foot-on-one-foot-over method and we were in and out of the obstacle in no time.

After that, it gets a little fuzzy.  It wasn’t long before we entered the park and the course map shows that we went through a substantial amount of park before going “backstage”… I remember virtually none of it.  It was very, very dark and awfully narrow through most of it and I was very focused on not running into other runners; it never really opened up and it was a very crowded race route.  Excepting the well-lit Tree of Life, I don’t remember seeing anything noteworthy until we got “backstage”, where we encountered a number of bales of flattened cardboard the size of F-150s.  Yeah, cardboard!  “Look – Disney garbage!” we shouted with glee.  Yes, we’re Mouse geeks.  Not missing a beat, a race worker shouted back, “No ‘garbage’ here – that’s Disney RECYCLING!”  So we gave an even bigger shout-out: “WOOOOO HOOOOTY, Disney recycling!  Yeah, baybee!!!”

Okay, we may have been a little delirious at that point.  But the second obstacle was approaching and we’d been warned repeatedly pre-race that it was a “silent obstacle.”  That’s right – a silent #2.  LOL!  Ahem.  Well, the obstacle was rows of truck tires to be run through, NFL-style, and the silence was out of respect for the sleeping rhinos in a building next to the course.  It was very weird to hear an audible hush descend as we all arrived at the tires… right up until Leo broke the silence when he tripped in a tire and shouted, “It’s okay, I’m okay!”  Whoops.

Again, I remember precious little of the rest of our jaunt through the park.  Oh!  Except this: HILLS.  I never noticed before just how many little hills there are in Animal Kingdom.  We don’t see many hills running here in FL, so any incline is a big honkin’ deal to us.  So if you overheard Leo or me yelling to each other to “KILL THE HILL!” you now know why. :)

Out of the park, we faced the final obstacle, which, based on pictures and reports from previous EEC’s, we thought would be a climb over a cargo net wall.  We were pretty excited about the cargo net climb.  In fact, Leo had been telling me for weeks that he’d help me over if I got stuck.  We were totally ready to pull ourselves over the rope wall like a couple of monkeys.  So when we rounded the corner and found a sad looking net stretched about a foot off the ground over some Astroturf, we came to a literal halt and must have had the confused puppy look on our faces. 

“Huh???”

Leo quickly saw that we could choose to go around and skip it, but I pulled him back and insisted that we were going under that net, by golly; we would not be skipping any portion of the race!  I wish they had a split time for just that obstacle, because we flew past our fellow net competitors.  Sure, I got a big puff of dirt in my eye and a couple of brush burns on my backside (which really added to the blacktop burn, let me tell ya), but I was all sorts of badass as we finished the 5K and grabbed our first of five clues for the scavenger hunt portion of the challenge.

Yep, I was all sorts of badass, right up until I tried to read the clue.  

One of our clues

It was dark out there; very dark.  They gave us a feeble little red penlight, but it didn’t do much to illuminate the words.  Words that had to have been printed in a 5-point font.  And I, without my reading glasses.  And that was pretty much our undoing.  Leo did his best to read the clues, but he was hours past his bedtime at that point and it was taking us five minutes just to find out what each clue said.  And then we couldn’t figure out most of the answers.  Thank goodness for the fantastic volunteers staffing the clue checkpoints who, when I asked for a little help because I couldn’t actually read the text of the clues, just fed us answers.  Answers that still didn’t make sense!  Maybe we were just too tired for such an endeavor.  Or maybe we’d make lousy CSI agents.  All I know is that it took f o r e v e r to reach the final Finish line. 

I’m sorry to say that we did not enjoy the scavenger hunt part of the race at all.  Beyond my problems with the clues themselves, it was crowded and loud and just not our cup of tea.  But once we made it through the very congested finish chute and got our uber-cool medals, it was all worth it.  This is some seriously cool race bling, even if my compass only points to the right!

I have to say that the end of the race was totally anticlimactic and, frankly, a bit of a let-down.  We had to walk, not run, through the finish chute due to crowding, the poor volunteers handing out medals looked completely overwhelmed as they just handed them to us and yelled, “Keep moving forward!”, and I felt like salmon swimming upstream as I led us through the hoards of humanity to the water and Powerade table.  Bottles in hand, we finally found an opening through which we slipped into an open little area to rehydrate and get our bearings.  I’d stopped taking in fluids around 7:30 and it was nearing 11:30; I tore into my bottle of Powerade, took a big swig… and spat it out into the bush to my side.  It was HOT!  Just not un-cold, but warmer than air temp, which was still hovering near 80.  Crazy!  Leo and I ditched our bottle of blue bliss, as did most everyone around us; what a colossal waste.  Several bottles of marginally cooler water and a banana later, we felt recovered enough to enjoy the after-party.

Oh yes – in true Disney style, several rides stayed open late into the night for racers and their guests!  Our plan had been to ride Expedition Everest, the race’s namesake attraction, first and the entrance was right in front of us – but the posted wait time was 45 minutes.  Uh, NO.  There is no way I’ll wait 45 minutes in line for a ride in any conditions, let alone when physically exhausted, sweaty, hungry and in need of a puff from my inhaler.  So we set out on what would become a half-mile hike to find the bag check pick-up.  Along the way, we took a ride on Dinosaur and got our finisher’s photos taken.

When we finally found the loooooong line for bag pick-up, we were told it would be a 45-minute wait.

I turned around and got a beer from the nearest cart.

45 minutes to get my bag back?!?!  Crazy.  If it hadn’t held our inhalers and much-needed protein bars, I seriously would have abandoned it.  In the end it took less than 15 minutes, so I’m glad we stuck it out.  After a little break to wolf down said protein bars and yet more water, we took a (literal) spin on Primeval Hurl…, er, Whirl, and then finally made our summit bid on Expedition Everest to end the night.

Another half-mile hike to the bus, a quarter-mile from the Lodge to Kidani, showers for all, ice all over my legs and feet for me, and we fell asleep around 2am, the latest Leo’s EVER been up. 

Day 3 – May 6  We stayed in bed for as long as we could the next day, then packed up our things and checked out before heading to Epcot for lunch and a few rides.  I chose Epcot purposely, knowing it would force us to walk at least a mile.  It wasn’t easy – my feet were killing me.  But I’m glad we did it; I was ready to take a recovery run Monday thanks to the stretching effects of our Sunday walking.  After a huge pizza lunch at Via Napoli, we made our way back home, where the evils of reality hit me like a club: Leo’s summer camps had been canceled, several of my prescriptions had been screwed up, and a check I’d written had been processed in the wrong amount.  Oh joy.  Those EEC clues didn’t seem so bad in comparison.

In the end, we had a good time, though I much preferred the morning Tangled Royal Family 5K we did in Feb. to the EEC.  I’ve heard runDisney expanded the registration cap by quite a bit this year (the total number of runners was around 5,100) and it showed: the entire race felt crowded and disorganized to me.  Will we do it again?  Probably.  I’ll just be sure to stay OFF my feet the day before, not check a bag, and take a little more time to see just what I’m running through.

So, what’s next?  Three months of hot, sweaty summer training for the Tower of Terror 10-Miler!  That includes running during two summer vacations – several at altitude in the NC mountains, and a few at WDW.  Stay tuned – this could get interesting!

Slow Down to Speed Up – Fuzzy runDisney Math

Shout out to my dear friend Lauralee, who taught me the surprisingly accurate mantra,  “You’ve got to spend it to save it!” when it comes to vacationing at Disney.  Between the two of us and our fellow Disney travelers, we’ve made a fine art of budgeting our many Disney trips using Fuzzy Disney Math, or FDM.

FDM works like this, when applied to how long one has to wait for the next Disney vacation: current day, day of departure, weekends, national holidays, random days off from work and school, birthdays, anniversaries, dentist and doctor appointment days,  and pay days do not count.  Using this formula, our next runDisney event, the Expedition Everest Challenge on May 5, is only 24 days away… which is only 10 days more than 2 weeks, so it’s really like almost 2 weeks from now!

Applying FDM to our next Disney vacation budget: we’re staying on my Disney Vacation Club points, which are basically free because I’ve already paid for them and their annual dues and anything paid in the past is already gone and not part of the vacation budget.  Tickets are free, too, because we already have our Floridian annual passes.  Race registration’s been paid, so, again, free.  Food isn’t free… except that it is when I pay for it with my Disney Visa rewards!  The reward points won’t cover all of our food intake, but the rest will go on my Disney Visa, which I just converted to a Premiere card, which will earn 5% in new points with every dollar spent… which means free food on the next-next trip!  In conclusion, the total budget for our Everest Challenge weekend is $0 in FDM.

Okay, now that you’ve got a handle on how FDM works, let’s look at FrDM – Fuzzy runDisney Math.

Image: http://www.beautyinbalance.net/the-tortoise-and-the-hare/

I’ve been diligently trying to increase the amount of each run interval and reduce the amount of each walk interval in my training and the results have included injuries, low energy and diminished recovery. Not to mention an injured knee.  So this past week, I tried slowing down to go faster.  This isn’t my idea – I’m following Jeff Galloway’s training programs and his suggested bump-up from :30/:30 run/walk intervals is to 1:00/1:00, not the 1:00/:30 intervals I’d been pushing for.  With thoughts that a slower pace might be better for my knee, anyway, I gave it a try, doing 1:00/1:00 for my two mid-week training runs and my weekend long run…

WOWSA!  First, going “slower” really did make me “faster”: those longer walk breaks gave me better recovery, leading to much stronger – faster! – run intervals.  Second, because I was recovering better, I had a whole lot more to give in the last segment of each run; my pace there improved quite a bit.  Third, I finished strong and not feeling run-down.  Read: instead of an all-day nap, I followed my long run with lunch out with my boy, shopping and a little Frisbee in the backyard.

I’m sold.  I’ll stick with the 1:00/1:00 intervals for a while before bumping up to whatever Mr. Galloway suggests next.  For the record, I’m in no way being compensated to sing his praises… I’m just happy to have found a training method that keeps me pain-free!