Category: runDisney

Expedition Everest Challenge, Part 3: The Hunt

After completing the 5K, the ‘Challenge’ part of the Expedition Everest Challenge is to complete a scavenger hunt.   (I’m not sure why this is called a scavenger hunt, as there isn’t really any “find something” aspect to this at all — unless you didn’t pay attention on the race to where the clue stations were located).

As soon as I crossed the finish for the 5K, I headed to the first clue station to get my first question.   This was by far the most challenging clue of the night:

Clue 1:

Only time will tell if you make it to the summit of Mt. Everest.   If climbing for 24 hours straight, how many times will at least 3 digits in the row be the same on your analog watch?   This is not boot camp so don’t use military time.

Thinking I was clever and had seen through the misdirection, I immediately went to the volunteers handing out Clue 2 and said you would never get 3 of the same digits in a row on an analog watch.   But this wasn’t the answer they were looking for; the clue writer was the clueless one here on the difference between analog and digital watches.

I struggled with this one more than I should have, probably because I was overly concerned with my time to finish the challenge (not sure why at this point, as I certainly wasn’t going to be winning anything!)    I quickly came up with 1:11, 2:22, 3:33, 4:44, 5:55, 11:11, and 12:22, knew to double that for a 24-hour period, and wrote down the answer 14.   Nope, try again.   At this point I saw that others had written down ’34’ and were being given the second clue, so I decided not to spend any more time on this one, wrote down 34, got the second clue, and didn’t worry more about it until the next day.

(As an aside, the next day I realized 11:11 was just one part of the whole series of 11:10 through 11:19 that all have 3 1’s in a row; but that only got me up to 32.   The last piece to click into place was getting 10:00 with 3 0’s in a row, so adding 10:00 am and 10:00 pm gave me the final two to get to 34.)

Clue 2 was a bit easier, but still required a little time to work through.   There was a wheel with letters around it (think the Wheel of Fortune wheel with letters rather than dollar amounts), and you had to figure out the word spelled a series of spins of the wheel.   They gave the starting letter as ‘C’ and then several directions such as Left 2, Right 2, Left 3 — but the first ‘spin’ wasn’t given as a number, but a hint:

Start with C and turn from there the number of years Expedition Everest has been run‘.

Fortunately, they’d given us the answer to this while we were in the corrals waiting to start the run — they asked more than once for a show of hands, how many had run the event all 7 years it had been run?    So I wasn’t sure if they were looking for 7 (previous runs) or 8 (total including tonight’s run).    I tried 7 first and got C, A, R, A, B, I, N, E, R — yep, that looks good, off to get clue 3!

(The clue stations were all marked with large lit balloons like the ones that marked the corrals at the start of the race, and they were all stationed along the race course — so essentially the challenge gave us a second lap of the in-park portion of the course we’d run earlier in the night. I think I recall the total mileage for the 5K + challenge as coming in at almost exactly 5 miles).

Clue 3 was simply to put into order the groups of letters ERS, INE, NTA, MOU — given the theme of the night I had MOUNTAINEERS as quickly as I could write it down, and was off for Clue 4.

Clue 4 gave the hint:

L + live + A + Sh + N

I was sure this needed to be sounded out to get the answer but I had to look at it several times before getting ‘elevation’.   But I definitely liked the trend of 3 and 4 being easier than 1 and 2 — only one more clue to go!

Clue 5 was not difficult, but it was time consuming.   There was a 13 x 13 grid of letters forming a word search. The clue:

We have finally found the Yeti and you will too, but where?

Solve the word search and you will know where he is hiding. Use this cipher and the previous four answers to help you in this quest.

Clue #1 x 3, Clue #2 x 4, Clue #3 x 2, Clue #4 x 3.

The leftover letters will tell you where the yeti is and what you need to do at the finish line.

So — Clue #1, the answer was 34, and I quickly saw that ‘THIRTYFOUR’ did appear in the word search grid. So I needed to find it twice more, for a total of 3 times, and circle those letters.   Then I circled CARABINER four times, MOUNTAINEERS twice, and ELEVATION 3 times.   The remaining, uncircled letters told me what I needed to do next:

Go Find the hidden Yeti on a clue card and hold it up at the finish

Going back through the clue cards, each had a different bit of artwork on the front.   It took me a bit before I made out the Yeti face diagonally across the second clue card.   I reordered the cards to put #2 on top and then started for the finish line — the final clue station wasn’t all that close so there was still some distance to cover.   As I approached the finish I saw the volunteers checking runners as they came through, if you weren’t holding up Card #2 they’d tell you nope and divert you to the side. I passed straight through, picked up my medal, and then stopped for pictures.

Can you spot the Yeti?

How about now?

Heading for the finish with “Card 2” ready to show

There was an after-party going on inside the park with several rides open, but having already done an AK day and ridden everything we were interested in, we decided to blow off the after-party and head for the room, to try to get some rest for a full day at Epcot the following day.    There were some nice photo ops in the park that might have been worth stopping in for, but I’m much more a morning person than a late nighter so I think for me, calling it a night at this point was the right call.

Done here.

Overall, this was a really fun event, and the only 5K that is treated as an ‘event’ by runDisney — all the other 5Ks are kind of third-tier add-ons to the marathon and half-marathon races.   I think something like this is really a nice change of pace, and while I know this is the last EEC, I hope it’s not the last time there’s an event of this type.

May 22, 2015
Expedition Everest Challenge, Part 2: The Run

The run portion of the Expedition Everest Challenge is a 5K. Our course started out by running around the circumference of the Animal Kingdom parking lot.   This portion of the run made up approximately a mile of the 5K course.   Just before we reached the park entrance, we came to the first of 3 obstacles along the course — the hay bales.   These were pretty low — probably a foot high and a foot long.   It would certainly be possible to just step over them, but I got into the spirit of the challenge and tried to take them at speed.

The first obstacle – Hay Bales

Soon after that I was at the 1 mile marker.   I was running with the new Apple Watch, and had decided to try to workout app on the watch rather than running with the Garmin that I usually use.   I was a little concerned that we hit the 1 mile marker while the watch showed me still well short of a mile (I think about .8).   After the race, I learned from other runners that it wasn’t my watch — the course was not officially certified and was in fact quite a bit short (somewhere in the 2.7 – 2.8 mile range).   That’s a surprisingly large miss even for a non-certified course.

Our course through the park was essentially a clockwise lap around the park — through the Oasis, left in front of the Tree of Life into Africa / Harambe, then cutting across to Asia and the Expedition Everest area.   Our path then took us into backstage areas.   There was a long out-and-back stretch along a roadway, and here we came to the second obstacle, which was to crawl under netting.   Fortunately this was on clean dry grass so it wasn’t too tough, although it was surprisingly exhausting and I really felt glad to get back to my feet at the far end.

Coming out of the second obstacle

At this point, continuing on the roadway away from the Animal Kingdom, I was overtaken by a couple of riders on bicycles.   Other runners were alerting everyone to move right so the riders could get by.   Someone said ‘Fire Department’; I’m not sure if that was correct but they were certainly EMTs from somewhere, as within a minute of them passing me I came upon the scene where they were performing CPR on a runner.   I heard conflicting stories about the outcome, so I’m not sure if he was OK or not.   I certainly hope that it turned out OK.

After we finished the out-and-back leg of the course on the roadway, we turned left and merged with runners who were finishing up the ‘scavenger hunt’ portion of the challenge which comes after the 5K.   At this point there were signs and recorded audio telling runners to merge to the right, and scavengers to merge to the left.   After this, it was a turn into the finish chute for the run.    But unlike other races, when you finish the run, you’re far from done (and there is no medal awaiting you for “just” finishing the 5K).   There was a stop for water bottles, and then race volunteers handing out sharpies with small LED flashlights attached.   Then you picked up your first clue for the scavenger hunt.

The details of the scavenger hunt will be in the third and final Expedition Everest Challenge recap post.

May 20, 2015
Expedition Everest Challenge, Part 1: Before the Race

I recently returned from my latest WDW trip and wanted to write up some memories of the trip while it was still fresh in my mind.

The main purpose of this trip was to run in the Expedition Everest Challenge (EEC).   I’ve always thought this looked like an interesting race but the timing has never worked out for me to run it.   When it was announced that 2015 would be final year for the EEC, I committed right away to attend.   Several of my friends were also planning to be there the same week — one for the EEC, another for her birthday — so I knew it would be a fun week to be there.   And the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival happening at the same time was another plus, although as it turned out we only spent one day at Epcot and didn’t see as much of that as we might have liked.

Registration and “Expo”

I knew from talking to friends who had run the EEC before that there wasn’t really a race expo — but I still wasn’t prepared for just how scaled down this event would be.   First of all, final race instructions didn’t even arrive until I was in Florida, so I wasn’t really even sure what was going to be happening when.   When I did receive the final race instructions email, I learned that the location for the registration was the Animal Kingdom parking lot.   When we arrived at the park, directions were non-existent — I never saw a single sign directing runners how to get to the registration location.    Since the registration didn’t open until noon our plan was to spend the morning in the Animal Kingdom then pick up my bib and other materials on the way out.   As we were trying to get into the park there was all “all stop” on the trams as a guest was walking down the tram-only roadway trying to find a way through the barriers and into the registration area.     Partly — OK, mostly — his fault, but again the complete lack of directions on how to get to the tents didn’t help.   (When we exited the park and were ready to head over to registration, we had to ask a cast member the best way to get there as I never saw a directional sign. It was definitely arranged in such a way that they clearly expected you to ride the tram to the front entrance and then walk back to the tents — but this was unclear from the parking lot and it looked like the trams would take you away from where you needed to be).

The registration area was just a big tent; you went into one side to turn in your waiver and get your race packet (bib, wristband for the after party) and then to the other side to get your race shirt and a plastic bag for the bag check.   It was by far the quickest registration I’ve ever been through for a runDisney event – I was probably out of there in under 10 minutes.    There was no official runDisney merchandise.   New Balance had a booth to sell this year’s monochrome shoes (so glad I got the 2014 version) and Fit2Run had a booth there as well.   (I think there was one other tent but can’t recall which company it was for).   That was the totality of the ‘expo’; I didn’t make any stops other than the registration tent and then we headed back to the car to spend the rest of the day in another park.

Pre-Race

On race night, I had dinner with friends at Jiko and then made the short drive over to the Animal Kingdom parking lot.    We arrived about 8:45 for a 10 p.m. start, and had a chance to do some visiting before time to head into the corrals.   I was in corral I (J was the last, so I’m definitely a back-of-the-pack run/walker).   The first corral started at 10, and I believe it was about 10:40 when our corral was scheduled to start.   Unlike other runDisney starts there were no fireworks as each corral started — I’m guessing that this is out of consideration for the animals rather than due to the relatively small scale of the race.   From the corral I watched the other groups start one by one. Because of the way the corrals were arranged we didn’t move from our assembly spot until we were the next corral to go.    Once we were up and in position, it was a pretty quick countdown to our start … and that’s where I’ll pick up the story in the next post.

Expedition Everest 2015 Starting Line

May 16, 2015
Dumbo Double Dare 2013: The Half-Marathon
Back-to-back runs is something new for me, so I wasn’t sure how Saturday’s 10K run was going to affect my run in the half on Sunday.    Even during training, there were no back-to-back runs.   I was following Jeff Galloway’s training plan for the Dumbo, and in that training plan he has you do long walks, rather than runs, on Saturday, and then the long runs on Sunday.    That seemed odd to me, but who am I to question the master?   So that was my training regimen, imperfectly followed to be sure, but long walks on Saturday and long runs on Sunday.

The good news is that I did not feel any ill effects from Saturday’s 10K. No soreness, aches and pains, or notable fatigue as I was getting ready on Sunday.    And I decided the motto for the day was “no excuses”.   Saturday was done, it was not going to affect my performance on Sunday.    The weather was again unseasonably warm, and while that would undoubtedly affect my speed, it was not going to keep me from finishing and having a great time.   I had three medals waiting for me at the finish line and I would run, walk, or crawl across that finish line to get them.

Pre-Race

The corral situation was less confusing today.   As soon as I turned the corner to head to my corral, I saw the “G” balloon clearly — and now that I know where G corral actually is, I’m pretty sure that the marker balloon had not been there on Saturday.    I knew I’d be slow today, and that starting in the last corral gave me no margin to fall behind pace, so I wanted to at least give myself the advantage of being in the front of the corral.    Mission accomplished — I was ready to enter the corral at 4:20 a.m. and was in the front row.   I sat on the pavement and passed the time texting and Facebooking, although I eventually realized I had better make sure I had enough battery power for the race and put the phone away.

We watched corrals A-F start; I think the intervals were 7 or 8 minutes apart.    As F was moving to the start, they began moving our barricade forward, and we edged our way closer to the start.   Once F had gone they moved us into place — so I had a front row view of Mickey, Minnie, and our race announcer as they counted us down to the race start.

First half of the race

And then we were off.    Being at the front of the corral certainly has its advantages — yesterday I had been so hemmed in that I felt like I couldn’t set my own pace at all.   Today with nothing but pavement in front of me, I was able to establish a good pace early, and the first couple of miles established a good faster-than-PR pace that I hoped would carry through.     Very early on I realized that there was some lingering effect from yesterday’s run — although I had felt nothing standing or walking, once I started to run I felt some twinges in the thighs indicating that I wasn’t 100% recovered from the 10K.   But this never became a factor, just something I was aware of without feeling it was affecting my run.

We did not run around by the convention center today, instead turning left on Katella, and then left on Harbor, to enter the park earlier than in the 10K.   Somewhere before mile 2, there was a big cheer coming from behind us, I turned in time to see the eventual race winner loping past us (Mile 2 and Mile 12 ran parallel for a while behind DCA).   Interestingly enough, I did not see the 2nd place or any other runners, so I have to assume the winner took it by a pretty good margin.

Our course through the parks was different than yesterday.   Instead of coming in through Cars Land, we ran behind Paradise Pier and California Screamin’, and entered the park at the western side of the Pier.   World of Color was again on for us as we ran along the northern side of the lagoon and headed into Cars Land.    From there we ran in front of the Tower of Terror and then headed toward the front of the park, essentially the reverse of yesterday’s course.    As we passed Soarin’ we turned right and exited the park, crossing the Esplanade and then entering Disneyland.

Backstage at DCA

Our course through Disneyland again took us down Main Street, but this time we went left rather than right at the hub and entered Frontierland.     We were able to run the Big Thunder Trail — this has been closed the entire month I’ve been here due to Big Thunder Mountain construction, I wonder if it will be closed again after the race.   We came out into Fantasyland, ran through the castle (yay!), and then turned into Tomorrowland.    We wound our way past it’s a small world and through Mickey’s Toontown, this time exiting Toontown through the same backstage entrance that we came into Toontown through in the 10K.    Our backstage run here was more curtailed than yesterday, heading straight out onto Disneyland Drive and then making a right towards Ball Road.    (I was a little unclear on the exact geography here … it seemed like we were running through the same area the corrals had been.   But that can’t be because the early wave runners would have been through here before the late corrals had emptied.   But I’m now curious — if I’d been at the back of the corral rather than the front, and looked behind me, would I have been able to spot the first wave of runners coming out of the park?

The Mile 4 marker was just as we came out of the park.   Now we had a long stretch of road running ahead.    At most of the mile markers, a couple of sweepers on bikes would tell us how we were doing vs. the required pace — 8 minutes ahead, 8 1/2 minutes ahead, 9 minutes ahead.    I’ve never heard these announcements before, but then I’ve never started in the last corral so I guess I’d never cut it as close.    The good news is the numbers were going up, I was building a little buffer ahead of the sweepers at each mile.

Miles 6 and 7 were all just road running.   Water stops were more frequent than the 10K (the 10K had been criticized for not having enough).    I was getting water at each stop, but had not adjusted sufficiently for the heat and humidity — I didn’t realize it at the time but I was not hydrating enough, and that was going to bite me very shortly.

Second half of the race

Between Mile 7 and 8 we went by a series of classic cars that lined both sides of the route.   I was amazed at how many there were — I figured there would be 20 or so cars, but then you’d turn the corner, and there was another row,   We entered the parking lot of the Honda Center, and there were still more.   There had to be at least a couple of hundred cars on display.   I was really starting to feel the heat at this point; I stopped trying to follow my pre-programmed run/walk ratio and decided instead to just run enough to keep my pace ahead of the required 16 min/mile pace.

At mile 9 we came to Anaheim Stadium.    We got a lot of encouragement here … cheerleaders, marching bands, scout troops — a lot of organizations had turned out to cheer.   (And actually there had been a lot of this along the route prior to this — but this was the main concentration).

It was nice to have the cheerleaders rooting us on, although a lot of them were encouraging us to fight, which seemed a bit strange for a friendly run.    Must be an L.A thing, maybe our race jerseys looked like gang colors.

About this point, the heat caught up with me.    I walked my way through the stadium, not running at all between miles 9 and 10.    I assured myself I just needed to cool off a bit, get some fluids into me, and then I could pick up the pace for the last three miles.   But the reality was I was done running, for all practical purposes — I’d do a few short 15-20 second runs maybe once a mile or so, and across the finish line, but I just didn’t have anything left in the tank.

Mostly it was the heat that had gotten to me, but I won’t deny that I hadn’t been as consistent with my training as I should have been, and always trained in the coolest part of the day in a more temperate climate — so I just had nothing to prepare me for the heat wave that manages to follow me to every runDisney event.    Also, it’s hard to find that motivation to run when everyone around you is walking … we were definitely the back of the pack at this point, and I think everyone within sight of me was content to just walk it in from this point in the race.    (Also, those helpful sweepers who had been calling out our pace at each mile marker did not appear again after mile 8 … I suspect that due to the heat they may have relaxed the pace requirement.)

Somewhere along mile 11 I realized I wasn’t even walking a straight line, so at the next water stop I took a little extra time to get more fluids in me, and had them refill the water bottles I was carrying (one was empty, and the other was as warm as bath water).

The finish was uneventful … I remembering walking by the spot at Mile 12 where we had spotted the leader run by 3+ hours ago, and walking around the Paradise Pier hotel and crossing through Downtown Disney, where we were being cheered on by a lot of the early finishers.    Then we rounded a curve and I could see the finish line.    I didn’t think I could run it from there, so I waited until I’d closed about half the distance to the finish line before I broke into a jog.    I made my way to the left side were Goofy and Mickey were awaiting, and got high fives from both just before I crossed the timing mat.

Post-Race

After the finish, I turned into the post-race area and had the big “D” Disneyland medal hung around my neck.   Then I made my way over to the Dumbo Double Dare tent, where I exchanged my wristband for a Dumbo medal.   And then to the Coast-to-Coast tent, where I again exchanged a wristband for a medal. (Dumbo is for doing both the 10K and the half this weekend, Coast-to-Coast is for doing a half-marathon or greater at Disneyland and Walt Disney World in the same calendar year)

Disneyland Half medal

Dumbo Double Dare medal

Coast-to-Coast medal

Water and Powerade were next — not just cups, as along the race, but full, cold bottles.   I took two Powerades and drained them right on the spot, then a water bottle to carry with me.   Photographers were moving through the crowd taking pictures, I had two or three taken around here so I bypassed the photo lines were you got your picture in front the official backdrop.     I grabbed a food box at the runner refreshment tent and sat down on the pavement to rest a bit — the walk back to the buses was a half mile or more and I needed a minute before I headed out.

I think I sat for 5 to 10 minutes.   I posted something to Facebook saying I’d finished, and then stood up (an amazing accomplishment) to head through Downtown Disney and to the shuttle bus area.     About midway through DTD, I felt I needed to sit down for a minute.   I had gotten a little light-headed.    I still had my water bottle with me, so I sat for probably 15 minutes sipping water.    I spotted a drink cart nearby, and decided another Powerade was in order.    I stood up again, found that the lightheadedness had passed, and walked to the drink cart, and then continued on to the buses.

I took a few hours of rest in my hotel room, and then put on my Half Marathon shirt, hung my medals around my neck, and headed back to Disneyland to get some pictures with my friends the princesses.

Next up: Wine & Dine half marathon in early November.   Between now and then, I’ll be doing my training runs in Atlanta, where the humidity will be more comparable to Florida.    And I’m hoping to get cool weather for that one … my WDW and DL halves have set the bar pretty low for a PR, so there’s no reason not to clear it easily in my next run.

Related articles
- Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend Course Maps and Corral Placement (runningatdisney.com)
September 2, 2013
Dumbo Double Dare 2013: The 10K
This morning I was up before 4 a.m. to get ready for the first leg of the Dumbo Double Dare, the inaugural Disneyland 10K.    I tend to be a morning person anyway so this didn’t throw me off much — I think I prefer this to night races, at least that’s been my experience so far.

I’ve been watching the weather forecast for a while, and I have to say, if accuracy in forecasting matters I’m not sure how any of these meteorologists stay employed.   Every day for at least a week, the temperature has been significantly above forecast — 99 on a day where 90 was the forecast high, for example.

The forecast for this morning was about 73 degrees, and one of the first things i did when I got up was check the temperature.   81.   Well, it’s not going to be a PR day, that’s for sure; and visions of the Tower of Terror race came back to me.    (Actually, this is my third runDisney race — Tower of Terror 2012, WDW Half 2013, and now Disneyland Half 2013, and all 3 have been “unseasonably warm”.    I hope things balance out and give me 40 degree temps for the Wine & Dine half in November, that would be spectacular.

The bus service was a pleasant surprise — I’d asked drivers a few times over the past few days where the bus stops were going to be, and they were not really sure, which made me a bit nervous.   But when I got downstairs, there was a prominent runDisney sign in the lobby indicating our pick-up was in front of the Embassy Suites (right next door).   So I walked over and joined about 8 people already waiting; we had a full busload of 25+ by the time the bus pulled up 10 to 15 minutes later.

Our dropoff was about half a mile from the starting corrals — a nice stretch and warm up pre-race, but I suspected it would seem far longer after.   (Actually, not too bad today, but the real test comes tomorrow).

The Disneyland 5K ran before our 10K started, so they sent the 5K runners ahead to the corrals while the 10K runners were held in a pre-race staging area, with entertainment, water, backdrops to have photos taken, and tents sent up by various charities and race sponsors.   I stayed near the water tables to get extra fluids in me, the high temp and high humidity combination made me want to make sure I was hydrated, even though that probably meant I’d be making a pit stop along the way.

Pre/Post-race assembly area

Pre-race entertainment

Follow Mickey to the starting corrals

The 5Kers took off – I heard they were a bit late starting but I hadn’t memorized the schedule so I didn’t notice the discrepancy.   We then made our way over to the corrals.   I was in corral G and honestly — I never saw it.   I saw balloons for D, E, and F   (A, B, and C were off in a different direction) and started making my way to the back of F where G was supposed to be.   I never saw it, but eventually started seeing G bibs mixed in with the Fs so I just merged my way into the crowd.    By this time the early corrals had already begun running so we started surging forward to get to the start.

I started my Garmin at 6:37 a.m. so that’s when my section of the mob was crossing the start.   Sunrise has been just a few minutes earlier, the temp had dropped a few degrees (79 now) but was still uncomfortable.

Our first two miles was on surface street. We started on Disneyland Drive next to the Disneyland Hotel, and proceeded south.   We crossed Katella and turned left to run in front of the convention center, where the D23 Expo banners were still hanging.

I had a run-walk strategy of run 20 seconds, walk 40, which was slower (more walking) than the ratio I’ve used in past races.   But I thought it would give me a better chance of finishing strong.   As it turned out, the race was just too congested for any sort of strategy other than run when there’s pavement in front of you, walk when there are people in front of you.   I tried to avoid doing too much running side-to-side, but occasionally when there was obviously clear space ahead I’d occasionally make a detour to the side to get around a slower group.

We continued down Convention Way to Harbor, and made the left to take us toward the parks.    We entered Disney’s California Adventure through Cars Land.    Mater and Lightning McQueen were out for photos.    Disney employees waved us ahead with checkered flags — I appreciated the well-themed encouragement.    Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree was whirling to add a little fun and background music to the run.   For some reason I missed getting pictures of any of this, but here are a few backstage shots as we headed into DCA.

Coming into DCA

The back side of rock

From there we continued onto Paradise Pier, and made a big loop of the lagoon.   The World of Color show was going … obviously it loses a lot during the daylight, but I loved running to the music and enjoyed glancing over at the fountains.   I saw the first race photographer of the morning along here but I’m not sure if he got me.   Mickey’s Fun Wheel was also going — in both parks, a few rides were operating (riderless) just to add a little kinetic energy to those of us who were losing ours.

A loop around the west side of the park brought us to Mile 3, just in front of Soaring Over California.    We continued across in front of Carthay Circle and headed down toward Tower of Terror, where we exited the park.

Here we descended and ran through a tunnel I didn’t know existed — I’m not sure exactly where it’s located but it seems it must be running under the shuttle bus drop-off area at the East end of the Esplanade.   Coming back up, we were in backstage areas surrounding Disneyland — I saw Cast Scheduling and Cast Costuming buildings, along with others that weren’t as prominently labeled.    We went from backstage to the Esplanade, through an open gate, and then under the train tracks onto Main Street USA.

Head toward the light

Cast Costuming, Cast Scheduling buildings

This is starting to look familiar

Running down Main Street was obviously a highlight so I stopped for a few pictures, then made the turn into Tomorrowland and continued around to it’s a small world.   From here we went backstage again, and passed a succession of interesting areas — vehicle maintenance, parade floats, seeing the backside of various areas such as ToonTown, etc.    At this point I checked my timing and realized I had enough of a buffer that I didn’t need to fear the sweepers … so I started taking more pictures, talking to those around me more, and just enjoying the morning walk.    I’d still take off at a jog when there was clear space in front of me, but that wasn’t happening all that often.

Main Street USA

Train Roundhouse and Monorail Barn — all 4 trains were visible but this photo really only captured one.

A nice display put on by costuming shop

Loved seeing vehicles awaiting maintenance.

Doom buggies

Bobsled

More bobsleds

Parade floats

Makeshift petting zoo

Custodial employees lined the backstage route to cheer us on. Now I want to go back and pick up that water cup I dropped.

Behind Mickey’s Toontown

Mickey’s Toontown backdrop

We came back onstage into Mickey’s Toontown and made our way through Fantasyland. Dumbo was running, appropriately. Of course, getting a picture running through the castle is one of the great shots everyone hopes to get, but I think after some couple decided to quite literally jump in front of me and mug for the race photographer’s camera I probably missed that opportunity.

We headed through Frontierland and then were backstage again .. I remember seeing what I assume is an employee commissary and Imagineering, as well as the back side of Indiana Jones.   We then came out into Downtown Disney for our final mile (or so).    A lot of the early finishers had made their way back here to cheer on those of us bringing up the rear, and with that motivation I did a bit more running along this last mile than I’d done for miles 4 and 5.    When I turned the corner past the ESPN Zone, I could see the finish line, and kept my slow jog going until I crossed the timing mat.

From the finish, we were herded through the finisher chutes where we picked up first our medals, then Dumbo wristbands for those racing again tomorrow, then water.   Race photographers were there to take pictures with the medals, the lines were a bit long but I felt it was worth the wait.   Then we picked up our runner refreshment boxes and were turned loose into the wild to reunite with family and friends.    I’m solo on this trip and while I know several other people who were running today, I hadn’t made any plans to meet up with them. So I decided that heading back to the hotel for a shower and some rest was the way to go … and then see what I felt like after that.

A few hours of rest and I made my way back to Disneyland, wearing my 10K race shirt and finisher’s medal.   I hadn’t checked out the photo ops available in Fantasy Faire before, so I thought this would be the perfect time.    I got pictures with Cinderella, Snow White, and Aurora, took in a few rides, and then decided to head back to the hotel again rather than spending more time on my feet.

10K Finisher’s Medal

10K Finisher’s Medal and ribbon

I’m very happy with today’s result — and more than a little worried about tomorrow’s.   It’s supposed to be cooler, but I have zero faith in the forecasters on that.   We are scheduled for an earlier start and that will also help with the heat and humidity.    I think I will again start by trying to do 20:40 intervals, although in the early going it’s quite likely there won’t be space enough to stick to any predetermined pattern.

Should be an interesting, and challenging, morning.   Looking forward to it!

Related articles
- Disneyland Half Marathon and 10k Courses Are Here! (lifelaugheatrun.wordpress.com)
- DDD Race Goals (prairieprincessrunners.wordpress.com)
August 31, 2013
Dumbo Double Dare 2013: Race Expo

I started off 2013 by running in the WDW Half-Marathon in January.    I knew that if I completed that (it was my first run of that length), that I would than want to do the Disneyland Half over Labor Day weekend, as completing both of these in the same calendar year earns the Coast to Coast medal.

Injuries prevented me from training for the WDW Half the way I intended, but I did complete the race, and so set my sights on DL.

But wait — there’s more!   runDisney announced that this year, in addition to the half-marathon, there would also be a 10K race added to the weekend lineup.    And, if you chose to run both the 10K and the half-marathon back-to-back (the 10K on Saturday and the half on Sunday), then this earns you the special Dumbo Double Dare medal.

My initial thought was that, with only a single half-marathon under my belt, running a 10K and half back-to-back was something that could wait.    But then a friend pointed out that you only get one chance to run an Inaugural event — and this would be two, the inaugural 10K and the inaugural Dumbo Double Dare.    So when registration opened up, I jumped right on it … which was a good thing, as the Dumbo was sold out in just a few hours after registration opened.

The Expo

Notice how I conveniently skip over all the training and preparation.    Just like I did I real life.     (That’s not entirely true, but my longest long run coming in to the weekend is a little over 10 miles in July.    After that, things got hectic with buying and selling houses, preparing for a cross-country move, attending the D23 Expo, and miscellaneous other things that always seemed to be more compelling than going for a run).

Friday August 30th was Expo day.    The only must-do task for the day is simply to pick up a race bib.    But like many (perhaps most) people on Friday, I wanted to hit the Expo (merchandise area) before the registration — after all, they aren’t going to give my race bib away to someone else, but someone else could grab the last limited-edition runDisney shirt if I didn’t get there early.

Just about everyone I’ve talked to, or seen post online, agrees — the Expo was a disaster.    I’m not sure how, given that runDisney knows exactly how many registrations were sold, they could be so completely unprepared for the crowd that appeared this morning.     Maybe they thought the crowd would spread out over the two-day expo — but by their history of constantly running short of high-demand items, they have guaranteed that everyone who can is going to show up at opening before the merchandise is gone.   And this fustercluck will only reinforce that behavior for the next Expo.

The lines were disorganized — ask where the end of the line was, and you’d frequently get people pointing off in opposite directions.   The merchandise line and registration line were jammed together so it was difficult to discern which was which.    Nearly all of the line was outdoors in full sun, and it was quite hot.

I lined up nearly an hour before the Expo opened, so I was in pretty good shape.   After we were admitted to the Expo hall, I made my selections fairly quickly and proceeded to get into the checkout line — which was comically poorly thought out.    After switching back and forth a few times, the line outgrew its designated area, and extended across the show floor.   Now, all the people trying to get into the hall to shop had to cross the checkout line to do so — really poorly planned.   An area was set up for speakers right in the middle of the floor, as if someone tried to locate the most inconvenient place for it and was successful.   The checkout line crossed this area as well, leading to complaints from people trying to see and hear the speakers that the line was noisy and distracting.

Getting in early meant I made it through checkout in about half an hour.   In the early afternoon I heard the line was over two hours, and at some point they actually closed the shopping floor to allow the cashiers to work through the backlog of people trying to check out.

A lot of this stuff could have been put online ahead of time rather than turning the expo into a free-for-all like your worst Black Friday nightmare.   The lines could have been sized appropriately and laid out more intelligently.   Limits could be put on purchases — I saw many, many people heading to the checkout with armloads of shirts.    I mean, they’re really nice shirts and all, but nobody needs 10 of them.     If the shirts, pins, hats, and other merchandise was made available online for purchase, runDisney would probably sell far more of it, and pocket quite a bit more money.   There would then be no reason for the eBay resellers to clog the expo buying up dozens of items for resale, and it would turn into a better experience for everyone.

So, roughly 90 minutes of standing in line (to get into the expo and to make purchases), and I have a few shirts to show for it.   I still haven’t done the only must-do task for today, which is pick up the bib, so I head to that line next.    While I was in the Expo the lines have grown, and the organization of the lines has descended into chaos.   I got into the line I was directed into, only to have it stopped cold while some other line was merged in and went ahead of us.    Someone in front of me was livid, insisting the people in our line had been waiting longer, but having just gotten in the line myself I have no idea if that was true.   (I certainly hadn’t been waiting long at this point).     I didn’t time it, but I’m sure I spent less than an hour in the registration line.   Probably not a lot less, though.

Once the line actually made its way to the actual registration area, things started to hum along more smoothly.   The single registration line fed into dozens of individual lines — first you head in the general direction of your event (5K, 10K, Half, or Dumbo), and then once you’re in the right area, there are different registration lines based on your bib number.    (If you followed instructions and printed out your waiver ahead of time, then you had your bib number … if you didn’t, then you went to the penalty box in the middle where workstations were provided for you to print out and sign your waiver, then head off to the appropriate line).

After this, still not done.   Now the line leads out of the registration area, and back into the Expo hall … this time to pick up race shirts.   Fortunately this area of the hall was nothing at all like the runDisney retail area — it was organized and moving quickly.    Once again you sorted yourself out based by event, and then again by shirt size.   Once I found my line there were only about 10 people ahead of me, after less than 5 minutes I had a bag (that I’ll use at the bag check if I have anything to check at the races) with all 3 of my shirts (10K, Half-Marathon, and Dumbo).

I’m excited for the upcoming runs, but the debacle of the expo is not getting the weekend started off in an appropriately magical way.   I’m glad I went early as it seemed to only go downhill through most of the morning.    Reports indicated that the registration lines weren’t nearly as bad later in the afternoon, but I didn’t hear whether the expo merchandise area ever recovered after their afternoon shutdown.

August 30, 2013
I love it when a plan comes together

Sometimes the stars align just so, and something magical happens.    This may just be one of those times in my life.

Almost a year ago, tickets went on sale for the 2013 D23 Expo.   Since I’m planning on writing a lot more about the Expo over the next 3 weeks, I won’t go into anything about it here, other than to say buying the tickets put a stake in the ground as far as my schedule … I knew exactly where I was going to be on August 9-11 of 2013.

I bought those Expo tickets while I was training for my first ever runDisney race, and my first run over 5K – the Tower of Terror 10 miler, in late September of 2012.   That race led me to try another — the WDW Half Marathon in January 2013 — and that in turn led me to sign up for back-to-back races over the upcoming Labor Day weekend — the inaugural Disneyland 10K on August 31st, followed by the Disneyland Half Marathon on September 1st.   (The two races together comprise the Dumbo Double Dare challenge, and doing the Disneyland Half during the same calendar year as the WDW Half earns me the Coast-to-Coast Challenge medal, so I’ll be sporting some serious bling come Labor Day.    I hope I can stand up!

That’s another topic for future posts, but once again, I’ve got a firm schedule commitment, again in Anaheim, this time for Labor Day weekend.

Now, at the same time I’m making all these plans for Anaheim, I’m also thinking about a cross-country move — to get closer to family and friends, primarily.   It’s an idea I’ve been kicking around for several years, but with real estate in the tank recently it wasn’t feasible to sell my house for enough to make it worthwhile.    But recent recoveries in the market changed the equation … I talked to my Realtor and we decided to give it a shot.   The house went on the market, and 8 days later it was under contract.    The market was stronger than I realized.

I followed this up with a trip to Atlanta, I called it a house hunting trip but honestly I would have been satisfied just to eliminate a few areas from consideration and narrow the focus somewhat.   Finding neighborhoods, and not necessarily “the” house, was my goal.    But again, things went better than expected, and by the end of last week I was under contract on a house there.

Now is when the timing falls into place beautifully.   I need to be out of my house here in early August, but the house I just purchased is under construction and will not be ready until mid-September.     So I’m homeless for most of the month of August.     But, I do have a few prior commitments in Anaheim … so you can probably see where this is going.

Early in August, the movers will come in, pack up my house, and roll away.    I’ll board a flight for Anaheim and enjoy the D23 Expo.   And then …. I’ll stay.    My job affords me the luxury of working from anywhere I can get an internet connection, so it’s not (exactly) an extended vacation.    I’m hoping to find a nice coffee shop or similar location to use as my office for nearly four weeks, while every evening is a chance to enjoy the Disneyland Resort at a leisurely pace I’ve never experienced.   I’ll need to keep up my training … a lap around the resort perimeter is just about the length of my daily runs, anyway, so that shouldn’t present much of a problem.   After the Dumbo Double Dare on Labor Day weekend, I’ll fly to Atlanta, where I’ll stay with family for the last couple of weeks before moving in to my new home.

I’m really looking forward to living — however briefly — in Anaheim.    The Expo should be amazing, I’m hoping just to finish the races upright, and the time in between should be a great chance to get to know every little nook and cranny of the Disneyland resort.

So, Disneyland friends — any suggestions?    Where’s a great place to set up with a laptop and get work done while still being part of the magic?   What are the places to see and things to do when you’ve got more than just a couple of days to run through the parks?    Anything else you’d recommend for a short-term Anaheim area resident to make sure not to miss?

July 22, 2013
Running the Inaugural Tower of Terror 10 miler
I’ve never been a runner, so when my friend Trish initially suggested I join her in running the inaugural Tower of Terror 10 mile run, I declined.   I’d be happy to come along and cheer, I said, but running 10 miles was not even a remote possibility.

But despite my initial response, the idea did stick with me.   I knew I needed to be doing something for exercise.   And I’d heard good things about the Disney runs … my brother Marcus did the WDW Marathon years ago, and on various Disney discussion groups and podcasts it’s impossible to miss mention of the various runDisney events, and they always end up sounding like a lot of fun — except for the bit about actually running.

I was intrigued enough to start poking around on the internet and looking at training plans … wondering what, exactly, I’d be committing myself to if I decided to do this.   I started, as many do, by looking at the Couch-to-5k training plan.   And I decided to start with that.   This was early January, and registration for the Tower of Terror event opened February 14th.   I figured I’d start training and see how my progression went over the initial four or five weeks, and then decide whether I could do it.

Training

As a non-runner, my initial progress was disappointing.   I continued to look at other resources, and picked up Jeff Galloway‘s book on my brother’s recommendation.   There I found the idea that I didn’t need to run 10 miles — I could use a run/walk strategy.    Suddenly it seemed much more feasible — I didn’t need to run 10 miles, I just needed to run a few minutes at a time, take a walk break, then run a few more minutes.     Another friend, Bobbi, recommended the Chi Running website and book, and there I found the technical details on form and technique that would allow me to train and run without injury.

I don’t mean this to be a recap of the entire training process, so I’ll just briefly summarize.   I used Chi Running for my running methodology; I downloaded Galloway’s race-specific training plans from runDisney and decided, somewhat arrogantly, to follow the training plan for experienced runners looking to improve their time rather than the beginning runner’s plan.   I played with different run-walk intervals and eventually settled on 1 minute run, 1 minute walk. My longest training run was 13.5 miles — shorter than what was called for in the training plan, but long enough to give me confidence about the 10 miler.   I headed to the race feeling good about my preparation.

During the months of preparation, our running group had expanded; Trish recruited her friends Amanda and Sarah, and I recruited my brother Marcus and my ex Debbie.   So we had six runners of varying ages and abilities joining the more than 10,000 other runners ready to tackle the course the night of Saturday, September 29, 2012.

Race Night

Almost all of my training (and all of my long runs) had been morning runs, and all in relatively mild weather (I usually start running before sunrise with temperatures no higher than low 60s).   The ToT race was an evening race, starting at 10 p.m.   At race time the temperature was 80, as was the humidity.   While I’d rested most of Saturday, the previous days had been full-on Disney park days, and I was starting out with tired legs and a blister on one toe.    The heat, humidity, and initial tiredness made me realize I probably wouldn’t be doing this 10 miles as fast as I had done my training runs … and my training runs were really just trying to be fast enough to stay ahead of the “sweepers” who come along and pick up anyone who doesn’t keep the required pace of 16 minutes / mile.    During training I averaged about 13:30 minutes / mile for my longer runs.   I thought this would give me a cushion sufficient to allow for any slow-down due to heat, and also the opportunity to stop for photos along the way.

Our group of runners was spread out from Corral A to Corral D, so clearly we wouldn’t be starting together.   And given our different paces and the large field, I really didn’t expect to be seeing others during the race … so it would have to be a big reunion at the after-party.

But I was in the same Corral as Marcus, so we filed into the Corral B together to await the start.   Just after we had gotten into the corrals they started walking us out to the starting line.   There were a bunch of announcements and it seemed the time went by quickly — before long, the fireworks went off marking the start of the race for the wheelchair racers.   Just a few minutes later, the fireworks went off again and Corral A was off.   And then five minutes later, it was our turn, and the group surged forward through the parking entrance that marked the race start.

We went straight only a little ways before making a sharp turn and heading up a cloverleaf section of the interchange between World Drive and Osceola Parkway.   I’d done some practice running hills, but the ramp was tilted quite awkwardly side-to-side which I really wasn’t prepared for.   I ended up walking a lot of the ramp and then tried to get into my rhythm once we got onto the level surface of the overpass.   We headed toward the Animal Kingdom.   When I hit Mile 1, my pace was 14:00 — that was slower than almost every training mile I’d done.   But I had planned to start out slow so I didn’t worry about it.    But as it turned out, that would be my fastest mile of the night.

Course Map

A little past Mile 2, we passed the entrance plaza for the Animal Kingdom. (I can still hear “Attention Runners: Speed bumps ahead” repeating endlessly).   After the turn we were headed back the way we came on Osceola Parkway.   It was a chance for me to see how many people were behind me, and I was happy to see I wasn’t in last place.

The Osceola Parkway sections of the run were pretty dull, which is unfortunate since it made up the bulk of the race course.   Around mile 5 we turned off onto a narrow trail.   This was probably the best-themed area of the course, a narrow trail leading into the Wide World of Sports complex.   Spooky lighting, things hanging in trees, and music fit the theme.   But the trail was very narrow, forcing everyone down to a walk.   And the trail surface was rock and gravel — I was running in very thin-soled Vibrams so it was not a fun surface to walk or run on.

We emerged from the trail into the bright lights of practice fields at the WWoS complex.   We ran most of the way around the quarter mile track ( a much nicer running surface! ) and made our way over to Champions Stadium, where we were “cheered” on by a handful of spectators who had come to watch.   (One sign I spotted read “Worst. Parade. Ever.”.   We were being broadcast live onto the JumboTron but I didn’t try to spot myself, at this point (a bit more than six miles in) I was really just focusing on moving forward.

We finished mile 7 and headed back out to Osceola Parkway again, and turned back toward the studios.   At this point I’d slowed pretty much to a walk with an occasional minute or so of running thrown in every quarter mile or so.    Mile 8 went by, and then we started backtracking, running down the same tilted cloverleaf ramp that we’d covered at the start of the race.   Just before Mile 9 we entered into the Hollywood Studios near the Lights, Motors, Action attraction and ran in front of the bleacher seating for the show.   Right around here, Debbie, who had started 2 corrals (and 10 minutes) behind me, caught up with me and we did the last mile together.

From there, it was down the backstage New York street, and then a turn to come down the alley way behind the American Idol attraction.   We looped our way around the Sorcerer’s Hat, thru the archway leading to Animation, and down Pixar Place.   There we turned backstage and began making our way toward the Tower of Terror finish.

The backstage part was uninteresting and we mostly walked, but when we rounded the last turn, there was the finish line, and suddenly our legs were ready to run again.   We crossed the finish line with arms raised in victory and received our finisher’s medals from the volunteers.   Beyond this we were handed bananas, PowerAde, and a goodie box with other snacks.   Cruelly at this point we had to walk up a steep hill to get to the setup where finisher photos were being taken with the medals.

After Party

After the photos, we had to make our way over to the bag check which was at the Indiana Jones Adventure.   Never has it seemed so far from Tower of Terror to Indiana Jones … with the race done, all motivation to move had left me.   But we made our way over.   I made my way down the IJ steps like a 90-year old man, retrieved my bag, and sat in the bleachers for a few minutes before making my way to the changing tents. After changing we met up with Marcus and his wife Ginny at Toy Story Mania. We walked up to Rock n Roller coaster, where we ran into Trish.   I really wanted to do Tower of Terror post-race, but the wait suddenly went from 20 minutes to 55 minutes while we were standing around talking, and I decided to catch it another time.    As it turns out, I ended up not getting on a ride during the after-party, just standing around and talking (we eventually ran into Amanda and Sarah also, so the entire party was accounted for and everyone had finished without injury or incident).

I was really happy to finish my first runDisney race, and I’m looking forward to the WDW half-marathon in January, where I’m hoping the heat and humidity will be friendlier and I’ll put in a performance more in line with what I’ve seen in my training.   But since it’s my first 10-miler, it’s a PR, and I’ll take it proudly.

Related articles
- The Inaugural Twilight Zone Tower of Terror 10-Miler: Race Recap (runningatdisney.com)
- Tower of Terror 10 miler (runningtodisney.wordpress.com)
October 9, 2012
Waiting for the train

This past week was supposed to be the kickoff of my 18 week training period for the Tower of Terror 10 mile race in September.   In reality, I started running in January — as a total couch potato I figured I needed all the time I could get for training.    I’m glad I got the early start, as this week I wasn’t able to train at all.

Just before Memorial Day, while doing an easy slow jog, I felt a really severe cramping in my calf. I was unable to continue that run, but hoped that with a couple of days’ rest I’d be right back at it.   That hasn’t happened.   I’ve been icing it, working it over with a foam roller, and stretching it (gently, no bouncing).   It’s been feeling a little better each day, and today I thought I’d be able to get in my 4 miles as scheduled and be right on track.    But just as I started out — barely a minute into my run — it tightened up again, and I turned around and headed back in.

Very frustrating.    I’m traveling this week so I think I’ll just plan on not running while I’m away, but will continuing icing, stretching, and rolling the calf.   Next weekend, I’ll see whether I’m ready to pick up with the training.

June 3, 2012