#Goofyinaday: Michael and Eddie's Epic Adventure, Part One

Team Tizzel is proud to present a series of guest posts by our friend Michael Miller chronicling his adventure with Eddie McCoy to tackle 39.3 miles of racing in one day; and in two different states. Today's post will give some background on the goal and cover the travel day to Savannah, GA.

Follow Michael and Eddie on Twitter

Part One: Where Mistakes Are Made and Miles Are Walked

We've all heard them, the humorous cautionary tales that begin with "it seemed like a good idea at the time." Heck, The Hangover movie franchise was built upon this idea. This isn't one of those stories. Our story is a combination of mistakes and stupidity. The mistake was Eddie's, who inadvertently signed up to run The Rock and Roll Savannah Marathon and Disney's Wine and Dine Half Marathon in the same day. My stupidity was to agree to keep him company when he asked me "as the only person I know who would agree to do this with me." And while I agreed to partake in this 39.3 mile adventure, I can honestly say, from the get-go -- it seemed like a BAD idea at the time.

Due to the high cost of flying directly to Savannah from DC, the plan was I would meet up with Eddie in his hometown of Atlanta on Friday where we'd pick up a rental car for the 3 hour drive between these cities. Since Eddie had run Savannah before, he'd navigate us through finding a hotel and hitting the expo, after which we'd call it an early night. Meanwhile, his wife Anna would fly to Disney to pick up all of our Race Packets for W&D. Then on Saturday we would begin our "#GoofyInADay" as Eddie dubbed it in honor or Disney's Goofy Race and a Half Challenge. However, unlike the Goofy Challenge which entails running 39.3 miles over two days, we were running a marathon at 7:00 am, followed by a 280 mile drive to Orlando to meet up with Anna to get our bibs, after which we had to catch Disney race transportation to be in our corrals in time for Wine & Dine's 10:00 pm start. Even as I type this...it still seems like a BAD idea.

Upon landing in Atlanta, I texted Eddie who was waiting for me in the main terminal I would be there shortly. For those familiar with Atlanta's Airport, it is a sequential series of terminals that are fairly spread out from one another. For those of us who were unfamiliar with the airport it is still a sequential series of terminals. Not knowing this, I decided to walk to bag check versus getting on the extremely packed transport train. At the first of what would be three more terminals I contemplated getting on the trains that kept passing by but I stubbornly trudged on. After 20 or so minutes not getting on the train at each successive terminal became a matter of warped pride as I was certain bag check and freedom from my trek was just ahead. Finally, as I started to contemplate how doing this much walking may not be the best prep for tomorrow's challenge, I hit the next to the last terminal. This was where a helpful employee told me I had to get on the train to go the final stop to bag check. As I trudged off the train, Eddie greater me with a "man, what took you so long."

Leaving the airport we hopped on another train to the rental car center where we headed to the Dollar counter. Things didn't look good as we walked the 50 or so feet to the counter because no one was manning the desk. Just as we arrived at the counter, a man with a scraggly pony tail and "stoner" vibe slowly rose from behind the counter. When I say slowly, think old vaudeville skit where someone pretends to rise up on an elevator for dramatic effect. At this point, it got really started to get weird. First there were questions about what we were doing, which were met with responses like "how long is your marathon, like 5 miles." My favorite exchange was when he asked us if it would take us an hour to run the marathon right after he said that he regularly ran 10 miles on the trails. Eddie's first thought was "how fast does this dude run 10 miles if he thinks 26.2 could be done in an hour. My first thought was the only way this guy ran 10 miles in the woods was to get away from DEA agents. Once the paperwork and psychedelic conversation was over we mistakenly took the man's directions on how to get to our car....which took us to the impassable four lane divided road right beneath the walkway that would have taken us to our car. But, hey, that was ok, as all we had to do was retrace the 10 minutes of walking it took us to find this out. At this point we didn't care as we were getting off our feet to begin our drive to Savannah.

The first change in our plans occurred a week prior to race day. As I mentioned earlier and much to the
chagrin of many of our "planning oriented" friends, we didn't book a room in advance. This was more of a sense of frugality than recklessness. As a Historical City hosting a large Marathon, Savannah hoteliers across the board established a 2 night minimum for the weekend. So our plan was to hit hotels the night before the race to find someone willing to take us for one night vs. having an empty room. Much to the relief of those "planning oriented" friends who were more concerned about our room situation than we were, Eddie made some calls and not only got us a room for 1 night, he also negotiated a late check out so we could shower before getting in the car for over 5 hours. So we were feeling pretty satisfied as we checked into the hotel and got ready for the expo.

Getting to the Savannah expo was a bit of a challenge. It entailed a long walk to the waterfront to stand in a line with marathoners taking the ferry to the convention center. While we did find out that unlike the prior year where people couldn't drive over to the expo we could have taken our car, overall the process went seamlessly. The expo itself was larger in size, well organized with a multitude of vendors and even included being able to test drive the latest line of Mazdas. At the expo, Eddie did decide to pick up some new compression socks and the new Garmin 620 to wear for the race. You know the saying "you shouldn't wear anything new for a race." Well apparently Eddie doesn't. The only wrinkle occurred when we hopped on one of the historic old town trolleys we had seen earlier near our hotel to take us back across the river. The ride itself would have been more enjoyable if it weren't for the fact that we were on a round trip loop to a remote parking lot for those that got the news that you could drive to this years expo. So after adding our impromptu 20 minute tour of the expo parking lots we headed back to the ferry.

After a quick ferry ride we walked to the far end of the historic water front for some pizza at Spanky's, a local pizzeria and bar. The food was good however the service was great as the waitresses loaned us a personal phone charger when they learned my phone had died. After dinner we took the long walk back past our hotel to find a store to get granola bars and sports drink. Follow this with another walk back to our hotel and we were putting in some serious mileage on the uneven cobblestone roads of Historic Savannah. Now one of the legends of Savannah is that in his march to the sea during the civil war, Sherman spared Savannah due to its beauty. I can tell you with certainty, it had more to do with not wanting to ride his horse on these uneven roads as it would have literally been a pain in his... you get the point. The bright side at least was knowing we were going to run some of these roads the next day.

So as we called it a night, we both went to bed with tired legs. Since it was a relatively early 9ish, this gave the added benefit of having more time to lay in bed and think about how tired our legs felt from racking up miles that didn't count towards our 39.3 mile total. And as with all BAD ideas, I am sure we both started to question what we had gotten ourselves into.

Part 2: Where We Freak Each Other Out While Running A Marathon

Talking Training and Race Chasing on The Mickey Miles Podcast

We are pleased to let you know that you can hear the members of Team Tizzel on two recent episodes of The Mickey Miles Podcast.

Holly, along with our friend Michael and the MMP Team, gives some great advice about training for multi-day running events at Walt Disney World on episode 117.

Dave chats with the MMP Team on episode 119 about our ebook Race Chase:  Expert Advice about Seeing your Runner on Race Day.

It's an hour of Team Tizzel for your ears!

While all of this is very fun, please keep in mind that we are participating in these races and writing ebooks to help raise money for Avon's breast cancer charities with our Team AllEars friend.   You can help us out by donating directly on our Avon site with a credit card (use one of the pink Donate Now buttons on the right) and by buying a copy of Race Chase for about $7.  Dave's company will match the donated proceeds so your purchase does go a long way to helping us reach our fundraising goals.

Thanks Mike and Michelle for inviting us on the show with you.  And thank you to all our readers for checking out our links and helping us raise money to help those with breast cancer.

Planning for The Greek Islands: Part One

Several years ago we decided we were each going to pick a vacation destination for our 40th birthdays. Holly is a year younger than Dave so that meant two years in a row of decent trips. The year Dave turned 40 we were booked to g to Peru, but the heart doctors thought they saw something and pulled the trip from under our legs. Two years and a pulmonary valve later Dave got his trip. We tried to make Holly's trip work in 2013, but things were not fitting into place. So now we determined 2014 is her make-up 40th birthday trip - a couple years late. Her choice destination: The Greek Islands. She didn't have one sight or specific attraction in-mind.... Just the Greek Islands.
Here's what we knew about the Greek Islands:

• They are in Europe, specifically part of the country of Greece
• They are surrounded by water

This will be an ongoing blog series about our trip planning process. So we'll start with our first stab at researching the destination.

Since we thought Holly wanted a nice beach vacation with some iconic culture thrown in Dave started his research in a visual manner. He figured look at pictures and see what ones were appealing and go from there. He decided to turn to Pinterest to start researching.

Dave signed up for Pinterest when it first came out. The idea of photo-based social media that was easier to navigate than Instagram was appealing. Then after a couple of weeks all he ever saw were posts, by mostly women, of some cutesy baked good or an outfit layout that the poster would never wear in real life.

The bigger shock was Dave found he had 61 followers on Pinterest. how the heck did that happen?

So the search started with the simple search term "Greek Islands". One of the first pins to come up was a map - ok that's handy. Pin it! Ooh... A windmill. Pin it! Blue door. Pin It! Within about fifteen minutes he had about two dozen things that looked interesting pinned.

Dave clicked a couple of pins to explore the links behind them (pinners can post just a picture or accompany it with a URL to a webpage, or add their own story to go along with the picture). He learned that Santorini and Mykonos are the two most popular islands, Paros is the gateway to the Greek ferry system, and that we are too old to book a trip through the Contiki company. He was driven to lonelyplanet.com, which had an easy-to-navigate hotel listing.

Another goal of our trip is to try to use our One World / American Airlines miles to get there for free. So far we couldn't find anything in the network to get us to Athens, but for a reasonable mileage rate we can get to Santorini via Berlin and Vienna. We'll keep digging.

We'll keep you posted on trip planning in the future. If you have any suggestions leave a comment or find us on Facebook.

Here is Part Two

Coming soon to TeamTizzel.com: Michael and Eddie's Epic Adventure

Just when you thought Holly was nuts for doing Disney's Goofy Challenge, a half marathon day one and a full marathon day two, these two come along!

Michael and Eddie will run the Savannah Rock and Roll Marathon Saturday morning, then drive five hours so they can participate in Disney's only night time half marathon - runDisney's Wine and Dine.

That's......

The photos, videos, and stories will be here for your enjoyment and amazement! Stay tuned!

Star Wars and Disney One Year Later

Around this time last year Disney announced it was purchasing Lucasfilms for over 4 billion dollars. In that announcement we also learned that we were finally getting the third trilogy. Dave will admit this made him tear up a little. He's always felt ripped off he was never getting those films. He should have been one of the folks interviewed for The People vs. George Lucas.

So a year has gone by and what do we know? The first movie in the new trilogy will be released in 2015 with J.J. Abrams directing. That should be awesome. We are also getting "filler" movies in the gap years between the trilogies. So far we believe Han Solo and Boba Fett origin films will be released. Nice. We can potentially have a new Star Wars film every year in perpetuity. The Clone Wars TV show was cancelled, but it is being replaced by Star Wars Rebels - which will focus on the rise of the Empire. Rumors are there will be some form of TV program based on Darth Vader. A couple projects were scrapped like a new Star Wars video game and Seth Green's Detours series.

To celebrate the one year anniversary of the agreement, here's Dave in his 1977 Jawa Halloween costume (the mask was C-3PO spray painted mostly black so the eyes would appear to glow) and some fan art that floated around the Internet last year.

Atlantic City Marathon Race Report and Videos

Holly's Atlantic City Marathon Report

I was super excited for this race since I would be running it with several of my Team AllEars teammates. We were going to make a long weekend out of it since I hadn’t been to Atlantic City since I was a teenager and Dave had never been. We flew in Friday night and we were delayed for several hours due to a nor-easter that was dumping rain and wind on the coast. We finally made it to AC around 11pm. We met up with some friends in Tun Tavern, the brewpub in the hotel, and had fun catching up and drinking beer.

Saturday was spent cheering on our teammates doing the 5k and 10k. It was a cold, windy and pretty miserable that day and I was really hoping this wasn’t what the marathon would be like. We had a great group dinner at Angelo’s restaurant and went to bed early to be ready for the big day.

We woke up Sunday and walked down to the start area from our hotel. It was not raining but it was still very windy, 25-30 mph. This was going to be an interesting day. We were all standing inside Bally’s Casino to stay warm before the start. It was nice that we could walk out about 10 minutes before the start and get in the corrals. There were a bunch of us running either the half or the full. The full marathon group was Michael, Eddie, Rich, Helen and Charlie. The plan was to all stay together as long as possible, but we knew that that might not be possible. Joe was running the half but was going to stay with us until he had to make the turnoff.

The best part of the whole race happened in the very beginning. We were slowly shuffling towards the start line when Michael says "Hey there is a sign that says Holly". I look over and it’s my Mom standing on a bench with the sign. I yelled, that’s my Mom! Then I look down and my Dad is standing right there. Totally surprised. I knew they were coming but did not think they would make the start. Perfect way to start the race.

The course was pretty nice for the first half. We ran up the boardwalk and then out towards the marina area casinos. Only negative was running through a big tunnel. I do NOT like tunnels. I’m glad it was in the beginning and that it wasn’t a warm day. We then made our way back towards the boardwalk and ran down it. This was a nice section as there were a lot of spectators and the wind was towards our backs. Joe had to leave us at Mile 11 and we all wished him luck. We had a blast running with him and can’t wait to run his first full marathon with him in Philadelphia. We made it to the famous elephant, Lucy, even though somehow Rich couldn’t see the thing. We had Dave and my parents doing a great job of spectating all day. I was starving and asked for some orange slices and once again Dave came through.

The second half of the course was not as nice as the first half. Lots of weird turns and the wind was really brutal. Helen was feeling great and she picked up the pace while Michael joined her. Charlie was struggling with stomach issues, so he had to drop back a bit. Eddie and Rich did a great job of keeping me company and keeping me from whining too much. Dave arranged a wonderful beer stop around mile 21 and it was much appreciated!!

The last 5 miles were all into those 25 mph winds along the boardwalk. Beautiful view, but the last thing you need for the last 5 miles of the marathon. I was getting tired. We met up with another runner, Katie, and she ran with us until the end. One scary thing happened at mile 25.5. Rich tripped on a nail on the boardwalk and went down HARD. I was really afraid he broke something. And contrary to reports I didn’t push him. I helped him up and we walked a bit to be sure he was ok. He had some nice road rash, but appeared ok. We were thankful to be close and ran it in with hands held high and big smiles on our faces. State number 18 is finished!! I was really pleased with my time. It was my best of the year. Still way off my PR, but I have been really trying to get back in shape since I hurt my foot and I am finally feeling like I am making progress. I’m hoping to do even better in Philly in November and will be excited to be running with my friends once again!

Dave's Comments:

Atlantic City was an easy marathon to follow. I moved the car closer to the Boardwalk and to the east side of MLK drive so we could make it to the early miles. At the start I indicated to the group that I'd be on their left. When I got to my spot I found a right-side viewing area made for better photos. Texted three folks ten minutes before the race, but no response. Guess they were having fun. After the start Holly's parents found me and we started trekking around the course. I drove to mile 2 and was confused as to why I couldn't see the race. We grabbed the map and noticed right by our location were the words "tunnel". Oppsie! We headed to MM 3/5.5. After seeing our runners we went back to the Boardwalk for a great view around Mile 8. We moved on and followed the course the rest of the way with stops every so often. Miles 17 and 20 were close to each other with the out-and-back. This was a perfect place to catch a beer break and to set one up for the runners. We made our way back to the finish area, stopping one more time along the beach. We made decent time back to the finish area and got a prime spot to cheer the team in.

During the race we saw our runners 11 times when we pulled over and had about 4 other drive-bys. This was a great spectating course with lots of easy places to pull over and watch the race along with nice homes to look at once the race left the Boardwalk. To find our runners so many times I used the tricks I talk about in our ebook Race Chase: Expert Advice about Seeing Your Runner on Race Day. It's available for immediate download and all proceeds go to our breast cancer fundraising, along with a matching donation from my company.

Here's our video from the race and our friend Eddie's video:

2013 Atlantic City Marathon from Eddie McCoy on Vimeo.

The Day the Brewpub was Closed

Last Saturday was a busy day for Team Tizzel. Holly woke up early to knock out a ten mile training run on the treadmill. Dave got up a little later and did his 4 mile session outside in the 40 degree weather. Groceries were procured, the dog was walked, the last of the patio furniture was put away, and the boat was driven across the lakes to the marina for winterizing and storage. All chores complete by 12:15. Since we were done early we decided to drive a half hour to Lake Geneva (Wisconsin) for a stop at one brewery and lunch at another brewpub.

Our first stop was Geneva Lake Brewing. This brewery is housed in an industrial park just off the main road leading to downtown Lake Geneva. We walked into the tap room, which was really just a cleared out section of the brewery with a few communal tables and a flat screen TV. No fancy decorations or hip music like other taprooms we've seen this year. The bar was actually a six tap keg cooler. We split a six beer sampler for $10. There was only one pale ale on the list and all of the beers had very low IBUs. Hooray!

We had the seasonal Oktoberfest, blonde, amber, wheat, pale ale, and stout. Out of all those the pale ale and amber were the only ones we didn't like. We purchased a take home bottle of the stout.

We were getting hungry, but we had one more stop before lunch - the liquor store to buy some New Glarus beer. Their products are only sold in Wisconsin so you have to stock up anytime you make the border crossing. Traffic was awful getting into Lake Geneva. It's a cute little town that is the perfect location for a big city getaway during the fall. It's a one-road town that is packed all times of the year. We cut through side streets and parking lots as much as possible in order to avoid the traffic. We stocked up on some beer for home and then cut back through town to get to our lunch location: Sprecher's.

Sprecher is a brewery outside of Milwaukee that opened several brewpubs across the state. We've been here before and love their food and beers. As we rounded the corner we saw their parking lot empty. Their sign was cloaked with a banner "Closed for renovations". We pulled over and checked their website. They recently had a fire. Starving and crestfallen, we admitted defeat and drove to a restaurant closer to home rather than fight the tourists.

In our best Pollyanna voices "We're glad we got to visit Geneva Lakes Brewing".