My Lumina... May She Rest in Peace

Well... I was going to write them, but other than the Keys to the Kingdom tour and the Marathon (which you've all pretty much covered it), nothing really out of the ordinary happened. So, I decided to scrap the Trip Reports for this trip. Maybe durning a slow week, I'll do one on the tour.

With that out of the way, it's time to start back with the training updates. On Saturday, I started slowly working my way back into the training world. I ran 3 miles, did some ab work, and did 30 minutes on the Elliptical, 30 minutes on the Bike, and 5 minutes on the stairmaster. Then turned around and did it again yesterday, minus the 3 miler. Today, I walked 2 miles and actually ran a mile. Yes! a full mile! I was going to start weightlifting this afternoon, but things happened, so I'll just pick it up on Wednesday.

Ok... now on to the car situation. Some of you know somewhat about what happened. Well here's the full version. Last Friday night, I was on my way to Madison (NE of Jackson) to meet up with a friend and go catch a movie (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which was excellent). Well on 220 (Jackson's version of the Beltway) my car began to over heat. I was only 2 miles from Madison, so I decided to just keep going and try to make it there, since I know it's a decent and safe place. Well I made it, but the car didn't. As I turned on to the off ramp, she died. I was able to slowly coast into a gas station, where she stopped. Fortuneatly my friend lives in Madison, so he was able to take me to the theater, and then back home.

The next day, my Dad came up from Brookhaven to see what he could do with it. When he saw it, he really couldn't figure out what was wrong with the car, so he decided to take it back home and see what he could do from there. We go back to Brookhaven to get the trailer, come back and put the car on and took her home.

A few days later, Dad called me and told me that he thought he had her fixed, but he didn't. The car continued to heat up even after he fixed what ever he thought was wrong. So, My Lumina is now sitting in a car graveyard. I loved that car.

But, life moves on. My parents have found a new (to me car) that they should be buying for me in a few days. It's a 2000 Honda Civic. I have not seen the car yet, but from what my parents have told me, it's in excellent shape, fairly low mileage (for a 10 year old car) and appears to have nothing wrong with it. Hopefully they're right. They should be bringing it to me on Wednesday. I'll post about what I think of it then. We shall see!
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Ok, I thought I posted this last night, until Mike sent me a message on Facebook. I think I hit save now instead of Publish Post. Oh well... I've fixed it now.

Also, I wanted to say a quick hello and welcome to Gabe. Thanks for posting and I hope to see you around more!

Just One Quick Post

Hey Guys!!!!

This is it! It's FINALLY HERE!!! I leave for Disney in less than an hour. I'm SO EXCITED!!!

For those of you who are not going, I'll be twittering during the trip, while in the parks, and will be trying to do so during the race. If you would like to see the updates, you can go to my twitter page at www.twitter.com/mattj4226 , or you can look in the side column

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and see the updates that way.

For those of you who are going, see you real soon!

That's it for today. I'll start posting pictures and giving full trip reports when I get back. Until then... See ya!

Happy New Year!!!

With all of the holidays, partys, get togethers, and outings, this has been a very busy couple of weeks for all of us. Hopefully you've had fun and haven't done to bad as far as neglecting your training. But now it's time to hit the ground running, literally! We've only got 8 days until the big day! Can you believe it!!!

I've been trying to throw in some last minute training this last week and for the most part, I think I've been doing pretty well. All last week I went out and wogged (including Christmas Eve and Day) some, wether it was a mile or 8 miles. Food was a little difficult, but hey, it's the holidays, right?

On Monday, I went 8 miles (I actually jogged, not wogged, a full mile!) Yesterday, I did a 3 mile maintenacne walk and today I did a 6 1/2 mile wog.

I also figured out my game plan for race day. During the first mile (with maybe a warmup walk around the parking lot before the race) I'm going to be simply walking. Since traffic will be so conjested anyway, why not walk anyway? Once I hit Mile 2, I'll start walking for 2 minutes then speed walk for 5 minutes, then jogging for 3, then repeat. This way, I can maintain roughly a 13 1/2 minute mile. As I warm up, I'll be able to jog more and walk less.

I'm going to really test this on Saturday. I'm hoping to put in at least a 10 miler (should I up it to 13?) then. I'll let you guys know how it goes.

With that out of the way, here's a little video for the new year.

HAPPY 2009 EVERYONE!!!

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you and your's a very Merry Christmas!

Full update coming tomorrow... See you then!

My Tentative Schedule of Events

Mongello! I thought since I didn't wog today (resting up for a big long wog tomorrow) and I was bored and wanted to post something, I'd post my tentative schedule for the trip. It's tenative for the most part because our departure date may change. So here we go:

Monday the 5th- Since we're driving (UGGH!) we will leave Brookhaven at around 8:00ish and arrive in Gainesville later that night.

Tuesday the 6th- Leave Gainesville and arrive at WDW around mid morning, then possibly head to the Studios

Wednesday the 7th- Head out to Animal Kingdom early in the morning, have an early lunch at the Yak and Yeti, then head over to Epcot and waste time until about 6:00 and head over to the Polynesian for dinner at 'Ohana. After dinner, go down to the beach and watch the fireworks (they do play the show music down there right?)

Thursday the 8th- This day is main part of the trip for most of my party (would be for me too if I weren't meeting all of you guys!). That's because we are all going on the Keys to the Kingdom tour! I'm SO excited about this!! I've ALWAYS wanted to do it!!! So we have to be at the Magic Kingdom no later than 9:15.

After the tour, we'll probably just hang out at the Kingdom until that evening until whenever Rantfest over at the Animal Kingdom Lodge is kicked off (What time do y'all want that to start? EVERYONE is invited!)

Friday the 9th- Head over to Wide World of Sports for the Friday portion of the Packet Pick Up Meet. I've talked to someone about this, but I can not remember who it was and what we're doing. Whoever you are, please remind me what we're doing! I think we said that we were meeting at around 9:30.

Later this evening, heading back to the Magic Kingdom for the Crystal Palace dinner. Not sure what I'll do in the gap between the Packet Pick Up and the Dinner, may head over to the Studios or something. After dinner, going back to the room and crashing!

Saturday the 10th- Getting up at some ungodly hour so I can get ready and be over at Epcot. I'm not sure what time I want or need to be at Epcot (maybe I could hitch a ride with a fellow Pop guest? hint hint!), but the race starts at 6:00 so I'm guessing I need to be there no later than 5:30.

I really have no idea what I need to do, as far as preparation, what time I need to wake up, etc. on race morning. Any tips you guys could give me would be appreciated.

After the race, I'll probably hang out at Epcot for a little while, but I'm ultimately going to go back to the hotel, shower and change, then head back to Epcot and hang around World Showcase until the We Go On meet is kicked off. Then I'll just be with you guys until the evening is over.

Sunday the 11th- Time to leave and go back to the real world. We will be leaving Pop Century ASAP and driving all the way back to Brookhaven. It's a 14 hour drive. Fortunately, I can sleep most of the way. As soon as we pull into my driveway (approx. 8:00 pm CST), I have to load up my car and drive to Clinton. I have school the next day! Luckily, Clinton is only about an hour and a half away, but still it's going to be a LONG day!

Ok... I'm through for now. Sorry I threw all of this info and these questions at you. Honestly, I wasn't even sure I was going to make it this far for a while, so now I'm playing catch up on preparedness. Thanks for listening and for all of your support!

Well Here's the Damage

I went out for a wog yesterday, just like I said I would. It went pretty well considering. I was able to up my mileage slightly, going 7 miles. (Ok... I had the time, but I just hit "Clear Logs" on my iPod's stopwatch... Dang it!!!!! I think it was about 1:30:00 ish - That pisses me off!). I was SO sore this morning! I did another 3 mile walk this afternoon to help ease the soreness.

Anyway, I think I'll be ok. I have roughly 3 weeks to work on it, so we'll see. I won't be able to run much, but I do think I'll finish with the rest of you. Hopefully with the adrenaline, support, and a little bit of luck and pixie dust, I'll make it. If not, Mike and Chris can carry me the rest of the way!

Let's start sending everyone our cell numbers. I don't have everyone's email so just send me your number to mattj4226@yahoo.com, then I'll send you mine. This way we can keep in touch while we're down in the World.

See ya!

Ok... It's Go Time!

Hey guys! Again, long time no post...

Training has still been very slow, but since finals and the job interview is over, now I can start obsessing over that now. I'm just afraid that it's too late. I'm going to go out as soon as I'm through writing this and wog as far as I can and see what the damage is. Hopefully, whatever I've lost, I can regain before the big day. I'm just very iffy about the whole thing.

Anyway, the interview went well I think. It was very casual and laid back. We basically just talked about how things in the office work and things like that. I didn't really hear anything as far as me getting the job but he did say that if I get it he will let me know either the first of next week or after Christmas. I'll let y'all know as soon as I hear anything.

Even if I don't do well during the marathon, I'm still very excited about the trip, the race, and meeting all of you guys! We've only got 2 weeks and 2 days!!!!