Please, Derek, tell us how you really feel about “The Descendants”
Yawn. I was right there with ya. It’s a good story, but it’s a fairly slow moving plot line. I would suggest not watching it at 8:00pm after a full meal. Keeping your eyes open does become difficult at that point.
I’m still sleepy writing this. Derek is still sleeping. Maddie is sleeping too. Better make this quick so I can join them.
It was taco night tonight.
I amped up the veggie content of the by meal adding fresh carrot, zucchini, and mushrooms to the black beans, then seasoned the mix with chili powder, cumin, and fresh cilantro.
The beans filled two corn tortillas with tomatoes, olives, cheese, and lettuce.
So much color! That’s when you know it’s going to be good.
Earlier today I heard Derek opening a bag in the kitchen. I asked him what he was doing and he shouted back he was getting food. Then I heard “carrot cake? yuck!” HA! Serves him right for trying to steal my leftovers. If that had been chocolate cake, it would have been gone in a heartbeat.
The Walt Disney Marathon is an insanely popular marathon that takes you around the Walt Disney Resort property and is the only RunDisney race where you run through all 4 theme parks. I’ve run the full marathon (plus a couple of Disney Princess Half Marathons and a 10k) and can attest that, yes, running through the parks is AMAZING. However, all of the parks combined comes to a total of roughly 6 miles of the course. The marathon is 26.2 miles. It’s not hard to do the math – that’s a LOT of miles where you’re running the back roads of Disney property and are not in a park.
Disney does a great job filling in the extended gaps with entertainment, volunteers, and even fun behind-the-scences sneak peeks at what makes Disney work (like taking the course past the first department, water plants, etc.), but even I’ll admit it gets pretty boring. The very long stretches between the start and Magic Kingdom and Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom were particularly the worst. Miles and miles of nothin’.
It was the long patches of nothingness that have turned a lot of people away from the Disney marathon, or stopped them from returning. I get it – marathons are tough, and miles of just open road and trees surely doesn’t help. However, the course had been that way for YEARS and that’s just the way it was.
Until now.
Looks like for their 20th Anniversary, RunDisney decided to step it up and make a few changes to the course. The changes are very significant because it means less miles between things of interest (and less increments on backroads), and more time running by cool things. It makes me wonder why they didn’t do this sooner?
Here’s a couple of key points to the course:
Runners will head straight to Magic Kingdom and reach Cinderella’s castle about 5 miles sooner than before.
Runners will complete half a lap of the speedway as part of the course.
Runners will run around the Wide World of Sports complex, including a lap on the baseball field
The start and finish locations are still the same and the paths through each of the parks are still the same (though I was hoping for an extended loop into the new Fantasyland). It looks like the largest part taken away was the wrap around Epcot at the start of the race, everything else was just an added addition. They simply broke up the runs on the backroads with new experiences to keep runners interested. Genius.
Something else I noticed. RunDisney has been advertising a “big surprise” at mile 20 for the 20th anniversary race, which has been highlighted on the map below in the space between mile 19 and 20.
Do you see the side-map that illustrates the defined path around the Wide World of Sports from 19 through 20?
Looks like that the “big surprise” is about the same time runners will be circling the baseball field. Hmm…. interesting. Very interesting. I wonder what it is?
I wasn’t expecting this at all. Way to go RunDisney for keeping us on our toes. I’d given up the idea of running the full marathon since it’s a week after my wedding and I wasn’t sure I could train for it, but now I’m torn. Especially since my sister (who swore up and down she would never run the Disney full marathon again), just texted me and said she was “thinking about it.” Like I said, well done Disney, way to make a couple of runners who weren’t interested, suddenly interested. That new course is tempting. Very tempting.
So now the Disney Marathon has been put back on the list as a “maybe” for 2013. I’m still not sold, but I’m definitely considering it. It doesn’t take much to win me back.
What are your thoughts on the new Walt Disney World Marathon course?
You know you’re a runner when you get THAT excited about a marathon course. Ha! To be fair, Derek goes off on the same tangents when a new iPhone release has been made. He gave me the same blank stare about the marathon stuff as I gave him about the iPhone stuff. At least we each have hobbies.
Lunch today was a bowl of random odds and ends from the fridge.
I reheated a leftover baked sweet potato with hummus and cheese, then topped it with olives and leftover roasted cauliflower.
Say what you will, this dish was good. I’m not sure I’ve had hummus on a baked sweet potato before, but it works. I think hummus works on everything – it’s the universal condiment.
I finished 50 Shades of Grey last night. For a book with a lot of ups and down (waiting to see what all the fuss was about, figuring out what all the fuss was about, getting bored with what all the fuss was about, etc.), the ending was enough to provoke me to immediately download more »
I discovered a new restaurant in St. Pete today. Thanks to this girl. It saddens me to announce that my first official Tampa Bay friend is leaving me. She went and got herself re-knocked up, found a “dream job,” and is heading south at the end of this month. How rude. Totally selfish if you more »
When I brought Maddie home from the farm in 2009 I was living alone in Orlando. Derek and I were dating at the time, but our relationship was still new and the idea of bringing a puppy home “together” wasn’t even something that crossed our minds. We were still two very independent people and Maddie more »
It’s Wednesday! Happy Hump Day! I left the house for a run this morning not 100% sure how far I was going to to go. When it started drizzling about 2 miles from my place, I had my answer. I’m all for running in the rain when it’s a crucial run in my training plan more »
