A Dopey Adventure

Today I'm linking up with  Patti ,  Erika , and  Marcia for Tuesdays on the Run!  It's all about the bling today.  2017 brought a lot of new races and some pretty sweet blingy medals: Winter Warrior Half Marathon -This half was the first weekend in January and boy was it brutal.  It was 19 degrees when the race started at 4:30PM and it only got colder and snowed more as we took four 3.3 mile laps around an office park.  BRRR Syracuse Half Marathon - This one was also cold, but not snowy and with a great course.  In fact, the Syracuse Half was run twice this year as after the race in March, the organizers moved it to November as a fall event.  This course was hilly but had a mile and a half of downhills, which was absolutely amazing! Flower City Half Marathon - This gem in Rochester in April is one of my favorites.  It's a hilly and challenging course that runs through my favorite parts of the city, including a block from w...

Walt Disney World Marathon weekend is the premier event on the runDisney racing calendar.  It packs in four events, two challenges, kids races, and a race expo all in one weekend at the Walt Disney World resort.  With all those options and a wealth of information out there, it can be difficult to find the exact information you need for the events you're participating in.  Over the next two weeks, I'll break down the runDisney event guide so you have all the information that you need to know. First of all, you can find the Virtual Event Guide here:  http://rodale-usa.instantmagazine.com/rundisney/dwmar18 The total event guide is 48 pages, but I suggest opening it up on your phone and taking a screenshot of the pages you need.  Thanks to  Joyful Miles for this tip! The Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend -5K Since this is the first race of the event weekend, participants in the 5K (as well as the Dopey Challenge) need to attend the expo on Wednesday, ...

I'm just back from braving the tundra that is upstate New York for my third and final Dopey Challenge simulation run.  I did another 5-7-10-20 over four days.  It's scary how accustomed to the distance your body gets so quickly.  The first 20 miler felt like it was never going to end.  The second one was painful, but I knew what to expect.  Today's run felt almost normal.  It was also the first time that, at the end of the 20 miler, I said to myself, "you know, I probably could run another 10K if I kept going."  That's as good a place to be in for the marathon as you can be. I'm so excited for the Dopey Challenge.  It'll be the culmination of SIX MONTHS of training.  I've put in the work to rack up the road miles this year.  I've also worked hard on building speed with the goal of getting myself into "A" Corral for the Dopey Challenge. I'm pleased to report that I got into that corral. I ran hard during the racing season to gi...

Hi Everyone! Who's in the mood for a little Disney holiday magic?  Since "ugly holiday sweaters" have been all the rage for the last few years, I thought you might like to win some fun Disney ugly sweater merchandise of your own! All you have to do is head over to my Travel Professional page:  https://www.facebook.com/KellyPwithMagicalAdventuresTravel/ and like the page and tag just ONE Disney loving friend in the contest post!  That's it! All the details are posted on my professional page.  Good Luck!

Hi everyone and happy Tuesday!  For this week's Tuesdays On the Run, the topic is "favorite race of 2017"  I have to admit, I was having a hard time choosing which was the best.  2017 was a fantastic racing year for me.  I set new PRs and even earned my coast to coast medal!  However, my favorite race of the year was the 2017 Cedar Point Half Marathon. The Cedar Point Half Marathon is part of the  Run and Ride Race Series which features races all around the country ranging from 1 mile fun runs to half marathons at some of the best theme parks out there! This past June, Nicole and I both participated in the run and ride weekend at Cedar Point.  Nicole ran the quarter marathon and I ran the half marathon.  The main reason this was my favorite race of the year was this happened: Yup, I broke the tape! I still can't believe this was a thing that happened!  I had so much fun running through the park and then the streets of Sandusky, OH....

One month from today, I'll be kicking off the first leg of the Dopey Challenge with the WDW Marathon Weekend 5k.  It's hard to believe that the first 3.1 miles of the challenge is only a month away.  All that's left is the last few weeks of training and one more 20 miler. I can't wait to get the challenge started! Monday: 5 miles Tuesday: 7.3 miles Wednesday: 10 miles Thursday: 20 miles Friday: 2.8 miles Saturday: 5 miles Sunday: REST DAY This past week's 20 miler didn't go as well as the one a few weeks ago, but still wasn't as bad as it could have been.  I wanted to quit at mile 9 and then again at mile 17.  But I kept pushing myself to persevere through the run and I'm so glad I did.  My goal is to finish the challenge feeling *mostly* good. Are you running marathon weekend? How's your training going?

It's hard to believe it's December already.  The holiday decorations are up, the shopping list is getting checked off and the holiday baking has begun.  Before I get too busy tackling all that December has to offer, I thought I'd reflect on some goals that I want to accomplish this month...because why wait until January to set new goals. Continue to grow my travel agent business:   Making the leap and trying something new is scary!  I've been putting a ton of effort into building my base as a travel agent.  My goal for December is to keep putting in the work and grow my clientele.  Want to book a trip?  Just e-mail me at kellyp@magicaladventurestravel.com While I love booking Walt Disney World vacations I also book other vacations too! Grow blog and Facebook following:   Hand in hand with the previous goal, I'm trying to get my agency and blog out there.  You can help by following me on Facebook here:  https://www.facebook.com/Kelly...

Every Disney parks fan has pet peeves.  These are the things that make you absolutely crazy when touring a Disney park.  For me, it's when people wait in line FOREVER at the quick service restaurants and then still don't know what they want when they get to the register.  When you've had enough time to basically memorize the menu, you should be able to place an order quickly.  And yet, this seems to be a challenge for many visitors. Enter mobile order, one of the greatest Disney parks inventions.  You can place your food order via the My Disney Experience app from anywhere in the park and then when you arrive to your food location, all you have to do is tap "I'm here" and they will start to prepare your food.  You'll get a notification when the food is ready and pick it up at the mobile order window. This was an amazing time saver at Satuli Canteen The caveat is this: you need to pay with a credit card in order to use the service.  You can't u...

It's hard to believe that Frozen debuted four years ago, today! Since its debut almost four years ago, Frozen has become ubiquitous at Walt Disney World Resort.   If you still can’t Let It Go , here’s where you can meet your favorite citizens of Arendelle at Walt Disney World. Magic Kingdom Note: Anna and Elsa used to meet at Princess Fairytale Hall in Fantasyland, but they no longer meet there. ·        Mickey’s Royal Friendship Faire Castle Stage Show -In this recent addition to Magic Kingdom, Anna, Elsa, and Olaf join forces with tons of Disney characters to celebrate friendship.   While I’ll always have a soft spot for Dream Along with Mickey, this show is also a lot of fun.   It features characters from The Princess and the Frog, Tangled, and Frozen interacting with classic Disney characters.   Plus, the signature song is super catchy! ·        Festival of Fantasy Parade -This pa...

Training for a mammoth challenge like Dopey during the holidays is a challenge.  The time commitment to Dopey training is significant and when you combine the training with the added time commitment of holiday events and you start to wonder where all the hours in your day ran off to.  It was that way for me this week.  At least, I didn't have a super long Dopey training run scheduled.  Otherwise there was not way I'd be able to get it all done. This week in review: Monday: 5 miles Tuesday: 7.1 miles Wednesday: 10 miles Thursday: 8 miles Friday: REST DAY Saturday: 9 miles Sunday: 7 miles Weekly Total: 46.1 miles In a week that's focused on gratitude I'm thankful for you, the reader and the ability to keep running all these miles.  We're under 40 days to go until the start of Dopey and I can't believe it's almost here! How was your Thanksgiving?

Another week of Dopey Challenge training is in the books and this week brought more success and consistency.  On tap this week was a true Dopey simulation run and a few easier runs on the weekend.  I'm super happy to get the first of three 20 milers on the training plan this week, as opposed to having to knock it out on Thanksgiving. Monday: 5 miles Tuesday: 7.1 miles Wednesday: 10 miles Thursday: 20 miles!!! (This first 20 miler went well.  I felt about as good as you can feel when running 20 miles). Friday: 2 miles...which went about as well as you can expect having run 20 miles the day before. Saturday: 5 miles Sunday: 7 miles with Nicole. The training will dial down slightly this upcoming week with a 5-7-10-15.  Still 15 miles on Thanksgiving gives you license to eat as much pie as you want! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Whenever I see someone rocking a 2014 Wine and Dine Half Marathon shirt, there's a bonding that happens.  It's like, "oh, you survived Splash and Dash too. Good job."  The Splash and Dash half marathon has become the stuff of legend (at least, on runDisney blogs and Facebook groups).  While it was definitely a challenging race, I found the way to make the most of it. BACKSTORY: Around December of 2013, I texted my best friend from college, Andrew and asked if he ever thought about running in one of the runDisney events.  I had finished the Wine and Dine Half the year before and I was itching to go back again.  Long story short, we decided to do Wine and Dine and make a mini-racecation out of it.  This would be Andrew's first half marathon. When we arrived at Walt Disney World, everything went without a hitch.  We met up at the Magical Express, checked into the room at Saratoga Springs, and picked up our packets at the Expo.  We even managed t...

First of all, I have no pictures in this post.  When it's 30 degrees out, my two year old iPhone decides to immediately stop working if I take it out of my pocket.  As I race with my music, I couldn't risk it! Just one week after the Wine and Dine Half Marathon, Nicole and I decided to tackle the Schenectady Stockcadeathon 15K.  Why we decided this was a good idea remains to be seen as we were both feeling the effects of the Half Marathon race a week earlier. You can find more information about the race here: http://stockadeathon.com/ The race field was huge and competitive.  Looking around at the race start, I was pretty sure there would be no age group placement for me.  When I clocked the first mile at around 6:35 and there were still about 25 women in front of me, I knew that this would be a "fun run". I put "fun run" in quotes, because it's a course that would have been tons of fun had I not run the Wine and Dine Challenge the week before....

Confession time: I have no idea what week of Dopey training this is supposed to be.  I just know that recovery from the Wine and Dine Challenge has been taking longer than I anticipated.  I think it's largely due to immediately getting on a plane and then driving four hours the same day as the race.  Regardless, I'm not bouncing back the way I'd like to. This upcoming week, it's time to get back on track, with a 18-20 miler.  Ick. I carried on with my typical training this past week.  3 miles on Monday, 6 ish on Tuesday, 10 on Wednesday and then I cut my long run on Thursday short, doing only 13 miles.  I recognize 13 miles is a long way to run and I'm not trying to belittle the distance, but when you're training for a marathon, let alone Dopey, you need to be doing more. I did race this past weekend in a local 15K and I'll post about that at a later date, but now it's full focus on Dopey. Hopefully on Monday I'll have a more positive recap!

Halloween has come and gone, so at Walt Disney World, that means it's the Christmas season!  One of the highlights of visiting Magic Kingdom in November and December is Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party (MVMCP).  This is a hard ticket event that takes place at Magic Kingdom on select nights.  The party runs from 7:00PM-midnight, but like the Halloween party, you can get into the park starting at 4:00PM.  New this year, day guests who do not have party tickets will be asked to leave the parks by 6:00PM instead of 7:00PM. Cinderella Castle with Dreamlights There are multiple things to do at the party.  First of all, hot cocoa, cider and cookies are distributed at select locations throughout Magic Kingdom.  While these stations are not as plentiful as the Trick or Treat stations at Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, the cookies are delicious.  Last year, there were different kinds of cookies at each location, which I hope to see continue this ...