Caribbean Running Cruise Day 3 - At Sea

Another fine day -- with little structure. Wil and I have decided to run every day while we are on the cruise... possibly beyond that. Most of the week was a given, since we have so many group runs. But today we were up to our own devices, so we got up, got dressed, and went up to the deck to run a mile. 

STILL stupid windy... but this time hot. Oh Dear. Should have added more time to my predicted race finish times!

We had to come back down to the room and shower before we could get breakfast -- we were that gross. From running a mile. Yowzers.

Very unscheduled all day -- so we did a little nosing around in the shops, attempted - twice -- to attend a shopping seminar (yeah, that was dumb), eating breakfast and lunch in the dining room (a meatless eggs benedict for breakfast, a massive salad and gnocchi for lunch), lounging in "the tongue" at the pool, and we went to hear John's talk.

I love hearing John talk about running, especially when he tells his story about getting started. But he also told some stories I hadn't heard before:

Talking to former marathon world-record holder Khalid Khannochi after the Chicago Marathon...

John: "What's the longest you've ever run?"

Khalid: "It was my worst ever marathon finish -- 2:12."

Aside from John to us -- now, most people in this room have run or walked longer than 2 hours and 12 minutes... so we've got ENDURANCE.

John: "I ran 5:37 today."

Khalid: "That's pretty fast for a guy your age..."

John: "No, you MOOK... 5 HOURS, 37 MINUTES..."

And a riff about what it's like at the back of the pack:

Post-race food? POST-race food? I didn't know there WAS post-race food for 4 or 5 years... by the time I got to the finish, there wasn't any... maybe a cookie on the floor or something.

And his classification of runners into four basic types:

1. Real fast. (The elites)

2. Pretty fast. (The sub elites)

3. Kinda fast. ("Trophy sniffers")

4. Penguins. 

After the talk we settled in at Boleros for the happy hour -- 2-for-1 rum punches (of course!). this time sitting in the bar and enjoying the gentility of it all. Later we went ack to the cabin and enjoyed our sunny balcony, writing and reading till it was time to go for dinner. 

Tonight we sat with Bud and Claudia from North Dakota, Ralph from Ohio, and Judy from Arizona. Again, two people didn't show up for dinner... I think we'll start to develop a complex about that...  For dessert I couldn't decide between the cherries jubilee and the cheese plate. I said I'd share the cherries jubilee with Wil... and proceeded to EAT ALL OF IT. Best part was that Bud called me out on it before I had even noticed. Oops. So, apparently, I like cherries jubilee. But don't feel too bad for Wil... he had a rum baba AND a Jaffa cake...

After dinner we headed up to Olive or Twist with John and Jenny and soon were joined by a lot of our fellow runners. 

Amusing moment: before any else ha arrived, the four of us shifted chairs and tables around to accommodate a largish group. A handful of JoCo cruisers were shopping for a table where they could see the track, because they were thinking of running around it. One of them nervously said, "Wait, do I have to run ALL THE WAY AROUND IT????"

Just then Belinda and some others arrived, a discussion of groups and tables arrived, and they shifted own so our group could stay together. Nice young chaps. (One left his DS sitting on the table... someone in our groups said to him, "You left your, um, phone?" He said he didn't have his phone with him, so Wil said "It's your DS.") Neeeerrrrd Boooooaaaat! 

(I should quickly point out that Wil and I firmly qualify as nerds... and that "NEEEEEERRRRRD BOOOOOOAAAAAT!" was a greeting by someone's Mii when street-passing with Wil. Yes, we ARE nerds...)

Tomorrow is our first early day -- a 7am race briefing before the ship docks at 8. Tomorrow we run in St. Maarten!

Caribbean Running Cruise Day 2 - Sunday Night Lights Predictor Run

photo by Jenny Hadfield

This morning stated with a phone call to let us know our room service was being delivered ... a VERY effective wake-up call!) Then we went to a strength and flexibility workout with jenny in the Solarium. It was a crazy windy morning -- so much so that the staff were tying down the deck chairs agains the wind. We struggled to hold on to our towels and our balance as Jenny led us through a circuit of 10 do-anywhere exercises -- a nice way to start the day.

gorgeous morning at sea!

For most of the day we took things pretty easy -- eating TOO MUCH (including a second breakfast with John and Jenny after the workout, where we had a chance to catch up.

our first towel animal of the cruise!

I suspect that's a Bahama Mama on the table there...

Other daytime highlights: submitting our predicted times for the events, picking up tickets for the ice show in a few days, trying the drink of the day -- a Bahama Mama -- at 11am, somehow eating an enormous salad at lunchtime, hoping for champagne at the "champagne art auction" and just giving up because the art was so terrible, deciding instead on 2-for-1 margaritas at what was to become "our" bar, Boleros, and a well-deserved nap.

Dinner was formal, so we gussied up and were seated with Gary and Leshia -- the folks who had read the blog. It's so fun tat these trips to have a chance to talk to other runners about the race they've run, where they're running next, etc.

Wil and I left dinner early because ... well, because today was the Super Bowl. So we watched the last few minutes of the first half, the halftime show (giant tiger puppet? heck yes, Katy Perry!), and then a short part of the second half.

Why only a short part? Because we had a NIGHT run to do!!!

Originally planned as an early morning event, the timing shifted to accommodate schedules and became the first ever SUNDAY NIGHT LIGHTS" run, complete with glow necklaces.

photo by Jenny Hadfield

Wil and I wore Seahawks gear (yeah, I know, funny) accented with Brite Pink Brooks calf sleeves and armwarmers.

photo by Jenny Hadfield

Because it was dark and Very Very Windy, the rules were adapted -- folks could run together, time themselves, whatever. John and Jenny were surprised that anyone actually showed up, but a bunch of us did!

Wil and I decided to run together -- the craziest, windiest three miles we've ever run. As you ran up the starboard side, the nearer you got to the bow, the stronger the headwind. You would just sorta adapt to it as you rounded the bow, but then as you turned to run along the port side toward the stern, the wind would gust and literally pick up your feet -- so much so, that a lot of us nearly tripped ourselves.

photo by Jenny Hadfield

But then an all-too fast trip down the port side, whooping at the timers, and then we turned along a wall ... where, when you cleared it, the wind would slam into you and knock you slightly sideways. Those of us running the staged marathon distance had to do this THIRTEEN AND A HALF TIMES -- 3 miles. It was pretty ridiculous... but also pretty fun.

photo by Jenny Hadfield

Meanwhile, while we ran loops around the deck, the JoCo cruisers were celebrating their "Fez Formal Night" -- and getting ready to watch the Princess Bride on the big scren. (And perhaps taking a little too much pride in the fact that they prevented the Super Bowl from being shown on the screen for everyone else on the boat... but it probably worked out better for the runners in the end ... fewer people meant we had more room to run.)

Wil nipped off to see the (for him, disappointing) end of the game, while I represented Team Wil-Sun and cheered... and drank... Wil came back up with the news, so we dinished cheering for the final finishers. (While wondering if speedy BJ was actually running 13 miles right then.)

photo by Jenny Hadfield

Then our sweaty, glowing, slightly giddy group went up to Olive or Twist for drinks, and we chatted with BJ & Janet and a few others before heading off for a late-night slice of pizza, some reading, and some writing. Another quiet sea day tomorrow!

Caribbean Running Cruise Day 1 - Embarcation Day

After a lazy morning (breakfast by the pool, a long walk on the beach, and browsing at a very large, very strange gift shop full of tat), we took an Uber to Port Everglades. We had a nice chat with our driver about running, cruises, San Francisco, Florida's flatness, and Morocco, of all things. 

Wil had received an email telling him we should arrive at the cruise terminal at 2. Which seemed absurd, since we needed to be on board at 3. It was also absurd that the email was sent to Wil, rather than me, since the reservation was primarily in my name. So… since *I* hadn't received that email, we just decided to head over at 11.

Arrived to slight chaos, but eventually cleared security (unwittingly "smuggling" a liter of fizzy water through) and then joined the check-in queue. 

We started to notice a lot of "unexpected" folks -- nerds and geeks and folks with colored hair, and lots of PAX and video game shirts. So, me being me, I asked. Apparently we've stumbled across the JoCo Cruise Crazy #5, named after Jonathan Coulton -- a singer/songwriter who "specializes in songs about geek culture" (saith Wikipedia). More on that later, I'm sure. 

More amusement at check-in -- I happened to give the clerk my credit card for shipboard expenses. He then laboriously filled out a form for "WILLIAM DELANEY" to sign, and I was told to sign on the back. Umm.

But we got it sorted out, got our SeaPass cards, and headed upstairs. We fully expected to enter a big waiting room to sit until our boarding group was called… but we found ourselves in the obligatory pre-cruise photo gauntlet, and then headed up the gangplank. Nice. 

We were scanned aboard (beep!) and then we were at a complete loss as to what to do next. We went exploring first… admiring the Royal Promenade (and, um, stopping for our first pint at the Dog & Badger pub...

... giggling at the decor in the Labyrinth (googly eyes on the ravens don't quite work, but who doesn't love a gogo-dancing Yeoman Warder-ette)...

... wondering at the suitability of some of the art for a cruise ship (though, to be fair, a lot of it was super cool) ...

...and, eventually, breaking down and braving the buffet for lunch.

Then it was 1:00, so we headed to our cabin -- we had splurged on a balcony and within five minutes we knew we had made the right decision. Glorious! (Though we may have spoiled us for any future cruise, I'm afraid!) 

Later we took our first dip in the hot tubs cantilevered off the side of the ship (awesome), had the drink of the day ("Miami Melon" -- and, look, no matter how terrible it sounds, you HAVE TO DRINK THE DRINK OF THE DAY -- every day. Rituals are important.)

When we arrived back in our room, our luggage had been delivered, so we set about unpacking. Now, I love unpacking into a hotel, even if we're just going to be somewhere for 2 nights. So this is one of my favorite things about cruising.

Also attended the obligatory muster drill -- definitely lessened by the lack of orange life vests -- and that our muster station is a dining room. But whatever. 

We had our welcome reception with John and Jenny at 5:30 -- where we saw some old friends - BJ and Janet, Rick and Belinda (from Alaska), Deborah (from Peru), and of course Mila, who greeted us with a big hug. I was surprised by how big the group is -- 127 people! -- which is awesome. A lot of the cruisers are repeat offenders -- apparently, a lot of people do this cruise every year as their winter sun getaway. 

John gave us (and Brooks) a shout out, which was nice, and told everyone about the bronzed shoe. 

Ernst -- a TEN-YEAR trip veteran -- was honored with a Marathon Expeditions jacket (awww); the newcomers (not the Newcomers, ha ha) were given special attention, too. A nice get together … and not just because we had a couple of glasses of wine. 

We all marched to dinner as a group in the Macbeth dining room -- sorry, the SCOTTISH PLAY dining room -- having received special dispensation to arrive late because our meeting had to be scheduled after the late muster drill. (And we may not have been dressed appropriately, but them's the breaks…)

On this cruise, we had a block of tables, and every night we are assigned to a different one, so we get a chance to meet our fellow runners, occasionally dine with John or Jenny, and just generally mix it up. This night we were at an 8-top with Nancy and Roger, Ken and Laura, and Tom and Kathy.

When we put in our dessert orders, Roger said he wanted nothing for dessert. And he received it... IN ABUNDANCE!

After dinner we heeded up to Olive or Twist for an after-dinner drink… or two. We had a chance to talk with Tone and Dawn from Coventry, as well as Gary and Leshia, who had read our blog before they went on their Alaska cruise. Awww. 

I'm really excited about this group -- everyone seems really lovely. 

2015 Caribbean Running Cruise - we're home!

We arrived home from our amazing Caribbean Running Cruise vacation late Sunday night, and it feels like we've been running full speed ever since. I am going to type up all my "paperblog" notes over the next few days, but just wanted to make a quick post to say a huge THANK YOU to our hosts, John "The Penguin" Bingham and Coach Jenny Hadfield, our cruise helpers Mila and Karen, and all of our fellow cruisers -- thanks a million for making this run-cation so fantastic!

Caribbean Running Cruise - we're on our way!

What is it about going on vacation that means you are crazy busy at work for the week before you go? But never mind -- today we're flying to Fort Lauderdale, and tomorrow we set sail!
You may recall that we hadn't really thought about going on this trip -- we loved our Alaska Running Cruise, we adore John and Jenny, and we loved our Inca Trail Adventure... but it wasn't until a Manhattan-tinged evening with J&J that we thought, well, you know, we do love a bit of winter sun...
Even then, this almost snuck up on us... probably because we're absurdly spoiled and had a couple of other trips in between! So a little hurried packing, some last-minute house tidying (can't let our cat-sitter, Andrew, know that we live in squalor!), and an early morning Uber to the airport... and we're on the flight
It's funny... flying on a Friday to Fort Lauderdale means that the plane is FULL of people going on cruises. We can hear others talking about their itineraries, listing ports, etc. -- and clearly, a lot of people are on our ship. I didn't spot any obvious running cruisers, however -- but I wouldn't be surprised if there was someone on board with us!
In the last week or so, people have been asking us about the cruise, and where we're going. I think both of us were a little embarassed to realize that we haven't *really* thought about it much. I mean, we're not driving, we're just passengers! And we know the basic set-up: we get to a port, get off the boat, and run. :) It wasn't until two days ago that we read through the cruise info...
So, in nutshell, here's our itinerary:
Saturday, January 31 - we set sail aboard the Independence of the Seas from Fort Lauderdale at 5pm. We'll have a welcome reception with John, Jenny, and our fellow runners, and then head to dinner.
Sunday, February 1 - we have a morning session with Jenny, then the rest of the day free while we're at sea. Apparently, there's a football game on in the evening? We'll also do our first run -- a 3-mile deck run. At night. With glow necklaces. (Now, I LOVE a deck run -- looping around the ship as it's sailing is pretty awesome. But add in glow necklaces and I'm pretty much in heaven. Spoiler alert - I've brought my Brite Pink RUN HAPPY calf sleeves for this one!)
Monday, February 2 - another sea day, we'll have an afternoon session with John, but we're otherwise free. Dinner in the evening, drinks after.
Tuesday, February 3 - we have an early morning race briefing, then we have a "scenic 10K" in St. Maarten. Should be a lovely day -- we arrive at 8, start running at 8:15, and then have until 6pm to explore the town. (Apparently, there's a local liqueur called "Guavaberry"...) Dinner, drinks, repeat.
Wednesday, February 4 - we have an early morning race briefing, then we're off the ship in Basseterre, St. Kitts for a traditional Hash House Harriers 10K trail run. To get to the start, we'll pile in buses for a 25-minute ride, run in a botanical garden, then celebrate with a traditional Hash House Harrier ceremony and BBQ lunch. We have the rest of the day to explore -- apparently Basseterre has beautiful 18th-century architecture -- before the ship sails at 5pm. Dinner, drinks...
Thursday, February 5 - another early morning race briefing, then we're off on a Pirate-themed Amazing Race! 10K-ish... if you don't get lost... but we'll have a chance to explore San Juan, Puerto Rico as we go. We have less time in this port -- the ship sails at 2pm -- but we *might* just make it out to the Bacardi distillery... Then dinner, drinks, the usual.
Friday, February 6 - sleep-in day! Our race briefing is at 9am, and we'll be off the ship at 10 and start our relay race shortly after. We'll be running four miles each... assuming our little legs haven't given out on us by this point! We'll spend the rest of the day relaxing in Labadee, Haiti -- Royal Caribbean's private paradise. Back on the ship before 6, then dinner, drinks, and some celebrating.
Saturday, February 7 - our last day at sea, and pretty much open. We'll have our award ceremony and farewell reception starting at 3, then dinner, then ... there will be DANCING.
Sunday, February 8 - it's back to reality, as we disembark (debark? surely that's something one does to a tree?), and fly home to Seattle.

Star Wars Rebel Challenge Weekend recap

I can't believe it's taken this long to write this post -- but you know, life gets messy and all that! But we had an amazing time at the Star Wars Half Marathon weekend at Disneyland.

We flew down on Friday morning, finding the expo very quiet -- which was both a relief (since there were huge lines on Thursday when expo opened) and a little sad (a lot of the merchandise was already long gone). But with a little help from friends who arrived earlier, we got the two things we really wanted, the Star Wars pint glass:

And the medal replica pins:

We picked up a couple of the 2015 runDisney Vinylmation figures -- neither of which was the Minnie chase figure, unfortunately -- and were again a little surprised and disappointed that, as with Avengers, there were no "mini medals".

All told, there *was* a lot of swag... THREE RACE SHIRTS!!!! ... plus the pins and necklace we had preordered...

We then ran a few errands, checked in to our hotel, and arranged to meet up with Suz at Trader Sam's for her "finder's fee":

The pool -- and lunch -- and  a nap -- was calling, so we took it easy the rest of the day, only venturing into the parks in the evening. (Frozen Fun? Sure!)

Saturday morning, bright and early, we made the trek across Downtown Disney to the starting area for the Star Wars 10K. Really fun to see all the costumes as we made our way up to corral B.

By the time we got there, the hosts were already well into their chatter, and had been joined by C-3PO and R2-D2. The hosts were wearing costumes -- cute! -- and soon introduced the national anthem, and then the wheelers left. It occurred to me that the wheelers would finish the 10K circuit before the last corral started.

Corral A left very shortly behind the wheelers, and then it was our turn to move up. The corrals felt large, but not too crowded. We took off to a nice animation:

... but there was some clumping just before the start, as a lot of people clearly tried to get clearer versions of this shot:

(On Sunday I noticed that the hosts weren't in costume... and there were no characters on the stage when we passed. Disney is Very Good at making quick changes...)

I loved the 10K course -- we did a half loop of the parks first, which gave us nice broad roads to run on while the pack stretched out a little. Then we turned and ran into the park, which I especially liked because I didn't think we'd ever been backstage in that area before. In fact, I got completely turned around and wasn't sure where I was. Another benefit of this course: I can't imagine that they needed to sweep many people, since the runners were off the public streets before mile 2.

LOVE this 10K course!

Favorite race highlight: running through California Adventure, we saw a LOOOOOONNNNGGGG line for a character photo -- with BOBA FETT! As we got closer, I shouted "I LOVE YOU BOBA FETT" and he turned to look at me, and did a little nod of the head... you know, the one that sets all the girls' hearts a-flutter...

After all the waffling about my costume, I was really happy with it -- though my thought of making the bandolier bag lightweight sorta backfired -- it was so light that it was difficult to actually keep on, so I spent much of the 10K holding on to it so it didn't fall off. For the half, I simply pinned the bag down, and pinned the bandolier to my shoulder and back so it didn't move around. Problem solved.

We didn't manage to attract many photos during the race (hey, it's only a 10K), but we picked up our medals and snapped this photo:

We were sitting on our balcony, planning out the rest of our day, when we decided that rather than having a nap first, we'd go straight to the parks. When we got there, we discovered it was actually Extra Magic Hours... but the very nice castmember took a look at us, with our medals and bibs and outfits, and let us go in. Very nice.

We spent a quick hour riding all of "our" rides, and then went back for a swim an a nap.

(Do you see a pattern? Swimming and naps always feature pretty highly in our Disneyland trips...)

Sunday was another Very Early Morning -- the 5:30 starts for runDisney events is a little hard to get used to! But we walked over to the start area again. More amazing costumes -- none of which I captured on film (because I always feel funny about that). Yeah, I'm a dork.

A little trouble getting into Corral B -- people weren't moving up, so we couldn't squeeze into the back, but we knew that as soon as the corral was called forward, we would be fine.

The start was pretty uneventful, other than the fact that a guy in a FULL CHEWBACCA SUIT started in the same corral, which made me feel like I just hadn't tried hard enough (ha!). BTW, the guy in the suit was near us for much of the race. As Wil pointed out, maybe the guy is training to run Badwater and needed to practice running in crazy heat?

Star Wars Half Marathon course map

The half marathon course was different again and I really liked that we entered the park backstage in a new area. I love that Disney makes different courses for each of their events. Other than the all-too-brief time in the parks (again, no Castle run-through), my favorite part of the course was when we ran down what I assume was the old Main Street in Garden Grove. There was a cute Mexican restaurant with a guy standing outside dressed as Elvis. When we go back down in May for Tinker Bell, we're going there for dunner one night.

For obvious reasons, there were more spectators out for the half -- we did run past one high school band that had a pretty amazing tauntaun mascot costume, and another where the cheerleaders got Very Excited about my Chewie-esque costume and did a lot of shrieking. Bless.

Having not run long since, oh, the Avengers Half Marathon back in November, I got pretty tired out by mile 10. But Wil kept us moving (and, hey, we wanted to stick with the guy in the Chewie suit!), and we crossed the finish line hand-in-hand and with a nice shout out in a not-too-shabby 2:32.

Chewie gets a medal!!!

Amusing: as we headed down the home stretch, a guy shouted to Wil: "Don't let the Wookiee win!" Sadly, due to the vagaries of timing, Wil "beat" me (place-wise) both days... despite posting identical times. Sigh.

Things we loved:
- all the costumes!
- the 10K course was great. (Between Tinker Bell and Star Wars, this was by far the better 10K course.)
- the half marathon medal -- we didn't wear it much (preferring to wear the Rebel Challenge medal in the parks), but having it be a replica of the Yavin medal is fantastic.
- stormtroopers stationed on the ramps of the Carousel of Progress
- multiple stormtrooper photo op stations during the half marathon
- the "free hugs" Chewie and Stormtrooper who stood out on Harbor Boulevard ALL MORNING during the half
- the cosplay group out during the half -- loved seeing so many different costumes, all so well done!

Room for improvement:
- personally, I could, I dunno, TRAIN for a race again someday...
- post-race photo ops -- I love when they put up "selfie backgrounds" so you can take your own post-race pic... but I can see that that makes Marathonfoto unhappy...

And the usual wishes:
- more characters
- more time in the parks
- more entertainment outside of the parks