10 Words That Describe My Blog-April Blogger Challenge #2

1-Disney-my biggest addiction!  Especially Walt Disney World...I can never get enough of WDW :-) 

2-Running-or, okay, walk/running...but still, I’m out there moving! 

3-Pictures-I like to include pictures with my blog entries, I think it makes them more interesting
4-Recaps-as in race recaps, I try to recap all of my races-not just because others may be interested in them, but as a way for me to be able to look back and remember all the fun (and not-so-fun) times.  Interesting tidbit?  My Expedition Everest recaps are my most viewed posts and continue to get views every week!

5-Lighthearted-most of the time anyway.  I prefer to have people smile when they read than have to break out a box of tissues
6-Honest-I don’t put fake stuff out there
7-Free-that’s right peeps, you don’t pay a cent for any of this content!  Okay, you had to buy that computer...and get internet service...but hey, you didn’t just get that to read my blog, right?
8-Friendly-I welcome everyone to come read.  Even if you don’t agree with something I say, as long as any comments you post or emails you send me aren’t nasty, derogatory or the like, everyone is welcome here :-)
9-Personal-yes, I am writing about my own life, experiences and opinions.  Not too personal of course (that’s reserved for only my DH) 

10-Growing-my audience has grown and is still doing so.  I’m looking at ways to expand pages within my blog, connect with other blogs and sites and just keep things interesting here.  After all, if there’s nothing to bring others here, it’ll just be me all by my lonesome...and that’s no fun, everything’s more fun with friends :-)

If you have a blog, what 10 words would you use to describe it?

Don't forget to check out my post from yesterday with my test giveaway.  I'm giving away a fun Disney Parks Growth Chart...just something simple to test out the Rafflecopter widget (my first time using it) to prepare myself for future giveaways on my Disney World Files blog.  I know the growth chart is not a big, fancy prize, but I'm just using it as a way to learn the Rafflecopter stuff.  Please try it out.  If you win and really don't want the chart (though you could give it to a friend or family member who might use it), I can treat you to a drink during any race weekend we're both at instead. Deal?

2012 Expedition Everest Challenge race report

2012 Expedition Everest Challenge Race Report

Yes, I know-I haven’t even done my WDW Half, WDW Marathon Relay, ING Miami Half or Princess Half recaps yet.  They’ll eventually get on here (hopefully before the next of each race rolls around next year LOL), but for now while EEC is fresh in my mind I want to post this one up.

Just like last year I did a Friday to Sunday trip.  Stayed on property (of course) at Disney’s Pop Century resort-my favorite value resort at WDW.  My SIL and her DH were riding up and rooming with me (see “sharing expenses” tip) so we all left together just before 8am so we could be there in time for the noon packet pickup opening.  Once we arrived at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex, there was already about 30 or 40 people lined up waiting for pickup to start.  We joined them, lining up along the outside of the baseball stadium.  When they started letting everyone in, we walked through the inside of the stadium to an open area in the sun where tents were set up with everyone’s packets, a staged photo op area and very small area of EEC and runDisney items available for purchase.  We got our stuff, took some shots at the photo area, I bought the EEC pin, then we moved along to the shirt pickup area.  This year’s was a nice deep forest green with the EEC logo on the front.  

Headed to the hotel to check in, then out for some lunch at TGI Friday’s (another creative financing idea--turned in 150 stripes on my TGI Friday’s stripes card for a free steak entree coupon...gotta love free steak!) before heading to the Magic Kingdom for the rest of the day & night.  Saturday slept in a bit, then headed over to Epcot to meet up with some friends of SIL/BIL’s to wander.  But it was the sun was crazy strong and it was HOT HOT HOT so I left to go back to the room for a couple of hours before heading over to Rainforest Cafe at Animal Kingdom for a late lunch/early dinner (creative financing #3 of the trip--turned in some MyPoints for a $25 RC gift card so my meal was free!).  Even with trying to stay in the shade while at Epcot I wound up with some sunburned arms and a bit on my face...very glad I went back to the room when I did or the race would have been a bit painful!

After resting at the room after dinner for a while, we headed over to Animal Kingdom around 8pm.  Saw Katie, Steve, Becky and David from Running of the Ears right away, then wandered over by the stage area.  We had met back up with our friends from earlier that day (SIL/BIL were running as a team and the 4 others were 2 teams as well) and took a pic at one of the photo areas near the stage, then made a quick port-a-potty stop before heading over to get into the corral.  I lucked out and was in Wave #1 again (YAY!) so wanted to get a good spot off to the right side of the corral so I wouldn’t be in the way of the fast people.

Unfortunately, they held us all outside of the corral for a bit before letting us into the chute.  Everyone was stuffed together at the entrance which was a tad uncomfortable, especially since it had only “cooled” down to about 80 degrees and was still a bit humid.  Finally they let us in.

And then we were off!  I started off running as usual (yeah, moron creature of habit here, I never learn), then tried to switch to intervals trying to keep up with Katie, Steve and his daughter (they were doing 1:1’s), but it was just too hot and humid for me to do that so I switched to my fast walk instead.  About 3/4 of a mile in we came upon our first obstacles--just like last year we had rows of hay bales to hurdle over.  No problem at all!  We continued on, entering Animal Kingdom just after the 1-mile mark.  Out to the back of the park and into the backstage area to obstacle #2--and again just like last year we had the rows of tires to navigate thru.  I didn’t want to try run/hopping through them like you see football players do as I was sure I’d wind up flat on my face like I saw several people do, so I went through them but at a walking pace instead.

Back into the park for a bit, then backstage again before heading out--just past mile 3 was the last obstacle--where you were supposed to crawl on the ground under ropes (like you see army guys do in training).  They had that fake carpet-grass underneath, I’m assuming to keep you from hurting yourself on rocks, but the obstacle is set in a really loose sandy area so there was a lot of dust being kicked up and I wasn’t about to crawl through it with my allergies...and so I went around it (yeah, I know-that technically makes you ineligible for prizes but really--I’m never going to be fast enough to get a prize anyway so eh, no biggie).  It actually was slow going around it because of the loose sand-you couldn’t really go fast (or at least I couldn’t) without probably twisting an ankle.  Once around the obstacle, it was just a few more feet until the 5K finish line.

Next up we were handed our first scavenger hunt clue along with a mini-marker attached to a key ring that had a red-light flashlight.  Remember, there are different clues available so not everyone has the same clues.  Here’s my clue #1: 

  I figured this out really quick.  And I knew from last year not to head into the park with the clue, that the first station was outside the park.  At least this year there was someone there telling people the first clue station was there so they wouldn’t do like I did.  Got clue #2 

and headed into the park to Camp Minnie-Mickey.  Another quick solve!  Grabbed clue #3 

  I had to think about this one for a couple of minutes but tried thinking while walking so I wouldn’t waste any time.  I stopped for maybe one whole minute though to really look at what it said, then jogged on.  Made it over to Africa and got clue #4 

This one I thought was really easy so I quickly wrote my answer down and started running toward Asia where I got my final clue 

  Once I realized what I had to do, I flipped back through my clue cards to figure out the final answer, quickly wrote it down and ran all the way to the finish where I showed them my card, then ran through the chute to the race finish line!

I must say, I’m very proud of myself with the clues this year--I got them all by myself, no hints from anyone and since I knew what I was doing and where I was going this time around, I cut about 25 minutes off my overall time from last year!  One of the teams from our group finished a little bit before me and called out to me once I finished so we hung out waiting for the others to come on through (they were in later waves since the teams started after the individuals).  We all went for a ride on Expedition Everest (where I wound up losing my hat after the big drop-flew right off my head...yes, I’m calling WDW lost and found to see if they have it...that sure didn’t happen last year), then headed over to Kali River Rapids.  I decided not to ride that one (yes, the soaking would have been welcome to help cool down but I wasn’t getting back in my car like that) so waited for everyone else.  After that me, SIL and BIL wandered over to DinoLand USA...no wait for Primeval Whirl so went for a spin before heading out for the night.

This was another fantastic Disney race weekend.  Just in case I haven’t said it enough, I LOVE this event.  Already planning on heading back again next year--after all, I need to see if I can do it faster, right?  Now I have a nice long break as my next race isn’t until the Tower of Terror 10-miler at the end of September.  Time to really get back to the weight-loss regimen since I’ll be able to properly devote my time and not worry about race training for a few months.

Women overall 238/522

5K time 48:44

Scavenger Hunt time 25:42

Total time 1:14:26 (net time); 1:14:43 (clock time)

30-Day Yoga Challenge

I was reading through some blog posts today and Run with Jess had a link to the 30 Day Yoga Challenge at RunToTheFinish. Since I really like doing yoga-I feel so stretched and relaxed every time after I'm done-and I haven't been practicing in quite a while, I joined the challenge to get myself back into it. I know I'll be sweating it out at first getting back into doing the poses, but I know I feel great after just a 30-minute session every now and then so let's see how I feel after 30 days of that!

Since I'm a bigger girl, I got a DVD called Heavyweight Yoga (here's the Amazon link): I think it's pretty good for a beginner. The lady in the video is a lot bigger than me, but boy is she SO much more flexible than I am! So I'm going to go back to my DVD for now...I can also do the yoga poses on the Wii Fit. Just start from the beginning of the list of poses and work all the way through.

We'll see how it goes. Anyone else care to join in?

5.14.2011-Expedition Everest Challenge race report

First off, I have to say I LOVED this event. Yes, it’s just a 5K (and one that cost $95 to boot!) but the theming, obstacles and scavenger hunt turned the “just a 5K” into a really fun event that I’ll definitely be going back for again.

I left Friday morning before the sun came up (trying to miss all those icky lovebugs that like to get smushed all over the car this time of year) and so I arrived early enough to check in to my room and grab a snack before heading over to packet pickup when it opened. No fancy expo...even the outdoor tents they had set up had to be taken down as a storm was rolling in so they moved the tables into the stadium breezeways at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex. There was a big board set up before you went inside where you could check for your bib #...now, I knew I was going to be in wave 1 since I was doing the race as an individual and we got to start before the teams...but I didn’t know I’d be bib #95. My number was even lower than my (MUCH) faster ROTE friends that were there...so I got a kick out of that, ‘cause you know for a normal Disney race with normal corrals I’m never going to have that low of a number-let alone be in the first wave of runners LOL. Pickup was quick and after I went back to my room for a nap while the storm passed, then met a ROTEr over a Epcot to wander around and watch Illuminations (thanks Dan!).

Saturday I decided to sleep in, then had a leisurely breakfast before heading to the pool for a couple of hours of relaxation. Met up with Dan and Tricia (with her cute twin sons) for a late lunch/early dinner over at Rainforest Cafe at Animal Kingdom. Afterward, Dan and I headed over to the race staging area to hang out and look out for other ROTErs. We finally found Megan who was there with her family and then Steve. Eventually it was time to line up so we headed for the front of the corral where I took a picture of the start sign with the “wave 1” sign for posterity (HA!). In the corral we met Monica, then Dan left us to move up closer to the front-since ya know he was going to be a heck of a lot faster ;-) and then we were off. And I of course went out too fast and had to walk a bit more than I wanted to during the first mile. Our first obstacle were lines of hay bales (maybe 3 or 4 sets) that we had to jump over like hurdles. I must have looked a sight doing that as I could feel my legs flying out to the sides as I jumped. At least the pic they got of me during that part looked mostly normal.

We went back through the park and out through a backstage area to a turnaround point after which came our second obstacle-rows of tires on the ground (again 3 or 4 rows) that we had to navigate through (though some people were just hurdling over them like the hay bales). Made it through, saw only one person fall. Back in the park for a bit, then backstage to our way back out where the last obstacle was. For the last one, we had a choice--go up and over one of those rope net tent-shaped climbing things, crawl under a rope net that was about a foot above the ground...or you could go around both. I was not about to do the crawl one-it was through a ton of loose dirt and I could see the kids that were doing it were coming out filthy (no thanks, that’ll be me if I ever agree to a mud run). I was going to do the climb one, but it was filled with people and I would have had to wait to take a turn...and so I just went around...which was hard to run through since it was all loose dirt too so I just walked as fast as I could through it. Right after that was the finish to the 5K portion.

As we finished through there were volunteers handing out our first clue, a small flashlight and mini-marker to write our answers on the clue cards. On the cards was listed the location where we were to show our answers, so since mine said Oasis-Palms, I headed for The Oasis which is the first set of animals after you get in the park. But I couldn’t find where to go. After wasting about 15-20 minutes going back and forth between the entrance and almost to the big tree, I found out the station was BEFORE you went in the park. Nice. So I went back out, found my area, and tried to figure out my clue...finally got it with some help from the volunteer who then gave me my next clue.

Off to Camp Minnie-Mickey I went...with another really hard clue that I couldn’t figure out how to start...turned out to be a substitution code to figure out the answer (again got help from the volunteer).

Got my next card which sent me to Africa...easy clue this time, just elongated letters and had to figure out what the word said.

Quickly got my next clue and ran all the way to Asia with it, another really easy one.

Got my final clue which stumped me at first but with a little hint from a volunteer (who was enthusiastically going from person to person trying to help as many people out as he could) got it done and raced over to the finish.

After navigating the medal line (crush of people, not enough space for the crowds that were coming through at the same time I was) and getting snacks (Powerade, bananas, Clif bars and huge liter-sized bottles of water), met up with Steve and we walked over to Dinoland USA where we met up with Dan and eventually Becky. Found out that Becky finished second in the individual female category and Dan finished fourth for individual males---Congratulations!! Got a picture with Mickey and Minnie-line moved pretty quickly, only had to wait maybe five minutes, then we headed over to ride Expedition Everest (WAY cool to ride in the dark!). After that I was pretty tired so headed back to my room.

I was not last...I finished 183 out of 193 for the individual female women. Would have been a lot better if I’d known where to go to turn in that first clue. My 5K time was 47:17, about average for me right now for a 5K but considering there were obstacles as well, even better I guess (I’m actually better on pace for longer races, go figure) and my scavenger hunt time was 53:30 for a total of 1:40:46. Which I’m fine with since this was my first time and I wasn’t sure how everything would be set up. Now I know to keep an eye out for clue stations right away and not assume they’ll all be in the park itself (*kicking myself for that one*) and I have a better idea of what to expect...because I will certainly be returning to do this again, whether by myself or teamed up with someone. I really enjoyed this event and would definitely recommend it to others. Plus getting to hang out in Animal Kingdom after dark when the park normally closes around sunset was a nice perk.

Next up, Weston Memorial Day 5K...another walk-to-the-start-line-from-my-house race.