Diary of a Disney Princess Half Marathoner – part 2
Feb 27, 2011 Posted From My Phone, Travel
It’s 5:40 and @DisneyDeborah and I are in our corral near the back. I can see on the big TV screen that the wheelchair racers are about to start. I see these guys go by each year at the NYC Marathon, and they’re amazing.
Fireworks go off as each coral starts. That’s so cool.
OK, it’s 6am and our corral is next! Here we go! (picture 1)
This is crazy, there are photo ops all along the route with Disney characters. I can’t wait in line for a picture, the sweeper bus will come pick me up! Although I did stop to take a picture of the bouncing men in spandex. (picture 2) That was pretty awesome. This is definitely a race for women.
We’re running a little, then walking, then running. We can keep this up for 13.1 miles.
There are a lot of volunteers out here cheering us on, and people taking pictures from the monorail.
Running through the Magic Kingdom now! (picture 3)
Just passed about forty runners. They were waiting in line for the port-a-potties, but still, I’m ahead of them.
Mile nine can kiss my ass. It’s getting a lot harder now. Not much jogging going on at all.
I feel a little better after sitting down for twenty seconds. I was peeing, but sitting is sitting. It was refreshing. (No picture. You’re welcome.)
Home stretch. Pretty impossible to jog now, it’s a bottleneck of walkers. I’m going to get the lead out for the last stretch though.
Finish line. (picture 4)
Medal. (picture 5)
Originally posted on SelfishMom.com, from Amy’s cell phone (so please excuse any weird formatting). All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has Compensation Levels of 7 & 8. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information. Amy also blogs at Filming In Brooklyn, Behind the Screen, and Momtourage, and podcasts with The Blogging Angels.
Want to catch up on my runDisney adventures? Here are the other posts (newest first):
Disney’s Tangled Royal Family 5K
Disney’s Fit for a Princess Expo
From bad, to worse, to great with runDisney
And then a few zebra wandered by
A half marathon that fits on a t-shirt
From couch potato to 26K with runDisney
Disney Princess Half Marathon: Done
Diary of a Disney Princess Half Marathoner – Part 1
So this is what Disney does to me
Disney Princess Half Marathon: DONE
Feb 27, 2011 Posted From My Phone, Travel
Originally posted on SelfishMom.com, from Amy’s cell phone (so please excuse any weird formatting). All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has Compensation Levels of 7 & 8. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information. Amy also blogs at Filming In Brooklyn, Behind the Screen, and Momtourage, and podcasts with The Blogging Angels.
Want to catch up on my runDisney adventures? Here are the other posts (newest first):
Disney’s Tangled Royal Family 5K
Disney’s Fit for a Princess Expo
From bad, to worse, to great with runDisney
And then a few zebra wandered by
A half marathon that fits on a t-shirt
From couch potato to 26K with runDisney
Diary of a Disney Princess Half Marathoner – Part 2
Diary of a Disney Princess Half Marathoner – Part 1
So this is what Disney does to me
Diary of a Disney Princess Half Marathoner – part 1
Feb 27, 2011 Posted From My Phone, Travel
It’s 11:30 and I’m going to bed. I have all of my stuff laid out for the morning. I don’t want go risk being late. (picture 1)
Woke up at 2:40am, which is pretty close to when I normally go to bed. And I slept terribly. I went to bed at 11:30, and it took me about half an hour to fall asleep, then I woke up every half hour. I was just so nervous about oversleeping! I had two alarms and a wake-up call set!
My running pants say it all. (picture 2)
It’s 3:30 and I’m on a bus headed to the race. There were race buses lined up as far as I could see, and that was just for one hotel! Seventeen thousand people run this race, almost all of them women. And from the look of this bus, most of them are in tiaras and tutus. I’m wearing big silver mouse ears that are probably going to drive me crazy during the race.
It’s 3:45 and this is just crazy. Running princesses as far as the eye can see, walking to the race start. (picture 3)
It’s 4:20 and I finally found the media tent. It was worth the walk though: I was the first one to use a port-a-potty. That’s never happened before, and will never happen again. Disney is totally spoiling me.
I just passed by a table full of pastries. I didn’t even want one. What’s the matter with me? Oh yeah, I remember: I don’t want to throw up a cheese Danish on the race.
4:45 Headed to the start. It’s a 25 minute walk. That’s so not right. I’m so tired!
Originally posted on SelfishMom.com, from Amy’s cell phone (so please excuse any weird formatting). All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has Compensation Levels of 7 & 8. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information. Amy also blogs at Filming In Brooklyn, Behind the Screen, and Momtourage, and podcasts with The Blogging Angels.
Want to catch up on my runDisney adventures? Here are the other posts (newest first):
Disney’s Tangled Royal Family 5K
Disney’s Fit for a Princess Expo
From bad, to worse, to great with runDisney
And then a few zebra wandered by
A half marathon that fits on a t-shirt
From couch potato to 26K with runDisney
Diary of a Disney Princess Half Marathoner – Part 2
Disney Princess Half Marathon: Done
So this is what Disney does to me
eBay Classifieds and my half marathon attempt
Feb 26, 2011 What's Going On
The following post is sponsored by eBay Classifieds.com.
So back in September I’d heard about the Disney Princess Half Marathon on twitter. It seemed like a reasonable goal: 13.1 miles, with almost six months to train. I admit it, I get excited about things in the beginning and then my interest tapers off. But I had run a four mile race on Mothers Day, and I was motivated to do this! I started jogging two or three times a week and by November had worked myself up to a slow six miles. I was really proud of myself, and things looked really good for the race in February.
There was just one factor I hadn’t taken into consideration: it would get cold. Duh. I mean, I just didn’t think about it! I don’t like gyms, so I’d been doing all of my jogging outside. Once it got cold, I just stopped. After a little while I decided that the only way I’d be able to train consistently would be if I got a treadmill. If I’d just done it right away I’d be in really good shape right now. But I procrastinated. It was really stupid.
I’m an eBay Classifieds ambassador, so it was a natural place for me to start looking. Once I finally did, I had a treadmill in my house within forty-eight hours! There were a lot of them for sale in really great shape that were ideal for walking, but I needed a heavy-duty one for jogging. I found one in Connecticut and my neighbor drove me up there in his truck to take a look. It was perfect: made by True, a really great treadmill company, it had been lightly used over the years and was in fantastic condition. This was much closer to something that you’d find in a gym than the ones you see for sale on TV.
I wanted to leave it in the front entryway. My husband had a problem with this.
Getting it down our basement stairs was not easy. We had to take it apart, and even then it weighed a ton. But we got it down there, and I was able to get some training in for the last few weeks before the race. After a while I got tired of watching TV on my laptop while jogging – it was hard to see and even harder to hear. I jumped back on eBayClassifieds, and found the perfect TV: a 27″ Sharp Aquos HDTV, in perfect condition, being sold for half what a new one would cost (the owner had upgraded to a bigger set). I called the seller and picked it up that night!
I need to be distracted while I exercise. A Daily Show and a Colbert Report and I'm done!
My original goal with this race was to really run it. But my winter non-training routine put an end to that. So, my only goal for tomorrow is to finish the race without getting picked up by the sweeper bus, to make it 13.1 miles and get that gorgeous princess medal at the end. And then the clock starts on next year. I will have a year to get ready, with no excuses: the treadmill is in my basement, with a big TV! My next purchase on eBay Classifieds, as soon as I get back, will be a big fan so that I won’t come up with another excuse not to exercise once the summer comes. And come next February, I plan on kicking this race’s butt.
EBay Classifieds is such an easy site to navigate. The look is clean, the pictures are prominent, and there are many different ways to search. It’s become my go-to site not just for used items, but I also found an amazing AV installation company there to come out and hang a couple of TVs for us. Whenever I look for something on the site I don’t have to sift through a bunch of irrelevant or out-of-date listings, and I get the piece of mind of knowing that they don’t allow any “shady” categories.
My goal for the spring is to really clean house, getting rid of a lot of stuff that’s been taking up space, and anything worth selling will be listed on eBay Classifieds!
But first, I have to get through tomorrow’s race. I actually have to get up in less than four hours to make it to my race bus on time at 3:45am (insane, I know). I’m really looking forward to the race, and I mean that. I only wish I’d gone to eBay Classifieds and gotten my training back on track a few months ago.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 0. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information. Amy also blogs at Filming In Brooklyn, Behind the Screen, and Momtourage, and podcasts with The Blogging Angels.
Tags: eBay Classifieds, jogging
ESPN Wide World of Sports
Feb 26, 2011 Posted From My Phone, Travel
Our press group just spent the afternoon at Disney World’s ESPN Wide World of Sports. This is not an amusement park like EPCOT or The Magic Kingdom, it’s an actual sports complex, and I’m guessing most people don’t even know that it’s there.
ESPN can host 60 different sports at the facility. There’s a huge cheerleading competition going on there right now (picture 2). They host 300 sporting events every year, including more than a dozen Atlanta Braves home games (picture 3).
I spent about an hour shopping at the race expo (picture 4). Basically, you could show up the day before the race and buy everything you needed to run, from sports bras to sneakers to race-related tee shirts. I bought a new Champion sports bra – the exact same one I was going to wear tomorrow, but now it won’t be threadbare. I also bought a runner’s version of a fanny pack to hold my phone (race tweeting!) and the gross looking goo everyone convinced me I’m going to need to eat during the race.
We were completely and totally spoiled by a private visit from Minnie Mouse, all dressed up in her workout gear! (picture 5, with DisneyDeborah)
The best part was that our little press group got personalized race advice from Jeff Galloway! His advice for me: Walk the first five miles. Then, see if you can switch to running for fifteen seconds each minute. For the last three miles, see if you can run for half of each minute. That makes so much sense, and left to my own devices, that’s probably the opposite of what I would have done: I would’ve run the first few miles then collapsed from exhaustion. So I’m very glad to get this last-minute advice.
We ended the day with a fabulous dinner at Mama Melrose in Hollywood Studios. I take my training seriously: I’ve been carbo loading for months.
We’re on our bus back to our hotel, and it’s a little disconcerting to know that I’ll be getting on the race bus in less than seven hours. I’ve never been so scared of oversleeping in my life!
Originally posted on SelfishMom.com, from Amy’s cell phone (so please excuse any weird formatting). All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has Compensation Levels of 7 & 8. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information. Amy also blogs at Filming In Brooklyn, Behind the Screen, and Momtourage, and podcasts with The Blogging Angels.
Want to catch up on my runDisney adventures? Here are the other posts (newest first):
Disney’s Tangled Royal Family 5K
Disney’s Fit for a Princess Expo
From bad, to worse, to great with runDisney
And then a few zebra wandered by
A half marathon that fits on a t-shirt
From couch potato to 26K with runDisney
Diary of a Disney Princess Half Marathoner – Part 2
Disney Princess Half Marathon: Done
Diary of a Disney Princess Half Marathoner – Part 1
So this is what Disney does to me
I just designed my own shirt!
Feb 25, 2011 Posted From My Phone, Travel
This is so cool! This is my first time at Downtown Disney, so I didn’t know what was here. I just designed my own tee shirt at the Hanes Design a Tee store! I’m going to wear it during the Princess Half Marathon on Sunday.
I just hope the shirt doesn’t jinx me!
Originally posted on SelfishMom.com, from Amy’s cell phone (so please excuse any weird formatting). All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has Compensation Levels of 7 & 8. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information. Amy also blogs at Filming In Brooklyn, Behind the Screen, and Momtourage, and podcasts with The Blogging Angels.
Want to catch up on my runDisney adventures? Here are the other posts (newest first):
Disney’s Tangled Royal Family 5K
Disney’s Fit for a Princess Expo
From bad, to worse, to great with runDisney
And then a few zebra wandered by
A half marathon that fits on a t-shirt
From couch potato to 26K with runDisney
Diary of a Disney Princess Half Marathoner – Part 2
Disney Princess Half Marathon: Done
Diary of a Disney Princess Half Marathoner – Part 1
So this is what Disney does to me
So this is what Disney does to me
Feb 25, 2011 Posted From My Phone, Travel
I checked in a little while ago at Disney’s Polynesian resort, after one of the worst flights in memory. If there was ever a situation where a person should spend money on first class tickets, it’s when traveling to Orlando without kids. Most of the plane was headed for Disney World. I was surrounded by screaming, kicking children and parents who just weren’t caring enough about what their kids were doing. By the end of the flight I was not in a very Disney mood.
It took forever to get my luggage because I couldn’t recognize my own bag. I was starving and thirsty and among the many things I’d forgotten to pack was my Tylenol, which I was really needing at that point.
I went through the line to the Magical Express, and watched as the man showing us to the bus turned around and offered to give a “high 4″ to the kids in front of me with his big Mickey glove. They were so excited, jumping up to meet his big hand! And I just melted. They were still in the airport, but their Disney experience had begun.
I lost it a little again on the bus, when they showed the magical memories commercial, the one with all of the kids being told that they’re going to Disney World. I was remembering my first time at Disney World. My dad put down a $50 deposit to borrow a Polaroid camera, to record our magical memories. I wonder where those pictures are.
Yesterday some people I know were tweeting about Disney just being a massive marketing machine. But they’re not looking at it from a kid’s point of view. For a kid, it’s magic. And if Disney is a massive marketing machine, at least they have an incredible product to market.
I’ll be back here in a few weeks with my kids, and I can’t wait to make more magical Disney memories with them.
I have no idea how to disclose this post. Disney was a special part of my life for 35 years before I had any kind of relationship with them. I work with them because I love them. I’m very lucky.
Originally posted on SelfishMom.com, from Amy’s cell phone (so please excuse any weird formatting). All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has Compensation Levels of 7 & 8. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information. Amy also blogs at Filming In Brooklyn, Behind the Screen, and Momtourage, and podcasts with The Blogging Angels.
Want to catch up on my runDisney adventures? Here are the other posts (newest first):
Disney’s Tangled Royal Family 5K
Disney’s Fit for a Princess Expo
From bad, to worse, to great with runDisney
And then a few zebra wandered by
A half marathon that fits on a t-shirt
From couch potato to 26K with runDisney
Diary of a Disney Princess Half Marathoner – Part 2
Disney Princess Half Marathon: Done
Diary of a Disney Princess Half Marathoner – Part 1
Why are airlines allowed to screw us around like this?
Feb 25, 2011 What's Going On
The fact that I got to the airport at 10:20 for an 11:30 flight is completely my fault. Somehow, when I checked in online and printed out my boarding pass yesterday, I made a mental note that the flight left at 12:30 from LaGuardia. The fact that it actually leaves as 11:30 from JFK is kind-of important. Luckily I was mostly packed when I went to bed, so when I checked on the flight status at around nine this morning – the exact time I would’ve left for the airport had I not been stupid – I wasn’t totally screwed. I called and changed the car to 9:45 and tossed the rest of my stuff in my suitcase. Really, all I was doing was getting to the airport at a more reasonable time. I’m traveling alone, my bag is already paid for, I’m wearing slip-on shoes, and I’m a completely non-threatening middle-aged white woman. Today would be easy.
I waltzed into the terminal and an employee immediately asked me what time my flight was. When I said 11:30 she went into panic mode. “You better hurry, you only have ten minutes to check in! Here, go to the priority line.” I won’t turn down a priority line, but I really didn’t understand the rush. The woman who checked me in was only slightly less panicked. Apparently the baggage is the big deal: ten more minutes and my luggage wouldn’t have made it on. I don’t always check bags so this fact had escaped me all these years.
I went to security and was quite literally the only passenger there. I got through no problem and rushed to the gate…where there was absolutely nothing going on. I asked the gate agent when we’d start boarding. “Well, at least not until the plane gets here.”
I understand that there are many moving parts behind airline travel that I don’t understand. But last year My family almost wasn’t allowed to check in because we were late – again, totally our fault (my fault, actually) – and after begging to go to the front of the security line, and quite literally running to the gate, that plane wasn’t there yet either.
Surely, what with all the fancy electronic ways of tracking things nowadays, there HAS to be a way for a check-in agent to be able to see if an incoming plane is running on time or not, so that when we don’t get to the airport as ridiculously early as they’re requiring us, we’re not totally screwed.
