Boston Marathon & Tedy's Team Update

I can't believe there are a mere 78 days remaining until I run The Boston Marathon with Tedy's Team!!

I am excited ... anxious ... nervous ... pumped ... and overall honored to be able to run on April 15, 2013 for such a great cause.

Tedy's Team is a group raising money and awareness on behalf of the American Stroke Association:

Tedy asked the American Stroke Association to work with him to create “Tedy’s Team,” a group of runners raising money for the American Stroke Association and training to complete the Boston Marathon® and the Falmouth Road Race.  Their participation supports Tedy Bruschi’s fight against stroke and honors both the survivors and the loved ones lost to America’s No. 4 leading cause of death.

In addition to the dollars being raised, an equally important issue for Tedy's Team is the increase in awareness of stroke and recognition of its warning signs. Tedy’s Team is striving to reach as many people as possible in its message of recognizing the warning signs and acting appropriate when seeing them -- calling 9-1-1 immediately.

I am running in honor of my Stroke Heroes - my grandparents - who both survived strokes. Unfortunately on December 27, 2012, we lost my Grampa suddenly from cancer so this race is especially in his honor.

I keep him with me on all of my runs on the inside of the Sparkly Soul headband I wear on all my training runs and I will wear in the Boston Marathon itself.

There are two main components to preparing for the marathon: fundraising and training.

Fundraising

In order to run with Tedy's Team, I needed to raise at least $5,000 and as of today I am at:

Woo!! I am wicked thankful for such a kick ass support system. My friends and family have truly risen to the occasion. I thankfully also raised $1,000 through my 30th Birthday 5k.

If you are interested in donating, you can do so here.

Training

For the most part, I am using the same training schedule that I used for the Rock 'n' Roll Savannah Marathon in November, which was a success. It is a combination of a few different websites and help from my friend/pseudo running coach Sarah.

It is a great mix of running and cross-training. I have really been working on incorporating more Spinning into my routine, which really helps on the hills. I've also wanted to increase my speed work as I am trying to (possibly) one day qualify for Boston, which means I need to take at least 24 minutes off my current marathon PR. So cross training is a MUST...

I am LOVING the group run components to this marathon training schedule. Every Saturday Tedy's Team has a group run out of the FitCorp gym on Beacon St. The run begins at 7:50am and is designed for a certain length, but you can always add or subtract depending on what your personal training schedule has you at.

Since so many of my Savannah runs were done alone, I love having teammates to run with on Saturdays. My teammate Meg lives right by my house so we can carpool in together, which is wicked fun. It is also a nice bit of accountability especially on wicked cold mornings. :)

My group run times and paces have been amazing. I think the group, and Meg in particular, are helping to push how far I can truly go.

But, I missed the last two training runs - the first because I was running the Disney Half Marathon (where I got a new PR) and the second because of sickness - so I wasn't sure how yesterday's 10-mile run would go. Since I had been sick, I didn't want to risk trekking in to Boston and not being able to finish the run so I stuck around my house to complete it.

This was definitely my slowest long run pace since starting Tedy's Team on December 1, but today was really about the mileage, getting back to running after being sick and battling the snow/cold weather than time.

So I was proud of myself for getting out there ... even with all the salt on the ground. ;)

But just as important as the running and cross training are, is the refueling of the body!! Especially on long run days.

I make sure to end all of my long runs with some low-fat chocolate milk!

According to the Got Chocolate Milk:

Lowfat chocolate milk contains the right mix of carbs and protein scientifically shown to help refuel muscles. Chocolate milk helps restore muscles quickly to their peak potential.

Yesterday, I paired it with a banana and an english muffin with peanut butter. Mmmmm...

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After my training schedule was thrown off for the last two weeks due to being sick, it is time to get back into full swing and get back to my groove. We have 10 group runs remaining until the Boston Marathon and I cannot wait to take full advantage of the group experience.

So Boston Marathon prepare ... I'm coming for ya!

Disney - Final Day - Animal Kingdom

Ahhh how was it already the final day ... it seemed like we just got there! Day One - 1/10-11/13 - Arrival, Run Disney Expo & Hollywood Studios

Day Two - 1/12/13 - Walt Disney World Half Marathon

Day Two  - 1/12/13 - Magic Kingdom

Day Three - 1/13/13 - Epcot

... and then there was Animal Kingdom!

On the final day, Monday, January 14, we started the day by heading back to Hollywood Studios to see Toy Story Midway Mania! and it was TOTALLY worth any sort of wait!!

YES! I beat the wife in a video game...

After waiting in line for Toy Story Midway Mania! (which had a line even though we arrived when the parks opened), we headed to Animal Kingdom.

I LOVE the Tree Of Life as soon as you walk in ... it is breathtaking!

We immediately headed to Expedition Everest - Legend Of The Forbidden Mountain ... aka the whole reason the wife wanted to go to Animal Kingdom ... and the wait time was only 10 minutes, which was the time it took us to go from the opening of the ride to the ride itself.

It was wicked fun and I recommend it to everyone.

After Everest, we took in Finding Nemo - The Musical, which was freakin' awesome!!

Nemo was adorable, entertaining and comes fully recommended with two thumbs up!

We followed Nemo up with the DINOSAUR ride, which was the Jurassic Park ride last time I was at Disney (12 years ago).

DINOSAUR was part of DinoLand, but within DinoLand was Chester and Hester’s Dino-Rama that featured Primeval Whirl, which was kind of cheesy, but kind of awesome - it mixed old school carnival with Disney magic.

We took a break to enjoy lunch at Flame Tree Barbeque, which was absolutely delicious. We both had the pulled pork with a Disney Safari beer.

We had one amazing lunch with a great view of Everest.

After lunch we went on the Kilimanjaro Safaris that was breathtaking!!!

This safari was entertaining and full of information!

After the safari, we headed to Rafiki's Planet Watch before having to return to the shuttles to go back to the hotel and check out.

Ugh ... how could it already be time to return home.

We were at the hotel early because I was starting to feel under the weather so we caught an early Disney's Magical Express to head back to the airport.

We hunkered down at the Outback in our terminal for beer and food before our flight home.

Our flight was on time and we landed back to Boston on schedule. Thankfully my dad picked us up since we landed at 10:20pm and we wanted to shorten our trip home as best we could. :P

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The trip overall was magical. I'm so lucky my wife and parents were on hand at Disney and the race with me. It was an amazing weekend that I never wanted to end.

If you have the chance to experience Disney - especially a Run Disney race - PLEASE DO!!!!

Disney - Day 3 - Epcot

Waking up Sunday, January 13, was bittersweet. On the one hand, I was excited that it was 7am rather than 2am, but on the other hand I was wicked jealous of all the people out running the Walt Disney Full Marathon that day.

But, I couldn't dwell on it too long as I had friends to track (Eric, Krissy & Robin to name a few) and a full schedule on the agenda.

First, we headed back to Magic Kingdom to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, which we had missed on Day Two because of lengthy wait times.

The wife really wanted to ride the monorail so we actually took the monorail from Magic Kingdom to Epcot. The monorail is such an easy ride. I think if we go back - sorry when we go back for Goofy Challenge 2015 - we will stay at a Disney hotel on the monorail.

What I forgot is the WDW Marathon ended in the parking lot of Epcot so as we headed to the gate there were TONS of runners who had already finished and spectators trying to enter the park to catch their loved ones finishing the race. So security was a bit of a cluster, but thankfully the guards did a good job moving people along as quickly as they could.

Once we entered the Park, we were off to grab a fast pass for Test Track before going on Mission: SPACE. Now let me tell you Mission: SPACE was NOT my cup of tea as I am a claustrophobic type person. So choosing the orange option (intense training) over the green option (mild training) was not smart, but it was what the wife wanted so I went along with it.

(Note: I did proceed to get sick after this ride. Yay me and my weak stomach! :P)

To give my stomach time to settle, we walked around Innoventions, where the wife tested out The Sum Of All Thrills (which went all sorts of directions as you built your own virtual roller coaster). Yup, I sat my butt on the bench while that happened. :)

The Seas With Nemo & Friends was a must-see. It was a great combination of Nemo characters and actual aquarium life.

We then headed over to use our fast pass at Test Track, which wasn't as exciting as I had remembered ... but still enjoyable.

I do have to commend Disney on their job of shuttling fans and spectators through the park without interrupting the runners since the marathon was still going on while we were taking in the sights.

After crossing the marathon path, we claimed our fast pass for Soarin' before grabbing lunch at The Electric Umbrella (mmm chicken tenders)!

Following lunch we went to Spaceship Earth, which was delightful. They took your picture at the beginning of the ride then used it in a little computer game at the end of the ride (determining what your future will look like).

Before Soarin', we managed to squeeze in Journey Into Imagination With Figment (and we were the only people in our entire car), Captain EO (featuring Michael Jackson) and The Circle Of Life.

Soarin' was definitely cool, but being in the bottom row meant some of my view of the large screen showing the scenes of California were blocked by the people in the row above me's feet. Gross! But still a cool ride/experience overall.

Since we had made our way through most of Future World, it was time to head over to the World Showcase and meet up with some friends. My dad met up with us outside Soarin' and headed to Germany to have a beer/brat with us.

In Germany, we were meeting up with Twitter Friends Eric and Krissy ... I LOVE meeting social media friends in person!! They had both ROCKED the WDW Marathon that morning so I couldn't wait to share a celebratory beer with them!

YAY!! It was so great seeing them!

Eric is a fellow Weight Watchers Leader in NJ

 After Krissy and Eric headed out to meet other friends and my dad went back to the hotel to see my mom, the wife & went ahead to finish up our tour of the World Showcase.

Including have a Sam Adams in The American Adventure...

We visited all of the countries before calling it a day to head back to the hotel bar to have some drinks, eat pizza and watch the Patriots playoff game, which was happening at 4:30pm.

How amazing were the skies (no filters) we had as a backdrop for the AWESOME Patriots win, which sent them to the AFC Championship game!

Can you tell I was a little excited? It helped that if they won we would be GOING to the AFC Championship game!!

My parents met us for the game and we headed to the Boardwalk Resort to go to Big River Grille & Brewing Works to celebrate! The food was delicious and the area near the Boardwalk Resort was lovely.

We headed back to the hotel room after this to get some rest before our final day in Disney: Animal Kingdom!

Disney - Day 2 - Magic Kingdom

Did you really think the only thing we would do on Day 2 in Disney would be the Walt Disney World Half Marathon? Heck no!! ;)

We had to put a full day in at Magic Kingdom after the run.

After I refueled with a shower, breakfast and my low fat chocolate milk.

It was time to grab the shuttle and head back to the Magic Kingdom ;) but this time to enjoy some rides. :P

Ohhh the memories had already started on Day One (Race Expo/Hollywood Studios) and during the run, but they were going to continue...

We walked through the gates and it was a madhouse. I think all of the Half Marathoners (who had run that morning) and the Marathoners (who were running the following day, Sunday) were in the house. It was busy, but we were ready.

Heading down Main Street after having run down in it hours earlier in the pitch black was surreal and I couldn't stop smiling. :)

Seeing the Castle in the sun was just as thrilling as in the pitch black of the early morning. Again, I haven't been to Disney in about 12 years, but the Castle still took my breath away.

Our game plan was to enter the Park and immediately head to get a fast pass for Under The Sea ~ Journey Of The Little Mermaid, which we did. After securing the fast pass, we hit up Philharmagic (which was located directly next to the fast pass machine).

Philarharmagic was a cute and enjoyable 3D cartoon complete with Disney staples of Mickey, Donald and Goofy.

After Philharmagic we had to see It's A Small World, which happen to shut down for the day right after we walked through the gates.

Once we finished It's A Small World, we headed back to Under The Sea ~ Journey Of The Little Mermaid, which was a delight.

Clamshell cars take you through the ride

Following Mermaid, we headed to Space Mountain, which shockingly only had a 30-minute wait (pretty low for that day), Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor, which was hilarious and did a great job improvising with audience participation, Stitch's Great Escape! and finished up with Pirates of the Caribbean before heading to dinner.

For dinner we met back up with my parents and treated ourselves to the Character Dinner at The Crystal Palace!! While the food was nothing to write home about (typical buffet fair) you realize you aren't there for the food. :P You are there to see the characters and we had the crew from Winnie the Pooh! YAY!!

My absolute favorite Disney character is Eeyore so I was WICKED excited when I found out who we would be seeing!

It takes about an hour to an hour and a half for all of the characters to make it around the palace.

and last, but of course not least in MY mind

After dinner we had grand plans of hanging out for the 8pm Wishes spectacular then the 9pm Main Street Electrical Parade, but the 2am wake up call was starting to take a toll on the wife & I. So we opted for one final ride before heading back to the Hotel.

The wife wanted to go on Mad Tea Party (aka tea cups) and for some reason I agreed. Even though we JUST had dinner. So it wasn't our best decision, but it was still fun!

How can they not be?

After steadying myself post tea cups, we headed back to the bus area to grab the shuttle to the hotel.

We ended up stopping to have a drink at the pool bar at the hotel "Centertown" area. Since Magic Kingdom is booze free, it took until about 8pm for me to finally have my post-race celebratory beer. We sat down and enjoyed a bit of Hercules while I relished in my victory beer.

Since the wife was really getting tired, we headed back to the room. She immediately passed out, while I continued my celebration a little longer.

Yup, I'm klassy with a capital K!

Before I knew it, I too was fast asleep with dreams of Epcot the next day dancing through my head.

Oh, but don't let me forget to tell - and show - that despite all the action of the day I still got my Plankaday in ... in costume no less!

WDW Half Marathon - 1/12/13 - 1:48:09 (8:15 min/mile)

Boy does 2am really creep up on a person!!

Even when you DO go to bed at 7:15pm the night before.

But that first 2am alarm went off and I SHOT out of bed.

Maybe it was excitement ... maybe it was adrenaline ... maybe it was that I was scared shitless I would miss the bus thus missing the start of the race thus missing the race itself.

Yes I was freaked out by past participants' blog posts about crowds that I made sure our butts would be on the first bus out of our hotel come hell or high water!

So I was out of bed and prepping quickly. I was looking forward to this day for so long.

I rarely dress up for races (more than just the fun knee socks I wear) so this was out of my usual realm, but I was excited for it. I was loving how the Jessie from Toy Story costume had turned out and couldn't wait to see what spectators thought too!

I was ready! Needless to say the wife wasn't moving quite as quickly or as happily as I was ... she was none too pleased with the start time. :P

We headed out of the hotel room by 2:45am and as we turned the corner to the bus stop saw 7 completely empty busses sitting there with 0 people waiting to get on them.

Oops! :P

Well at least we guaranteed we would get to the Start area on time and we would get a seat. :)

As we sat on the bus, I was posting pictures, tweeting, etc and all of a sudden my phone rang - it was Suzi Storm. She didn't believe I was actually up and en route to a race so she needed actual proof ... my voice. :) It was nice to chat with her and maybe that chat played in to my awesome race - maybe it now needs to be a pre-race tradition. Suzi, thoughts? ;)

We idled for awhile while more runners loaded on to the bus. Yet as runner after runner got on the bus not that many were dressed up and for some reason this worried me. Like I would end up being the only person dressed up, which in the deep part of my head I knew was incorrect. It still had me freaked for a minute until a couple Tinkerbells got on the bus and I felt more at ease.

The busses rolled out and we were off to the Start area, which was set up in the Epcot parking lot. The busses dropped us off and we all made the trek over to the party area with the usual bathrooms, bag check, port-o-potties, etc.

It was amazing standing around and checking out the costumes people put together for the race. Talk about great people watching!

We hit up the port-o-potties and headed over to get a pic in front of the official 2013 Walt Disney World Marathon logo.

There was a DJ on hand as well as a camera catching some runners' sweet dance moves on the big screen. Oh watching some people try to Gangnam style never gets old. :P

As we did some laps around the Start area (since we were there so early :P ) checking out merchandise and just people watching, we spotted Sarge from Toy Story!!

He said: "It's my old friend Jessie. How are things around the toy chest?"

Awesome. :)

After snapping a pic with Sarge, we ran into Kat. Yes 23,000 runners and Kat finds us. Good work Lady!

Isn't she the cutest Piglet?

The organizers started asking everyone to get on the other side of Bag Check, which was the holding area before the walk to the Start Line. So we headed over there thinking we would then immediately head to the Start Line, but nope. We just all kind of stood around looking at each other for what felt like forever.

But, finally we got the go ahead to start the 20-something minute walk to the Start Line. Of course we hit the port-o-potties one final time before we did. :)

Thank you Disney for having PLENTY of port-o-potties that I barely had to wait in line even with 23,000 runners!

The walk was lengthy but the time passed by chatting with the wife and Kat and listening to the DJs along the way.

It was pitch black along the walk so I spent most of the time looking down at my feet since the last thing I wanted to do trip mere minutes before the race!

Then I saw it...

Blurriness means action shot :)

At this point, the three of us turned left towards Corrals A-E, while some kept straight for Corrals F-H.

Kat actually ended up being in my Corral so we bid the wife farewell at Corral C and headed to Corral A (yes still in shock at being in that location).

But it ended up being the best place for us to be!

Such a cool experience being up with the elite runners. They are amazing to be around.

And look how close we were to the Start Line!

I was finally able to meet Kelly from (@According2kelly), who I've been following for ages. She was running the Goofy with a friend dressed as Goofy. Great costumes by both (you can actually see her in right corner of pic above). She pointed out that Drew Carey was on the sidelines so Kat and I saddled over to snap a pic.

He was supposed to run, but got injured unfortunately.

We then tried to photobomb the interviews that were happening next to us in order to get on the jumbo screens set up near the corrals. Hoping that maybe the wife or a friend would notice us. :P But I don't think they did.

We then saw Carissa and her cohosts take the stage!

Sorry for the glare but Carissa is second from the right!

Kat actually knows Carissa so it was nice to finally meet her in person - even briefly - after following her online.

She rocked her interview with Joey Fatone ... again I tried to get my Jessie hat on the screen in the background as much as possible.

Thankfully having Kat with me really helped pass the time. :)

Because before we knew it it was time to send off the wheelchair runners, which meant we were up in 5 minutes!

Goofy, Donald and Mickey came out to count us down!

As the characters counted us down, I reminded myself I was there to have fun. I didn't care about the time or the pace or the finish. I just wanted to soak up the sights and sounds of Disney.

Then ... the fireworks went off and so was I!

It was 5:35am and freakin' dark!! Thankfully they brought in lights to help along the highway, but I still made sure to keep an eye on the ground since I had no desire to fall.

I was really impressed with the number of spectators that were lined up along the left side of the highway at that time of day.

I started out at my 5k pace and quickly had to slow myself down and remind myself that we were running 13.1 miles NOT 3.1. I was getting swept up with the other - faster - runners and I had to bring it on in.

There were marching bands and spectators all along the 5 mile stretch of highway AND the first character stop - Pirates Of The Caribbean!

It was at this moment that I decided I would stop at as many characters as I could. If there was a lengthy line then I would reconsider depending on the character.

But do you know what I found out? Most elite runners weren't there for pics with the characters so there was barely a line while I ran.

Yes I know this was EXTREMELY lucky compared to many of the runners in the later corrals who had much longer lines.

But I took advantage of my location and posed. Instead of fumbling with my iPhone, I just went with the professional photos and prayed they all came out afterwards.

All of this happened as we headed toward the opening of Magic Kingdom.

Not too shabby for an action shot

We were going to run right through the Magic Kingdom - how cool is that?

As we went through the parking lot near the test track, we got to see our first character stops!! YAY!

Chip And Dale

Nightmare Before Christmas

I had to stop and snap a pic of this awesome sign hanging above one of the overpasses as it read: "Quackin' Up Your Pace" But of course you can't see that part in my iPhone pic. Harumph!

Then we entered the park itself.

Spectators were amazing!! People lining the streets calling out "Hey It's Jessie" ... "Go Jessie Go" ... "Awesome costume Jessie" ...

It was amazing. I honestly felt like a Rock Star! I wanted to high-five every one of those people for how early they had to get up to be there.

All of a sudden there it was Main Street USA. I was running down Main Street USA towards THE CASTLE!!

I even saw Robin waiting to cheer on her husband while I was running!!

We were only in the Magic Kingdom itself for maybe a couple miles but it was amazing.

Best part? Besides all of the character photos of course.

Running THROUGH yes THROUGH the Castle was out of this world!

Can you still believe how dark it was?

After we left the Magic Kingdom it was a lot of highway time as we headed back towards Epcot for the Finish. I wasn't prepared for so much highway time so I was a little disappointed on that, but of course it is to be expected with how far the parks are from each other.

But Disney did a great job of loading the course with characters!!

Check out the rest of my in-race photos here:

As we approached Mile 10, I started to realize that my time and pace was faster than I had anticipated. The whole race I felt as if I was just sprinting to the next character rather than running a Half. We can maybe call it lengthy interval training?

There was a little loop/turnaround to point us towards the Epcot parking lot/entrance just before Mile 11 and there were some announcers there yelling out where people were from so I proudly shouted "Boston" before someone behind me yelled "Mars." Okay not taking it seriously. :P

But as I hit the Mile 11 marker, I realized I could PR. I had to do some calculations in my head, which always help to pass the time, and figured that I might just do it. It would be close, but if I put the pedal to the metal I could do it.

So I just let loose. I skipped the final 2 character spots, which was okay because it was Stitch (I had already gotten one with Lilo) and Phineas and Ferb (who I got the day before).

I gave it all I had in that home stretch. I think you can easily figure that out in the pictures below:

All that was going through my head was keep moving forward! People had started to slow. It had started to get warmer. There were people walking. I just had to keep running.

Then it was there ... the Finish Line!

I had never been so happy to see because I KNEW I did it ... a PR! Which was great, but the real excitement was how much stinkin' FUN I had during that race.

You think I liked it?

Could you tell I was on my way to clicking of my Garmin Forerunner 110? ;)

Unofficial PR via my Garmin. Previous PR had been 1:48:16. I then awaited official results...

Catching my breath was #1 on the priority list after finishing.

#2 - grabbing this sweet medal of course!

Shiny

#3 was heading to the medical tent to try and find out if they had cough drops since I couldn't get the darn cough to stop. Interesting fact - they had none. I just started downing water to see if that would help.

(Lesson it turned into bronchitis by the time I got home)

I was able to spot my parents at the Finish Line before heading to grab my professional Finish Photo and much needed FOOD!!

Yeah this is why I don't normally run in cotton shirts - ew!

I made my way back to my parents to hang with them while we waited to cheer on the wife to finish.

Before settling in with them to wait, I quickly headed over to have my medal engraved as a keepsake and on my way I ran into Robin (again!) :)

Thanks for snapping this pic Robin

We got the text that the wife finished in just over 3 hours (brutal brutal heat) so we headed towards the Finish Area to meet her. While waiting, I had to snap one last pic with the ears.

After meeting up with the wife, we headed over to the busses to head back to the hotel to shower, grab some breakfast and prepare for a day at the Magic Kingdom.

I made sure to include some low-fat chocolate milk as part of #myafter! It is one of the best ways I have found to Refuel after a grueling long run or race!

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Thankfully my parents had the tracking so we had my information pretty quickly for the official time and I had gotten the PR by 7 seconds. HEY, a PR is a PR, right? :) I was pleasantly surprised since I was just hoping to finish sub 2 with all the stopping I had planned (and did) do!

The official official stats still shock me. I mean these numbers are really mine. Wow!

CRRAAZZYYY!!

I wonder what the time would've been without the character stops!

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OVERALL, this was one of the funnest races I have done.

Were there things I would change? Sure. I wish there was more time in the park itself. Maybe weaving through the different lands, etc. But I know logistically that would be tough.

So I think Disney knows what they are doing and pump up the time on the highway with marching bands, characters, DJs and FANS!!

Would I recommend this race to a friend? In a heartbeat because magic happened that morning and I want everyone to experience it!

See ya for the Goofy Challenge in 2015! :)

Disney - Day(s) 1 - Hollywood Studios & WDW Half Expo

Disney! Disney! Disney! This trip had been circled on the calendar for ages and I was PSYCHED!! It came at the perfect time...

On Thursday, January 10 at 8:30am, we headed to the Pooch Hotel in Newton, MA and dropped the two pups off for "camp" (I can't bring myself to say kennel) and it was officially vacation time!

WOO!

Since I am a worrier and HATE being late, we headed to the airport earlier than we needed to ... but you never know how security will be at Logan.

Getting to the airport early has perks like being able to sit down and enjoy a couple Harpoon IPAs before boarding the Delta flight.

2013-01-10 11.54.38

Do you like my drinking companion?

The wife and I charged up the iPhones and iPads so they would hold up through the remainder of our travels and headed over to the gate to unload of our stuff and grab lunch for the 2pm flight. The wife hit up Wendy's, while I was determined to get my Fresh City which was a far cry from where our gate was. But, with determination comes speed and I ran as fast as my TOMs would take me from our seats to Fresh City ... and did so in plenty of time. Thank you! :)

I was rocking the casual fit gear look for the trip ... when I travel it is all about comfort.

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Funny how before losing weight I wouldn't be caught dead in these Reebok pants in public!

Do you like how I carried the Red Cowboy Hat for my Jessie hat throughout this entire endeavor? There was no way I was letting that baby get bent before Race Day.

So when we boarded the plane and realized we had an empty seat in your row? You know who became the newest passenger in Row 12 Seat D?

You guessed it ... my red cowboy hat!

We landed about 5pm and headed straight to the Disney Magical Express Bus desk to catch our ride to the Caribbean Beach Resort.

The bus was amazing. It was a free service from Disney and took us door-to-door from the airport to our hotel. We had to make a couple stops at other hotels, but it was better than paying for a shuttle!

Plus the entertained you on the trip with info about Disney World and some old school Disney cartoons.

We arrived at the Caribbean Beach Resort and had a quick and painless check-in thanks to the great staff and were off to find the hotel shuttle bus. The Caribbean Hotel campus is ginormous!! The shuttle bus was the only way to make it from the Custom House (check-in) to our room (Trinidad South) in a reasonable amount of time. Wow!

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We arrived at our room to find out (definitely to the wife's delight) that we were staying in a Pirate-themed room!

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Oh yes, Pirate ship beds!! :)

Before I did anything, I had to lay out my Jessie race costume/fit gear ASAP - pre-race tradition. Plus, I had to make sure I didn't forget anything before heading to the Expo the following day!

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Okay now we could meet up with my parents (who had arrived earlier in the day) and head to Downtown Disney for some much-needed dinner.

We had a great time walking around Downtown Disney and seeing the nightlife, but called it an early night since we had to be up early the next day to head to the Expo.

Friday - January 11, 2013

Of course I can never leave home without some sort swag from the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon Series :P So I had choices for the day's outfit. :)

2013-01-11 07.53.38

We tried to find the scenic - aka by the water/pools - route to the hotel's Centertown (aka food/shop area) and successfully did so on the first try. We had breakfast and devised a game plan there before heading to the Expo.

I LOVE Race Expos and was really looking forward to my first Disney Expo!

We grabbed the special Walt Disney World Expo busses (thanks Disney for that) and headed to the ESPN Sports Zone.

We arrived and headed left to pick up our bibs before heading to the right for the swag pick up and Expo itself.

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Big thanks to Robin, who let me know I should change corrals at bib pick up since I was apparently in the wrong one ... Oops!

Corral A - WOW - never thought I would be so close to the Start in such a big race. Eek!

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Countdown to Walt Disney World Half

But it was swag time baby.

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What a grand entrance...

We did some laps around the Expo checking out the merchandise and I successfully kept my credit card in my wallet the whole time. Success.

But, I was really there to finally meet my Twitter friend and fellow Fitfluential and Sweatpink ambassador Kat in person. We headed to the Brooks booth and there she was. :)

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It is always amazing to meet online friends in real life, but it was great to click with Kat so quickly. Plus, we got to have a moment with Joey Fatone. Okay okay he was rushed by us by his handlers, but we saw him and were within 5 inches of him. :P Right after Kat had been talking about him. ;)

We bid farewell to Kat and proceeded back to the hotel to catch the Disney Shuttle to Hollywood Studios!

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Aaahhh it's THE hat!

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This was so surreal.

(Note: I had been to Disney previously 3 times in my life and the last was in 2001 so it had been awhile!!)

But, my friends at home hooked us up and helped rank which rides/attractions we had to see and how to best navigate the parks so we were off.

We grabbed a fast pass for the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, Starring Aerosmith before hitting up Star Tours and Muppet Vision 3D (one of my personal FAVES).

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As we exited Muppet, there they were ... Phineas and Ferb!! My wife and I LOVE that cartoon so we immediately got in line to snap a couple pics with them!!

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phinease

This easily made the vacation! :)

We then headed to Voyage of the Little Mermaid, Tower of Terror and rounded it out by cashing in our fast pass for Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, Starring Aerosmith. All amazing rides!

I stopped by to pick up a nice set of sparkly Minnie Mouse ears to match my Sparkly Soul Inc headbands! :)

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Cute right?

Since the Half was the next morning (and started at 5:35am) we had an early dinner - yes 3:40pm reservations - at Mama Melrose's Restaurante, which was delicious!! I <3 Carbo loading! :)

We rounded out the day by taking a walk through the Honey, I Shrunk The Kids Movie Set Adventure and taking in The Great Movie Ride.

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Yup, this soaker actually squirted water and got me ... of course!

We hopped on the Caribbean Beach Resort Shuttle and headed back to call it a night.

Alarms were set:

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And I was fast asleep by 7:15pm ... dreaming of the next morning's Walt Disney World Half Marathon!!

Oh hey Mojo, There You Are!!

One event can throw one's whole mini universe into a tailspin. Yup. That happened to me.

On December 21st, my mom sat me down and told me that my Grampa was diagnosed with cancer - melanoma to be specific.

So please friends wear sunscreen!!

My mom told me he had about 6 months to a year to live. Okay, not long enough but a timeframe I could work with. Especially since I am running The Boston Marathon with Tedy's Team in honor of my grandparents (who are both Stroke Heroes) in April and he would still be around for that.

... and then I got the phone call that I didn't expect.

On December 27 as I drove from one Weight Watchers meeting to another, my mom called to let me know my Grampa had passed away ... just 6 days after getting the original news. Well, that isn't the same as 6 months to a year now is it?

I broke down. Bawling my eyes out in my car.

And  enter the emotional eating.

I know better. I know that isn't how to handle the feelings.

But in the moment the fries and wine  ... and tears ... and quick fixes ... and "why bothers" won out.

I did keep my workouts up throughout the time, but as we all know you cannot out run/out work out a bad diet. Plus the runs had lost some of their lust even though I knew I was running/training for him.

So I finally stepped on the scale. And my jaw dropped. I hadn't seen that number on the scale in well over a year - maybe more.

The home scale said I had put on like 11 pounds in the week of Christmas and the week of Grampa news.

So right there. I knew something had to change.

I knew my Grampa didn't want me to undo all the hard work I had put into my weight loss.

So I just got off the scale and got back to business and basics.

And 3 days later 6 lbs were gone - so I didn't think that 11 lbs were right - most was definitely bloat.

And 5 days later 9 lbs were gone - back in business.

But seeing the number on the scale got me back in the mindset I needed.

My Grampa's wake/funeral was January 2-3 and I did the best I could to control the eating/drinking during that time with the family, but allowed myself to stray if it happened ...which it did. Mmm carbs. :P

But as soon as I got home I was back to my routine. And that routine sent me to Disney feeling healthy, happy and fit.

The Holiday/Sad/Emotional weight was gone and I left for Disney just 0.8 lbs over goal. Success.

Especially since I left for Disney on the One Year Anniversary of me reaching that goal weight with Weight Watchers. :)

And then there was Disney!

Did I enjoy a Mickey ice cream? Yes.

Did I enjoy a post race beer or two? Yes.

Did I run one of the best races of my life? Yes.

Did I have a freakin' blast? Yes.

Did I come home ready to get back to my packed snacks, my fruits and veggies with every meal, and my Ninja blender? Yes.

So I got more than just...

-a PR

-a great weekend with my wife & family

-the chance to meet Twitter friends in real life

-being able to experience 85 degree weather in January

...during that trip!

I got my mojo back!

I got that little spark that I needed to show no matter what I can conquer dreams, I can attain goals, I can indulge, but I can still be healthy and fit.

So now the Hell Yes I Can ... the I Am Worth It ... the "This Is My Life" moments now win out.

I don't NEED to bury my emotions or sadness with food. And if I do, it's okay - tomorrow is a new day.

I. Am. Human.

Most of all: I can make my Grampa proud with my actions, by continuing to reach for new dreams and sharing my story to try and show someone else that anything's possible.

1st Run 5k - 1/1/13 - 23:07 (7:27 min/mile)

The race that almost didn't happen. I found out on December 21st that my grampa had cancer and had about 6 months to a year to live ... then on December 27th I found out he passed away. Well apparently 6 months was really 6 days.

We thought the funeral would be on New Year's Day so I didn't think I would run this race. But then I found out the wake would be held on January 2nd.

So the race was back on.

Since hearing about my grampa's passing, I had been using running as a great - cheap - version of therapy to work out my emotions. I was really looking forward to just cutting loose on the race course and just enjoy the time.

This marked my 3rd straight New Year's Day 5k.

1/1/11 - I had a herniated disc and had to walk the New Year's Day 5k in Chicago so it took the wife and I finished in 48:37 (15:41 min/mile)

1/1/12 - I was healthy, besides a small knee injury and was able to run the New Year's Day 5k in Chicago in 25:27 (8:13 min/mile)

1/1/13 - well....

The wife and I signed up for the 1st Run 5k (which offered a 10k as well) in Lowell, Mass - about a 30-45 minute ride from our house depending on traffic. It's funny that this race was the closest one to our house offered on New Year's. Slightly different from the 15 minute bus ride we took in Chicago. :P

The 1st Run 5k run had me at: the medal was a wine bottle topper. Oh yeah!!! :) :)

We didn't get out the door as early as I had wanted so we made it to the race with about 5 minutes to spare and still had to pick up our bibs and our hats. I love when races move outside the realm of t-shirts and offer different fitness gear as race swag.

While waiting in line to pick up my bib I ran into Amy and Janine!! I love seeing fit friends at races. :)

Of course I had to hit the bathrooms before the race started :P so we tried to use the one women's bathroom inside the VFW but the line was pretty lengthy. So us females took charge and took over the men's bathroom as well. ;) My dad was there to act as a lookout for us thankfully.

It did the trick until we walked outside and realized there was ZERO line for the port-o-potties ... uncharacteristic for a race.

After finally getting all squared away we made it to the Start Corral just in time. :) I even ran into Amy again (who was going to rock the 10k course).

They did a 10 second countdown in honor of New Years and we were off...

In a shocking turn of events, I didn't look at the course map ahead of time so I wasn't sure what to expect.

As we approached Mile One or so, I ran by two people I know - Robin, who was running with her sister, and Sara, who participates in my Boston Marathon training runs on Saturday mornings. Yay more familiar faces. :)

It was the halfway point or so through the race when we took a turn towards the River and BAM enter the wind!! We ran straight into the wind for the second half of the race. I felt as if I was running in place for most of the that trek.

I was mentality out of the race and ready for it to be over so the final couple tenths of the race felt like they would never end. :P

We passed the Mile Three sign and I was pretty happy I had signed up for the 5k instead of the 10k - especially the 10k was just the 5k loop AGAIN. No thank you.

I tried to turn up the legs and push myself past the finish line as quickly as possible.

Thanks for the great action shot race photographers

I knew it wasn't a PR (which I know I don't need to get each time out), but I was pleased with the race overall and was happy I beat that darn wind. :P

So the Yankee Timing Company did this really cool thing where you could swipe your race bib up to this computer on the side of a truck and up popped your results on a TV screen - right after the race. Cool, right?

I will definitely take 23:07 and be happy!! :) How could I not when my first 5k time was 38:21 in March 2005. I am constantly amazed and thankful for how my body and my running has improved over the past couple years especially with the herniated disc/back surgery in January 2011.

Plus how sweet is this medal?

We caught up with Amy's husband, Chris, Janine. Sarah and my fellow Tedy's Team member Nanci after the race before heading out to refuel with some Dunkin Donuts. :)

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So my New Year's Day races are:

1/1/11 - I had a herniated disc and had to walk the New Year's Day 5k in Chicago so it took the wife and I finished in 48:37 (15:41 min/mile)

1/1/12 - I was healthy, besides a small knee injury and was able to run the New Year's Day 5k in Chicago in 25:27 (8:13 min/mile)

1/1/13 - I ran in honor of my Grampa and hopefully made him proud in the 1st Run 5k finishing in 23:07 (7:27 min/mile)

I Tried Crossfit ... Seriously!

This is a sentence I never thought I would utter: I went to a Crossfit session.

Yes, me.

Wow!

I follow so many people on Social Media that are Crossfitters that I had to give it a try.

I worked the Red Sox employee Wellness Fair for Weight Watchers earlier this month and my table was set up next to CrossFit Fenway. I got to chat with Eric, who ended up being the owner of CrossFit Fenway, and he let me know a lot about CrossFit and that you could try a class out for free.

He gave me his card and the seed was planted.

I decided that I had to try Crossfit before 2012 ended so last week I emailed Eric and let him know I was down for the December 26th 6pm "basic training" class, aka beginners.

Basic Training is:

"Our Basic Training class is an opportunity for new CrossFitters to work on building a solid foundation of movement, or for veteran CrossFitters to brush up on their technique.  It currently runs Monday through Thursday at 6 PM on a 2 week cycle."

I arrived at CrossFit Fenway 10 minutes early in order to sign the waiver and see what I got myself in to. ;)

After filling out the waiver, Eric had me wait for the instructor, Mandy to start.

It really worked out in my favor to pick a class the day after Christmas because it ended up just being 2 of us, Vida & I, in the "basic training" 6pm class.

We kicked it off with some great dynamic  stretching. I actually felt more flexible than normal and I think I owe a lot of that to Pure Bare Burlington and the techniques I learned in my month there that I still use now.

After the stretching portion, Mandy had us work on the correct form for squats. We started with air squats then worked on it using a pvc pipe instead of the bar.

But then it was bar time. :)

This was my squat station when we moved up to using the actual bar. :0) We did 5 reps of 5 squats. I decided not to up the weights as the reps went on because I really wanted to make sure I had the technique down.

Plus I had just done hill repeats earlier in the afternoon so I wasn't going to push the quads too much. :P

After squats we moved on to the W.O.D. (Workout Of the Day) and today we did the "Half Cindy," which meant we needed to do as many reps as possible of the workout in 10 minutes. A regular Cindy workout would have been 20 minutes.

Our workout was:

5 Pullups

10 Pushups

15 Air Squats

Here is where the pullups happened.

No no no I didn't do pullups on this with my own strength. Thankfully for weaklings like me they have bands that you can use to assist you with the pullups. As JT said "You can have the sensation like you're flying through the air."

(Note: since it was a slow post-holiday night, we ended up with man-on-man help during our class. Wicked beneficial for this newbie. Mandy helped Vida through the W.O.D. and JT helped me)

Since I also am new-ish to pushups (started regularly in November), I used the box below to assist me.

I owe a big thanks to JT for keeping me going and helping me with my form throughout the workout.

10 minutes passes really quickly when you are trying to fit in as many reps as possible. :P

This means I am weak. :P

Okay it means I completed the workout 5 full times plus 5 pullups and 9 pushups (hence 14). Vida dominated it.

Then before I knew it we were done.

It was over ... and I hit my snack! ;)

I want to thank Eric, Mandy and JT for giving me a great CrossFit experience.

I sucked. I felt weak. But I am proud of myself for walking through the door and giving it a try. As I said at the beginning, I never thought I would walk through the door to begin with.

This just showed me that I need to keep working, keep pushing and anything is possible.

Have you tried CrossFit? What did you like about it? What didn't you like?

Tedy’s Team Group Run – 10 Miles

A word to you all - check your training schedules. :P Okay this is really a note to me.

I knew that on Saturday we would be running 10 miles.

But where those 10 miles would be ... I did not know.

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On Friday, I ended up running 9.3 miles total (a 6.2 mile in the morning and a 3.1 mile run in the afternoon). I only had the 3 mile run on the schedule, but since I slept through the 6 mile run on tap for Thursday I had to do some make-up work.

The average speed on both was 8:22. Crazy that both ended up at the same exact pace. Well, I think the torrential downpour helped that happen. The weather was atrocious and it was wicked tough to enjoy either run, but they were done and that was more important.

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Now I don't normally run that much the day before a long run, but I needed to get some frustrations out and thought running would be the best way, but it ended up working out to the opposite with the rain, technical difficulties and other such things.

I ended up yelling most of the run - yelling at the rain and wind and my random stuff - and couldn't hear any of my music over the wind/hail that was coming sideways.

But Friday night, I got some sad family news and it all seemed trivial. It reminded me that there was more to life and a good or bad run.

So I got up ready on Saturday morning to enjoy my Tedy's Team 10-mile group run.

Thankfully my teammate Meg and her husband Josh picked me up again and we headed to FitCorp on Beacon Street.

It was in the car that I learned we would actually be running 10 miles on the Boston Marathon course itself including...

HEARTBREAK HILL

Ahhh, I was actually - finally - going to run Heartbreak Hill.

Woo hoo!

I was psyched ... yet also frightened from all the stories! But mostly excited. :)

I had decided to bring some Holiday Cheer to the group run so I broke out some Christmas favorites:

Thanks Sparkly Soul for adding some sparkle to my run!

We all headed to the train. Instead of running an out and back 10-mile loop we were taking the train to Newton and running the final 10 miles of the Boston Marathon course. :)

Thankfully Meg has run the Boston Marathon with Tedy's Team before so she was giving me the lowdown on Heartbreak Hill as we started running as soon as we got off the train.

We ran a few hundred yards ... and BAM ... there was the start of Heartbreak Hill. :P

I expected it to just be one large hill, but it is actually a series of smaller hills followed by a large hill (which Meg forgot to mention to me ;)). She had just told me about the rolling hills at the beginning.

But it was a great accomplishment to conquer it for the first time.

Heartbreak Hill is at Mile 16 of the marathon. My legs were feeling tired from the previous day's run so I kinda felt like I did at Mile 16 of the Savannah Marathon. :)

Instead of popping in my headphones 2 miles into the 10 mile run, I decided to just enjoy the sights and sounds around me - see what I will be enjoying on April 15.

Plus I was really just so thankful to be healthy, alive and running that I didn't want any technical difficulties messing up my run.

The first 5 miles of the run were new to me so it was wicked nice to just take in the lovely houses of Newton.

And seeing all the other runners and running groups out working on Heartbreak Hill and training.

I even saw a woman who had more Holiday cheer on than I did. ;)

We had water stops 4.6 miles in and 7.3 miles in to the run.

Meg flew in front of me for the final part of Heartbreak Hill so we ended up catching up at the final water stop and running the final 3 miles together.

It was great chatting and getting to know my teammate better.

Then it was time for the final hill of every week - Beacon Street heading up to the Massachusetts State House.

Ugh.

Neither of us were looking forward to it so it was time to dig deep and power through.

I turned to Meg and said "Today this is our marathon."

Yes, overdramatic, but we both needed it.

And it worked.

We both pushed our way up the hill - which is the longest 0.3 miles ever - and finished the run strong.

That run felt great. It was also the exact same average speed as the previous week's 10-miler.

It's great having FitCorp available after the run to stretch and foam roll! :)

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I also owe a big thanks to my friends at Samuel Adams for giving me one of the 26.2 mugs from earlier this year.

It will come in handy after these long runs. :)

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I can't wait for next week's 12-miler!

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