Tink Half Marathon Weekend: getting there and expo!

Being from New York, travelling to California took nearly 12 hours.  We were up at 3-3:30 am on Wednesday morning and didn't arrive in Cali until after 11:00, which would correlate to 2pm our time.  It was a long morning and was quite a relief when we landed at SNA.  We will always try to fly to SNA from now on.  Last time we did LAX, and it was a nightmare trying to get to Anaheim from there.  SNA was an easy airport to get through and an easy drive.

We decided to rent a car as the hubs found a cheap deal online.  We got stuck in a little traffic, which was easy to reroute around, and soon we were at the Tropicana.

We booked there through Jim and Pat Stone (Acclaim Travel) and got a great deal.  It is on South Harbor, pretty much across the street from the pedestrian walkway to Disney.  It's location was ideal- it was a 10-15 minute walk to the downtown area, with a few restaurants around so we didn't have to drive anywhere.  

The rooms were decent for the cost and had a fridge and microwave, a major plus.  There was a nice pool and hot tub area.  There was parking, which you paid a nightly fee for, and if it was full there was valet who helped out, all of whom were very friendly and greeted us whenever we came back.  The only thing I wished it had was a continental breakfast, but that is a small flaw for us.

For the expo I started to hear that people would be getting there around seven AM.  I was shocked.  I was thinking 8 or 8:30, an hour and a half or so before the doors opened, but apparently that would be too late.  I got up around 6:15, did a quick run, then headed over and got there around 7:15.  A bunch of people were already there.

DLand has it right as far as expos.  They took us to the basement of the hotel where they had lines taped down.  I was given an orange wristband and put in the third row.  I sat down and prepared for a long wait, which wasn't too bad as I had some good conversations with people around me.  Around 9 they started moving people.  They took the first two lines upstairs and shifted everyone over.   About 10 minutes later we also went upstairs and joined them in more lines outside of the expo.  When 9:30 hit we went inside and found more lines outside the official merchandise area.  They let a few people in at a time, but we were moving fairly well.  When I got in it was very relaxed in there, unlike the Princess mayhem.  I was able to look over everything and didn't have to rush for everything.  There were no ladies fighting over wineglasses, but sadly there was no Tinkerbell Tervis.  I grabbed capris, the blue jacket, a hoodie for the hubs, the wineglass, a tank, and a water bottle.  Check out was easy, but expensive (thank god for the VISA discount), and I went back downstairs for my bib.

Bib pick up was uncrowded and easy as well.  I was surprised when they put two C2C bands on my wrist.  I had thought I would get my blue one when I return to DWorld for Wine and Dine, but something was up and we got them there.  I took mine then, but plan on bringing it to Wine and Dine because I feel that is where I will have earned it.

ANYWAYS, there was another line for preordered merchandise and that is where I picked up my first preorder jacket that I absolutely LOVE.  Hopefully RunDisney keeps going in this direction and makes nice preorder stuff.

I finally was able to go back upstairs to meet the hubs in the expo area.  He had already paid to get the back of our medals engraved with our times so we just wandered a bit.  We had time to kill because I had randomly signed up for the RunDisney NB virtual que and got 10:30 and 11:00 slots.  My time came late and I went in and tried on the Tink shoes.  I had always loved them and had heard this might be the last chance for them.  I ended up liking the feel of them and bought them.  The hubs passed when he tried on.  He liked the Mickey shoes, but they were too supportive for him.

After that we found the RunDisney beer cups that a bartender had and both enjoyed a Pixie Hollow drink.  The hubs was happy because he had gotten a few at our last few DWorld races and was hoping to get a Dland one.  It was nice to sit on a comfy couch, put my feet up, and actually enjoy a relaxing moment at an expo.  So different from the insanity at Princess, where we rushed out after getting through the merchandise lines because it was just so frustrating.

A few bumps in the road on the way to Disney...

All the training was done, everything was packed, arrangements were made for my dogs, so everything should have been set.  Wrong.  Mother Nature decided to mess with us and make it particularly difficult to get to the race that I had been dreaming about and working towards for months.

"Mommy, don't leave me!"

We started getting wind of the bad weather over the weekend.  We were set to depart early on Tuesday morning, and Saturday night was predicting some pretty rough weather to hit our area starting Monday evening.  My husband kept assuring me we'd be fine, but when I woke up Monday the forecast became extremely grim and I started to full out panic.  I asked my boss if I could leave a day early, and he thankfully agreed to let me go.  Zach was also able to get out, so we booked a new flight and headed to the airport as it started snowing harder, hoping that our plane would still get out.  Our flight was one of the few that hadn't been cancelled yet, and walking through the vacant airport was a tad eerie.

Our flight didn't end up getting cancelled until around 6pm.  We were devastated, but were able to get a full refund as they told us the next day they'd be able to get us out would be SATURDAY (um, that would blow every race but the marathon!)  We hadn't cancelled our Tuesday morning Southwest flight yet, so we wandered over to their ticket agent and were then informed that they had already cancelled that flight.  We decided to rebook through another airport and would just start driving.

We rented a car and hit the road.  It was pretty dicey, but we really thought we'd be able to get past the blizzard and be fine.  We didn't realize how bad it really was.  It was white out conditions at times with the strong winds, so there were times I would just stop driving and wait out the wind.  It was hard to see due to the snow, wind, and darkness, so I spent the time following tire tracks and driving down the middle of the road so I wouldn't go off the road like the other cars we had seen.  A few police officers helped light our way and guide us down the road, but they would stop and wave us on if we came to a disabled vehicle.  The road we wanted ended up being closed, and the firefighters waved us in a different direction.

We drove three hours to go what would normally take 45 minutes, and ended up calling it a night, staying at a hotel right on the Interstate.  We would leave after some sleep in the morning.  Naturally, I couldn't sleep, and spent the night looking at other airports and flights since I knew we wouldn't make our new flights.  I called Southwest and they fought me a bit on switching, but eventually switched us to an airport that was only about 30 minutes from where we were.  After watching the weather, checking the airport website to see that all flights were still scheduled, and reading some news sites we decided that this airport seemed far enough out that it wasn't getting hit hard by snow, and would be our best bet to get out.  Then, while watching the flight status, I noticed ANOTHER flight to Orlando opened up, so I ended up booking that, too.  I figured if I had two options to get us out, we'd have a better chance of leaving.  Since it was Southwest, we'd just get travel vouchers for a future flight for the one we didn't use.

We set out early to the airport.  The driving was rough for the first half of the drive, but cleared up and was easy after that.  We laughed at how close we had been to being out of the blizzard, had we just pressed a little farther the night before.  We dropped our rental car off and prepared to wait and hope in the airport.

Our flight ended up getting delayed, which made me really nervous and I tried to nap, but it was a no go.  It wasn't until we were actually sitting on the plane, MOVING, that I began to relax.  Finally, we were on our way!

You'd think that'd be ALL that could go wrong.  Wasn't that enough for two people?  Nope.  As soon as we landed, I turned on my phone and had a message saying that my luggage had decided that it would rather go to Tampa instead of Orlando.  GREAT.  At least all my race stuff was in my carry on. I supposed I could handle it.

We went to the baggage area and Zach went to wait for his suitcase while I stood in the baggage line.  A while later he appeared with MY suitcase.  So it was HIS that was missing.  Not good, as he hadn't brought a carry on.  We went through the process of filing a report and headed to Disney's Magical Express, me with my huge carry on and suitcase, Zach with nothing.  We kept making repeated calls to Tampa's baggage to tell them where to ship the bags, but there was no answer so I left about a billion messages.

That night we went to Downtown Disney, even though we arrived at the All Star Sport Resort around 9:30 pm and were EXHAUSTED.  We hunted for some clothes, but Zach decided to wait until the race expo the next morning, thinking he might be able to find some cheaper clothes there while he waited for his suitcase to arrive.

I can honestly say that no bed every felt as good as the one at All Star Sports when we finally went to bed for the night.  It was quite a stressful trip down, but we were both relieved to have arrived and would be able to attend the expo the following morning right when it opened, as planned.

It was a relief to be there!!!

Next post will talk about the expo and 5k!  Stay tuned and thanks for reading!!! :)

A little about me.

I started running consistently in January of 2012.  I had run prior to that, but never anything overly serious or consistent.  But in January of 2012 I decided to make a new year's resolution: I would run everyday of 2012, even if it was just a half mile.  Well, 751 days later my streak is still going.  I now do at least a mile a day.  My highest mileage per week has peaked at 70, and I like to be in the mid-50s on average.  Many people look at me and tell me that I'm setting myself up for injury by not taking breaks, but frankly my body is thriving.  I have less aches and pains now than I did before I started running so I don't see any reason to stop.  Plus I need it as a form of therapy- its how I blow off steam.

I've become quite obsessed with half marathons.  I ran my first one in May 2012.  I ended up doing three total in 2012 and have done 4 so far this year, with one next weekend and at least three planned for the fall.  Three of my half marathons have been in Disney- what a great excuse to go, right?  I've always been a big Disney fan.  I've done the Wine and Dine in WDW in Nov 2012, Tinkerbell in DL in Jan 2013, and the Princess in WDW in Feb 2013.  It is this obsession with Run Disney that has lead me to get the craziest looks from people.

I had decided that my first marathon was going to be Disney in Jan 2014.  I don't know if that distance will appeal to me, so I want to do it right.  And I decided why not do a half marathon the day before, AKA the Goofy Challenge?  I got a lot of raised eyebrows from that one.  Is it a good idea?  Maybe you should just stick with one race?  But I brushed off the skeptics and anxiously awaited registration.

Then BAM!  Run Disney announces the Dopey Challenge-adding a 5k and 10k on the days preceding the half and full.  That's right- 4 days and 4 races.  One being a measly 26.2 miles.  No biggie, right?  I got A LOT of people actually telling me I was nuts for considering it.  But i ignored them and signed up anyways.  If I was going to go big, I may as go REALLY big, right?

I then decided to do a full marathon before Dopey.  There's a big one, The Wineglass Marathon, only a few hours from where I live in October, so I added that one to my running schedule.  I trained hard using the Hanson Method, but the weather was in the 70s and like 99 percent humidity (yes, that's in Upstate New York in October- normal highs are in the 40s) when I lined up to start.  The end of the race was 80.  It was rough and I went out much too fast, and I ended up walking a fair amount at the end due to severe cramping.

I continued training right after the marathon, giving myself a week of easier runs to recover.  I headed down to Disney for the Wine and Dine Half (love that race!) and trained through the busy holiday season.  I plan on doing a few posts on the Dopey Challenge, so I'll save that discussion.

Now I am looking to improve my race times, particularly my 5k and Half Marathon, in 2014.  I know, two very different race distances, but I love them both.  We'll see how this year pans out, and what new goals may pop up along the way.  :)