ZellyB
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 18, 2010
Hi, there and welcome to my trip report about our recent trip to Disney for our second attempt at the Goofy Challenge presented during the runDisney Marathon Weekend. My name is Gisele and my running partner and awesome husband is Chris. Here we are during the marathon back in 2015.
I started running just about 5 years ago and surprised myself by getting hooked on the sport relatively late in life. runDisney only furthered my love of running and it remains a huge incentive for me to keep up my training.
For anyone not familiar with it, the Goofy Challenge is made up of a half-marathon run on Saturday followed by a full marathon run on Sunday. Completing the challenge earns you not one, not two, but three medals. Here they are from the 2015 challenge. Pretty right???
Originally the plan was to run the marathon as a single race, but once I realized that it was the 20th anniversary of the half-marathon, I convinced my husband into going for Goofy one more time. This makes our 4th marathon weekend. We first ran the marathon in 2013 and then again in 2014 followed by the Goofy Challenge in 2015. We took a year off from marathon weekend and instead ran in the 2015 ill-fated Wine & Dine Half Marathon which ended up shortened due to storms (that almost NEVER happens, right?), so we were primed to head back this year.
A couple of these trips have been without our kids, but this year we decided to pull our 13-year old twins, Paige and Sophie, out of school to join us along with our 18-year old son, Drake, who wouldn’t be starting his college semester until after our return. So, the family trip was on!!! Here are the kids with Piglet from later in this trip.
It can be tough getting airfare out of our home town at a decent rate, so we opted to drive a few hours to Kansas City and fly out from there. Loaded up for the drive.
We got settled into the hotel easily and were only about 5 minutes from the airport. There was a little snowfall that night (2-3 inches) and as we headed to the airport and looked at the weather, we were congratulating ourselves on getting out of these frigid temps and heading for warm, sunny Florida.
Sophie was especially excited about it after looking out the hotel window!
We got checked in for the flight easily and loaded up right on time. Shortly after settling into our seats, the pilot came on to say we would have to sit for a bit while we waited for our turn to get de-iced before take-off. So, we sat and sat and sat and sat…the pilot kept coming on and apologizing and saying just another 15 minutes or so. 3+ HOURS later, we finally got de-iced and took off. Drake and Paige managed to sleep and I managed to read an ENTIRE book I’d bought in the gift shop before getting on the plane. Good grief.
Of course, we’d already missed our connecting flight in Atlanta. Luckily once we got into Atlanta, we were able to get on stand-by to a flight leaving at 2:55 PM. It pretty much blew our plans to go into DHS that evening, but at least we were getting there and Chris and I were hoping we could still hit up the Expo to get our bibs for the races.
Next up – We finally arrive.
I started running just about 5 years ago and surprised myself by getting hooked on the sport relatively late in life. runDisney only furthered my love of running and it remains a huge incentive for me to keep up my training.
For anyone not familiar with it, the Goofy Challenge is made up of a half-marathon run on Saturday followed by a full marathon run on Sunday. Completing the challenge earns you not one, not two, but three medals. Here they are from the 2015 challenge. Pretty right???
Originally the plan was to run the marathon as a single race, but once I realized that it was the 20th anniversary of the half-marathon, I convinced my husband into going for Goofy one more time. This makes our 4th marathon weekend. We first ran the marathon in 2013 and then again in 2014 followed by the Goofy Challenge in 2015. We took a year off from marathon weekend and instead ran in the 2015 ill-fated Wine & Dine Half Marathon which ended up shortened due to storms (that almost NEVER happens, right?), so we were primed to head back this year.
A couple of these trips have been without our kids, but this year we decided to pull our 13-year old twins, Paige and Sophie, out of school to join us along with our 18-year old son, Drake, who wouldn’t be starting his college semester until after our return. So, the family trip was on!!! Here are the kids with Piglet from later in this trip.
It can be tough getting airfare out of our home town at a decent rate, so we opted to drive a few hours to Kansas City and fly out from there. Loaded up for the drive.
We got settled into the hotel easily and were only about 5 minutes from the airport. There was a little snowfall that night (2-3 inches) and as we headed to the airport and looked at the weather, we were congratulating ourselves on getting out of these frigid temps and heading for warm, sunny Florida.
Sophie was especially excited about it after looking out the hotel window!
We got checked in for the flight easily and loaded up right on time. Shortly after settling into our seats, the pilot came on to say we would have to sit for a bit while we waited for our turn to get de-iced before take-off. So, we sat and sat and sat and sat…the pilot kept coming on and apologizing and saying just another 15 minutes or so. 3+ HOURS later, we finally got de-iced and took off. Drake and Paige managed to sleep and I managed to read an ENTIRE book I’d bought in the gift shop before getting on the plane. Good grief.
Of course, we’d already missed our connecting flight in Atlanta. Luckily once we got into Atlanta, we were able to get on stand-by to a flight leaving at 2:55 PM. It pretty much blew our plans to go into DHS that evening, but at least we were getting there and Chris and I were hoping we could still hit up the Expo to get our bibs for the races.
Next up – We finally arrive.
Bummed that I didn't run into you guys last weekend!
Thanks for joining in!!
The carousel was awesome and so glad I took the pictures when I did because the next morning it was gone! I couldn't believe they got the whole thing deconstructed overnight along with all the other Christmas decorations. It's quite the operation. Thanks for reading along!
That picture is perfect!
We stayed at the BVC for the first time over Thanksgiving and were in room 431, had a great view of high Illuminations AND Jingle Bell, Jingle BAM fireworks!
I would've had to throw my DS11 out the door b/c his complaining never would have stopped!
