Laura's Disney Lines

The Fourth Annual Disneyland Half Marathon is coming up on Sunday, September 6. Lee and I will be running it for the second time - we ran the Inaugural event in 2006.

I decided to run it this year because of this spiffy extra medal that Disney offers - if you finish either the Walt Disney World Marathon/Half Marathon or the Princess Half Marathon in Florida, and then run the Disneyland Half Marathon in the same calendar year, you get a special "coast-to-coast" medal in addition to the regular medals you get for finishing the race. Since I ran the Princess Half Marathon in March, I am eligible this year. This picture does not do it justice - I've seen other photos of it, and it's huge, and just gorgeous. I'm really looking forward to adding it to my collection! :-)

With the construction going on at DCA the race course has been changed this year. We will still run through both parks, but instead of running past Paradise Pier at the beginning and Soarin' at the end, it's reversed. The route we take through Disneyland is different than I remember, too - looks like we don't run down Main Street at all, and instead we exit the park back in Critter Country. We won't run through Downtown Disney at all, though I don't think that's such a bad thing - there were lots of people. I was really hoping they would change something in the "scenic streets of Anaheim" section, where we wind back and forth through the industrial park area for several miles, but we'll be doing that again. Looks like we will get to run on the field at Angels' Stadium again, though, and that was a lot of fun last time.

The map of the race course is HERE

So that's what we'll be doing in a couple of weeks...wish us luck!

Disneyland AllEars® Meet and Greet!

AllEars® Team members Deb Wills, Laura Gilbreath, Lisa Berton and Cathy Bock invite you to come by and say "Hello!" at 11 a.m. on Sunday, October 11, 2009, at the Carnation Plaza Gardens in Disneyland.

Here's a picture of the entrance to the Plaza Gardens, which is located between Frontierland and the castle.

We did it!!!! And actually we did a lot better than we were expecting to do. 2:42:49, and that includes a lot of stops for photos with characters.

The weather was just about perfect by my standards - it was ~56 at the start, and it was about 68 when we finished. Not too humid and there was a nice cool breeze. I had worn a sweatshirt and a head band, but I think I had both of those off by about mile 4.

It was a very well-run race - which of course is what we expect from Disney. They really did a great job of having characters throughout the course after it got light - from mile 5 on there was at least one character photo op - and sometimes more. That really helped to break things up since we stopped for every one.

The medal is just gorgeous - that's certainly something that Disney does really well. This one has lots of rhinestones and a synthetic heart-shaped amethyst - it's really sparkly and pretty.

It was very nice that Disney changed the start time to 7:00 rather than 6:00 - it meant a lot less running in the dark for us - it was starting to get light by 20-30 minutes into the race.

We got up a little before 5:00 (having set all our clocks one hour ahead the night before, since this was the day of the Daylight Saving Time change), and left the room about 5:30. Lee was nice and volunteered to get up with us and drive us there, and then come back and pick us up later. We had no problems getting to Epcot, but once there the traffic going through the entrance was backed up, because they had 6 lanes merging down to 2. That took a long time to get through - I think we finally parked about 6:30 and by then they were already walking people back to the start line. We didn't have a lot of time in the pre-race areas - hit the porta-potties and said goodbye to Lee.

The walk to the starting area was pretty long - close to a mile, I think! It was a bit chilly but not too cold, fortunately. I had a sweatshirt and a headband, and I was ok. Pam was wearing long pants and had on a long-sleeved pullover in addition to her short-sleeved shirt and a headband of her own, and she was ok. In addition to our regular number bibs in front, we were wearing our "The Evil Twins" team bibs on our backs. In the registration process we were asked who our favorite princess was (Belle, Aurora, Cinderella or Snow White) and we got different colored bibs depending on what we chose. I had a blue Cinderella bib and Pam had a gold Belle bib.

There were three start corrals - we were in the last one, but we moved as far forward as we could, so were maybe 1/3 of the way from the front of it. But back where we were there were no speakers, and we couldn't see the start line at all, so we really had no idea what was going on. There was a big push forward when the Wheelchairs went out at 6:55, and then we started moving a little after 7:00.

We were disappointed in the start - there were no fireworks and of course we couldn't see or hear anything. It took us almost 15 minutes to cross the starting line, and there were still a couple thousand people behind us! The Fairy Godmother and a lady-in-waiting type woman that I didn't recognize were at the start line cheering us on.

And we were off! As usual, going was pretty slow in the beginning with so many people going so many different paces and trying to sort themselves out. It was nice that Disney changed the start time from 6:00 to 7:00 - it started getting light 15-20 minutes after the race started.Apparently all of the mile marker signs had some special features - the one I heard the announcer say was that there was a hidden mickey on each. Each one was different, and featured characters from one of the Disney "Princess" movies.

By Mile 2 we had a lot of daylight, and were well on our way towards Magic Kingdom.In several places along the road, there were signs (sponsored by the Sharpie company) with Princess Trivia questions - first a question, and then a little beyond was the answer. Something to do between Miles 2 and 3!

There were several different groups entertaining us from miles 1-5 - a very nice chamber orchestra group playing classical music, a guitar group, an oriental drum group, and several DJs. We had Powerade and water stops just about every mile, and they were well-staffed with wonderful volunteers, just like always. It's easy to take that for granted, but they are terrific and we couldn't do it without them!

Between Mile 4 and 5 we went by the Magic Kingdom parking lot and through the TTC (Ticket and Transportation Center), and under the waterway that connects the 7 Seas Lagoon and Bay Lake - there was a very nice banner there.

And then came the really fun part - running in Magic Kingdom! We ran down Main Street and through Tomorrowland into Fantasyland. I was surprised that there were no characters until we got just behind the castle, and there we found Snow White and her Prince, and several Ladies-in-Waiting. And something else I'm not used to seeing - *lines* to take pictures with the characters! Disney handled it pretty well - they generally had two different people available to take pictures, and one would take the camera from the next group while the other was taking a picture, so they kept things moving along.As we ran through the castle we started yelling "woooooooo", and got a bunch of other runners doing it, too. :-) Nice echo in there.

Not long after the Mile 6 mark we crossed the train tracks (one of the trains and its engineers were there to greet us) and went backstage. There were several character opportunities there - Chip and Dale, all dressed up in tuxes, and Donald and Daisy also in evening wear - Donald had an especially dapper top hat. Pluto was back there, also.

After we turned onto Grand Floridian Way we got another sequence of Princess Trivia
signs - like this one: Who are the Disney Princesses?

Well? Can you name them all? I'll give you a hint, Disney says there are 8.

And here's the answer:

Since we ARE the Evil Twins, we were very happy to see our heroine, Maleficent, after Mile 7. (And very happy to hit Mile 7 since that meant we were over halfway - woo hoo!!!) I pointed out the Evil Twin bibs on our backs - though she didn't seem very impressed, and told us to "Run along, girls", after we had our photo taken. :-)

Next were Aurora and Prince Philip - I have to say it was nice to see the Princes in addition to the Princesses!

The longest photo line we saw all day was for Belle, the Beast, Wendy, and Peter Pan. We waited at least 5 minutes there. We didn't make very good time in that Mile 7-Mile 8 stretch because there were so many characters. Not that I'm complaining about that - it was nice to have the excuse to stop, and wonderful to see so many of them!

Just after Mile 8 were Pocahontas and John Smith, with a very nice backdrop. The characters were all so gracious about posing with all of us sweaty runners.

Though I didn't take any pictures of them, we saw quite a few runners who were wearing some really nice costumes. For a while we were running behind a group which had a Cinderella, a Belle, and a Tinker Bell. And we saw an Ariel that actually had a mermaid's tail sticking out behind her! There were some very nice Snow White, Jasmine, and Auroras, too. And lots of women wearing tutus and tiaras. We saw a few wearing those tall pointy Princess hats - those seemed like they would be very difficult to run in, though!

Aladdin and Jasmine were out just after Mile 9, and after we'd posed with them, Abu came out from somewhere, too.

No characters between miles 10 and 11, and we were starting to get pretty tired, but by then we only had two miles left, so we kept running. (And I'd just like to point out that it was *Pam*, who had been telling me all weekend that I was going to have to drag her along the last few miles that kept on running, even when I would've been happy to stop and walk for a while! That's why *she's* the Evil Twin!)

We crossed the next-to-last overpass (they got steeper every time!) and found Alice in Wonderland and the Mad Hatter. And just before the last overpass were Tinker Bell and one of her Pixie pals - though I don't know her name.

Just after the last overpass was the Mile 12 sign. Yay!!! Only a little over a mile to go! Not long after that we ran backstage into Epcot, and came back into Epcot um...I think it was between the Art of Disney shop and the restrooms. (Pam says yes.) Just after the fountain we found Stitch and the Queen of Hearts.

We ran to the end of the walkway that connects Future World and World Showcase, and then made a U-turn back towards Spaceship Earth. Only about 1/2 mile to go! I know I was ready to be done by then.

Backstage again between Innoventions and the restrooms, and then a little ways further to the Mile 13 sign.

We started to sprint the last tenth of a mile ("sprint" being a relative term at that point!), but just a few feet before the finish line were Mickey and Minnie, so I made Pam stop and pose for a picture with them. She hated me for that. :-) And then we ran across the finish line together!

2:42:49 - woo hoo!!! I really expected it to take us at least 3 hours. We finished in just under 3 hours of elapsed time - but remember we had that 15 minute delay in crossing the start line.

We got our timing chips cut off and got our bright shiny medals, and got drinks and a little something to eat. And then went out to the Family Reunion area to meet Lee - but he wasn't there quite yet. Once he arrived he took a few photos of us and then we walked back to the car - that sure seemed like a loooong walk - our legs were tired! But overall we were so happy with the race and how we did - it was a great experience and I'm really glad I nagged Pam enough to talk her into doing it with me. She did just great and it was wonderful to be able to share this experience with her.

In the Team competition we finished 24th out of 51 "Open" teams, so that was pretty good!

(I didn't have time to finish all of Day 2's activities, I'm going to pick up where I left off from Friday, and then talk about today, Saturday.)

So, when we left our intrepid band on Friday evening, they were headed into Epcot for dinner, IllumiNations, and Extra Magic Hours.

On the Epcot schedule we'd seen the mention of the new Kim Possible World Showcase Adventure. Since this was new to all of us, and we thought it sounded interesting, we went to the Team Possible Recruitment Center near the UK pavilion to see if they were still recruiting. They were, and we got a ticket that told us to be at the Italy pavilion at 6:30. That was about 25 minutes away, and since we could hear British Invasion playing nearby, we went over and watched them for a while.

The band was wearing their Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band outfits - wow. Those are bright. We had time to listen to several songs (including When I'm 64, which they dedicated to anyone celebrating an anniversary) before we had to head off to Italy to begin our super-secret mission.

At the cart we checked in with the Team Possible agent, who told us we were going on one of her favorite missions, in Germany. She gave us a Kimmunicator (a cell phone) and a few more instructions, but the bulk of what we needed to know was provided on the phone itself.

This was really great fun - I'd read somewhat mixed reviews of the Kim Possible adventures on the internet, but we enjoyed ourselves. Lee says I'm not allowed to spoil it for others, so for now I'll just say that the Imagineers have put things in here that will appeal to kids and adults. The best part is that in the pavilions you get to make certain things happen - which will totally amaze other guests, who have no idea who is doing it. And some of the effects you are allowed to do over again, so that's fun.

Once you've completed a mission you have the option to do others - we were given a choice between Mexico, Norway and Japan and chose Norway for a second adventure. By then it was getting dark, so some of the effects were hard to see. And we also ran into several other Kim Possible teams in Norway, so we were on top of each other a little bit. That one was ok, but not as good as the one in Germany - the special effects we could create were not as noticeable. We chose to return our Kimmunicator at that point - they have drop boxes at the end points of each mission.

It was time for dinner, and we went to one of our favorites - Tangierine Cafe in Morocco. It was about as busy as I've ever seen it - we had to wait in line to order, and then almost didn't find an empty table. Pam and I each had the Falafel Wrap (without consulting each other we keep ordering the same things - see why we call ourselves twins?), and Lee had the Lamb Shawarma platter. All delicious, as always!

The park was closing at 8:00 and not 9:00, so IllumiNations was at 8:00. We barely had time to get to a spot near that red gate thing in Japan (Tori gate?) before it started. The flame barge is still not working, and that looked rather odd. But we enjoyed the show.

First stop on the "New Things" tour was O Canada. I was a little surprised that the Cast Members didn't check our resort ids, but it's not like it was really that full. We enjoyed it.

Next up was The Seas with Nemo and Friends, where they DID check our resort ids (though only needed one per party) before we entered that seemingly endless queue for the Clam-mobiles. I heard the starfish at the end say something different this time - something like how she liked that song (Big Blue World) but not when she had to hear it over and over and over again. I wonder how many other things she says - before I've only heard her counting the people going by.

We also saw Turtle Talk with Crush - Pam had seen the version of this they have at DCA when she came to California last summer. Dude! It's totally awesome!

By the way, it cooled off a lot yesterday evening - 80 during the day but already down in the 60s by 7:00, so we were in long pants and light jackets.

Spaceship Earth has changed fairly recently, so that was our next stop. Pam was surprised to hear Judi Dench narrating (and she recognized her voice right away - that's why she is the Cultured Twin). Don't ask me what's going on with my head in the picture - Pam says it's a horn because I'm evil. :-)

Mission Space was also new to Pam, but we opted for the Green Team. (Since none of us wanted to actually *look* green after the ride!) Lee chose not to ride, but Pam and I successfully completed our training, though the motion simulators bother her and she had to close her eyes for part of it. She says that's a ride that she never has to do again. :-)

Last ride of the night was "it's a small mexico"...I mean, the Gran Fiesta Tour. It was getting close to 11:00 (when the park was closing), so we had the boat all to ourselves. And I've never heard it so quiet in the Mexico pavilion - it was very nice!

Lee wanted some dessert, but since it was so late, almost nothing was still open at Epcot, like the coffee and pastry carts, and we were pretty sure the Boardwalk Bakery would be closed by the time we got back there. But when we walked by the UK, their shop was still open, and I suggested to Lee that he get some chocolate. He went in and had fun flirting with the two young ladies working in the shop, and asking what their favorites were. We ended up with a Flake bar, and Galaxy bar, and Aero bar, a Twirl bar and some clotted cream fudge. We sampled most of them when we got back to the room.

Twirl bar got a thumbs up, and I liked the Galaxy bar (even though I'm not really into milk chocolate, it was still nice and smooth). The Flake bar just had a weird texture - it WAS flaky, and good chocolate shouldn't be flaky, in my book. The fudge wasn't chocolate at all - it was more like caramel but with the consistency of fudge. It was very good, though.

And so ended our first full day - now perhaps you see why I didn't finish yesterday's blog entry until today! :-)

So this morning was another bright and sunny day. We went over to the Studios, planning to get a Fastpass for Toy Story Mania, and see the Lights Motors Action stunt show. But you know what they say about the best-laid plans...we did not realize that it was a Magic Morning at the Studios, so when we arrived at 9:00 they had already been open to resort guests for an hour. Our Toy Story Mania fastpasses were for 12:20! And the first stunt show wasn't until 1:20.

We had breakfast at Starring Rolls - they have completely rearranged it since the last time we were there - and it's really a disaster. The wraparound layout is just awful, and the line got held up for minutes at a time with people waiting to toast their bagels (the toasting station is in the line, and not away from it!) and get the hot beverage orders. Lee and I got cinnamon rolls and drinks out of the refrigerated case just so we didn't have to stand in line to get bagels (even untoasted) and hot beverages.

There was no place to sit when we got outside, so we sat on a bench with our trays on our laps. After a few minutes a very nice woman came up and said they were leaving, and asked if we would like their table! So very thoughtful of her!

We went to the Prince Caspian exhibit - Pam had never seen the movie, but the nice thing about the show is that they show you enough movie clips that you've seen most of the movie by the time the show ends.

After that we decided to go to Magic Kingdom - the Studios was just too crowded and all the standby lines were long, and there really wasn't anything else we wanted to do between then and 12:20 (our Fastpass time).

You can't actually take a bus to Magic Kingdom - we had to go to the TTC and then take a ferry or monorail. We lucked out in that the bus was just getting ready to leave when we got there. We decided to take the ferry just so we could try a different mode of Disney transportation.

After we got Fastpasses for Space Mountain we went to the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor Comedy Club - new for Pam. It was a fun show - Pam says that Roz is her new favorite character. She *is* somewhat evil, after all. :-) And then we went to Stitch's Great Escape, also new to Pam. I know to hold my breath for the whole chili dog thing, fortunately. :-)

Today's matching t-shirts say "Property of WDW Commando Task Force". On the back, they say "Carpe Disney". :-)

Crowds had really picked up in the Magic Kingdom. But after all, it IS Saturday, a notoriously busy day. We noticed that El Pirata y El Perico, a restaurant in Adventureland, was open - we'd never eaten there because it always seems to be closed when we're here. It's pretty basic (and not very good) Mexican food - they only have ground beef and not chicken. Pam and I had the vegetarian tacos (with black beans) and Lee had the taco salad. One interesting thing - the entrees only come with the tortillas and the beef or bean filling - for the rest you go to the toppings bar, where you can pile on as much lettuce, tomato, cheese, onion, and salsa as you want.

The corn tortilla shells for the tacos were pretty awful - obviously pre-cooked and just pulled out of a box. The flour tortilla shell on Lee's taco salad was freshly fried, though, and it was pretty good.

Haunted Mansion had a 20 minute standby posted (and it looked longer) so we bypassed it and went to Philharmagic. We were able to get into the next show, so had about a 10-minute wait. That show was full - I've never seen that before. Pam enjoyed it - she liked the 3-D graphics and the music.

We tried Haunted Mansion again but it was up to a 30-minute wait, so we went to use our Space Mountain Fastpasses. Wow, that is a looooong queue - and the standby side of it was full. Lee noticed that Space Mountain is darker inside than it used to be - it's been a long time since we have ridden it during the day instead of at night.

What to do after that? It was about 2:15 and there was really nothing more we wanted to do at Magic Kingdom, so we decided to take the monorail and bus back to the Studios and use our Toy Story Mania Fastpasses. On our way out of the park we thought about getting ice cream, but decided we'd get it back at the Boardwalk after we went to to the Studios.

We again lucked out with Disney transportation - the monorail arrived right as we got to the top of the ramp, and the bus to the Studios was about ready to leave the bus stop.

But when we arrived back at Toy Story Mania they told us it was down with technical issues, and they hoped to have it running again "soon". Ok...Plan C. Let's get ice cream here while we wait.

There was a very long line at Dinosaur Gertie's, but I remembered that they had ice cream sundaes and milk shakes at Prime Time - and thought maybe we could order those at the Tune-In Lounge. There were three seats at the bar, and we asked John the bartender if we could do that, and he said sure, and brought us menus - including the dessert menu on the Viewmaster. :-) Lee got a root beer float, I had a hot fudge sundae, and Pam had a hot fudge sundae with chocolate ice cream. And we had a lot of fun chatting with John as he worked. It was really a nice break for us - we were able to sit down for a while (staying off our feet the day before a race is a good thing!), and have something sweet in a fun atmosphere.

After we'd indulged our sweet teeth we checked the Information board at Hollywood and Sunset - nope, Toy Story was still down. Lee noticed that a Beauty and the Beast show was starting in about 15 minutes, so we went there. Yet another excuse to sit for about 45 minutes! :-) The show was good, though this particular Gaston needed a lot of padding to give him much in the way of muscles...

Toy Story was up and running again after the show ended - yay! Of course the Fastpass return line was longer than usual because it had been down, but we were still on in about 20 minutes. Pam had done the ride in California, but not in Florida. She and I rode together. We were able to trip the "Easter Eggs" for the balloons and the robot, and I got the fox on the hen house a couple of times, which I'd never done before.

We walked back to the Boardwalk and relaxed for a while, before going over to Picabu at the Dolphin for our pre-race dinner. They didn't have any pasta except lasagna, unfortunately. Pam had that, and I had the rotisserie chicken, and Lee had the pot roast, which he said was quite good.

So now Pam and I are getting our stuff together for the race tomorrow - we'll both be happy to have it over with. Though by the time many of you read this we will already be finished, one way or another!

Thanks to all of you who have written wishing us good luck in the race! We need it!

So, today is Friday. Yesterday was a travel day for Pam and me, and also for my husband Lee - he was in Charleston on business so flew from there instead of from San Diego with me.

We're staying in a one bedroom at the Boardwalk. When I walked in the bedroom last night I noticed something seemed odd...it took a while before I realized the *both* lamps that area supposed to be on the bedside tables were missing! Huh??? Why would someone take both lamps? We were having quite a lighting crisis - the bulb in the lamp in the living room was also out. Called Engineering and they said they'd take care of it - though they seemed confused by the idea that the actual *lamps* were missing.

Pam and I had dinner at ESPN Club, and after Lee arrived bout 9:00 we went to Big River Grille with him. He had dinner and we had dessert. (The Chocolate Confusion cake - it was just ok.)

When we got back to the room the light bulb had been replaced but the lamps were still missing. So I called again, and the person tried to tell me that there should be lights on the headboard. Uh no, sorry - there should be actual lamps. So they said they'd take care of it. No one showed up last night, but when we got back to the room this afternoon we had lamps again - they were powered on, I guess to prove that they worked!

Another issue with our room was the Internet - plugged the cable into the wall and got no signal. But if you plugged the cable into the modem itself it worked. Called Network Services and they said they'd take care of it - which they did. The lamp thing still strikes us as really odd, though!

So today was Day 1 of "Show Pam all the new stuff at Disney World". She hasn't been in the parks (running through Epcot and MK during the 2006 Half Marathon doesn't count) in over 4 years.

After breakfast at the Boardwalk Bakery we went to Animal Kingdom. It was an absolutely beautiful day here, by the way - I'm sure all those of you who are surrounded by snow are going to go green when you hear it was sunny and 80 today. Pam was loving it - she's from New Jersey, so she was dealing with 9" of snow earlier this week.

We got Fastpasses for Expedition Everest, and were just in time to catch the 10:00 showing of Finding Nemo - the Musical. Both of which are new to Pam. The Nemo show was not full at all - even arriving just a few minutes before it started we were able to find seats in the lower section over on the right side, so we had great viewing of the puppeteers.

Lee didn't care for this show too much when we first saw it, but he enjoyed it a lot this time - he said that being so much closer made a big difference. He liked it so well that he got the CD of the music. Pam has never seen the movie, but she enjoyed the show anyway. I liked it better than the first time, but I still think Crush needs a better song. The guy who played him was really good, though.

Time for our Expedition Everest Fastpasses by then. I think this ride has one of the most efficient Fastpass systems of any of them, and we were on the train maybe 2 minutes after we got in line - if that. I think it got a thumb's up from Pam, though she banged her head against the headrest.

When we walked by the siamangs they were putting on quite a "musical" show - there were three way high up in one of the towers, and two of them were really whooping it up - the AK version of the Hoop-de-do Revue, maybe? And then we got to see them traverse the rope lines back to the main temple building. Very cool.

The park was not too crowded today. After we got Fastpasses for the Safari we went back to Asia for the Flights of Wonder show. While we were waiting, I saw Jeanine walking by - she is also from California, and has written some Disneyland blog entries that you may have read (Blue Sky Cellar and Sleeping Beauty Castle). We were both surprised to see each other. We chatted for a few minutes and then she went on while we went into the Flights of Wonder theater.

Pam had seen this show, but it had been a while. Several of the birds were misbehaving a little bit, which is quite unusual, but I always find it rather amusing. I thought the raven was going to really take off with the dollar bill, though. :-) They had Pogo, the crazy parrot in the show again - he was still fun to watch.

It still wasn't quite time for our Safari Fastpasses so we went onto the Pangani Trail. At the okapi overlook we found a Cast Member who called them "Giraffes of the Forest" - I'd never heard that term before.

We were just approaching the savanna overlook when Lee said that he missed the gerenuks, which we hadn't seen in quite a while - but guess what, there were two gerenuks laying there in the grass. They got up and wandered away shortly thereafter, so our timing was good.

We saw several of the gorillas - the big silverback was laying right up against the glass watching all the of the silly people. :-)

It was time to use our Safari Fastpasses. The jeeps were a little backed up for some reason, but it wasn't too long before we got on. We had a pretty decent safari, though the driver didn't really have a lot to say - she skipped a lot of the spiel. Didn't talk about the baobob tree at all, or say anything about the word "reticulata" (Latin for "net-like" on the reticulated giraffes. We got to see one of the baby elephants - this was a pretty small one, so maybe it's the newest one?

We had lunch at Flame Tree - Pam and I had the BBQ chicken salad, and Lee had the St. Louis ribs, and then headed out of the park. It was still an absolutely beautiful day!

Next stop was Wide World of Sports and the "Fit for a Princess Expo", where we had to go to pick up our bib numbers and t-shirts, etc. And do a little shopping, of course. :-) We are registered as a team "The Evil Twins", so in addition to picking up our regular bib numbers we had to pick up our team bibs also - these go on the back of our shirts. I guess that way everyone we pass (ha!) will know who is passing them. :-) We'd been wearing our matching "I'm the Evil Twin" shirts all day, and got a lot of comments from people about that - "How can you both be the Evil Twin", "Who's really the Evil Twin", stuff like that. We coordinated our wardrobes before we came down. :-)

Before I go on, for those who don't know I should explain that Pam and I are not really twins, except in spirit, though we look like sisters. But we say we are twins separated at birth - by different parents, different years, and different coasts. :-)

The Expo seemed to be pretty well-staffed and organized. Race numbers only go up to 8000, so the race capacity is about what I was expecting - my guess was 7500 - 8000. The place they had the long line was for pickup of tickets to the "Happily Ever After" party at the Studios on Sunday night - there must have been 50 people line and only a couple of volunteers handling that. So I'm glad we didn't have to do that!

It was about 4:00 by then and we went back to the room for a while - and discovered that yes, we had lamps again!!! They'd fixed the internet connection, too. We relaxed for a little while before heading into Epcot for the evening. Which was Part 2 of "Show Pam all the new stuff at Disney World". And actually the largest part, since there's lots more that's new at Epcot than at the other parks.

But I'm going to have to write more about that later!

This Sunday, March 8, I will be running the Inaugural Disney Princess Half Marathon. This will be my third "inaugural" Disney race - I also did the first Disneyland half marathon and the first Tower of Terror 13K. You only get one chance to do the first one!

Though men can enter, this race is really aimed at women. It also allows women to enter in two-person teams - Mother-daughter, sisters, friends, or co-ed. My friend Pam and I have entered as "The Evil Twins." We plan to have fun with that, though we're not twins, and neither of us is evil (well, she is. ;-) )

The course goes from the Epcot parking area to Magic Kingdom, down Main Street and through the castle, and back to Epcot. The race literature says it's a "new course" - but it sure looks like the normal half marathon course to me. Guess we'll see on Sunday!

Sunday morning at 1:00 a.m. is when the Daylight Saving Time change occurs - and originally Disney planned to start this race at 6:00 a.m. - which would really be 5:00 a.m. Fortunately they saw the light (or the dark, more likely) and decided to change the race time to 7:00 a.m. - which is still really 6:00 a.m. Or 3:00 a.m. to those of us just arrived from the west coast...

We spoke to one of the race organizers about this race back in October, and he told us it's really a re-branding of the Minnie Half Marathon, which used to take place in May. I don't know how many people are registered, but I doubt it's more than 10,000, and I think it's less than that. I'll know better when we pick up our registration packets on Friday. As usual, Disney has a very generous time limit - we have 3.5 hours to finish.

I would expect there to be a few Disney Princess characters along the course - but I hope they will give us a few Disney Princes, too! And maybe some other surprises.

You know, of course, that I will have a lot more to say about it after running the race on Sunday.

Day 4

(I won't be including all of the events of today because the major event is the Tower of Terror 13K, and that's not until tonight - and I can guarantee I won't be blogging about it right after I get back to the room - the stops will be shower and bed - in that order!)

We all agreed last night that we were going to sleep in this morning and get up whenever. So it was quite a leisurely morning - we finally got out of here about 10:30 and went to Coronado Springs, where Lee and I needed to pick up our registration packets for the 13K.

First we had breakfast at the Pepper Market, though. It was almost 10:45 when we arrived and there was a short line to get in, and they stopped serving breakfast at 11:00. So they were trying to finish up breakfast while they were trying to set up for lunch - it was kind of a mess. And there were quite a few other people who were also breakfasting late!

Pepper Market is kind of a food court idea, with different stations serving different foods. Only instead of paying as you exit out towards the seating area, instead you pay as you exit the seating area after you've eaten. To do that they give each party a ticket, and at each station they stamp your ticket to show what you got. Of course a problem with this is when you want to get things from different stations, but you only have the one ticket - we ran into that.

It's an interesting concept...but I don't think it works very well. The permanent signage is all for their regular lunch/dinner menu, and even though they gave us a menu which showed which stations had which breakfast items, we didn't have that with us when we actually went to get food. They had breakfast signs for some items, but not for others. We were milling around trying to figure it out, and so were a lot of other people. Since it was late, they had run out of some breakfast items (like bacon) and had shut down others (like eggs cooked to order). And as I mentioned earlier, they were trying to switch over from breakfast to lunch, and that made things even more chaotic. Though the breakfast/lunch thing worked out well for Jim - instead of breakfast food he was able to order Kung Pao Shrimp! It looked very good - very nicely cooked and presented.

Another thing they do that I don't like is they tack a 10% gratuity onto your bill, even though YOU are the ones doing all the work getting your food - the servers simply take and serve your drink orders. (Though ours had to work a little harder because I spilled a puddle of syrup on the table - she was very nice about it, though.)

As for the breakfast...it was ok, but I was surprised at how expensive it was - we paid more for breakfast this morning than we did for our table service breakfast at Spoodles on Thursday - AND the food was better at Spoodles. AND we got a 20% discount there with the Disney Dining Experience card - or "Tables in Wonderland" as I understand it is now called. (When we were at Spoodles with Paul and Ilene the other morning, Paul, in his very best announcer voice, called it "Tables in WONderland" and I still crack up when I think about that.)

The packet pickup for the race was just down the hall from the restaurant in the convention center - it was a much nicer set-up than they had for it last year when it was at one of the clubs at Pleasure Island. They had plenty of very nice volunteers to help - it really wasn't very busy at all. We spoke to a man who is involved in staging the race, and he said they took at least some of last year's guest comments into consideration this year - though apparently adding character presence to the race wasn't one of them. :-( So sounds like it'll still be a rather boring race. Oh well.

(Does the carpeting in the Coronado Springs convention center area mess with any one else's eyes like it does mine? That small reddish-orange pattern starts moving if I look at it very long...)

After that we were off to Animal Kingdom - we were planning a short day since we (or I) wanted to rest up this afternoon and NOT be on my feet all day, and we wanted to show Jim and Sherry something different. They had never been to Animal Kingdom before since it wasn't built when they were last here in 1990.

A Festival of the Lion King show was due to start in about 15 minutes so we went there. Had no problems getting a seat, though the theater was well over 3/4 full. I hadn't seen that in a while, and had forgotten how good it is. The Tumble Monkeys are still my favorites, though Lee and I both thought that the pair of "bird" dancers were the best we'd ever seen. (The guy is the same one we've seen for years, but his partner was either better or they worked better together.)

It had turned into a beautiful sunny day, but had really started to warm up a little too much for my comfort. We wandered around a bit in the shade of the Tree of Life to show Jim and Sherry some of the animals on the tree and some of the (real) animals that live around it.

Over in Asia we walked the Maharajah Jungle Trek - there were quite a few more people than we usually see, but not too many animals, though we did see three sleeping tigers. And we learned a lot about bats from the CM at the bat exhibit - like the fact that bats have no ankles so they can't stand up. So if they fall on the ground they are quite helpless - they can't just stand up and fly away. Instead they have to use their "elbows" to crawl on the ground until they get to something they can climb up to reach a height where they can fly away.

The park seemed fairly crowded to me - lots of congestion on the walkways and standby for Everest was 50 minutes. We went to Everest and asked for our friend Kenny who works there - he hadn't expected to see us there until tomorrow. :-) We had a short visit with him (he WAS working, after all!) and then took a ride on Everest - Jim and Sherry really enjoyed it. I'd warned Sherry in advance that the backwards-in-the-dark thing really messes with your head, and you think you're going upside-down even when you're not. Unfortunately the Yeti wasn't working - we only saw him with the strobe light effect. :-(

We got some ice cream at Anandapur Ice Cream - I'd told Sherry that I thought it was the best soft-serve in the parks. She thought it was very good. Unfortunately because it was so hot it was melting really fast - I didn't get a chance to eat it slowly and savor it as I like to do. And though I was careful I still got a drip on my (black) shorts - though at least the chocolate ice cream missed the white t-shirt! (Lee had a root beer float, so he didn't have the same drip problems.)

We exited the park the long way, going past Dinoland, because we wanted to show Jim and Sherry most of the park (haven't gotten to Africa yet, though!) And now we're back in the room resting up for tonight.

Jim and Sherry are planning to have dinner at the Brown Derby at the Studios. Lee and I are eating light - we picked up a couple of sandwiches at the Boardwalk Bakery (the multi-grain bread they use in the sandwiches is excellent!) and had part of those, and will have a little more later.

Ack! We're not going to get to Epcot at all today!!! We are waaay down on our Eating Around the World quotient for the week...this is day 4 and we've only done it once!

Added Sunday morning: We finished the Tower of Terror 13K in 1:27:27. I was hoping to finish in less than 90 minutes, so that was good. Weather was MUCH better than last year, and not so humid or warm, though still warmer than I like. And there were characters!!! Between miles 4 and 5 we had lots of villains - Frollo and the Evil Queen, Maleficent and Cruella, Smee, and Captain Hook. That was fun! There was a little more entertainment along the way - it was definitely an improvement over last year. We're glad it's over, though. :-)

Walt Disney World is again holding the Tower of Terror 13K race in October this year. Lee and I ran the first one last year, and, well, we were less than impressed. As I wrote in my blog entry, it was a fine race, just not "Disney" at all, and not what we were expecting. So we were disappointed.

But....it turns out we are going to be at WDW this year on October 25 when the race is being held again, and so, gluttons for punishment that we are, we have signed up for this year's race, also. (And signing up for the race also SAVES us from being gluttons at that night's Party for the Senses! :-) )

A few things I noticed about this year's race that are a little bit different...

• There's no 6.5K this year - only one race, the 13K.
• The price has increased significantly - $85 this year as opposed to $65 last year.
• The start time of the race has been pushed back to 10:00 instead of 9:30 - last year the start of the race was delayed until almost 10:00 anyway because they couldn't get the roads clear in time.
• This year they ARE providing Disney transportation from selected Disney resorts (All Star Sports, Caribbean Beach, and Boardwalk Inn). Last year there was no bus transportation available, and runners were on their own to get themselves to/from the Studios. Not a problem for us, since we walked over from the Boardwalk Villas, but I heard from people who stayed in other Disney hotels and drove over themselves, and they said the traffic was horrible.
• Last year packet pickup was at one of the clubs at Pleasure Island, but since of course that's closing at the end of September that won't work, and this year it is at Coronado Springs. I would have thought it would be better to have it at one of the event's hotels, (and the Boardwalk has convention space) but no one asked me.
• There's no mention in any of the race literature about any kind of spooky surprises, so I'm thinking that there will be even fewer Disney touches this year than there were last year, unfortunately.

I'm not really holding out a lot of hope that the event this year will be much of an improvement over last year, but we're going to at least give it another try. Of course that means we need to start running a little more than just 3-4 miles. But hey, it's only the end of July - we still have three months to train! :-)

I wanted to share some of the comments I've received from other participants in the Tower of Terror races and from the party attendees.

From Ray:
I couldn't agree more! This was one of the worst prepared races imaginable. No one had any "official" information-cast members to volunteers were all giving out conflicting information on course expectations and party information for those not running. Seemed like no one knew for sure exactly what was going on. This was reinforced by the traffic conditions that delayed the race start--Disney got surprised by the lack of coordination and communication. Add to that the lack of Disney touches on the race--no characters, or any real "specials" along the course and it became apparent this was not even 2nd rate as a race or event.
The medal was cool. The shirt was ok.
The water stops were well stocked and well manned.
The course was "easy"--for a 13k, pretty simple route.
Bad "show" for Disney--no seeminlgy thinking through any particulars of a race or of a Disney event for this (even the pre-race stuff on screen was lame).

From Susan:
Just a quick comment on the late start of the race Saturday. Since you walked over from the Boardwalk hotel you missed the horrible traffic jams that were taking place on all roads leading to the Studios. My sister and I stayed at the Caribbean and we left at 7:45pm, thinking that would be more than enough time to get to the Studios. We were wrong. At 8:15 we were still sitting in traffic, going absolutely no where. In order to even get out of the Caribbean you had to turn right, head toward Downtown Disney and make a u-turn. Finally, I drove to the Boardwalk hotel, and crossed there into the Studios parking lot. Traffic was backed up in all directions. A lady who came from a hotel on International Drive told me traffic was backed up to the Interstate and people were getting out and walking on the sides of the road and medians. The only way to be fair to all those people stuck in traffic was to delay the start of the race.

I think Disney really messed up in having no transportation for runners staying onsite. I also think having 4000 people trying to enter a parking lot while you are also emptying the parking lot of day guests was not the brightest idea either. All in all, though, my sister and I had a great time (6.5K) and we will definitely enter again next year.

From Patt:
This is only my second Disney race (having done the half marathon in 2006) and I enjoyed this race as much, if not more, than the half. We also did the 13K and liked the night atmosphere more than the morning/day. Anything I don't have to get up at 4:00 AM to do I like more. ;-) Agreed, this was the inaugural race and they do need to think things through a little. A coworker did the 5K and even she was saying she thought there should have been different medals. I'll be signing up for this race again next year.

From Masayo:
I agree, it's not a Disney race. It was pretty much a confusing and disorganized race I think. For us party goers (and race cheer stations/spectators) we got just that wrist band, no map or no directions on where we can cheer for runners or what else was going on. I'm so glad that I was with Deb, Beci, Mike Newell and Linda Mac on that night. I don't know if I could have enjoyed the night otherwise with such little information.

Last time I talked about the Tower of Terror race and how we did...and I mentioned that we were disappointed in it - it just wasn't up to Disney's standards. So here's all the reasons why we thought that.

The Good

It didn't rain. :-) Ok, so Disney has no control over the weather, but there was the possibility of rain in the forecast, and we were relieved when it didn't rain.

It was quite a small race by Disney standards - between the 6.5K and the 13K there were only 4000 participants. That sure made it at lot nicer at the start area, and at the start of the race. They also started the 6.5K 6 minutes later than the 13K, so that helped lessen the congestion that you always have at the beginning of a race.

The medals are really very nice - Disney really knows how to do medals! The sliding elevator is a very clever touch, and you know they spent some money on the medals.

As always, the volunteers and Cast Members were amazing - so helpful and upbeat. There weren't a lot of specators for this race until we got back to the Studios at about mile 6.5, so in a lot of areas there was just a lone Cast Member waving and yelling encouragement. The four water stops were well-staffed with plenty of people handing out cups.

The race shirt is actually a t-shirt and not a cool-max running shirt, which means I can actually wear it for something other than running. The shirt also is NOT covered with advertisements for the race sponsors like the cool-max shirts always are.

The race party was really a nice idea - it gave family and friends something to do in those 1-3 hours while the runners were out on the course. And it seemed like the spectactors were having a lot of fun dancing to the music and hanging out.

It was nice having a race that started at 9:30 p.m. instead of 6:00 a.m. - which meant there was no reason to get up at an ungodly hour and then stand around for two hours in the cold waiting for the race to start.

For a night race the course was fairly well-lit - there was one section on the off-road part where one of the lights was out, but with the other lights in the area it was still possible to see.

Lee says they had plenty of porta-potties near the start of the race. :-)

The Bad

There was very little information available on the race until a short time before. The course map wasn't published until a couple of weeks before, and all of the other race information, like what time we needed to be there, what transportation there was, what to do about baggage, etc. was not available until two days before the race. We also never received any kind of race packet, and I'm used to getting that in the mail from Disney about two months before the race! There was no information saying that we wouldn't get a packet, so I was concerned - and so were people on some of the other Disney running bulletin boards - at least until we found out we were all in the same boat.

I'm used to Disney races starting on time...but this one started 20 minutes late. Since this was a night race and not a morning race, apparently they had delays in getting the roads cleared, which in turn delayed the start of the race. Since they didn't announce this until right at 9:30, when we were all crowded together awaiting the start of the race, that meant that we had another 20 minutes of being crowded together, instead of only "loosely packed" like runners are when the start is still a ways away.

When we arrived at the Studios, having walked over from the Boardwalk, there were no signs at all telling us where the start of the race was. We finally found a security guard who told us to keep going left along the sidewalk in front of the park and we'd see the tents. We weren't the only people who were confused - there were a lot of runners milling around the entrance to the park.

While we were running in the parks, there were no barriers or ropes keeping the spectators separated from the runners, and no Cast Members manning designated crossing areas, which meant spectators were on their own for crossing the race route. This wasn't a problem for us, but we heard other runners say that they almost got run over by strollers or almost ran into someone who was crossing in front of them.

The Ugly

There were NO Disney characters anywhere. Not at the start, not along the race course, not even at the finish area. What? How can it be a Disney race without characters?? If we couldn't have a spooky Mickey, at least Mickey dressed as a Tower of Terror bellhop would have been nice.

From the race write-up we were expecting some spooky surprises at various points along the way. All we got was the "Haunted Forest" section near Wide World of Sports - and those doing the 6.5K didn't even have that, since their route didn't go over to that area. So much for "the 6.5K only scares you half way and back" as stated in the race literature. No offense to the Cast Members, many of whom were wonderfully creepy, but that was really not a very good place for it - it was a one-lane gravel road and pretty narrow, and runners were having enough trouble keeping their footing and dodging puddles to really get what was going on.

The "course map" was a travesty. There were no mile markers, no indications of where the water stops would be, and no detail at all of what the course was inside the Studios. We couldn't even tell for sure where the start and finish lines were! The 6.5K map had a little bit more detail, but the course it showed inside the Studios did not actually reflect the real course at all, with all of the winding turns on the streets.

In Conclusion

Lee's comment, and I agree, is that this really felt like any other race put on by one of the big race companies - it just happened to be on Disney property. Other than the late start things actually went very well - it just didn't feel like a Disney race because it didn't have the special touches that those of us who have run Disney races are used to experiencing.

We can only hope that if the race returns next year, they will fix some of the issues above. If it hadn't been a Disney race we really wouldn't have any complaints (well, except the lack of information beforehand)...but it IS Disney, so our expectations were a lot higher.

We dared to run 13K, and we survived. :-)

Quick recap: This year is the 13th anniversary of the Tower of Terror and back in April or May Disney announced the Tower of Terror 13K and 6.5K, which as it turned out were being held the weekend that we already had a trip planned. So we signed up. Fast forward to race day...we took it easy all day and walked over to the Studios from the Boardwalk on Saturday evening - it was a night race and not scheduled to start until 9:30.

It had rained a fair bit earlier in the day but it was dry by racetime - dry being a relative term, since the humidity was about 157%. Even though the temperature was about 70 degrees, we were sweating profusely quite quickly once we started running. The race course started on the parking lot access road and went back out to World Drive under the "Welcome to Walt Disney World" archway, then doubled back on itself before getting onto Osceola Parkway. That was a little bit of an uphill - we had to chuckle at all the people who were complaining about it, since it was barely a bump in the road by San Diego standards.

Once we got alongside Wide World of Sports we had an off-road section, where we turned onto a dirt/gravel road. This was somewhat challenging because it was dark, even with the lights they had set up, and there were a lot of puddles to skirt around because of the rain earlier in the day. This was apparently the "Haunted Forest" section of the course, because there were a lot of Cast Members dressed in white shirts and pants on this section, who were banging pots, making moaning noises, running beside different people saying "I love you", crouching in the bushes saying: "Help me, help me", etc. Some of them were into it a little too much, maybe (Lee says that he thinks they were Cast Members who had been working at "it's a small world" for too long)...when we got into the Wide World of Sports complex itself there was a woman with a belt whipping it against a light post yelling: "Play with me! Who's gonna play with me!" :-) At Wide World of Sports we got to take a lap around the track and run on the grass of one of the big fields. We eventually made a loop around the complex and went out the parking lot entrance back onto Osceola Parkway, and passed the 4 mile mark not long after that.

After another overpass (higher than the first, but I didn't hear so many complaints on this one), we ended up back on World Drive again, where we got this feeling of deja vu as we passed back through the starting area again. We came into the Studios by the parade gate near Sid Cahuenga's. At the corner of Hollywood Blvd we saw Deb Wills and Masayo Kano cheering runners on, and made a quick stop for greetings and photos. Up Hollywood Blvd and past the Commissary and then we wound around the Streets of America. Lee said it reminded him of one of my runs - around home I wind around the neighborhood streets to add distance (I can easily do a 7 mile run without backtracking and without getting more than 1.5 miles from home) - and it makes him crazy. :-) Eventually we ended up in the back of the park on the Lights, Motors, Action stage, where we could see ourselves on the big screen.

Somehow we got backstage on the road the Backstage Tour vehicles use, and ran through the big tunnel in the costuming/props area. We popped back into the park on Sunset Blvd where we could see people who had already finished the race, though we still had about .75 miles to go. Lee was doing really well but I was getting pretty tired - the humidity really takes it out of me. We ran back down Hollywood Blvd and ducked past Oscar's filling station into the the Fantasmic! amphitheater area and back behind it, then came around the corner behind the Tower of Terror to (finally!) the finish line. My goal had been to finish in under 1:30, and we came in at 1:29:31.

After the finish was the usual routine - get the timing chips cut off, get our medals, get our picture taken, and then go through the food line. Even though we'd had some water at all four water stops we were still really thirsty. To exit the runner's-only area we had to squeeze back into the park near the Rock'n'Roller Coaster fastpass machines - that was quite a choke point. After we drank our water and ate our brownies we were somewhat recovered and went to retrieve our baggage and change into the dry shirts we'd brought - the ones we'd run in were soaking wet. It felt really good to put on our dry Tower of Terror t-shirts!

The medal is very cool - it's quite a hefty piece of metal with a lot of detail. And the red elevator is on a spring - if you pull it down and let go it goes back up.

We met up with Deb and Masayo again near the Tower of Terror before they headed off. It was after midnight and we started to walk out of the park, but then decided that since it was the Tower of Terror 13K we should at least ride the Tower of Terror! There was a bit of a line, and it took about a half hour, but it was a fun ride. The bellhop warned us to hold onto any loose articles - like medals. :-) Good idea - getting bonked in the face by that thing wouldn't have been much fun! From there we walked back to Boardwalk - we were tired, but still felt good. Though we were glad our room was on the side of the Boardwalk closest to the Studios instead of the side closest to the Yacht Club! :-)

Though we had an ok time, overall I have to say that we were quite disappointed in the race - of the four Disney races we have done, this was the least "Disney-ish". I'll write more about that next time.

Race is over - now it's time to eat, drink, and be merry at the Food and Wine Festival. :-)

Laura

...Are no match for Mother Nature. As I'm sure you've seen on the news, there are multiple wildfires burning in southern California, including two very large ones in San Diego County. One out of every three people in San Diego County has had to evacuate their home at some point since Sunday. Fortunately, Lee and I have been able to stay put, and our home was never threatened. As I write this on Tuesday night the Santa Ana winds have died down and the winds are primarily coming from the ocean now, which has helped firefighters tremendously. There are still areas burning out of control, though.

The air quality here has been quite poor (not surprisingly!), and we've had to stay inside and limit activity as much as possible. So, it appears I won't get in any of my training runs this week. In the grand scheme of things that's certainly quite unimportant, of course! For a while we were wondering if we'd be able to leave as scheduled this Friday morning, since if there was any chance of the fire getting close to us we'd want to be here to evacuate the cats and our computers. Things are looking pretty good at this point, though of course we will be watching the situation closely.

Please think good thoughts for the firefighters and all those who have been evacuated, and especially those who have lost their homes.

Laura

One week from now is the Tower of Terror 13K race. I did my last "long" training run (6 miles) Saturday morning - I'll do a couple of my regular 4 milers this week and then we leave on Friday morning.

For a change the 3 hour time difference between California and Florida will actually work in our *favor*, since the 9:30 p.m. start time of the race is only 6:30 to us. It's about time things worked out that way. :-) It's going to be SO nice not to have to get up at 3:00 a.m. to get ready for a race!

We plan to take it fairly easy on Saturday - we'll probably pick up our race packets that morning and maybe wander around Epcot a little, though on a Saturday during the Food and Wine Festival it's going to be pretty busy! And we don't want to stuff ourselves with exotic foods that day anyway - don't want to risk an upset stomach right before the race!

It's strange how very *little* information there is so far on this race - we've done the marathon and half marathon where we got LOTS of information in advance about the race, including transportation to/from, what time we had to be when, etc., but there's been almost nothing on the ToT 13K - they are keeping us in the dark, so to speak...but maybe that just goes along with the theme of the race!

Since Lee and I are staying at the Boardwalk, I'm assuming we can just walk to/from the race instead of having to deal with buses - it's not really that long a walk.

And the weather...here's hoping for clear skies and a cool night!!! Right now (8:21 p.m. PDT/11:21 p.m. EDT) weather.com is reporting 75 in Orlando - 10 degrees warmer than I'd prefer - but their 10 day forecast shows a cooling trend late in the week, with a Saturday low of 67, so that's a lot better for me! Hope the "Isolated Thunder-Storms" in the forecast are isolated to areas not over the race course...though I suppose it WOULD provide a lot of atmosphere. :-)

We're not going for time at all - I'll have my trusty tiny Canon SD300 with me and will be taking lots of pictures. I hope there will lots of fun surprises and character interactions. If we get hot/tired and need to walk, we will. One other thing working in our favor: we train in hilly San Diego, so it will be very nice to run in flat Florida where the largest "hill" we'll face will be an overpass or two!

So much for my random rambling thoughts on the race...at least for now.

Mike Scopa has been writing some interesting blog entries on running and one of the things he's been talking about is the new Twilight Zone Tower of Terror 13K run, to be held this October 27.

It just so happens that Lee and I will be in Florida then, on our bi-annual Food and Wine Festival Trip...so when I received the email announcement about the race several months ago I thought it sounded great! But then I realized that it's scheduled on the only Saturday night of our stay, which meant we had to choose between Party for the Senses and the race. We talked about it and the race won out - how many times do you have the opportunity to participate in an inaugural event? (And it didn't hurt that we recently attended Taste, the Disneyland version of Party for the Senses and had such a great time that we don't feel such a need to do it in Florida. We figure we'll do some other dinner/special event that week instead.)

I've run the Disney World Half Marathon, the Disney World Marathon, and the Disneyland Half Marathon, so 13K doesn't sound TOO bad...but it'll be the first race I've ever run at night...plus it's in Florida in October - which means higher temperatures and humidity than I'm used to here in CA. I'm a cool weather runner so I'm a little nervous about that...but I know I can always walk if I need to and still finish well within the time limit. The race sounds like great fun!

So, Mike, in answer to your question...Yes, you'll see us in October. :-)

And how about the rest of you - are YOU ready to take the Scopa Challenge?

Laura

p.s. For those interested...my AllEarsNet.com reports on the Disney races I've done are on-line:

2005 WDW Half Marathon
2006 WDW Marathon
2006 Disneyland Half Marathon