Hi all! Linkup Friday!! Thanks to our amazing hostesses: the DC Trifecta Bloggers (Courtney from Eat Pray Run DC, Mar from Mar on the Run, and Cynthia from You Signed Up For What?!).  This week's theme is gratitude,. Here are the things I am most thankful for over Thanksgiving break :) 

1. My boyfriend 
He puts up with my crazy self and all these "weird rules" I have around eating and running and supports me 100%. He enjoyed his first half at Avengers and said he would think about running more races! 

2. My blends
Blog-friends. The running community I have found online is nothing short of amazing. You people GET it and I couldn't be happier! I love meeting my blends in person. 

3. Rundisney
Without it, I would have never fallen in love with running. I LOVE their races and even though they are expensive, I am ready to run more. 48.6 miles in 4 days? BRING IT! 

4. My blog
Cheesy but with my busy life, it makes me happy to write every morning. Hopefully over the years, my blog will continue to grow! 

5. My body
It is crazy how far I have come in a year with my running and how far I want to go. 
From dreaming of one day of running a Marathon and actually doing it then signing up to run one in Jan and one in March along with entries for one in the Fall (more on this plan coming soon!)
From dreaming of a sub 2:30 half to achieving a sub 2:15
From dreaming of doing a 10k under 1:10 to doing it in 1:02 and going sub 1:00 yesterday (recap on Tuesday!)
From dreaming of one day reaching a sub 10 min mile pace to accomplishing a sub 30 5k

It's incredible what your body can do!


What are you thankful for on the thanksgiving weekend? 

As I said last time, we went to bed a bit late and woke up at lovely 3:30. I definitely learned I need that 8pm bedtime to be able to function for this early wake up calls. 

We all meet up at 4:20 by the stage and got some pics before doing one final potty break and off to the corrals. We had about half an hour there before we all got started.

So they have started this thing of letting 2 corrals go at once and I'm not a fan of it. The beginning is pretty crowded. I wish they would do what WDW does and release them 2-3 min apart. I'm still amazed at wine and dine there was not any crowding. 

I moved back to E to be with Ralph and off we went. Ralph wanted to go much faster but I knew we needed to start slow because he would crash and burn and so would I with my leg. 

I stopped for a pic with the Green Army Man (never gotten one before!) and continued on. The wind was picking up and somewhere between here and entering Disneyland I lost my brand new glasses! I've literally worn them 4 times and they are so lightweight they must have blown off in the a wind gust. 

A pause here about the weather: it was breezy in the corrals and the park was fine. Once we left, it was out of control. From looking at the weather after, it looks like the wind was 20-30 MPH with gusts up to 50 MPH! I'm surprised more people didn't fall but it definitely messed with footing. Without my glasses to protect me from the leaves and dirt, I had to use my shield. Luckily it worked well! 

As expected, all of the Avenger lines were crazy long. Looking back, I probably should have stopped for one but my leg felt good and I didn't want to risk it messing up. 

EAT WELL

PAST WEEK:
I pretty much ate the whole house this week. I have had this new phenomena where I am not hungry a day or 2 after a race but after that (3-4 days out) I AM RAVENOUS. I ate all the carbs and food this week but chalk it up to recovery. I feel much better this week. 

THIS WEEK:
Back to regular eating! I made some crockpot food so I have stuff for the rest of the week. So ready for thanksgiving! I am making: Cranberry sauce, gluten free stuffing and creamy corn! 

SLEEP WELL

PAST WEEK: Sleep is much more on track now. I slept most of the day on Saturday and it felt great to do nothing. I am still shocked I did not get a cold during my crazy October. 
THIS WEEK:
I need to get at least 7-8 hours of sleep per night. I need to be rested for this crazy running week. 

EXERCISE WELL:
Kinda sucked but I rested and my leg feels much better now! 
PAST WEEK:
MON: rest day
TUES: 2 miles at 11:19 pace-leg still a bit of a mess :/
WEDS: Rest Day
THURS: Rest Day but got in 20 min of good stretching
FRI: Piyo Upper Body-kicked my butt. I am so out of it with Piyo-need to get back into it! 
SAT: Rest Day
SUN: 4 miles (10:49 pace). My leg feels much better! 

THIS WEEK:
MON: Rest Day but 45 min of stretching and rolling
TUES: 3 miles (10:26 pace)
WEDS: 4 miles
THURS: 5k+ 10k
FRI: 23 miles
SAT: yoga 
SUN:  rest day but Disneyland as well 

BE WELL
PAST WEEK:

• UCLA sucked because we lost :( 
• great time at Howl at the Moon!
• great time at friend's bday party
• actually got to relax on Saturday and Sunday-for so long! 

THIS WEEK:

• 3 day work week including today where I get to work on my paper!
• Thanksgiving! yay food!
• last home football game of the year on Saturday
• Disneyland day on Sunday

So for you, how was your week???

Another Tuesday, another Tuesday on the Run hosted by our favorites: 
April from Run the Great Wide Somewhere, Erika from MCM Mama Runs, and Patty from No-Guilt Life.This week's topic for Tuesday's on the Run is Running Favorites. 

One of my new favorites is ProCompression leggings! I bought a pair after seeing them on many bloggers. They are a bit pricey (80 bucks!!) but they have been on sale for 50 bucks which is a pretty good deal. Even better, I had a 40% off with free shipping from Stuftmama so the total came to 32 bucks each with tax! What a bargain!

I ordered a medium after some debate. My thighs are bigger so I knew I would want to size up from a Small. I ordered the black with green piping so I could wear them at Dopey if needed. They came within 5 days. 

I wore them around the wine and dine half and avengers half and slept in them both nights and they were heavenly. They were tight enough to feel the compression but not suffocating. Also, the piping at the top and the bottom is so cute! 

I ordered 2 more pairs (black with Pink and plain black) using HungryRunnerGirl's code. Those also came within 5 days!

I can't recommend them enough! At Rock n roll LA expo, I stopped by the ProCompression booth and I was told they are going to come out with tights by the end of next year or beginning of this year so we will have to wait and see. 

Does anyone else have compression gear that they love? 

I've decided to join a new linkup focusing on Disney! With my trip I just had for Wine and Dine as well as 3 trips happening in the next 7 months, I will have a lot to talk about. 

Thanks to John at run.geek.rundisney and Katie from Adventures by Katie for hosting! On this Magical Mickey Monday, I will be discussing the Festival of the Fantasy parade. 

I finally saw this parade 2 weeks ago after hearing amazing things for so long. I didn't see it in May because the chances of it getting rained out are high (the 2 times I did try and see it, it rained!). 

We decided to get fastpass+ to ensure we saw it. We had prime viewing in front of the castle and it was not crowded at all. 

This parade did not disappoint. I LOVED IT! The floats were amazing and so detailed and so were the costumes. And the dragon is truly a sight to be seen. 

The characters in the parade: 
Mickey,Minnie, Donald, Goofy
Ariel from the Little Mermaid
Elsa and Anna form Frozen
Tiana and Naveen from Princess and the Frog
Rapunzel and Eugene from Tangled
Maleficient dragon and 3 fairies and Prince Philip from Sleeping Beauty
Peter, Wendy, Captain Hook from Peter Pan
Belle and Beast from Beauty and the Beast
Merida from Brave
and more!! 

We will definitely see it in June when I go with my family and I know my little sister will freak because all of her favorite characters are in it- Ariel, Tiana, Anna and Elsa, Rapunzel, etc. 

I can't recommend this parade enough. Another thing is it is pretty short-I think 15 min total. Would I use FP+? Probably not as there is good viewing points in frontier land. However if you want to get prime viewing right in front of the castle and not have to worry about it, FP+ is the way to go. 

What do you think about the Festival of Fantasy Parade? 

Hi all! Linkup Friday!! Thanks to our amazing hostesses: the DC Trifecta Bloggers (Courtney from Eat Pray Run DC, Mar from Mar on the Run, and Cynthia from You Signed Up For What?!). 


There are many foods that remind me of Fall mainly things involving gingerbread and pumpkin! Here are my top 5 below. 

1. Pumpkin spice
You know my one true fall love is a PSL from Starbucks (the Dunkin version is also amazing!) so anything with pumpkin is fair game. I bought some pumpkin spice salsa I fell in love with and can't wait to buy more. 


2. Gingerbread spice
Once halloween is over, my love turns to gingerbread. I have yet to have a gingerbread latte yet but it is my favorite (peppermint latte is right behind-I used to drink them while studying for finals in college). 


3. Mulled wine
I love warm wine! It sounds weird but tastes so good! Here is a pack to order off of Amazon that my friends recommend (see picture below:it is an Affiliate link!)

4. Christmas tree gin
It is literally christmas in a cup! All you do is take a bottle of gin, put In a pine branch and let it sit for 24 hours. After that, you take the branch out, strain it and it good for one year. 

My friends and I mix it with lime juice, and champagne and its heavenly. 


5. Stuffing 
My favorite thanksgiving side dish! Now this year I just need to figure it out with a gluten free option. It's just so delicious! 


Want to make your own pumpkin and gingerbread spice? See below!


PUMPKIN SPICE

• 1/4 c (or 4 T) cinnamon 
• 2 T ginger  
• 1 T nutmeg 
• 1 T all spice 
  

GINGERBREAD SPICE

• 2 T cinnamon
• 2 T ginger
• 1 T allspice
• 1 T nutmeg
• 1 T ground cloves 
  

What are your favorite fall foods? 

EAT WELL

PAST WEEKS:

I carbloaded well for Wine and Dine and really enjoyed Food and Wine festival. I avoided gluten as much as possible and actually felt great most of the time. Also, for the amount of wine I had, I am super lucky I never felt sick or had a hangover. I think it was all of the water we had from the humidity.

I got back and started carbloading again for Avengers! I did well (as always, I will recap what I ate in the carbload) and felt strong for the race.

THIS WEEK:
Back to regular eating! I haven’t cooked at all in the month of November so I need to get back on it before Thanksgiving-it is so soon!

SLEEP WELL

PAST WEEKS: While in WDW, we did well, getting about 7 hours of sleep a night. Minus the night after wine and dine (4 hours and felt rested-so crazy!)

Getting back was insane and so busy. There were a few nights I just crashed around 9:30 and got 8 or more hours of sleep. I am still amazed I did not get sick during this whole ordeal! 

THIS WEEK:
I want to get as close to 8 hours of sleep a night as possible. I have had a very busy few weeks and want to ensure I do not get sick going into Thanksgiving. 

EXERCISE WELL:

PAST WEEKS:

MON: rest day
TUES: 2.2 miles (12 min mile pace). My leg started hurting here so much so this was cut short. 
WEDS: rest day (but hit my 10k step goal)
THURS: 11.06 miles around MK and Epcot
FRI: 11.91 miles around AK, Studios and Epcot
SAT: wine and dine half marathon (11.48 miles total with walking around Studios)
SUN: 18.48 miles (finished wine and dine, after party, MK)

MON: 7 miles around Epcot
TUES: 9.15 miles around AK, Studios and Epcot
WEDS: rest day as it was a travel day
THURS: Rest Day I was exhausted
FRI: tried to run and physically couldn't! Added in icy hot and heat and felt much better. 
SAT: roll and stretch
SUN: Avengers half marathon (2:43- new Disney PR!)

THIS WEEK:
MON: Rest Day
TUES: 2.2 recovery miles (11:21 pace). Leg felt fine during but my shins did not. time to retire my shoes and get some new ones! did core when I got home
WEDS: Piyo before heading to work
THURS: 3 recovery miles + core work
FRI: Piyo Upper Body + core work 
SAT: Rest Day + core work
SUN:  6-8 miles-depending on how I am feeling

BE WELL
PAST WEEKS:

• Wine and Dine was everything I had dreamed (even with my hurt leg!)
  
• WDW was fantastic as always 
  
• Food and wine festival was out of this world
  
• Avengers half weekend was so much fun!
  

THIS WEEK:

• I won a free Happy Hour on Friday at Howl at the Moon!
  
• UCLA football game Saturday #beatthebruins! 
  
• a friend's birthday party on Saturday
  
• potential disneyland night on Sunday, depending on how I feel 
  

So for you, how was your week???

WINE AND DINE EXPO
WINE AND DINE HALF RECAP

As I love to drink wine, one of my nicknames has become Bacchus (whom is the god of celebrating which actually reflects more of me when I used to party hard in my early 20s).

So when we decided to run the wine and dine I knew there was no doubt I would have to run as Bacchus to fit in with the theme.

This costume actually came together very easily and I was very happy with it as well! It held up even in the rain!

What you need:

• White shirt
  
• White sports bra
  
• White tutu
  
• Red cape
  
• Wine glass
  
• Maybe gold spray paint 
  
• Garland headband with grapes
  
• A donkey named Jacchus (or a friend that dresses as one!)
  

Where I got my supplies: 

• White shirt and sports bra were bought at Target during their Buy One, get one 50% off
  
• White tutu was made just like this with elastic, white tulle (regular and sparkly) and time
  
• Red cape was found at michaels on clearance for 2.99 (red fabric would work just fine)
  
• Garland was bought at michaels (same garland as my lilo costume) 
  
• Mini grapes were bought at michaels for 2.99
  
• Wine glass was found at Joann's and spray painted gold 
  

INSTRUCTIONS

1. For wine glass, spray paint it gold and let it dry for a few days (or buy a gold one!)
2. The skirt should be made just like my last tutorial. 
Steps in a nutshell:

• measure strips and cut
  
• Measure elastic to your waist
  
• Loop through elastic until it's full (you will need about double what you think or it will look thin) 
  
• Alternate white with sparkly white
  
• Tie or sew elastic when all done
  

3. Measure garland to the size of your head and cut
4. Tie with string (I used green ties from the produce department)
5. Space out grapes and tie to the headband
6. Double check the grapes won't be slapping you in the face.
7. Determine how tie your cape (mine will be a loop so it can't fall)
8. Drink wine to celebrate your costume! Well done!

Another costume, made for about 20-25 dollars! Right on!

What did you dress up as for wine and Dine?

WINE AND DINE EXPO
HOW TO MAKE A BACCHUS COSTUME

I was running through the rain, water down my face, in a poncho, with a numb leg from the Biofreeze on it so I couldn’t tell my Sciatic nerve was flaring up. I looked around and it looks like everyone has taking a shower with their clothes on and not dried off. I was leaving Animal Kingdom for what I knew would be the worse (the quiet and most boring) part of the course and all I could think was-OMG THIS IS THE BEST RACE EVER.

Let me back up to the beginning. I slept on an air mattress at my dad’s place in Texas and was too lazy to get up and get in a bed. Well I woke up with crazy sore butt and leg. Turns out my sciatica from last year was back. I got worse from being on the plane and carrying all of my stuff around the airport and had a rough few days walking around the parks and also some serious doubt that I would be able to run this race at all. 

I had a lot of mental doubts in the race and when the forecast called for rain, I was really doubting it could work. I could barely stand on rides, how would I make it through a half marathon and then another half marathon?

I do not want to sidetrack this and I will write another post on my sciatica but let’s just say, I could barely walk after lunch on Saturday and decided to google- sciatica can I run and found an amazing website with stretches. I did the stretches for 1 hour and I could walk and sleep! I was cured (and Space mountain messed me up on Sunday night-ugh).

We had a plan we hope would work. Stay up late on Friday (until 1am), sleep in until around 9-10. Go to Studios for a few things and have lunch at 12 at Mama Melrose. Bring back leftovers for a meal before the race. Take a 2-3 hour nap and then roll and stretch and get ready. THE PLAN WORKED!

I went back before everyone else to stretch and roll and nap. I got in about 3 hour nap and we all woke up naturally around 530 so decided just to get up. We relaxed, chatted, planned and got ready. We double checked our change of clothes and came up with a plan as we had a locker to store our stuff. We took pics inside the room since we knew the rain was coming. We left to get on the bus and walked right on at 7:15. There was traffic getting to the start line but we were off the bus by 7:50. My leg was holding up.

We had a ton of time and waited to get a pic with Chip and Dale and then took time to stretch and debate ponchos. We all decided ponchos were a must and I am glad we did because as soon as we made our decision, it started to rain! We also decided to run the race separately (Devin in corral D, me in F and Damian in L) as we assumed not many photo opps would be out.

We missed the teamrundisney meet up as we could not find it and got in line for a portapotty. Worst line ever as I was one of the last people to use it. I don't know how the line we were in was so slow but it was. However, I got in my corral in the back, where I wanted to be since I knew I would be going slow.

I decided to do 1 min running/30 sec walking intervals as long as I could hold out. Then I would walk it. It started really raining as soon as I got in the corral.

I was in corral F and it was our turn to go off before I knew it. I was worried about the poncho but it held up the entire race and kept my outfit dry-which was a miracle. The only part that got wet with the top of my shirt and then the bottom of my capri pants. I decided to wear capris and then my regular outfit and it worked great. My legs were pretty dry and I never was cold.Okay, well maybe I was a bit cold but I alternated having my arm inside of my poncho (one of my hands had to hold my wine glass!). My shoes of course got soaked but they dried overnight very quickly and were completely fine when I ran in them during Avengers. 

From the beginning, the course was pretty open which was fantastic. As other corrals started, some people pushed through but it was never that bad. I stopped for a picture with the Country Bears around mile 1 and also tinkerbell’s light up friends from MSEP shortly after.

As we ran towards Animal Kingdom, I realized after this race, I will have run through all of the Disney parks. AK has been growing on me as of late so I was excited to see it at night.

I kept with my intervals pretty well but it was dark and quiet. Around mile 2.5, we saw the leaders, which was incredible to see people move at that speed in the rain. What was crazy was seeing all of photo opps where characters were supposed to be and weren’t. I was wondering who was supposed to be where.

Before I knew it, we were in the AK parking lot and I took a pic with the MSEP turtle (my favorite float in the entire parade) and this is where I realized I needed a new phone case. Everytime I took my phone out, it took forever to get it in and I was worried it would get damaged. However the poncho kept all of my electronics dry and safe.

I got to a medical stop and got some Biofreeze. Since there were Medical stops every 2-3 miles, I decided to stop at every one to numb my butt just incase my sciatic started acting up.

Heading into AK, I saw the colored lights which to me has been such a signature of Wine and Dine recaps. I then headed up the path to the Tree of Life. It really is beautiful at night. I had to take a picture as no one was in line. A lady was yelling for people to come take their picture so I happily obliged!

AK is where the bottle necking began. I expected this as it bottlenecks during the day with the construction walls. It was really beautiful though and peaceful in the rain. I saw King Louie and Pluto out but their lines were long(really they were only like 15 people long but I was moving so slow, I was worried about getting swept) so I skipped them. My leg was feeling great so I wanted to keep it up. There were puddles everywhere which made the bottlenecking worse. The best were the volunteers standing by the large puddles telling everyone to move out of the way. Every once in awhile, there would be someone FLYING through the puddles and getting everyone else wet: so not cool! 

Heading out of AK was the pirate ship which had the longest line of the night-really like 30 people . The rain was really starting to come down and the puddles in the parking lot were massive. I was started to get worried about my time (even though my miles had been 14-15 min miles) but once we turned out of AK back on the road, I saw they had not swept people just entering so I knew I was in good shape.

The next part heading to Studios was very boring with no photo opps and the rain really coming down. I ended up using a port-a-potty and a medical stop on the way. There were 2 overpasses where the wind really picked up and it was miserable for about 45 seconds. I had to run with my arms in my poncho.

With all of the Biofreeze I was using, I actually was worried my face would go numb. I had to wipe my face every few minutes to get the water out of my eyes. It only went numb once for a few minutes, other than that, I just used the rain to wash it off my hands.

Right outside of Studios, we hit the Clif Shot station and I found a mocha person right away. Let me take the time now to just thank all of the volunteers and cast members out that night. They all worked so hard in the rain to make sure we had a successful race. Right before this, the course did narrow with cones for cars to drive on! I was terrified a car was going to hit a cone so I made sure to run as far away as possible.

Finally made it back stage at Studios and the rain had let up. I was so excited and had a huge smile beaming on my face. I decided to stop at the Rock n Roll rest rooms just incase I had to pee again. Now is a good time to talk about fueling. Since I was going so much slower than usual, I never felt tired during the race. I did feel hungry but the clif shot helped with that. I still took water and/or powerade at every stop and also had a clif shot blok at mile 3, 6, clif shot around mile 9, and 11.5 (I felt like I needed a boost towards the end).

We ran pass the Sorcerer hat and I knew I had to take a pic. It would be the last time we ran by it (unless it is still up for the WDW marathon) and could see the Osborne lights and started to tear up.  Literally, the Osborne lights were what was getting me through this race. I had to see them! We headed back stage where we got to go through the Disco tunnel (part of the old backlot tour) and had a great time. Finally we headed into Osborne and it was incredible! “Have yourself a merry little Christmas” by Judy Garland was playing and it was just perfect. The crowd was a great size and I got amazing pictures. Literally, everything was worth it in that moment.

We headed out of Studios and my intervals were done so I was just going on feel and usually doing 1:30 running and 30 sec walking when I could. The path to Boardwalk is pretty narrow and things came to a standstill often so I tried to just go with the flow of the crowd. We hit one last water stop and then on the path in front of Beach Club and onto Epcot.

As we headed through Epcot, it was the same course as the Princess 10k. I knew exactly where we were and how much longer we had. As we approached the plaza, the crowd support was great and just what I needed! I pushed forward as best as I could (however I did miss the Gospel choir!) and crossed the finish line with tears in my eyes. I honestly can't believe I made it through this race-the pain was insane the days leading up to the it-and add in the rain and everything else, it was one of my most trying races I have ever run. 

My time was 3:17 which is a full hour slower than the race I had run 2 weeks early. 5 min/mile slower but I am still just so happy I finished. Out of every race I have run, it is the one I am most proud of. More than Glass Slipper or Dumbo or LA Marathon. I really doubted I would be able to run at all so the fact that I finished, really was a huge showing for myself. The tears were happy and just disbelief. Also, I was about to earn my 9th and 10th rundisney medal of the year! Crazy crazy! and my SECOND COAST TO COAST MEDAL!!

This is where things got crazy. I was trying to text everyone to see where they were and I could not get anything out of my phone as it was wet. As soon as I got through the coast to coast tent, it started POURING. It took me 5 minutes to get the knot out of my checked bag I had and also get my ID out for my drink voucher. I wanted my wine!

After all of that, I had to wait about 10 min to get into the changing tent which was on grass. I then waited 5 min instead to get some room on the bench and I am glad I did.

Originally, I had decided to change completely but since my capris were dry, I left on my bottoms and changed everything else. I put on my DL half shirt, wine and dine shirt, rain coat and poncho and felt great. So many people were shivering because their body temp had come down but I felt great.

I decided to drink my wine as I walked to the locker to put up myself. It sucked because the locker had a key so we had to keep meeting each other but the locker was CLUTCH. It was so nice not to have to drag our stuff around all night, especially in the rain. nDevin had gone in the morning to get a large locker and we had it all day and still got our refund before we left. It fit 3 huge rundisney bags and still had a bit of room.

After that, I drank my wine while walking to the after party. We had an amazing time and shut Epcot down! I had:

1.     Carne guisada, fried plantains and Sangria at Puerto Rico
2.     Cheddar cheese soup at Canada (they were out of ice wine!!!)
3.     Mimosa Sunrise at Morocco
4.     Something else that I honestly can't remember haha

We really got to see a lot of characters which really excited me:
1.     Bert and Mary Poppins in the UK
2.     Remy and Emile in France
3.     Aladdin, jasmine and Abu (never met him before!) in Morocco
4.     Prince Naveen and Tiana in America
5.     Pinocchio and Gepetto in Italy
6.     Dopey and Snow White in Germany

All of these characters had no lines either! It was so awesome!

Afterwards, we boarded Spaceship Earth at 3:58 and had a great ride. We got in the bus to our hotel at 4:31. We unpacked and showered and I got into bed at 5:30. None of us could sleep and we actually had a conversation at 5:45 to just stay up and head to AK when it opened at 8. Thank goodness we decided just to sleep because we would have done it too!

I spent the next morning, doing laundry (which may have went all day in the dryer?!?!) and cleaning the room so the maid could actually come in. We had a huge pile of dirty towels and dirty clothes by the door. We spent the whole next day at MK and our legs felt great!

Overall, wine and dine was the most amazing race I have run. I was definitely afraid of running at night but it never was an issue. I always said I would not do this race again next year but now I am not sure. I love it and Food and Wine is the greatest. I do not need to make a decision until March so I am going to see how school and everything shakes out. I would love to do this race again (and that way I would actually run all of the races in one full calendar year-crazy!!).  I think next time I would want to also do the 5k-I really think it would so fun to run through AK again.

Have you ever run Wine and Dine? Did you run it this year, being nicknamed “Splash and Dine”?