In Which Jenn Has A Running Distraction Suggestion

I find that when I’m hurting or tired or just plain bored in a run it helps to think about something else completely unrelated to running. For you runDisney folks, I have invented a new way to do this!

And it all hinges upon your pride. That is to say: you’re proud you never need a map in Walt Disney World, aren’t you? I know I am. Drop me anywhere in any of the four parks and I’ll know where I am, how to get to anywhere else from where I am, and over half the time I’ll even be able to tell you the location of the closest bathroom. I could guide anyone through WDW in my sleep, practically.

Which is what this distraction method counts upon: your ability to envision, You’re essentially going to overlay WDW onto wherever you are really. But I don’t mean that in the usual “pretend you’re in WDW while you’re running” capacity (although that’s cool too). Oh, no – we’re getting way more specific.

I call this the How To Get There From Here Method, and it involves you making three simple choices: a park, and then two locations in that park (preferably at least some distance apart).

For example, I could say I’m in the Magic Kingdom, I’m at the Haunted Mansion, and I want to go to Space Mountain. Okay, I’m now moving away from the Haunted Mansion – and I will imagine I’m running up Liberty Square past the Hall of Presidents and the Christmas Shoppe. Now I’ve passed Sleepy Hollow and its hordes of ice cream sandwich-eaters. I’m over the bridge, and then I run past the castle on my left, through and around the hub, and over the bridge into Tomorrowland. Now I’m blasting past Stitch and the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor, stepping underneath the Peoplemover, and tada! There it is! Space Mountain!

Told ya.

And by the time you’ve imagined all this, you’ve gone, what, half a mile? A mile? Ten miles???? It all depends on how carefully you craft your route – or, I guess, how fast you think…?

Bonus points: play WDW music as you run. Super bonus points: track an alternate route (for the above scenario, you could always go behind the castle and through Fantasyland into the entrance to Tomorrowland by the Speedway).

What do you think of my method? How do you distract yourself during a run?

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