Stan’s Donuts 5K

Running for donuts! That was my motivation for funning the Stan’s Donut 5K over the weekend.  Saturday, August 11 a large crowd gathered at Montrose Beach to do just that, run or walk the 3.1 miles along the city’s lakefront to get the mini donuts along the course and the full sized donut at the finish.

The race started at 8:00, we arrived in plenty of time to find parking and head over to the start area.  The corrals were divided in how fast you run.  I joined the group of “Kinda Fast” and waited for the race to start.

When they released us we headed north along the lake path up to Foster, just after the mile 1 mark they had the first mini donut station.  They had the station after the water stop, so you didn’t have anything to wash it down.  Oh well, I kept on going and hoping that the next water stop is soon, or that we would pass by a drinking fountain.

As I ran, I forgot how dry my mouth was from the donut, so I kept on going.  They had us routed on the path that is adjacent to Lake Shore Drive and we were heading south.  When we got to Lawrence we moved toward the path closer to the road along the park and just before the mile 2 mark they had the next donut station.  This time they had the water station after the donuts so that was much better.

We continued south until we got to Wilson and took a right and we rant through the perimeter of the park up to Montrose and looped us back towards the finish line.  We crossed the underpass and came upon mile 3 and saw the finish.

I finished in 39min 49sec.  It was a hot morning, but it was a fun morning to run.  We hung around for a little bit, got my medal, donut and coffee.  This was fun to run and the donuts made it a special treat.  Maybe I will run this one again next year.

RunDisney’s new Registration System

In the virtual queue for the Princess Half Marathon weekend, hoping to get in and register for the Fairy Tale Challenge. The challenge used to be the Glass Slipper Challenge, so the name change indicates that it is not exclusively Cinderella themed. 10 minutes in “line” and the page keeps on refreshing to this view:

Patiently waiting for the page to open up. It is reminiscent of my first time signing up for the Disneyland Dumbo Double Dare challenge. I am trying not to worry, but the wait is nerve racking!

20 minutes in and it is still refreshing. I can feel the slots filling up! I miss the days when they had a bar chart on the event page to see how full the races are getting.

Wait…What?! I’m on the log in page! Shy of 30 minutes I am sent to the first step of the registration process.

As you can see you need to have a Disney account to log in. I’ve had mine for years and entered the necessary information to get in. Tada…now I am in and seeing the options of the races. I am here to get into the Fairy Tale Challenge. Scroll down and I click on the option…nothing happens. Okay what is going on? Ah you have to scroll down further!

Since it logged me in through my Disney account it pre entered my information, pretty nifty. Next it showed the extra items you can pre-order. I got the pins, and proceeded to the payment area. They have an option for Disney gift cards and Redemption points, which is a nice option, but I read that you cannot split the cost between cards. I only wished that they would give the Chase Disney Card discount for this. Entered my information and clicked…

Whew…I got in.

Not bad for the registration, I read that there were a lot of people that had issues. Thankfully I didn’t! Now let the planning begin!

Christopher Robin

Winnie the Pooh fans would love this movie. Especially if you are an adult and grew up with Pooh. This movie is not your typical Winnie the Pooh movie. It is based on the viewpoint of Christopher Robin as an adult and how Winnie the Pooh relates to him as an adult.

The movie starts as Christopher Robin is a young boy and he says goodbye to his friends in the 100 acre wood before he is sent off to boarding school. In the prelude of the movie we quickly see the events that happen until Christopher Robin becomes an adult. It is pretty dark, it involves a death and war, but it then brightens up where he meets his wife and has a child, but then it becomes dim and that is where the story starts.

The premise of the joining of Pooh and Christopher is that Pooh has lost his friends and he goes and through the tree that transports him to London to find Christopher. Throughout the movie you see Christopher is helping Pooh with his predicament, but he also finds out that he also needs Pooh and his 100 acre friends to help him as well.

The movie works well, because the characters of the 100 acre wood stays true to their mannerism. There is a lot of reference to the past Winnie the Pooh movies that makes the movie endearing. The quotes that Pooh gives are quite simple, but yet they are very deep, which makes his character so appealing and lovable. For a bear with very little brain, Pooh is very wise in the simplest sense.

I can see that there may be a lot of people that may not like this movie, because it is very different than the past movies that featured Winnie the Pooh. If you go with an open mind, and watch the movie for what it is, you will be pleasantly happy with the story and the visuals.

This is a great addition to Disney’s live action repertoire, and I hope that you are like me and will enjoy this story of Christopher Robin and the Silly old Bear.