SneakerStories

Pride?

2009-07-05T22:03:00.000-07:00

The day after the Seattle race, Steve and I woke up to hear the theme from Baywatch playing outside our hotel window. Over and over and over again. There are tons of things I want to hear the morning after a race. Things like "Breakfast is served" or "The massage therapist will be here in 5 minutes". A solid half hour of the Baywatch theme on endless repeat isn't really my cup of tea.

We looked out the window to see the Gaywatch. Interesting. A quick call to the front desk told us that the Seattle Gay Pride parade would be passing right by our hotel.

Cool, I like a parade. We went outside to watch and it was the oddest gay pride parade I could imagine. About a quarter of the groups were from churches and social service agencies, another quarter were from corporations and small businesses, then there were the political candidates. That left a few spots open for actual gay people.

There was also a very tiny crowd of spectators. Steve and I were right at the start of the route and I hope there were more spectators downtown. It seems a little bit of overkill to have an entire gay pride parade just for a straight couple like us.

There were certainly a few very amusing floats. But my favorite part of the parade might have been this guy. Follow your own weird.

Whoops

2009-07-02T21:47:00.000-07:00

I forgot to register for the America's Finest City Half Marathon. With all the hulabaloo for the San Diego and Seattle races, I totally forgot about registering for AFC. Just my luck, it sold out early this year and it's likely I'll be sitting this one out.

Bummer. AFC is definitely my favorite of the San Diego triple crown races. I'm looking for someone to sell me their bib. Who knows I might get lucky.

Pacific Northwest Postcard

2009-06-27T23:30:00.000-07:00

Steve and I are in Seattle. I'd never visited before and it's a lovely city, very green with lots of beautiful sunshine. We spent our first two days here as tourists: visiting the Seattle Art Museum, riding the ferry (where I snapped the photo below), shopping at Pike's Place Market to get fresh steamed crab, picnicking overlooking the Puget Sound.

Today I got up at 3:30 A.M. to run in the inaugural Rock and Roll Seattle Marathon & Half Marathon. I had two happy surprises during the race. First, I spotted a bald eagle during the run. Actually, I spotted a bunch of people taking pictures of something in a tree. Those people pointed out the eagle. If you've never seen one in its natural habitat, the bald eagle is a beatiful, majestic bird.

The second happy surprise was having my first decent run in months. I was slow, but I wasn't in pain. I've been running with injuries to both feet since last December. It's crazy, but I've run 8 half marathons on aching heals. Today, it took me a long time to start running well. I was into mile 2 before I felt limber, but once I got going I got stronger every mile. I finished 13.1 miles feeling better than I had at mile 2. As I neared the finish line I realized I wasn't running in pain. Honestly, I started to cry because I was so thankful.

After the race, we met up with Steve's parents who spent the day showing us Seattle. Steve's stepmom grew up here and she drove us to all the good spots: a locals only restaurant for lunch, then out to Leschi Park on the shore of Lake Washington, up the hills in the Queen Anne neighborhood for a fantastic view of the city. Tomorrow we're hoping to visit the aquairum and some other spots before we hop our flight home.

As much fun as the tourist stuff has been, I'll always remember Seattle as the place a was reminded of what it's like to fun joyfully. I'll be sorry to leave tomorrow.

Happy Father's Day

2009-06-21T15:12:00.000-07:00

I was looking through some family photos for the perfect snapshot of my Dad for my Father's Day post. That's when I realized I don't have any photos of my Dad alone. He's always surrounded by his wife, daughters, granddaughters, great-granddaughters and great-grandson. (Yes, we finally got another boy in the family.) In all our photos he's making us laugh and you can see how much he loves us and we love him. That is just about perfect.

And then there's one photo where my Dad is inexplicably with Willie Nelson.

Happy Father's Day Dad!

Here are Dad, me and Mom in Cabo San Lucas. We're sitting on sandbags in preparation for a hurricane.	Post hurricane. Still laughing.
Dad and I putting on our helmets at Nascar Driving School at Texas Motorspeedway. (His Father's Day present.)	Making me laugh at my Penn State graduation.
Dad goofing around with his granddaughters after one of our Monday night family dinners.	My Dad with my Mom, my sister and his granddaughters all grown into young women.
Mom, Dad and the first 2 great-grand kids. There are 2 more great-granddaughters now.	Dad and Willie Nelson. What can I say? Everyone loves my Dad.

The Tahoe Trade Off

2009-06-10T12:49:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago Steve was cheerleader extraordinare for me and my run team at the Rock N Roll marathon. Last weekend it was my turn to support his cycling team at America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride in Lake Tahoe. I didn't have much to do except photograph the team's finishers. We flew to Tahoe and I didn't have a car to chase the riders for 100 miles. Instead I plopped down at the finish line and snapped photos.

Here are our San Diego riders coming across the line - look at those clean pace lines. There's no team in the ride that's more trained and efficient at pace lining. Lots of teams rode in swarms, but Team San Diego rides smart.

Here are the guys showing off there medals and reminding you it was 1oo miles!

It's Still Rock N Roll To Me

2009-05-31T23:28:00.000-07:00

San Diego Roll Marathon weekend...so much good. My #1 memory of this weekend will be seeing my mentees enter the Pasta Party (if you've done TNT you know what I'm talking about). A very close second will be seeing them cross the finish line and wearing their finishers' medals. This season has been tough since I've been hobbled by injuries, but was all so worth it to see my teammates reach their goal. I'm a little hoarse from cheering for people all day.

My personal race got ugly at mile 8ish. My calves were miserable, but Dr. Chad had warned me that it might be a particularly uncomfortable race for me. I'm lucky I got as far as I did before the pain forced me to walk to the finish. Ah well.

Cheers to Steve who was a rock star supporter all weekend. Steve, thanks for hauling us to the starting line at 5 a.m and for putting up with the driving/parking nightmare of reaching three locations on the course when every road in town seemed to be closed for the marathon. You're a rock star - for reals!

Fresh Paint and Counter Depth Appliances

2009-05-24T08:20:00.000-07:00

Every once and again, you'll see a house that needs a bit of work. It's not a ramshackle, but it needs some care, maybe a bit of landscaping or a bit trim paint. If you don't own a house, you probably wonder why doesn't the owner take a few minutes and do the repairs. A few minutes - Ha! House maintenance is complex and interwoven especially if you own an old house as I do. I adore my 1920's casita except when something needs to be fixed, because there isn't a stock item in the hardware store that's going to fit.

I wanted to get my house painted. I'll do a lot of jobs on my own, but I do not paint. Before the painters could start, I needed to get some extra cabinets hung in the bathroom. Ran to Lowe's, picked out a selection of cabinets and called the handy man to have them hung. We sorted through the cabinet options and made some compromises. Then I needed to do a little wood putty fill on the cabinet seams, sand, drill holes for the handles, and paint on the primer coat. That meant digging in the garage for 40 minutes trying to find my wood putty, power sander, drill, paint rollers and the extra primer. Dear Heavens, I need to get that garage in some sort of order.

While the painter was putting the test colors on the wall, the plumbing peeps were still trying to fix my blocked drain lines. My favorite moment might have been asking the drain guy, "Hey, should that drain snake be coming out of my roof? Because it is." Of course, this drain stuff must be done before the painters start the kitchen. You don't want a flood on the fresh paint.

In other pre-paint prep, I wanted to get my new refrigerator into the house before the painters started. My house is old; my doorways are narrow. You know damn well when they remove the old fridge and put in the new one they're going to smack into any freshly painted wall. Nothing is easy in an old house. When I took the measurements, I found out that I currently have a counter depth fridge and a full size won't fit. I spent 3 hours and Lowe's measuring every single fridge to find one that the doors could open without smacking the counter. It was supposed to be delivered on Monday before the painters started. Unfortunately, it arrived from the warehouse with a big dent in the door. Now they are going to have to deliver it after the painting is complete.

Add to the bathroom cabinets, the fridge and the drain issues, the general taking down of pictures and putting away stuff so that the painters can work. In other words, it took me roughly 4 days of work and heaps of money before I could pay someone else heaps of money to paint. That's home ownership. You've got gobs to do before you start doing what you want to get done.

It was all summed up for me at Lowe's. There was a young woman there looking for a 21 inch deep dishwasher for her 1920's home. Modern counters are a standard 24 inches. That's why there's something called counter depth, because it's the standard. But her house was built back when houses were built by renegades who wouldn't be contained by standards. Poor thing, she still thought that she'd be able to put stock items in a new home and she was refusing to have her hopes crushed. She was insistent that she's find that 21 inch dishwasher.

Ah, newbies.

If Happens Again Saturday, We'll Build An Ark

2009-05-22T16:26:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, the world's most amazing shower head sprung a leak and water starting shooting out to the ceiling.
On Thursday, the washing machine overflowed and flooded the washroom, kitchen and dining room.
On Friday (today), the sink, garbage disposal and dishwasher backed up reflooding the kitchen.

If I was a Pisces, I'd be happy to be living in a watery home. Instead, I'm just sick of the tide rolling through my house.

I'm headed to Lowe's for a new shower head. The appliance guy is coming on June 10th to fix the washer. Thankfully, I have a backup washing machine in the garage. Rescue Rooter is on the way to handle the world most revolving job of cleaning the sewer line. (For real. It's a horror. I have no idea how that man can ever feel clean.)

Oh, the fun of home ownership never ends.

Butter Me Up

2009-05-19T16:15:00.000-07:00

I collect cookbooks and other books on nutrition. If someone's church or Junior League is selling a cookbook I Must Buy It. In the big move from Texas a crate of 20 cookbooks when AWOL. I still miss them.

This weekend Steve and I hit one of my favorite used book stores. I like this store because the books are arranged by price. When I get to the dollar cookbooks, I can barely contain my excitement.

Frankly, I'm not that discriminating with the dollar cookbooks. It's strictly me grabbing them and shoving them in the basket. When I got home I realized I bought Easy Diabetic Cooking with 4 Ingredients despite the fact that neither of us is diabetic; I think I bought it because it was spiral bound, as all cookbooks should be.

In this cookbook I found one of the most ridiculous recipes I've ever seen.

Good Morning Grapefruit
Ingredients: Grapefruit, Smart Balance margarine, cinnamon and Splenda.
Instructions: Halve grapefruit. Melt margarine. Add cinnamon and Splenda. Put on grapefruit.

Yuck - how's about a nice, buttery grapefruit?

Welcome Home Baby

2009-05-17T10:01:00.000-07:00

For the last two weeks, I'm been obsessively following the Briant Rodriguez abduction case. I've been checking Google news almost hourly. It's been most frustrating when there was no new news for a few hours. A missing child is a ticking clock.

The case has been a bit personal for me. First, I worked with victims of violent crime for two years. I've never really gotten over it; I check all my door locks several times before going to bed . Second, Briant looks a lot like my beloved nephew - same age, same big brown eyes, same long curls. My family commented on the resemblance too and we were all a bit freaked by it.

Hey, I'm not stupid. I know that there is something hinky in this case. There's a motive that we don't know about yet. I don't care. Briant is safely home, thank Heavens. Hopefully, he's not too traumatized. Hopefully, he was well cared for during the last two weeks.

Here is the thing that I found funny in the post-recovery press questions. Someone asked if Briant escaped or if he was released. I reiterate - HE'S THREE. Yes, he definitely escaped. He managed to disarm and incapacitate two armed criminals and slip off into Mexicali. Hey, when they picked him up, he was trying to decide if he was going to hitchhike or get a bus home to San Bernardino.

Center for Missing and Exploited Children

Vacation - Destination 3, Lost Coast

2009-05-11T23:19:00.000-07:00

I love it in this part of Northern California. The weather was cranky with rain and cold right up to race day. We made a stop at Target so I could buy cold weather gear for the race.

We spent a few days with our friends at the Gingerbread Mansion Bed and Breakfast. It was great to meet up with Debbie and Ellen. Of course, by this point in the trip, Steve and I were ready to just lay back and enjoy. We didn't really "do" anything. One day, we visited agate beach and I collected a bunch of beautiful pieces of agate that had been smoothed by the sand and ocean. Weird things like that are always my favorite trip souvenirs.

Steve and I also took a long drive from the redwoods to the lost coast - long drive, short distance. The terrain is pretty rugged and the roads are twisty. It's the reason it's called the "lost" coast. It was too rugged to develop with highways and such. The funniest part was the cows that were grazing right along the shoreline. No wonder California has happy cows, they live on the beach. (Of course, they are probably complaining about the cost of living here too.)

Race Notes: Country Music Half Marathon and Avenue of the Giants.

2009-05-11T22:42:00.000-07:00

Two races, eight days.

Country Music Half Marathon - The race was hot and hilly. Not steep hills, but constant rolling hills. The entire race was going up or down; there were no flats. My nutrition was a mess. Sometimes the heat gives me nausea and I can't eat, then I bonk. Other times, the heat makes me ravenous. That's what happened here. I was through my entire stash of Gu's and trail mix by mile 7. Thankfully, Nashvillians were giving nibbles along the course (including a yummy, ice cold beer at mile 9).

Overall, this was a very sloppy race for me. I never really got tired, but I wasn't putting in much effort. It was great to go slowly through my old neighborhoods. No regrets.

Avenue of the Giants - I planned to walk this entire course since I was doing it with TNT walk alumni including Steve. My absolute favorite race ever - the California redwoods are magnificent and you have a few hours to simply enjoy the peace and beauty of the forest. Dear Heavens, I want to do this race every year.

Also, the Avenue is surely the recipient of the most improved finishers medal. Last years was sort of lame - that part in the center is a sticker. This years is lovely - also, great tee shirts.

Damn

2009-05-05T20:55:00.000-07:00

Most of you know that I started with Team In Training because we lost my uncle to myeloma, a blood cancer. Sometimes I get bored of the grind of fundraising. And sometimes it feels like trying to raise money to find a cure is spitting into the wind.

Last week, Steve learned that his honored teammate from the Tuscon team had lost his battle with cancer. Yesterday, I found out that, Roy, a friend and former coworker died of cancer also. When I started my job 5 years ago, Roy was a big help to me. He didn't meddle, but he gave me good counsel and generally kept me out of trouble. He was diagnosed with late stage cancer last fall.

Losing anyone is tough, even someone you don't see or talk to everyday. Sometimes you just like knowing that they are in the world and on your side. I was chatting with a friend and she explained why I'll miss Roy better than I can. She said, "He saw my potential when I couldn't." That is a truly fine quality in friend.

Vacation - Destination 2, Oregon

2009-05-04T12:45:00.000-07:00

We decided to fly from Nashville to Eugene and then drive to our next half marathon. This was sort of an odd choice, but it was the practical decision. First, flying to Eugene required only 1 flight connection instead of 2. It was also relatively inexpensive. The clincher for Eugene was I found a lovely suite at a bed and breakfast with an ensuite washer and dryer. Midway through a 10 day trip you need to do some laundry.

That simple 1 connection trip turned into a 20 hour battle with United Airlines. When we finally arrived in Eugene, Oregon we were both exhausted. I had actually slept for 2 hours on the floor of the "Mediation Room" in the Nashville airport. Lets just pretend it was a very, very deep mediation.

Steve had been to Eugene before, but my only visits to Oregon have been in Portland. We had planned to hang out in Eugene and visit some of the places he remembered. Then we'd take an entire day for a leisurely drive, stopping at whatever spot interested us. Of course, the snafu with United put the kibosh to that plan since we lost an entire day in airports.

We only had a few hours in Eugene before we needed to start the drive south. Luckily it was a beautiful day. We did a little walk in the neighborhood near the university. We had lunch a brewpub that Steve remembered fondly, perused a used record shop and got a yummy Americano at a coffee shop. (The photo is Steve enjoying a hot day and a cold beer. Great combo!)

Then it was back in the car for the drive to Northern California. Oregon is beautiful and I definitely want to go back there when we have about 6 days to make that drive instead of 6 hours. I wanted to stop at Crater Lake and Caves National Monument, but alas there was no time.

Oregon, next time I promise to give you the attention you deserve.

Today's Adventure in Grammatic Irony / Facebook Follies

2009-05-04T08:57:00.000-07:00

Found this post on my Facebook news feed:

{friend's name} took the Are You Smart? quiz and the result is Your Pretty Smart.

If you're writing quizzes about smartness, you may want to learn the correct usage of your and you're.

Home - Updates pending

2009-05-03T22:37:00.000-07:00

In no particular order, the following posts are pending:

Race reports for the 2 half marathons
A "How To" post on dealing with airport delays
Why the Bluebird Cafe is the best accoustic music venue.
Some photos of the trip.

Vacation - Destination 1, Nashville

2009-04-27T22:54:00.000-07:00

Steve and I are on a vacation with the oddest itinerary. The destinations were picked because I had back to back races which required travel. We decided to simply take the week off and go from one race to the next without going home between.

First stop, Nashville, Tennessee for the Country Music Marathon. I lived in Nashville for a few years, but I haven't been back in over a decade. This is an ambitious town, but it remains absolutely Southern and charming. When I lived here, I interned briefly with Nashville Sports Council. Of course, there weren't many sports in Nashville then, just an triple A ball club and college sports, but no big events or pro teams. Setting up a non-profit to bring big time sports to twang town was dreaming big. A decade later, Nashville has an NFL team and its new stadium downtown, an NHL team and its new downtown arena, a marathon with 30,000 participants and it was picked to host the Women's Final Four. The economic impact to Nashville - over $340 million dollars over 14 years.

While I've been gone Nashville has also built the Country Music Hall of Fame and one of the premier Symphony venues in the country. Everything they are building is downtown within walking distance of each other. That's Nashville, growing, ambitious but still very charming.

We've had a wonderful couple of days here. We've been busy, but not overwhelmed. Steve got here late on Friday night, we had a quick dinner from the Bar-Be-Cutie then went to sleep. On Saturday, I did the race in the morning. Typical to Nashville's partyin' style, neighborhoods turned the race into a big cookout / breakfast cocktail party. After the race, we hung out at Bongo Java for coffee and a view of the Nun Bun, visited the Parthenon, then sat on the lawn at Centennial Park and listened to the Dave Matthews concert going on across the street at Vanderbilt's Football stadium. On Sunday we visited Cheekwood Botanical Gardens and Museum of Art, had a fabulous dinner downtown and capped the night honkytonking at Tootsies Orchid Lounge. Monday we had breakfast at the Loveless Cafe (oh, how I had missed those biscuits) and then hiking woods at Percy Warner park. Then we went to see that AAA club, the Nashville Sounds, who have completely redone their stadium. Before heading in for the night we walked to the Tennessee State Capitol and then on the see the grandeur of the Hermitage Hotel.

We'd still like to squeeze in visits to the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Ryman, the Center for Visual Arts, dinner on the riverboat, listening to songwriters' night at the Bluebird Cafe, stops at Belmont and Belle Meade Mansions, a visit to the "other" Hermitage, a drive to Lynchburg to visit Jack Daniels and meals at about 5 barbecue places that I've missed.

Alas, we leave tomorrow.

A Photo of Someone Much Cooler Than Me

2009-04-21T08:34:00.000-07:00

Sorry. I've been a bad blogger lately. I've also been a been a sub-stellar friend, dud girlfriend, a lame daughter, sister and aunt. If you're one of the people I've dissed lately, then it's not you, it's me. Work has been pretty all-consuming for the last few weeks and I'm behind on every other thing in my life. Sorry.

Now that we've discussed why I'm a big ol' loser - lets talk about someone who kicks butt. Kicked cancer's butt and kicked the Boston Marathon's butt. I got an email today to let me know that Julie a 3 time cancer beater, Team In Training marathon mentor and LiveStrong runner has added Boston Marathon finisher to her list of accomplishments. She's also running San Diego and Seattle with our TNT team. Three marathons in three months? That's my kind of girl!

Here is her photo from Boston.com

Did anyone hear how Coach Happy did at Boston? Update: Happy finished Boston too! A very good day for the TNT Purple People.

Life in San Diego Gets Even Better

2009-04-10T07:26:00.000-07:00

Sonic Drive-In has opened in San Diego. Did you hear me? Sonic is here. My friend Denise lives near the Sonic and she reports the line goes around the store and down the street. I don't care. I'm am soooo there.

My dear Sonic, I've been waiting for you. Chili cheese dogs, onion rings and my favorite - the Diet Cherry Limeade made with real limes and extra cherries. Oh yes.

If we ever get a Whataburger my life will be complete.

I Ran The World's Fastest 5K

2009-04-09T09:57:00.000-07:00

More accurately, I ran in the Carlsbad 5000, the race they call the World's Fastest 5K. They call it that for good reason, the world record has been broken there 16 times.

We ran this as prep-race for Team In Training. There's so much to learn about Running In A Race, e.g., where you want to wear your race number so it doesn't annoy you, how to line up at the start, how to protect your pace in the mob of runners. You don't want to learn those lessons during your first marathon. Running the prep event is essential for people who've never raced.

As of Tuesday, I wasn't going to do it. I called Steve from a business trip and said no way. I'm not a sprinter; my pace is more like waiting for the earth to rotate beneath me. Really, I'm that slow these days. The fastest 250 finishers get a medal, but the rest of us get to walk around medal-deficient announcing to all our lack of speed. I didn't want to run dead last in a sprint and feel bad about myself. I had decided to go to the race to cheer on my teammates and mentees, but skip the race myself.

A big driver of this pouty response is my overall stress level - I've been traveling a bit for work, Steve's been sick, our jobs are extra-intense lately, and the house is a mess. I regularly find myself at the very end of my tether. And that is no place to be.

On Saturday, I smartened up about the Carlsbad 5000. Who cares if I'm slow? I've always been slow and it never stopped me. I was being a big, whiny baby. Run - not because you're fast, but because you love to run. The race was actually pretty fun. I ran with a nice group and I wasn't nearly last.

Bonus surprise - all TNT finishers did get a medal. It absolutely rocked to see my teammates get their medals.
Not a surprise, but a bonus - my friend Raul and a bunch of TNT teammates picked up a top 250 medal.

Run on my speed demon buddies; I'll be right behind you.

Race Skirt, My (2) Race number(s) and my medal

2009-03-23T09:22:00.000-07:00

As I was packing to go home, I spotted my race skirt. Since November, I had my original race number tucked into my suitcase. Race morning I decide to wear both. The new race bib mostly covering the old one, but other runners would see it and smile. Also included, obligatory medal shot.

Race Notes: Pasadena Half Marathon (Now With Extra Drama)

2009-03-23T01:24:00.000-07:00

This was the Re-do of the Inaugural Pasadena race. The race was scheduled last November. Unfortunately the race was canceled a 4 am the morning of the event due to poor air quality from the wildfires. I was disappointed for the competitors, but also for the race organizers. The organizers, a community non-profit, had tried to put on a great, high quality event only to be snuffed out by a natural disaster. A lot of competitors were pissed especially since the event didn't have cancellation insurance and couldn't refund entry fees. However, runners who were willing to try again were given a steep discount. (Lets keep this in perspective. Some people lost everything they owned in the wildfires. A race entry, while annoying, isn't that big.)

For the re- inaugural, I paid extra to pick up my race number on race morning. Last November, I very nearly missed picking up my race number when we got caught in the wildfire evacuation traffic. It's good that I paid for race morning privileges this time. Running to catch the Amtrak to Pasadena, we were confounded by a convertible roof that got stuck halfway up. Then when we changed trains in LA Union Station, Steve's wallet got lost or stolen. We finally made it to Pasadena long after the race expo had closed.

The race was challenging because it was rainy, windy and chilly. There were times when the race conditions were miserable, but there were also some really nice miles. The course was slightly hilly including a steady climb for miles 8-10. I had a little stomach ache and decided to stay off my beloved raisin nut trail mix on the course. I ended up finally using the Shot Blox I've carried in my race belt for the last 18 months. My tummy held up and I had plenty of gas to the finish. Along the course, there were a few spectators and some truly valiant volunteers. As I rounded the bend to the finish, Steve was waiting. It was awesome to see him at the finish line.

Steve and I spent the afternoon walking around the art collections and gardens of the Huntington Library. We barely covered half of the place. I was telling Steve that I wanted to come back and see the rest, but we haven't had much luck in our two Pasadena trips - wildfires, storms, lost wallets. He laughed and reminded me that we had three trips to Pasadena. The third trip was also a misadventure. Pasadena just doesn't like us.

Congratulations go to the event organizers - they did a great job and this was the quality event they envisioned. You'll have to pardon me if I don't show up for next year's race. After wildfires and storms, I'm worried the third race might have a swarm of locusts!

Disney Princess Half Marathon - Finishers' Party and Hidden Mickeys

2009-03-19T09:27:00.000-07:00

After the race, Disney hosted a finisher's party at Disney Hollywood Studios amusement park. The park was closed with the exception of finishers and their guests. The park probably had less than 4,000 people in it. Normally, it would have about 20,000 people. There were no lines at all. It was awesome, because it is my favorite of all the Disney parks.

I did end of waiting at my favorite ride, the Tower of Terror - not due to a line, but due to a miscommunication with Debbie. As I was waiting, I met one of the Disney cast members and asked about the hidden Mickey's in the ride. He was incredibly well informed. He told me about the history of the ride and all 14 hidden mickeys in the ride. I'd already found 2 of them, but the others were a surprise. I've probably been on that ride 100 times in both Florida and California - searching for the hidden Mickeys every time. Somehow I missed 12 of them.

Just for fun, I'll give you an easy one. Can you find the hidden mickey on the concierge desk at the Tower of Terror? I shot this photo to make the hidden mickey easy to find.

Disney Princess Race Report

2009-03-18T19:23:00.000-07:00

Gee, my race notes are 10 days late. Perhaps because there isn't much notable about my performance. It was not my best race or my worst. I had a consistent run with no complaints. Most races I come home with a few things to improve and a few things that were perfect. This time, I have neither. I had a good day, but not a great one.

The Disney Princess Half Marathon was a well produced event - flat race course, well organized, nice weather. It was, unfortunately, a bit boring. The course went through Epcot and the Magic Kingdom which was cool, but took up less than 3 miles of the 13.1. Between the two parks, there was a lot of nothing.

Here is what gives me faith that this race, which is already very good, will only get better. We met two people from the Disney Endurance Sports group. Both asked what went wrong, how could they improve, how did Disney compare to the Rock N Roll Marathon series and the Nike Women's Marathon? They weren't looking for kudos; they were trying to learn how to run a world class event.

Finisher Medal - Disney Princess Half Marathon

2009-03-08T09:54:00.000-07:00

My finishers medal.

Race report later.