2014 WDW Marathon Week - Full Marathon

Here's Holly's recap of the WDW Full Marathon:

The last day of the Dopey Challenge! The day before, my throat was starting to feel scratchy. I hoped it was just from talking too much and that I wasn’t getting sick. Unfortunately when I woke up Sunday morning, I had a full on chest cold. I had a killer sore throat and my chest was really tight and congested. This was going to be fun!! Dave got up early even though he was done with the Grumpy Challenge and we drove over to Epcot so he could spectate. Before meeting the team we made a pit stop at the merchandise tent as I had heard they sometimes sell the banners from the Expo there. Dave scored the last Dopey banner (the huge one). I was extremely happy!!

We had another long walk to the corrals and an even longer wait in the corrals for the start. I was tired, no adrenaline like a normal prerace. I knew I would have fun today, but I also knew this was going to be a challenge. I had no voice really but I still needed to talk to everyone of course.

The fireworks were much better today and we were finally off. The first mile was hard, and everyone’s legs were heavy, but thankfully they loosened up and we were back on Main Street again. That never gets old!! Saw our great cheering section by the Hub and we were back out on cone alley. Thankfully Brad Garfinkel noticed my scratchy voice and he offered me some cough drops. I’m not sure why he had cough drops, but they were a lifesaver! Thanks Brad!! We headed through the Speedway, which I’m not really fond of, and then over to Animal Kingdom. We decided against riding Expedition Everest and kept on going. Tara Miller saved the day again with pre-peeled Clementines and icy cold towels. She completely rocks!!

10 Team AllEars Members and family!

Next up is Osceola Parkway. Team AllEears comes through again with some icy Coke! Soon we were entering Wide World of Sports and I was starting to hurt. The cold was kicking my butt, plus the culmination of all those miles. I was thrilled to hit mile 20 and got a second wind when we saw Laura and crew at Mile 20.5! She also came through with delicious orange slices! Next up was the Studios and then the narrow walkway to the Boardwalk. More Saviors! Deb and crew and of course the Troosts with beer!!!

Finally reached Epcot and we were thrilled. We had people come and go with us during the day, but Stan Harris, Joe Weeks and my running twin Jessica Awotona were with me all day and I know I wouldn’t have made it without them. We had a great moment in the World Showcase and then met up with some of our group for a picture taken by specatators extradonnaire Dave and Pam! They also had beer!! Finally we leave Epcot and get across that finish line hand in hand. What a day! What a weekend! I was done and ready for a beer, a shower and food. In that order!! Team AllEars rocks and I know this weekend wouldn’t have been half as fun without all of you!!

Dave's Comments: One of the most relaxing days spectating ever! Once I took the team photo I headed off to the car to drop off the huge banner and set out to the Magic Kingdom via monorail. Usually I head to the Contemporary first for coffee, but I heard a rumor the park was opening at 5am for spectators so I got off at Magic Kingdom and sacrificed the coffee (I had a Coke in my bag so I was good). There were about 200 people ahead of me, but I knew most of those suckers would line up along the shops of Main Street and not go to my preferred spot. With that in mind, I immediately hit the restroom before making my way to the hub and ultimately Tomorrowland Bridge. As usual, our teammate Christine beat me there. By the time Pam and the Torok family showed up we had a nice little area carved out for ourselves.

This was the first year our teammates ran in wolf packs. Usually two or three might come through together, but not 10-12 at a clip. It made picture taking hard, especially when the groups were blocking solo teammates passing by. We managed to see most of our friends on the course. Once we were sure everyone went through, Pam and I headed to Epcot. Our goal was to spectate in Germany. Usually I go to the United Kingdom, but I've done that so many years I needed a change.

I stocked up on snacks at the new Starbucks in Epcot. Very nice location and I had my first ever multi-grain croissant. Tasty! Pam and I made our way upstream to Germany, going the opposite direction of the marathoners. Once we got to Germany we made camp! I admit I was not on the best side of the course for pictures, but I had a bench and World Showcase Lagoon at my back. This would be the place to take "the picture" when the group finally reached us.

We didn't use runner tracking because we had a much better system. Mike Scopa was outside the Studios and texted when someone approached him. Kim was at the Beach Club and texted when people passed her. So we had good early waring systems.

A text came in telling us that Barb, whom was running her first marathon, was approaching. I promised to get her a beer but the German beer kiosk was closed. So I had to cross-course and head over to the Outpost kiosk for a beer. Once we got her beer-ed up we got notice the others were coming through and needed 3-4 beers. You can only buy two beers per person, so that meant two more trips......

I was able to get some good shots of friends going by until the craziness began. Group one came in with ten folks. I had beers to hand off and photos to shoot. Then right on their heels was group two - Holly's crew. It was just manic and some of them are ready to finish so take the darn picture all ready!!!! I had no real time to check my shots and "the photo" was a bust in my opinion.

we don't know the people in costume

Then it was over. I was left with one full untouched Landshark Lager and a Yuengling that was maybe 2/3s full. No idea whom, or how many, drank from it but the rest of it was mine. The Landshark went to a passing runner. Pam and I rallied our way back to the finish area as best as we could given the spectator congestion. Our runners were through the finish chute and waiting for us.

 

I got Holly to the room and marshalled her as quick as I could so we could celebrate the day away in World Showcase. We met up with some friends for beer, margaritas, more beer, dinner at Via Napoli, and the final team meet watching Illuminations. Pretty fun day.

Attached are two versions of our video. The first one is the director's-cut. The second is the same film, but I had to replace the songs I used in the first video with generic ones because it is blocked from mobile viewing due to copyright violations. When I have more time I can go in and tweak the director's-cut and repost. Enjoy!

 

 

My Life with Pedometers

My name is Holly and I am addicted to pedometers.

Admitting you have a problem is the first step right? I started wearing a pedometer daily over 10 years ago. I first used it as a way to get some exercise. This was before I was running. I would strive to get the magic 10,000 steps a day that everyone said you needed to stay healthy.

I started off with a high tech version called the Sportbrain. This was a really cool little pedometer. The first version didn’t even have a display. You would have to put the “egg” into a port, which would then dial up (yes dial up) the company and download the steps to the site.  It was a great tool.  For no extra fee they would run challenges that you registered for. Get a certain number of steps during the time period and you automatically get the prize. It was very motivating for me and I loved it. Eventually they came out with a unit that had a display so you could see your progress without having to plug it in. That model also had a USB upload. Unfortunately Sportbrain’s service started going downhill and they stopped doing the challenges so I moved on.

I used a basic Omron pedometer for a few years and it was great. They are low cost and accurate, but no bells and whistles.  I liked the extra feedback that the Sportbrain gave over the Omron.

Then along came the Fitbit! I was so excited when I heard about this product. It took awhile for it to come to the market and I was one of the early adopters. It is very small and can be worn on the belt/bra or in your pocket. Data uploads wirelessly whenever you are close to your computer that has the base charging station attached to it.

The website has a lot of information and feedback and I loved it. Unfortunately my first one lasted a month before the display died. Fitbit sent me a replacement. The next one lasted about a year and again they replaced it. The last one the plastic cover came off and I had to superglue it back together. These are not inexpensive: $100. I had enough and moved on once again.

My latest love is the Striiv.  This is also about $100. No monthly fees and you can see your data online, but currently only your cumulative steps, the current day and previous day. I am hoping that eventually you will be able to go back and see older daily data.

The cool thing is that as you step you are accumulating points towards donations. To date I have donated 14 days of water for one child, 78 polio vaccinations and 31 parking spot sizes of Rainforest. Pretty cool!

It also has an environment creation/management game called Myland. The more you step the more you can buy in the game. It will also give you pop up challenges throughout the day. Such as go climb 15 steps. Or get 10 more minutes of activity. Very motivating.

I have had the Striiv since April and it still works perfectly. It has been through a few marathons, plus lots of sweaty workouts, and it is still going strong.


I highly recommend the Striiv, or just wearing a pedometer in general, to get some extra motivation throughout your day.




All images sourced from the Internet.

Collections: Beer Tap Handles

If you have followed Team Tizzel since Day 1 you may have noticed we collect things: Disney pins, Vinylmation figures, and animation art items were featured in prior posts. In this post we'll look at another collection we have: beer tap handles.

Beer tap handles are used to label the type of beer on draft at a bar or restaurant. Brewers got savvy over the years and used these once generic items to further market their product. They could convey the brands message or image, or perhaps fit into the bar's theme like sports bar or English pub. Going to a bar like Yard House is what Dave calls "window shopping".

Our collection has lacked some attention over the past few years, mainly because we filled the two shelves Holly made to display our tappers. All tap handles fit an industry-standard bolt size. Holly and Dave stained the shelves, then Holly drilled in the bolts since Dave can't use any tools properly. The neglect has gotten worse as evidenced by the fact that our collection also functions as our race medal display rack.

Some highlights

Long before eBay and the Internet explosion taps were hard to come by. Dave was searching for this Key West Lager tap during most of the1990's and early 00's. He joined bulletin boards, kept searching eBay, tried bribing bartenders in bars to "misplace" their handle. Then one day the brewer opened online retailing and offered the taps for sale. Not that interesting of a story, but Dave got his handle.

Microbreweries and brewpubs sometimes sell tap handles in their little shops. These items make great souvenirs. We got the Pump House tap during our trip to Colorado last year.

Holly got Dave this monkey handle for a gift a few years ago. It was from a custom tap maker and fits with some of our tropical themed items (is a motif a collection?).

The current "holy grail" for us is a Captain Tony's Red tap from Captain Tony's Saloon in Key West (check out how old school their website is). The handles are generic wood with stickers on them, but they are only available at one place and that place is one of our favorite bars that holds lots of great memories.

Want to start your own collection? eBay is the place.  To sort through some of the garbage try using search terms like "rare" or "unique"

2011 Favorite Things

We found ourselves with some idle time on a recent holiday road trip and came up with the very unoriginal idea of having a "Favorite Things" post.  You can tell by some of our choices we put a lot of thought into it...

Song

Holly picks Lady Gaga's Edge of Glory because it's a great song to take with you on a long run.

Dave picks Enrique Inglesias' I Like How it Feels because of its modern club-anthem feel.  Jersey Shore meets soccer's World Cup

TV Show

We both agree The Amazing Race is still the best TV show on the air.  We'd love to be on this show, but fear the stress of it all would cause of us yell and freak out too much.  Some other shows we like are Modern Family, The Middle, Once Upon a Time, American Idol, and Mad Men.

Movie (animated)

We rarely go to the movies.  This year we saw two animated films and Winnie the Pooh beat Pixar's Car's 2.  The Pooh movie had the charm of the original films, and added an extra layer of humor to entertain non-Pooh purists.   The credits were fun at the end with the stuffed characters acting out scenes of the film.

Movie (non-animated)

The Muppets was awesome!  We grew up watching The Muppet Show and this movie captured all the fun of the original TV show while keeping it fresh for today's audience.  We added a plush Walter (muppet in the blue suit) to our home and he recently entertained many motorist between Illinois and New York.  We'd love to see more of 80's Robot.    

Honorable Mention in this category is The Hangover 2

Here's an example of some Muppet genius:






Video Game

Holly's selection is Disneyland Adventures for Xbox 360.   This game recreates walking around Disneyland.   You interact with characters and move around using the Kinect motion sensor.   While this is good for the games and in the "rides", it's a pain to walk around the environment.   One reason why this is at the top of Holly's list is the Peter Pan's Flight segment.   Players hold their arms out and fly through London As they journey to Never Land.  

Here's a video of it we found on YouTube:

Now for something completely different.  Dave's pick is Assassin's Creed: Revelations.  The series is based in The Renaissance and you play an assassin.  But keep in mind he's a good guy.   In this edition the player gets to explore Istanbul in a rich game environment.  Dave loves the open-ended play and the cool knives and swords.  As a bonus, our version came with the original game, which Dave never played.

Gadget

 No explanation needed:  Holly picks her iPad 2 and Dave picks Holly's old iPad 1 since it's now his.   Having these items have made traveling so much easier.  Dave uses his to backup and edit photos from his cameras.  We can watch preloaded movies, Netflix, and our home DVR by using Slingbox.  Plus, we now have the HDMI adapter so we can watch things bigger when traveling.   









The Kindle is also on the favorite list.   Another device that makes traveling easier since there's no need to bring bulky books on vacation.










Food - Snack

One of our favorite new snacks is Pop Chips.  Very low in calorie and fat, but full of flavor.   They come in many varieties.












Food - Entree

Dave chose the Kurobuta Pork Tenderloin at Flying Fish Cafe (WDW - Boardwalk Resort).


Holly chose her entire 40th birthday dinner at Victoria and Albert's in Disney's Grand Floridian Resort.  The run-down of the food can be found HERE.






Beer


We both really like beers from New Glarus Brewing in Wisconsin.   Our neighbors introduced us to one of their fine beers and we've branched out from there.  We agree on the fact that their Coffee Stout is the best product they offer, and unfortunately, they now only offer in the variety pack.  Another favorite of ours (if you've been following along for a few months you'll guess this) is Left Hand's Milk Stout.










Disney Pins

Holly picks The Orange Bird Hidden Mickey set.   She thinks he's cute and it's a nod back to the early days of Disney World.   Dave picks the Casey Jr. Disneyland Hidden Mickey set.  He thinks the ride is a fun piece of Disneyland history and has a hard time finding any of them in WDW.










Vinylmations


We don't own Holly's favorite figure yet - hoping to rectify that soon.   Holly likes the Park Series 7 Space Figment.   She loves Journey to Imagination, and Figment.  This was a great choice to include in the Park Series.   Dave enjoys finally owning most of the Star Wars Series 1 set.  The Boba Fett and Lando figures are cool and he'd love to get the Ghost Obi-Wan chaser.






Disney Trinket


Dave picks his retro WDW cocktail glasses from the artist Shag.   Holly picks her Duffy the Disney Bear along with the assortment of outfits.  One day he's partying in Mexico, the next he's playing Buzz Lightyear.














Races (non-Disney)


Obviously Disney races rank in our favorites.   Not just because the races are in-and-themed Disney, but because of what we have gained as members of Team AllEars  Running.   You can't beat making new friends while helping others.


Dave's favorite non-Disney race of the year was the Reggae 10K in Negril, Jamaica.  He's a big reggae fan and getting to have a six mile course with reggae blaring was just pure fun for him.


Holly has picked almost all of her races:  Omaha Marathon for the Personal Record (PR), Boulder Marathon for the beauty and challenge, Chicago Marathon for having a great time running with Team AllEars friends, Reggae Marathon because it was really fun, and WDW 2011 Marathon because she ran with her TAE friends Rhonda and Jessica and got to share in Jessica's first marathon experience. 



We hope you've enjoyed this review of our favorite things.   Be sure to stay tuned over the next week since WDW Marathon Weekend is finally here!  We may have a few unorodox photo posts live from the parks and events and we plan to have at least one update on our final fundrasing total.

Pin Trading Update: October Hidden Mickey Pins

Back in August we posted about our love for pin trading in Disney Parks. Pin trading (and vinylmation trading) gives you a chance to have a scavenger hunt every day of your trip. We showed you what pins we were going for in the Hidden Mickey series (you can't buy these: can only get them through trading with castmembers) and we're happy to show you our progress after October's trip.

I'll be using photos from Pinpics.com to go over what we were able to collect.

Disney releases Hidden Mickey Pins 2 times a year. These pins were not available in June so this T-shirt collection was new for us. We were able to collect all ten (the Figaro is a variant)

These Figment Warhol-style pins were new this season as well. We got 3 of them.

These new pins were representing the UK Pavilion in Epcot (ignore the stupid princess pin). We got 3 of these in one shot thanks to a Tomorrowland cast member with a pocketful of traders and found the rest a couple days later.

We collected these 40th anniversary pins in June, but they released part two of the series recently and we were able to pick up the rest.

We were one away from our icons set. We found our closer, the sun from Gran Fiesta Tour, in the Mexico Pavilion. We spend a lot of time there because of the good shops and great tequila bar. Management seems to always give the staff there good pins at the start of the day.

We completed our Yeti and Orange Bird collections.

We needed three more DeeBees. Tower of Terror, Chimney Sweep, and Jack Skellington. No luck at all. While playing around on Pinpics.com Dave found out why...  These three were only released in Disneyland. Yeah, they do that sorta thing.

We did find pins from two Disneyland sets we wanted.  Dave found the engine to Casey Jr. And Holly found the tiki from the DL icon set.

Good thing we're going back in January to participate in our races, meet up with great friends, and share the in the accomplishment that we've helped to advance research to end breast cancer with Team AllEars.

We'll shamelessly remind you that you can still donate by clicking on the Donate link below.  Please add "Team AllEars - Team Tizzel" in the notes so they know whom sent you.

Donate


Don't forget the "Dress Me Like Duffy" Challenge.