Road Trip - Destination Indy!

When you get the call to work the race expo for the 2nd largest half marathon in the country, you don't say no!  After months of waiting, Tracie and I were ready to head to Indy for some fun!   6 hours on the road with this girl makes the time fly!  Listening to Beiber and Adele will never be the same again!

By the time we got to to Indianapolis, sleep was all that I had in mind!  But the Thursday morning, I was up early and ready to go, so I headed out for a running tour on the downtown area!  What an amazing, beautiful city!  I was out early enough to miss the crazy morning hustle and bustle.  Once I made it to the trail heading towards the zoo, it was just me, my thoughts and the small critters scampering around.  Next thing I knew, I needed to head back.  I had planned on 3-4 miles and by the time I got back to the hotel, I was at 5.5 miles.  One does not get "lost" on a run, they just discover new places to visit!

The rest of the morning and afternoon was spent  wandering around town, getting ready for the expo and all kinds of shenanigans in between!   The state capitol building, Memorial Circle and of course, No trip to Indy is complete without a stop outside Lucas Oil Stadium - of course the building was closed so we couldn't get a peek inside, but anything was better than nothing!

When we realized that we could actually visit the observation tower and get a birds eye view of the city, we knew where we were heading!  When we got there, we were greeted with 2 options.  1. purchase a ticket to take the elevator up 2. walk the stairs for free!  330 steps?  Game on!

OMG!  You don't realize how far 330 steps is until you start heading up them!  But we were not giving up the fight.  In the end, we made it to the top in less than 5 minutes!  The view was well worth it!  After we caught our breath, took a few photos and enjoyed the view, it was time to head back down!

One of the awesome things about working the race expos is the awesome people I see and meet.  This year, I got to see  Boston Marathon champion and Olympic Medalist Meb, as he was in town to run the Half Marathon.  This year he was running "with the people"... starting at the back of the pack, to give everyone a chance to run with him.  They even had a contest at the Expo - guess how many people Meb was going to pass while he was running his Half Marathon.  

My highlight of the weekend tho?  For all you American Grit fans out there, I had the opportunity to meet and chat with Brooke Van Paris (aka BeastModeBarbie) while she was shopping the booth!  What an amazing, down to earth, yet extremely inspirational woman!  Hearing her story, direct from her, is enough to inspire anyone!  This was her first road half marathon and she killed it!  Although I didn't get a chance to get a photo with her while she was shopping, since I was so busy (one of the downfalls of working one of the most popular booths at the expo), but she sent me this photo, wearing one of the BondiBands that she picked up from the booth on Thursday!  Since the day I met her, I've been doing some reading on more of her story and what it took her to get to where she is, I am more than inspired!  Her Never Give up Attitude is amazing!

Side note: I also just found out that Brooke just qualified for the 2016 Obstacle Course Race World Championships in Canada this October!  Way to go Brooke!!!

After the expo on Thursday, I met up with Tracie and we were on a mission to find dinner and then some sleep.  However, on the way to find food, we spotted a horse drawn carriage that we HAD to go take pictures of!  While Tracie was taking pictures of the carriage. I managed to capture this photo of a pup introducing himself to (hopefully) a new friend! 

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After working all day at the expo on Friday again, when the alarm went off at 5:15am for the race, I really just wanted to stay curled up in bed! I was tired!! But it was race day!  Before long, it was time to take the short walk to the heart of downtown to the start line!

After running the half marathon here last year, it was exciting to be back at the start line again this year, even if I was "only" running the 5k.  Tracie was going all out and signed up for the Mini Challenge - running the 5k and then heading straight back to the start corrals to run the half marathon!  For those of you that know me, this would be a challenge that I normally would be all over.  However, since I was working the race expo for 2 days and being on my feet all day, I was not sure how my legs were going to be. so I opted just for the one (short) race.

In the end, even tho I was running on limited sleep and tired legs, I was very happy with my race. I felt strong, the weather was perfect and I was running in a dress for the first time!  Just a week before this trip, I got my first dress that I ordered from Skirt Sports.  I was not sure how running in a dress was going to be and yes, I broke one of the cardinal rules of running - I tried something new on race day... running, wearing something that I have never worn to run in before.  

Thankfully my chance that I took paid off.  I think I was more comfortable running this 5k than I have for any other race!  Yes, I am a Ambassador Captain for Skirt Sports, because I love their products! I live in my SS whenever I can. I can tell that this dress is quickly going to become one of my go-to pieces of clothing this summer, both for running and every day comfort wear! 

We can be our own worst critics, don't fall into the trap

Many times, we are often more critical of ourselves, forgetting to see the big picture. Last week I received the link to my FREE race photos from the Oshkosh Half Marathon. Yes!  Free race pics!  It's not often that I actually get race pictures that I like, let alone ones I would want to pay for!  So when I saw that these ones were free, I had hope.

I hated them!  

I looked like I was dying!

I saved off a few of them and posted them to one of the Facebook running groups that I follow, to share my "Pathetic" pictures. 

After a few comments from other group members I stopped and realized I fell into the trap. I looked at those pics and saw every flaw.  But now I decided that I needed to share these here also.  We all need to remember that one picture, one moment, one day, does not define who we are.  It is just one grain of sand that is part of the beauty that is created by the beach!

I saw the pounds that I put on when I was sick earlier this year. 

I looked exhausted.  My shirt kept crawling up...

I knew how much my feet and legs just wanted to be done. 

I was missing the bigger picture. 

I was a runner

I was strong and determined. 

Only I knew how hard I've worked to get to where I was

I'm a mom, a wife, a sister and a friend. 

Oh yeah... I actually have pretty good running form (thanks Nate and Lisa for helping with that over the years with those Running Assessments!)

After stopping to think about it, I really have a better appreciation for these pictures.   

5 years ago, I couldn't run a mile, now I'm training for my first Ultra Marathon. 

I have a family that supports my running adventures (yes they often think I'm crazy, but they still support my crazy ideas, dreams and desires)

I have met some of the best friends I could ask for because of these running adventures. 

I may never get that "perfect" race photo, but each "imperfect" one helps to remind me how far I've come. I will probably never win a race, but that's not what it's about. It's about being true to myself, running MY race and pushing myself to be the best version of me that I can be!

Don't get so focused on the little details that you forget to see the whole story!  You are stronger than you give yourself credit for!

Disney Star Wars weekend - Part 3... The Good, The Bad and the Not So Pretty

 Running Disney...

Something I've had on the bucket list since I started running nearly 9 years ago.  Running though the Happiest place on earth!  Who wouldn't want to chase that dream?

This year I finally had that opportunity!   I was able to run t he Star Wars Half Marathon at Disneyland in Anaheim California.  Then a few weeks ago, I also had privilege to travel to Florida to run the Inaugural Dark Side Half Marathon at Disney World!  This trip ended up being a family vacation and my husband and son were taking on the 5k!  I, on the other hand registered for the Dark Side Challenge (the 10k and Half Marathon) and then I also decided to add the 5k in, just to complete the trifecta!

In the end, 2 states,  4 races, 5 Parks, 7 medals... and a huge credit card bill and a ton of lasting memories.

There is always so much hype about Disney Races.  Now after doing races in both US parks, I'm torn on if  I will do another one.  Don't get me wrong, running through the parks was awesome, I got some amazing pictures and met some fabulous people.  But was did it really live up to all the hype??  Since I already covered all the details of the trip in my previous 2 posts, this is more a look back on the overall experience... would I do it again?

Transportation

When we got all checked in to our resort, we headed straight for packet pick up.  It was about 10:30am so the expo had not been open that long.  Disney does make a point to have special buses for the run Disney events and we headed straight to the appropriate bus stop to head to the expo.  We pretty much had the bus to ESPN to ourselves!

Each morning, when we had to be up and on the buses well before the sun came up.  The bus that served our resort (Art of Animation), was also the same one that stopped at Pop Century.   Apparently, since AofA was the first stop these runDisney buses made each time that they made their loops, we usually only had a 10 minute wait or so and always had an empty bus to get on. A friend of mine was staying at Pop Century and told me that they did not have the same luxury.  For the 10k on Saturday, she was at the bus stop at her resort about the same time as me, but waited over 20 minutes for a bus because when the bus stopped at AofA, by the time it left, it was full, so it headed straight to the start line, leaving those at PC waiting.  THEN, onc eshe finally got on a bus driver got lost!  YES, the charter bus driver that was hired to get people to the start line DIDN'T KNOW WHERE HE WAS GOING!  How is it that these drivers are sent out without explicit directions to get people where they needed to be in a timely manner!  Thankfully she was on the bus early enough that she didn't have to worry about being late!  Sunday for the Half, I had good luck again, but she still had to wait a bit.  Not as bad as Saturday, so she wasn't complaining.  I also heard stories of runners at one of the other resorts (Wilderness I think, but can't be positive) that never had buses!  Not sure if it was some of the similar issues as to the ones we saw between our resort and PC, but this is not cool!  If you a re providing transportation to the race from your own resorts, make sure you have enough buses and don't forget about anyone!

After the races was another crazy mess.  Don't get me wrong, I understand that they are shuttling a few thousand people around, things can get backed up, but to me this seemed like organized chaos. Now, the 5K, post race transportation was not bad at all,  We walked from the post race area and waited about 2 minutes for a bus.  The 10k and half were another story. After leaving the finish line area, you walked for, what seemed like forever (but in reality was probably the equivalent of a few blocks).   Here, you found lines for each bus stop/resort and had to find the end of the line and wait.  for the 10k, we only had a short wait and then Mary and I were on buses towards showers and food.  For the Half marathon, the way the lines zigzagged back and forth it was hard to figure out where the lines actually went and where the end was.  Thankfully there was a Disney Cast member standing at the end of the line with a large sign on a pole, but since these people were always moving, it was often difficult to read the signs!  I ended up waiting for almost a half hour to get on a bus... in the warm sun (no shade to be found near the bus lines).  Again, I understand the idea of having to shuttle 12,000+ people around can have it's backup.   Just frustrating when you are hot, tired and HUNGRY!

Packet Pickup

My advice?  Get here early!  We didn't have to wait in many lines to get our packets and were in and out in record time.  We heard many people talk of long lines and waits as day went on.  Can't really say anything negative.  Disney has their packet pick up figured out and gets you through without much delay!

After we headed out from Packet Pickup, we were directed outside, down some stairs, around the building, back up stairs and into a different side of the building where we found Disney Race Merchandise, the pick-up for any pre-ordered Race merchandise and the Dooney and Burke purses.  I was rather disappointed that there was a lot of the merchandise already picked over.  Only a handful of pins, etc.  The Kessel Run shirts that I wanted were only available in size small and then 2XL and larger!  This really didn't make a lot of sense to me, since the expo and packet pick up was supposed to have only been open since 10.  I did find out later that they actually opened an hour early and the first people that were there were grabbing armful and handfuls of stuff.  NOT COOL!  If you post hours, stick to them!

Just my luck, the Kessel Run shirts that I was looking at actually ran small so the 2XL that I tried on actually fit pretty good.  I grabbed that and a Dark Side Challenge magnet and headed for the lines to pay for my stash.  Then it was off to the rest of the expo, which was actually in a completely different building.

EXPO

After maneuvering out of the one building and following signs for the Expo, it was shopping time! I realized that I forgot my calf sleeves at home so I was hoping to find a new pair at a decent price!  The expo was a little crowded, but nothing worse that what I was expecting.  This is Disney and there were 12,000+ people running the Half Marathon on Sunday.  John and Darrin found sunglasses, I found a few new shirts, picked up some race fuel and found calf sleeves!  We did find out that there was another area to pick up Disney race merchandise down here too, but since I found the 2 things that I wanted, we didn't wander in.  All in all, the expo was fun, variety of vendors and all that jazz.  It was fun to check out some new stuff and I was able to replace one of my favorite shirts that I bought at an expo a few years ago that was now stained and worn out!

ESPN Grill

I'm adding this as a separate section because it was NOT at all up to Disney Standards.  After the expo, we needed lunch so we decided just to grab food at the ESPN Grill right outside the expo.  This was probably our first mistake because EVERYONE was stopping there after they finished shopping.  But we ordered our food in a timely manner and headed outside to grab a table.  After a half hour, we knew something wasn't right.  There were people that grabbed tables AFTER us that already received their food.  Ok, at first, we chalked this up to... maybe they were sitting inside and then moved outside.  Just to be sure, Darrin headed inside to get a refill on his soda and check on our food.  One of the servers came to our table with him to check on what our table number was and what we ordered.  Apparently, their computer system went down and the order numbers and orders were not matching up.  Not really a good thing to happen on a busy day like this!  She then took our receipt and headed off to the kitchen.

25 minutes later....

No food and we were done!  This was beyond ridiculous.  We headed up front to find someone to ask about a refund... oh yeah - we had already PAID for our food, so we couldn't just leave!  The server that we found took our number and headed to the kitchen.  A few moments later, a manager came to see us.  She informed us that our food had just come up and she was going to have them box it up for us (we had zero desire to stay there and eat anymore) and refund us the entire amount we paid for our meal.  She apologized several times for the wait, again telling us about the computer system failure.

I understand that one never knows when a computer system goes down, but please, please please... be a bit more proactive on trying to get orders figured out and customers food faster.  Don't wait for your customers to get annoyed.  Had we been informed, we may not have worried!

The races

In reality, the reason we are here!  To run Disney!

I really can't say much negative about the 5k.  Well organized, start line and finish line at the same place.  It was fun to run through Epcot in the dark and see the place all lit up.

The thing that I can't understand tough is why would you run a race course, with 10,000+ people (12,000+ for the half) through an area where the sidewalk is no wider than a standard sidewalk?  The bottleneck that this created was NOT COOL!  This it what we dealt with between Epcot and Hollywood studios.  Yes we were in a scenic area along the river, but when you are trying to run and maintain a decent pace between photo ops, having an extremely narrow course is only cause for issues.  I did hear from a few people that were in corrals closer to the front that the area was not as much of an issue, but as we came through (for both the 10k and Half) there were so many people walking 2 or 3 people abreast that anyone wanting to run was forced to slow down to try and get around them, many of us taking to the grass to just keep moving forward.

When I paid my money to run Disney, I wasn't paying to run on open highways for miles upon miles, with NOTHING to see or do!  For the 10k, once we left Hollywood Studios, there was a long boring stretch of highway.  Wasn't a huge deal for that race, but the Half left more to me desired.  Running from HS to Animal Kingdom is a long boring run along a closed highway for several miles.  The extent of course entertainment was a single DJ about halfway between the 2 parks.  Oh yeah, and 1 single photo stop. I actually got excited when I saw the sign for AK as I figured the long boring stretch was over.  I was wrong.  We spent the next LONG stretch basically running around the parking lot at AK!  Yes, the parking lot!

Then once we got into AK, it was all in the back lots!  Overall time spend in AK seemed like it was virtually nothing!  We ran past Everest, and then the Tree of life and all of a sudden, we were heading back out of the park.  More parking lot and then back to long stretch of boring highway!  

Sorry Disney, I paid to run through the parks and the enjoyment of the crowd along the way - Kinda like it was in California!  When I first looked at the course for the race at Disneyland, I was disappointed that the second half of the course was all just on the streets of Anaheim.  HOWEVER, these streets were pretty much lined the ENTIRE way with cheer squads, high school bands, church groups and more!  Everyone was cheering for runners, some dressed in super cool costumes and more!  I actually had just as much fun, if not more fun, on the second half of that course!  This course in Florida was BORING!  yes, the parks were fun, but I'm not flying halfway across the country to run on quiet streets and highways!  I can do that for free in Wisconsin!

Finish Line area (does not include 5K)

Disappointment!

Let me clarify... the finish line itself was awesome!  Between the announcers, the crowd support and organization of everything beyond the finish line, everything was awesome.  Everything was close and convenient.   Once you get past the food and bag pick up, it all falls apart.  

There was nothing!  or at least that is what we thought after the 10k.  We left the finish line area and then headed straight to the buses since we didn't see anything else.  Come to find out, there was an area where you could get back over to the finish line etc, but we saw no signs etc telling us that was the way we needed to go.  So we left.

We were told at the startline of the half marathon that the characters would also be at the finish line - and would be there until 11:30am!   We made a point to check out the finish line area after Mary and I both finished (and found each other).  Another disappointment.  Unless they were hiding somewhere, there were no characters at the finish line. (and we were there at about 9:30am looking) Just a tent selling some of the remaining Disney race merchandise, a tent where you could purchase food and then (at the FAAAAAR end of the parking lot), the bleachers where you could sit and cheer on those that were still finishing.  

No characters

NOTHING!

Again, huge difference to the California race.  Yes, I understand that the start and finish line were in the same area at Disneyland, but this is Disney.  I expected at least a little more!

So, we headed to the buses!

 Final thoughts

I ran Disney.  I ran in both California and Florida.
The bling was amazing
The friends that I met there, and ended up running with, made lasting memories

Would I do it again?

Maybe.

Given the two choices tho, I'd head back to California!

Why?
Better spectator participation, better finish line festivities and less crowded race course (no bottlenecks, wider course)!
Overprice and oversold.
Overall cost is about the same depending on which park, when you consider flights from WI, but I just plain enjoyed the Disneyland race experience better.  Yes, I understand that this was the Inaugural Star Wars series in Florida, but with the number of Disney races that they do every year, the mistakes from this one were rookie mistakes.  Not a company that has been putting on races for many years!

Sometimes, there is more to repeating a race than just the medal...

Disney Star Wars Dark Side Challenge weekend... part 1

As many of you know, I just came back from a long weekend in Orlando for the Disney Dark Side Half Marathon.  After running the Star Wars Rebel Half in January, I have been looking forward to this weekend since!  This was an awesome weekend filled with tons of fun, laughs and adventures.

This time the family was coming with me, and participating in the 5k too!  Since we had an EARLY flight out (6am), we drove to Milwaukee.   the night before and stayed at my favorite "go to" airport hotel!  The Clarion is right near the airport has reasonable rates as well as Stay and Fly packages so you can leave your car parked in their secured lot while you travel!  Since we had such an early flight, the first day of vacation started with the alarm going off at 3:30am!  by 4:10am, Thursday morning, we were on the way to the airport.  It was 19 degrees when we left Milwaukee and a pleasant 75 when we landed in Orlando!

Time to conquer the Dark Side

 One of the best choices we made for this trip was booking the Disney Magical Express to take care of our transportation.  We really wouldn't realize how much of a benefit this was until later in the weekend, but I'll get to that later!  Without having to worry about collecting luggage at baggage claim, we headed straight for the Disney Welcome center, checked in and were on a bus withing 15 minutes of when we got off the plane!  A short ride later and we were at out resort!  Again we didn't have to worry about collecting luggage and were able to just head inside to check in!

runDisney time!

After dumping our carry-on bags in our room, we headed for the expo.  One of the awesome things that Disney does for race weekend is provide race specific busing.  On Thursday, since anyone that was already on property was heading to the expo, there was a bus that just went from the resorts to ESPN Wide World of Sports.  There were only 2 resorts assigned to our bus so it was a short ride!

One of the advantages of arriving about an hour after the expo and packet pick up opened, the lines were short!  We had all of our packets picked up in less than 15 minutes - 5k for John and Darrin, then the 5k and Dark Side Challenge for me.  Disney always does a great job of having a well organized packet pickup with plenty of friendly volunteers to answer any questions.  With how many people I know will be running these events this weekend, I am glad we were able to get here before everything got really busy.

With all of our packets picked up, and I collected my wrist bands to verify medals that I was eligible to earn once I finished all my races for the weekend.  I felt like I was checking into the hospital for major surgery with the 2 race wrist bands, plus my magic band (room key, park passes, everything all in one) on one wrist and my running watch and JayBird on the other!

Then it was on to the expo!  Shopping time!  Since I really didn't have a ton of time to explore the expo when I was in California for the Star Wars Half in January, I was excited to have time to really see what was here!  I found a few new flavors of my Gluten Free Stinger waffles that I love, so I had to get a few to try!  Luck was on my side too - one of the vendors had calf sleeves on sale for a decent price, so I was able to pick up another pair (since I forgot mine at home!).  A few shirts later, it was time to find some lunch!

Unfortunately lunch was NOT up to Disney standards!  We opted to stop at the ESPN Grill right outside the expo.  After ordering, we grabbed a table outside, in the shade to enjoy the Florida weather.  about a half out later, we still didn't have our food, so Darrin went to get a soda refill and check on where our food was.  Someone came over to check on what we had, told us that they were having a computer issue and took our receipt and headed to the kitchen.  Another half hour later, we STILL didn't have food.  We waited long enough.  But unfortunately, we couldn't just leave - we had already paid for our food!  We headed back inside to find someone to inquire about a refund so we could go find food elsewhere.  Of course they asked us for our receipt, which we did not have anymore as the last gal took it from us when she went to check on our order!  Apparently, their computer had crashed and orders were not matching up with table numbers and everything was a mess.  They were able to find our order, based on the number that they gave us for our order.  After talking to 2 more people we were informed that our food had just come up.  They offered to box it up for us AND refund us the full amount of our meal.  Although not ideal, but at least they did what they could to make it right.

With bag of food in hand, we headed out from ESPN to catch the bus back to our resort.  But not before we took a few more pictures outside the entrance to ESPN!  The whole family was running the 5k on Friday and I would also be taking on the Dark Side Challenge - the 10k on Saturday and Half Marathon on Sunday!

 When we got back to our room, we magically had luggage!  Everything made it, in one piece!  Gotta love it when a good plan comes together! We officially could start the adventure and have clothes to change into!  The rest of the day, we explored out resort a bit, relaxed and then headed to bed early.  Alarms were going off at 3:30am so that we could get ready to catch buses by shortly after 4 to make it to the start line on time!

5am is early, no matter which way you look at it, but we were hanging gout with a few thousand other people at the start line of the inaugural Dark Side 5k!  I will have to say that the start line area was well organized, there were ample volunteers around to make sure you made it from the buses to the start line,  and plenty of Disney Photographers were on hand to take any pictures that you wanted!  There were also about 6 Star Wars Characters at the start line area, around the stage, for photo opportunities!  Since I was in an earlier corral for the race, I left John and Darrin at the stage area to head to my corral to stretch out and get ready for the race.  They used this time to get a few photos before the race!

I opted to wait until I hit the course to take any pictures, and even tho this was the Dark Side 5k, the only photo op I stopped for...   Chewbacca!  This was the one day that I decided I was only going to make the one stop, and was going to try and push my time a little.  I felt good, the temperatures were mild and I was ready to run.  I did stop along the way to snap a few pictures along the way, but nothing too exciting!

In the end, I finished this 5k in my normal a few minutes of my average 5k time (with the exception of the 10 minutes that I waited for my picture with Chewie).  I was actually excited to know that I pushed myself enough that it was still dark out when I finished!  I beat the sun!

Since I knew that John and Darrin were just walking the 5k, I had some time to spare.  So I used this time to get a few other pictures at the stage area.  The lines seemed long, but in reality, they did move fairly quickly.  I managed to get a few different picture before heading back over to the finish line to watch them come in. 

When I say them come around the corner, I tried to get a video of them actually running to the finish line, but apparently I couldn't' operate the camera on my phone and ended up just with a photo.  Oh well, you can tell from the picture tho, that they were actually running!

Proof of finish!  Medals and official finish line photos!

Race 1 for the weekend for me done!  After showers and breakfast, we spent the rest of Friday in the parks, wandering through Magic Kingdom (Where I met up with fellow Skirt Sports Ambassador Mary, who joined us for the morning!), then Hollywood Studios.  We actually had some issues with getting our Fast Passes to work with the Disney Experience app that morning at MK, so when we talked with the awesome young lady at the resort, she added a Fast Pass package onto our account to use at Hollywood Studios that afternoon!  We had 3 fast passes to use, any time, any ride that day!  We were able to hit 3 rides, literally no waiting in less than 2 hours in the park!

Once we used our passes, it was time for this Crazy Hamster to get some sleep!  I left the boys at the park and headed for the bus, and ultimately back to the resort so I could get some shut eye. While I headed back, they hit another show and then the Fireworks - which apparently were set to the opening theme from Star Wars!

Next part of the adventure was coming soon... and the alarm was going off at 3am! 

Stay tuned for Race Recap Part 2, coming soon!

Destination Disneyland!

No better way to kick of 2016 than a trip to Disneyland...

unless it's a trip to Disneyland to run the Star Wars Half Marathon!

(note: I am finally sitting down to write this a few months after I came back!)

I will have to say that this trip came at the perfect time.  On Thursday, when I flew out of Milwaukee, it was 10 degrees outside.

When I stepped off the plan in Orange County, it was 65!  You will not hear me complain about the weather!! While friends of mine back home were posting pictures of running on the frigid temperatures, I was living in capri's and t-shirts!

First stop - Packet pickup and the expo!  I was really glad to make this stop on Thursday, before most people arrived for the weekend.  There were virtually no other people in line and I was in and out in a matter of a few minutes with my race bib.  Heading up stairs then for the expo!

I probably could have spent 5 hours wandering round the expo, checking out all the goodies, shiney things and apparel, but I really did need to find some food!  So that won out over shopping for the evening!  

Friday morning started out early as I headed to Downtown for the start of the 5k.  Even though I wasn't running, it was awesome to get down there and be part of the excitement.!  Since I also needed to get in some miles, I found out that from the south end of Downtown Disney to the far north end near the parking garage was a half mile.  I am sure that I got more than just a few odd looks from those walking to the race, of from the Disney employees that were working and select points thru town and I kept running past  :)  in the end, I hit 3 miles right before the 5k started!  All in all, it was a productive morning!

After the race and a shower, it was off to the parks for the day!  Yes, a 1 day park ticket is about the equivelent of highway robbery, but when you are in Anaheim for the first time in 18 years, (and didn't get to go to Disney on that trip) you go to Disney!

The nice part about getting to the parks early, the streets aren't all that crowded!  Plus, when you are not lugging kids and everyone else around with you, you can avoid long lines but hitting the single rider lines!  

To make a trip to California even better than just being able to run at Disneyland?  Finding out that a dear friend from college currently lives less that 5 minutes from your hotel!  After 20 years, it was amazing to be able to catch up with Amy over lunch and coffee on Saturday, promising that it would not be 20 years before we saw each other again! (We actually saw each other again in February when she was in MI visiting her dad and we made the trip up to see them!)

Finally, Sunday and race day was here!  When you wake up at 3am to get to the start line and look at your weather app in California, you don't expect to see 38 degrees!  I had been on the fence about what to wear it was time to make a decision!  Temps were not supposed to get much over 50, so I opted to go with the (heatgear) capri's and lightweight long sleeve shirt under my costume. 

At the start line at 4:30 am!  Time to make it happen!

After spending Friday walking through the parks all day, it was completely different to see them in the dark!  The entire park was lit up and there were awesome photo ops throughout the entire park.  Of course, the best ones were with the Star Wars Characters!  

Each time I stopped, I did stop my running watch as I wanted to get a more accurate idea of how much time I spent running.  In the end, I spent about a half hour waiting for photos with Chewie and R2, but it was so worth it!

Not sure how I managed it, but I timed my run through the park just right that the sun was coming up as I was running through Radiator springs!  Ok, not quite the same as actually running through the majestic areas along Route 66, but it's a close second!

What an experience!  Traveling across the country to run a half marathon, explore new cities, meeting so many new people was so worth the adventure!  I couldn't have asked for a better race to kick of my 2016 race season!

I was at the airport in LA bright and early Monday morning to fly back home.  Happy to say it was a quiet uneventful flight home but a nice way to relax and reflect on my adventure!  I feel so blessed to have been able to take this opportunity and run with it (pun intended!)  Some days, I think my family is convinced that I am completely crazy... there may be some truth to that statement, depending on who you ask.  In the end, it comes down to fining your passion and striving to reach your goals!  

Life is an adventure!  Get out there and live it!

Don't be so busy making a living that you forget to make a life!

What drives you?  What are your passions?  That is a huge part of figuring out what you truly want out of life!