The Must Sees

The Disney Marathon is by no means the Boston Marathon.  From what I've heard, there's very little chance that seasoned runners are getting a personal record on this course.  It's a great "beginner's" marathon since the pace requirement is a snail's pace 16 minute mile.  You can essentially take 7 hours to "run" this race and not get picked up by the sweeper vans.  That said, I still have a goal.  I'd like to finish this race in under 5 hours, ideally at or under 4:45.  The challenge comes here:  the characters.  As I've mentioned before, Disney positions their characters at fairly regular intervals along the course to entertain the runners in the dull sections and provide a some pretty unique photo ops.  Being a HUGE Disney fan, I love seeing the characters, and getting pictures with them is awesome.  But, seeing as how I have a time goal in mind, I'm gonna have to be INCREDIBLY picky about who I'll stop and take a photo with.  I will be stopping for (and ONLY for) the following characters if I see them on my journey:

The Beast

And I will not be stopping for the frou-frou human version of the beast.  That's lame. 

Donald Duck

He's a total jerk, who doesn't love that??

Phineas and Ferb



This one is for my nephew, Grant.  He's a huge P&F fan, and I feel I'd be doing him a disservice if I didn't stop and say hi to these guys.  (Doctor Doofenshmirtz would be a very welcome added bonus)

Launchpad McQuack

Admittedly, this one is mostly just for obscurity's sake.  I mean, I'm pretty sure the Launchpad costume collects a lot of dust behind the scenes at WDW.  But I do genuinely love him as a character.  When I was little, I used to think his name was Lunchpail, so, there's that.

THAT'S.  IT.  Nobody else.  I got a time to beat, and lucky (or maybe unlucky) for me the chances of me meeting any of these characters aside form Donald are slim.  Bring on that 4:45. 

**Note:  when I come back from my trip with a stack of 30 race day pictues of me and a bunch of princesses I will neither be sorry nor ashamed. 

Not Ponytails or Cottontails but DUCKTALES (ah wooo-ooo),

CQ

Ugh

Last week was NOT a great week for me in terms of exercise and keeping on schedule (and blogging, apparently).  Missed Monday's run cuz I just didn't feel like it, which once in a while is a legitimate excuse, and one that I haven't used at all yet during this training.  Fine.  But then the next day I had a work event in the evening, so no kickboxing for me.  Wednesday I did my four miles, but it was a struggle, then Thursday came around and I got sent home from work because I was sick, so no kickboxing then either.  Skipped the long run Saturday because I didn't want to get up early since I had a full day of fun at Great Adventure and 30th birthday celebrations for a friend of mine (who never does anything half-assed) planned.  Ended up doing an abysmal (read:  hungover) 8 miles on Sunday afternoon.  Then yesterday I was supposed to run 4 miles, "but it's a holiday" and I'm worthless. 

Last Week Me

Yesterday came around.  I felt like garbage.  Weak, fat, and tired.  I never want to have a week like last week ever again.  So I took back kickboxing with a vengeance (I hadn't been in a week and a half), then once it was done I went upstairs to where the treadmills are and knocked out that four miles I was supposed to do the day before.  BOOYAH.  I think an hour and forty five minutes straight of working out and sweating more than I ever have in my life really gave me the push I needed to get myself back on track.  I have a serious test coming up on Saturday as I'm spending the weekend down in Mantoloking with my best friends from college, and I'm due to run 9 miles.  I have a few things going for me though in that my homeslice Merrill is in marathon training mode as well (she's running the Amica Marathon in Rhode Island in October), AND I'll be only a couple of miles away from my favorite running spot, the boardwalk in Seaside.  Bring it on.

This Week Me

Roll Out,

CQ