A Peek in Our Week

This is where we do a little recap of how our week went down.

This week went by SO fast that it seemed like it was one big blur.  I had the house to myself this week so I had plans to get SO much accomplished but that didn't really happen. -M


In the midst of all the busyness, I did manage to continue to ride my bike for a good portion of the week even if it meant getting up early and ridding a few miles before I started work. I have been more relaxed about the stretching this week which I know is BAD. I chalk this up for being pressed for time, but that is no excuse when it comes to your health and well being. -M

Speaking of health and well being. I start my first personal training session tomorrow. You may remember me saying that I was finished with physical therapy, well now I am going to the same place to work with a trainer. Apparently I'm going to learn new stretches and how to do different things with the equipment. From what it sounds like,  it seems to me that these are the things I should have been learning while in physical therapy, right? But seeing that I'm in the situation I'm in, I'll never turn down an opportunity to get help ! -M

One of the most fun things I did this week was some fashion writing. I have always wanted to write for a catalog and give descriptions of clothing.  Well, I didn't get to do it for an actual catalog, but I did do it for a website called Shoptiques.

 I got to go through all these clothes and accessories, give them names and write a fancy description like " No trip to the beach is complete without this polyester blend cover up with seashell detailing". (that's not really what I wrote, but you get the picture).
Coming up with creative names for some of these items was harder than I thought. I did go to Instagram and get some advice though. I couldn't think of anything for this top but every time I looked at it I thought of the Jungle Cruise for some reason, so that is what I ended up naming it. Jungle Cruise! -M




Remember me saying that I was going to do the Bad Ass 5 mile run sponsored by Gone For A Run with my "Bad Ass" Friend?  We had plans to run together and then finish at our favorite park where my sister was going to create a faux finish line and give us our medals. Well, things didn't go quite as planned and we didn't end up running together.  Because our schedules just didn't seem to match up, I ended up doing all 5 miles by myself. I just did my normal route around town and back.

It was just me, my Garmin and my ipod and I took it pretty easy. It was nothing special and I'm sorry I don't have anything fun to report back about it. Maybe next time.   -L


It has been super hot here lately and I have been loving every minute of it. Has it been hot where you are? Is it humid? If so, you may love our AWESOME GIVEWAY we'll have up tomorrow. We'll be participating in another Giveaway hop with Kristy from Runaway Bridal Planner and several other bloggers. Be sure to visit back tomorrow to see what all the cool giveaways are! -L


Tell us something cool that you did this week? Have you been keeping up with your workouts during this hot weather?

A Trip gone SO wrong

Since you all seemed to get a kick out of the fire alarm going off in the middle of the night while I was in Nashville, I thought I would share with you a story about one of my many adventures with my dear sister.

Many years ago, I invited my sister to go on a cruise with me. It would be her first cruise and my second. The plan was that my parents would drop of my sister at my apartment on Sunday night and we would drive to the airport Monday morning and catch our plane to Miami and then get on our cruise. But we slowly learned that

All those Running Accessories get a new home

 
There are few things I like more than a completely clean and organized dressing room. I just feel so accomplished when there are no clothes, shoes, or bags laying on the floor and the clothes are all pressed hanging in their rightful spot (organized by color of course).

I've already shown what my organized dressing room looks like and how I keep all my running clothes organized in a previous post, but I hadn't shared how I keep all my running accessories organized.  I have one of these over the door organizers hanging behind my hall closet in the foyer, and now I finally got up to hanging one upstairs in my dressing room. The need for this arose because I was running out of space in my kitchen for all my water bottles and my "running snacks".  Also, now I know that if I keep all my running "snacks" up in my organizer that other people in my house won't eat them..lol.
I love how there are SO many pouches yet I am slowly running out of space already. I didn't realize I had so much running crap ( I mean necessary stuff...lol).

Here's a sampling of what all is organized in the pockets.
1. Hair accessories
2. Kinesiology tape
3. Running belts ( flip belt, hippie belt, SPI-belt)
4. Water bottles
5. GU's and Gels
6. Running Snacks
7.Compression sleeves
8. Arm Sleeves
9. Electronics and cords ( Garmin, ipod, etc)
10. Fuel belts
12. Gloves. ( I asked for running gloves for Christmas this year and now I have a whole stack of them, which is good because I always end up losing one of them on a run)
13. Bio-Freeze, Rock Sauce, body glide, etc.

I'm really happy with how organized this has made me and I even cleared out a few other spaces in my house by putting those things in the pouches.  Seeing that I'm not going to be running for a while, I suspect this will stay organized for quite some time!

How do you organize all your running accessories?  -M

Marathon Statistics and an Article you won't want to miss

I officially signed up for my second marathon last month and I have high hopes that things will go much better for me the next time around. BUT I did do 26.2 miles on awful knees, not the smartest thing to do, I know, but now that I did, I am certain I can complete anything in any situation.  I just hope that I DON'T have to be in that situation again next year!

Well anyway, I started to do a little marathon research and I came across a few statistics and sites that I became very intrigued by. If I thought they were interesting, I thought maybe you all would too. 


*If you are, or plan to become a marathoner, I'm sure you've seen

A Peek In Our Week

Hey guys! We hope you all had a fabulous long weekend. We had our family's picnic yesterday so today was sort of low key for us. I stayed home and relaxed, did some yard work, and tried to get our swimming pool cleared up. I just may be giving up on that. It surely is blue enough but looks like blue Kool-Aid in a cloudy kind of way. I keep adding the recommended chemicals and then testing it but my chemistry skills weren't ever all that great and I am confused on which chemical are acids and which ones are bases.

Lacey on the other hand is working in the sky today making sure all the passengers get home from their long weekend safely!

Here are a few things that happened this week.

* I am proud to say I did NO running! I'm really taking this recovery thing seriously. 

* I have been consistent with my biking followed by foam rolling and a series of stretches. I biked 7 days straight. I make sure to go at least 2.5 miles each time but there were a few days were I did more because I was either really liking the music that was on at the time or I was reading some interesting blogs while I was riding. Yes, I am talking about a stationary bike!

*Since I have been resting, I have taken to the Lifetime Movie Channel. I haven't watched Lifetime in FOREVER but two movies I watched this weekend were the Hannah Anderson Story and Nanny Cam. Both which were good.  Anyone else see either of those?  I'm looking forward to the Secret Life Of Marilyn Monroe that is coming on tonight!

bondi band

*I have been loving this new visor that I got. I bought it with the intentions of wearing it with my Alice Costume when I went to California, but really, there was no sun during that race so there was no need to wear it. I love it because it is like a visor connected to a Bondi band. Just to be clear, the band is NOT a Bondi band, but that is what type of material it is like.  The best part about this is that I got it at CVS and I had a 30% off coupon!

purple orange yellow compression socks

* Lacey has been loving the socks that she got from the Pro-Compression Grab Bag Sale! The best thing about ordering from the grab bag is that they just send random colors and designs which is perfect because Lacey always has a hard time making a decision anyway. It always just works out better when someone just picks out stuff for her!


Tell us what you're loving this weekend? Do you have a hard time picking out things for yourself.

Strawberry Salsa and other fruit salsas

Happy Friday folks and the beginning to what is a long weekend for most people. This Friday 5 is about summer fruit and what can be more summer than  fresh Strawberries?

When I visit my parents in the summer time my dad always asks me to make this Strawberry Salsa. I'll probably be making it this weekend so I thought now would be a good time to share the recipe.

1. Start with 3 cups of diced strawberries

2.  Then add
1/2 cup of minced green or red peppers
1/2 cup of green onion
2 teaspoons of jalapeno peppers

3. Mix up
1 Tablespoon of Lime juice
1 Tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon  of Splenda
1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt

4. Toss all ingredients together and set in fridge to chill until the strawberries become juicy.  My dad likes it with a bit of a kick to it. If you don't like your salsa that way, use less jalapeno.

5. Enjoy with your favorite pita chips or tortilla chips.

We've also had Pineapple Salsa, and Peach Salas (store bought) and have seen recipes for Watermelon Salsa that we hope to make sometime this summer.   What other kinds of fruit salsa have you had?    -L

We are linking up with the Friday 5.

A Peek Inside the Last Expedition Everest

While we were stressing out about getting all our stuff around for our first trip to Disneyland in California, there was another Disney race going on. The first weekend in May was the last Expedition Everest Challenge race. When I first started running Disney races, Expedition Everest was high on my list of the ones to run  mainly because I never thought I would be able to run more than a 5k race but we all know how that turned out).

Anyway, our friend Heather was fortunate to be able to participate in the last Expedition Everest and she wanted to share her experience here with you all..................

Disney obsticle course
Add caption

Last November my friend Kelly and I were talking about how the Everest Challenge was ending.  She said she wanted to go and asked if I was interested.  Of course!  It doesn’t take much to get me to sign up for runDisney races.  So we signed up as a team, “Run with the Mouse”.

Expo

While I have read other reports on this race from past years, I knew not to expect a normal runDisney Expo.  There was a cheerleading competition that was going on at ESPN, so this year it was hosted in the Butterfly lot of Animal Kingdom, where the start of the race would take place.  We were staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, one of the three hotels that had official transportation that weekend, so we took the first bus to the expo and when we arrived, we were floored.  There were 3 small tents and one bus with official merchandise outside it.  People around us who had done the race before said that this was even smaller than past years. 

The first place we hit was the official merchandise area.  The items for sale were a men and woman’s version of the “I did it” shirt, the Everest Challenge pin and a generic runDisney hat.  I bought myself an “I did it” shirt and that was it.  We then headed to get our bibs and official shirt.  The official shirt was OK.  They were white, like bright white. 

There were three sponsor tents, New Balance, Fit 2 Run, and GoodSense.  This was the first runDisney expo that I have done in less than 30 minutes and spent less than $35.  A-ma-zing!  We went to the start line and took a bunch of photos with the photo op stations that were set up for the next night.  After an uneventful Expo, we headed back to drop off our stuff and to the parks.

expedition everest race shirts

Race

We had noticed that Kelly’s bib did not have a B-Tag so we decided to take the first bus to the race so that we could check out what might be the problem.  On the bus, there were other teams that only one teammate had the B-Tag, and officially found out that it was fine.  So it was all up to me to actually cross the finish line. 

We then had 2 hours to burn.  We were in Coral A, so we dropped off our bags and headed to the start.  There was a DJ there that was leading a bunch of dances who was a lot of fun.  I was told that he had done past runDisney events, but I don’t remember him.  Kelly was super focused for the race and clues and I had just taken a 5-Hour Energy so I was bouncing off the walls and dancing.  Someone next to her asked if I was alright.  Of course I was, I was at a runDisney race.

5k

Before we knew it, it was time to start the race.  First there was a 5k to get through, with just a few obstacles to mix it up.  We started through the parking lot of Animal Kingdom and before the first mile we hit our first obstacle.  It was the hay bales.  I have to be honest, I didn’t do all of them.  I was so excited and busy trying to take pictures that I skipped a couple of them.  Right before we entered Animal Kingdom we hit mile 1.  Right after we entered in the park, we hit our first character, Safari Chip and Dale (my picture didn’t turn out L ).  After we ran past the Tree of Life, we hit the other two character stops, first Timon from The Lion King and then King Louie from the Jungle Book.  Before we knew it, mile 2 was here.  We then hit the last two obstacles, the crawling under a net (oww on the knees) and the tires. 



Scavenger Hunt



Once we hit the finish line of the 5k we were given a bottle of water, a cooling towel and our first clue.  This was a hard clue.  We took our answer up to the volunteer a few times and were sent back a few times.  I finally heard someone say the answer with the correct answer and I copied and said 36.  Yes we cheated on the first clue.  I still don’t understand the answer.  It turned out that the answer we told was correct was actually incorrect.  It was actually 34.  A week later, I finally understood it.  1:11, 2:22, 3:33, 4:44, 5:55, 10:00, 11:10, 11:11, 11:12, 11:13, 11:14, 11:15, 11:16, 11:17, 11:18, 11:19, 12:22 – times two – once for AM and once for PM.  We got our second clue and headed into Animal Kingdom for a second time.


The second clue was a little easier.  It still took us a little while to try and figure it out, but ended up with CARABINER. 


We headed to the next area with our third clue.  This one we finally got on the first try, MOUNTAINEERS.



For the fourth clue we had the second half, but needed a little help from the volunteer.  He helped us sound it out and we got it, ELEVATION.  From then on I couldn’t get the song from U2 out of my head.


And then for the fifth and final clue, a word search.  We both love word searches.  At first we didn’t understand what we were looking for, but found a lot of the words from the clues in it.  We finally figured out that we had to find each word from our previous clues how many ever times it was listed on this clue.  This is where we figured out that we were told what was wrong for clue number one.


GO FIND THE HIDDEN YETI ON A CLUE CARD AND HOLD IT UPAT THE FINISH


The Yeti was on the back of clue number 2.  We headed to the finish and got our medals! 


compass medal


The snacks afterward included water, Power Aide, Krave Chocolate snack things, and bananas.  With our hands full we headed out to get our bags and head to the after party.


After party

The Expedition Everest, Kali River Rapids, and Dinoland U.S.A. area were open.  We passed on Expedition Everest as it had a 25 minute wait and I had road it earlier that day and headed toward the River Rapids.  We planned on riding the ride and then changing out of our stinky race clothes into dry ones after.  The rapids were a lot of fun to ride in the dark but it was COLD once we were done.  We changed and headed back to check out the Everest ride.  It was now 45 minutes and I had to get up early for my flight the next day, so we headed back to the hotel.

Final Thoughts

I’m really glad I did this race.  It was a lot of fun!  I’m sad to see it go as I would totally do it again.  It was very underappreciated and under-noticed race.  The Expo was a disappointment, even with very low expectations.  I really wish that runDisney would have put more into this last race, it felt like this one was an afterthought for them, especially a week ahead of Tinkerbell.  The scavenger hunt was challenging and a lot of fun, especially with a great partner. 

RIP Expedition Everest Challenge!   Have you ever ran Expedition Everest? Are you sad to see it go?

Be sure to follow Heather on twitter @Heatherlas

Lilly Pulitzer comes to Disney and 12 more new retailers!

We don't normally post two times a day but we thought this news would be exciting to some of you since we know many of our friends like Lily Pulitzer and lots of people went crazy over it when it recently came to Target.  (If you would like to read our original post today about the Tinkerbell half Marathon you can click HERE).
Downtown Disney springs shops opening
                                                                     Photo Source

Lilly, along with 12 other shops/restaurants have just recently signed on to be a part of Down Town Disney's Disney Springs expansion.

Other shops that will be opening include:

Zara- One of the world's largest fashion retailers.

Tommy Bahama- Island Inspired Sportwear.

UNIQLOA - Apparel that comes from a Japanese company that values simplicity.

Pandora-  Jewelry (who doesn't like a Pandora Bracelet, especially when it has Disney charms on it)

UGG: Footwear

L’Occitane en Provence:  An international skincare and beauty line.

Edward Beiner:  Fashionable eyewear.


Dining Locations
  • Edison: An  “Industrial Gothic” -style restaurant inspired by the Edison in Los Angeles.

  • Sprinkles: Cupcake bakery.  I'm excited by this as I think that area needs a good cupcake place!

  • Blaze Fast-Fire’d Pizza:  Pizza place where guests can customize their own pizza  through an assembly line by choosing from over 40 toppings all for one price.

  • Vivoli Gelateria: Serving gelato made with fresh, seasonal ingredients, panini sandwiches and espresso drinks.

  • Tea Traders Café by Joffrey’s: A tea room.
I've only ever heard of or been to a few of the retail shops and I have never heard of any of these restaurants. Have you been to any of these shops or restaurants?

Pixie Dust Challenge Part 2: Tinkerbell Half Marathon

disney tinkerbell half marathon california

The Tinkerbell Half Marathon was the third and final race for us that weekend and the second half of the Pixie Dust Challenge.

Pre-Race:
The night before the 10k I knew that I was going to have a bit of trouble with the half. I admit I didn't do things very smart. I only iced one time on Saturday (right after the race), and then I spent all day on my feet at California Adventure.  I couldn't sleep very well because I was worried about the half marathon and what was left of the KT tape on my legs started sticking to my covers. It was a rough night! Also, the evening before the race we looked for something we could take back to the room for a quick breakfast. Lacey was looking diligently for some bagels but had no luck. Her breakfast then became this Loaf of Mickey bread that we found.

                                              I think she only ate one of the ears.

race shirt disney

Attire:
Instead of doing a "costume", we decided to pay tribute to our journey by wearing our "Numbers" Running Skirt and our shirts that say "EARning my Coast to Coast". Even though this wasn't a costume, I think this was one of our favorite outfits we've run in! Our skirts have a bunch of race distances on it (26.2, 6.2 3.2, 50k, etc)

pixie dust challenge tinkerbell half marathon
The Race:
The race started exactly in the same spot as the 10K the day before. This day Minnie and Daisy were the special guests. Do you all remember Carissa? She is the announcer at all the Disney World races. Well, she wasn't at this race but she did give a special message to all of us up on the big screen before the start. She was in her nursery back in Florida and announced that she was expecting her first little princess, which was why she was not at this race. It was a nice little touch seeing that it was Mother's Day.

Lacey ran her own race and my mom decided she would stick with me because of how I was feeling.  As soon as we started out I tried to do my run interval and I just couldn't. I could barely bend my leg and it felt as if I had a metal rod sticking through it. I know a few tears were shed as I thought "oh no, this is just like the Princess race in 2014.  As I started to walk, a really nice lady dressed as Tinkerbell (imagine that), walked up next to me and told me she was having knee pain too and that she would walk with me. I was so overwhelmed with her kindness. I did thank her for her offer, but I was fortunate enough to have my mom to keep me company and besides, I did notice she was able to do a little run interval and I didn't want to slow her down more.  After my muscles warmed up a bit, I started doing run- walk intervals again but this time I decided to only run during the walk breaks and walk during the run part.  I even did a little skipping too (like I did for the marathon). Surprisingly when I skipped it didn't hurt. I can get going pretty fast during a skip too! As we were approaching the first fairies in Disneyland, the same Lady dressed as Tinkerbell came up behind us and asked how I was feeling. She said she stopped at the med tent and got some Tylenol and that she was feeling much better. I was glad to see that she was able to keep up her running! 

On The Course:
The first part of the course was exactly the same as the 10K the day before except there was a lot more running on the roads of Anaheim. Running on the streets wasn't all that bad and I actually enjoyed it more than running through the parks. I think that is because I liked running on the road surface and it was a straight shot. In the parks there were a lot of different terrains, turns, inclines, and tunnels. Even though there was no Disney entertainment out on the streets, there certainly was a lot of spectator support. There were tons of cheerleaders and bands and from what we were told, the Red Hat ladies were out in full force and doubled what they were from last year. I don't know how many there were last year but there were LOTS of them this year.!  Around mile 7-ish Mouse Planet had a little tent and were giving out Red Vines. They had a cute sign that said something like "I know your Mama told you not to take candy from strangers but at least we're wearing gloves".  So yes, I took a red vine!
run disney half marathon

One thing that we found very interesting is that spectators were not allowed inside the parks. At Disney World, you can go into Magic Kingdom and watch the runners run down Main Street. Here you could not.  There was a section where we ran between the two parks and there was a roped off area there where spectators could watch. We did a lot of running through the back lots of the parks and it was a little disappointing to see that there were all these parade floats sitting there and they didn't bother to have them set out for pictures, that would have been a nice touch seeing that there really wasn't a lot of character photo ops on the course. I would guess this is just one more way that runDisney is trying to move people along and keep the course from being crowded. We did stop for a few pictures in Disneyland but I could kick myself for not using my own camera and just depending on the Marathonfoto photographers.

tinkerbell half marathon

As we approached mile 12, I told my mom that I would be okay if she wanted to go ahead and run in the last mile or so. If she did, she'd still be able to finish in the 2:20's. She said "no". She started with me and she was going to finish with me. I thought that was so sweet of her to do that. My sister spotted us as my mom and I were nearing the finish line and was able to snap this picture. I thought this was an easy course and if I wasn't injured, I think I could have done really well. Even though I did a lot of walking, I was still pleased with my time and even did better than Princess 2014. I knew from the beginning that this wasn't going to be a great race for time and I pretty much knew that it was going to hurt while I ran too but I have to say I really felt good about getting those medals at the end and I did feel like I earned them!

tinkerbell pixie dust challenge in Disneyland California
The Finish:
One thing where I think Disney world does a better job than Disneyland is at the finish line.
After my sister finished her race, she wanted to wait for my mom and I to finish. She said there seemed to be a lot of "rules" for spectators. There were bleachers set up for spectators ( for everyone, not just the cheer squad), but you had to make sure you were sitting, there was no standing allowed. The only problem with this was that the bleachers were set up AFTER the finish line, so you wouldn't really be able to see your runners crossing.  So for this reason, she tried to stand before the finish line. Just when she thought she found the perfect spot near the fence ( great view, no obstructions), she was told that she couldn't view from that area and to keep moving along!  She was told she had to keep moving until she was inside the tape area.  If you weren't into the tape area than you had to leave. Lacey got the last taped area and said she was glad that she had tiny feet because the area was very small.  There were a lot of other spectators that were very unhappy about the whole viewing area thing. 

 After we crossed the finish line and received our medals, the finish area is not very large and we felt rushed to get out of the area. I went to the med tent after I finished to get some ice. I didn't necessarily need to have it wrapped around my leg, I just wanted it to prop my leg up and hold it for a few minutes. They pretty much made me get my ice and get out of there.  Even after the med tent, I felt like we couldn't even take a minute to breath. They kept pushing us along. At one point Lacey dropped her PowerAde and it rolled under a table and they would not let her go back and get another one. She asked a volunteer if they would get her one and they told her they couldn't because they couldn't leave their spot.

We even felt rushed through the finishers pictures. All the other Disney races that we have ever done (including the 5k and 10k this weekend), we were allowed to take personal pictures during the finisher photos. We know that the official photographers are not allowed to take pictures with our phones but they always let us take pictures of each other with our phones. Not during this race. The photographer made a point to holler at us for using our phones to take pictures.   Also, there were no character photo opportunities either, which we knew going into it.  We were able to make it to the massage tent to get massages but even then, the area was so small that we were limited to how many minutes we could get. Sadly we did not get our 20 minutes but we did get some change back from our $20 bills, which I guess is a plus.  Since there wasn't really anything going on after the finish, we walked back to the Disneyland Hotel, which was right in front of the finish line.

Disneyland pixie dust challenge and tinkerbell half
Overall, the race went pretty well for all of us and besides the little hiccup in the begining, I really can't complain. We decided to celebrate our finishes by spending the day at Disneyland and pretty much stayed there for the rest of the night.

As much as we love the convenience of running at Disneyland (no buses and everything is with in walking distance),  we do feel that Disney World puts on a better race experience and that's probably because they have more space to accommodate a large crowd. Just our opinion. -M

If you'd like to read about the first part of the Pixie Dust Challenge, The Tinkerbell 10K you can read that HERE. I promise that post is a lot shorter.

We are linking up this running post with our friend April for her Tuesday's on The Run.


Pixie Dust Challenge Part 1: Tinkerbell 10k

On Saturday morning we ran our second race of the weekend, the Tinkerbell 10K. This may have been the second race, but it was the first race in the Pixie Dust Challenge. The 5K the day before did not count as part of the challenge.

The Attire:
The weather was much nicer this day than the day before. Although I thought I was going to be wearing that coat (because I hate being chilly at the start), I decided to ditch it when we came back to the room to use the bathroom. Yea, it was closer for us to go back to the room than to use the Port o potties! We didn't really do costumes for this race, we just wore some green "Tinkerbell" inspired attire (skirts from Rock City Skirts).  As we got running I was SO glad I didn't bring the jacket. To tell ya the truth, the capris may have even been a little too much. It was a perfect day for running.


The Course:
One of the nicest things about running a race at Disneyland compared to Disney World is the fact that we could walk right out of our hotel and we were in the staging area for the race, then it was just a short walk to the corrals.  We all started in the same corral so it was nice that we could wait around with each other.  Unlike the 5k the day before, this race did not start inside the park. It started on Disneyland drive and we ran at least 2 miles on the highway before entering the park. From my point of view, I thought this was a very "fast race". I was planning on doing a run-walk,  but everyone was coming so fast that I just decided to keep running as far as I could.  I got to mile 4 before I really had to walk because the pain in my knee was so bad. So then I just decided to take it easy and take a few pictures.

There weren't a lot of character stops up until this point but when I went by each of them (including the castle), there weren't any lines. I could have stopped at each of them but I didn't.   At one point in the parks, there were a group of ducks that I almost tripped over. I'm glad I noticed them. It was nice being able to run through the parks, but honestly there wasn't a lot of entertainment/Characters so this race kind of went pretty fast for the both of us (sorry for lack of photos).


The Finish:
Even though I ended up going slower the last 2.2 miles, I was still happy with my time. It wasn't an overall 10K PR for me, but out of the three Disney 10k's I've ran, it was a Disney PR.

 My sister was already on the sideline waiting for me as I ran through and was able to snap a quick picture of Goofy giving me a high five as I ran by.


Unlike myself, my sister was feeling good the entire race. She got an overall 10K PR this day. We would later find out that Lacey placed in her age group!

After the official picture, there were no additional character photos like at Disney World.  We also noticed that there was no snack box given out like there was at the 5K, which was odd. I know people often complain that during the challenges like this that the snack boxes are always the same, but at least we get them. This race there was nothing but a banana which we thought was odd. We actually like the boxes! 



We spent the rest of the day playing at California Adventure. I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate completing a race and Lacey's new PR!


Have you ever placed in a race before?

If you'd like to read about the second part of the Pixie Dust Challenge, The Tinkerbell Half Marathon, click HERE.

Sometimes it's "Ruff"

I had my last physical therapy appointment on Friday and just like all the other doctors and PT I've gone to, they told me there is nothing more they can do for me. I'm doing the exercises, I'm doing the stretches and strengthening and I just don't understand why I'm not improving. Yea, it may have something to do with me continuing to race every month this year so far (except in March), which I know has not been smart, but to my defense, those races were already planned and paid for before this particular injury occured, and I didn't do any running in between races ( yes, I know that sounds bad that I didn't even train, but I was hurt. I continued to ride bike and do other stuff). So now that all my big races are done for the season, I am officially on a running hiatus for a few months. I am not at ALL happy about this because summer is my favorite time to run and I think about all the precious time and good weather that I'm missing out on!


I'm not the only one that will be laid up for a while. As you may know, miss Baylee had surgery this week so all my time has been spent being dedicated to her needs. Baylee has several stitches on her hip wear a fatty mass was removed. For this reason she was not suppose to go up stairs or jump on the furniture. If you've ever had a Labrador then you know that these dogs will follow you everywhere! For that reason, I have been sleeping downstairs on our couch so I can be near her.  This worked well for the first three nights, but the on the fourth morning I woke up and saw this?

I opted not to put the dreaded cone around her neck because I was watching her like a hawk. She never once licked, scratched, or even acknowledged her stitches, so I pretty much figured she was safe.  Saturday morning she snuck up the steps. I tried to keep her from coming up but she snuck right by the baby gate that we have at the end of the stairs. Later that afternoon I noticed two of her stitches her missing. I felt like a horrible pet momma. How could this have happened? I've been watching her the whole time. Okay, so now it was time to put the cone on her head. Later that night I had gone shopping for a gift and Scott went to go get us dinner. When he came back he could not find Baylee anywhere. He looked upstairs, downstairs, in his bathroom, and in all the bedrooms ( he didn't check my bathroom because the door was shut). He started to panic because he saw the baby gate at the end of the stairs was all mangled up and broken. He thought perhaps I had already came home before he did and that Baylee fell on the gate and I had to take her to the ER.  What really happened was that Baylee busted through the baby gate to get upstairs and she went into my bathroom to find me. When she went to turn herself around, her big cone hit the door and she locked herself in my bathroom.   After I knew Scott found her, I did have a little chuckle.

I'm pretty sure that the stitches that came out were not from Baylee biting at them but probably from her jumping up on the furniture when she shouldn't have been. I don't know how many nights she jumped up on the couch to sleep after I had already fallen asleep.  I'm going to take her to the vets tomorrow just to make sure everything is okay.  But for now, we are both resting and not doing any physical activity for a while. If I have to take this time to rest, I am at least glad it will be with her! -M

What do you do when you take a rest from running? Have you ever had a pet have surgery?

5 Ways to Organize Things in Your Life



This week's topic for the Friday Five is all about organization.  We thrive on organization here. Actually one of my favorite things to organize is my dressing room. I have all my race clothes organized by type and all my "real" clothes are organized by color.  I know it doesn't make any sense, but it makes me happy! Through the years, we've talked about organizing our clothes, our medals, our running snacks, our runs and everything in between.

Lets take a look

Disney's Neverland 5K


The Neverland 5k was the first race in the Tinkerbell half marathon race weekend. We were excited about this race because we heard the course was all throughout both Disney Parks ( Disneyland and California Adventure).  When we woke up, we were bummed to see it was raining.

Alice and the White Rabbit for the Neverland 5K
These were our race outfits "Pre-Rain".  Because we stayed at the Disneyland Hotel, we only had a short walk across the walkway and through downtown Disney (which is really just a strip of shops. Not as extensive as DTD in WDW), before entering the gates of Disneyland. 

Because we stayed so close, we didn't leave terribly early.  We didn't even realize that there were no corrals until we put our bibs on. We figured it would be set up like the very first 5K we did at WDW many years ago when they left everyone go at once.


It was neat that we got to start the race inside of the park. The start line was around the hub in front of the castle.  There were no corrals on our bib, but they did let people start in waves. We had no idea where one wave started and the other began but somehow we were in the second one (corral B).
Before we started the race, we were told that we would be seeing Peter Pan's shadow throughout the course and when we did, we were suppose to "crow".  We saw the shadow about 4 times through out the course and it was funny to hear all the noises people were making. 

Shortly after we crossed the start line the rain started to pick up again. The surfaces were getting slippery so we decided to walk. We didn't need anyone getting hurt. To be honest, this course was SO crowded that I don't think we would be able to run even if we wanted to. I think everyone had the same idea as us because it looked like everyone else was walking too.

Because of the rain, a lot of our pictures came out blurry but I wanted to show this one of the tunnel we went through. Also, you can see how crowded it was, and this was well into the race.

 We did manage to stop for a few photos.  This race started at 5:00 am so it was really quite dark for most of the race.
The sun finally started to come out as we were running through Paradise Pier. 
And then just around the corner was the finish.  I was hoping we got a finish line picture( we didn't though) because that was the only time we were really running. As we were running across the announcer said "Here comes Alice looking cute as ever". That made me feel good seeing as though I felt like a wet mess!

I loved the fact that we had so much time running through the parks during this race, I just wish that it would have been lighter out so we could have enjoyed it more. The rain definitely put a damper on things too. By the time we got back to our hotel we were soaked.  We had planned to go to one of the parks this day after the race but we were so cold and the dark clouds didn't look like they were going away anytime soon.  We had a nice breakfast at the resort and then went back to our room to warm up. We hit up the expo again before going to browse in Down Town Disney later that afternoon.

What has been your favorite 5K?