Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend - 5K

Travel Day!

Travel day started at 6am when we left for the airport for our 8am flight.  One stop in Indianapolis and we were soon off to Orlando.

The result of over hydration: the need to use airplane bathrooms.  

We really had no issues with our flights but the anticipation of the weekend made them take forever!  We landed in sunny Florida around 2:00pm.

When Flying to Disney World, you have the ability to use the Magical Express.  Last time we used this service, it was amazing.  You walked to the buses, hopped on, and rode straight to your hotel. They take care of your luggage for you.

 This day was a little different.

Stop staring at me.  I'm just taking a picture.

This was the sign of times to come.  We probably waited around 45 minutes for a bus.  I was hoping to be close to the hotel by this time because I wanted to spend as much time as I could at the Expo.

Once we arrived at the hotel, the fun really started!  If you remember back when I first started talking about this in May, this trip was being planned with Jill (a friend through work), Rebecca (TKB's brother's wife), and finally Joe VI & clan.  All in all, we had roughly 18 runners and athletic support crew descending on Orlando.

One thing about Jill... we'd never met in person.  Even though we talk over the phone, IM, Facebook, Twitter, text, etc... we've never met in person.  Would she get tired of having to stare up at a 6'4" person all weekend?  What about her friends?  Maybe they wouldn't understand my dorkiness?  What if TKB couldn't stand their accents?! This might get real awkward, real quickly considering we all had adjoining rooms at Pop Century!  Fortunately, we didn't skip a beat!  We hit it off with Jill and Ron immediately.. whew!

Jill!

Ronnie!  Mentally preparing for his first marathon in two days!

Packet Pickup and Health Expo
We immediately took off for the Expo.  Jill and Ron had already taken care of business since they arrived much earlier than we did.  It was close to 5pm at this time.  We had to pickup Joe VI, Lauren, and Joe VII's packets since their flight was arriving later.  Joe VI was running the 5k with TKB, Jill, and me so I wanted to make sure he could get his bib.

Packet Pickup and Expo was in the Wide World of Sports Complex.  First stop was in one of the field houses to pickup the packets and change corrals, if needed.  You them move over to another building for race shirt pickup and wallet thinning.  It had taken about 1.5 hours to do packet pickup with all the lines and various packets we had to sign for (which was about 7 of them between the two families).  We had met up with Joe VI's clan by now.

At the Expo I did pickup another shirt, running hat, and my obligatory pint glass.

Panorama of the Expo.  Doesn't really do it justice.  For the amount of people this was a really small space.

About 6:45 we took off because we had reservations with Jill and her crew at Planet Hollywood in Downtown Disney.  Since we had one hour to take a bus back to our hotel then hop on one for Downtown Disney, we decided to take a taxi instead.  Considering all the free transportation, this wasn't the most fiscally-wise decision but there is no way we would have made it in time.

We had rather low expectations of Planet Hollywood for a dining choice but our meal was quite delicious.  We also met more of Jill's runner friends there as well:

TKB, Me, Maureen (marathon), Ron, Jaimee (half marathon), Jill

Look at all those waters.  We are such good, responsible runners.

Race time for the 5K was 6:30, which means an early alarm for me (and also for the rest of tomorrow's running crew, right?)

Family Fun Run 5k
I can't exactly remember what time my alarm went off but it was earlier than anyone else wanted.  I scarfed down a bagel and banana.  I donned my blue singlet and running shorts for today's run.  It was so weird to be wearing a singlet in January!

Upon checking into our Pop Century resort, they indicated that there would have some parts of the food court open early so we took off for the main building before making it to the event buses.  We quickly found out that the early opening was for Saturday and Sunday during the marathon events, not the 5k.  TKB had some oatmeal she was planning to warm up so I ran that back to the room.  Got my warm-up run in!  (2 hours early...oh well).

Today's crew:

TKB, Joe VI, and Cruella... er, Jill

After about 1.5 hours of waiting, the rest of the 10,000 participants showed up and we were herded into one of four corrals.  I don't know how they assigned them, but the four of us were in all the same corral (luckily, corral A).


The race started at 6:30am to Mickey Mouse and fireworks!  It started in the parking lot of Epcot and the first mile took us around the a service entry into the park.

We then ran clockwise around the countries of Epcot.  We did briefly exit the park and back in before making it under Spaceship Earth.  We all stayed together to take photos (most of which were kind of blurry due to the pre-dawn timing of the race).

The last photo of Jill is about .15 miles from the finish line.  TKB and Joe VI didn't stop for the photo, so as soon as I snapped this photo I booked it to catchup with TKB.  I was hoping to cross the finish line with her. Once I saw her kick it to the finish, I knew it wasn't possible...  even though I hit a 4:40 pace!   Next time!

After crossing the finish, you walk a bit before grabbing your medal.  Then walk a bit more to get water and PowerAide.  Then walk a bit more for the official finish photo with the fancy backdrop.  You then exit the chute to get your post-race grub:

Bananas!!!

High performance gummy bears (in blue) and box-o-goodies.

Inside the box was a protein bar, mixed nuts, dark chocolate, some chocolate turd thing, and crackers & cheese.  Those crackers and cheese were quite sought after.  I may have stolen someone's in the middle of the night and eaten them under the covers with the guilt of a two year old.

Before we knew it, we were back at the hotel cleaning up and resting for the days festivities.

NOTE:  No official time for the 5k.  It wasn't chip timed.

Hollywood Studies
We spent the day with Joe VI and Lauren's clan at the Hollywood Studios.  We also met up with Rebecca and Jake at the park who had just spent about 4 hours getting Rebecca's packet.  Packet pickup was much worse Friday.  We stayed until about 5:30 before heading back to the resort.  While we were at Pop Century, Joe VI and Lauren selected Art of Animation, which was just a quick walk over a bridge.  We had dinner with them at their food court because of the build-to-order pasta bar:

Some pasta carbonara thingy.  Yum!

After dinner we went back to our resort and met another member of Jill's crew.  Jess had arrived today and she was running the marathon on Saturday.  Our marathon wolf pack grew by one.

5K in the AM and a full day of the park?  I had no trouble sleeping until the 2:30am alarm..... zzzzzzz

More Proof

Eyeing Dalmatian costumes in the crowd.

Up Next: Saturday -- Half Marathon.  To PR or Not to PR.  Stay tuned!

Also... be sure to checkout Jill's blog for her race/spectator reports!

Hospital Hill Run Blogging Team!

I am very pleased to announce that I have been selected to join the Hospital Hill Run Blogging Team!  It's quite an honor joining the ranks of the other athletes selected for this team.  I'm hoping to provide a different perspective from the other amazing writer-athletes.

A real quick bio:

• 34 year old male age grouper
• Married to my lovely wife, known on the blog as TKB, for 11 wonderful years!
• Father to a grumpy old Beagle Lab mix, Brodie.
• Mainframe software developer by day and web site software developer by night (yeah, I'm a bit of a geek)
• I've been running in races for 3 years and participating in triathlons for the last two years.
• I wouldn't call myself competitive but I did manage to nab some podium finishes this past year.
• A fan of dumb humor (you've been warned)

I started this blog almost two years ago to the day to journal my entry into triathlons.  It's been fun writing about my experiences and I'm planning to write much more in depth about many of them as part of this series.

For those who are not "in the know."  Hospital Hill Run is the oldest road race in Kansas City and one of the oldest half marathons in the country!  Is running 13.1 miles not your jam?  Sign up for the 10k or 5k!!

While Hospital Hill Run Half Marathon is my "A" running race for the first half of the year, my goal for this year is to complete my first ironman triathlon in October!  Hospital Hill Run will allow me to keep my running in check as I start to ramp up my swimming and biking.

I plan to cover various topics based on my own experiences.  Topics such as:

• The Runner Community
• Cold Weather Training
• Heart Rate Based Training
• Gadgets
• Nutrition
• Recovery Techniques

I will plan to post about Hospital Hill at least every other week; however, check back in as I will also be discussing things such as my most recent race.  I just got back from Orlando running in the Walt Disney World Goofy Challenge!  I'll also be finalizing my 2013 season here soon as well!

Feel free to stop by and ask questions in the comments or hop over to Twitter to chat me there!  You can find me as @ScottyTris.

And with that, I shall leave you with this photo from this past weekend's activities!

Going Goofy!!  I'm sure you can figure out which one is me, right?

This was Saturday after the half marathon.  I was carb/protein loading for the marathon I was to run in about 20 hours.  It all seemed like a good idea at the time!

Race Announcement: Beach2Battleship 140.6

A few years ago when I started participating in endurance events, I did the right thing and scheduled a physical with my doctor.  I got my checkup in and discussed my plans to add a whole lot of exercise to my routine.  As part of the blood work I found out I had an iron deficiency.  So the prescription was to "eat more meat" and take a multi-vitamin with iron.  Easy enough.  Well, come October 26, my transformation to an Ironman will be fully complete when I complete the Beach2Battleship ironman!  (and you are now glad that this dorky, long joke is now over).

The choice to go back to Beach2Battleship was pretty easy.  It has the reputation of being one of the top 5 rated ironman triathlons by Triathlete magazine.   It's extremely well organized.  The water portion is known for being a steeeeeep downhill swim, so maybe that will help with my swim abilities. 

If you follow me on twitter, you may have seen a post about signing up for this race mid-New Year's Eve parting.  No.  This was not the results of too much libation.  It was a results of the race pricing going up after New Year's Eve.

The plan for this race will be the same as Beach2Battleship 70.3 in 2011 except it will probably require 6 times the effort, not just two.

 I have a lot of thoughts about this race and will post them through the year of training.... until then, I will leave you with this photo taken during the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend.  The race report (or all three of them) will be coming in the next week:

Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum!!

Week in Review - Dec 31 to Jan 6 & FINAL Costume Preview!

December 31 to January 6
I actually already chatted about Monday's run on last weeks Week in Review.  It was a fun 13 miler with Joe VI that involved some pretty photos and sore butts after falling on the ice.

That 13 miler was to get an advance on the calorie intake of that evenings festivities.

Pop! Pop! Pop!

A group of us went to Cafe Trio for dinner and New Year festivities where I enjoyed my favorite dish, the Mac Daddy.  I love adult macaroni and cheese!  The bottomless glass of bubbly was nice as well.  We stayed at a local hotel to keep our cars stashed from any driving activities.

While we did spend some time in the pool that day, I decided to not log it since.. well, it was about 20 feet across and I lose count easily.

Swim: 0
Bike: 8.47 miles
Run: 34 miles

I did manage a bike ride in the basement today.  I did an interval workout on Wednesday on the treadmill and then did a 7:30 pace, 5 miler on Thursday in the bluster 35 degree weather.

I met up with Joe VI yesterday and we did an 11 miler in the chilly, breezy weather as well.  After which we finished up the shopping for our costume.  One of the clothing articles is in the mail and the other is at Joe VI's house getting it's final costume details. It's almost come together!

So for 2012, I logged a total of 1,272 running miles:

I am planning a year-in-review post, so I'll dive into those in a bit more detail later.

Upcoming
I'll be doing one run this week and maybe I'll eek in another trainer ride.  If I really feel up to it, I'll hit the gym and do a swim.  Travel day to Orlando is Thursday, so I'll be working on my carb intake and, of course, packing!!!

Final Costume Preview!
Monday night I drove to Joe VI and Lauren's and "we" worked on the final costume touches:

Lauren Stitching

Joe Toupee-ing

Me Eating and Drinking (ie, carb loading) -- Helping with the duties the best I can.

Costume... almost complete.

Schedule
I'm also working on my race schedule for 2013.  I'm hoping to have it nailed down in the coming weeks.  The plan is quality races this year and the return of triathlons!!!

Race Preview - Let's get a little Goofy!

Up Next: Goofy Challenge + 5k

I'm marking off another bucket list item this season.  I completed a 50k and up next is the Goofy Challenge Race and a Half Race.  I'm also throwing in the 5k to make this the unofficial "Dopey" Challenge.  4 medals and 4 race shirts in one weekend?  Good thing we are flying Southwest because I'm going to need extra luggage.

For those who don't know, the Goofy Challenge is running a half marathon through the Magic Kingdom and Epcot on Saturday and then a full marathon the next day through the Disney World resort.  I'll also be running the 5k with TKB on Friday to get the leg juices going.

Training
Since I really had no specific goals, the training for this was to simply keep my base up and do what I could through the holidays.  I managed to log 134 miles in December, which is the most miles since September.  October included a marathon and November included the 50K, so pretty decent.

Race Plans
To have fun, really.  Here is the plan for each race:

5K - Run with TKB and have fun!  Since our paces are so different, I typically don't run with TKB when I'm racing.  Since this is a family fun run, I'm going to do just that!

Half Marathon - PR.  My PR is 1:45:51. This should be pretty easy with how well my training is going for the distances in the 10 - 15 miles range.  I've PR'ed my half marathon time on many of my training runs in the last month.  I'm planning to pull the Chicago Marathon playbook out and match the pace for the first 13 miles of Chicago.  I do want to be somewhat smart about it because I do have 26.2 miles to run the next day.

Full Marathon -  Running with Joe VI and have fun.  I haven't provided any more costume previews because we still have items to purchase and fabricate.  I'll post a photo next week.

So that's essentially it!  It's going to be a great time because the entire Jeppson clan will be there, as well as Jake & Rebecca, and I'll be meeting up with a long distance friend for the first time who I know through work, Jill!

Final Thoughts
This should close out my 2012 season (yes, I know.. it's actually 2013).  Unless I get a free bid for the Groundhog Run, it may be March before I race again and that will be a 4 mile race.  It's time to bring the bike and swimming back into focus.... maybe some iron pumpin'!

Weekly Report: Dec 24 - Dec 30 -- 1,250 Miles!

This post is a little late, especially since I need to update my previous post.  I actually wrote it on Saturday before the end of the week.  On Sunday, Kenny took me for a tour of Greensboro, NC on a 3 mile run around downtown.  After driving l,000 miles in two days, I need something to align my running chakras and this fit the bill.  Not only did we go for 3 miles, I did another loop.  Granted, I got a little lost so I took a larger loop on my own.  So add 6.25 miles to the previous post to make that week 30 miles.

Kyle, TKB, and Kenny enjoying some delicious Mellow Mushroom Pizza

After spending some awesome time in Greensboro we left for Valle Crucis, NC (it's next to Boone where Appalachian University is located).  We spent Monday, Christmas,  and Thursday in the mountains where I got a 4 mile run in at the park in Valle Crucis and did a 7 miler on the treadmill at the Boone Wellness Center.  That 7 miler put me over 1,250 miles for the year!

Mmmm... Christmas Ham!

The new age family photo!

Thursday and Friday we were in Charlotte, NC with TKB's brother and sister-in-law, Jake and Rebecca.  You'll remember Rebecca from the Krispy Kreme Challenge and Rock'n'Roll Las Vegas Race Reports.

While the weather was great in Charlotte, I didn't do any training.  Instead, I took advantage of all my training so I could go here:

IKEA!  You will be in KC soon!

This place is quite large.  Now I understand why they are tearing down a bunch of buildings to build this.

One final family fun games before we took off for home:

I may have schooled the family with my mad fake money skillz.

Saturday we took off around 6:30am in Charlotte and drove over 1,100 home to KC.  It was worth it to sleep in my own bed.  OK.  Stopping in at Kyle's brother's house for some of his BBQ at 9pm was much of the motivation.  Some of the best brisket I've ever tasted.

Sunday TKB, Ken, and I went to the YMCA for for the final run of the week (Yes, Ken and Kyle had flown home last week after we left their apartment in Greensboro).

So that's about 16 miles for the week.

Sunday evening Joe VI texted me about doing a run in the snow on Monday morning (we were both off from work).  We did a 13 miler around downtown, midtown, and the plaza.  I took some photos of some of the sites on the way:

Joe VI showing his age.... or snow.  I can't remember.

A nice little panorama

Around the gate of the arch these little gargoyles.  They looked pretty touched with snow.

It needed some fuel.

Part of the road to the arch was snow on top of ice.  We both had some fun falling on our butts.  (I may have pulled Joe VI down on this slip and slide)

You can see that sneaky ice under the freshly fallen snow.

Week in Review: Dec 17 - Dec 23

First off.... just a heads up for you athletes reading this, a fellow local triathlete is doing a give away and, frankly, the more ways I promote it the more chance I get to win.  The prize?  A Garmin Forerunner 910xt.  So, if you want a shot at this, head over to his blog and promote away!

Training
Swim: 0
Bike: 0
Run: 24

A little sad.  I got a sweet bike related gift (uh.. a few of them actually) and I didn't make it on the bike. We left for North Carolina on Friday, so we spent the week burning the candle on both ends.  I did manage to get in 6 miles Monday, 12 on Tuesday, and 6 at the gym on Wednesday.

This post may actually be a bit premature.  I'm sitting in the same spot as when I wrote this post (in Greensboro, NC) and it is Saturday.  I'm hoping I can convince Ken and/or Kyle to go for a run with me tomorrow.  The weather is suppose to be nice tomorrow, so I'm sure something will happen.


I'm hoping to get 12 more miles in before the end of the year so I can hit 1,250 miles!!!

Holiday Fun!
Since we are out-of-town on Christmas, we did our gift exchange with my family and with TKB before we left.  I got the PowerCal (as I talked about last week), 2 awesome bike jersey's (A Felt Bicyle jersey and Truman State University jersey, my undergraduate alma mater), a new foot pod, and that's all I can think of right now.

Another week and another lack of Disney costume previews.  We only have a few weeks left, so we better get cracking!