The fear of the BALLOON LADIES!!

Me at the Tinkerbell Half in Disneyland.
Mainstreet - No balloons in sight.

Have you heard of the Balloon Ladies?  If so, you've probably been at a RunDisney event.  They are the last people to cross the starting line and keep the 16 minute mile pace.  If you fall behind them, you have until the next mile marker or you'll get swept.  And "swept" means you board the Bus Of Shame and get taken to the finish line.  It's a scary thought indeed.

Being a real life Balloon Lady (in that I'm a lady that does balloon decor), I have always been semi-offended that RunDisney has turned balloons into something that strikes fear into the hearts of people at the back of the pack, but at least it sounds like the actual ladies themselves are nice.

Here's a new Wall Street Journal article on the process:
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304561004579137713459355656

Mainstreet at WDW - Princess Half
Lots of tutus, but no Balloon Ladies!

I personally have never seen the Balloon Ladies - and hope never to do so!  I am starting in the 3rd corral from the last at the Wine & Dine, so I'll have less time to take pictures if I want to stay well ahead of them.  It looks like I will have about a 20 minute head start.

I am back from Boston and will start training tomorrow.  And great news!  My week-long trip to Wichita that was to be the entire last week of October was postponed to December.  This will make it MUCH easier to maintain training before the W&D.  I'm not worried about finishing, but I would like to stop for pictures and that does mean I have to do some hustling. 

I've also come to a conclusion about costuming, which is:  I'm not going to do it.  I think I'm going to get a cute Sparkle Skirt and just call it a day.  MAYBE some lights to put on myself somewhere, but I don't want to fuss with a costume right now.  I did the whole dress up thing for the Princess and it wasn't near as fun as I had envisioned.  It was hot and I felt goofy.  And not Mickey's friend Goofy, either. The kind that makes you a little sorry you were wearing a giant, puffy wig in 500% humidity.

And, don't be afraid of real life Balloon Ladies! 
We make stuff like giant wall-through Hershey's Kisses:



MMMMMM, chocolate...

 

And pretty butterflies:

I think maybe he caught my case of crazy eyes.