Fire and Ice

In an effort to try and get back to some sort of normality I’ve thrown myself into a great scrapbooking effort. Well, in reality I am a little behind (I am still working on Christmas photos – GASP!) and my OCD prevents me from scrapping my marathon photos until I complete older projects. So I’ve spent a few evenings both at home and at crops trying to catch up and so far this year I haven’t done any layouts that I particularly like. I don’t mind them but they aren’t what I would consider my finest work. But at least the photos are selected, the pages completed and the memory recorded – which is what matters, right? I am a bit advocate of getting the stories on paper and never mind about the artistic side of it… but still, at some level the pages should at least look nice! I think my latest pages are okay but I know I can do so much better. Is it because I’m sort of rushing, trying to finish these projects so that I can move on the meaty one? Is it because I haven’t bought any new stash...

I did my first run yesterday. Yes, I know it's been two weeks since my last run but my excuse is that it was a marathon so I took some time off! Anyway, while I was glad to get out there again, it just wasn't the same: it was a bit boring to be doing loops of my local lake, all by myself. Am I doomed to find running boring every time I do it without Disney character stops and running through theme parks? Has the Disney marathon spoiled me? I have looked into doing some local races to keep the motivation up but somehow a half marathon in Milton Keynes at the end of winter doesn't sound quite so appealing now... if nothing else I will miss those Sharpie signs. To add insult to injury today I woke up a bit stiff - just like I did when I first started running all those months ago. What's going on?

Here are some photos I took during the marathon: It was a dark and foggy start to the race... I couldn't NOT stop for Snow White, now could I?! I saw her in Epcot just outside Norway. There were LOTS of people behind me! But also lots in front! In the hazy distance you can see the monorail track, the Contemporary hotel and I could also just about see the spires of Cinderella's castle in the distance. Backstage in the Magic Kingdom before coming in through Main Street. Me in my favorite moment - running down Main Street with the Castle in front! Ran into Alice while in Fantasyland... ... and then Pooh! We got the full fanfare as we approached the castle - and a right Royal welcome! Woody and Jessie (with friend) awaited us in Frontierland. And a boatload of pirates bade us farewell in backstage Magic Kingdom! The man (or mouse) himself was cheering on us at the Animal Kingdom While Buzz and soldier welcomed us to the Disney Hollywood Studios (not MGM anymore!) I had NEVER seen K...

It’s shortly before 6am on a surprisingly foggy Sunday morning. I’m standing in the middle of a road outside Epcot in Florida , waiting anxiously for the start of the 2008 WDW marathon and am surrounded by thousands of others. I am a bit nervous but also quite excited about this adventure… Hang on a minute: running a marathon? Me? How did someone so definitely non-sporty like me end up here? The real story starts a year ago, when I was bored at work and stumbled across an account of someone (can’t remember who!) who had just completed the 2007 WDW marathon. I thought it was pretty cool – not to mention a great way to get a vacation – and when I found out that registration was open for the 2008 event I sent the link to my husband. He is, after all, the sporty one and I said to him “you should do this”. He wrote back “no, you should”. He was probably not being serious but his reply made me think – why not? After all, I had a year to prepare. So I did some research, found some training p...

It seems like it was a while ago... actually, hang on a minute. It was a while ago! Nearly a week ago, last Sunday the 13th of January I stood on that starting line at the WDW marathon and can now proudly say that not only did I start but I completed it, got my medal and didn't die in the process! So okay, it took a bit longer than planned (I haven't checked the official time but it was around 6 hours 45 min) but I did take around 20 photos around the course because I kept bumping into old friends: Pooh, Alice, Snow White, Aladdin, Buzz and Mickey among others. It was also a very, very humid day (again, don't know the official number but I was pretty warm at 6am, before I did any running!) and once the sun came out it was not only humid but hot. So I had to slow way down if I wanted to finish alive. The day after the marathon we drove to Cape Canaveral and have spent the last few days enjoying the wonders of Ft Lauderdale and Ft Myers Beach - and I haven't had access ...

Tomorrow we fly to Orlando and then a few days after that I will be in my first marathon. I have so many thoughts about all of this that I need to write them down: I am so full of nervous energy it’s bizarre: I guess it’s because I’m in the taper and haven’t been running much Am I nervous? I guess I am a little but I am so confident that I will finish that the confidence takes over. Perhaps I’m being overconfident… and then a little worry starts to seep in I can’t think of a better place to run 42km, really. If I’ve managed quite long runs around pretty boring places in terrible weather conditions I’m sure I should be able to finish Disney What about the rain? It is the one weather variable that I hate to run in, and all of a sudden I have to worry about it because most forecasts call for rain on Sunday. Damn it. Will I be able to walk afterwards? What about the next morning? And the next? And a week after? We fin...

As my four readers know, I have a ‘thing’ for Disney theme park music. There is something happy, cheerful and yes, cheesy about these songs and I find myself always searching out recordings so that I can add them to my MP3 player and feel like I’m in a Disney park even though I’m at work. Another reason I like these songs is because, unlike the more mainstream scores and soundtracks, theme park music is a little bit more obscure. In the old days (read: pre-Internet) one would have to travel to the theme park in question to purchase the music for it. Sometimes it wasn’t even available to purchase for years! These days it’s a little easier to find these CDs with the help of Internet sites and of course, eBay. Disney has also started releasing more and more of their park music so it is getting a little easier to own these songs but I feel that these songs still remain relatively obscure and of interest mainly to Disney geeks like me. So we’ve established I have lots and lots ...

In ten days I, along with 15,000 of my closest friends, will be running through all four WDW parks and hopefully have the time of our lives. It’s incredible to note that I’ve been waiting for this date to come for over a year now and it’s so close… Recently my mind went back to those days in January 2007 when I decided that I wanted to do this, and started ploughing through the Internet hoping to find information on training and on the race itself. I found lots of accounts of people that have done the Disney marathon before, lots and lots of training plans and of course lots of advice for beginners. I also found the Disney Running forum. Now, I am a big forum user and regularly check in with UK Scrappers so I am well aware of the friendship and support that can be found on a friendly online forum. In the year that I’ve been visiting Disney Running I have constantly been amazed at how generous and kind people are, always offering support, advice and kind words. It is a gr...

Even though I work in a “technical” field (and I love new technologies) I am usually quite slow on the uptake when it comes to gadgets. I knew all about the iPod and MP3 players well before I ever got my first one. It took me years to get Sky and I still have yet to install Vista on my home PC. I also tend to hang on to my old mobile phones for far too long. For a couple of months now I’ve been meaning to pop into my mobile provider’s shop to review my tariff because I haven’t done it in at least a year (and probably longer) and these things move all over the place. I needed to make sure that I couldn’t be on a better tariff, as I’m such a low user anyway. Well, I had to wait for that visit because the shopping center was of course mental with Christmas shoppers. Finally yesterday, when it was all very quiet (probably because it was New Year’s Day and everyone else was still in bed, hung-over) I noticed the shop was empty and I popped in. I quickly established that I was still on the ...