OK, it's been about 6 weeks since the Race for the Taste, but I've had some time issues...
We went down to Disney on a Thursday for Emma's fall break. Her break just happened to fall on the same weekend as the Race for the Taste, which is how I ended up running in a 10k three weeks after having a baby.
Surprisingly, it wasn't that hard to deal with being at Disney. The first day I used the ginormous double stroller, but after an unpleasant run-in with a bus driver, I switched to the sling. Generally, Ted took Emma on the big rides while I took Harry to the stuff he could do. The baby pretty much slept in his sling and I tried not to accidentally run him into anything! One of my favorite memories is on an English woman in the line to the Playhouse Disney show suddenly exclaiming "have you got a baby in there?" and when I said yes, she couldn't stop chatting about how she "saw a hand popping out." It was so funny.
We stayed at the Fort Wilderness cabins. For the most part, I hated the cabins- I'm more of an "explore the lobby and gift shop" kind of girl. But, and this is a big but, you didn't have to worry about bothering other people with your noise, you had a kitchen, and you parked right by your room. So this will probably be our resort for awhile...
Here we are heading out from the cabins on our first morning. I already look tired and Harry is rolling his eyes...
Did I mention Harry spent the entire trip as "Captain Harry" the pirate?
And this is how poor Miles spent most of his time:
So let me fast forward to the actual race...
First, after playing at the parks for two days, I realize I have to pick up my packet. We've gone back to the cabins, so Miles and I hop in the car and head to the Wide World of Sports. Being the brilliant person I am, I go towards Epcot (thinking it has to be near since the race starts at the WWoS and ends at Epcot). Yeah, so that doesn't work. I have to pull a U-turn at the entrance to Epcot and head towards MGM (excuse me, Hollywood Studios). This seems like a reasonable mistake, but it feels way too familiar- yep, did it for last race too. I'm sure I'll do it for the next race as well.
Miles and I park and head off to find the elusive packet. I go in the entrance to the "Milk House" that I've always used expecting to see signs and t-shirts to buy. No, I see men playing hockey. There's a full sized ice rink where the expo should be. So that's a little disconcerting. I go back outside and look for other runners- sure enough I find them at a back entrance. Then everyone refuses to give me my packet until they've seen inside my sling. People are fascinated that I have a sleeping munchkin strapped to my body! They all praise me for running so soon, so I leave tired but feeling appreciated.
Sunday morning, 5 a.m. So, like I'm already up! I'm exhausted from having already spent time at Disney and the whole sleep deprivation thing. But, sleep deprivation is nothing new... I get dressed while watching the Top 7 things to do at Disney on it's perpetual loop. I've never been so slack about a race- it's impressive that I have my chip on my shoe and my bib is sort of even. I head out the door and drive over to Epcot. I jump on a freezing cold bus and we drive over to the start. A bunch of us start laughing because we can't remember where we parked (luckily, it was the same place as all the other races so I can follow my autopilot to find my car at the end). I'm feeling a little self-conscious in my glowing WISH shirt.
I wander around a bit and end up in the port-a-potty line. There's a pleasant man in front of me talking to some girls. He's far too coordinated for me to handle- his hat matches his entire outfit and has a pocket for his iPod. So, there he is with his iPod sticking up like an antenna on the back of his head, and he messes with it, and suddenly I'm reading the screen to his iPod and seeing "ABBA" and I want to die laughing... then I'm distracted by the crazy guy who always shows up in basically underwear and a cape- what is that all about?! Hey, my glowing WISH shirt doesn't seem so crazy compared to an antenna iPod and naked guy! But me standing there laughing to myself- that might look a little crazy...
I drift over to the start with absolutely no clue how I'm going to do. I find Becky, my running buddy. A couple of weeks before the race, I told her to go her own pace this time since I had no clue if I could even finish. Becky asks me if I'm going to run or walk- I tell her I don't know. She says she has no plans for getting a PR and will go my speed. I'm nervous I'll make her too slow, but really glad she decided to join me.
The race starts- it was totally anticlimatic. I wasn't at my best, but I was able to run all of it. (I don't count walking the water stops as stopping running). Becky and I chatted and ran at a pretty steady pace. By the time we reached the Beach Club, I could tell I hadn't run that far in a very long time, but I was still ok. We cruised through the countries and headed to the finish line. We made it in about 1:11, so that was pretty good. If Becky hadn't been with me, I'm sure I would have been miserable!
We found another WISHer, Leigh, at the finish and took our pictures (as usual, my eyes were closed- would it kill them to take another shot?!) We then went to find our food samples. The gimmick with Race for the Taste is that you get food samples from the Food and Wine Festival. Becky and Leigh seemed to find it difficult to deal with strawberry shortcake, pasta, quiche, and a diet coke- in that order- in the morning. I must say, I have what has to be the greatest stomach of all time. Sure, I may have a jelly belly, but on the inside? Stomach o'steel. I can hold anything down at anytime with no bad consequences. Perhaps this isn't a good thing...
So, Becky and I realized that we'd seen each other for at least seven Disney races and run together for two- how funny is that? It made me sad to part, but we'll be together in January. She's already volunteered to drag either my mom or Betsy so that will be a help! In turn, I agreed to provide candy somewhere along the course of the full since Becky is going goofy again (and yes, I've gone from being completely fine with my wise decision to only do the half this year to being a bit jealous).
I high tailed it back to the cabins (after taking Leigh back to her hotel- silly girl didn't think about bringing her pass with her when she decided she could walk back to her Epcot resort-- yep, I've done that too in the past). Emma was showered, but the little boys were basically naked, and Ted hadn't showered- but he had made pancakes, so that was good.
I scarfed down a heap of pancakes and after everyone was made reasonably presentable, we hit the Animal Kingdom. When it got too miserably hot, we went back to the cabin to rest. Our plan was to hit Epcot that night for the Food and Wine Festival... but, living on the edge, I convinced Ted to sacrifice the Food and Wine Festival. We got in the car and drove to the Magic Kingdom without telling the kids. Emma was totally excited since we hadn't spent much time there. Harry would have been excited, had he been awake. He was quite pleased if a bit confused when he woke up by Space Mountain.
We rode a bunch of rides, and then I ran with the baby in the sling all the way through the MK fighting the Spectromagic crowd. Why? Well, to get the monorail to get to the Transportation Center to get to our car and finally, to get the sacred bottle that had been left behind! Mission accomplished, thank you.
Here's the kids on our last night with their ice cream.
Did I say "their ice cream?" Harry is pleased with himself because he stole mine.
And just in case you wondered what a person would look like after running 6 miles, visiting two parks, carrying a big ol' baby in a sling all day, and on no sleep?
And that pretty much wraps it up.
And just in case anyone thinks I'm exaggerating... allow me to present Naked Guy!
