My Disney Bling!

After yesterday’s post about failures, I started thinking through all the mistakes I’ve made over the years at RunDisney events. I’m a veteran of quite a few Disney races (8 to be exact) and although any race is a big deal, with the travel, the excitement and the amazing theme parks included in the RunDinsey events, they are fraught with potential ditches that I have fallen into far too many times. And besides, writing this will help me not do these things again since for me, the Disneyland Half is the beginning of my “RunDisney Racing Season”. I think these apply no matter which coast you’re competing on so they’ll work for the Disney World races as well.

1. Planned Too Much Activity on Arrival Day!!

There is, indeed, more to see then could ever be seen and more to do than could ever be done on arrival day for a RunDisney event (thank you Lion King). If you’re like me and can’t arrive until Friday or worse, Saturday before a Sunday race, this is especially true and dangerous! (OK, not weapons of mass destruction dangerous but dangerous nonetheless).

A typical scenario for travel day for me looks something like this – I don’t sleep well the night before (I’m too excited to sleep!) and usually get on the first or second flight of the day out of DFW, so that means a 6am at the latest arrival at the airport. The night before I FOR SURE went to bed too late as I was obsessively checking and double checking my packing list and making sure I have absolutely everything I might need. (here’s a good list from a blog a couple years ago)

If the flight is uneventful (please, God) then I arrive at MCO and take Magical Express to my resort (I don’t do rental cars unless someone else is driving – too easily disoriented and I would wind up in Daytona Beach for sure). So more waiting in line. Then checking in and if you’re lucky, your room is ready so you can dump your stuff.

Then it’s off to the Expo. More . . waiting . . in . . lines. I’ve heard that Thursday the Expo is much less crowded but my work schedule and family has never allowed for that so I always seem to arrive at the worst possible time. This process takes at least an hour and a half and that’s if I don’t shop. If I shop, it can take a lot longer and if I want to listen to any speakers or get to chatting with my running friends there’s no telling how long I could be there. Get on bus back to hotel (which could take a half hour or more) and head back to hotel to dump stuff. This part of the process takes WAY less time at Disneyland than at Disney World because everything is much closer together, but it’s still going to eat up a big chunk of your day (and besides, it’s fun so you don’t want to rush too much).

But Wait! Hurry up! Not only are all your running friends here and already enjoying the theme parks, but you have a dinner reservation to get to! And you’ll want to have at least one glass of wine, right? And eat a lot of rich delicious food, right? Um . . . now we move to mistake number two.

2. Eating Rich Food and Drinking More than You Should The Days Before a RunDisney Event

Me and my friend, Jill, drinking the Lapu Lapu mentioned below

Seriously I try. And I’m MUCH better than I used to be. But you can’t put me at a great restuaraunt like Be Our Guest at the Magic Kingdom in Florida and tell me to order noodles and sauce and drink water. And not have dessert. But with my GI issues when I run, I really can’t afford to eat what I want even 2 days before. I have to really consider the ramifications so for me that means no dairy, low fat and no more than one glass of wine. I’m not a heavy drinker by any means and even 2 glasses of wine is enough to start to mess with how I feel. And let’s not even talk about the time I had my first (and only) Lapu Lapu and found out I’m intolerant to rum (and therefore have to give up my dream of being a pirate .. but that’s another blog).

Plan your food out ahead of time. Look at the menus of where you’ll be eating and decided in advance what will work with you and your stomach on a race weekend. If I don’t do that, all my common sense goes out the window and I end up sitting in front of a plate of banana bread pudding and thinking that this is the ONE TIME I’ll be fine. Disney is a magical place but it’s not magical enough to heal my stomach issues. Not even a serenade by the Dapper Dan’s can cure my lactose intolerance.

3. Too Much Park Touring The Day Before The Race!!

My Fun Running Friends Who Get Me in Trouble!;)

This is a mistake I am doomed to continue to make, I’m afraid. The only way to avoid it all together would be to stay by the pool at my hotel. But seriously, there are acres of fun to be explored and Space Mountain isn’t going to ride itself. So I head out thinking I’ll just do a couple of things, and before you know it I’ve been there for 5 or 6 hours and my feet hurt. It’s actually not good for your feet to hurt before you ever START running a race. And before each one I give myself a good pep talk about taking it easy and then don’t. Because I’m an idiot. Don’t be an idiot. Take it easy on the park touring the day before the race.

4. Too Much Park Touring The Day OF the Race!

The Dumbo Double Dare will be my first back to back race event (well, I did the 5K once before the Princess but we just ran slow and for fun so I don’t count that.) This time, I’m doing a 10K the day before the half and I’m really going to have to watch it. But even if you’re only doing one race, the day of the race you will be so excited and happy that you could easily push yourself and slow your recovery.

My sweet husband, Scott, fell victim to this one year at the Disneyland Half and swears up and down he was fine, but I still don’t think it was smart. First off, he ran the race on a broken toe (don’t get me started) and then didn’t head back to the hotel afterwards and instead changed into flip-flops and park toured with me and all our running friends until 11pm that night! Crazy man. He then headed back to a full week of work and I know he was tired and physically worn out. So yeah, maybe don’t do that.

After the 10K on Saturday, I really AM planning on heading back to the hotel for some pool time. The pesky text messages from my running friends saying things like “we’re riding Pirates! Get over here!” will hopefully be ignored. I’ll let you know how I do;).

5. And Last but Not Least . . . .Going Right Back To Work and Not Reflecting on How Great it Was

Since these races are just for a weekend, and most of us are back to work Monday or Tuesday, it’s easy to just race through it (pun intended) and not pause and be grateful and reflect on how much fun it all is and how blessed I am to be able to do it. Most people wait a lifetime to run even one RunDisney event and I’ve been blessed to run multiple years, multiple races, with people I love. If I don’t stop and reflect and blog (yeah that’s a big reason why I started writing this thing in the first place) I run the risk of taking it all for granted. And that’s just not OK.

So yeah, this happened. Ran the marathon Sunday. Did the American Idol Experience on Monday. Best. Weekend. Ever.

So I’ll be back here at my computer after the race, laughing about my mistakes (hopefully), rejoicing in my victories no matter how small (PR would be lovely – from my blog to God’s ears!) and encouraging others to lace up and take the first few steps towards something fun and amazing.

Have a great taper, friends who will be there, and for those of you that are dreaming about someday, we will be here again next year, Lord willing, and we’d love for you to join us!

Happy Running!

Jen