2012 Wine & Dine half marathon

So where were we?
Oh yes, I went on a cruise vacation with Mandy, Annie & Martha in March, posted a recipe and haven't blogged again :)

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Taking a look back at the runDisney video for the 2012 Wine & Dine half marathon, this really is my favorite race.  I've run it all three years and I am signed up to run it again in November, can't wait!

Last year, Mandy was in Orlando for work so she decided to extend her time in Florida so she could run as well.  It was a fun weekend!  

Friday we spent all day, along with her co-worker Isabelle, going to 3 of the Disney parks.  I haven't done a park marathon like that in years.  It was fun & tiring! We ended the day with a late dinner at Il Mulino at the Swan resort.  I'd never eaten there before, but it was delicious.

Saturday we checked into the Yacht Club and spent the afternoon by the pool.  This is where we met up with Annette & Brian.  Annette was also running Wine & Dine.

We had an amazing room that looked right out onto the Boardwalk.  I'm not going to lie, we were super tempted to blow off the race, crack open a bottle wine and enjoy the Epcot fireworks from our balcony.  We even thought about just hanging out in the hotel room and then just jumping into the race for the last mile or so, since the course passes right by our hotel :)  

Of course we didn't do that because we are good girls.

Our shirts for the night were all flourescent colors... please know this makes us very, very cool.  

wow, this is super blurry

I kinda like love our bright shirts, not gonna lie.

Everything about the race was fine, well organized and all that jazz.
The coolest thing on the course... these lasers!

I took this pic off of Twitter, so if it is yours, let me know and I will credit it properly

They changed the finish line location for a third time, and I can't imagine why they would change it again, it was super organized.  It ended out in the Epcot parking lot basically in the same area as Princess, WDW half & the marathon.  The set-up is totally different though.  There were big tents for men & women to change in, they handed you a drink (beer, wine, soda) on our way out of the runner's area and then you could head back into Epcot for the post race party.

The weather was spectacular that night, even a little chilly, which I absolutely loved.

Epcot was open until 4am and Amanda & I were there until the end!

Since we weren't able to enjoy cocktails on our balcony Saturday night, we ordered up some bloody mary's to do so Sunday morning!

I told you our room was awesome!

Another relaxing day by the Beach & Yacht Club pool was had before we had to head home.
142 days to go until the 2013 Wine & Dine half!

Vacation time!

Be back soon...

All registered for Expedition Everest!

Team 'All About the Medal' is all signed up for our 4th go round at Disney's Expedition Everest Challenge!

It takes place on Saturday May 4th - can't wait!

In the Women's Team category we came in 49th in 2010, 15th in 2011 and 11th in 2012.

We want to finish in the top 3 this year!  It's going to be a 5K kind of spring - working on the speed :)

On a sad runDisney note, neither I, nor my friends (there were 5 of us), were able to register in time for the Dumbo Double Dare at Disneyland this fall :(

BUT the silver lining is that we are now going to try for the San Francisco Nike Women's Half.  We are going to put together a group once the registration process starts.  Let me know if you would be interested in joining!

Have you ever taken part in a scavenger hunt type of race?

Catching Up!

Ok, so where were we?
Right!  Disneyland half marathon weekend.
Two weeks after returning from California, I headed up to Orlando to run the Miracle Miles 15K

Very inspirational race.  You are running to raise money for the tiny babies at the Winnie Palmer Children's Hospital NICU.  Since the race was three months ago, the one thing that still stands out to me was a sign that said something like "The tiny babies Thank You".  I saw it at a point in the race when I really wanted to walk.  But damn those tiny babies... they have it worse off than I, so I kept running ;)

The following weekend was the runDisney Tower of Terror 10 Miler.

80 degrees with 80% humidity at the 10pm start time.  Whoa.
I am usually a very sweaty person, but this night topped it all.  Absolutely soaked from head to toe once I was done.
Loved this course (the stretch on Osceola Parkway was a little boring, but other than that it was great).  Loved the after party.  Would totally recommend it to anyone.

The next week I went to Texas for a conference.
Before leaving on Saturday I was able to explore the Alamo

and the Riverwalk in San Antonio.

I was glad to see these places since I had never been, but I definitely don't plan on spending lots of time in Texas throughout my life.  No offense Texas.

The day after I returned from Texas I got to hang out with my good friend Matt, whom I had met in Alaska.  He is a fancy diplomat now.  Well he is stationed in Haiti, so I am not sure that part is fancy.
Anyways, he was in Miami for the weekend to go to the movies and stock up on stuff at Costco.  We only got to hang out for about an hour, but I am glad I saw him!

A few days later someone became a big sister!

So of course I headed to Maine to meet my new niece Molly!  Cutest, most kissable cheeks ever!

After being back in Miami for two whole days, I headed across the pond for a seminar at sea onboard one of our ships.
We got to visit Italy

Astrological Clock in Sicily

and Greece

Temple of Zeus with the Acropolis in the back ground - Athens

The original Olympic Stadium!

LOVED Mykonos!

Santorini

and Turkey

ruins of Ephesus

We did work onboard... proof:

Great trip!  I love Europe!

Four days after my return from Europe, I headed back to WDW for the third running of the Wine & Dine half marathon.

Yup, this one and Disneyland are my two favorite runDisney events.  Oh, and probably Expedition Everest too :)
LOVE the Wine & Dine half.  It honestly gets better every year!

The next weekend I was able to visit with my friends Danielle & Bill when they passed through Miami before heading out on a cruise. They are always so much fun to visit with!

For Thanksgiving, I went to Annette's in Tampa and joined her family for turkey day in Orlando.
Thursday night Annette, Brian & I braved the Black Friday sales.
Oh my hell.  Toys R Us was my worst nightmare.
Target was awesome... Toys R Us not so much.
I told Toys R Us they should go check out how Target was running their operation and copy them.
Yeah, I am thinking Black Friday shopping is not for me.

All of last week I was onboard my company's newest ship as we had 2 two-night inaugural sailings for travel partners & media.  That was followed by a 3 night sailing for our sales meeting.
90% Exhausting.  10% Fun.

I am home this week cramming all my Christmas cheer into 5 days (cookies, gift wrapping & christmas cards) before I get on another ship on Saturday for one more seminar at sea.
Whew.

I am really excited to relax in Maine for the holidays!

2012 Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend

Another great year at the Disneyland Half Marathon was had by all!
You can read about last year here and here.

There were 8 of us total... Annie & Martha were coming from Alaska,  Jamie & Amanda were coming from San Francisco/Bay Area, Leah & Sue were coming from NY, and Annette & I were coming from Florida!  We all arrived into Orange County or LAX on Saturday morning.
We met up at our hotel (Hilton Anaheim), had lunch and then cabbed it over to the Expo for packet pick-up.  Like last year, everything was organized and we were in and out in no time.

the graphics for the shirts are always cute!  just wish they had ladies sizing

 After dropping all of our race bags, bibs, etc. back at the hotel, we took the shuttle over to Disneyland Park.
We had all purchased Pasta in the Park tickets, which included Twilight park tickets, allowing us to enter the park at 4pm.
After hitting up a few rides, we headed over to Big Thunder Ranch for the pasta dinner.  The food was what I expected (two types of pasta, chicken, salad, rolls and dessert), but overall the group was not that impressed.  I think eating there is better than eating at one of the fast food restaurants in the park, but I would love to hear where others had a pasta-type dinner before the race either in or around Disneyland.  Please do tell :)

Last year Big Thunder Ranch was decorated for the race with a "Good Luck Runners" sign, the characters were dressed in their track suits, picture back drops were race themed... all little things that got you pumped up for the race. You can see all this in the pics from last year (link above).
This year the characters were dressed in western outfits since the rest of the place was a country western theme (hence the location name - Big Thunder Ranch).  Eh.

When comparing this year to last, Pasta in the Park was a let down.  Not only because of the non-race theme, but also because it was the same amount of money and we did not receive the two Fast Pass tickets that were included last year.  When trying to zip through parks on a 2 day visit every minute counts :)

We still enjoyed the characters though and got pictures with them all...

Chip & Dale

Donald & Daisy

Goofy & Pluto

Ladies only!

Mickey & Minnie

One thing that was not a let down... race day!
The Disneyland half marathon course is definitely one of, if not, my favorite runDisney course.
Loved it last year, loved it this year.

Start corrals were not as congested as last year and there was definitely better signage.  This year I got to start in Corral B, so the first 3.5 miles were not as congested as last year.
I LOVED running through the new Cars Land!  So exciting to see something for the first time.  I loved the little changes on the course through Disneyland Park and the time flew by.  I couldn't believe it when we were exiting the park onto the streets of Anaheim.  During mile 7 there was a whole street of classic cars which was just so amazing.  What a great idea!  I saw a white convertible that looked like "Grease Lightning" - loved it!
All the entertainment was great, running through Angel Stadium is the best, I love that it is a flat course.  Just all around a really fun 13.1 miles.  Coming from hot and humid South Florida, the weather on Sunday was a dream.  While the sun did feel a little hot towards the end, the lack of humidity made this girl very happy.

This was probably my best half marathon effort in a year (since last year's DLHalf) and it felt really good!  The last couple of miles were painful, but it felt like a good pain and not just pain :)

After crossing the finish line, I got my Disneyland medal, a cold towel (best finish line perk ever!), and then got in line for my Coast to Coast medal.  Leah & Sue crossed the finish line right after me, so we waited in line for the medals together.

We got water, snacks and our check bags and then headed out to the parking lot where Amanda, Annette and Martha were waiting for us.  We sat around and waited for Jamie & Annie to finish.
Martha & Annie both got PRs - woohoo!
Well done runDisney!!

Lots of bling!

WDW marathon & DL half marathon - love it!

The rest of the day was spent relaxing at the hotel, laying by the pool and then heading over to California Adventure with our Twilight tickets.  After the early morning start, it was a nice and relaxing rest of the day.
We got to go on Soarin', California Screamin' and the TowMater ride & Radiator Springs Racers rides in Cars Land.  Cars Land was truly right out of the movie and the rides are always so fun :)

a snag it of the Photo Pass pic I bought - love it!

 Amanda, Annie, Martha & I went over to the new Carthay Lounge for drinks and apps to share.  It was so good and I am glad we got to try out the new place!
We ended our night at DCA at the World of Color show.  I am definitely more of a ride person than a show person, but this show was so good!

Following the park, some of us headed to Downtown Disney for some more drinks to celebrate the night!  If you haven't heard me say this before, I love that you can walk everywhere in Disneyland.  Amazing.

Monday everyone started to leave :(
People were dropping like flies all throughout the day...Some of us had brunch, then some of us went shopping, then two of us laid by the pool, while two went to the parks.  Finally it was Leah, Sue & myself.  We met up at Napa Rose at the Grand Californian Hotel for dinner before I had to get my shuttle to LAX.  Again, another delicious experience!

I was sad when the weekend was over.  We all had such a great time with some great memories!  Can't wait to get together with these girls again!

Coast to Coast 2012 is complete!

Disney's Expedition Everest Challenge 2012

Saturday was the '5th Adventure' of Disney's Expedition Everest Challenge.  Annette & I teamed up once again as "All About the Medal".  Last year we finished 15th for the All Female teams, so naturally this year we wanted to do better.  Top 10 was our goal.
So how did we do...

 We came in 11th!
 We finished the course (which is a 5K with obstacles and then a scavenger hunt) in 50:21.
The winning team finished in 42:08.  There were 701 All Female teams.
We were super happy with our time and we even finished five minutes faster than last year!
I really want to place next year :)

As always, it was a great event.
It started off with pack pick-up at ESPN's Wide World of Sports on Saturday morning.  There is no expo, just packet pick-up and course talks.  It is cute though, since they set it up like base camp.

The race itself started at 9:30pm at the Animal Kingdom in the Butterfly parking lot.  You can do Expedition Everest as part of a 2-person team or as an individual.
There are 8 wave starts, 6 minutes apart.

 

Unfortunately the waves are not time based.  They never have been, but in my old age this just bothers me more :)

The individuals start out first, then the All Male teams, then the Co-Ed teams, then the All Female teams.  While this makes sense as men are naturally faster runners than women, there are just soooo many walkers at this event, I really, really hope runDisney changes this next year.  All we did was dodge people the entire time.  I understand walkers are welcomed at this event, it would just be so much better to separate the runners from the walkers.

The start was fantastic this year!  They did things a little differently from the previous two years  Instead of having everyone wait in corrals for up to an hour before their wave was to start, they just had everyone relax in the parking lot and they would call up the next wave to the starting line and then the wave after would be "on deck" at the back of the start line chute.  

With only 5,100 participates, Expedition Everest is one of the smaller runDisney events, so this worked out perfectly.  Since we were last, we went over to the 5K finish line (also in the Butterfly Lot) to watch the runners finish from the earlier waves.  

The race started about 5 minutes late, so we were off and running at just about 10:20pm.

The first mile is entirely in the Animal Kingdom parking lot.  During this mile you get to the first obstacle - jumping over bails of hay.  Once past that, you enter into the park, run through Discovery Island, through Africa and then take a left into a backstage area, along the Wildlife Express Train route.  Here in mile 2 is the next obstacle - running through the tires.  

Making our way back into the park, we run through Discovery Island again (on the other side of the Tree of Life) and then out of the park through another backstage area. Once back in the parking lot there is the third, and last, obstacle - rope crawl.

Teammates are suppose to cross the 5K timing mats together in order to continue onto the scavenger hunt portion.  Due to my slow running we finished about 30 seconds slower than last year.  32:04.  This is what needs to be improved upon for next year!  And yes, I am directing this at myself :)

Once we were done with the 5K, the volunteers hand us a clue card, marker, and mini flashlight/whistle combo.

Can I please tell you the whistle was AWESOME for getting through the walking crowds.  I have no doubt it was annoying to some, but we freakin' loved those things!

That clue cards told us which "Land" to go to and which volunteer to look for.  In each Animal Kingdom "Land" there are 5 volunteers each with different signs.

For example, our first clue said "Oasis" for the Land and the sign we needed to look for was Mirage. 

All runners go to the different Lands in the same order (Oasis, Camp Minnie-Mickey, Africa and Asia), but there are five different versions of clues.  Hence the five different signs.

On your way to each location you need to figure out the clue card.  Once at the correct volunteer, you need to tell them your answer and if you are correct they will give you the next card.  Overall, the clues are pretty manageable, but if you are having a hard time, the volunteers will give you hints.

Once you have been to all 4 Lands, the answer to the fifth and final clue is your "password" to cross the finish line and enter the post race party.  The "password" is a word made up of letters from the 4 previous clues.  Solve that, tell your password to the volunteers and cross the finish line!

The scavenger hunt was where we made up time this year and we finished that portion in 18:18.

After crossing the finish line we got our awesome medals...

 Then we headed over to Dinoland USA to collect our checked bags and grab a beer.

Unfortunately the line for bag check was kind of long, so we decided to go back later.  Luckily our friend Dave was there so we could bum money off of him for the beers.  We had to adequately hydrate after :)

We waited for Annette's husband, Brian, and Dave's girlfriend, Wendy, to finish.  They were a team this year and they were called "Where's Dave?".  I thought that was pretty funny :)

We got in a few rides - Everest (obviously!), Dinosaur and Primeval Whirl, which I have declared myself officially too old to ever ride that thing again... Can't handle the jerkiness, ugh.

I really love the night time runDisney events with the post race parties.  Even though you could tell it was more crowded this year, it was still fun and we will definitely be back next year!

NYC weekend and half marathon recap!

Sunday March 18th I ran the NYC half marathon.
This race was so unbelievably awesome!
And I almost passed it up... total craziness on my part.

Back in December the lottery opened up, so I put my name in.
I asked my friends Leah and Annette if they were interested.
Leah, who lives in NY, was going to be out of town for a wedding and Annette couldn't go.
I figured I really didn't stand the chance to get in since they only had 10,000 spots, and people from all over the world applied, so I kind of forgot about it.
The week after Christmas I found out I got in! They opened the race up to 5,000 additional people so I figured that is why I got in.

I still wasn't sure if I would go, but after talking with my friend Sue, she said she was going to try to either get a bib on Craigslist (doesn't work folks, don't try), or at the very least she would hang out in the city for the weekend.
This sounded like a fun, quick trip to NYC I couldn't pass up!

Friday night after work I took the quick flight to JFK. Easy as can be.
I then took a cab into the city to our hotel, Le Parker Meridien.
I got the hotel on Hotwire for just under $200 per night... really a good deal for NYC. I knew I wanted to stay within walking distance to the start line in Central Park and this hotel was perfect for that. Right on 57th between 6th and 7th.
The hotel was a nice with a good reputation. I like when decent hotels don't take themselves too seriously... as seen with their "do not disturb" door cards:



So cute!
I have been to NYC several times before, but I had never been to one of the amazing museums this city is home to. On Saturday morning I visited the Modern Museum of Art.



It was a great museum and I got to see some amazing paintings!
Andy Warhol's Marilyn



Picasso's the Three Musicians



Monet's Water Lilies



Cezanne's The Bather



And the highlight for me...



Van Gogh's Starry Night!
I remember being so disappointed when I visited the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam and this painting wasn't there. I was so glad to see this in person! Awesome!
I love Van Gogh's heavy handed painting style. Basically he glops (sure, that is a word) on the paint.
Sorry for the blurry pics... no flashes were allowed.

After museum time, I met up with Sue and her husband Mark. We took the subway down to Madison Square Park. This was my first NY subway ride. I loved it. I think all the numbers and letters confuse me, so my family,friends and I have always stuck to cabs.
That was my only subway ride, as the rest of the time we/I used cabs :).
Those little yellow magic cars are just so easy,and reasonably priced, to use.

Once down in the Madison Square Park are we saw the Flatiron building (designed by a Chicago architect in the Beaux Arts style - thank you Ted Mosby), had a delicious burger at the wildly popular Shake Shack (the line was soo long, but the weather was perfect and the company was great, so it went fast enough). One other stop we made was Mario Batalli's Eataly. It is an amazing indoor food market. You can shop for meats, cheese, fish, spices, etc. Or you could also get lunch, snacks, drinks, whatever.
It totally reminded me of Madrid's Mercado de San Miguel. I loved this place!

We then walked over to the expo for race.



No lines, no waiting. Super organized.



They really enforced the "you MUST pick up your own packet" rule, so unfortunately Sue was not able to run on Sunday :(
I got my stuff...



The expo itself wasn't too big, so we were through quickly. I loved my green shirt! They had a cool t shirt with the course map on the back that I really liked, but they only had xs by that time. They are selling them online, so I may get one.

Speaking of green, it was St. Patrick's day after all, so we were making our way down to the West Village to meet up with one of Sue's friends for some beer!

On our way, we walked through the Chelsea Market. It is a beautiful old factory, now filled with stores and restaurants. It was very industrial and very awesome. I also learned from the interwebs that this was the building where the Oreo was created. How cool right?!
After that we walked a ways on the High Line. It is an old, elevated freight train line that has been turned into a pedestrian walkway and a park. Great outdoor area in a congested city... an amazing use of space!
Thanks Sue and Mark for taking me to two awesome places I never knew existed! I loved it!

After that, the West Village was our destination. We went to the Kettle of Fish bar and met up with Sue's friends Meghan and Annie. Typical bar, good beer and we stayed until it go too crowded.
We then went to the Five Guys bar. I am not sure what the actual bar was called, but we needed to walk through a Five Guys Burgers to get up to the bar. Weird, but cool.
At about 8 we started thinking about dinner. Tertulia was our destination on 6th Ave. This restaurant was started by Seamus Mullen from the Food Network's Next Iron Chef.
Amazing meal. I still dream about the Brussels Sprouts. Sooooo good.
Great rec Sue and Mark!
P.S. Sue and Mark use to live in the city, Mark still works there and they both love good food, so they were amazing travel companions for the weekend!

At that point it was time for bed for Heather. Early start the next day!
Got up around 5am, had some coffee, a little breakfast and then headed over to the race by 6:15am. Since it was still dark outside, as I made my way down to the lobby, I wondered if there would be others walking over to the race at this time. I am silly sometimes.
There were lots of runners heading to Central Park at that time!
As it turned out, I made perfect timing. I made it to the bag check UPS truck by 6:40am. I then headed to my corral.



Made it to corral 18 in about 10 minutes.
All I can say was this race was sooooo organized. NYRR, who puts on this race, really know how it put on a race. I am thinking it has something to do with the fact they put on the biggest marathon in the world, but that is just my thought :). Race Directors everywhere should come here, observe, and take notes.

On top of organizing a race with over 15,000 finishers, they also had some of the world's best runners on hand.
I ran in the same race as Kara Goucher, Desi Davilla and Meb Klef$&@ski :)

The race started at 7:30am, but I didn't even start until 8:04am!
There were 22 corrals in all, so it took awhile to get everyone across the start line. In fact, before I crossed the line, I saw the elites run past us at mile 6. We were all cheering for them, it was very exciting. They are so fast!
The first six miles of the race make one complete loop of Central Park.
How awesome.
The Park is hilly but not unbearable. Be prepared and you will be fine.
On my way out of Central Park, I saw Sue cheering me on! Fans are awesome - thanks Sue!
We then headed down 7th Ave and right through Times Square.
Hands down the coolest mile anywhere.
Before the race started, the announcer said that the city only shuts down Time Square twice a year... for New Year's Eve and for the Half Marathon, that's it! Awesome!
The rest of the race is flat.
We turned right on 42nd street and then left on the West Side Highway.
From there we just headed downtown towards the new World Trade Center. The unfinished building is a great point of reference.
Along the way there were cheer groups, DJs, bands and singers.
Really everything is awesome, but the city herself takes center stage the entire time.
Right at Mile 10 I started getting calf cramps like it was my job. Annoying.
Running by the WTC site there was a small group of NYPD officers cheering us on. I can't imagine a better place for them to be along the route.
At mile 11.5 or so, we entered the Battery Park tunnel and that was awesome! Kinda scary at first since when we entered we couldn't see the other end of the tunnel, but it ended up being a cool twist to the course.
Once out of the tunnel we had 800 meters to go.
It was at this point that I saw finishers walking the opposite direction with their space blankets!
I was so excited to get one! Florida races never have them and when I did get one at the Disney Marathon, I just held it since it was too warm.
The finish line was at South Street Seaport, so we made our way through a couple streets near the Wall Street area. The tall buildings really made the crowds cheers seem loud and echoey... loved it!

This was the fastest I have run 13.1 since October so I loved that! However, I was a back of the packer since most people finished in under 2 hours. Fast crowd here, walkers need not apply.
No worries though, we were all out there running, keeping up with the flow and never once did I feel like the course was crowded. It was awesome.

Have I mentioned the weather yet? No :)
OMG, amazing weather.... Cloudy and in the 50s.
Desi said it best, "If you don't run fast today, you should probably go bowling."

When Sue and I saw the medal at the expo the day before we joked that it was probably a prototype since it was so light compared to Disney medals. Nope, we saw the actual medal, it was pretty light. But honestly I don't care about the medal because the course and experience was just so awesome!



I thought the finish line area was so organized.
We got our foil, medal, picture and a little bag o' treats:



I didn't stay at the post race party since I needed to meet my friends back at the hotel for brunch. I walked from South Street Seaport to Broadway and then caught a cab uptown to my hotel.
Overall, I would say that if you like big city, big race experiences get in the lottery for this race! I really can't say enough good things.
To organize a fantastic race in one of the most popular cities in the world is really amazing, well done NYRR.
I think I might say this is my favorite half marathon... Possibly tied with Wine & Dine. It's hard because they are both awesome for totally different reasons.

Anyways, back at the hotel I took a shower, packed up and then met Sue, Mark and Meghan for brunch at Norma's. It was great! It was right in our hotel and is known for one of the best brunches in the city. Yum!
Then it was back to the airport and Miami for me!

I love quick weekend trips!

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