Seeing as it's been 3 years, I thought I should finish a post I started about a lucky break I had at work, going to Walt Disney World in Florida. I printed my blog book on a whim and forgot that I was still working on the post. So we'll celebrate the three year anniversary of my favourite work trip :)
Despite all my complaining, there were a few perks to working for Team In Training. The only one that comes to mind currently is going to cool places, but I may be able to think of something else down the road.
Despite all my complaining, there were a few perks to working for Team In Training. The only one that comes to mind currently is going to cool places, but I may be able to think of something else down the road.
My manager and I both have an appreciation for Disney, and she very graciously allowed me to go to Orlando for the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend, and she opted to attend the shorter Disney Princess Half Marathon in March. In a word: awesome. Marathon weekends are already the best part of my job, and you throw in the Disney aspect and I couldn't believe I was getting paid. Granted, my salary is laughable when you factor in my hours, but still! This was by far my favourite work weekend.
It was different than others in that it was spread out over a Saturday and Sunday instead of just Saturday. The half marathon took place on Saturday and the full on Sunday. It meant for two incredibly early mornings (we're talking 2:30 AM early) but twice the fun as well. It was beyond freezing all day - chilled to the bone. We jumped, we cheered, we froze. We were lucky enough to be positioned near stilt walkers who kept us entertained when things got slow. I've never had an interest in running a marathon, in spite of the fact that a major part of my job was recruiting other people to run them, but this event got me the closest. The Fab Five: Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto were all waiting at the finish line to congratulate people on finishing. Most people ran straight past them, I'm sure eager to finish and sit down, and maybe that's what I would have done. But I related more to the people walking along, not caring how much time they were taking, giving the characters great big hugs and then crawling across the finish line. That would have been me. When I saw the "See you in 2011" sign, I was almost convinced. Almost.
As a non-profit organization, we were offered majorly discounted tickets to attend the parks if we wanted to. It took me all of a nanosecond to purchase mine. While we usually don't have much down time on event weekends, we were staying in a Disney World hotel with shuttles running to the parks every few minutes, so I thought it would be worth it. I got more than my money's worth. The races started at 3:00 in the morning, before the parks opened, so the rest of our day was free to enjoy the park, until I had meetings or other responsibilities to fill. Whenever I wasn't needed, I was running amok from The Animal Kingdom to Epcot. And loving every minute. While of course I missed Brandon immensely, there was something wonderful about being on my own and doing whatever I wanted to do, whenever I wanted to do it. I saw the Monsters, Inc. Monsters of Comedy routine at least three time sin a row, it was was so funny. I waited in line to meet characters (heaven bless Turk, they were about to turn me away so she could go on a break and instead let me be the last person to take a photo with her). I joined the line to meet Mickey and Minnie only to be told that they'd be back in 15 minutes and normally I would have continued on my merry way, but because it was just me and I wasn't holding anyone else back from riding rides, I stuck it out and got a great picture (it would have been nice if Mickey was looking at the right camera) with them in front of the castle. So worth it. I was in awe of the castle and took entirely too many photos of it. Wow.
After both events were complete, Team In Training held an exclusive Victory Party after hours at Disney's Hollywood Studios. I hung out with the members of my team and they even talked (read: forced) me into riding the Tower of Terror - decidedly the worst ride ever invented. I got to meet more of the characters and even enjoyed doing The Cupid Shuffle with Pocahontas, Snow White and Jasmine. Had I thought to put that on my Bucket List (funnily enough, it hadn't occurred to me) I could scratch it off.
What a wonderful weekend to enjoy the best of Disney and at the same time see people accomplish incredible athletic goals and support an amazing cause. I just added Disney World with Brandon to my Bucket List.
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