Let the magic begin!

The days leading up to a vacation are usually pretty stressful but I feel like this time it's been even more so than usual. I've had to deal with a lot of difficult clients at work and this time since two of my vacation days are basically full travel days, I didn't take off an extra day in order to prepare and pack.

Knowing that yesterday would be crazy, I made sure to get a long run in on Tuesday. 8 miles at the track followed by 4x400s. I ran some of the early miles at a slower pace with my boyfriend and picked it up for the last few miles after he headed home. Overall pace was something like 8:45 which I'm pretty happy with considering the lack of consistent running over the past 5-6 weeks. The 400s I threw in just to give myself a taste of what it's like to struggle during a run. My lungs were burning at the end of each lap. I didn't bother to time myself but I know the last 400 was pretty pathetic.

I have no idea what my goal pace should be for the Expedition Everest Challenge on Saturday. I don't feel like I'm in 5k shape right now. Well, there's no point worrying about it now. All I can do is try my best and see what happens. Besides I'm not sure what to expect from the scavenger hunt part of the race this year since I think they're changing it up AGAIN. Hopefully there will be good information at the course talk tomorrow.

Oh, on a related note... the unexpected benefit of having a boyfriend who's crazy about cars is that he has a bunch of extra tires around. I made him set them up for me the other day so I could practice running through them in case that's an obstacle again in the race. I know that's bordering on overkill, but I had fun doing it.

Anyway, after over 12 hours of travel today, I'm finally at Walt Disney World. I started this post on the Magical Express bus from the airport, took a break to unpack, and now it's time to get some rest. Tomorrow is when my vacation truly starts! It feels awesome to have (almost) no worries for the next four days and not have to answer to anyone but myself. Right now I'm thinking that my first action will be to hunt down a giant Disney cupcake and have dessert for breakfast!

I'll leave you with a photo from my hotel room. I'm at the All Star Sports Resort, hence the football Mickey picture in the background.