Race Recap & Review: 2018 Unofficial Castaway Cay Challenge

Last month, the day after the 2018 Walt Disney World Marathon, Matthew and I boarded the Disney Dream to complete the second half of our WDW Marathon Weekend trip: a four night cruise to Nassau and Castaway Cay.

As you may recall, Matthew and I decided to book the Castaway Cay Challenge cruise in late October so we'd already missed the registration for the official Castaway Cay Challenge race.

A little background (because this can be confusing, lol)- to run the Castaway Cay Challenge (a race that takes place at 7:30 am on Castaway Cay, Disney's private Bahamian island), you must register for and run at least one race during WDW Marathon Weekend, book your room on the Disney Dream for the cruise directly after the marathon, then register for the Castaway Cay Challenge race. This race was sold out by the time we booked our room on the cruise so we opted to do the "free" (included in the cost of your cruise) 5k at 9 am, directly following the official challenge race.

In essence, we were doing the challenge- one or more races at WDW Marathon Weekend + a 5k on the island- we just weren't doing the official race with the bling, the shirt, and the earlier start time. We did the official Castaway Cay Challenge last year and while we loved the race, we were ok skipping all the extras this year.

Ok, back to the recap!

Monday morning, our muscles still aching from the marathon the day before, Matthew and I started the most favorite part of our trip- cruising on the beautiful Disney Dream!

Hello, Donald!

Our first two days on the ship (embarkation day and Nassau day) were spent how we usually spend them- lounging around and enjoying all the Dream has to offer: we tried out the Rainforest in Senses Spa, had dinner at the adults-only restaurant Palo, swam in the Quiet Cove pool, did a Whiskey Tasting (which was super cool, by the way!), met lots of characters, and enjoyed coffee on our giant verandah each morning.

Somehow, we were put in an ADA (handicapped-accessible) room so the room itself and its verandah were absolutely enormous! We are absolutely spoiled for any future cruises :-)

This is maybe 1/3 of our verandah deck.

Oh hey, Punzie!

What a Goof!

The morning we docked at Castaway Cay, we were up and on our verandah by 7 am. We actually were able to hear music from the start line about three quarters of a mile from where the ship was docked.

Around 7:30, we heard the race begin and I can tell you will all honesty, I had absolutely zero FOMO (fear of missing out). Matthew and I chatted, sipped coffee, and then went down to Evolution (the biggest bar/club on the ship) to get ready for our race which would begin at 9 am.

Just chilling on our deck with a private island behind me, NBD.

Matthew and I at the start of the "regular" Castaway Cay 5k.

Because the challenge runners used a different course than the regular 5k route, our race followed the challenge course because there wasn't enough time to switch over the courses in between the races. Basically, we followed the same route as the official challengers, we just didn't have the character stops during our race.

I was happy to see that the mile markers and inflatable start/finish line was still up- it made our race feel a little more special.

Matthew and I ran this race using the same intervals we'd used all weekend; 30 seconds of running followed by 30 seconds of walking. About a quarter of a mile into the race, one of our table mates from dinner, Dameon, came up beside us. He'd just run the challenge race and was running the regular 5k as a bonus race!

Dameon had never done intervals before and while he was just curious at first, after hanging with us for the whole race, I think we might have converted him to a Galloway runner :-)

Mile one.

Mile two.

Finishers!

I lead us the majority of this race and I tried to push the pace during the run intervals. We ended the race with negative splits and an overall pace of 11:39- how's that for tired legs that just ran 39.3 miles in two days?!

After the race, Matthew and I grabbed drinks at our favorite island spot, the Heads-Up Bar, and then took a ton of medal pics with the ship in the background. By then it had started pouring rain so we headed back to the ship earlier than we'd wanted to.

Before the rain...

All the creative points to Matthew for this shot.

I will never tire of looking at this bling. Or this ship.

Overall, did we miss not doing the official challenge race? Not one bit. We had just as much fun doing the regular 5k and then enjoying the island.

Rainy days on the island are better than sunny days anywhere else :-)

Will we do this race/cruise again? Stay tuned- I've got another recap coming with my overall thoughts on the whole WDW Marathon Weekend.


Have a great week, friends!

Word[less] Wednesday: 1/17/2018

Good afternoon, friends!

Since I haven't done one of these in a while (and because my WDW Marathon Weekend recaps aren't quite ready just yet), here's a few pictures of what's been going on in my world the last few weeks!

Still riding the high from marathon #4.

Pandora at Disney's Animal Kingdom is STUNNING. The rides were cool, too :-) 

I had TONS of fun at the Cigna Blogger Event! Stay tuned to find out exactly what's happening here :-)

I will never tire of showing my medals to Princesses.

Ever.

Epcot International Festival of the Arts was pretty neat- they had some excellent craft beers on tap.

Still our favorites.

Will run for fancy doughnuts.

We came back from Disney to TONS of snow- no problem for my Yaktrax Pros and Altra Paradigms :-) 

Lots of Disney recaps coming soon- promise!

What's been going on in your world these last few weeks?!

2017: A Year in Pictures

Y'all. 2018 is literally next week.  What?!?!

In lieu of a long post about 2017's triumphs and tribulations, I bring you my favorite photos/memories from each month in the past year- I can't wait to see what 2018 holds!

JANUARY

So many awesome and cool things happened in January 2017, but the absolute coolest thing was spectating the Inaugural Pop Art Half Marathon when the WDW Half was cancelled. Pure Disney magic.

FEBRUARY

 

After running in the sunny weather of Florida and the Bahamas for the Castaway Cay Challenge, coming home to very chilly and snowy runs in PA in February was rough. But luckily, this month was short and sweet and cold.

 

MARCH

 





Meeting Princess Tiana at Tiana's Place on the Disney Wonder? Easily the highlight of March. See the full review of the trip here.

APRIL

New race distances mean automatic PRs.  Matthew and I ran the Rails to Trails 15k and we both got shiny, new, personal best times. :-)

MAY

For our first wedding anniversary, Matthew and I snuck away to Walt Disney World for a quick weekend trip. And we met Baymax- definitely a highlight of the trip.

JUNE

June brought plenty of firsts for me- first mud run in several years, first time admitted to a hospital for an illness (pneumonia), and the first time I ever went parasailing. Two of those were pretty cool.

JULY

Much of July was spent recovering from pneumonia, one week of it in Cape May, NJ with my love. Cape May is one of our most favorite places and we are always thankful when we can escape to the beach.

AUGUST


Still recovering, August was a month of lots of rest and a few bike rides. It's also an insanely busy time of the year for both Matthew and me at work so this is typically a month we don't do much other than work, sleep, and eat.

SEPTEMBER

 

 

Finishing the Harrisburg Half on very little training was a favorite memory from September. You can read the full race recap here.

OCTOBER



The entire Runner's World Half & Festival Weekend was such a blast! HUGE shout out to the folks at Altra and Runner's World for inviting me to be part of the RW Run Crew. It was an absolutely unforgettable experience!

NOVEMBER

Crewing and cheering for Coach Jeff at the JFK 50 miler with our running ohana was one of those life-affirming events that made me love the running community even more than I already do.

DECEMBER

Most of my favorite memories revolve around this guy. ♥ Christmas-ing with my husband will always be the highlight of my December year.


With 2017 almost behind us, what's your favorite memory from this past year?





Accountability Monday: 12/11/2017 + StrideBox Giveaway!

Good morning, friends!

It's quite chilly here in the mid-Atlantic this week so grab a cup of coffee- or hot chocolate if that's more your style- settle in, and check out all that happened this past week, plus, the awesome folks at StrideBox are giving away a cool prize to one of my readers- how cool is that?!

Training
Tuesday: 3.1 treadmill run, 37:59 overall time
Wednesday: strength training (10 reps x 2)- push-ups, squats, clam shells, glute bridges, side-steps with resistance band, crunches, superman
Saturday: 5 miles, 11:58 overall pace
Sunday: 13.1 miles, 12:46 overall pace + strength training (10 reps x 2)- clam shells, glute bridges, crunches, superman, side steps with resistance band, hip extenders with resistance band

21.2 total miles

Positives of this week- completed two strength sessions and got in the mileage I wanted (20+ miles). Room for improvement from this week- fueling. My long run on Sunday was miserable from mile 4.5 on. I was hungry, cold, and tired. I thought I'd eaten enough before I started running but I clearly did not as the later miles were ugly. This will be something I work in the next few weeks before WDW Marathon Weekend.

It might look pretty, but it was an ugly training run.

Best Run
Saturday's 5 miler felt great, even though the temperature was in the 30's! Being able to maintain a sub-12 minute mile pace for anything over 3 miles is a reason to celebrate in my book. 😍

Bravo Moment
Ever since I attended Altra's Run Better Clinic as part of the Runner's World Half & Festival Weekend, I have been working on incorporating all the techniques I learned to improve my running form. Seeing some pictures from this weekend's run gave me some photographic evidence that my form is indeed getting better! I can definitely feel a difference when I'm running and using the techniques so it's cool to actually see a difference. I still have some room to grow but overall, I'm very happy with my progress.

Heel strike? What heel strike?!

Runner Gift Wishlist Items of the Week
Yaktrax has another great offer for you this week, this time on the Yaktrax Run (35% off until 12/16/17)- these feature actual cleats that attach to the bottom of your running shoes that assist with traction in ice and snow. I used these a ton last winter when we had significant amounts of snow and was able to get all my miles in without sacrificing any safety concerns.

Please note that by purchasing through the link above, not only will you get a sweet discount but I may also earn a small commission through the Amazon Associates Program: Sparkly Runner is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. [If you aren't comfortable with that, you can always head over to amazon and search for "yaktrax run" instead. 😊]
Looking to purchase a gift for the runner in your life that keeps giving all year long?

No, no, it's not the Jelly of the Month Club- it's a membership to StrideBox!  StrideBox is a "monthly subscription box to fuel your running adventures." Each box is filled with runner nutrition and accessories, curated for a wide variety of runners. The best part? Each month is a fun surprise! I love getting my box each month and discovering what's inside- it's usually super cool. 
Especially for blog readers, StrideBox has some awesome discount codes for you to use this holiday season!
Use the code SPARKLYRUNNER10 for 10% off 3 or 6 month gift subscriptions. 
Use the code SPARKLYRUNNER5 for $5 off your first purchase. 
Both discount codes are valid until 12/24/2017. 
And because StrideBox is especially awesome, they've partnered with me to give away a prize to a lucky blog reader! 

Wanna win this? Read on below.

To enter: 1. Follow @StrideBox and @SparklyRunner on instagram. 2. Leave a comment on this instagram post with what running product keeps you running. 3. Winner will be drawn randomly. - This giveaway will run from 12/11/17 to 11:59 pm EST on 12/17/17.  - Winner will be direct messaged on instagram on 12/17/17. - Winner must live in continental US.  Winner will be announced here on next week's Accountability Monday post. Good luck! 
Quote of the Week Here's hoping the crappy training runs set up an awesome unofficial Goofy Challenge in a few weeks! 

Have a great week!

Accountability Monday: 12/4/2017

🎶 It's [officially] the most wonderful time of the year! 🎶

I love the month of December because it's socially acceptable to wear Christmas leggings, drink peppermint mocha everything, and listen to holiday music round the clock. Welcome to my favorite season of all!

December is a month of reflection for me- what worked this year, what didn't, and what goals I want to set moving forward into a new year.

It's also a month of colder weather which means good things for my running game. We've got one more long run on the schedule, several 8-10 mile distances, and then two weeks of taper before the unofficial Goofy Challenge and Castaway Cay Challenge starts up in just about a month. Wow!

Training
Wednesday: 3.1 mile run outside with 12:28 overall pace per mile
Thursday: Knee PT workout
Saturday: Volunteered at local race (I'm counting this as training 😃)
Sunday: 6.2 mile run with 12:06 overall pace per mile

This week was tough for training because of work and other social engagements getting in the way of my usual routine. If I've learned anything in the last seven years of running and training for races, it's that strength training is a must. I'm looking forward to getting more strength sessions in this week.

Best Run
I had the most fun on my 10k this weekend on our beautiful, local trail. These six miles definitely felt longer due to some major headwinds from mile 3 on, but I feel like it's getting easier to maintain my "easy" pace in the 12-12:30 range.

Fancy pants make any run better.

Bravo Moment
I LOST WEIGHT THIS WEEK!

If you're keeping track, I'm down 5.6 pounds from early September! I finally feel like I am moving forward instead of slipping backwards with my weight loss/maintenance journey.

Check out this downward trend.

I attribute much of my recent success to the new WW Freestyle program which was just unveiled yesterday. As a WW Leader, I've been living the new program since September and I absolutely LOVE it. I'll write more about that in a separate post this week.


***NEW!***
Runner Gift Wishlist Items of the Week
Because it's that time of year, each week on Accountability Monday in December I'll be highlighting an item or two that the runner in your life (including you!) might be wishing for this holiday season.

First up this week, one of my favorite products for winter running, Yaktrax Pro!  I've been selected as a Cold Conqueror again for 2018 and they're offering a sweet deal (15% off) on these until 12/10/17!





Please note that by purchasing through the link above, not only will you get a sweet discount but I may also earn a small commission through the Amazon Associates Program: Sparkly Runner is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. [If you aren't comfortable with that, you can always head over to amazon and search for "yaktrax pro" instead. 😊]

The second item on this week's list is this awesome Neck Gaiter from Hoo-rag. I have several of these and use them anytime I'll be outside for a significant amount of time- hellooooo winter long runs! Hoo-rag's also got a sale going on and all their performance gear is 35% off!

Source: Hoorag.com

Quote of the Week
A few years ago, work sent me to a Tony Robbins seminar. Some of it was good, a lot of it was weird, but most of it was positive. This week's quote is a good reminder about the consistency of change:




Have a great week, friends! Happy December!

Accountability Monday: 11/27/2017

Good morning, friends!

I hope you are reading this feeling refreshed and ready to start another week- and month! Can you believe it'll be December by Friday?

It's my absolute favorite time of the year for so many reasons: time with family and friends, time away from work, gifts, colder weather, Christmas lights, peppermint mocha everything- I could keep listing things but that's another post entirely! Basically, I adore the month of December and am looking forward to another fun-filled holiday season.

Training
Tuesday- Treadmill 5k, 38:23, 12:23 overall pace
Thursday- 7.06 miles, 1:30:36, 12:50 overall pace
Friday- 16.01 miles, 3:32:01, 13:15 overall pace. Last four mile splits: 13:03/11:52/11:31/11:42
Sunday- 30 minutes on the stationary bike, light strength workout, foam-rolling, light yoga/stretching

26.17 total miles

Y'all, that 16 miler on Friday was no joke. Matthew and I ran the first 12 together and it felt like a struggle- I was over dressed, dehydrated, hungry, and just grumpy. I ran the last four by myself (after grabbing some Belvita breakfast biscuits and a bottle of water- which was incredibly helpful) and was shocked to see the paces I was able to keep. 11:31?! After running 13 miles?! Who am I?!

Some runs build physical stamina, some build mental stamina. Today's 16 miles were the latter. Now onto thanksgiving dinner number two. 🍁🍗🍷 #optoutside

A post shared by Sarah (@sparklyrunner) on Nov 24, 2017 at 10:33am PST

Best Run

Though the first part absolutely sucked, the 16 miles on Friday was my best run of the week. Each run teaches you something- this one reinforced for me the importance of staying hydrated and fueled properly. I'm grateful for the crappy runs; they help me appreciate the great ones. 

Bravo Moment

I hit every single workout I wanted to this week and I feel great! I have very little muscle soreness overall- even though foam-rolling yesterday was rough- and I feel like I'm getting stronger, mentally and physically, during this training cycle. 

Quote of the Week

In a season full of happy distractions, it can be hard to stay focused on what you really want. What I really want is to get to the start lines of the WDW Half Marathon and WDW Marathon healthy, happy, confident, and strong. So I have to keep myself on track, laser-focused, and taking steps each day towards my goal. 

Stay the course, friends.

What keeps you focused on your goals?

Have a fabulous week, folks! 

Official Unofficial Race Plans: 2018

Good morning, friends!

There's so much to fill you in on- I don't even know where to start!

If you follow me on instagram, then you know I ran the Hot Cider Hustle this past Sunday morning (3 miles) and then ran 14 miles that afternoon for a total of 17 miles.

14 solo training miles with the most BEAUTIFUL fall colors and negative-ish splits. November, I have a feeling you are going to be awesome. 🍁🍃🍂

A post shared by Sarah (@sparklyrunner) on Nov 5, 2017 at 1:06pm PST

Now, why in the hell would I run 17 miles randomly? I'm not training for a marathon...

...I'm training for the Unofficial Goofy Challenge 😁

Marathon #4.

As you may know, I signed up for the Walt Disney World Half Marathon back in February. I debated for a long time about what to sign up for in 2018- marathon or no marathon? Goofy or Dopey? Just the half marathon or maybe the half and the 10k? Ultimately, I settled for the half and Matthew signed up for his third Dopey Challenge.

However, the full marathon was still open months after we'd registered and I kept feeling like I wanted to sign up for it. So, I used Runner's World Half & Festival as a mini-test; depending on how I felt after the 3 days of racing, I would either sign up for the full (in addition to the half) or just be satisfied with the half marathon. Still high on endorphins from an awesome and unforgettable weekend in Bethlehem, I registered for the full last week.

The Goofy Challenge (half + full) was already sold out by the time I registered for the full, so it looks like I'll be training for the "Unofficial" Goofy Challenge for the next eight weeks! I'm equal parts scared and thrilled but I'm really looking forward to this next training journey. Since I'm already trained up to the halfway point (13.1 miles), I'll be following a modified training plan for advanced runners (having run more than one full marathon). Expect to see more here about training in the weeks to come.

Most definitely.

Speaking of unofficial races, Matthew and I also decided last week that we wouldn't be getting our traditional castle picture with all our medals in 2018 after all...

2014 Dopey Challenge Finisher.

...because we'll be sailing on the Disney Dream right after the WDW Marathon as part of the Castaway Cay Challenge!... well, sort of...

By the time we decided we were going to do the cruise (like last week), the Castaway Cay Challenge was also sold out. So we decided that we'll just run the "regular" Castaway Cay 5k (which happens after the Challenge 5k) and complete our own "Unofficial" Castaway Cay Challenge. Bonuses of this approach: 1. Less money spent on race registrations means more money for beach side Pina Coladas. 2. We get to sleep in as the second "regular" 5k starts quite a bit later than the one associated with the challenge.

Island 5ks are our favorite.

We took this cruise in 2017 and completed the official Castaway Cay Challenge. Again, we'd debated about doing this again for 2018 and decided we weren't going to. But then we both had insanely busy and stressful fall semesters and ultimately decided that we wanted to take some time off and cruise again directly after WDW Marathon Weekend. So we're making it happen, just a little spontaneously 😉

Is it weird to be running the half and full marathon and not be considered part of the Goofy Challenge? Is it totally nuts to sail on the Castaway Cay Challenge cruise after WDW Marathon Weekend but not be part of the official challenge? I don't know. But after years of "extras" - shirts, medals, and race fees- I think Matthew and I will be ok.

2018 is going to be officially awesome, even if I get there in an unofficial way. 😜


What goals/races do you have planned for 2018?

Castaway Cay Challenge: Final Thoughts

In my last post, you may have noticed that I said Matthew and I might do the Castaway Cay Challenge again. However, after some further thought, I don't think we'll be signing up for it anytime soon. 

While getting on a cruise ship they day after a marathon is probably the best way to celebrate running 26.2 miles, there were some definite drawbacks to this particular cruise. 

The beautiful Disney Dream.

In short, there were too many damn adults on this cruise. 😊

I think Disney Cruise Line has established a perfect adult to kid ratio on its "normal" cruises. There are several adult-only spaces that are frequented by enough people to feel active but not overwhelmingly busy. This cruise had a ton more adults so the adult-only areas were packed! The pools, the bars, and the rainforest (our absolute favorite place on the Dream) were truly not as enjoyable because there were simply too many people.

THIS is how the adult pool should look the majority of the time. 

In fact, things were so crowded in the rainforest, this one woman actually went to get the spa manager to get them to "regulate" the heated beds as you are only supposed to relax on them for 30 minutes at a time if there are people waiting. Let me tell you, it was quite difficult to relax while this woman loudly complained and decided to be everyone's "countdown clock" to when they had to get off the beds. Not fun. 

In addition to the crowds, people's behavior was also a bit un-Disney like. One of the reasons we love cruising with Disney is that we've never seen someone intoxicated to the point they were acting like a fool. Well, while watching a fun game "Match Your Mate" in the nightclub, there was a group of people who appeared to be pretty drunk. So drunk, in fact, that one woman actually slammed her wine glass down on the table and broke the stem of the glass. She. broke. her. wine. glass. WHAT?! We left soon after because they were being so obnoxious and loud. 

And really, with $12 martinis, how does one even get that drunk with DCL?!
This one was pretty yummy though :-) 

I don't know if this cruise was irregular because it was the Castaway Cay Challenge cruise or if it was simply a fluke. We've now cruised on all four ships, a total of seven separate cruises, and have never experienced anything like this before. It definitely wasn't all bad; however there were a few things that will make us reconsider doing this particular cruise again. 

That being said, it was cool to be able to meet so many other Disney runners and talk "shop" with them about WDW Marathon Weekend. And the Castaway Cay Challenge 5k race itself was super fun.

But really, we don't need to do this cruise again. We much prefer our regular cruising routine: less crowded adult spaces and less drunk people. And besides, the Castaway Cay 5k happens every time they dock at Disney's private island in the Bahamas so we can run that race whenever we cruise to the island. 😄 

Disney Dream fans for life.