Goofy Challenge (the non-race)

It's a busy week leading up to the Goofy Race and a Half Challenge. I did some easy 3 mile runs early in the week. But taught two BodyPump classes and my first spinning class the week of the race. I was pooped and really sore.

After an uneventful flight to Orlando, Cedric picked me up and we powered through to the Race Expo. We picked up our numbers and based on my 2008 race times, I was able to upgrade both my corrals to the same ones Cedric was assigned!

After the expo, we headed back to Melbourne, where thankfully Camille made some food for us. I unpacked the stuff for Cedric, Camille, and Mom and watched Ced & Camille play Wii until I fell asleep on the couch.

Cedric and Camille had to work on Friday. Cedric was nice enough to loan me his car, cash, AND transponder. Thanks Cedric!!! I headed back to Orlando to hit the Disney outlets (I found nothing except a hat for the Pub Run in Baltimore this March...). I met Billy for lunch at Downtown Disney where at Wolfgang Puck's I was a goner when I saw ribs and fries on the menu! That's good pre-race food, right?


sigh. What to do with the rest of my day. I could have gone to the parks, but without Cedric or Billy as a tour guide, it didn't seem like much fun. Billy suggested I take a tour of the Disney resorts that are on the monorail line to see the pools and the theming. After some really helpful directions for free parking at Disney (well, there was a guard that I had to talk into letting me past a gate, but he was nice and chatty and let me in), I wandered the grounds of the Polynesian. Where to first? The Pool!


Pretty...waterfall and water slide...


And Beach! Where you can see the Grand Floridian and Cinderella's Castle and the Contemporary Resort.



You can also rent a little boat with a 9.9hp Mercury motor. Of course, I checked out the motors and how well maintained they were. They were nice.


I went into the "Big Lodge" (can't remember the name) to catch the monorail. Next Stop: The Grand Floridian. It's the best Victorian I've ever seen. And everything is on such a huge scale. This being Disney, I'm not surprised.


I go outside to check out the pool and beach. Not bad.



Next Stop: the Contemporary Hotel. We stayed here when I was a kid. I remember bits and pieces of being there. I also remember being in the 5th grade with a fever and having to stay in the room while my sibs and cousin watched fireworks.


Of course, more checking out of the pools. It's more "contemporary" and swimming pool like. A "really nice" swimming pool, but nothing like the Hawaiian-themed Polynesian. The grounds are cute though.


In this picture it looks like a shark, but it had the Nemo white stripe along the side. So like a Dory + Nemo (or Marlin) baby?


Tour over with lots of time to spare, I make my way to the Wide World of Sports to shop the expo. Lots and lots of traffic. I miss my turn to get into the parking lots, but manage to find a back way in with no problem. Sweet! I find nothing good except a "Vegas. Been there. Run that." shirt in the $10 bin and some fun goodies for my running partners at work.

Ced and Camille are on their way over from Melbourne, so I go check into our hotel (same one as from Tower of Terror). It's a "new" hotel in an older hotel building and we were impressed with the interiors the first time. However it seems they have not maintained the rooms that they had finished, so I might have to look for another hotel the next time I stay in Orlando.

After a frustrating drive - they had to stop at all the toll booths since I had Cedric's transponder - Ced and Camille finally make it to Orlando. Starving, we take the longest route possible to the restaurant directly across the street from the hotel, the Golden Corral for an all-you-can-eat buffet. When we walk in, one of the servers finds us a 10% off coupon and we're sold. Carlo was funny and tried to speak some Chinese. After dinner, he even brought us tea. Oh, I wonder if it was because we're Asian. Hmm. I just thought of that. Anyway, it was really nice of him.

3am wake up call the next morning for the half marathon. It was time for bed. Fortunately the ride across the street was slightly shorter than the route we took to get to the restaurant.