Sunday, January 29, 2012

2012 Disney 5K

If you are looking for an inexpensive way to "RunDisney", Ive found the best way to save a buck from running either the Half Marathon or the Marathon.

After running the Half Marathon in January, 2011, we thought about running it again before a planned cruise leaving Port Canaveral, Florida.  Because of the cost of the cruise, $150 for a race hits the budget kind of hard.  The 5K still costs $50, which isn't cheap for a 5K.  In fact, they bill it as a family fun run, but seriously, how many families can afford that?  Come to think of it, there weren't many kids at the starting line for it.

The 5K has the 'wave' format so that it isn't a madhouse at the start.  The three waves are based on the following time splits; Under 7 minutes per mile, 7-9 MPM, and 9:01 MPM and above.

If you looking at a great cheap option to the other longer races, I would highly recommend this one.  You are only allowed to go through Epcot, but the photo stops with the characters, the support from the staff and the recovery food/drinks at the end of the race were Grade A.  The only deficient points for the race is the medal and timing of the race.  You are not timed at this race and no one can look it up on their website when you finish.  Youonly have your race number as proof you even ran this one, and who knows, you couldve slept in as far as that proof goes.  The 'medal' is soft rubber and does look cheap.  But again, it does prove you ran it.

You will need to take a extra day of work off since it is run on a Friday morning.  Also, you have to be on the grounds by 5:30 am, which means a before 5 am wake up call to be there by that time.  But the earliness of the race allows ample time to get back, shower and get to the parks before they open.  So my overall rating was A- for those of you interested in a very fun 5K race.   

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Steve Jobs and what works

Finished reading "Steve Jobs" by Walter Isaacson and found it a good read into the mind of Apple's creative genius. While Job's batting average was pretty good on knowing what would work, I found an interesting tidbit on how other products just fell into his lap. Jobs didn't see how the iPod Nano would be a great success. But Jobs wasn't an athlete in training like the rest of us. When you're running a 20 miler in training, the ability to take a 1000 digital song player has great application. Same for running a 5K for a PR and wanting to eliminate any excess weight for a Sony Walkman or hand held radio. The runners at Apple had to talk Jobs into pursuing the Nano. And as it turned out, its success geared one of the values of all of Apple future products when you think about it. Smaller, faster, more capacity, and more functions with each year/version of the product. Another benefit that running has added to person-kind. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad