The Disney Goofy - Part V

If you run the Goofy to get a PR, see all the fun you would miss with the characters? It truly was a party for 26.2 miles. The quality of the photos isn't great, but they are all I have until doing this one again. Oh, I do hope there will be a next time....

This is the finale post for this event. It's a wrap. Over. Done. Thanks Goofy for a great time and for many unforgetable memories. It was worth every mile in the cold early snowy dark and sometime lonely mornings runs. Thanks to everyone who was interested in this crazy endeavor and for believing in me. The end.

The Disney Goofy - Part IV

3D Glasses...what a fashion statement!

Getting ready for the finale. I just love fireworks!

The night of the marathon Hollywood Studios hosted a Victory Lap Party for runners. We closed the place down. It was great fun with Tower of Terror, Rock and Roll Rollercoaster, fireworks, characters, DJ, and great music. It didn't matter that I'd been up since 3 a.m. EST. You can always rest when you get home. We put on the layers you always plan to wear when visiting Orlando and went to the midnight party.

Mel and I road Tower of Terror 3 or 4 times (one of her personal favorites, NOT!) followed by the roller coaster 5 times. One time we had the entire rollercoaster car to ourselves. Sue easily beat us both on the interactive shoot em' up game with the 3D glasses. I have no doubt this beat the pasta party we almost had tickets for instead... Lots and lots of fun was had.

The Disney Goofy - Part III

I made it!

It's about the "bling"

You think I look tired here, you should have seen me the next morning...

For the past year I've been talking about getting these medals. Donald for the Half. Mickey for the Marathon. And, you guessed it, Goofy for both.

So you might asked what one does following the Goofy. Well, we went to Gatorland. They have a one of the greatest tacky gift and souvenir store I've seen. It's hard to miss this place as you drive by. This was the precursor for the Victory Lap Party starting that night at Hollywood Studios. More to come about that later.

"Do you want a piece of me?"

The Disney Goofy - Part II

Entering Disney World. They have their own freeway.

At the Milk House to pick-up race packets.

No Explanation Necessary...


Downtown Disney. Goofy has his own candy store.

Like I mentioned earlier, the Goofy did not disappoint. The Half portion is recap'd in "The Goofy - Part 1" The day following the half was the marathon. It also started at Epcot. The marathon route takes runners through all the parks. I'd be lying if I didn't say I was a bit nervous about venturing into this one alone. Okay, alone is a relative term. I mean alone with my 24,000 friends. It was bigger than I realized. The only marathon I've done with more runners is New York with 32,000 back in 2002.

At the Expo we asked about how best to drop me off so Mel and Sue didn't have to wait in traffic at Epcot the whole time I was running. Just to give a timeframe, my alarm clock went off at 3 a.m. EST (that's 1 a.m. MST). We left the condo at 3:45 a.m. for the 10 minute drive when there is no traffic. That is early. Wasn't it nice of them to get up so early to take me? I asked twice at where we stayed if they had a shuttle... no luck. So, come to find out to drop someone off you simply follow the bus and taxi signs. Don't follow the cars. It worked splendidly.

So they dropped me off and left me there with all my new friends. I headed over toward the area where they had everyone wait in a place where all the runners were surrounded by porta-potties. After about a half hour we got to walk to the start line (approx .5 mile) and find the assigned corral. I was corral D for me. A, B and C (the speedy runners) started on the opposite side of the freeway back a ways. The corrals were fenced and you had to show your number to get into the right corral. D was the first corral on the slower runner side and if I may say so, it was where the action was. Lucky for me, D was close to the DJ, Mickey, Minney, Donald and Goofy. People were dancing and having a good time trying to stay warm in the 27 degree weather. Before long, the fireworks shot up and off we went. The two start lanes merged at about 3.5 miles coming out of Epcot and headed toward Magic Kingdom. I liked the start a lot. One gun started all the runners. When the speedsters started catching corral D everyone started to yell for them to give us a chance. They didn't care and kept going.

Thanks to my great running friends home in bed at that moment, my training was spot on for this one. I felt good at the start. No ill effects from the Half. It took a little while for me to get warmed up, but I felt great. Running at sea level does help. The course is flat, except for the overpasses...no big deal. The entertainment along the way was so fun. School bands, cheer squads, guys doing tricks on a trampoline on top of an overpass, guys on stilts, funny signs to read, hot air balloons, and people. Oh and did I mention Disney Characters? They were all along the course.

Now a word about my pictures. In the swag bag we were given two disposable cameras. My major regret was using these cameras since none of the pictures turned out very well. I had my picture taken with Buzz, Peter Pan, Hook, Wendy, Cinderella's Wicked Step Mother and Sisters, Pirates, Mary Poppins, Mickey, and Goofy, and others. None of the pictures are great so when I do this again, I'll carry my own little digital camera. It didn't take long to have a picture taken. There were plenty of Disney workers right there to take pictures. There really was never a dull moment. If there wasn't entertainment of some sort, there was a water stop with really nice people.

One quick word about the water at the water stops. There was ice in it! It was cold enough the cups of water froze overnight and where the water spilled on the road it froze. You can't make this stuff up....

Running through Animal Kingdom was a highlight. I hadn't been there yet so it was all new. I also saw things you wouldn't typically see while at Disney. Take for example the water treatment plant, their green houses, and my favorite -- I got to smell the compost pile. Now who can brag about that?

My friends on the course were nice but I didn't really socialize with anyone one. I was completely entertained by watching what was going on and being in the parks. I had Mel's MP3 and I listened to it between the Parks some. Call it a security blanket...I would have been okay with out it. The whole thing was such a blast!

Blue Dot

One might ask why this sheep has a dot? Why is it blue instead of another color? Was blue his school color? Did he get hit with a paint ball. Was he in the wrong place at the wrong time when doing crafts. Is he a he? Oops, maybe he's a she. So many questions... I do like this sheep with the blue dot. He makes me smile because I know where he lives and it brings happy thoughts and memories of Ireland to my noggin. Lucky sheep!

Hard Hats Required

Okay, let me introduce you to my Bud. She's the one on the right in the hard hat. This is us doing one of our very most favorite things in the whole world. We like biking a lot. In fact, tomorrow is the kick-off meeting for the upcoming biking season. We realize it's January. Incidently, no hard hats are required for the meeting. Just bringing your favorite carbohydrate. I'm looking forward to a great 2010 biking season. There surely will be fun events in store. LRRH to name one. Heard just today they are starting in Lewiston rather than Wellsville. Sounds like changes are a brewing for this event. I hope nobody tells the big bad wolf.

Now a little more about Bud. She's great. You should get to know her if you don't already. She has spunk and keeps things happening. She also is very observant. It's really hard to get anything past her, or to surprise her. I'd like to think I've gotten better at this over the past few years. She might have another opinion about this though... She inspired me to try this blogging thing when she was able to download a years worth into her very own book. I want to be an author too. She's a great friend. Everyone should have a friend like her. I'd like to think I've taught her how much fun it is to travel. She hasn't always like to go see the world. Then one day she piped up and said she wanted to go to Ireland. Guess what? We went in November 2009. In fact, here's a picture of us there on the hop-on hop-off bus freezing to death. Freezing. Freezing. Freezing. Anyway, she's an awesome friend even if she has a hard head. Oops I mean hat. I'm so very lucky.

The Safari

At Animal Kingdom we did the Safari Ride. It was one of my favorites, only because I dream of one day really going on a real African Safari. We rode in the big Disney safari jeeps and spotted several of the animals who reside on the animal reserve. The hippo pictured above is how I felt Sunday night after completing the Goofy and closing down Hollywood Studios at the Victory Lap Party.

Family Trip to Bryce Canyon

Family hike at Bryce Canyon. The weather cooperated for our second annual outing. We hiked the Navajo Loop and apparently needed a rest part way through. Thanks to Hazel we all ate really well. We enjoyed a nice ride to the top of the canyon, checked out several of the lookouts, swam, played games, cross country skied, and mostly enjoyed doing what we wanted without a strict time schedule. It was M&M's first trip to Bryce. I think they liked it. Thanks Ruby for another great trip.

Too Pooped to Pump

Can you name this location? This is in the town where my family went to church today after abandoning a neighboring ward in a neighboring town. No guesses? It is in Cannnonville. Notice the three consecutive nnn's. This is how the name is printed on the ward hymn books. Funny how we all noticed. When the 25 of us showed up this morning there were more of us than the local church goers. It was rather comical. We first stopped in Tropic, but they do RS first. We only wanted Sacrament Meeting. Lucky for us, Cannnonville was only 3 miles away and could accommodate our want. The talks were good. No one sang and the organist was very timid. It was easy to find the church since there are only two streets in the town. Interestingly enough, this small town was once home to my Grandpa H. We'd like to think he would have been proud.

Tired of Following Me?

This last summer when running the Park City Marathon I passed this guy who said to me "I get so tired of following you. Everywhere race I go to, I end up following you." I thought this was the funniest thing. I remembered seeing him during the run at Spudman last July. Funny enough, he was on our flight to Orlando so I asked him if he was there to do the Goofy. Sure enough. In checking our finishing times, it looks like he got to follow me there too. Things that make you snicker....

The Disney Goofy - Part 1

Expo

Milkhouse

What do I say about an event I decided to run in October 2008. It was over the St. George Marathon weekend I saw the ad in the Runner's magazine. It seemed like such a good idea and fun adventure then. It did not disappoint.

Mel, Sue and I arrived in Florida on Thursday afternoon, Jan 7, 2010 to participate in the largest endurance event in the world. As our flight was on approach I all of the sudden got very nervous. So nervous I wanted to cry and couldn't talk. Once we landed I calmed down a little bit. We rented the car and drove straight to Disney's Wide World of Sports to pick-up our race packets and go to the Expo. First stop was the Milk House. I found the Goofy area and got my envelope with my numbers, signed the waiver, and the nice man put my wristband on for me. You wear the wristband until the finish of the half and then they put a second one on that's a different color for the marathon. This is how they know you've done both events qualifying you for the coveted Goofy medal. Mel and Sue picked up their Half packets. From there we headed to the Expo.

The Expo was huge with lots of vendors, marathon booths and things every runner needs. Before we got sucked into the booths we picked up the swag bag with our race shirts, etc. For the Goofy you get 3 shirts. Then we perused the official Disney race items. Of course, there were a few necessary items to be purchased there. We spent enough time in the Expo booths to buy some new sunglasses and a "stick" to roll my legs. Then it was time to escape the crowd and start our search for food.

Now a word about the weather. Let me first say all I really wanted to do was run these runs in shorts and tank tops. That's all. That's' it. The weather gods had a different idea. While there Florida experienced a major cold spell. A cold spell of record porportion. Coldest temperatures since they started keeping records. So cold the Orlando weatherman got to use the four letter word "snow." Cold like Utah cold. Cold like I'd been training in the past few months. Frankly, cold I'm tired of. I'd watched the weather forecast before leaving and packed everything but the kitchen sink. Fleece, long pants, hats, gloves, and a tank and shorts just in case. I should have left the tank and shorts home. I wore everything else. Race days the weather was in the 20's at the start. During the Half it rained a little at the start, then stopped, then rained at the finished. The following day for the marathon it was still cold, but dry. By cold I mean cold enough the cups of water at the waterstops had ice in them. Cold enough the water froze on the roads and the nice volunteers were spreading sand and cautioning runners of the black ice so we wouldn't fall down. I think I've made my point. My final comment on the cold is, however, that it wasn't so cold it kept us from having fun. We bundled up and had a great time despite it all.

Sue completed her first half marathon. She did great! We timed it just right to get to the start about 10 minutes prior to our wave starting. The start line was probably about a mile from where we parked and a half mile from the finish line and bag check area. Mickey, Minney, Donald, and Goofy were there to send us off with fireworks. We stayed together for a while between Epcot and the Magic Kingdom. Running down Mainstreet and through the castle were definite highlights. Sue and I were able to meet up to run through the castle together. Disney had a lot going on along the course. High school bands, cheer squads, hot air balloons, Disney employees, characters inside the park and out. It was really fun and definitely never boring. It went by really fast. Before I knew it we were headed back toward Epcot and my mind started to shift to the marathon. It actually was a good preview for the next day. Since I was doing that solo, it was nice to know how things worked and where I needed to be.

Let's briefly talk numbers. Over 12,000 participated in the Half. Over 24,000 participated in the full marathon with 7,000 of them being Goofy runners. That's a big crowd to get lost in...

The Goofy - Ready or Not, Here We Come!

In October 2008 I got this hairbrained idea to run the Goofy Challenge at Disney World in January 2010. The time is now. The airline tickets are purchased. Rental car reservation made. Suitcases are almost out. The laundry is underway. And the legs are nervous.

The Goofy Challenge is a two day event where you run a half marathon the first day and a full marathon the second. That's a total of 39.3 miles. Running through Cinderella's Castle, Epcot, MGM and Animal Kingdom will be highlights but the real attraction for me are the medals for this one. Donald Duck for the half. Mickey Mouse for the Full. And, you guessed it, Goofy for being goofy enough to do both.

I'm looking forward to going with great friends and having a great time. Best of luck to Sue who's running her first half marathon in one of her most favorite places. She's stuck with the training and is ready for a great run.

Doris, my Alias

Now I've done it. I've created a blog. Surprisingly it was my own idea. No peer pressure or anything. Now you might ask why is it called "The Doris Days?" The short answer is because I'm Doris. This blog is about days lived by me and my crowd. Doris is not my given name, but it is used often enough I answer to it. I might even go so far as to say I've come to like the name. I even considered getting personalized plates with it, but someone beat me to it. It's a name I've come to like. My alias of sorts.

So, what will Doris blog about? The options are endless but posts will likely include Doris' random adventures, wisdom (assuming I have some), definitely running and biking happenings, thoughts about my life, food, hopefully some travel and whatever else may come to mind. I hope it will be a good ride.

Now I'm off to cook meatloaf. I'm hungry.