At The Expo – Craziness but then this happened . .

(this ended up being part one of four. Here are the links to part two, part three and part four)

 I quite literally just walked in the door. I have the stinkiest laundry EVER and have so much to do it’s ridiculous but wanted to get my thoughts down before they get lost to school/work/day to day life craziness. But quick spoiler – I DID achieve our objective and obtain all four medals!

 

But first, to start us off, some marathon history. My oldest, Jack (17), sent me the following link as an encouragement for me this weekend. It tells the unbelievable but true story of the Men’s Olympic Marathon 1904. In case you don’t actually go there and read it, that marathon had a cheater they thought won, a guy who’s trainers gave him rat poison to motivate him and he almost died, only one water stop, a dog attack, and a runner who ended up in the hospital because he inhaled so much dirt into his lungs on the dusty trail on a 90 degree day. So, yeah, it was MUCH better than that race weekend;).

I actually truly and thoroughly enjoyed myself this weekend and there’s so much I COULD tell you! Instead, I’m going to divide this post up into 2 (or maybe three) posts and tell you about the travel (and my review of the Disneyland hotel), the Expo (yeah, there were some definite issues there in case you haven’t heard), the race itself, and then all the extra fun I had and the yummy places I ate (and one that was NOT so yummy). Finally, I’ll talk about if my back to back training was sufficient and if I felt ready. I know a lot of you are doing the Glass Slipper Challenge so that might be helfpul.

I will randomly mention running peeps from time to time so if I bring up a name you’re not familiar with (Tonja, Meredith, Selma, Darcie, Suzanne . . and more) no worries. Those are just my crazy running peeps. In fact, next to their name I will even put (peep) so that you’ll be completely clear. OK, everybody neat and pretty? Then let’s go!

My travel was blissfully uneventful. I even sat next to an awesome woman named Deanna who was running the race as well. Deanna, if you’re reading this, let me know how you did!  Deanna’s story is pretty amazing and if she lets me, I’d love to tell it here sometime. We talked so much that I honestly couldn’t believe it when we landed. Selma and Alan (peeps) were gracious enough to give me a ride in their rental car from the airport since we were all going to the same place. As Alan said, “well, we could have said no, but since we will see you a lot over the weekend, that could get awkward.” He’s smart and nice. Not nice enough to give me his seat in first class but nice. Selma got me a muffin from the swanky section, but then when we landed I got a text that said she accidentally ate it. Oh well. Stuff happens.

Selma headed straight for the Expo and specifically, the RunDisney merch. This is a VERY smart woman (keep reading for more on that). I checked into the Disneyland Hotel and wow, I love it here. Last time I did this race we stayed at the HoJo and although it was sufficient for our needs, there was no “wow” involved. Pics to prove my point. When I checked in she said “have you stayed with us before?” Pause. Yes. In 1985. Wow. She then clicked a few times and BAM we were in the Fantasy tower which was the PERFECT location. Here are a couple room and view pics (we were third floor, pool view)

 

I texted Tonja (peep) my roomate since she still had a long travel day ahead of her and wouldn’t be getting in until really late. (ended up being REALLY late because of closed roads and confused and bewildered Super Shuttle drivers – no bueno). I hoped the pics would help get her excited!!

I then headed out the doors of the hotel and directly next door to the convention center and before me was a scene that is truly difficult to describe. There were lines. Lots and lots of lines. And cast members trying to organize the lines by putting green tape on the sidewalk. There was a line for the Expo and a line for packet pick up but nobody could really tell you which was which and it was next to impossible to find the end of the line so there was LOTS AND LOTS of cutting going on. Sweaty and confused Run Disney employees were doing their best but I thought a riot was going to break out any moment. There was some talk of “go to the guy with the green balloon”. Nobody knows what happened to him. I think he may have been turned into an audio animatronic and now lives in It’s a Small World. (I may take up horror writing in my spare time because that last sentence was SCARY. But then, so was the Expo).

I found my friend, Meredith (peep and a woman I’ve mentioned here before – she has MS and still runs like a crazy person. She’s a hero of mine). And she makes great woohoo faces (see photo).

So it went pretty fast as we waited in the green packet pick up line which was now being monitored much more carefully by people without a sense of humor (I know this because, as we know, I am funny and they didn’t laugh at me even once. I guess riot duty does that to you.)

So we get our stuff at the special Dumbo Double Dare packet pick up and head to the Expo to get our t-shirts. OK, so this part wasn’t bad. We did have to wait about 25 minutes to get INTO the Expo but once there the regular vendor area and the t-shirt pick up went really fast.

 

The Disney merch situation was a different story all together. Anybody ever done Black Friday at WalMart? Yeah, kind of like that. At one point the wait to check out was 2.5 hours long, I kid you not. I have all kinds of ideas of how they could have made it better (mobile registers using ipads, assigning times for folks to pick up packets, you name it) but I really think DISNEY should be able to figure out crowd control better than I can. Thankfully, Selma bought me a Dumbo Double Dare shirt because by about 3 in the afternoon when I returned, every stitch of Dumbo Double Dare clothing (as well as the Coast to Coast stuff) had flown off the shelf. On the bright side, I did see this guy waiting in line:

There were some fun moments and great vendors at the Expo and I loved that part. And I ran into my friend, Lynda (peep), who gave me this to remind me that I can fly!!

I bought a great Raw Threads shirt and decided to wear it for the 10K (I don’t have a pic of the back but is says 19.3 for Dumbo Double Dare – so stinking cute!)

I got my Cliff bars for the morning of the two races and a new Bondi Band (because you always need a new Bondi Band) that says “Race You To The Castle”. My friends from Sparkle Skirts (well, I follow them on twitter, so that’s the same thing, right?) were literally making money hand over fist. They were busy, busy girls! And with good reason. Great product and great staff. I didn’t buy anything but am going to get online and do some ordering very soon! Here’s their website if you are so inclined http://www.sparkleskirts.com/

Crowds sort of exhaust me so I was done. I headed back to the room, changed into my bathing suit, and fell asleep poolside for about an hour. Heavenly.

Oh, wait I forgot something. We need to discuss something really important.

I DON’T LIKE THE SHIRTS FOR THE DUMBO DOUBLE DARE. To start with, they are “unisex” which means men’s. Secondly, they were HUGE except for the collar which is iddy bitty. So three shirts that I will literally never wear. Tonja and I decided they were meant for this guy from Beetlejuice:

Seriously weird. More women run these races then men. Get with the program and do a men’s and a women’s shirts, RunDisney. Seriously. (and yes, I realize they will never retweet my blog;)

I had a lovely dinner at Storytellers at the Grand Californian with great friends Alan and Selma (airport ride;) and Tim and Darcie (my only Canadian friends:) and it was early to bed for this girl! Fell asleep at around 8pm and only barely woke up when Tonja came in. That’s the good thing about races on the west coast. My body clock said it was 10pm so perfect. Set the alarm for 4:15 am and called it a day! OK, clearly we’re going to need to break this puppy up.

Up next . . .10K!! or “Hey, We Know We’re in Charge but We’re not Actually Sure How To Tell You To Get To The Corrals” . . .