The Donald Part 3

Saturday morning (01/09) 3am wake up call. That is what the alarm was set for as well, but I was awake at 2:45. Got up and ate my breakfast and then started dressing for the race. Let's see, layer one was tights and compression shirt. Layer two, long sleeve dry fit shirt and running pants. On top of that a sweatshirt and my running jacket. The temp was in the low 30's.

We left the hotel at 3:45 to walk to the bus. Saw lots of people bundled up headed for the buses. We arrived at Epcot shortly after 4 and made the long walk to the runners area. I checked my bag (with dry jacket & gloves) and then we stood and waited to go to the corrals. Saw several people dressed as characters ,but not as many as last year. Everyone was just trying to stay warm. Of course I had to visit a porta potty prior to walking to the corrals. Shortly after 5 it was off to the corrals. Many folks were standing under the portable lights on the walk to corrals trying to get warm.

As we got to the corral staging area, yep I had to go again, so I got in a porta potty line & man it was a long one. Took care of business and found my corral. I had gotten moved up to the "D" corral from G which was cool. While waiting for the starting gun it SNOWED, yes I said SNOW in Florida. It was just flurries, but it was snow. I'm thinking, I run in snow at home, shouldn't have to do that in Florida. The gun & fireworks went off at 6am and we were off. I crossed the start line about 6:15.

Stay tuned for part 4 (I promise it will be the final part) Thanks for reading.

Til next time, run strong & enjoy the moment.

The Donald Part 2

We ended day one with dinner at the Big River grill & micro brewery on the Boardwalk. Wow, great burgers & the atmosphere was really charged in the place. Numerous runners in there, all talking about the weekend races coming up. After dinner it was back to Epcot to watch Illuminations. The illuminations soundtrack is my absolute favorite of them all. I listen to it all the time when running. We were off to the hotel and bed once the show was over.

We had decided Friday was going to be an easy day to rest our legs. We walked to the food court at PO Riverside to eat. What a ZOO it was in there. Finally found a table, got our food and ate breakfast. We decided to go back to the expo. I bought a couple of shirts that did not fit (silly me thinking medium shirts would fit) that had to be exchanged. The other couple with me (Mike & Jan) wanted to pick up a couple of more things. The expo was a mad house just as we expected it would be. We stood in line forever just to pay for the items we selected. By the time we got done, we were all thirsty, so we went next door to the All Star again for a drink. We took a bus back to the hotel, dropped our stuff off and headed for Hollywood Studios. We rode several rides, ate dinner at the Back lot Express and went back to the hotel to wait the arrival of Pam. She got there about 9pm. I sure was glad to see her. I was pretty close to turning in for the night, had an early Saturday wake up call you know, so we headed to the room and bed.

Stay tuned for part 3, thanks for reading.

Til next time, run strong & enjoy the moment.

The Donald Part 1

My wife and & got up at 3am on Thursday the 7th so we could be at the airport by shortly after 4 for a 5:50am flight. When we got up there was already 6 to 7 inches of snow on the ground and it was still snowing. So we shoveled lots of snow before leaving for the airport. Why do I tell you all of this, because I thought there was no way the flight to Orlando would leave on time. We did board on time, pushed back from the gate and sat for an hour. During that hour the plane was de-iced not once, not twice but three times. We did eventually take off and fly to Atlanta where we had to make a connecting flight to Orlando. There were probably fifteen to twenty people on the flight who had the same connecting flight to Orlando as we did. We left Bloomington one hour late, so obviously that meant we would miss the connector in Atlanta. Not so, Air Tran held our connecting flight in Atlanta. When we got to Atlanta we walked off the plane walked down a couple of gates and walked right on the connecting flight. We arrived in Orlando about 20 minutes late from our original arrival time. I don't think that is too bad considering the way the weather was that morning.

Once we arrived in Orlando we took Disney's magical express to our hotel, Port Orleans french quarter. We got checked in, our rooms were ready, so we took the luggage to the rooms and then headed to the Expo for bib number & goody bag pickup. We went to the milk house first to turn in our waivers and pick up our bibs. I also picked up my wife's goody bag for the chEAR squad.

Next stop was the expo in the Jostens center. We picked up our goody bags & shirts and started shopping. I bought several Disney related running shirts, one of them being a training for the 2011 Goofy challenge shirt. I also bought a waist strap for my bib, some Balega running socks and some gel packs for the race. We spent several hours at the expo. By the time we were finished giving Disney more money we were really hungry, so we went next door to the All Star Cafe for a late lunch.

After lunch I had the pleasure of meeting a fellow runner from Minnesota in person. I had spoken with Dom via email and through Twitter but not in person so it was really cool to get to chat in person. We probaly visited for 30 to 40 minutes. Dom is running the Goofy in 2011 as is another online friend Gordon from Run to Disney, so I will have company. You can read Dom's blog at themouseandmore.blogspot.com.

Stay tuned for part 2. Thanks for reading.

Til next time run strong & enjoy the moment.

It's Here

We leave tomorrow morning for marathon weekend. Yea!!! The current forecast as I write this is calling for 2 to 4 inches of snow tonight and additional 1 to 3 tomorrow. Our flight is supposed to leave at 5:50AM. Just have to wait and see what happens. We will get to Orlando sometime tomorrow.

Even with the potential weather snafu, I am really pumped up about running again at WDW. I hope to meet some folks I have been tweeting with & emailing. I will write a race/trip report when I return home.

Thanks for reading.

Til next time, run strong & enjoy the moment.

9 Weeks down 1 to go

This past week I only ran 16 miles. Ran 3 on Monday the 28th. Got to run outside. The temp was 26 degrees with a 10 degree wind chill. Not to bad. On Wednesday the 30th did 4 miles outside. The temp was 26 degrees with a 15 degree wind chill.

On new years day I had to run inside. Did 3 miles on the treadmill. The outside temp was 2 degrees with -14 wind chill. It was even worse on Saturday the 2nd. The temp was -5 with a -18 wind chill. So needless to say I was on the treadmill again for 6 miles. Have I said before, I hate running on a treadmill. It was just way , way to cold to be outside running. I was more worried about frostbite than anything.

Only two more short runs before the Donald next weekend. Looks like I will be running them inside with what the weather forecast looks like. It also looks like it could be a chilly run at WDW. I guess I will have to pack all my running attire, so I will have the right stuff for what ever the weather is down there.

It's almost here, and I'm excited and ready to run at the World.

Thanks for reading.

Til next time, run strong & enjoy the moment.

Happy New Year & looking ahead

Happy New Year to all!!! I hope the coming year is good to you in your personal & running life. Looking back to 2009, I had a great year running. I ran and completed my 1st three 1/2 marathons. I ran a total of 840 miles. Along the way I picked up a Coast to Coast medal. I have some new running goals for 2010:

WDW Marathon weekend 2010: Run the Donald again. Complete it with a better time than 2009.

Kentucky Derby mini marathon in April: Run the mini again.

Illinois marathon in May: Run and complete my 1st marathon on May 1st.

Disneyland half marathon in September: Complete my 2nd 1/2 at Disneyland and pick up another Coast to Coast medal.

Throw in some 5k's for good measure.

Run over 1,000 miles for the year.

My ultimate goal is the BIG one. Run and complete the GOOFY during marathon weekend at WDW in 2011.

I am really looking forward to what this year holds for me with my running. I know it will not be easy training and preparing for running a marathon, but I know I CAN DO IT. My goal is to have run a marathon before I run the GOOFY in 2011.

I hope everyone succeeds in achieving their running goals for 2010.

Thanks for reading.

Til next time run strong @ enjoy the moment.

8 weeks down, 2 to go

Week 8 of training is done and put away. On Monday did 4 miles outside. Wednesday I had to run on the treadmill, did 5 miles. It was super cold with the wind chill. Thursday I was able to get back outside to run 4 miles. Yesterday, Saturday, I ran 9 miles outside. The temp was 25 degrees with a wind chill of 5 degrees. The wind was blowing about 20mph out of the SW and the roads were partially covered with snow.

Less than two weeks to go. One more week of tapering and then it's off to run at WDW. The long range forecast shows early morning on Jan 7th will be in the low 40's. That would be about like this year, but we will have to wait and see.

Shortly after I get done with the WDW half I will start training for what I hope will be the first of many full marathons. Squeezed in the training cycle will be a 1/2 marathon in Louisville in April. As I keep saying my goal is to run the Goofy at WDW in 2011 with my friend Gordon from Run to Disney.

Thanks for reading

Til next time, run strong & enjoy the moment