I highly encourage you to give it a try. I hated running all through youth sports and into adulthood. But once I started run-walk-running around my neighborhood and exploring, I fell in love with it.
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Josh Groban?!?!?!?
JK I have no idea whose signature that is and I bet I wouldn’t know who they were if you told me.
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Lol! It’s the same guy as above, Jeff Galloway. If it was Josh, DW would be insanely jealous. But also confused why on a race bib, haha!
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You see a famous person, you use what you got - literally ON you - for their autograph!
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Thanks for the book rec, I find all the run disney people on here so inspiring. I said to DH this week after reading your reports, I wonder if I could do a 5k? Going to give it a look! Thanks.
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You could ABSOLUTELY do a 5K.
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Saratoga and Disney Springs
It had been raining on and off all day, and when we got over to Saratoga Springs it was really coming down. A tropical downpour. Even the CMs and locals we overheard throughout the day were talking about how crazy this rainy day was.
B had his daughters’ umbrellas in his car, so we used those, despite the pink, unicorns, and rainbows. I’m not afraid to be looked at strangely, but B was a bit put off by some of the looks we got. His problem, not mine. Anyways, we got to the DVC preview center at 144p and a CM took us over to check out the 3-bedroom. Again, WOW! We wrapped that up around 2pm.
There looked like a break in the rain so we stood under an awning for a bit and then walked over to DS at 230p. I was shocked at how close SSR and DS are to each other, I’ve never been to either. We walked around the entire place I think, mostly in the rain, and dodging huge puddles everywhere. Splashed in a few thanks to the crowds in a few spots. My feet were absolutely saturated, and I was getting worried about blisters before I had even run a single mile, so we started to think about leaving. We checked out World of Disney around 300p, and I bought a christmas shirt to wear to the VMAH on Monday night. Then we finished our commando-style tour of DS at Raglan Road at 345p, where we had an ADR for 530p. I think my favorite store at DS (caveat, we only went inside like 3), was the art of Disney store. I could have stayed in there for an hour easily. My least favorite was the cigar store, which produced an overwhelming tobacco smell in the entire area. Yuck.
We were ready to leave, but I’ve wanted to eat at RR since I started planning my first trip in 2018. As hard as I have tried to make it work on family trips and during my solo Dopey trip in 2020, it just hasn’t ever happened. I love me some riverdance-style entertainment, and anyone who has seen my previous reports knows I’m a fan of good adult beverages. On top of that, I had a $75 gift card to use. So here I was, FINALLY, standing at the entrance to RR. But it was not meant to be. When I asked the hostess if we could be seated early she said probably not, they were way behind because the outdoor seating was closed (it was raining cats and dogs after all). She could put us on the list but it might be an hour or two, couldn’t even promise we’d be seated by our ADR timeslot. So we bailed. 
I guess it just isn’t meant to be…
So we walked back to SSR and were driving towards Pop at 420p. Our room was on the 4th floor of the 90’s building. Literally the furthest we could be from the Skyliner and main building. So B pulled into the port-a-cache and I ran in to talk to the check-in CMs to see if we could get a better room. PIXIE DUST! We were moved to a 60’s room that is about as close to the Skyliner as possible! It never hurts to ask!
We got to our room at 500p, unpacked some things, then headed to the food court for dinner. I got a chicken sandwich and scarfed like 5000 french fries. Does that count as carb loading? After we ate, B went to the check-in desk to fix some issues he had with his MDE and Magic Band, then we were back in the room getting things ready for the morning. I used the hair dryer to dry out my shoes. Luckily, it didn’t look like I would have any blisters, but my feet were totally pruned. I think if we had walked around much more it would have become a real problem.
I know we got back to the room around 645p and I’m sure we were asleep by 730p. Alarm was set for 230a…
Unplugging for the weekend. On Monday, I’ll begin the real RunDisney report!
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When I stayed there a few years ago, my room was closer to the DS Starbucks than to the QS (Artist’s Palette). It is remarkably close, especially if you’re in Congress Park as I was, and really great for a DS-heavy trip.
Definitely one of the best ones in there. I love lingering and really enjoying the widely varied styles of the artwork!
I did not even know there was one there. I actually like the smell of a good cigar, and in my younger days enjoyed one now and again while drinking (probably not the good ones LOL)
They are notorious for running behind there. I imagine the rain had a terrible impact on it.
Yep. That’s a walk
Excellent!
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You had never been to DS?!?! How is that even possible? You are no WDW rookie so this surprises me.
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My family has only been a small handful of times. When we are there we are mainly park focused. Now that they (the kids) are growing up, and now that we are DVC and rest easy knowing we’ll be back again soon, we do take the time.
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Same here, but this was very off putting. Maybe because I was surprised by it. I thought someone was smoking and I was thinking WTF??? Then I saw the store and it made sense.
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I am so glad we are finally at the point where that is a common refrain now. I think back to the not so distant past and how we smoked in restaurants, etc. and think how did we think that was normal?
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I was walking over by the Tangled bathrooms in MK on Wednesday night and we walked through a strong odor of cigarette smoke…I actually said WTF aloud (oops) My mom was like, oh is the smoking section over here? What? No, there’s no smoking section! It was very bizarre and lots of people noticed how out of place it was.
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I have been to WDW about 20x and my first visit to Disney Springs (as opposed to Downtown Disney, which I loved) was during our trip last month.
That visit wouldn’t have happened at all but dd20 lost her wallet, Disney found it, and the centralized Lost & Found is at DS.
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Ahh. One of just a few sections left of quintessential Downtown Disney. 
Thanks!! I think I’ll work on it!
That day was by far the rainiest day I ever spent at WDW, I would have used anything I could get.
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I started couch to 5k in lockdown - this time last year, I’m in the U.K. - had to take a few months off due to a bad case of covid and finished it right before my first ever 5k race in May. I did walk for about 30 seconds going up a steep hill but otherwise ran the whole 38 mins. I did my second race in Sept, ran the whole way and got a PB of 31 mins. I was really unfit - I still am! - but the run/walk method does work. Though I haven’t used it in the 2 races I’ve done, I saw a lot of people doing it. If I ever try to do a 10k I’ll for sure do it again. And probably during the race too.
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You have been killing it! And you are fitter than you were before!
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