2017 Year in Review

2017 was a great year for me. Here’s a recap:

In January, I participated in the runDisney Event. It was the Star Wars Rebel Challenge. I did a 10k on Saturday and a Half Marathon on Sunday. My friends Heather, Jon and my cousin Natalie participated in the 10K event. My friends Catalina and Deane Simpson, did the Rebel Challenge along with me. We got 3 medals for finishing both races. 

In April, I traveled to Florida for the first time in my life. I went with my Cast Member friend Amos. We did one day at Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure. We then spent a couple days at The Star Wars Celebration. It was awesome. Seeing the panels with Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford. I also got a photo with one of my favorite Actresses: Sarah Michelle Gellar. She was in a couple Star Wars Rebel episodes. 

We then spent a few days in the Disney World Resort. My friends Krystle got us an upgrade to a Cars themed Suite at the Art of Animation Resort. I loved all the parks but especially Epcot. I fell in love with Test Track. They even recognized me from my Racers Adventure. I got on the ride 25 times. At the end of the night, after my last ride, they gave me the ride photo. Emerson, Rachel, Jessi, and Lindsay became instant friends of mine. 

In May, I reached the 9000 ride mark at Racers. I knew after that, it would be tough to get the next 1000 rides to hit 10,000. 

On June 15th, Cars Land has its 5th Birthday. I got photos with my friends. 

In July, I attended the D23 Convention. It was the 5th one and I’ve been to them all. Always great to see all things Disney. 

September brought the Disneyland runDisney event. I once again took on the Half Marathon. I started out with my friend Angela but see unfortunately got pulled from the race. I got some help from my friend Carlene. She gave me some ice about 2 kilometers from the finish. It was what I needed on a very hot and humid day. 

In October, my friends from Test Track came to Racers from Florida. Emerson, Rachel and Lindsay got to join me for my 9800 ride. It was great to see them again. 

On November 13th, I finally reached the 10,000th ride on Racers. The local ABC news station even came out to do an interview. And I did a couple online interviews with Now This and Cal State Fullerton. Also a local radio interview on the Tim Conway Jr. radio show a few weeks later. I also got to hang out with Carlene’s family from Oregon. We got to go on Racers and Guardians together. Sandra and Steve Bekius and their 2 nephews. And the Steinke ladies also came down from Oregon and Washington to visit. We got on Guardians and Indiana Jones. 

In December I got to hang out with another of my favorite families from Oregon. The Crees wanted to ride with me on lap 10,101. We were able to do just that. We even had matching shirts for the day. They treated me as one of their family.

And I finished up the year by passing out cookies to my Cast Member friends on Christmas Day. I even got on Guardians 12 times and got all of the 6 different song combinations. I got on Racers 9 times to bring my yearly total to 1750 and overall total to 10,140. 

I don’t know if I can top this year but I’ll sure try. It’s going to start great because I’m going back to Florida in January. 

Here are my up to date Racers statistics:

Rides by year:

2012: 56

2013: 316

2014: 2400

2015: 2795

2016: 2824

2017: 1750 which equals 10140. 

I came 775 days to Racers to average 13.08 rides per day. 

Rides by month:

January: 685

February: 692

March: 725

April: 654

May: 818

June : 856

July: 885

August: 898

September: 1177

October: 995

November: 623

December: 1132

Rides by colors:

Red: 1526: 839 - 687

Silver: 1433: 771 - 662

Teal: 1352: 671 - 681

Yellow: 1116: 613 - 503

Blue: 1096: 570 - 526

Cranberry: 1102: 562 - 540

Purple: 1085: 574 - 511

Green: 1058: 540 - 518

Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: Breakout! statistics:

Total rides 145

 Songs: 

“I Want You Back”: 31

“Born To Be Wild”: 26

“Give Up The Funk”: 24

“Hit Me With Your Best Shot”: 22

“Free Ride”: 20

“Burning Love”: 18

“Monsters After Dark”: 3

And no song: 1

By shaft after 41 rides:

Lower Bravo: 23

Upper Bravo: 18

Lower Alpha: 18

Upper Charlie: 16

Lower Charlie: 15

Upper Alpha: 14

Other Major Ride Totals starting in 2001:

Buzz Lightyear Astro-Blasters: 579

The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror: 290

Disneyland Train: 184

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad: 100

Disneyland Monorail System: 76

Soarin' Around the World: 60

Haunted Mansion: 42

Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters: 35

Star Tours: 34

Pirates of the Caribbean: 30

Space Mountain: 28

Mater's Junkyard Jamboree: 25

Jungle Cruise: 24

Grizzly River Run: 20

Splash Mountain: 20

Matterhorn Bobsleds: 19

Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue!: 15

Indiana Jones Adventure: 12

Now the photos for the year:

The 10,000 Car 

Natalie, Heather, Jon, Catalina and Deane after 10K

After Half Marathon

Universal: Islands of Adventure 

Sarah Michelle Gellar 

Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and George Lucas talking about Carrie Fisher

Magic Kingdom with Amos

Test Track

Emerson and Rachel on far right after my 25th Ride 

Katie, Heather, Sandra, Glenn and Carlene 

Sandra, Heather, Carlene, Katie and Glenn

Alessa and Karla

Ken, Sandra and Chet at D23 Convention 

Berit at D23

Crossing finish line Disneyland Half Marathon with ice cup from Carlene 

Half Marathon Medal 

9800 ride with Rachel, Emerson and Lindsay 

Rachel, Lindsay and Emerson 

10,000 car with Meli, Heather, Catalina, Rosanna and Carlene

ABC news interview 
 

Sandra, Carlene and Willem

Guardians with Willem, Sandra and Carlene 

Hannah, Lindsay, Michelle and Nicole


On Guardians with the Ladies 

10,101 with The Crees 

Katherine, Marybeth, Carlene, Tara, Mark and Mary on Guardians 

With Darth Vader

Tara, Mary, Carlene, Marybeth, Katherine and Mark

Christmas at Guardians 

Christmas at Racers 

Cidney, Karla and Cameron

Got all 6 different songs on Guardians in one day

The Cree Family Visit and Lap 10,101

Featured on the Tim Conway Jr. Show - KFI-AM 640 iHeart Radio

10101 and The Cree Family

I first met Tara Cree in September 2015. She was visiting from Oregon. She is Racers Cast Member, Carlene Beckius’ best friend. It was right around the time I was close to 5000 rides. I even got to ride with Tara. We became friends instantly.

Tara came down to visit the next time in November 2016. She came with her aunt to participate in the Avengers Run Disney weekend. I did the 10K that weekend. Tara did the half marathon and Carlene did the 10K and half marathon. Catalina Simpson (Pit Crew Cast Member) and I came out to support Carlene  and Tara as they were doing the half marathon. We cheered them on from several race locations.

I also got to meet Tara’s parents Mark and Mary Katherine. I got to go on a few rides and spend sometime with them in the park. We also got some pictures along the way. They made me feel part of their family. At one point, I was waiting to go on Tower of Terror while they got photos in front of the hotel. Tara came over and told me “ you’re part of this group. Come get pictures with us”. It was great spending time with them.

I also had a special ride while they were here. The 8,000th time on Radiator Springs Racers. Tara and her mom were part of the big lap. They got in the car with Carlene. Catalina, Heather Hebenstreit and myself. I was lucky they got to ride with us. Tara even took a selfie from the front row. 

Tara and I kept in touch with text messages. She would always encourage me in my training for the Disney Run events and to just ask how I was doing.

When I reached 9700 rides she told me I only have 401 to go. It took me a second but realized she meant the 10,101 ride with her and the rest of her family. Tara, her Mom and Dad and 2 sisters, Katherine and Mary Beth. It will be the first time I will meet her sisters. That is one of the reasons I set a date for the 10,000th ride. I needed time after the milestone lap to get to 10,100 before we ride on December 8th. I’m so excited for this ride that I had to make 3 signs before I settled on the one to use. 

On Monday December 4th,  I was at 10078 rides on Racers. I started out pretty good. I had 8 rides by 10:35am. Then the ride broke down. Single car fault for only 19 minutes. I took a couple more laps and took a break. Some other friends from Oregon were down visiting. Michelle, Lindsay, Nicole and Hannah and their moms. In fact Nicole went to school with Tara and Carlene. We went on Guardians. It was there first time and my 118th time. They love it as much as I do.

I came back to Racers for 2 more rides and it went down again. Got on for the 10085th time then took a break from 3:01 to 5:26pm. I met the ladies again. This time at Disneyland. We were about to get on Big Thunder and it broke down. We then went to Indiana Jones and were able to ride after it just came back up from being down. We took some pictures and said our goodbyes. It was great to spend some time with them. Some of them are coming back in April.

I got back to Racers and it broke again as I was in the single rider line. Took in 2 more rides and it broke again. I think I was the bad luck for Racers and rides in Disneyland. I ended up with 15 rides for the day. That put my total at 10094. 

On Tuesday, I was able to get 6 rides to reach the 10100 mark. I went over to Disneyland to visit with my friends Jessica and Heather. They were working on Main Street. Heather with the Horse Trolley and Jessica with the Main Street Cars. I also went on Star Tours. And got a picture with Chewbacca in The Star Wars Launch Bay. I went back to DCA to walk around and go on Guardians a couple times. That put my total to 120 rides. I went back to Disneyland and walked around with Heather after she got off work. She did some shopping. Then I went back to DCA and went on Soarin and Monsters, Inc., before calling it a day. 

Thursday night. I came to the parks after work. The Crees flew in from Oregon. We met and went into DCA. Carlene was with them in a Lion Kind onesie that they brought for her. We all went on Guardians. It was the first time for Tara,, Mary Beth, Mary, and Mark. Tara loved Tower of Terror. But I think she likes Guardians now also. We also went on Heimlich’s  train and Luigi’s. We got a picture with Snowy Mater before heading over to Disneyland. Carlene left us since she had to work early in the morning on Friday. The rest of us went in Star Tours. It had all the new scenes from the Last Jedi. I think I was a bit of bad luck. The ride would not start. So we had to move to another transport. It was Tara’s first ever ride evac. But not the one she was hoping for. After, I said my goodbyes so I could get to bed and rest for tomorrow’s big ride with the Crees. 

We meet up at 10:15am on Friday. Tara handed me a shirt to wear. We all ha e matching shirts celebrating their visit this year. We went on Guardians. My 122th time and we got “Give up the Funk”. Just like last night. 

We walked over to Racers. We used a Fastpass to go on the ride together. So at 11:45am, in Purple 3, on Ramone side for race, we turned the 10101 lap. We won the race. I’m glad I was able to share this special ride with them. They even gave me a Lightning McQueen plush car. They all signed the car. We took pictures. And Carlene could not hold the sign upside down. It is the same back or front or upside down.

As soon as we got out of the car, the attraction went down. I could hear Rosanna (Cast Member) yell out I broke it.

We took a food break at The Pilot’s Grill. We also saw the Coco Preview. We got on Soarin. We then met up with Carlene after she got off work. We all went in Guradians and got the song, “I Want You Back”. I also got to say hi to Sarah G., who grouped us on the ride.

As we were walking over to Disneyland, we got pictures at the DCA Christmas Tree. We had dinner at The Pizza Port. We then went on Big Thunder. It was my 100th ride. We also went on Indiana Jones and Jungle Cruise. We got photos in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle. We were able to see the Fantasmic show. The Crees had not seen the new update. We went on Buzz Lightyear and fit on Space Mountain. On our way out of the park, we took pictures in front of the Disneyland Christmas Tree. We said our goodbyes for the evening. It was a great day. A milestone lap and spending time with my “family” from Oregon. We plan to hook up again on Monday. 

The 10101 ride 

The first ride with Tara

After the Avengers 10K

After Carlene and Tara finished the half marathon 

Tara sad Tower was closing 

In front of Tower of Terror. Tara faking Mickey ears on my hat. 

With Minnie 

Starting the 8000 ride 

Tara, Carlene, Catalina, Heather, Mary Katherine and Mark

Hannah, Lindsay, Michelle and Nicole

On Guardians 

Ready for Indiana Jones 

Jessica

Heather 

The 10,100 car

Chewbacca 

Heather 

Mark, Mary, Katherine, Mary Beth, Carlene, Tara and I

Tara and I on Luigi’s

Mark, myself, Tara, Carlene, Mary, Katherine and Mary Beth

The shirt we all wore 

Tara, Mary Beth, me, Katherine, Mary and Mark. 

On our way to race 10101

Mary Beth, Mary, Tara, Katherine and Mark

With Carlene holding plush Lightning 

Carlene can’t hold side upside down

Goofy shot

With Pluto

Katherine, Mary Beth, Carlene, Tara, Mark and Mary

Sarah

Castle. I was doing most of the lifting