Barca33Runner
Please excuse the crudity of this model
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2014
Half Marathon
At this point everyone knows what happened with the Half. When I heard the news I was somewhat disappointed; I'm a little obsessive over things being "complete" so not having an official Half does bother me in some ways. But really, I was more disappointed for others. I've done Dopey before and my legs felt great after the first two days. I knew we (my Sister and I) were going to go out and run a 2:30-2:45 half with a bunch of character stops and mostly taking it easy to conserve energy for Sunday and I was excited to be able to sleep on Saturday. If this had been my first Dopey, Goofy, Half or if I had been running the Half as my primary race I think my feelings would have been different. I think that if the 2012 Half (my first race) had been cancelled I would have gone home relieved that I didn't have to run, told myself I would have easily done it anyway, and slowly concocted a fish story over the years as I drifted further and further out of shape about my glory days of being prepared to run a Half Marathon in 2012. I'm glad I got to run my first race and really happy with the adventure it has started for me. I hope the cancellation hardened the resolve of those running their first race to continue on their journey rather than giving them an excuse to call it quits.
Disney Springs
Unfortunately I am not much of a photographer when it comes to my phone, so I don't have many pictures from our exploits at Disney Springs (I think there will just be one). I am a fan of Disney Springs. Primarily because I am a fan of food...and eating...and eating food. Over the course of our trip we made four visits to Disney Springs: Thursday after we arrived, Saturday-NYE, Wednesday before going to the Expo, and Saturday before the Marathon. Mainly we walk around and look in the shops for a while and find somewhere to eat (or set up ADRs since we were a large group). We tend not to buy a ton of things but it's fun to walk around. When we have stayed on-site we have also liked to head over and watch a movie or two as well (particularly when we didn't have AP's).
The first thing that hit me this trip was how much bigger DS had become. The last time I was at WDW was last year for Marathon Weekend and, well, things have changed. Since we were off-site parking was a concern, but the Orange and Lime parking garages made that a cinch. I was incredibly impressed by those structures and with the fact parking was free. I don't really know how to describe what was new, but I'd say everything that wasn't directly on the water was pretty much new to me. It's really amazing how far it has come in the last few years since we started visiting in 2012.
Anyway, the individual trips become a bit of a jumble so I think I'll just hit some of the highlights:
-My brother knew a reporter from ESPN who was covering the Under Armour All-American Game at WWoS, so that was the impetus for our first visit. My Brother, BiL, two nephews and I came over and watched one of the practice sessions. There were a few famous ESPN/NFL personalities conducting and observing the practices (Deion Sanders, Steve Mariucci, Mike Golic, and a few others) so it was kind of cool to see them. It was amazing how large some of these 17-18 year-olds were. We headed to DS afterward because it was a hot day and the kids were hungry (and were promised ice cream). It was beyond packed at ~1 PM when we arrived. One of the parking garages was already full. We were worried about finding a place to eat, but we passed Paradiso 37 and it had seating so we jumped on it. We'd never eaten there before. Food wasn't bad but not an instant favorite. We headed to Haagen Dazs for ice cream on the way out.
-The crowds on Thursday shaped our plan for DS for the rest of the trip. If we were going, it would be at 10 AM when it opened, we'd grab lunch and leave before it was overrun. The plan worked well.
-This happened Saturday:
Yes, my 5-year-old niece loves to pose for pictures. My other niece doesn't look so enthused but she loved having her face painted (maybe just overwhelmed during pictures?)
-Saturday was a full family affair and we were incredibly lucky without an ADR to get a table at Raglan Road (one of our favorites). It was really cool because it was a gigantic booth that was basically a room unto itself which works really well for our group even in a restaurant that is generally loud and active. A good meal as always.
-The kids found Pokeball bath bombs at Basin and they became an obsession for the rest of the trip. They love Pokemon (I know, literally, nothing about it) and needed to take a "Pokebath" every night. There was even a moment of devastation when Nephew (5) returned late when my Brother's family had been visiting my SiL's friends and found out my other niece and nephew had already taken their Pokebath and gone to bed.
-Wednesday we had an ADR at Portobello at 12:15 and did some shopping before heading to the expo. Lunch was good. I had the Caprese Sandwich and I really liked it. We've eaten there a couple times and while it's nothing spectacular for the price it gets the job done.
-Saturday we made a quick stop in the rain before heading to the Expo so my sister could get the refunds for my niece and nephews Kid's Races entries. It was at this point that I wish we would have run the Half Marathon and that the Kid's Races weren't cancelled. I'm pretty sure we would have spent way less time getting into and out of the Expo after the Kid's Races than we did with all of the refund issues going on. Didn't have time to sit down for lunch at DS and we wanted to try the poutine stand so that's what we did. I got the Holiday Special (turkey, cheese curd, gravy and cranberry relish) and it was good. The fries themselves were the best part, so I guess that's half the battle. Not sure poutine (and later pizza) was the best choice before a marathon, but I wasn't trying to break any records.
-I'm a sucker for desserts so I had to check out Amorette's. I got a few of the small desserts to share with the group (Opera Cake, Signature Mickey Mousse, and Lemon Curd Cheesecake) early in our trip. The cheesecake was my choice for a post-marathon treat.
-Also on the dessert front, we have an obsession with character caramel apples. I think 25% of the impetus of going to DS each time was to pick up a couple more apples from the Candy Cauldron to share for dessert each night. I think over the course of the trip and to take home we were somewhere in the range of 15-20 apples. We have a problem.
I don't know whether I'll get to it later today or tomorrow, but the final post on the Marathon and end of the trip will be up sometime today or tomorrow.
At this point everyone knows what happened with the Half. When I heard the news I was somewhat disappointed; I'm a little obsessive over things being "complete" so not having an official Half does bother me in some ways. But really, I was more disappointed for others. I've done Dopey before and my legs felt great after the first two days. I knew we (my Sister and I) were going to go out and run a 2:30-2:45 half with a bunch of character stops and mostly taking it easy to conserve energy for Sunday and I was excited to be able to sleep on Saturday. If this had been my first Dopey, Goofy, Half or if I had been running the Half as my primary race I think my feelings would have been different. I think that if the 2012 Half (my first race) had been cancelled I would have gone home relieved that I didn't have to run, told myself I would have easily done it anyway, and slowly concocted a fish story over the years as I drifted further and further out of shape about my glory days of being prepared to run a Half Marathon in 2012. I'm glad I got to run my first race and really happy with the adventure it has started for me. I hope the cancellation hardened the resolve of those running their first race to continue on their journey rather than giving them an excuse to call it quits.
Disney Springs
Unfortunately I am not much of a photographer when it comes to my phone, so I don't have many pictures from our exploits at Disney Springs (I think there will just be one). I am a fan of Disney Springs. Primarily because I am a fan of food...and eating...and eating food. Over the course of our trip we made four visits to Disney Springs: Thursday after we arrived, Saturday-NYE, Wednesday before going to the Expo, and Saturday before the Marathon. Mainly we walk around and look in the shops for a while and find somewhere to eat (or set up ADRs since we were a large group). We tend not to buy a ton of things but it's fun to walk around. When we have stayed on-site we have also liked to head over and watch a movie or two as well (particularly when we didn't have AP's).
The first thing that hit me this trip was how much bigger DS had become. The last time I was at WDW was last year for Marathon Weekend and, well, things have changed. Since we were off-site parking was a concern, but the Orange and Lime parking garages made that a cinch. I was incredibly impressed by those structures and with the fact parking was free. I don't really know how to describe what was new, but I'd say everything that wasn't directly on the water was pretty much new to me. It's really amazing how far it has come in the last few years since we started visiting in 2012.
Anyway, the individual trips become a bit of a jumble so I think I'll just hit some of the highlights:
-My brother knew a reporter from ESPN who was covering the Under Armour All-American Game at WWoS, so that was the impetus for our first visit. My Brother, BiL, two nephews and I came over and watched one of the practice sessions. There were a few famous ESPN/NFL personalities conducting and observing the practices (Deion Sanders, Steve Mariucci, Mike Golic, and a few others) so it was kind of cool to see them. It was amazing how large some of these 17-18 year-olds were. We headed to DS afterward because it was a hot day and the kids were hungry (and were promised ice cream). It was beyond packed at ~1 PM when we arrived. One of the parking garages was already full. We were worried about finding a place to eat, but we passed Paradiso 37 and it had seating so we jumped on it. We'd never eaten there before. Food wasn't bad but not an instant favorite. We headed to Haagen Dazs for ice cream on the way out.
-The crowds on Thursday shaped our plan for DS for the rest of the trip. If we were going, it would be at 10 AM when it opened, we'd grab lunch and leave before it was overrun. The plan worked well.
-This happened Saturday:
Yes, my 5-year-old niece loves to pose for pictures. My other niece doesn't look so enthused but she loved having her face painted (maybe just overwhelmed during pictures?)
-Saturday was a full family affair and we were incredibly lucky without an ADR to get a table at Raglan Road (one of our favorites). It was really cool because it was a gigantic booth that was basically a room unto itself which works really well for our group even in a restaurant that is generally loud and active. A good meal as always.
-The kids found Pokeball bath bombs at Basin and they became an obsession for the rest of the trip. They love Pokemon (I know, literally, nothing about it) and needed to take a "Pokebath" every night. There was even a moment of devastation when Nephew (5) returned late when my Brother's family had been visiting my SiL's friends and found out my other niece and nephew had already taken their Pokebath and gone to bed.
-Wednesday we had an ADR at Portobello at 12:15 and did some shopping before heading to the expo. Lunch was good. I had the Caprese Sandwich and I really liked it. We've eaten there a couple times and while it's nothing spectacular for the price it gets the job done.
-Saturday we made a quick stop in the rain before heading to the Expo so my sister could get the refunds for my niece and nephews Kid's Races entries. It was at this point that I wish we would have run the Half Marathon and that the Kid's Races weren't cancelled. I'm pretty sure we would have spent way less time getting into and out of the Expo after the Kid's Races than we did with all of the refund issues going on. Didn't have time to sit down for lunch at DS and we wanted to try the poutine stand so that's what we did. I got the Holiday Special (turkey, cheese curd, gravy and cranberry relish) and it was good. The fries themselves were the best part, so I guess that's half the battle. Not sure poutine (and later pizza) was the best choice before a marathon, but I wasn't trying to break any records.
-I'm a sucker for desserts so I had to check out Amorette's. I got a few of the small desserts to share with the group (Opera Cake, Signature Mickey Mousse, and Lemon Curd Cheesecake) early in our trip. The cheesecake was my choice for a post-marathon treat.
-Also on the dessert front, we have an obsession with character caramel apples. I think 25% of the impetus of going to DS each time was to pick up a couple more apples from the Candy Cauldron to share for dessert each night. I think over the course of the trip and to take home we were somewhere in the range of 15-20 apples. We have a problem.
I don't know whether I'll get to it later today or tomorrow, but the final post on the Marathon and end of the trip will be up sometime today or tomorrow.
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