Motivation for your Monday

Remember...it's about your whole journey, not just what lies ahead.

And my favorite blogger is..........

April Blogger Challenge #8 (days 22-24...yes, I know it's behind)-your favorite blogger and why

You all know how much I love Disney, especially Walt Disney World.  I’m always reading up on new things happening at the resort, checking out different online forums for trip planning, park tips and so on.  Plus I usually visit anywhere from 4-6 times a year.  So it should probably come as no surprise to you that my favorite blogger is someone who writes about WDW.  Some of you may already be aware of the site-it’s Josh over at easyWDW.com.  

First off, he’s in the parks ALL the time.  He provides insanely accurate crowd calendars (I have never gone wrong using them to choose which parks to visit on which days), in-depth analysis of events and has just the right amount of snark and sarcasm to make everything he writes a really fun read.  Those of you who like a more straight-laced, serious approach might not like that but for me, I get a kick out of his comments and it makes for very entertaining reading material.  He’s always got great photographs too.  He interacts with his readers when they leave comments which I think is great.  If you’re looking for a really good WDW resource, be sure to check out easyWDW.com...even if you’re not into the snark, the calendars and information are extremely useful and thorough.

I do have about 40 different blogs I to which I’m subscribed-I use the Reeder app on my Mac to pull in all the posts for me so I don’t miss anything.  Maybe somewhere between 15-20 of them post regularly.  You can see some of my favorites here on my blog in the sidebar (“My Favorite Blogs”).  Most of them are running friends (hi guys!)...I try to rotate the list every so often so when some people aren’t posting so much-or at all- for a while, I’ll rotate someone else in, I just don’t want the list there to be too long.  

Just half of my list...

...and the other half

Oh, and my runners-up for favorite blogger?  Dana over at The Dragyn’s Lair, Heather at Through Heather’s Looking Glass, Megan at Elbowglitter, Amy at The point one will getcha! and Jess at Run with Jess.  But I like all the blogs I’m subscribed to-after all, if I didn’t I wouldn’t have subscribed to them-but these are some that just pop for me.

Who's your favorite blogger?  Are you a blogger yourself? 

Lysol Touch of Foam Soap product review

As some of you may already know, I am registered with BzzAgent.com.  For those of you who don’t know what BzzAgent is,they’re a social marketing company.  You can sign up on their website to become a BzzAgent, and when campaigns come along that are a match for you, you can join and get some free or deeply discounted products to try out, then spread your thoughts about it to friends, family, online or off.  The companies who supply the products get word of mouth advertising, and you get free stuff.  I’ve done a bunch of campaigns, from chocolates to cosmetics to a cool all-in-one remote and a Sonicare battery-operated toothbrush.  This time around, I joined the campaign for Lysol’s Touch of Foam Anti-Bacterial Hand Wash.

I was sent a free full-sized bottle of the creamy vanilla orchid scent hand wash to try out along with 75¢ coupons to hand out to friends.  As soon as my kit arrived, I got the bottle out, snapped a pic and tried it out.  (Rest assured, all opinions given here are my own)

Now normally I don’t use anti-bacterial soaps.  I’m not a fan of all these anti-bacterial products everywhere (seriously, do I really need to use hand sanitizer after I clock in/out at work?  Might as well not touch the doors or computers or file cabinets, etc at all if that’s the case).  BUT, I don’t mind as much having anti-bacterial soap to use after using the restroom.  The only problem I run into?  These soaps always dry out my hands, so then I need to use lotion or hand cream afterward.

Enter my new freebie.  As you probably guessed from the product name, this is a foam soap.  It’s nice and thick and smells delicious.  It lathers up really well, but most importantly for me-once rinsed and dried, my hands aren’t dried out.  They actually feel nice and soft and smell really good.  For me, it’s a winner...and I do recommend it to others. 

Thick, no-drip foam soap

I think I’ll try the Wild Berry Bliss scent next ;-)  I’ve already passed out all my coupons, but I’m keeping my eye out for a great deal so I can stock up!  Right now thru tonight Walgreens has it buy one, get one 50% off plus you get 750 Balance Rewards points when you buy 2, so I'm going to take a walk over to the store (about 3/4 mile away, good way to get a nice walk in) and grab a couple before calling it a night.

Have you tried Lysol’s Touch of Foam Antibacterial Soap?  What did you think?  What are your thoughts on anti-bacterial soaps (and other products) in general?

Remembering Determination and the Importance of Support

Yes, I know I haven't posted for a couple of weeks but I'll address that in a different post.  I wanted to get back to the blogger challenge and catch up a bit.  I'm skipping the day 13-15 topic...I did two posts for the day 10-12 topic so in my mind, that makes up for the skip ;-)

So the next topic was to pick any picture from your Facebook or Instagram pics and write about it.  You can see the pic I chose above; I actually didn't take the photo (obviously, I'm the one the red hat!).

This photo was taken by a ROTE friend during the 2011 Disney full Marathon as I was making my way from World Showcase in Epcot toward Future World.  I would guess this around mile 25.5, maybe a bit farther, and by that point my feet were killing me, my back was sore and all I was thinking was "just keep walking, don't stop, one foot in front of the other".  I was focused straight ahead when I heard one of the ROTErs, Joey shouting at me, "You're doing it Carra!"  I saw him walking with someone else-I can't for the life of me remember who-toward World Showcase and waved.  He is the one who actually posted this picture on Facebook and tagged me in it (thank you Joey!), and was the last ROTEr I saw before I crossed the finish line.

Even though my body was overwhelmingly sore, tired and ready to just collapse by that point, hearing and seeing people I knew cheering for me continued to lift my spirits and drive me on.  I didn't stop-even though I really wanted to have the Photopass photographer take my picture when I got by the fountains in Future World-I knew if I stopped I'd never get going again and I just wasn't going to let that happen with the finish line so close.  I was DETERMINED to get my Mickey medal!

My point in choosing this particular picture?  The importance of support.  When I first started my journey into the running world, I happened to come across an online forum of people who were runners who loved Disney and running Disney races.  I've made a lot of friends from that forum and having them online for support, advice and friendship before and after races and especially along the course cheering me and everyone else on is invaluable and tremendously motivating.  I can tell you without any doubt in my mind that I would have never been able to finish that race if it wasn't for my ROTEr friends-especially those I saw from the point of exiting Animal Kingdom through the end of the race.  They helped spur me on and get me going enough to leave those sweepers in the dust.

I gave shout outs to them in my 2011 Disney Full Marathon Race Report post, but I just wanted to recognize and thank them again-Joey (of course-you're always there with such kind and supportive words before and after races), Erica (super big hugs!), Tracy, and especially Colleen and Dawn-if you two hadn't of been there outside of Animal Kingdom, I would never have been able to dig so deep and start running to get away from the sweepers that were closing in-seriously.

Don't ever underestimate the power of your support crew-whether they are there so you can just hand off a jacket, grab a drink, pass you some Twizzlers or just clap/cheer/ring a cowbell/hold a sign...or scream your name, jump up and down or honk their horn as they're driving by you on the course.  They'll help keep you going and give you that push you need to make it across that finish line.

And if you're looking for a group that will do all that for you-and so much more-be sure to check out Running of the Ears.  I know you'll be glad you did.  Here's some pics of the group:

This pic is from the Monday after the 2010 Marathon Weekend (my first half marathon)

A bunch of ROTErs at Downtown Disney at the start of race weekend 2010

A bunch of us volunteering at the mile 13 water stop at the 2010 Disney full marathon (see our red hats?)

Group shot before the 2012 Princess Half Marathon

Group shot before the 2012 Tower of Terror 10-Miler

Do you have a support group for your running/walking/racing?

Ya Gotta Have a Goal Part 2

So I’ve been doing this running thing since the Fall of 2008.  I’ve done 8 5Ks, a 10K, a Half Marathon relay, 8 Half Marathons, 1 Marathon relay (basically another half marathon since we each did 13.1 miles)...and one full Marathon.  Now before you go jumping to conclusions, I can tell you that NO, my other current goal is NOT anything longer than a full marathon.  And those of you who are my smartypants friends don’t go :poke: :poke: at me to consider it...it won’t work.  No, my goal is the Disney full marathon in January 2014.  

“Wait a minute”, you say, “you’ve already done a full marathon, how is that a goal?”   

I did my marathon in January of 2011.  I wasn’t in peak condition for it; My peak condition was Winter 2009/Spring 2010.  At that time, I had lost 45 pounds and was easily keeping a 15 minute per mile pace for the half marathons I was running and even got into the 14 minute mile range for my 5Ks.  For the marathon a year later, I had gained back about 20 of the pounds I had lost and finished in 6:59:09, a 15:59 pace...just barely making the pace cutoff (while trying to keep away from the sweepers...you can read about that in my race report if you’d like).  It was hard.  Probably the hardest thing I’ve ever undertaken and completed.

Me after my first half marathon-this was after losing 45 pounds

So why is it a goal again?  As I mentioned in my “Starting Over” post, I gained back almost all the weight I’d lost.  I’m basically starting from scratch again.  Almost worse than scratch since instead of regularly walking or even semi-regularly, I went almost all the way back to doing nothing after being swept at the Tower of Terror 10-miler.  Workouts and miles here and there...but no “real” training.  Plus I have that wonderful added bonus of all this extra weight back on again.

And so, this is going to be just like training for my first marathon...again.  I’ve already mapped out my training calendar through the rest of the year.  It is fairly straightforward through the end of August with no really long mileage until the marathon training portion starts so it’s more like a general exercise program until the end of summer...that way I can concentrate on the losing weight part, though I’ll still be doing miles at least 3 days per week the whole time.  As many of you know, trying to lose weight while training for a marathon can be difficult so I’m trying to get a head start on that part before the longer miles begin. 

I’d love to be at my goal weight before the time comes for the race, but that would mean losing about 80 pounds between now and then.  Just that part alone would be a HUGE accomplishment.  But with the long miles in the Fall and early Winter, I’ll be initially shooting for at least 60 pounds by race time.  The overall goal?  Finishing faster than my first marathon.  My more ambitious goal?  Finishing in 6:50:00 or less.  But as long as I finish without having to take a sweeper bus ride, I will consider my goal attained.  Again.

If you’re out there about to undertake your first full marathon journey, feel free to contact me...virtual training partners are always welcome.  Or if you’re just trying to lose a lot of weight like me...same thing.  Most of this for me is done on my own for various reasons which is really hard.  It’s so much easier to stick to a plan when there are others around that you don’t want to make excuses to.  If anyone out there wants to join up so we can all be accountable to each other (for losing weight or race training-virtual or otherwise), you can use the Contact Me page to get in touch.

What are some goals that you have?  

My goal?  This picture in 2014!