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!

Princess Half Marathon 2019 Part 4: Fairy Tale Challenge

We did it! Both Melissa and I ran our very first runDisney challenge at the Princess Half Marathon Weekend. It's called the Fairy Tale Challenge and includes running the 10k and half marathon on Princess Weekend. So after returning to our rooms for a shower, we decided to hit the parks to celebrate! Woohoo!

After getting Mulan to sign our 10k medal, we had to try and catch the other two princesses. Luckily, you can meet both Jasmine and Aurora in Epcot. Jasmine had quite a short line and her cue and meet area are air conditioned which is a bonus on hot days. She was quite sweet and very impressed with our medals.

We both promised to come visit Agrabah some time. Jasmine said she could arrange a flying carpet tour so we could rest our legs. Too bad Carpet wasn't around to give us a lift that day!

We got to Aurora early and waited for her. She had quite a long line, much longer than either Mulan or Jasmine. The photographer and assisting cast member were super organized and kept everybody moving but we didn't really get much character interaction-just photos and our medals signed. If you really want a great character interaction with your medal signing, I'd recommend going on a day other than that of the race where they'll probably be a shorter line or going to a less popular meet and greet area like we did with Donald for Marathon weekend if you can meet the character in more than one park.

I definitely need to go meet Aurora another time when she is not quite so swamped with fans! We grabbed lunch in Epcot as well. Melissa and I are both trying to eat at places we've never eaten at before so we decided to stop at Germany for some brauts and chips. I tried sauerkraut for the first time. I don't think the kraut they had was particularly strong but I actually kind of liked it. Maybe now I won't be so scared of German food.

Then we headed off to the Magic Kingdom for some medal photos with the castle. So magical! I will say that it's pretty annoying walking around wearing more than one medal so I recommend just wearing one at a time and taking the rest out for photos. Whatever finish they used on the Aurora medal scratched really easily so the Jasmine challenge medal was the one I decided to wear in the park.

We ended the day with some really great fastpasses. Despite it being race weekend, I didn't feel like the parks were overly crowded. It's definitely possible to get in some good park time during a runDisney weekend and I actually like having to walk around after a long race. I think it really helps with my recovery.

Speaking of recovery, this weekend really exhaused me so I was glad to have called off of work on Monday to have a day to recuperate at home... and wash all of my stinky running clothes. I know not every one has the option to take that extra recover day, but if you can, I recommend it especially if you run more than one race in a weekend. That's a wrap for Princess weekend but don't worry because Star Wars Rival Run Weekend is just around the corner!

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Princess Half Marathon 2019:

Part 1: Expo
Part 2: 10k Race Recap
Part 3: Half Marathon Race Recap
Part 4: Fairy Tale Challenge Race Recap-You are here.

Princess Half Marathon 2019 Part 3: Half Marathon Race Recap

Sunday started out early, really early. And not because my alarm went off but because I woke up with a splitting headache in the middle of the night. Luckily, I always carry my migraine meds with me. After taking some, I took another shower and did actually manage to fall asleep for a few more hours. I was feeling much better when my alarm did finally go off and Melissa and I both got ready for the half pretty quickly. We were able to make it to the start area early and take advantage of the short character lines.

There were some character repeats from the 10k but we did get Anna, Elsa, Merida and Pocahontas. The start corrals for the half are a good half mile away so once we finished photos and grab some water, we headed out. We made it to the corrals with plenty of time to spare and grabbed a great spot near the front. I did get to see some crazy stuff while we waited including some corral jumpers and one person who was trying to argue their way into a better corral. Please just go to the corral assigned to you! And if you are running late, just join a later corral.

Unlike the 10k, we definitely had a time goal for the half. We had to check out of our Airbnb by 11:30 am so we needed to make decent time during the half. After the heat and humidity on Saturday, we decided to not stop for characters before Magic Kingdom so we could focus on getting in as many miles as possible before the sun came up. Thankfully, it felt much less humid. I also saved my cooling towel from the 10k to use during the half and decided to drink two glasses of water at each water station instead of one.

The one shot we really wanted to get was a castle shot. There are always several photographers down in front of the castle, just off of the course. They don't usually have a long line especially if you go to one further down.

We got some amazing candid shots from Magic Kingdom. I don't know if they just have more photographers out since Princess has more daylight than Marathon Weekend or if I just missed all of the photographers Marathon Weekend but I'm so happy with the shots! Right before one photographer, Melissa told me she was going to jump so I jumped too and the photographer managed to capture us! Yay jump shots!

There's a water stop just outside of Magic Kingdom, before you hit cone alley and this is where I started taking electrolytes. I knew that I had really failed on electrolytes during the 10k and, not wanting to have powerade for the first time during a race, I brought table salt packets to dissolve in water on course. It didn't taste that great but it didn't upset my stomach either. I also started grabbing a third up of water to drench my cooling towel in. It felt amazing on my neck!

Right after the water station, we ran into Laura of Joyful Miles and some other Joyful Milers so we had to stop for a selfie! And further on down in cone alley, we bumped into a few more Joyful Milers. It's been so great to make some runDisney friends and get to run into them on course! Cone alley usually also features the groomsmen with Cinderella's glass slipper but this race they were replaced by bridesmaids. There was literally no on in line to see them so we had to stop!

After the crowding of cone alley, I was ready for the wide open spaces of the highway to head back towards Epcot. Just like Saturday, it was still overcast when we made it to this part of the course which was amazing because there is basically no shade! It can be pretty brutal when the Florida sun is out. I wish they had more character stops out here but usually it's just Jack Sparrow. Pro tip: If the line for Jack is too long on the way out to Magic Kingdom, you'll have another shot on the way back to Epcot. While Melissa waited in line for the photo with Jack, I made a mad dash to the port-o-potties across the way. I usually don't have to use the bathroom during races but sometimes you've got to go. But I had plenty of time to get back in line for the photo.

Towards the end of the highway section, there are a series of "hills"-one on ramp and a few overpasses. If I'm feeling strong, I like to continue my intervals up them or walk if I'm feeling tired. I was still feeling pretty strong so I ran most of them.

Finally, we were back at Epcot! There are heaps of photopass photographers out so put your happy running face on! I also stopped for a posed photo with the ball in the background. The Epcot section for this race was really short so before we knew it, we were headed out to the finish line! Woohoo! Then it was medal time! We got our Aurora medal and then headed back to the challenge tent for our Jasmine Fairy Tale Challenge medal. Such beautiful bling! And then it was snack boxes and the obligatory "I did it" photo.

Princess Half Marathon

Time: 3:05:50

Pace: 14:11 min/mi

Despite the unfavorable weather conditions and frequent stops, my time was only about 15 mins slower than my marathon weekend PR. I was quite happy with that and we were doing good on time so we finished our snack boxes and grabbed a photo with Tiana.

We hit a snag when we went to leave the parking lot. The traffic was really bad and we sat for about half an hour with out moving at all. All of the incoming traffic was blocking outgoing traffic and they didn't have the traffic people out there soon enough to direct every one. And then once we got moving, we took a wrong turn which totally messed up the GPS which ate up even more time. So there was going to be no napping today. We did manage to shower, get presentable and pack up on time but it was a bit stressful!

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Princess Half Marathon 2019:

Part 1: Expo
Part 2: 10k Race Recap
Part 3: Half Marathon Race Recap-You are here.
Part 4: Fairy Tale Challenge Race Recap