a whole lotta rain...

More like a torrential downpour really. The picture doesn't do it justice. One of those rains where you can't step foot out of your car or house without a complete soaking. It has been raining like that here since Wednesday or so and is projected for more of the same for the next week. CRAZY! Who is building an ark? I need to reserve a spot on it!

I am not opposed to running in the rain. If the rain is more of a drizzle and not a soaker to the point where I would have to wear a jacket, I am all about it. Today was not a light rain drizzle running kind of day. Too bad. I had planned to get in at least 10 miles today at Stone Mountain. I had. I am not lying. :)

After screwing around on facebook for way too long, I motivated myself to the gym to get in a treadmill run. I actually have run 15 miles on a treadmill before when I was on a marathon schedule and needed the mileage. Today was not that day. I was thankful for two things today (there are others but these are the two that came to mind first). One, I am thankful I have access to a treadmill to get a run in at all and, two, I am thankful I am not trying to build mileage for a marathon or I would be testing my mental endurance on that treadmill as we speak. (unrealted. EVERY time I type the word 'marathon', I accidentally type it as 'marathong' first. what is up with that?)

Going to the gym worked out great as I got to do a 5-mile interval workout varying between 2 minutes in HR zone 2 and 1 minute in HR zone 3. It is next to impossible for me to do that on the road so it was a good excuse to get a good HR based workout in the books.

While I was there I saw three different people that I have not seen in months. I really need to try and work in a Saturday trip to the gym more often. One of my friends just started taking swimming lessons 4 weeks ago. She previously did not know how to swim and cranked out a 400 this morning before I ran into her in the locker room. Very impressive! Her long term goal is an ironman. If anyone can do it, I do believe she could.

The only downside to the gym was I realized I forgot to bring a shirt to put on post-shower. I hate to brag but I sweat A LOT. Putting on a sweaty shirt after a nice shower is not one of my favorite things to do. Again, not bragging but the stinkiness of it was offending me, I can only imaginge th pain of those around me :) The stench did not keep me from the grocery store but I did choose to go to a store other than my "regular" place. I have an image to maintain and all. Or maybe not...

These things I know to be true...

Over the past two weeks whilst my legs were dragging the ground and perilously close to falling off the healthy living wagon, I had plenty of time to contemplate my situation. I discovered several things about myself. Maybe not discovered so much as just a big "DUH" moment or things that make you go hmmm. For your review:

1. I can't just "work out" for the sake of exercise. There must be some sort of goal attached. I have to be working towards something. Something bigger than the grandious idea of just looking and feeling better. A marathon, a 12 week challenge with prizes attached, you get the idea.

2. I wonder if people who eat healthy food as a general rule ever ate junk food at any point in their life? I read blogs raving about green monsters and various healthy grains and it just makes me wonder considering I can't seem to shake my love of sugar and fatty foods. Did these people grow up with parents who fed them carob instead of chocolate? How can I break my addiction to cake and ice cream?

3. How do people work out at night? I think I may be a morning person in that respect. Over the past 2 weeks I have had every intention of working out when I got home from work but always found some excuse to not do it. If I don't get up and do it in the morning it ain't gonna happen.

I had to drop out of bootcamp due to the economic situation in my home. Not to worry, that same week I received an email about a 12-week challenge at my gym. Basically, they tell you what to do for 12 weeks in terms of exercise and there is some sort of prize at the end. There are probably 80 people doing this challenge which is quite impressive considering there were maybe 9 in the last one I did.

My interest in the challenge was the accountability (see bullet 1) but also I wanted someone to help me plan out strength and resisitance training. I figure I have the cardio down, I got the nutrition component from the last challenge I did and now I need the 3rd piece of the puzzle. More details on it all later but am pretty excited about it. It was the kick start I needed.

Lots of rain on tap for this weekend but hopefully can still get a run in and a tennis match on Sunday. Have a great Friday!

Happy Birthday Hunter!

I spent a couple hours Saturday at my nephew Hunter's birthday party reacquainting myself with the world of 9 year olds. It was quite entertaining to watch 15 or so 9 year old girls and boys chase each other around the park. No organized games, just ice to occasionally put down an unsuspecting kid's shirt and a big field to keep you entertained for two hours. Ah, the carefree life of a 3rd grader!

Hunter is the one testing out the fire on the candle.




My niece, Hollie.


My sister, Amy and Yoda.


Bro-in-law, Chris and Hollie kickboxing...or something.


Hollie never left Hunter's side during the gift opening excitement.

the medals!

How could I forget to show you??? The one that is all gold was for the half. The other was the coast to coast for running at Disneyland and Disney World.

Disney, Disney, Disney....

This week has been insane, I intended to post an update on Disney waaaay before now. For a short week, it felt like the longest week in the world at work. Enough about my time issues, on to Disney...

I am really glad I did it. Overall, I would have to give the edge to the Disney World races over the one at Disneyland. Having never been to Disneyland, I was surprised by how close together the parks are on the property. If you have ever been to Disney World, you drive for what seems like miles once you take the exit to get itno the park area so there is a lot of land for running within the park. At Disneyland, it is more like driving up to a mall. It is right off the road and if you blinked you could miss the entrance. Just not what I expected based on what I knew Disney World was like. The folks in CA are quite proud to have the original!

I left my house around 6A for an 8:30 flight to LAX. I arrived in LAX and by the time I got to a car it was around 12:00. The packet pick up was the quickest I have ever experienced at any race. I don't know if it had to do with the time of day or what but I was in and out of there in less than 5 minutes with no waiting. The EXPO was the usual stuff. I think the only thing I remember that was something I had not seen before was ABC studios were there pimping the fall lineup and giving away prizes advertising some of the shows. There were also screenings of some of the new shows at various times throughout the day. I didn't stick around for the screenings but thought that was kind of cool if you didn't have other plans.

After picking up the race swag, I checked into my hotel and got to see the end of the Melanie Oudin/Maria Sharapova match. Very exciting! I met Melanie a couple of times at a tournament here in GA where I was a volunteer. She is truly a genuinely sweet girl. It is so exciting to see her hard work paying off.

After the match, I decided I at least wanted to see California Adventure while I was there since they don't have that one in Disney World. When you first walk in, there are a lot of similarities to Disney's Hollywood Studios but they do have a pier area with traditional type carnival rides that makes it unique. I ended up making a whirlwind tour of it as I was afraid to walk myself out on Saturday night and have nothing left for the race.

California Adventure.


and when you turn 100 yards in the other direction, the entrance to Disneyland.


You think you have seen palm trees. These are gi-normous.



As with the other Disney races, they start EARLY. They want you to be in the corral at 5A for a 6A start. The upside to the California race is that you can walk from your hotel to the race start so you can leave much later than you would be able to in Florida since walking to the start there is impossible. In Cincinnati, I was able to walk to the start too and really love not having to worry about parking or transportation or adding extra time in for that aspect. Love that.

I was lucky to get in the 1st corral so within a few seconds of the race start I was rolling past the start line and the crowds were breaking free. The California race also gets points for their placement of people based on time in the corrals. For whatever reason in the March half at Disney, there were A LOT of walkers in corral A which made for a difficult start. Lots of running around peopl in limited space.

The route of the race went through the parks, out into Anaheim to Angels stadium and back to California Adventure for the finish. My favorite part is running through the parks. We went through both parks within the first 3 miles which left a pretty big 5 or 6 mile gap of running along the road with not a lot of distraction. (Here is where I start to sound spoiled but it is Disney and I am used to a certain level of distraction from them when I run). They did have high school bands and local entertainment here and there. For whatever reason it just seemed a little bit less than the Florida races. Florida did have A LOT more of the characters out for pictures and maybe that is what seemed to be missing. Not sure...

I ran with Tinkerbell for several miles. She even ran a bit like I might imagine Tink would run, up on her toes. Her heel never hit the ground. I couldn't help but wonder how that might feel at the end of 13 miles.


WOW, those reflective strips on my shorts sure are reflective. who knew?


Can't escape HSM3









The backside of Disney.... I think you have to pay extra for this tour :) They had hundreds of old bicycles back there that the employees must use to get around the park. They all looked like something Walt Disney would have ridden back in the day.



Hey... this race was supposed to be flat...






Mary Poppins and Bert out for a ride


Sleeping Beauty's castle. Cinderella might have one upped her but I do like the pink.






The Toy Story crew were oddly excited that someone noticed they were standing there. I think that is the main difference between the CA race and one in FL. Most of the characters were not where you could get a picture with them.







Headed towards Angels stadium
















California Adventure


Me and Lilo.


My running partner for the last 8 miles, Vicki.


Mickey and Pluto welcoming me back.


Peter Pan picking up his Coast to Coast medal. Not sure if he took Delta or used pixie dust to fly to California.



As for the run itself, it actually felt pretty good. I had not trained like I wanted to going into it so the last 3 miles were a test in mental fortitude. I hooked up with another lady who had run the race before and we ran together for at least 8 miles. If it had not been for her, I probably would have slowed down or hit a run-walk pace those last three miles. I ended up running the whole way with the exception of a few quick picture stops which is great considering I was off my training plan by quite a bit. My ended up being 2:09ish. Not a PR but I wasn't expecting one at this race. Overall, a much better result than expected :)

In Nike news, I had to scratch it from the schedule. The economic forecast in my household is starting to look a little sketchy so we will have to do it another time. I have PLENTY of other races in the area to fill my time over the fall .

On my way...

Up until the last day or so I have been so uninspired about the whole trip. Not that I didn't want to go just oddly unexcited. Maybe because the hubby is at home with his foot up resting. Maybe because I have a load of laundry that is sitting there waiting to be folded and put away among other cleaning that needs to be done. Maybe because... who knows?? The last couple of days I have started to get the bug. I am looking forward to doing my thing of taking a million pictures with every Disney character or wannabe I can find. I can't wait to get my TWO medals for doing Disney races on both coasts. Let's face it, the double medal is my gift with purchase :)

I have never been to Disneyland before but it seems like the area must be a good bit smaller than Disney World. The half run starts at Disneyland and at some point goes through Disneyland, California Adventure, out into surrounding Anaheim and into Angels stadium where you kind of run the bases which should be pretty cool.

I am not going for any kind of great time. I have too many pictures to take to get any sort of personal best. Let's hope the walker wagon doesn't catch me because I am going too slow with all the picture taking! It will be a whirlwind California adventure.

Have a great weekend! See you on Monday :)

File it under 'Good to Know'...

I had actually pondered the wildfires and the proximity to Disneyland for this weekend's race. I guess I wasn't the only one. Maybe I shoudl invest in some sort of mask just in case. Maybe a nice dual purpose one that could also be worn to combat the swine flu. I wonder if they make one shaped like Mickey Mouse... Perhaps there will be one in the race swag bag. :)


From the race director:

Disneyland® Half Marathon Weekend
September 4-6, 2009

Dear Disneyland® Half Marathon Weekend Guests,


Recent news of fires in the Southern California mountains has caused an interest among runners who will be joining us this weekend for the Disneyland Half Marathon. At this time, we are moving forward with the Disneyland Half Marathon as planned. We continue to monitor the air quality situation with the Southern California Air Quality Management District (AQMD); the safety of our runners is our first priority. You can visit their Web site at www.aqmd.gov to keep updated on the current situation and forecasts for race day. The location of the fires is quite a distance from our resort, and the weather forecast indicates a week of cooler weather and favorable wind patterns, so we anticipate a safe and comfortable weekend of fun.

Of course, we will keep you posted should anything change, but for now get your shoes ready for the Happiest Race on Earth! See you real soon!

Disneyland Half Marathon Team