The Goofy Challenge Aftermath

Allow me to begin by apologizing. I left you all hanging after posting my brother's account of being swept and the somewhat controversial things we found out from that experience. It has generated some great conversation and I loved everyone's input on the matter. Shortly after posting however, I left for Phoenix on business and didn't answer all of your comments which I traditionally do. The issue has been corrected.

After all the feedback, I think I can say two things: 1) A race, and the medal you might or might not get, means different things to different people. It's great that we all have very defined positions on what we would do, but we have to be ready for the inevitable fact that not everybody thinks the same way. We don't have to agree but at least we have to understand that we won't agree on everything. 2) Having said that, the whole "sign up and run knowing you are not gonna finish" debacle really rubs "traditional" runners the wrong way and I include myself in that group. It's kind of hard to swallow but again, it goes back to what it means to us. But, to each their own I guess. See thing #1.

So, concluding that and after some hard work and great sushi in Phoenix...

My wife was telling me about how fast time flies. Here we are, on the other side of the Goofy Challenge with 3 more medals hanging on my lonely nail on the wall (I should do something about that). It seems like yesterday when I decided to do this and the Challenge was literally a year away. Now it's done.

So what do I take from this? Aside from three beautiful medals of course:

The Freaking Cut-Off Point
I hope all my fellow back-of-the-packers that read this are paying attention. You CAN make it to Disney's Hollywood Studios and be swept afterwards. Yes, there are no more "public" roads once you enter the park but you do have to pass through the main entrance to enter the path towards The Yacht and Beach Clubs and right before that path is the DHS parking lot. Cars park there. So do buses. Like the ones that pick people up. Disney is not only looking to open back the roads, they also want the parks to run normally. By the time we make it to DHS and Epcot, the parks are open with restricted traffic where we are running. Disney wants to end that as quickly as possible so any stray people running behind the Balloon Ladies get picked up in the Hollywood Studio's parking lot. Period.

Let's put it this way: If you make it to the Yacht Club, THEN you are truly safe. Hope this helps.

Running is not a contact sport...
Yet somehow, I ended up really beat up from this. The soreness is expected. In fact, I recovered much faster this time around compared to my first marathon. I'm talking about actual bruising. Here's the tally: I have a cut right under my chest plate from the heart rate monitor. That had never happened before with my current HRM but apparently if you wear it long enough... felt really nice when I took it off and took a shower too. It also cut me right under my right arm. Also there was the knee of course, which I could not bend the day after the marathon. I ended up with a nasty bruise in the back of the knee because of the brace I wore (it was the first time wearing it) and I'm pretty sure I broke something in my foot. I'm not sure what but most of my limping after the race was due to my foot hurting, not the knee. Since it's the right foot (same as the knee) I'm pretty sure I did something to it trying to protect the knee during the Challenge. The pain is mostly gone now, though I still feel it a little.

Where I'm At
Running a marathon or a challenge like this one, tends to put runners in one of two frames of mind: Those who want to do it again or at least who would consider doing it again, and those who are content with that one time and they are done. They keep running but are perfectly happy running 5K's or Half Marathons or whatever distance they feel comfortable. There really is no wrong answer. Running a marathon does not a runner make. Much less a challenge like Goofy.

For me, there was not much thinking needed but I was kind of surprised with my conclusion. Amidst all the pain and soreness, I knew I would want to do it again. Another marathon for sure and most probably another challenge.

I was under-trained and I was injured. That made the whole thing a bit unpleasant and emotionally draining but I pulled it off. Many people would understandably think: "I never want to go through that again." Totally logical train of thought. But my brain is not wired like that. My train of thought was: "Imagine how much better I can do the next time." Yes, it's hard. Yes, I was in pain, but I also had a great time. I can have an even greater time under better conditions.

In fact, having done the Goofy Challenge, I can now totally understand the appeal of the Dopey Challenge. It is totally doable and not as insane as I thought it was. Now, I'm not saying that I'm doing the Dopey Challenge, but I'm also not saying that I wouldn't do it either. We will see... I'm suddenly reminded of women in labor. Not that running a marathon compares to that. Not even close. But I've been often told that for all the agony women go through when delivering a baby, it seems they forget about it or subconsciously decide not to think about it. After all, most women decide to go through with it a second time and sometimes even more than that.

Maybe runners are like that. We block out the agony and only choose to remember the good parts.

The 2016 Walt Disney World Marathon

Waking up the morning after the Half Marathon, I was happy to see that I was not any worse for for wear. Only my knee was a little sore but the rest of my legs seemed close to 100%. This is why you do twin long runs for Goofy Challenge training. That part of it was paying off. Right after the Half, I was feeling stiff and the knee was hurting bad but my body remembered what to do and after a night's rest, I was fine.

One more race...

Also close to 100% recovered was my brother. Definitely feeling a lot better than the day before, he now had the joyless job of driving me back to Epcot. At 3 am. The worse, at least for him, was now behind though. Me, on the other hand was very nervous. I know I was because I'm not a superstitious guy and at that moment I was invoking all sorts of stuff for good luck. I had my Jeff Galloway-signed bib, my legendary NY Jets shirt, the socks I wore for my first marathon...  Suddenly all of that was "crucial" to my race strategy. So yeah, you could say I was nervous.

As far as an actual race strategy, mine was pretty simple: Run. Run until you can't run anymore and hope I have run enough to walk the rest of the way before the Balloon Ladies catch up with me. That's it. I did have an Ace up my sleeve though. My PR in the Philadelphia Half Marathon had earned me corral placement squarely in the middle of the pack (Corral J) and I was going to milk that for all it was worth. On the flip side, it was humid and not as cold as I would have liked. In fact while waiting in the corral it was downright warm. Thankfully, as the day went by, it got colder and the breeze that came in throughout the day was well received. I was also behind on my hydration. I could feel it in my mouth but there was no point in filling my stomach with liquid right before the race, so I would have to work on that during it.

You will notice that contrary to the Half recap, this one doesn't have many pictures. That's because once Mickey counted us off, I was dead set on one thing: Finishing. I avoided stopping as much as possible. Too bad, because the Marathon course has changed since I last did it in 2014. Because the WDW Race Track no longer exists, (a part that I really liked with the cars and all) the course has been modified. Most of the changes I think, are for the better. I'll try and point them out.

The first 10K was pretty uneventful. I got into a rhythm pretty quickly and was feeling pretty good. I was kind of surprised about how well I had recovered but I was definitely thirsty so I started to drink more than usual at every station hoping to slowly make up for it but the humidity was making it harder. I was soaking wet. Normal for Puerto Rico but not for this race. Then we reached the Magic Kingdom and of course this is the moment when everything is fine in the World.

First race selfie... Fail. LOL

Not as foggy as the day before.

 This is actually one of the major changes to the course. Now you pass in front of the 7 Dwarf's Mine Train and get to see all of New Fantasyland, including The Little Mermaid ride and Gaston's Tavern. Then, you head back to (Old?) Fantasyland and through Cinderella's Castle. Overall, you spend quite a bit more time in the park. A great thing in my opinion. Also, it was still dark enough to actually see the Castle all lit up. Sure, the clouds helped a little. It was overcast the entire day. I can see why runners like to pass through it while it's dark. By the way, this time around there was no choice but to go through the tunnel. There was no optional route. Instead they had Cast Members telling people not to stop for a picture to keep the area moving. You could still have your pic taken at the base of the Castle though.

Right before leaving the Magic Kingdom...

The thing about going through the parks, is that the terrain becomes more dynamic. Whereas the roads are flat most of the time, the parks go up and down, which give them a great feel when you are walking during a normal visit, but not so great when you are trying to conserve energy during a marathon. I'm not talking about major hills here but the overall effect zaps your energy level a bit. Leaving the park, I found myself trying to catch my breath as we headed down to Animal Kingdom.

This particular stretch is one of the longest without any "park action". Disney tries to spice things up with characters and stuff and spectators line up when you pass the Polynesian and Grand Floridian but it's mostly uneventful. It was here I started to feel fatigue setting in. I told myself to calm down and take it in sections. "Make it to mile 10." I told myself. "Then make it to 15, asses yourself and eventually make 20." 

They now added a little out and back section going down where Bear Island Road meets Western Way. I hate that. Makes me want to cut through the cones and get on with it, especially when your Garmin is running long (which mine was, by a quarter mile at that point). This is also the moment you pass by the now infamous water treatment facility which, oddly enough, was not smelling as ripe as I remember the last time.

What was smelling full and ripe was the elephant house in the outskirts of Animal Kingdom. Wow, that was stinking up this year. This was good news however, as this meant we had made it into the park and were close to the half way point of this race.

Well, that didn't come out right.

Animal Kingdom is probably the worst park in terms of ups and downs. Worse than MK in fact. Also, I think we ran through more of it this year than 2014 but I'm not sure. In 2014 I felt like we were barely in there. This year I had a good look at it, including the Tree of Life of which there was a great spot to take pics (just not enough light). Many were waiting to ride Expedition Everest. I just ran through. Maybe one day... But not today.

This is the halfway point, and as I ran through the Animal Kingdom parking lot, and read I had done it 11 minutes faster than the day before filled me with pride. Yes, there was plenty of road ahead, but I had just run 2 Half Marathons back to back on consecutive days and, this part is important, I was still going. I also caught a glimpse of Pandora. Hope they finish that soon.

See the cranes?

You can see the "floating" rock starting to come up...

After the Animal Kingdom, you run on Osceola Parkway. Do you know what happens if you keep going on Osceola Parkway? You reach ESPN's Wide World of Sports. I hate ESPN's Wide World of Sports.

A.K.A. Hell

I'm going to start a petition to change the name of WWoS to Hell. Just name it Hell because that's what it is and if you want to finish your marathon you have to go through Hell. I really don't have any pleasant memories of this place back in 2014 and even less so now. It was shortly after entering here, that the wheels started to come off for me. After entering Hell, I met Mary again at a hydration stop. I was so happy to see her. That was followed by sponges. I took one and pressed it on the top of my head and it felt ridiculously good to have the water drip down my face. That was the end of the good news.

Then came that endless maze of fields... baseball, softball, lacrosse, football... it never ends. Then the track. The surface there felt like stone for some reason. Then I was forced to take a restroom break so I took advantage of a real restroom in the middle of the endless field of fields and that's when it happened. As I started running again my legs turned to jello. They just did not want to go on. I finally managed to get the intervals going but just barely. That's when I switched from 2:1 intervals to 1:2. I went around the stadium and the announcer called my name and that sort of got me going a bit but the writing was on the wall. As I exited Hell and crossed mile 20, I started to only walk. I texted my friends Gilbert and Frankie "The Jet" Ramos and told them with this pic.

Now the real race began.

Coming out of WWoS, I noticed that no one was coming in anymore. The station were I met Mary was now empty. Somewhere in the maze of Hell, were the Balloon Ladies, lurking ever-closer at their steady 16 minute per mile pace. I've heard that the final 10K of a marathon is where the real race begins and this couldn't be more true this day. I tried to focus on keeping the fastest walk I could muster but still, I was being passed by everyone on the course and that made me a bit more anxious. I was back on Osceola Parkway and as I was about to take the exit for Hollywood Studios, a State Trooper in a motorcycle passed by and said through his mic: "The Balloon Ladies are 2 miles away from this point. I'm pretty sure you guys are safe." I wasn't so sure.

I was somewhere near mile 21, which meant the Ladies were at mile 19. With me walking, they were definitely gonna catch me before the finish. But I didn't need to reach the finish to be safe. I just needed to reach the cut-off point where everyone who passes before the Balloon Ladies will not be swept. If only I knew where that was... This was going to take everything I had. My friends texted me back sending words of encouragement. "The Jet" sent me this, from Rocky IV:

Amen

This picture reminded me of another saying that travels the internet quite often. It's from Muhammad Ali.

I continued my march and entered Hollywood Studios. A lot of people were celebrating but I had a feeling this was not it. We were given chocolate, which to me was the best-tasting in the World, then I had to take another bathroom break right at the park entrance. This could not come at a worse time. Then, as I left the park and headed to the trail that leads to Epcot, a Cast Member told me: "This is it! No more buses from this point on." I desperately asked the people around me if this was the cut-off point and only a lady ventured to tell me "I guess". I just couldn't believe it. Was I really gonna be able to pull this off? This part of the course is very pretty and full of guests. You see the Boardwalk and the Yacht and Beach Clubs. My phone died. Off in the distance I saw the entrance to Epcot...

As I turned right for the World Showcase in England I started to cry. For the first time I felt safe and with that came an overflow of emotion. I thought about my daughters and how I wished they were there. The music they were playing on the park speakers was awesome! You know, that triumph of the spirit kind of music that Disney is so great at. I started to cheer back when people cheered for me. Then, as I was coming up on Morocco, a lady dressed in pink with a balloon tied to her waist passed me on the left.

The Balloon Ladies had caught me. I said "Oh Crap!" out loud which they heard and she looked at me concerned and said: "It's OK. You are safe! We just need to come in time officially. You are all safe." And that calmed me down as she started to pull ahead of me. "Great, I can now finish in peace." I thought to myself. Or can I?

Bear in mind that all this happened in my head and it took seconds. All this struggle to finish. All this uncertainty. All that work. Yes, it was to finish this challenge but it was etched my head that to do that you had to beat the Balloon Ladies and here I was behind them. Safe of course, but it didn't feel right. It took all of two seconds to make the decision.

I started running again. Hard.

Now, by this point I thought I had left everything on the course but: a) Apparently pride can also be used as fuel because I'm pretty sure that's about the only thing I had left. b) It seems I had walked long enough for my legs to "recover" enough for me to pull one big, final push to the end. Whatever it was, in the words of Forrest Gump, "I was running.!" The pavilions were nothing but a blur and I was passing absolutely everyone I came across. There was a lot of "excuse me" and "on your left" going on. I could hear the Balloon Ladies yelling behind me, telling people they were safe. It's quite ironic how such nice people can invoke so much fear in others.

So, I made it to Future World and Spaceship Earth was right in front of me, then I turned right on the service entrance and there was the Mile 26 sign, with the glorious choir singing in front of it. I had planned to take a picture here, but then again I wasn't planning to be sprinting at mile 26. Anyway, my phone was dead so it didn't matter. A little further ahead, was the finish line. For the Half, they were playing the Imperial March from Star Wars when I crossed. It was awesome! For this one, I couldn't even tell you if there was any music at all. It was all over. I had completed the Goofy Challenge. 39.3 miles in two days. A volunteer was putting the marathon medal around my neck when I heard the announcer saying the Balloon Ladies were crossing the finish line... on time. My official time? 7 hours, 37 minutes, 14 seconds. A very long way off my first (6:45:25) but I had made it.

Further ahead, I was given the required runDisney box of goodies, water, sports drink... then you go to a tent were they check your bib and a picture they took of you during the Expo so they can give you the Goofy medal. I fought the tears for a while but then I remembered that I had to contact my brother to pick me up and had no phone. I was pondering what to do as I walked from the runner's area over to were the rest of the people were when I saw him standing right in front of me. I tried to tell him something. Anything. But I felt like if I did, I would start crying. All I could do was point at the medals on my chest and look at him. "You did it man!" he told me. 

I had to wait until we got back to the hotel because of the phone dying. But I finally took some pictures. I think this says it all. It's already my Facebook profile picture. I was so tired. I can'r believe I made it up the stairs to our room.

But the bling was sure shining bright wasn't it? I think this post has run long enough so I will talk about my feelings on this race and challenge in another post. Suffice to say, I learned a lot with this experience. I always do.

The 2016 Walt Disney World Half Marathon

After arriving in Florida and being picked up by my brother, we drove to ESPN's Wide World of Sports to get our race packs. All the while I kept reading Team Run Disney's  Facebook feed about the 10K that morning, and how wet it was. Not that I needed confirmation. I had to hide the waivers under my shirt just to avoid getting them drenched on the way from the car to the Expo. I was a little worried but not too much about rain the next day. Florida weather can be so unpredictable. I was half expecting Saturday to be 90 degrees and sunny.

Flat Frank #1

Well, Saturday was not 90 degrees and it wasn't even close to being sunny. As we walked out of our hotel at 3:30 am to head for the race, we were met with the most fog I have ever seen in Florida. And it would stay that way the entire day. Not even a little bit of Sun. The temperature was iffy. It sure was not warm but I wouldn't call it cold either. This, was not good for me and what I was trying to do.

Even as I sat in the corral, my mind kept wondering towards the fact that I had not trained enough for the Goofy Challenge. I knew I could finish the Half no problem but in what condition? Was I gonna be able to go the full distance the very next day? We were sure gonna find out.

So few people showed up for this one...

As if I was not worried enough, my brother was having his own set of issues. When we woke up, the first thing he told me was "I just threw up." I thought it was just nerves but then he went to the bathroom for #2 again before we left, then again at the gas station we were getting coffee in, then twice in the port-a-potties at the race. Clearly there was something wrong. We didn't know what. First culprit of course is something he ate but we had the exact same thing for both lunch and dinner the day before and I was fine. This mystery might never be solved but the fact remained: he was not well.

It's go time!

 And just like that, our corral was called and it was time to head off. Donald Duck gave the countdown and off we went. Not three minutes went by when my brother told me he had to go again. Mercifully, there were port-a potties not too far away and we stopped. They were crowded but he managed to get in. We started up again. He was having trouble keeping up and told me that as soon we started a run interval he would get the urge to go. This was not good. First mile: 17:06. There was no way we were gonna survive at that pace. Not that early in the race. With every running interval, he kept falling further back. Then he gave me the signal to go ahead and leave him. I was torn. Our plan was to run this together as slowly as we could so he could finish his first Half and I could survive to run another day but this pace was dangerous and he knew what was at stake for me so he told me to go on.

I kept tabs on him through my phone as I had signed up for runner tracking for both of us. His official pace remained in the 19's and then after the 10K update I heard no more. He got picked up at mile 8.

Meanwhile, I was having my own set of issues. A bit of panic had set in regarding my pace and I got a little overeager to try and make up the time. I went as high as the 14s and I felt I was all over the place. Crowding was an issue and I zig-zagged a lot from one side of the course to the other. This would have been fine if it was just the Half but I had a whole other race to run the so this was not the most efficient use of my energy. And then there was the fog... It was so foggy! Everything seemed to be hiding in a haze of gray, giving the whole place an eerie feel. Seemed like a great day to take some moody pictures. 

Can you see Space Mountain?!

...or the Castle?

Then we got to the Magic Kingdom...

A runner kindly took this for me.

Might as well been called the Slow-way while I was passing through.

And everything was fine! This will never get old folks. You turn right on Main Street USA and suddenly you forget everything and a huge grin shows up across your face. It truly is magical, even with all the fog. You go through Tomorrowland and Fantasyland and then you reach Cinderella's Castle which was lit up but you could hardly tell in the fog. Anna and Elsa were waiting for us there. Here, Disney was giving runners the choice to go through the tunnel and take pictures or run through the side of the castle for those who could or would not wait for the queue formed up in the tunnel. I decided to wait it out and took my pic in front of the Castle. A luxury I have never dared to take. I also took a bathroom break in Fontierland. Thinking back now, it sure was gutsy of me to take my time like that during my run through the Magic Kingdom but I guess I just felt I had made up enough time back or something.

My daughters are so jealous!

As I exited the park, on a downhill ramp right after seeing the the train, I tweaked my knee. I seem to have trouble while going downhill the most with the knee and it took me a while before I felt it was OK again. It was at this point you reach the 10K mark and a hydration station right before leaving the service entrance to the Magic Kingdom. There I had a gel and met Mary, a fellow Team run Disney member who was volunteering during the Half. It would not be the last time I would see her thankfully.

Thanks Mary!

Then came the time to head back down towards Epcot. This part was uneventful and while there was plenty of stuff (dj's, characters etc.) I was back to focusing on the matter at hand. After spending a while on this section, I realized I had stopped getting updates from Ernest so I texted him and found out he got picked up. His day was over. I was feeling pretty good and the knee was behaving even with the little mishap at mile 5. So, right before mile 11 I did the math and saw that I could take it easy. I walked almost the entire rest of the way.

Best sign on the course

That's not to say it wasn't a hard decision. Both the runner and the competitive person in me went into a bit of a fit at this point. If I were to keep going hard, I would have posted a somewhat decent time, and by that I mean less than 3 and a half hours. Way less than that maybe. By walking, I was "dooming" myself to finishing with my worst time ever in a Half Marathon and officially over the time limit. So, while this would seem like a no brainer to most people, I was having some issues. Thankfully, cooler, more logical heads prevailed and I kept walking from there to Epcot.

Fog... fog everywhere!

So hard to photograph such a huge thing...

Once in Epcot however, the fast-approaching finish line got me going and I ran the "victory lap" around the square in Future World and through the finish line. Official time: 3:40:58. My worst ever.

We live to run another day... hopefully.

I wasn't really upset with the time, even though it is the worst by a lot. Taking it easy and saving myself for the next day was my main objective. My problem with the race was how inconsistent I ran. Sometimes I was slow, sometimes too fast. If I would have kept a more consistent pace, it surely would have been more efficient and maybe I wouldn't have had to walk in the end. Of course, all this frustration was mainly due to the fact that I still had a marathon to run. The very next day I might add.

So, I got my medal and walked to the parking lot where my brother was waiting for me. I apologized for leaving him behind but he was actually pretty unscathed by the whole thing. I think he was just happy that his stomach was feeling better. So we had lunch a Panera Bread which, I had never tried before and then to the hotel to get ready for the next day. This folks, was not over. Not even close.

The Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend Saga

Wow... that's all I can really say about this past weekend. Wow...

Don't worry though, I will be posting full race recaps and give as much detail as I can on how I did as usual. After some thought however, in order to streamline this as much as possible, I felt I should do this post first, explaining some stuff ahead of time and reminding you guys of some other things before diving head first into the details. This way (hopefully) the recaps won't run too long.

The Galloway Method
I think regular readers of this blog are very familiar with this and I have praised the Galloway Method countless times as it has allowed me not only to run long distances but to run them faster. However, other than saying that I do 2:1 intervals (2 minutes running, 1 minute walking) I have never really given any more details on how I do it. It just was not important I guess. Well, it was important for Marathon Weekend. As it turns out, in the run/walk equation, I seem to be seriously lacking in the walking part. 

I'm a slow walker. Some people are very good at walking quickly. Some can even maintain the 16 min/mile minimum pace without running at all and believe me, I saw a lot of people doing it this weekend. Well, I can't do that for whatever reason. If I really focus and hustle, I can get to 18:30 min/mile but I cannot sustain it for too long. For me, anything above 20 min/mile is "fast". 

The Balloon Ladies
Again, something I have talked about several times in this space. In fact, it was a big part of my narrative during the recap for my first marathon (which you can find here). These ladies maintain the 16 min/mile pace after everyone has crossed the start line. If you fall behind them, you will eventually get picked up at one of the many cut off points along the race courses. You end up in a bus and your race is over.

There is plenty of debate on the internet regarding where exactly, the last cut-off point is. In other words, what part of the course do you have to reach in order to avoid being swept even if the "ladies" pass you by. During Marathon Weekend 2014, I was told that if I reached Disney's Hollywood Studios I would be safe and that is what I used as reference. The logic behind it being that once you reach DHS, there are no more public roads that have to opened thus, you are officially safe. Turns out, that is not accurate. In fact, I have to this day not heard any official word from Run Disney regarding this so don't take my word for it but I seemed to have discovered it this past weekend.

Of Finishing and Medals
Which brings me to my brother. If you read my 2014 marathon recap you know who I'm talking about. He signed up for the Half Marathon this year and sadly got swept at mile 8. While I have a nagging feeling he did not train as he should have, we didn't get to find out. He got sick and could not stay out of a port-a-potty long enough to stay ahead of the Balloon Ladies. There is no way I can pass up an opportunity like that. An actual "victim" of the sweep police? You can bet I will post a full interview on what exactly happens. He also shared with me some very interesting perspectives regarding the medal "issue" and what he heard while in the bus back to the parking lot. Some of you might recall I wrote a post about that a while back. Well, I have some new info to share and some of it might surprise you and even shock you.

The Knee
Like you have not heard about this enough already. Even though I will do my best to not mention it during the recaps, it is important to understand that the knee issue figures heavily in this whole story. It's the reason why I could not train properly and therefore why I had such a hard time during Marathon Weekend. 

Tomorrow, we begin our story in earnest. Stay tuned.

Kamikaze WDW - Disney's Hollywood Studios

Here's parts I and II of this trip just in case you want to catch up.

Here's another interesting tidbit from our trip (read the previous post for the first): I've been to Orlando to visit the parks countless times. Of all those times I have been here as "the head of the family" with my daughters three times. Three times and we have visited the same two parks every time. Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. There's a demographics lesson for you. Know your audience folks. Princesses and Disney Junior is where it's at. Hopefully, I'll be able to remedy the fact that my daughters have yet to visit Epcot and Animal Kingdom at some point in the future but for now, we came here for the Frozen Summer of Fun so here we are!

The day started... late. Everyone was pretty tired the night before and I told Mayline to allow the girls to sleep as much as possible so they could rest. These girls... at 5:30am they are usually up and about whether tired or not so I figured that with their level of exhaustion they would sleep all the way to maybe 7:30am but they went past that. Probably for the first time in their lives. After a record-breaking dressing and combing session we swallowed some breakfast and headed for DHS.

We literally walked through the gate to catch the start of the Frozen Royal Welcome parade. The main objective of this day was simple: Catch all the Frozen-related activities happening in the park. So, while late, we were off to a good start. Disney, being well... Disney, made sure to create the proper ambiance for the parade by making it snow along the parade route. You don't see that everyday. Especially during a hot, Florida, summer day.

So that got the girls amped up and after hearing Let It Go for the first time of many this day we headed over to the Animation Courtyard for some character time with some of the girl's big favorites.

This part of the day was Angelica's show by the way. "The Kraken" ran all over the Animation Courtyard leading the way to the characters she wanted pics with, which were all of them. At one point, we saw the line for Doc McStuffins to be shorter than the one for Sophia the First  so we switched. She went ballistic. I would've never guessed that this would be her reaction to the characters. Worst case scenario: she would be afraid. Best case? She would "tolerate" getting her pic taken with them. She ended up the bravest of the three. That's kids for you.

Next off was Olaf's Summer Cooldown over at the Main Stage. Here I made my best Queen Elsa impression.

And here is a tiny Cast Member for your viewing pleasure.

So Elsa can conjure snow flakes. So what? I can conjure cast members... apparently. Olaf's Summer Cooldown is essentially a dance-along and it was pretty fun. We did the Twist, threw around some beach balls and of course endured a rendition of Olaf's Ode to Summer. The streaming jets of cold mist at the end were extremely welcome. It was a pretty hot and humid day. 

I was a bit disappointed by Disney Jr. Live on Stage. Whether because of changes or technical issues, some of the effects on the show were missing and I think it took away from the experience. That didn't stop the girls from enjoying it of course but my gut feeling is that next time we come here, we'll be skipping this one unless they update it with something like Miles from Tomorrowland which is big at my house. Kids grow up. It happens.

Lunch was at Pizza Planet. I was warned that this place looks nothing like it does in the Toy Story films but the girls insisted and I obliged. I tried the Meat Lover's pizza. Nothing to write home about but you know, it's pizza. Can it ever be bad?

From there we did our first round of Star Tours. I say first round because the girls LOVED it so much that we went again later in the day. After all the girly stuff, after all the Princess stuff, after all the Frozen stuff... they are my daughters after all. I was so proud. Of course, that lasted all of 15 seconds. We went straight from Star Tours to the Frozen Sing-along.

This is the "main attraction" if you will, to the whole Frozen Summer of Fun. It is done in the stage where American Idol used to be. Here's the short version: Princess Anna summons Arandelle's official historians to tell the extremely truncated version of the events in the film. Think of the film, take out everything except the songs and you're there. Of course everyone is encouraged to sing along. Do I have to tell you that my girls enjoyed this attraction? Anna and Elsa can pop up a million times and it will never get old for them. Plus, they got to sing their tiny lungs out. My favorite part? When one of the historians mistook Kristoff for Justin Beiber. 

Then came the highlight of the day for me. My friend and coach extraordinaire Katrina Pilkington and her husband Gary drove from Tampa (she'll soon be moving to Las Vegas) to meet us at the park. It was absolutely amazing to finally meet someone who has inspired and motivated me so much in person. As much as I loved meeting you Kat, hopefully you'll get to see less of me next time we meet. Wink wink. By the way, Mayline thought you were taller. That's what happens when you have a bigger than life personality.

Mini-Coach Summit

Fast Passes for Toy Story Mania were waiting for us and we knew from previous experience this was a favorite for the girls. The best part here was when they all decided they had beaten my score by combining everyone else's so I guess I was the loser.

Which brings me to another attraction I was sad to see not working properly. Voyage of The Little Mermaid was missing all of the water effects. Again, maybe it was just broken but this and Disney Jr. Live on Stage were reminders that DHS is a park in a state of transition. There are big things coming here and the Frozen stuff is basically masking all that has been closed. Hollywood Studios has always been one of my favorite parks and I can't wait to see it 100% functional again.

We also ran into Minnie Mouse all dressed up for beach summer fun and dancing the afternoon away! Veronica and Maria did not want to dance with her for some reason but guess who was total game for this? Oh yeah. Time to "release The Kraken!"

This brings us to the low point of the day which I know sounds bad. It wasn't too bad I guess but sometimes, especially with kids, the only way to know you're gonna get burned is to put your finger in the fire.

Oh, the two oldest were gonna scream for real in a bit

The two older girls wanted to ride The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. I was hesitant but they insisted. I explained what the ride was and how it worked. As we walked up to it I pointed at the fact that people were screaming inside the building. They bravely kept walking. A part of me thought: "well, they loved the Mine Train and they went crazy for Star Tours so maybe this was not gonna be so bad." Well, that part of me was wrong. As soon as the ride was over, Maria was trembling in terror (how fitting) and Veronica was outright crying. It took a lot of soothing to calm them down. Yeah, they're not gonna be riding this one anytime soon. To this day, The Tower of Terror is a touchy subject around our house, so don't bring it up. Me? Some of you may know that Tower of Terror is programmed to act differently every time and this particular turn was my favorite ever. It was the first time I felt truly weightless while riding it. Which is probably what scared the girls more than anything.

We are in the last row. The very last girl on the left, screaming and crying and laughing nervously is Veronica, then my Mom looking amused at her reaction followed by Maria, holding on for dear life. Quite the scene.

Fearing some permanent damage, we quickly went back to Star Tours for some badly needed happy memories. Did I mention how happy it makes me that they love this ride so much? 

After that we had dinner at ABC Commissary where everyone had Cheeseburgers except me, who was feeling adventurous and tried the steak. It needed a bit of salt but otherwise it was pretty good. ABC Commissary actually has a pretty decent and varied menu. I have tried different dishes here over the years and have always been happy. Definitely recommend this one if you are looking for Quick Service option in DHS. Quick side note: For the sake of order and peace, I sat everyone down and went to order by myself. The order was too big for me to handle and just when I resigned myself to doing two trips, the Cast 
Member who gave me the food happily offered to help me carry the trays to our table even though it was not his job. This is a Quick Service restaurant after all but that's Cast Members for you.

It was during dinner that it started to rain. Really hard. Thunder, lightning... it was pretty bad. it was at this time that I started fearing that we were gonna miss Fantasmic! and the Frozen Fireworks Show. Or rather, that it was not gonna happen at all. And basically, that's how our day ended. After a couple of hours of waiting it became evident that the rain and lightning was not gonna let up and my brother reluctantly went out in the rain and bought some ponchos, which did almost nothing because it was raining so hard and we ran to the buses and eventually our room. 

And so it was over. We almost got to do everything we set out to do. We missed Fantasmic! and the Frozen Fireworks although it was not our fault and we didn't get to see Frozen Fever which was no biggie as we had seen it when we saw Cinderella at the Theater. Everything else we had set out to do in this Kamikaze trip to Disney World, we accomplished. Oh yeah, I would have loved to catch Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular one more time since it's scheduled to close but that was a personal thing so it was never part of the official schedule. No joke, it took me about a week and a half to get rid of the felling of exhaustion after we returned home. It was just so crazy but looking back I wouldn't have done it differently. We made some wonderful memories on this trip and the girls... The girls are still talking about it weeks later. Sometimes, I'll be driving them to school and they'll ask me if we can talk about the trip. Tower of Terror and all. 

Yup, I'd say it was worth it for sure.

Kamikaze WDW - The Magic Kingdom

There's a logic to the madness. You can read part I and part II of this story to know what's going on.

We made it out of Puerto Rico by beating a tropical storm, got to Orlando and managed to settle into our hotel room. Now, it was time to get down to business. After a not-so-good-night's sleep (the girls were still on an adrenaline rush from it all) we woke up on Friday and had a good, strong breakfast to get ready for the day ahead. When we exited the hotel to wait for a bus to the Magic Kingdom we were pleasantly surprised to find one already waiting for us. So, on to the Happiest Place on Earth!

Here is an interesting fact about our day at The Magic Kingdom: We spent the entire day, from morning until the fireworks show that night, in Fantasyland. Yes, the entire day. Not only that, we didn't get to do everything there was to do there, including PhilharMagic and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh among others. I have to admit, I wasn't too sad to miss It's a Small World.

So, what did we do? Well, after the requisite pictures at the entrance and the oohs and aahs of walking towards the castle, (which never gets old by the way. Plus it was my youngest daughter's first time in Disney) we headed straight for Fairytale Garden to meet Angelica's favorite princess: Merida!

Let me tell you guys, this moment made all the planning, hassle and worrying worth it. When Angelica saw Merida, the look on her face... Merida started talking to her but Angelica was completely stricken in awe. Then she started to touch her hair. It's as if she was saying "You are real! Look at your hair!" Of course, I was too busy enjoying the moment to do stuff like, you know, take pictures. Thankfully, Disney came to the rescue here. I paid to include Memory Maker in my vacation package so they took care of that for me. My wife also lapsed out of her own personal coma to take some pics of the girls afterwards trying out the bow and arrow. They loved it! 20 minutes into the trip and it had already payed for itself. Everything from here on was pure profit.

And folks, we did some stuff. From Merida we went to the Mad Tea Party, Dumbo, the Carousel and the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. I was a bit concerned that the girls were gonna find it too scary but they absolutely loved it. Angelica stayed with Grandma for that one though. Not tall enough.

On Dumbo my wife took this picture which I thought was priceless. Can you see why? My wife was calling Angelica and this was the result.

From there we made a short stop by Rapunzel's tower for something I had promised the girls we'd do...

Everyone around thought it was pretty cute. We even got some applause! Veronica actually wanted to wait to see if she would come out. I promised we would meet her later.

By then, it was time to head over to The Crystal Palace for our reservations with Winnie the Pooh.

Here, things got a little weird. Veronica, who is usually fearless, did not want her picture taken with any of the characters here. I don't know why. Not a Winnie the Pooh fan it seems.

The Festival of Fantasy Parade was next. I tell you, these girls simply can't get enough of the princesses. They cheered for every single one they saw in the parade. Thankfully we were saving the best part for later.

After the parade, we could tell the girls were exhausted. It wasn't part of the plan but we felt it best to head over to the hotel, have them sleep a couple of hours, then regroup and return to finish what was left on our schedule. Frankly, I don't think we were gonna be able to go through such a long day without a break. 

So they slept, then they overslept. It was raining so there was no point in waking them up so I waited until it passed to do so. I was forced to rearrange some fast passes and we ended up missing the one we had for Cinderella and Rapunzel but since the girls were able to rest, we managed to get all we wanted to do even with the extra lines. Besides, this was the most important part of the visit: Meeting the Princesses.

After we got back in the park, we first met Anna and Elsa. My own little Anna (Veronica) and Elsa (Maria Rosa) were speechless. I enjoyed seeing their faces as the sisters from Frozen took the time to talk to them. Not that my girls said much. They just pretty much nodded at everything they were told. The look on their faces say it best I think.

Cinderella and Rapunzel were pretty much the same experience in that my girls were just in awe. These are the "regular" princesses after all. By that I mean that when they are not playing Frozen, Maria says she is Rapunzel and Veronica says she is Cinderella. We were really lucky and happy that these two were together in the same experience. Veronica managed to tell Cinderella about how much she loves her shoes. Even at the Princess level, girls talk about shoes it seems.

 I should point out, that Angelica became a total character groupie! We literally had to restrain her from running over to the characters and giving them hugs while it was some other person's turn. She might have ruined a couple of pictures... I would grab her hand and explain we had to wait in line and she would cry and give me this face like "But Rapunzel is right there! Why do we have to wait?! I mean she is right within my reach Dad! I don't get it." Such is life. When our turn would come up, my brother would joke that it was time "to release the Kraken".  She was sneaky too. She would wait until just the right moment to escape my grasp.

From there we went to Enchanted Tales with Belle, where my oldest got to play the part of Maurice, Belle's father. I wouldn't mind more character experiences like this one. It was interactive, the kids loved it and you get to take pictures. It was one of my favorite moments on this trip.

 

Then, we rode on Journey of the Little Mermaid which is a classic "Dark Ride" It's so full of color and so many things going on. Everyone loved this one. I forgot to take any pics here though...

Finally, we missed Celebrate the Magic. The show where they project all sorts of stuff on the Castle from different Disney films. It started just as we were exiting the Little Mermaid ride and were taking a restroom break. We were just caught out of position I guess. The projection can only be seen from the front and Journey of the Little Mermaid is behind it. So while that was happening we made our way to a better spot so we could watch Wishes.

If Wishes causes the jaws in adults to unhinge, what do you think the effect is on a child?  Plus Tinkerbell "flew" right over us! This is one of those "moments" that parents live for. Veronica kept looking back at me like "Is this really happening?" I did not want it to end. Sadly, it did.

Of course, after that "moment" was over my body quickly reminded that we were on the tail end of a very, very long day and while the girls had been able to sleep during the afternoon, I hadn't. My feet were destroyed. In fact, I they hadn't hurt this much since running the marathon. The walk back to the room was painful. I was actually concerned I would have trouble getting up the next morning. I was exhausted. But the memories... no amount of pain will take those away.