2007 Disney's Goofy: setting the stage

This year, instead of writing one long rambly report, I'll break it up into multiple (potentially rambly) posts. Tonight we'll cover "the setup" and "the befores".

Last year was the first year that Disney offered "The Goofy" - run the half on saturday and the full on sunday. They expected a few hundred people to be interested, and had to close it when 3000 signed up almost instantaneously. This year, they were more ready for the onslaught of strange people.

I did it last year. And I was very sick... although I didn't know it at first. I had planned a 1:40 half... I managed 1:50 and was wheezing terribly. Didn't know why. The next day, I pulled 4:02 out for the full, never felt "right", and by that night I was all stopped up, coughing, sore throat, etc. Two plane rides later, and I had a full-blown sinus infection that kept me out of running for 4 weeks. Whoops.

For this year, I think I'm healthy. OTOH, my training has been less than I'd like over the past 4 months thanks to the cancer fairy. I seriously have no idea how I'm going to do this weekend. My goals are "finish", "don't die", "kiss women". Ok, the first two. Just seeing if you are reading.

Last year, I showed up at the expo on the second day and all the Goofy stuff was gone. So this year, I had the bright idea of being there when the doors opened on the first day. Alas, about 10,000 of my closest friends had the same idea. The line was out the door and down the street. Once I got in, and after waiting in several lines (runner relations, goofy, vip, chip check, tshirts), I made it into the merchandise area and got my goofy stuff. Yay.

That was yesterday. Today I visited some parks.

One thing I forgot to pack for this weekend's races was something to deal with excess sweat, like a wristband. And it is gonna be 100% humidity.

So after riding the (wheezing and old) Star Wars ride at MGM, I saw some wristbands in their little gift shop.

I bought one that says SITH in faux-Harley Davidson lettering.

Heh.

This is funny to me for two reasons:

1. That I am going to be tremendously geeky enough to wear a wristband that says SITH

2. If you think about it, if I was, you know, Sith, I seriously doubt that I'd be sporting a wristband that spells out SITH. Either I'm gonna be incognito because dark lords work that way, or I'm gonna be all mutated out like Darth Maul or Darth Vader. SITH. Right.

So.

Darth Runner is taken.

Darth Stevie Ray is too long.

Darth Moose and Darth Aardvark might work, based on past nicknames.

Total side note. While waiting in line for Soarin', I was standing behind a family. Randomly, the 10ish year old boy breaks into I... like... big butts and I cannot lie!!! Neither the parents nor the boys siblings reacted. At all.

I'm not sure which was the highlight of my day at the parks... I went through MGM, Animal Kingdom, and Epcot (twice). I guess I'll go with SITH.

One more observation (because I can't sleep), then we'll get to some racing.

For those who have been to The Animal Kingdom... does it weird anyone else out when you see people walking by munching on a giant turkey leg? Or, at least, what I hope is a turkey leg...

It doesn't phase me in other places. But at Animal Kingdom? Hmmmm. It's like eating seafood at Sea World.