Dashing and Disney

Hello readers, fellow athletes/harriers if you will,

I have returned from our family's grand trip to DisneyWorld. It was awesome, but I'll get there. First, a training update. The week before we left for our Disney trip things had been going really smoothly and I had been racking up the mileage with little problem. However, this smooth progress came to a screeching halt the Friday before our trip. I was scheduled to do a tempo run...which I did, but boy was it ugly. The day before I had done seven miles at about 7:10 pace and felt pretty decent, but I was sore. This was nothing too surprising, until Friday. I had been reluctant to get to the trail where I planned to run and this is kind of typical when my body is feeling tired. However, I knew that I was going to go so I hopped in the car and got to the trail. Once I was there I began a roughly eight minute warm up for two miles and that's when I knew this was not going to go well. I always try and stay optimistic so I told myself that once I had warmed up I would be ready. Hmm...kinda wrong. The objective of the tempo was to start at 6:55 and drop ten seconds every mile for five miles. After roughly two miles on pace I literally could hardly move. It was a combination of that jelly feeling you get after speed work and a literal feeling that my legs did not want to move back and forth anymore. This was a new feeling for me. I have been tired before, but not like this. However, I knew I to finish, especially if I wanted to get back to my car. So I sucked it up and went on. It was awful. I got through but not without some groaning and thoughts of despair. Once the actual tempo was over I could hardly move and managed a shuffle of a mile and a half cool down. There was rejoicing when I made it to the car. Needless to say, the "easy run" the next day was not easy and included much sweating and side cramps, but alas I made it.

While I was very frustrated, now I am somewhat glad that Sunday I was not feeling well and could not complete my long run so I had a day off which I think wound up being really good for my body. Training continued at Disney, but was a little lack luster. It may be surprising to some of you that Disney characters do not join you while you are running. In fact, I was kind of shocked that I felt like I was the only person running...at least at our resort. This location was not ideal for running, so most running consisted of several small loops within the resort. Some people were shocked at my presence and others were amused. ASIDE from running Disney World was awesome. This was my first trip to the place and it was super fun. Day one was mostly travel but then my pal Jess Y (Best of Jess fame) and I hit up Hollywood studios for an evening of fun where we did the Tower of Terror, Star Tours, and the Rockin Roller Coaster (Starring Aerosmith...but they weren't there).

 Day two my family and Jess went to the Magic Kingdom which was massive and really cool. Our first stop was at the President's Hall of Fame where there was much debate (among ourselves) over whether the President's were real humans or robots...they were indeed robots. Almost as shocking as when I found out Salem the cat from Sabrina was not real. We also waited FOREVER to go to The Haunted Mansion. Apparently Jess had realized that this was not an actual roller coaster, but my brother and I did not. Needless to say this was annoying and kind of funny when we realized. We rode the tea cups with my mom which she enjoyed, but made me a tad nauseous. Later Jess and I were the last one's left and so we went to further explore and got on the Turbo...tower...something like that. It is this ride where you get in a rocket and it spins you in circles.The rockets are not that big. Most times adults get their own rocket while one child and one adult can ride together, but don't worry Jess and I were basically forced to ride together. After that Jess and I did some type of Buzz light year shooting game. Jess, my brother and I had dinner together at the House of Blues where we had a Mickey drawing contest. I will not disclose who won (I used to want to be an artist...). After dinner Jess and I ventured back to the park while a torrential downpour took place. While most people fled the scene we forged on and got on all the best rides with little wait. SPACE MOUNTAIN awesome. Front seat baby. Thunder Mountain, also good. We also got sweet ponchos.

Day three was my least favorite park day...sorry everyone. Animal Kingdom...my mom and brothers favorite. However, there was an awesome ride...EXPEDITION EVEREST. First you wind through a building talking all about the Yeti. Then you travel up to Everest where you go backwards (scariest part) and then plunge down. It was the coolest and the gift shop had such cute yeti stuffed animals. After that we did a couple of little safari things and watched monkeys clean each other before the rain began and we headed back to the hotel. Later that night Jess and I hit the bar and were surprised to find it packed with families singing along to the resort favorite singer and piano player: Yeehaw Bob. Quite a hoot.

Day four was unfortunately hurricane whether so we did not get to go to EPCOT. This was disappointing but    we were all tired and so we napped and watched tv and such. I hit up the gift shop for some stellar souvenirs. Later Jess and I went to downtown Disney to check out the shops and gorged on desserts including my Mike (from Monster's Inc.) Cake eyeball. We also went to the LEGO land shop. So awesome.

That concludes my trip ladies and gents. Hope you enjoyed reading.