ONLY the Marathon

I already knew I’d be doing the full marathon at Walt Disney World for January 2014.  Once they made the announcement about adding a 10K and Dopey (doing the 5K, 10K, Half Marathon and full Marathon), I was also thinking I would add on the 10K since it’s on Friday and the Marathon isn’t until Sunday...what’s another 6.2 miles, right?  Well, now I can rest easy knowing I’ve saved $100...the 10K has already sold out.  And that leads me to the title of my post...I’m ONLY doing the Marathon.  Betcha never thought you’d hear that phrase coming from me, huh?  That’s right, I’ll JUST be doing 26.2 miles for the weekend.  Ha!

Well, I’ll be getting 26.2 miles of fun on the same course from the 20th anniversary year.    Apparently there will be a new marathon medal for 2014 so at least I’ll get one different from the one I got back in 2011.  I’m planning on volunteering again, probably one or two shifts at the expo as well as the 5K and 10K.  I’m planning on cheering for the half again as well...need to be there on Main Street with my glittery ROTE sign!

Should be another fantastic trip...who’s coming along with me?

Oh, and don’t forget, if you’re headed to Marathon Weekend too, I can help you book your trip...just drop me line ;-)

Here's some memories from 2011:

It's almost time for The Jelly Bean Virtual Race!

Yup, that's right-Spring is just around the corner (well, here in SoFla we haven't really even had a winter)...and that means it's almost time for The Jelly Bean Virtual Race!  If you haven't heard about it, head on over to the Run with Jess site and check out the post for the 3rd Annual Jelly Bean Virtual Race.

Haven't heard about virtual races before?  It's like doing an actual in-person, live race but all by yourself...or with a group of local friends if you feel like getting a group together to do your miles.  You basically do the number of miles for the race length(s) you choose, then report your results.  And don't worry about how fast or how slow you may be-it doesn't matter.  Everyone who finishes gets an entry into the prize drawings, and the more events you complete, the more entries you earn...up to 4 entries for the 4 events.  The events are Run 5K, Run 10K, Run Half Marathon and Bike 21K (13 miles).  You can enter 1, 2, 3 or all 4 events and you have from March 20th thru March 31st to complete the ones you register for.

Did you catch the part about the prizes?  Yup, Jess has some fantastic sponsors like Nuun, Racer Frames, Gone For A Run and more and you could win a prize from one of them just for participating.  Again, it doesn't matter if you have the fastest time or the slowest one-if you finish and report a time for one or more of the distances you register for, you get entries into the prize drawings.

Best of all?  It's all free!  Now, if you want some bling (AKA a medal for those unfamiliar with the term) then you can pony up the $10 for the optional race medal but if you'd prefer not to and just want to take your chances with the drawings, you can do that too.  This year there's also team options (5 or 10 person teams) where you can purchase the team pack and not only get the bling for each person but some other goodies as well.

I did the Jelly Bean last year and had a good time (even if my neighbors thought I was a bit nuts out there in my bunny ears)...you can read my blog post from it here and see some of the pics I took.  I've already signed up for this year for the 5K and 10K.  I still don't own a bike (*sniff*sniff*) so no bike event for me...and while I was thinking about adding the half marathon, I've scaled back my Spring calendar to prepare for this year's Expedition Everest 5K adventure race at Walt Disney World and don't have any training miles over 7 planned so it'll probably just be the 5K and 10K for me again this year.

Anyway, go check out the race info and sign up...and don't forget to buy some jelly beans before your race(s) to celebrate with after...or even along the way-jelly beans are actually pretty good fuel when doing miles!

Have you ever done a virtual race before?  Did you like it, and will you be signing up for the Jelly Bean?

Jelly Beans and the Easter Bunny (aka ME) heads out for some miles

So remember I posted about the Jelly Bean Virtual Race? Well the week is over now and I went with just the 5K and 10K (still pining away for a bike of my very own *sigh*). Forgot to take pictures for the 5K but snapped some today. I was in Target last night and just for the heck of it wandered over to the Easter section and stumbled upon a lone pair of fuzzy bunny ears lying amongst the remaining scattered bags of candy. They were only a dollar so I decided to get them, just for fun. See?

And yes, I did wear them the whole time out today like I was the Easter Bunny. Got lots of smiles from the other people I passed along the way. A runner headed in the opposite direction got a kick out of them and gave me a thumbs up (she said something too but I was listening to heavy metal at the time and by the time I realized she was talking to me, she had already passed me). It was beautiful out today. It was around 74 degrees by the time I headed out with hardly a cloud in the sky and warmed to 79 by the time I was done. Thankfully the humidity was only around 58% so the temps didn't feel too hot-plus my route was shaded about 75% of the time and there was a decent breeze going.

For the 5K I did during the week I did 48:12 and today's 10K was 1:38:20. Not fast but still decent. Had some fun along the way making bunny shadows:

And as the Easter Bunny will tell you, jelly beans are a great fuel source...and they sure taste better than a gel!

Now to submit my times and pics to the virtual race. No, the times don't "count"-meaning winners aren't determined by how fast you were...prizes are randomly awarded so we'll see if I win anything...and even if I don't, it was a fun way to spend my miles-even with some of the odd looks I got from passing cars...could it have been the bunny ears?

Virtual racing: The Jelly Bean Virtual Race

Typically when I'm doing a race, it's in-person, meaning I'm there alongside hundreds, thousands or even tens of thousands of other runners and walkers. Every now and then, I see a post somewhere for some virtual race that's going on...what's a virtual race you ask? Well, that's when people from all over (the city/state/country/world) run a race together, but separately. Meaning we all don't travel to the same place to run the same course, instead we run whatever the virtual race distance is but in our own town or on our own treadmill and then report back how we did. Most of these are just for fun, like the Running of the Ears Munchkin Run (we did a half of a half-meaning half of a half marathon so 6.5 miles where we treated ourselves to munchkin donuts at the end)

We did that one so those of us left at home during the Disneyland Half Marathon weekend last year wouldn't feel left out. I even went so far as to map out my miles so I ran/walked to Dunkin Donuts, got my munchkins, then ran/walked back home...I think the people at the shop thought the sweaty smelly girl buying munchkins was a little nuts.

Anyway, I've been reading some recommended running blogs and came across Run With Jess. Excellent blog, lots of great product reviews and an overall good read. I saw something there about The Jelly Bean Virtual Race and was intrigued. At first I thought, how cute...then later I thought, hmmm I think I'd like to try that! Then I realized there's also some neat raffle prizes from sponsors like SparkleSkirts, Nuun, Gu and several other cool places-and I decided to go ahead and sign up. I've initially signed up to do the 5K and 10K, but I'm thinking since we can do them any time over a whole week (April 1-8) that I may also add the half marathon...I would do the 10K this Sunday, the 5K during the week and the half the following weekend. I just wish I actually owned a bike so I could do the bike 21K also (I really miss having a bike, but that's a post for another day). I may wind up only doing the 5 & 10K's like originally planned, but I'm going to shoot for all three (anyone have a bike they want to give me to make it all four? LOL).

So if you have a chance, I'd recommend checking out the blog and signing up for the virtual race...hey, you might even win something! I'll report back next week on how things went.