PSU Track Alumni Golf Soap Opera: Imelda Marcos Must Be Running This Zoo

The dynamic duo of Gary and Barb Black are out there on the course of the half-marathon in the Disney Dopey Challenge.  I know this because I was awakened every fifteen minutes by fireworks as each cattle chute of runners set off. Can't a sloth get any sleep around here?

Addendum:  Both finished the Half-Marathon in brutal 99% humidity.  There is much gnashing of teeth and general belly-aching among all the Dopey Challengers. Compression is now necessary to revive enough for the Marathon ahead. Barb was talked off a ledge after the finish and we are enroute to Downtown Disney's Running Store for a full body compression outfit. The line for the hot tub is now longer than the line for pasta. Distraught Dopey's are milling about everywhere, as if doomed soldiers before Pickett sends them forth.

The day yesterday was spent strolling around the Animal Kingdom by most of the team.  With the high of 81 degrees, that meant an 82 degree swing from when I left for Florida.  The most interesting animals were the throngs from Brazil.  Somehow, half of their country must be here.  They are a well-behaved and happy group, and Portuguese is more prevalent here than English, Spanish or Spanglish...

81 degrees and sunny.

The other half of our team waited in a line at the running expo, so that he could get a place in another line in order to be ushered into a final line to purchase Special Edition New Balance/Run Disney running shoes.  I swear Imelda Marcos must have dreamed this up.  And how it took them 24 years to think of it, I'll never know.  When you have 7,000 people who pay $500 to run 4 races in 4 days while being trapped like a rat, you know they'll pay premium dollars for Special Edition shoes.  I think they have sold more than 20,000 pairs in just the first 2 days.  I fully suspect the other shoe companies to have competing lines next year.  Even those sharks late to a feeding frenzy sometimes snag a good meal anyway.

Imelda would be drooling.