Princess Fairytale Challenge

Another Disney race challenge completed. The challenge consisted of the Enchanted 10K on Saturday and the Princess Half Marathon on Sunday.

The 10K’s theme was Mulan the warrior princess and the Half Marathon’s theme was Princess Aurora aka Sleeping Beauty and Briar Rose.

Disney always plans a fun and well managed race. The only thing that was off was they didn’t have the sponges ready for the later runners.

They had ample photo opportunities along the course and visuals to keep your mind off the race. I noticed that there were very little princesses at the character stops, but when I thought about it there wouldn’t be that many princesses because they are running in the race.

When I first saw the medals online I was a little disappointed, but they look so much better in person. I enjoyed this race and I would most likely do this one again.

Miss Saigon – Broadway in Chicago

**WARNING: SPOILER ALERT**

I saw the original U.S. Tour of Miss Saigon back in the 90’s and it is still my favorite Broadway Musical.  The opening for the Chicago show was scheduled for our anniversary on November 13, so we got tickets to go see the opening show.  For reasons unknown they cancelled the opening and I re-booked our tickets for the 15^th.  Luckily, I was able to get seats in the same section that I previously had.

This is the new production of the musical, so there were some design changes and re-writes on some of the lyrics, and changes to some songs.  Overall, I thought it was a good production with the new ideas and changes.

I vaguely remembered how the opening scene was back in 90’s, but this one had action behind the scrim where you see people going on their business in Saigon, and then you see Kim in her white dress.  Once the music got bolder it represented the bombing and you can see the chaos in the streets and you see the Engineer recruit Kim and then brings her backstage.  I don’t remember if this was the same as the original, but I thought it was a nice way to introduce the musical.

I have the original recordings and pretty much know all the lyrics to the songs, so I knew when they changed the lyrics, and the majority of them I could tell was changed to help develop the story.  They emphasized Gigi’s role to show the audience the desperation of the women to leave Saigon and how badly they were treated at Dreamland.  In her song “The Movie in My Mind” some of the lyrics changed to give her more depth, she now sings that he will take her to a place where she does not have to dance.  One noticeable deletion of a line was when the Engineer sings ‘Call him Chris, he’ll like that’ Kim used to respond ‘That Marine, wants his beer’  The deletion of that line helped show how timid Kim was, which  added to the storyline that she grew stronger throughout the trials though her life.

They changed the song “Please” to “Too Much for One Heart” in the scene in the dressing room in Hong Kong.  Also they changed the song “Now that I’ve Seen Her” to “Maybe”.  Too Much for One Heart isn’t a big change that was noticeable.  Maybe is a totally different song, which for me, was not that great, I liked Now that I’ve Seen Her better.

I remembered back in the 90’s that this was a raunchy show, but in this new production it got a little bit raunchier, or maybe it’s because I am older?  In the Dreamland scene there is a lot more sexual innuendos and in the scene in the street of Hong Kong it is quite eye opening, and even a little cameo of a character in the Book of Mormon.  If you see it take note of the dancer in the left of the stage with the very bad dancing…that was a surprise.

Emily Bautista and Anthony Festa did a great job in their portrayal as Kim and Chris.  Red Conception is a believable neurotic Engineer that kept the show going.  I remember that this had a huge cast, but this production it had less, but it did not seem like so.  There is a lot more acrobatics in “The Morning of the Dragon” scene.  The staging, lighting and sets were truly amazing and is part of why I like this show a lot, and the re-imagined helicopter scene was just superb.

If you have seen the original tour you would still like this production, but if you haven’t seen it you would be pleasantly surprised.  This musical is timeless and a reminder of how pointless and the repercussions of the Vietnam was.

 

Erasure World Be Gone Tour

Oh L’Amour, What’s a boy in love supposed to do? Go to the Erasure Concert!

Erasure came back to Chicago and performed at the Chicago Theater on July 27 & 28. We got tickets to see them on the 27th and it was a blast!

I’ve been following Erasure since high school in 1987 and see them in concert numerous times and each one has been entertaining and fun. This concert was filled with popular songs from their previous albums and a few from their new album “World be Gone”. The mix of Andy Bell’s showmanship and Vince Clarke’s musical beats made this show memorable.

The evening started with an opening duo Reed & Caroline. Not the best opening show, but nonetheless we were excited to see Erasure. For the Violet Flame Tour we had seats in the balcony, so I decided to get seats on the ground floor. I got seat at row M, but didn’t realize that the seating started with double letters, so we were a little far back than I thought we would be. They were OK seats, but I think we would have had better viewing if we were in the balcony.

The stage is set, three lighted boxed on stage, Andy comes out from the middle box and the light show begins. You hear the introduction to Oh L’Amour and the crowd roars. You see Vince on top of the middle box surrounded by his synths and guitar. Its hard to see him, but you know he’s there. The two backup singers are in the side boxes and the energy is pumped up and the house is full of singing, screaming and dancing.

They played old favorites like the popular “Sometimes” and “Who Needs Love Like That”, as well as others from the Innocents album “Ship of Fools” and “Phantom Bride”. I was happy that they performed a lot of my favorites such as “Blue Savannah” and “Drama!” from their Wild album. Staples like “Stop!” and “Always” was a crowd pleaser as well. They paid homage to Blonde and performed “Atomic”. Where we were it was hard to hear the conversations that Andy was having with the crowd, but we got the gist of it when he spoke.

The evening ending with their encore “A Little Respect” and this was the time we got to see Vince clearly. He played his guitar as Andy sang and the crowd loved it.

It was a fun night and I hope that they produce another album soon so we can see them perform again. You can tell that Andy loves to perform, they have been entertaining the fans for over 30 years and he is still as he was when I first saw him live during their Wild! Tour. As usual the outfits are some that you have never seen before and Andy did not disappoint this time. At one point he shed all his clothes until he was down to a body suit that looked like he was tattooed all over.

As long as Erasure continues to make new albums and tours, I will continue to be a fan!

Chicago Proud to Run 10K

As part of Pride month this run is scheduled the same weekend as the Pride parade. The days that prior to race day was filled with a lot of rain and cold weather, I was a bit worried that we would be running in non-ideal weather. To our surprise and relief the rain blew over and the sun was trying to break through the grey clouds.

By the time we arrived at Montrose Harbor the sun was coming out and the lake breeze made it quite comfortable to start the race. They did have an announcement in the beginning that they had to re-route part of the course because of construction around the park and also since it rained a lot in the past couple of days to be aware of the course where there are big puddles and to run cautiously.

As we lined up, the 10K runners were first, then the 5K run/walk participants. After the national anthem was sun they released us and sent us up north towards Foster. At Foster the route had us take a right and looped us back down south along the lakefront path.

Just before Wilson we took a right and made our way towards the path closest to Lake Shore Drive and brought us down to Belmont Harbor. Just before Belmont Ave, they looped us around and routed us back north towards the finish.

The re-routing they did, had us running in grassy areas which I was careful where my feet landed. I am prone to landing my feet in trails that results in sprains. Luckily it didn’t happen during this run. There was just one confusion area that I was following this one runner, but then I saw the 5K walkers on a different path. I saw another 10K runner join that path, so I cut across the grass and asked if this was the correct way, and she confirmed that it was. The areas that was majorly flooded was an underpass, which we had to go single line to cross, and the course just before the finish line that usually goes towards the beach path. Instead they routed us on the path that was closer to the street, which wasn’t a big difference.

I finished the course in 1hr 13min 53sec. This is the first race that I ran with my new Hoka shoes, they felt good and my feet did not hurt after, and my recovery time was pretty low. Another Proud to Run 10K done, and again a great way to start the Pride weekend festivities with.

Dopey Challenge Recap

I did it! When they debuted this challenge in 2014 I never thought I would actually do it.

2018 marked the 5 year anniversary of the Dopey Challenge and 25 year anniversary of the Marathon, so when the registration opened in February of 2017, I thought why not?

It’s crazy to think that I finished a 5k, 10k, Half Marathon and Marathon in four consecutive days in an upright position and have recovered pretty well. Although I found out that I needed to replenish my electrolytes because I had some stomach issues the following days. Luckily we brought extra Gatorade and that fixed me up right away.

By completing this challenge I also completed the Goofy’s race and a half challenge and received a medal for that too. Over the weekend I obtained 6 medals.

Since the Chicago Marathon I’ve been telling myself that this is the last Marathon, and after this weekend I believe it is. i am hanging up my Marathon shoes and sticking to Half Marathons instead.

I had a great experience with the races, I always have fun in a Disney race. Probably will not do this challenge again, once is more than enough for me!

2018 Event Guide