Star Wars Rival Run 2019 Part 2: Joyful Miles Meet Up

After finishing up at the expo, we headed over to Art of Animation to check into our room. When we stayed here for Marathon Weekend, they offered us a free upgrade to a Lion King family suite so we decided to check and see if there were any upgrades available again. It never hurts to ask! They had a Cars suit available this time so we got to stay in a different part of the hotel. I'm not the hugest Cars fan and Will's never even seen them but we saw so many kids just so excited to see all of the Cars characters around the resort. Definitely a winner if your kids love these movies!


We ended up grabbing lunch at the hotel. Food is always a tricky thing to figure out for a runDisney weekend. On the one hand, if I'm running a half or challenge, it's a serious athletic event and I want to really nourish my body. On the other hand, I'm at Disney and I want to eat all the things! I had a really good breakfast and I opted for a salad for lunch so I could have some carbs at dinner.

This weekend, the meet up was held in Disney Springs down by the House of Blues. It was nice and quiet down there and I really enjoyed this location for the meet up. I ended up shopping after the meet up (Captain Marvel dress) and there are so many great places for dinner. Plus we stopped by Erin McKenna's for some gluten free dairy free donuts on the way to the meet up.

Four youtubers were hosting the meet up-Jackey of Joyful Miles, Gerald of RezRuns, Heather Jergensen and Kimberly of Belle.898. They are all really lovely people who love running and Disney. It was great to see them all again. It was the fourth meet up I've been to and it was great to catch up!

I've also made quite a few friends among the Joyful Miles Facebook group and many of them were also at the meet up. The runDisney community is awesome so please come connect with us even if you are just in the planning stage of your runDisney journey. My first meet up was at Wine and Dine 2018 and I didn't even run that weekend!

I'm a person who has always had a difficult time making friends, especially with other females. It's been absolutely amazing to be so welcomed by this community. Everyone has been so welcoming and kind.

As an introvert, I know how scary it can feel to go to a meet up when you don't know anyone. I probably wouldn't have gone to my first one if Will hadn't been there. But I'm so glad that I did! It makes me sad to think that I might never have gotten to meet all of these lovely people.

It's amazing how quickly I've connected with the Joyful Miles family! This meet up has quickly become one of the high points of my runDisney weekend. All of the youtubers are awesome, genuine people but I've also meet so many other wonderful people at these meet ups.

If you are planning your first runDisney weekend or have run at Disney before but haven't made any Disney running friends, I encourage you to connect with people on social media and come to a meet up like this. It really is better to do life together.

I had so many wonderful conversations that the meet up went by way too fast! A group of us ended up at Blaze Pizza for dinner because #carbs. Yummy! Since many of us had to get up really early for the 10k the next morning, we all headed back early to get some sleep.

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Star Wars Rival Run Posts:

Part 1: Expo
Part 2: Joyful Miles Meet Up-you are here.
Part 3: 10k
Part 4: Half Marathon
Part 5: Rival Run Challenge
Part 6: Kessel Run Challenge

Star Wars Rival Run 2019 Part 1: Expo

Finally, Star Wars Rival Run Weekend arrived! We headed out bright and early to hit up the expo on Friday. We arrived around 9:30 am which left us plenty of time to park and get in line for bib pickup before the expo officially opened at 10 am. Since we were running both the Rival Run Challenge and the Kessel Run Challenge, we had to stop at two pick up stations. First, we got our Rival Run bib and then had our challenge photo taken. For the challenges, runDisney uses a photo taken at the expo to verify your id after the half (or marathon if you run Dopey or Goofy). Then we stopped by the Kessel booth to get our wristband and our virtual medal.

I was really excited to get the R2D2 virtual medal. It was the one I was most looking forward to getting. It's so cute! And inside the virtual medal box was a surprise gift-a mini medal replica pin! I love the medal pins and I was really excited to get one for the virtual race. I immediately put on my medal to wear at the expo.

They moved the bib pickup to the same building as the runDisney official merchandise and the bib area exited right onto the merchandise floor. I really enjoyed this set up as I was really excited to check out all of the Star Wars goodies! We ran into several friends from the Joyful Miles Facebook group at the expo. I've really loved getting to know so many wonderful people through runDisney. My running friends are the best!

I ended up picking up just a few things. I grabbed mini medal replica pins from the 10k, half and challenge. They had sold out of the Kessel mini medal replica pin on Thursday so I skipped that one. I also picked up another baseball cap. I've really fallen in love with running in ball caps! And there were several options available during this weekend. I ended up picking the challenge one. It has a tie fighter and x-wing on it. I decided to skip magnets for this weekend. I didn't love any of the designs and with all of the free passholder magnets I've been getting, my magnet collection is already getting a bit out of hand! No Dooney and Bourke purse this year either but that made my wallet happy.

We also stopped for some character photos outside the runDisney merchandise area. Boba Fett wasn't out yet (the characters have limited hours during the expo) but we did get a great shot with the Han Solo in carbonite background. It was so much fun!

And the other character was R2D2 which was perfect for a medal photo with our virtual half medals. The R2 was one owned by a 501st member and he was beautiful! The 501st really knock Star Wars cosplay out of the park and I love that they were here for the weekend!

Then we headed over to the main expo area for shirts and to check out the vendors. I ran into an issue with my shirts. I had originally ordered a women's small but like for Princess and Marathon weekends, they were too big. But they didn't have any XS available! Ah! I did check back later and was able to get a set of XS shirts but if you think you might need a shirt at either end of the size range, order the one on the end as it's easier to exchange for sizes in the middle.

I didn't end up getting anything from the vendors this time which ended up being a good thing as I ended up picking up a few more Disney things during the rest of the trip. I love going to the Dress Shop in Disney Springs to try on the new Disney dresses. I ended up falling in love with the Captain Marvel dress! I didn't really know anything about Captain Marvel before seeing the movie but I loved Vers/Carol Danvers! (Don't worry! Proper outfit photos to follow!)

And I also finally jumped on the Loungefly backpack bandwagon and got the matching Captain Marvel backpack. I might have gone a bit overboard.... but the runDisney virtual summer series is Marvel themed and there is a Captain Marvel one. :D

And the inside has a really cool Marvel print fabric! I love fun design details like that.

Speaking of Disney Springs, we headed over there for the Joyful Miles meet up after the expo so keep an eye out for that post coming soon!

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Star Wars Rival Run Posts:

Part 1: Expo-you are here.
Part 2: Joyful Miles Meet Up
Part 3: 10k
Part 4: Half Marathon
Part 5: Rival Run Challenge
Part 6: Kessel Run Challenge

Hollywood & Little Black Dresses

Hollywood Studios is one of my very favorite parks to dress up at! The Art Deco theming at the front of the park is so perfect for anyone who loves a vintage look. So while the weather in Florida is reasonable, I take ever opportunity to dress glamorously in the parks.

I've been into wiggle dresses lately and I've made several so far including this beautiful black one. Black is my favorite color to wear. It goes with everything and gives me an opportunity to wear some of my more colorful accessories like this beautiful Disneyland D brooch.

I made the dress from Simplicity 3526 which is a juniors pattern from 1951. I loved the pleats at the waist and the vents on the sides of the skirt. Plus the straps are wide enough to cover my bra straps which is a win. I have found that I really enjoy a simple design with one or two interesting details. I've already used this pattern twice more so I think it's safe to say that it will be a regular in my sewing projects for this year.

Personally, I prefer to travel light in the parks. It's too much effort to lug around a huge bag all day plus you get through security a lot faster with a clutch! I'm wearing my black Vans sneakers with this outfit. We do a ton of walking when we are at Disney so comfortable shoes are a must! Even for Dapper Day I go with comfort over style.

We had a really great meet and greet with Kylo Ren. I jumped at the chance to join the First Order when he offered. I'm definitely a dark side gal! Come on, we have cookies!

 Overall, we had an absolutely amazing day enjoying all the Star Wars things! I'm so excited for Galaxy's Edge to open later this year. It's going to be so amazing!

March Running Recap

March turned out to be another month full of running! I ran two races and finished ramping up for Star Wars Weekend. So here we go!

On March 1, I started out my running with a bang and ran a 5k. The Emerald City 5k was a great Wizard of Oz themed race. It was my very first evening race and I had a lot of fun. Even though I had just run the Princess Challenge the weekend before, I managed to PR my 5k and earn a really cute medal.

The next weekend saw another back to back long run weekend for Star Wars Weekend. I ran 4 miles on Saturday and took the opportunity to run test my Star Wars 10k costume. It went really well except that I ran into a million people while on my run dressed up in a crazy costume. Oh, well! The next day I decided to run 13.1 miles for the Star Wars Virtual Half Marathon. It was a rough, rough run and you can read all about it here.

Weekend three of March was another short 4 mile week which was great because the Tuesday before this long run, I dropped a mason jar of salsa on my big toe and banged it up pretty good. I skipped my Thursday run and it was much better by Sunday. I opted for another costume test this week and ran in my Star Wars half marathon costume.

Then came my last back to back run weekend! And I really over scheduled my social activities this weekend and it turned into a challenge weekend dry run. Friday, I hit the Orlando outlet mall and then Epcot for the evening. Saturday, I ran 5 miles and then headed out to Animal Kingdom for the day. Then it was 14 miles on Sunday plus napping. Phew, that really took it out of me! I don't recommend doing this much Disney and running in one weekend unless you are getting medals.

I didn't feel so great the Monday after my 14 miler but I thought I was just really tired, but on Tuesday, it was clear I was actually sick so I skipped my run (and work) and just walked on Thursday when I was feeling a bit better. My sinuses were still super stuffy for my long run of 4 miles that weekend, but the rest of my body felt fine so I took them very easy.

April is going to start off strong with Star Wars Rival Run Weekend but then I'll be winding down for the summer off season. I'm really looking forward to giving my body a break and getting to run just for fun.

Star Wars Virtual Half Marathon Race Recap

Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, there were two Disney parks with Star Wars race weekends, one light and one dark. Courageous heroes who completed races at both weekends were rewarded with the coveted Kessel Run medal. Alas, tragedy struck when one race weekend was canceled indefinitely. To preserve the honor of winning a medal featuring the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy, runDisney instituted a virtual half marathon in place of the light side race. And so, the tradition lives on.

Which is my very over the top way of saying that Will and I decided to do the Kessel Run Challenge as part of our 10 year anniversary Star Wars Weekend extravaganza. We love Star Wars but we also love getting two extra runDisney medals for $80.

A virtual race, if you've never done one before, is where you race by yourself for a specified distance. Most of them are pretty chill and encourage people to break up the distance over multiple runs if you need to. It's a great way to get some fun bling without the expense of traveling. The Kessel Run Challenge involves running the Star Wars Virtual Half Marathon as well as the Star Wars Rival Run Half Marathon or Challenge. I had a 14 mile and a 12.5 mile run in my training schedule for the challenge so it was really a no brainer for me to add on the Kessel Challenge.

So I picked a date, printed out my bib and set out. Before I go any further, I want to say a lot of things went wrong with this run. I decided to bump my 12.5 mile run up to 13.1 for the virtual since I scheduled a Disney day the day before my 14 mile run (another bad decision but more on that in my March running recap). And when that 12.5 mile day came around, we had near record breaking high temperatures. And since I needed to do back to back runs for my challenge training, I didn't have a lot of wiggle room in moving my long run to a different day. So I knew going into the run that it was not going to be the most fun.

I also had picked up some Nuun tablets to try out. During Princess weekend, I realized that I really need to work on my electrolyte strategy so I decided to try Nuun. I really like using whole foods in my nutrition but I didn't think that carrying around a bag of pickles to eat while I run sounded like a good plan. I wanted to take Nuun out with me for this run to see how I handled it. You can probably guess where this is going.

I felt ok during the beginning of the run but around mile 6, I started to feel really worn out. I used my heat racing strategy and took an extra walk break when I felt like I needed it once per mile. I also stopped into my church for a bit of ac and a refill of my water bottle. Sorry to everyone who had to see my sweaty self right before church service! I was moving more slowly but finally I was headed home.

But more issues started around mile 9. I began to feel nauseous so I switched from my 60/30 intervals to a 45/45 interval. That usually helps me keep moving and maintain a pretty good pace but it didn't help too much. I ended up walking the entire last mile and stopping several times feeling like I was going to be sick. The Nuun definitely did not agree with me!

But in the end, I made it home! This race was my slowest half marathon yet but I persevered through a lot of tough situations and learned somethings that did not work for me. What did work out great was my hat! It was such a nice shade for my face as the sun came up. I do have prescription sunglasses but I haven't figured out what to do for races where you start in the dark but then it gets sunny. I don't want to lug around two pairs of glasses for a half marathon. I hope this hat will help solve that problem!

And now for the bling! Tada!


Oh, wait, never mind. If you run just the virtual half, runDisney mails you your medal, usually after the race period is over. Since we are running the Kessel Challenge, we pick up our virtual medal at the Star Wars Rival Run Expo. Once I get my pretty R2D2 medal, I'll put up a lovely picture of it here.

Even though this run was really hard, I'm glad I did this race. It's always a good thing to push yourself to meet your goals. Plus the R2D2 medal is my favorite design of the medals for Star Wars this year. It looks so good!