Just getting caught up after catching a nasty cold right after vacation that took me out of commission for 2 weeks that was immediately followed by a business trip, so June was a disaster running wise. Now I have to show coach that I really want it by proving that the illness was a temporary obstacle.
Various thoughts I've had while catching up in no particular order.
1. I break my running clothes into groups. Some tech shirts are used only for short distances because they are less comfortable for longer distances. Others are used for just about any distance, and some are saved for long distances only because those tend to be my very best tech shirts, so I save them for when they do the most good.
2. I'm weirdly superstitious when it comes to sports. For instance, my best races tend to come when I'm wearing BYU apparel. It's reached a point now where I always wear either BYU shorts, or running pants if I'm not wearing a BYU shirt for the race. However, that superstition does not extend to I did it shirts. If I want one, I will buy it before the race, but will not wear until after the race. It does help knowing that I can return it on Disney property if I need to.
3. Characters. I really enjoy getting character photos, but almost always do so based on whether or not I actually like the character/movie and how long the line is. I'll wait much longer for character/movie that I love than characters I'm neutral about. All that said, this year during the Goofy portion of Dopey, I stopped for a lot of photos because the lines were short enough and I was determined to not repeat the no photo policy I had during my first half because I was terrified I would not finish. Funny what confidence can do.
For me, the characters I would wait in long lines for during the race are almost always the same characters I can see in the parks after the race. It's basically Mickey, Chip and Dale, Pluto, Goofy, Star Wars, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, and Tangled. Fortunately for me, I have seen most of these characters in races before, so I can skip the line if it's a problem.
4. Motivation. I always struggle with this when I do not have a race on the horizon. The last 2 years I have used the runDisney virtual 5K summer series to help with this, although this option may not work for everyone and really only works for me because I have really liked the medals for that series the past 2 years.
