In Every Run That Must Be Done; There is an Element of Fun (comments welcome)

[Naomeri]

Springtime Surprise: Pre-Trip

I managed to get everything packed, although I had to take something out of my big suitcase and squeeze it into my race gear carry-on to make sure I wouldn’t get dinged for a heavy bag (I am apparently bringing approximately 5 pounds of shorts for wearing in the parks )

I only ran about a mile and quarter last week—I stopped early and walked home because I was getting a pain in my foot and wasn’t about to risk anything. The pain was gone by the time I got home, so I think I’m fine. The rest of my runs were cancelled due to yard work. It’s mulch season again, so I got to go buy 20 bags, and then haul them around the yard the next day for my grandma.

I’ve been able to spend more time with my chipmunks.
Here’s King




Happy




And Rocky



We had a big rain storm on Wednesday, before I went for my shortened run, and we got a great rainbow right in our back yard

 

[nancipants]

Adorable chipmunks! Looking forward to meeting you this weekend!

 

[WillRunForPizza]

Chipmunks are back! It must really be spring

Have a great time at WDW!

 

[avondale]

It’s mulch season again, so I got to go buy 20 bags, and then haul them around the yard the next day for my grandma.

We usually get a cubic yard (I think?) of mulch delivered in a big pile in our driveway. My husband chose us doing this rather than getting bags and putting it out more piecemeal, so he gets to use the shovel and wheelbarrow and put it all out in the yard. This year he did it in just one day! Not really sure how.... but I might rent him out for a small fee + travel expenses.

 

[Naomeri]

Springtime Surprise Trip: Day 1

Today got a slow start because A) I didn’t even get to my resort from the airport until midnight, and didn’t go to bed until 1, and B) I forgot my phone charger cord, and thought I could get away with using the super short cord that came with my PowerBeats, but it popped out of the wall usb socket and my phone was only at 45% this morning, so I had to buy a cord at the resort store, and then wait for the stupid thing to charge.




Anyway, as is tradition for me, I spent my first park day at Magic Kingdom. I bought G+, booked a LL for Jungle Cruise (always an easy one to get a slightly later time right away in the morning) and an ILL for Tron. I got to MK about 10:15, and headed for Cosmic Ray’s, because I didn’t have any breakfast except for a few pretzels and some gummy bears because that’s what I had in my room (see Point A above) Then I headed to Philharmagic, and while I was in that queue, I booked my 11am LL for Buzz (trying to stay near Tomorrowland for my Tron ILL)

Did Buzz, booked a LL for Haunted Mansion to overlap with my Jungle Cruise LL, and scored 736,800! Hopped on Peoplemover with a less than 10 minute wait, then over to the Laugh Floor with a 10-ish minute wait. Timed everything perfectly to get to Tron shortly after my ILL window opened, rode it (with some guy that was whining that they wouldn’t let him wait for row 2 ) Then headed to the Plaza ice cream parlor for a brownie sundae. My next LL window opened, so I booked Pirates to overlap with the back half of my JC/HM hour.

After that, it was off to Jungle Cruise, and I arrived just couple minutes early. Got on, got a so-so skipper and a so-so group of guests. Headed to Haunted Mansion, right on time, rode that; headed to Pirates, rode that, and got a direct shot of water in the cannon fight! So happy I don’t wear glasses anymore, now random splashes of water are refreshing, instead of irritating (though I could do without it going right in my ear ). After that, I was having trouble finding a good LL. I could’ve done standby for Big Thunder, because it was only showing 20 minutes, but it was getting closer to parade time, and I didn’t want to get stuck on the wrong side of it, so I decided to head out.

I hopped a monorail to the Contemporary, and just missed the Disney Springs bus Waited around for the next one, and when I got to DS, I headed straight to the Lego store. I had my eye on a couple sets, and since I can get 10% off with my AP, and pay with Disney GCs that I get 5% off from Target, I was gonna save some significant money. I had thought, based on an answered question from PlanDisney, that I could ship the Lego sets home from my resort. But TIL: nope, you can’t do that (apparently they’re a third party store ) You can ship from the Lego store, and I’ll be doing that as soon as I work up the energy to haul my 27 lbs of plastic back to DS, but I’m very irritated in the meantime.

I had a wonderful interaction with a front desk employee here at Pop who tried to help me solve the problem, and talked to a bunch of people, made a bunch of calls, and was equally bewildered by the fact that Disney stores won’t ship DS Lego Store purchases. Abby has been given a cast compliment, and will be alerting her leadership that some more specific guidelines need to be made available to the general public, especially if PlanDisney is going to be answering questions on the subject.

And yes, it’s possible that my entire savings on the purchase may be eaten up by shipping costs, and if it looks like that will be the case, I will probably return them and just order direct from the Lego website. But, for a while, I got to be one of those people that certain people are jealous of (and certain other people just shake their heads in disbelief at), walking around with my giant, yellow Lego Store bags.



I’m now all settled into my room at Pop, not even remotely tired, but trying to wind down so I can try to get to sleep early for “Sunrise” Yoga tomorrow (sunrise in quotes, since sunrise is 6:57am tomorrow, and I’ll probably be back at Pop and waiting for the dining hall to open by then)

 

[superchime]

Sounds like a great first day! I hope the Lego shipping isn't too bad.

Enjoy "sunrise" yoga!

 

[Mr_Incr3dible]

Springtime Surprise Trip: Day 1

I’m now all settled into my room at Pop, not even remotely tired, but trying to wind down so I can try to get to sleep early for “Sunrise” Yoga tomorrow (sunrise in quotes, since sunrise is 6:57am tomorrow, and I’ll probably be back at Pop and waiting for the dining hall to open by then)

Moonlight yoga?

And if they were to do it at HS, they could do Yoda yoga...
Sign up for that, I might.

 

[Naomeri]

Springtime Surprise Trip: Day 2

I started the day by going to yoga at Hollywood Studios. It was good. There was a guy on the mat behind me that just ran Boston on Monday, and he’s doing the challenge this weekend. I told him he was doing Dopey (or almost Dopey) in the wrong order

I headed back to Pop after yoga and took something resembling a nap until it was time to get dressed for the expo. I caught the first bus and zipped right into Platinum headquarters, then down to shopping before it opened to the VQ folks. I didn’t find much that interested me, so I just got the race pins and the weekend pin. Then I did my picture with Lilo up in the Platinum headquarters, and headed to the vendor expo.


I wanted a gold Sparkle Athletics visor for my Tink costume, and was hoping to pick up a patriotic ruffle skirt for my Stars & Stripes 5K in June, but they didn’t have it at the expo (but I ordered it from their website on the bus ride back to Pop) I looked at the Goodr sunglasses that were available, and didn’t see any that jumped out and screamed “buy me!”—which is ok since I just got a new pair in the mail on Tuesday before I left home

I grabbed a Mickey pretzel on my way out, and headed back to Pop to drop my bag off. Then it was off to Animal Kingdom…once I finally caught a bus! I got to the stop just as the driver closed the door, and I was there and waving at them, but I was completely ignored. I was like “that was extremely rude!” Then I sat on a bench in the shade until the next bus came.

I had bought an ILL for Flight of Passage, but made it later in case the expo took longer than anticipated, so I did something I never do: went to Asia first. I hit up the single rider line for Everest, and then started walking toward Africa and Pandora. I stopped for a hot dog and chips, and a couple birds swooped in from the river and almost took my head off! I never even saw them, but felt their wings (or the wind from their wings?) on my head.


I checked the wait time on Kilimanjaro, and it was just too long for me, and I just missed the noon showing of Festival of the Lion King, so I had to find a shady spot to wait a bit in Pandora for my LL window to open. It finally did and I rode it, and I can tell a difference in the quality now that I don’t have glasses anymore. I can see it much better now.

After that, I poked around in some shops on the way out, and headed for the Epcot bus. Man, do they punish park-to-park hoppers at AK! It felt like miles and miles and miles to get to the Epcot stop.

At Epcot, I had an ILL for Cosmic Rewind, but, like the one for FoP, I made it later, so I had time to kill. Spaceship Earth was a walk-on, so I did that. Then I wandered around the Festival shops and topiaries from the front, to Mexico, and around as far as America (because I wanted to see the Dapper Days pop-up shop—which was cute, but I didn’t buy anything) I was tired and roasting by then, so I went into The American Adventure. I had about a 10 minute wait to get into the show, but at least it was air-conditioned. I almost nodded off in the theatre, and I never do that!

By the time that was over, it was time to trudge all the way up to the front again for Cosmic Rewind. I got “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” which was disappointing, since that’s the worst song of the options. I wandered through the Creations shop, but didn’t buy anything, and headed toward the International Gateway and the Skyliner.

I was more than a little annoyed when I got to my room and found that Mousekeeping had invaded, despite my declining their services. I hate having to unmake the bed all over again, and they messed up all my towels (which were all hanging up, so they shouldn’t have taken them anyway)

I got my 5K gear all set up and tried to get settled to sleep. It was pretty much a failure, I never sleep well before the first race (which is all the more reason for me to do my back-to-back MNSSHP/W&D5K plan this fall; if I’m only going to get 3 not-great hours of sleep anyway, might as well skip it entirely!)

 

[Blue Caterpillar]

Hi! I hope you are having fun. I think I saw you on the rundisney Facebook page? If so you look like you are having a great time.

 

[Naomeri]

Hi! I hope you are having fun. I think I saw you on the rundisney Facebook page? If so you look like you are having a great time.

Yes, that was me! I’m having a lot of fun!