Our first "Welcome Home" and 26.2 miles - Page 6 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
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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Glad you got your Disney race mojo back!!! I love seeing the pictures from along the race route, especially all the characters who have come out to cheer you on!
Yay - you lost your funk! Great job on your "run-by" photos.
Glad you're enjoying them!
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Originally Posted by disney_duke
Yep, that was my plan too - do as much running in the beginning and then see how I felt after the sun came up. It seemed to work! So glad you relaxed and started having the usual fun! I take "drive by" photos too. Those lines were LONG!!
I find that the lines are longer with every Disney race I do. They were ridiculously long during the Princess!
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Originally Posted by lfredsbo
Just found this!!! Great start!!! So excited that you got your mojo back!!! Can't wiat to hear more!!!
Coming up!
Quote:
Originally Posted by KMB733
Glad you got your Disney race mojo back!!! I love seeing the pictures from along the race route, especially all the characters who have come out to cheer you on!
So, I had gotten through the first five or so miles of the marathon and finally had a smile on my face. We left the hub and turned right into Liberty Square, where Tiana and Naveen were taking photos. I didn't stop, but I love that movie, so when they were between runners, I called out, "Tiana! I'm going to dig a little deeper!" and she responded, "You're almost there!" I heard one of the runners behind me say so,mething like, "We're NOT almost there!" Apparently, they've never seen The Princess and the Frog.
Liberty Square turns into Frontierland
Off we go past Splash Mountain and into a backstage area. The train was there, blowing its whistle. In the past, Jack Sparrow and his crew have been in this area, but this time it was Princess Aurora and Prince Philip. (During the Princess, the three fairies were there, too.)
After we left the backstage area of Magic Kingdom, there was a stretch where not much going on. I believe there was a firetruck on the left hand side of the road, and they were playing "Stronger" by Kelly Clarkson, which is the song that was chosen for mile 7 of the Princess half. Whenever I hear that song, I tell whoever is listening, "This is my mile 7 song!"
I sang along, because I really love that song!
I have no pictures between miles 7 and 8, except a blurry one of Mary Poppins and Bert as we head toward the Speedway.
I wasn't terribly excited about this section of the course, but it WAS new, so that was something. When it was first announced that we'd be running through the speedway, people were concerned about the angle of the road and how difficult it might be to run there. As it turned out, we ran mostly on a flat surface, and I didn't have any trouble with it.
We were running directly into the sun!
There was a very steep ramp down into the speedway, and we had to be very careful with our footing
Basically, we ran around most of the speedway, and there were classic cars and more "modern" cars (Nascar? I have no idea.) as well as a couple of Cars characters. My DH would have loved this section, but I don't think he would have run 26.2 miles to see it.
I thought this was Sally...
We had an updated one of these in the 80s; same color and everything!
My favorite of the classics: the Mustang!
This was not "THE" Herbie; we saw him in the Studios later. This one was cool, though; it was interactive and its doors and hood would open and close!
These were just the cars on the left hand side, where I was running. There were more where I couldn't photograph them. I don't enjoy cars that much, myself, but the speedway gave us lots to look at. It made the mile go by pretty quickly, and sometimes that's all that matters.
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Kind of nice to have a different route and see the raceway. Cars don't do anything for me, either, but it's always interesting to see more of the World. Was it starting to get super-hot with the sun up?
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More fantastic photos!!! My DH would have LOVED the speedway area - not the running part - but all the cars!!! It is really neat that they have so much set up along the route - it must really help with the mojo and making the time pass!!!
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Kind of nice to have a different route and see the raceway. Cars don't do anything for me, either, but it's always interesting to see more of the World. Was it starting to get super-hot with the sun up?
It wad definitely heating up! I made sure to take water and/or gatorade at every stop! Hydration was going to be key in getting us to the finish line.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
How cool to be able to run through the Speedway and it certainly looks like they put plenty of attractions there for everyone to see.
I wouldn't mind if they didn't repeat this in next year's marathon, but I'm glad I got to see it this year.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
More great pictures along the way!
Thanks! More to come.
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Originally Posted by lsugirlinutah
Cool cars! I liked the mix of actual cars and characters. Still can't believe you have over half the race left to go!!
More than half the race and many, many more photos!
Tiana is funny!! You got way more pics of cars than I did! I stopped for like 4 and I thought I'm wasting time -- keep running! Great photos though.
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So cool seeing the course! I have always wanted to be a runner, but my body has other ideas I think I start out too quickly when I try and go back to it again, then I give up because it's too much. Running a Disney Marathon is a dream though (okay a half marathon!)
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Stacey
Why do these kids look so pathetic?
Find out in: A New Grade, A New House, and A Surprise!Final Thoughts 01/30
Great photos! The speedway looked fun and I love the special characters and some of the outfits that I haven't seen before.
I don't know that I'd call it "fun," but it did help pass the time!
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Originally Posted by KMB733
More great pictures! That's really cool that you got to run on the Speedway!
Quote:
Originally Posted by sc507
So cool seeing the course! I have always wanted to be a runner, but my body has other ideas I think I start out too quickly when I try and go back to it again, then I give up because it's too much. Running a Disney Marathon is a dream though (okay a half marathon!)
Yep, you have to start small. I'd recommend the Couch to 5K program to give you a good start. Running a Disney race was my motivation to get started!
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Last edited by mom to 3 princesses and 1 prince; 01-24-2013 at 05:06 PM..
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I heard one of the runners behind me say so,mething like, "We're NOT almost there!" Apparently, they've never seen The Princess and the Frog.
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Tricia
I think I start out too quickly when I try and go back to it again, then I give up because it's too much. Running a Disney Marathon is a dream though (okay a half marathon!)
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