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 4th. And I’ve got a short run planned while
there. So you can bet I’ll be back with
another Disney running route review!
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