Nick's Guide to Free Dining Disney Style

If you are a Disney Visa card holder, now is the time to book a trip to Walt Disney World, because if you book a vacation package for 3 consecutive nights or more, you will recieve The Disney Dining Plan for free. The Disney Dining Plan consists of 1 quick service meal, one table service meal, and one snack per day. So, you are wondering, what kind of savings does this provide? Well, lets look at a typical day touring 3 different parks, just to mix it up a little. First, we start out at Disney's Animal Kingdom. It's getting to be around 11 o'clock, and you want to grab an early lunch, so you head over to the Yak and Yeti Local Foods quick service spot for a your quick service meal. With a quick service dining plan meal, you get an entree, drink, and dessert, so you order the Shrimp Lo Mein (10.99), a large Diet Coke (2.49), and the Mango Mini Pie (3.59) for dessert. So, by my calculations, you are up to 17.07 just for lunch, but wait, you have free dining, so do a happy little dance once you place your order! Anyway, back to touring, after you have consumed your lunch and take in a showing of Finding Nemo The Musical, it's time to head over to the TTC and catch the monorail to Epcot to check out World Showcase. You have a 5 o'clock ADR for Le Cellier, so you start in Mexico about 2 o'clock, and work your way around, riding the Maelstrom twice in Norway, just because it's that awesome. Once you reach Canada, you check in at Le Cellier for Dinner. On the table service plan, you get an entree, a non-alcohalic drink, and a dessert, and you have to leave a tip, so that is out of pocket. Le Cellier is known for the steaks, so you order the Le Cellier Mushroom Filet Mignon (34.99), a Diet Coke (2.99), and the Chocolate on Chocolate Whiskey Cake (7.99) for dessert. So, without tip, you are looking at a bill of 45.97 - if you were paying that is, but you're not so all you have to cover is the tip which should figure out to be about 10 bucks, if you value good service. After dinner you jump back on the monorail to the TTC, and take a Ferry over to the Magic Kingdom to watch Spectromagic and Wishes to end your evening. Before you find your spot for the parade, you head over to the Main Street Bake Shop to use your snack option for an ice cream cookie for 3.95. So there you have it, in one day you can save a total of 66.99 on food with Free Dining. Now, these are all meals that I have personally had on Free Dining, and if you swing it, it's the best way to go.

Races I'd like to run

Here are some races I'm planning to sign up for. I need more T-shirts.

1. Health Kids Day 5 K - 4-18-09 - Vincennes, IN
www.vincennesymca.org
2. Pike Central NHS 5 K - 5-9-09 - Petersburg, IN
www.pcsc.k12.in.us/pchs/NHS.htm
3. Run Though The Jungle 5 K - 5-16-09 - Center Point, IN
www.junglerun5k.com
4. Laufenfest 5 K - 6-20-09 - Haubstadt, IN
http://www.laufenfest.com/index.html
5. Bring The Heat 8 K - 7-25-09 - Montgomery, IN
http://tristaterunner.com/documents/BringtheHeat2009.pdf

All of these races look like fun, I ran the Health Kids Day 5 K last year, it was local, and a good turnout. The Run Through The Jungle 5 K goes through an exotic feline rescue center (lions and tigers), so it should be cool, but a 2 hour drive. Laufenfest will have a biergarten at the finish line, so that should be awesome, and I've never done an 8 K before, so the Bring the Heat race should be fun, it's also a trail race. Hopefully all these races will lead up to training for a fall half marathon.

The best resturant in Walt Disney World - Le Cellier.

Me riding Expedition Everest

This is footage of me riding Expedition Everest last August at Disney's Animal Kingdom. What a blast!

Running Blues: Race to Half Marathon Mountain

Well gang, when we last left off, I was just finishing up my training and preparing to run the half marathon in Indianapolis, IN. Two days before the race, my virtual training partner (he training in Knoxville while I was in Vincennes) Ben Sealey and his family showed up at our house, because Ben was racing the full marathon while I did the half. We did a two mile run together on Thursday night, and then headed up to Indianapolis on Friday around noon, to stay with an old college friend to catch up (and not have to pay for a hotel room). Our hosts were very nice, making a fantastic pasta dinner on Friday night to fuel our bellies for race day. After a few Bud Lights that evening, Ben and I hit the sack to awaken at 6:00 am. We had another great meal, this time oatmeal, and then we were off to the races. When we arrived, we had to walk about a half mile to the starting line area, where we both lubed up with vasoline in the sensative areas (we did this seperately of course). As the start time approached, we found our way to the proper seeding corral, the 9-10 minute pace group. After the usual opening shpeal, the starting gun fired and we were off. I had of course prepared a playlist for the ol' Ipod, so I was in the zone with some Metallica flowing between my ears. The first few miles of the race everyone was pretty compacted, but after a while everything loosened up and I found a comfortable pace. At mile 5 I slammed a Chocolate GU and some water, then at about mile 9 my dogs really started barking. My feet were becoming a little numb, probably due to the fact that my shoes were worn out, because I didn't have time to break in new pair of shoes before the race. But I kept moving forward. Around the same time the course turned into a park, and I ran on a trail for a short while, then we were back to the road, and the finish was closing in. At 10 miles I hit another GU, and some more water, and felt that finishing this race was reality. I was really feeling tired at this point, but the goal of finishing was keeping me upright and moving. At about mile 12 the coarse split for the half marathoners and marathoners, so I picked up the pace a little until mile 13 where I broke into a full run, seeing the finish line. I crossed the line at 2:00:28, pretty good for a first timer in my view. After I crossed the finish line, I recieved my finishers medal, and I was on top of the world. I sat around a firepit after a banana and some water, and then decided to hobble back to the car to change into street clothes and get something to eat while I waited for Ben to finish the marathon. All in all, this experience ranks up there with the birth of my son and my marriage (and my trip to Walt Disney World), as one the the greatest achievements of my life. Next time I will get into my sore knee, and the post half marathon running, or lack there of I should say.

Running Blues 2: Disney and the Indy Run

When we last visited my running tale, I had just finished my first 5 K, and was wondering what the future held. It was late spring 2008, and the weather was beginning to get warmer, and my milage started to get higher. Not by much, but my weekend runs started getting longer. I did run another 5 K, and improved my time by 2 minutes, but 3.1 miles was beginning to be somewhat easy for me, so I set my sights on a longer run - a marathon. Yes, thats right, not a half, but a full marathon. Somehow my buddy Ben had talked me into running a full marathon on October 18 in Indianapolis with him. Being the relative newbie that I was, I thought this would be no sweat, so we selected a starting date for training and set our sights on Indianapolis. Before our official training began, I was chugging out 7 mile long runs on the weekend with ease, and I welcomed the challege of he Hal Higdon training regimine Ben had suggested. When we started training, things were going great - until I took a long scheduled trip to Walt Disney World. I decided to take that week off of training, and really overdid it touring the parks, even rubbing some nasty blisters on my toes. I tried to do too much too fast, and did not use a touring plan (Len Testa's Unofficial Guide touring plans really do work!), and ended up do a BUNCH of extra walking the first few days of the trip, and I paid for it the rest of the week. Anyway, once I returned from my commando trip in The World, it took me a week to get back to running, and I slowly came to the realization that my full marathon dream was over, I had to knock down to a half, which in the end was a great decision. Over the next 3 weeks, I adjusted my training to fit the half marathon, and before I knew it, started feeling a little pain in my right knee (more on this later). The pain didn't slow me down any, but it seemed that karma was against me, because my Garmin Forerunner died about the same time, so I had to basically run the same routes that I knew the milage to every day, which got really boring. But, the training was going pretty well, and I felt prepared to tackle 13.1 miles. Next time I'll fill you in on the highlights of the race, a great weekend spent with friends, and the aftermath.

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