Category: travel

fitness and nutrition, travel

Same. Same (But Different)

2chicksandapen

Racecation Season kicked back into full swing with the Disneyland Halloween Half Marathon. If you’ve been following along my year of amazing races, you know I did a 10 mile race in Disney World in April. The Halloween Half took me across the country to California, to run at the original Disney. Like my Florida race, I also spent a day at the parks so I’ll break this story into two posts…one, the parks / resort and two, the race.

I’ve been to Disney World in Florida many times. I’ve taken my kids at numerous stages, and now I’ve also had the fun of going solo as an adult. This trip would be my very first time at Disneyland in California. I decided to spring for the park hopper, Lightning Lanes, etc. since it was just for one day. Who knows when I will make it back again, if ever. I wanted to cram in as much as I could.

I studied park maps, touring plans, watched videos and read posts, but still didn’t feel prepared enough to have much confidence in my rough outline of the day. Add to that an unseasonal heat wave and I was feeling a little wary that I would accomplish much.

I made the four-and-a-half hour flight on a Friday. I landed around noon and took an uber to my hotel. Friday was my day to pick up my bib and visit the race expo. I made my way to the Disneyland hotel. The scope of Disneyland is so much smaller. Everything is in about a dozen blocks. You aren’t catching buses from resorts to the parks. For the most part, you can walk places. (But to be fair, I did use uber a number of times to preserve my legs and avoid the heat.)

I spent the first afternoon walking through the three resort hotels. I grabbed my race gear, walked the expo, then enjoyed all the Disney magic in the hotels and Downtown Disney. Much of it was decked out for the race and Halloween. (For Disney, Halloween starts in late August. I am not really into Halloween as a holiday, so it amazed me how over-the-top the decorations were. Especially in 100+ degree heat!)

Each hotel had its own vibe. From classic Disneyland at the Disneyland hotel, to woodsy opulence at the Grand Californian, to quirky cartoon chic at Pixar Place, they were fun to explore. I ended up eating a steak salad at the Grand Californian which was simply gorgeous inside. The 5 story lobby was full of people, a live pianist, and a gingerbread display of the wicked witch from Snow White. The restaurant there had one of the best sugar cookies I had ever eaten in my life.

After a short night’s sleep (at a local non-Disney hotel), I was up and off to the parks. I waited in line for park open with a group that was clearly more experienced than me. They were in town for the race from Oregon, but they knew tons of secrets I had no idea about. They were racing to a pickle cart in the middle of the park…apparently you get some sort of special prize if you get the first pickle of the day. I love this kind of trivia and little Disney secrets. I was sort of sad that I didn’t even know about this…again with the feeling of being unprepared.

After open and a short walk down Main Street, I waited to get on Space Mountain. This familiar ride from Disney in Florida turned out to be dramatically different (and better!) in California. Yes, it was still a dark roller coaster, but the California version was smoother, had better cars, and had a good soundtrack. Thus, my day of tracking the Florida v. California Disney began.

Disneyland’s comparatively tiny Sleeping Beauty Castle was no match for Florida’s Cinderella Castle. (Still, I was grateful that California routed our race through the castle! Something that most Florida races don’t do.) Pirates of the Caribbean was much longer and more dramatic on the west coast. Big Thunder Mountain broke down on the ride before us so I never got to experience that.

Haunted Mansion really couldn’t compare because it had a special Nightmare Before Christmas overlay in California. It was wonderful but strange. I hopped over to California Adventure for some other rides. The Indiana Jones and Monsters., Inc. rides are unique to California, as is the awesome Incredicoaster and the amazing Radiator Springs Racers. I loved all these attractions and the delicious meals and snacks I enjoyed between them in Avengers Campus and San Fransokyo Square. The theming of each land in California Adventure was so well done. Cars Land was spectacular!

What was missing? Well, lots of things…no Animal Kingdom. No Epcot countries or Moana or Living with the Land. Fewer resorts, fewer snacks to try. The Mickey waffles I found were terrible but the Mickey ice cream bar still hit the spot on a blazing day.

Downtown Disney was a fraction of Florida’s Disney Springs. I did love the holiday decorations that were there, and enjoyed some ice cream at Salt and Straw.

But the biggest difference…honestly, it didn’t feel as “magical” from cast members. This seems kind of intangible, but many of the cast members just didn’t seem very happy. Granted it was hot, but even the cast members indoors seemed flat at best. There weren’t many character stops, either. Characters seemed to roam around more. Daisy Duck and Genie and Aladdin were just randomly walking around. Mary Poppins was riding the carousel! They would stop at times but then move on. No line for photos. If you wanted to meet them, you just had to hope they picked you from the crowd. Given my enchantment from the characters earlier this year in Florida, this took away a bit of the magic.

I went back to the Grand Californian for that Mickey bar and another sugar cookie. I was in bed pretty early for race day. All in all, Florida still wins for parks and resorts, but I’m glad I got to see the California version. There are some things here that you don’t get in Florida!

fitness and nutrition, travel

Hakuna Matata 10 Miler

2chicksandapen

And now for the April installment of my year of races. (For previous posts in this series, check out this, this, and this!)

I hadn’t really even considered including a runDisney race in my year until a friend at work told me she was signed up for a 10 miler in April of this year. Shockingly, registration was still open when I went to check. (Little did I know that most Disney races sell out in the first few hours.) I thought about it, loved the significance of a race celebrating the 30th year of the Lion King, and dove in.

One of the runners in our CrossFit friend group has done several runDisney races, including races from the Princess weekend and the Dopey challenge, which is four days of back-to-back runs, culminating in a full marathon on the last day. Her pics always looked so fun, filled wish costumes and glitter and runs through the iconic parks.

Little did I know what a wild, thriving subculture the runDisney community is. There are tons of online groups to discuss training and strategies for registration, entire companies devoted to specialized costuming for runners, podcasts all about the runDisney season, speculation about themes, medals, and on and on.

By the time I arrived at Walt Disney World in April 2024, my friend from work had decided not to run for family reasons. I was at Disney, alone, as an adult. Thanks to our generous extended family that lives nearby, I had brought our kids to the parks many, many times. Still, it had been many years since I stayed on the Disney property. I was so excited to be there I was about to burst. Armed with all my research on runDisney, I checked in to the Pop Century resort, ready to go.

This post is mainly to discuss the race. I will share a separate post about my time at Disney in the near future. After I left my luggage at the resort, I made my way over to the expo on the Disney bus.

The expo and swag pickup was as dazzling as you might imagine. A whole crew was waiting for runners with signs and cheers. All the signs were up for photo ops, not to mention characters. There were tons of great vendors at the expo. I bought my new racedots (bib magnets) and some scented cooling towels. I grabbed the bus back to the resort and checked into my room. I spent the rest of the afternoon resort hopping on the skyliner. I had some great food at Riviera and the Caribbean Beach resort, then went back to my room to get my race gear ready.

The first thing to know about a Disney race day is that it starts VERY early. The first bus left my resort at 2:45 am. Thankfully, I am an early early riser by nature. I was also super nervous and excited. I had read sad stories about people sleeping through their alarm and missing races. I set a Disney official wakeup call as well as multiple alarms. I get up around 2 and was on the bus by 3.

The ride to the start line dropoff is about 20 minutes. Then, you join thousands of other runners for the half a mile or so walk to the corrals. In the holding area, there are more characters to get photos with. There is also prerace entertainment. It’s an energetic atmosphere. Finally, you make your way to the corrals.

One of the challenges of these races for me is that they are not as “back of the pack” friendly as I would like. Unlike most of the other races this year, the runDisney races have a hard cutoff for pace and will sweep you off the course if you are too slow. There is all sorts of anxiety about falling behind, getting put onto the sweep bus, and so on. There are an infamous group of people known as the “Balloon Ladies” who are runners carrying literal balloons at the very back of the race. They maintain a 16 minute mile pace. Once they start, you cannot fall behind them or you will be swept.

There are a couple of other things to keep in mind: the 16 minute pace clock starts once the Balloon Ladies cross the start line, so if you are quite a bit ahead of them, you have a buffer. Normally, I wouldn’t worry too much about keeping that pace, but the other cool thing about Disney races is, of course, Disney being Disney, there are character stops on the course. These are mainly photo ops with little interaction. Each stop has official photographers as well as a couple of cast members whose whole job is to keep the photos moving as fast as they can.

I found an online source that leaked all the characters and their spots on the course, so I knew where I was going to stop. My goal was to stop for at least a couple of characters. I also had a chat that let me know where the Balloon Ladies were as well as my watch pacing. And, with the fireworks and a bit of fanfare, I was off.

This race wasn’t much about the pace (aside from not getting pulled onto a bus.) There was so much energy. I was running through Epcot World Showcase. Hollywood Studios. I stopped for photos. There was Disney music piped in. Video screens gave you hints of characters on the course. Cast members from the countries in World Showcase came out to wave hello as the sun rose. It was pretty surreal, actually. We ran through cast member areas, resorts, and parking lots. The course was sometimes packed, sometimes not.

The first character I stopped for was actually someone super new that I didn’t even know. But, the line was short so I just ran through the queue, stop, smile, snap and go. There were characters from old old films like the Rescuers (which had a long line early in the race so I didn’t stop, sadly.), and new characters I didn’t even know. I stopped for a few: Tigger, beloved by one of my running friends, Meeko the raccoon that we took as the name for one of our family cats, Abu from my daughter’s favorite princess movie, and my favorite Disney princess Mulan. I took side photos of other characters since I didn’t think I could wait in line. But I was proud to have stopped for those handful and stayed in front of my pace goal. Maybe the happiest moment was seeing Mickey himself, waving at the runners from a platform over the finish line. I totally felt like a little kid when I stopped for a pic with Mickey waving. I did it!

I will say, this race was hot and humid. I took my cooling towel and medal and snack then skipped all the other photo opps to go to the bus back to my resort for a desperately needed cold shower.

All I can say is I am such a fan of these races. To sum it up, it was totally overstimulating but I loved it. The vibe is positive. It’s a totally different group of people than other races. Many of these people are just casual runners or doing it as Disney fans. There are lots of walkers and run / walk / runners. People get excited about medals, themes, and registration. It’s a lot of fun! I plan to do this one again in future years, and hopefully even do a multi-race challenge for the Springtime Surprise weekend someday.

adventure, travel

Travel Time

2chicksandapen

Took a quick trip this month in the RV solo.

Last minute decision to dust off the RV for its first season use. A bold decision. Spontaneous of course. Off I went throwing caution to the wind. A parking lot to some. An adventure to me. An opportunity to change things up a bit. Just a couple hours from home but a viable option for accommodations in a rural area with overpriced hotels with subpar conditions.

Day one with friends. Day two solo. Both provided different experiences but both provided memorable takeaways. I wasn’t nervous about sleeping alone in my RV yet my pals thought it was a bit scary. I got questions about what would I do if somebody knocked on the door at night? Well I wouldn’t answer it. What if somebody was lurking outside? I have cameras. I wasn’t paranoid. I slept great. I had hot coffee and a warm nutritious breakfast in the morning. I loved the peace and quiet of the solo adventure.

A night with friends’ giggles. One packed light and ready to camp like a pro. One packed the entire house not knowing what was needed. Oh the irony of both. Other friends were curious but not bold enough to try out the RV overnight. Too boujee I suppose. Curious minds wanted a tour of my RV setup by day.  In the security of daylight. Some wanted feedback for the pals who spent the night. Confirmation of scary or cool. Curiosity amidst the group of friends added to my cool adventure.

Setting up the site was easy. I felt confident and experienced. A little adjustment was needed for the but I worked it out. I dealt with rain but no wind so that was good. I packed plenty of food and had just what I needed for a few days away.

Sleep was good. Memories were made. Fun was had. A good reminder for me to just take off and enjoy because I can. Next adventure is soon to be loading.

fitness and nutrition, travel

Little Rock Half

2chicksandapen

My goals this year have me embracing the idea of a racecation…seeing the country (and maybe the world) by traveling to great races all over.

The first installment of racecations took me to Little Rock, Arkansas for the Little Rock Half Marathon. I had several firsts on this trip…first half marathon in 5 years (and second half ever!). First time in the state of Arkansas. First half marathon of my racecation series. And to make it extra special, my oldest daughter ran her first half marathon with me, along with her long time best friend (who also ran her first!)

It may seem like a random race to travel to, but once we figured out that my daughter’s friend could make it work (she lives not far from Little Rock), it all came together. I had earmarked this race because it was rated high based on crowd support, organization, fun, a not-super-hellish course, cool medals / swag, and a generous time limit. I am definitely a “back of the pack” runner by most standards, and freaking out about being taken off the course for moving too slow is something I don’t want to worry about.

I’ll be writing about several races this year, so I’ll focus on the highlights of each:

This race has a different theme each year. The current theme is dinosaurs which was a little funny, but I loved how the expo and all the local neighborhoods embraced the theme with enthusiasm. People ran in dinosaur costumes. Some of the pacers were dressed as Flintstones. The medal, known for being exceptionally large and heavy, was a sparkly triceratops. Easily a favorite.

There were great groups and signs along the way. Even a lipstick stop at the end where a well-known sorority was handing out lipsticks to make sure your finish was picture-perfect. The course was relatively flat. I loved running over the bridge, which also allowed us to cheer for the faster runners and wheelchair racers who were on their way back over as we made our way across.

I have been training with the Galloway run-walk-run method. The group of people running near me were in the same vein. It was pretty cool to hear a chorus of beeps and bells throughout the run and see people of all shapes and sizes getting their run on. I felt like I was in the right place. The weather was awesome, cool but not cold.

I had a great race and loved being congratulated by my daughter and her BFF at the end. They enjoyed their time together…it’s fun to see the two of them as girls who enjoy taking on adventures and challenges together too. Fit and adventurous friends are the best! Such great memories.

The only downside to this race was actually the town. Little Rock didn’t seem to have too much to do. There were hikes and caves and outdoor sports, but we couldn’t really take advantage of those since we were saving our strength for the race. We did enjoy Arkansas cheese dip after the event and an ice cream flight. I would 100% run this race again! Next stop: Disney!

travel

Trapped In 1976

2chicksandapen

Vacation was winding down. All loaded on the plane to make the final leg of the journey. All was looking good until the final pilot check showed a leak in the hydraulics. We wait on the mechanic to diagnose. We sit on the plane. Tempers flare. The people watching gets interesting. Then the news arrives. We must wait for a part to be flown in. We are removed from the plane and the sighs begin, instantly. Then the pilots time out of available fly time to get us home. Nobody is getting home today!

Chaos begins. People are grouchy. Lines are long to get rebooked. Unaccompanied minor’s facial expressions show worry. Airline employees brace for the worst. Plans need to be made for an unexpected night stay. The list goes on an on. Since I was just wrapping up vacation, I was sad to have to wait another day to get home but was overall pretty chill compared to some others who might have just been starting their vacation. I waited in line for hours. I was shuffled to another line for another hour. The process wasn’t as smooth as it could have been but I survived. 

Now the first positive I celebrated when heading to my mystery accommodations was the sunset. It was beautiful and I wouldn’t have seen it, if my plans weren’t altered. The second positive was I had a great burger for dinner before heading off to the motel I knew nothing about. The rest of the adventure was…

This was a field trip. A time capsule to the 70s. Just an interesting experience all together. The main lobby door was closed which seemed weird upon arrival. We had to enter the side door. The reason was the holiday nutcracker display took up the whole lobby. I can’t remember the exact count but it was a massive amount of poinsettias, nutcrackers, little trees and many interesting holiday decorations.  The lobby was old-fashioned and somehow I felt like I was stuck in a time warp.

I even felt like the arrival to the locked main door was the onset of bad things to follow. A horror movie of sorts. What would be lurking around the next corner. Was the lobby going to be smoke filled like lobbies were in the 70s? Was the clerk going to have that raspy smoker voice? Would I get a key on a weird wooden keychain?

My room was on the main floor. Literally in the parking lot. Glass door facing the lot and the road. The wall to the outside was glass. I felt like anytime a vehicle was going to just come crashing through the glass into my bed! The pool was in the basement of the lobby. This was extra odd to me. There was a sign in sheet to enter and exit. I really wanted to explore but it seemed so odd I just didn’t. A hidden pool beneath the motel stuck in the 1970s. Oh I had too many questions in my mind.

The interior. Maybe it was stylish to some but I felt trapped in 1976. The lack of everything modern. The outlets or lack thereof. The heating system. The decor. It was like a carousel of progress broke in 1976 and I was just stuck in a time warp. The TV might be the only accessory updated since 2000. The picture below shows a glimpse of the bathroom. Clean of course but style was definitely outdated. The half tiled wall. The marbled sink. The plaster-type wall surface. The sink handle gave me flashbacks to childhood. It was all just too creepy for me.

I just need to circle back to the glass door and wall of glass. My entrance way to heaven or hell. It was bare to me. Left me feeling exposed. Vulnerable to a break in. Paranoid for a vehicle crash. It was cold to the touch. The outside temperature was in the teens that night adding to the ambiance. Then there was the sound. The opening and closing. Not just of my glass door, but others. Above me. Next to me. Down the way. 

Clack. Slam. Vroom. The sliding. The slamming. The clacking. Is it locked? The checks. The rechecks. It seemed to go on for hours. Above me. Beside me. Near me. Click. Click. Click. Sirens they zip by here and there. The sounds of whispers on the walkway. The whisper grew louder and they were in the room with you.  The environment was full of adventure if you were just still. Lord knows I was still waiting for death to come crashing through my glass doorway!

The cars outside. Zipping. Zooming. Screeching. Too close for comfort. The still of the night finally arrived and I faded off into dreamland. I absolutely never would have picked this motel as my accommodation. I definitely won’t be back. I don’t see myself making a recommendation unless someone wants to relive that time era.

I had a lived experience. I wrote about it. The experience was not my favorite but I lived to tell about it. I wouldn’t hit the redo button but I can definitely giggle about many moments lived. Embrace the unknown, unexpected and down right weird moments of your life.

Cheers to the unexpected days life brings. This may also be my second or third excursion this year to a desolate airport. So many differences in each experience of the wee hours of night or early morning at the airport with a handful of people before the hustle and bustle of day arrives. 

The photo above was my last airport picture. I enjoyed sitting by the warmth of the fireplace with the holiday decorations and gathering my thoughts before hopping on my now fixed plane to journey home.