A Few of My Favorite Things & a Race, too! - Page 28 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
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Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Tower of Terror 10-Miler
The Finish Line:
What Doesn’t Kill Me, Makes Me Stronger-A Royal Transformation
“What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, stronger. Just me, myself and I. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Stand a little taller…”
Crossing the finish line the tears instantly over took me…tears of happiness, tears of victory, tears of accomplishment, and the worst kind of tears there are tears of loneliness and emptiness. Here I was at the finish line, having a medal put around my neck...the piece of bling that I had longed for the last 12 months, the tangible symbol that I DID IT and I was feeling empty and alone, just like the song. This was not the picture I had in my mind at the finish line; I suddenly knew what I had been feeling as I entered DHS. I had always pictured the end being surrounded by my OCD princess friends. The plan was to allow one of the princesses to run her race ahead of us, but be there waiting as we crossed the finish line. I was supposed to be laughing with my evil stepsister OCD princess as we drug each other across the finish line. This trip, this run, this moment was supposed to be about friendship and here I was ALONE. I thought for a moment that I caught of glimpse of OCD Princess Ariel on the sidelines, but I am sure now that it was probably wishful thinking, because she so easily wrote me out of the trip and out of her life, why would she be there as we had planned? She wasn’t there when I needed her the most the last 8 weeks, she meant more to me than I meant to her, never once checked on me to see how I was doing, she didn’t care, she left me ALONE. But maybe that was a good thing, you see I learned something from being left alone. I learned what it felt like to all those friends that I had done the exact same thing to, written off and never looked back. I learned that friendship is about accepting the other person, faults and all, being honest with them when they are driving you CRAZY instead of holding it in and blowing up (only blowing up when they call you CRAZY), and you just don’t write a person off because you think it is going to end eventually anyway to protect yourself. That is the easy way out, if a person really means something to you than you fight for the friendship. I also realized that I had done exactly what I did not want to do in this race; I was so focused on the finish line that I forgot to enjoy each step I took, to live in the moment. I mindlessly made my way through the exit area picking up my snack box, banana, bottle of water allowing regret; sadness and loneliness continue to cloud my thoughts. Looking around me it was like a war zone of bodies all around me…sitting, laying, standing, and moaning. Where was the excitement and celebration that I dreamed of? I remember hearing the theme song of Dallas (NO KIDDING, REALLY) and a smile began to spread across my face and a little laugh came out…how absurd this whole scene was and my feelings…it took a silly theme song from my grandmother’s favorite tv show (YES, I THINK THAT WAS HER SPEAKING HER WISDOM TO ME THROUGH THE SONG). It was at that moment that my phone started going off again and I pulled up my big girl panties…this moment now had to be about ME and right now there are people that love and care about me (as apparent by the number of texts I was getting)...including 2 people waiting to celebrate with me the other side of this exit chute. I thought about the last 12 months of training as well as the last 2 months of emotional heartbreak.
This is unofficial time/pace. My RunDisney shows a more realistic pace for me around 15 minute mile. What is funny is the distance...that ain't 10 miles! LOL
I did what I had only dreamed of 12 months and worked so hard to accomplish despite being broken both mentally with a derailed trip & broken friendships and physically with a stress fracture. I stopped to take a picture of me and my bling (so not a good picture).
with the realization that...
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, stronger. Just me, myself and I. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
Stand a little taller. Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone
And as I emerged from the exit chute onto Hollywood Blvd, I was no longer an OCD Disney Princess, but a Disney Queen about to party with the villains and no plan was needed. It took me 12 months to transform and what a roller coaster 12 months it had been…
Wow - that's an impressive time per mile, given how far you ran. I know you said I ran faster yesterday, but that was one mile, and trust me, if I tried to do two miles, there's no way I'd be that fast. I have nothing but admiration for everything you achieved and for sharing it all with us - you learnt so much along the way and, I'm guessing, a lot more than you probably ever thought you would.
Wow - that's an impressive time per mile, given how far you ran. I know you said I ran faster yesterday, but that was one mile, and trust me, if I tried to do two miles, there's no way I'd be that fast. I have nothing but admiration for everything you achieved and for sharing it all with us - you learnt so much along the way and, I'm guessing, a lot more than you probably ever thought you would.
That is my unofficial pace...and I think it is wrong. The official time from Disney has me at about 15 minutes per mile which is more like it! What is funny is the distance is way off of 10 miles...LOL.
I did I learned a lot about myself and this was a good thing...far more than I ever dreamed of or knew I had in me...
Hold on this TR ain't done yet...we still have to party with the villains and take the saddest ride in all of WDW...AND I HAVE TO GET THIS SCRAPBOOK DONE!
YAY!!! Congratulations on completing your run!! I know how it must of been to finally finish something you started 12 months ago. I am thankful to have followed along on your trip! Thank you for sharing with us!!
Congratulations, Just finished reading your last post. Your story truly pulls at the heart. Hopefully the good feelings from your race accomplishment will continue to grow and help you with your friends. Hope you were able to find Cammy at the villains party. Really looking forward to your next post and the new pages. (I have been sharing them with my wife.)
Congrats! 13 or 15 minute mile pace, both amazing! You did so great and you accomplished that FOR YOU. I'm so glad you felt stronger afterwords and am excited to hear about the villains party
I've been using run keeper to train and it does run/walk intervals too, so I'm glad to know that works for you. If I ever train for a longer Disney one I think I'll use their set olans
TOT 10-Miler After Party:
Partying with the Villains Until the Wee Hours of the Morning
I made way out of the exit chute onto Hollywood Blvd to this view...
ICK ICK ICK Before realizing that Cammy had no idea how to get to where Betsy had planned for us to meet up. I called Cammy in the chaos of the exit area, only to find out that she was somehow behind me and I talked her to where I was standing. When she finally emerged from the crowd we were both holding our medals up for each other in victory. It was now time to find Betsy who was waiting for us near Little Mermaid with all of our belongings. Betsy was all smiles as we showed her our medals...
and then she surprised us with another piece of bling, a Disney “My Magical Triumph” button, which proudly hangs on my office bulletin board with a completion certificate from the race…a daily reminder that I can do things that surprise even me.
I can’t tell you how many people stopped to ask us where we got those buttons…I proudly told them that my FRIEND Betsy gave it to me. That button means just as much to me as my medal does. The medal is about me and the button is about true friendship. As Cammy got her boot on I sat down on the nearest bench as now my body decided it needed a rest and fuel. I rummaged around my snack box and munched away.
After a little break, I told both Cammy and Betsy either we start partying with the Villains...
or my body was going to further shut down on me and there were rides I wanted to do! We made our way down Pixar towards TSM, but I remember us not stopping because the line was too long so we headed to Star Tours where the ride was walk on. From there we decided it was time for RnRC, but got side tracked as Cammy ordered an "I DID IT" shirt. I looked at the colors and still decided against the purchase.
We then did a ride on RnRC...
and then had a shoot out on TSM which Betsy won.
When we exited I spotted Lotso all alone and decided here was my chance to have a character picture taken!
Then while Cammy and I rode ToT a couple of times Betsy went back to pick up Cammy’s shirt.
We met back with Betsy, who was engaged in conversation with a group of people, as we exited ToT. Come to find out Betsy had met these people at DL the month before…she has a knack of meeting random strangers and then running into them again. By this time it was just about party ending time (close to 4 am)and we were literally some of the last ones to leave the park (goal accomplished to party with the villains all night...and morning long).
As we headed towards the entrance I stopped to get some popcorn and a coke. Disney popcorn is the best, but after what I had just done in the last 18 hours it was even better. We made our way towards our separate buses making plans to meet up sometime before Cammy and I had to leave on ME midafternoon. The bus ride back to CBR was quiet as our bodies were headed towards shut down mode. I remember walking into the room, thinking I need to take an ice bath but first it was time to CAKE IT UP…the way all CUPCAKE RUNNERS celebrate after a race! Time for a bottle of water and my Money Cupcake (peanut butter buttercream icing, moist vanilla cake with a a center full of banana pudding and banana pieces).
I knew after my cupcake I needed to take an ice bath, but I could not muster enough strength to get out of bed…
YAY!!! Congratulations on completing your run!! I know how it must of been to finally finish something you started 12 months ago. I am thankful to have followed along on your trip! Thank you for sharing with us!!
It is a great feeling of accomplishment...I am honored that you have followed along...we aint done yet!
Quote:
Originally Posted by rhinohunter
Congratulations, Just finished reading your last post. Your story truly pulls at the heart. Hopefully the good feelings from your race accomplishment will continue to grow and help you with your friends. Hope you were able to find Cammy at the villains party. Really looking forward to your next post and the new pages. (I have been sharing them with my wife.)
Thank you...I know I was a wee bit emotional, but it has certainly helped in the healing process to get them out. I am just a few pages away from having a completed album!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
Sounds like the reflections at the end of the race were healing!
They were! Thank you for having to suffer through my healing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by xwewhisper
Congrats! 13 or 15 minute mile pace, both amazing! You did so great and you accomplished that FOR YOU. I'm so glad you felt stronger afterwords and am excited to hear about the villains party
I've been using run keeper to train and it does run/walk intervals too, so I'm glad to know that works for you. If I ever train for a longer Disney one I think I'll use their set olans
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I love intervals. They make me successful...there is no way this girl could run the entire 10 miles, let alone even 1 mile. This type of running allows me to participate!
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My favourite is the photo with Lotso - you both look so happy! 
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