n i c k y n a x . c o m

I am on a new mission. I have decided that there is something I want, and it’s going to take a lot of work and discipline to get it. I’ve figured out what I am going to need to do to reach this goal, and it’s quite ambitious. Quite possibly too ambitious for my means, but just the fact that I have a plan and hopefully an outcome on a set date in the future does make it all a bit exciting.

It’s no secret that I love Disney. And it’s no secret I visit the theme parks several times a year. Let’s take a look back at all of my trips to Disney Theme Parks just to give an example.

• July 1995 – Walt Disney World
• March 2002 – Walt Disney World
• February 2004 – Walt Disney World
• March 2004 – Walt Disney World
• May 2004 – Walt Disney World
• September 2004 – Walt Disney World
• Feb 2005 – Walt Disney World
• June 2005 – Disneyland
• January 2006 – Walt Disney World
• September 2006 – Disneyland
• January 2007 – Walt Disney World
• March 2007 – Walt Disney World
• October 2007 – Walt Disney World
• October 2007 – Disney Cruise Line
• January 2008 – Walt Disney World

That’s fifteen trips so far in my lifetime. Thirteen of which have been within the past four years. I think it’s a fair assessment that this is obviously something that is a huge part of my life and will probably continue to be so in the future. So, planning ahead, I’ve decided to pursue something I’ve wanted for the past few years. Something that will make my future vacations to Disney much easier and more comfortable for decades to come.

I have decided that I will join the Disney Vacation Club. During this most recent trip to the parks in Orlando, I stayed at one of the DVC properties by renting membership points from a current member in order to get a taste of what actual membership is like. And while the brief time I stayed there during this trip wasn’t incredibly different than my other non-DVC trips, there was just something that felt different about it. Maybe it was always being told "Welcome Home" everytime I arrived back at the resort that had something to do with it. I don’t know what it was, but it just felt nice. And financially, if I continue to go in the future as frequently as I do now, it would financially just make sense to join. Plus, it would make taking trips with my family (both current and future, whomever they may be) and friends much easier.

Naturally, owning a timeshare isn’t cheap. And I would be silly to think I could just phone them up and hand over some cash and join today, although it would be awesome if I were able to do that. This is something that is going to take me a lot of saving and planning in order to accomplish. And therefore, I’m attempting a pretty ambitious savings plan. One that will hopefully allow me to join the DVC sooner than later and soon enough to actually be able to enjoy my full membership before I’m too old to even travel anymore.

I call this savings plan Fifteen in Thirty by Thirty.

I’d like to save up fifteen thousand dollars over the next thirty months in order to put down a substantial downpayment and join the DVC on my thirtieth birthday.

Fifteen in Thirty by Thirty.

It sounds good in theory. But the reality of the situation is that this would require me to put aside five hundred dollars a month over the next two and a half years in order to reach this goal. I’m not entirely sure this is within my financial means right now, but at least it gives me a good basis to start from and something to strive for. And who knows, maybe it will keep me in check and keep me from spending as much money on some frivilous things. Either that, or it could cause me to starve to death.

If all goes as planned, on August 18, 2010, I will be able to proudly say that I am the newest member of the Disney Vacation Club and will able to book a 3 Bedroom Grand Villa for all of my friends and family to come and help me celebrate.

And even more importantly, it will keep me distracted so hopefully I won’t notice that I just turned 30.

It’s now been a full week since the marathon, and I’ve had some time to get settled back in to real life as well as get my pictures in order, so I felt it time to give an update about the event.

Overall, it went MUCH better than last year. It was about twenty degrees cooler this year, which made it much more tolerable. The weather was still a bit humid for my liking, but overall, much better than the sauna of last year’s event.

I went in with the main goal of just finishing since I hadn’t really trained properly for the race this year. And much to my shock, not only did I finish, but I knocked about ten minutes off of my time, setting a new personal best. Yay for that!

My chip time ended up being 5:32:08

I do have one quibble with my performance during the race. I stopped at about mile 19ish to use one of the porta-potties along the way and had to wait in a line for about five minutes before getting in and out and back on my way. Had I not stopped to pee, I would have beaten Katie Holmes’ marathon time from the ING NYC Marathon she did back in November.

Aww, dang!

There’s always next year, right?

Unlike last year, I did not spend the entire afternoon/evening after the race vomiting and calling the paramedics to the hotel room either. I was in much better health afterwards (I only vomited once! Yay!), which I credit to trying extra hard to make sure I was getting a good mix of Powerade and water during the race instead of just Powerade like I did last year. I think that might have had something to do with the problems last year; apparently you can get over-hydrated and electrolyte imbalance is very dangerous. Also, I had Michael, Joe, and Justin meet me alongside the race course at about mile 11 or 12 with a bottle of Powerade I could carry with me for a few miles so I could rehydrate at my convenience and not just when I happened upon a Water Stop.

Here is a slideshow of pictures from the Marathon for you to enjoy. The ones taken during and following the actual event were taken by ASI. Ya know, in case you want your own 8×10 of me looking miserable and sweaty. And let’s face it, who doesn’t?

Aprox time – 5:30:00

Details to come upon my return to NYC.

I’m sitting here in a panic because I’m in the midst of packing for my vacation which starts tomorrow and am being bombarded with those feelings of I can feel it! I’m forgetting something. I just know that I’m forgetting something. Fuck!

So, I’m taking a break from the packing to write a quick blog in the hopes of killing two birds with one stone. Not only will it be getting another blog out before I leave for a week, but it may also just distract me from the packing and clear my mind a bit so I can go back it later and a fresh mind will suddenly realize what horribly obvious thing I’m forgetting to pack.

To bring those of you who don’t know up to speed, this vacation is a week in an Orlando with the primary purpose of running in the 15th Annual Walt Disney World Marathon. So, hardly a vacation at all. I can’t think of many vacations that people go on where they have to spend hours upon hours running and running. And running.

Now, I ran this marathon last year (it was my first, having done a Half Marathon at Disneyland in California about four months prior to that), and ended up getting pretty sick afterward. I was fine during the race (well, as fine as you can be when you’re running and running for hours on end in hot weather) and finished well enough considering it was my first one ever. But it was about an hour after I finished where the sickness kicked in.

Apparently, I got overly dehydrated during the race, and it resulted in me getting quite sick and not being able to keep any liquids down for more than one or two minutes before they came back up. Ironic, no? You’d think if you were dehydrated that your body would hold on to every tiny drop of water it could find, but no, it rejected it all.

I had to end up having the paramedics come to the hotel room and take my vital signs and they assured me I would fine and that I just needed to take the rest of the night easy and slowly introduce liquids back into my system until my body was able to handle them properly again. They offered to take me to the ER, but told me that it was filled with tons of marathon people who were also quite sick due to the heat during the race. I opted to stay in my comfy hotel room and watch TV. And I ended up feeling well enough very soon thereafter and headed out to finish my eventful day with some fireworks.

So, naturally, I’m a bit concerned that I will end up getting sick again this year, especially since I trained about 25% as much as I did last year. So, to try to stop that from happening, I’m approaching this marathon completely differently than I did last year. Last year, it was my first one, so I wanted to get out there and run that thing the best I humanly could. This year, I’m not running to get a certain time at all. The time is the last thing on my mind this year. This time I am running just for the experience and to enjoy it as much as possible. My only goal this year is the finish line. Whether it takes me an extra hour or two longer than it did last year is the last thing on my mind. So, hopefully, this mind set will keep me from pushing beyond my abilities and keep me from having such an adverse reaction to the strain that a marathon puts your body through.

Also, the weather for that day is showing some scattered thunderstorms, and while it sucks (hardcore) to think about running 26.2 miles in the rain, I’m trying to remain positive and find the silver lining of those rain clouds. The rain should hopefully help keep my body and air temperatures cooler than they would have been otherwise, which should also help out a little bit with the dehydration.

Another silver lining: It’s in Walt Disney World!

So, sure, I have to spend a few hours in misery. But I get to spend the rest of the week in my favorite place. And with friends I don’t get to see often. I’m actually spending tomorrow night with Michael before I check in to my resort for the week on Thursday morning. And Joe is coming down to show support during the race. And Norm will be there running in the marathon as well (much faster than I will be, but let’s not discuss that), so it’s going to be a great week!

I’ll try to remember to post a quick blog once I cross the finish line (God willing!) with an update of how I did. But for now it’s back to packing. I’ll see ya guys next week!

Yeah, still no idea what it is I’ve forgotten to pack.