Princess Half weekend - final thoughts and TIPS to run Disney!

As of now, I’ve participated in every runDisney race weekend offered at Walt Disney World:

Royal Family 5K (Princess 1/2 Marathon weekend), 2012 and 2014

Expedition Everest Challenge, 2012

Twilight Zone Tower of Terror 10-Miler, 2012 and 2013

Jingle Jungle 5K (Wine & Dine Half-Marathon Weekend), 2012

Princess Half-Marathon, 2013 and 2014

WDW Half-Marathon (Marathon Weekend), 2014

Enchanted10K, 2014

With all of those under my belt, I feel properly equipped to offer some TIPS for those thinking of running Disney!

Embrace the fun – don a costume!  I know – it feels weird to dress up in costume for a race.  But trust V; it only feels weird until you actually get to a runDisney race… once there, you won’t feel out of place at all!  You’ll see a huge variety of costumes put together with varying amounts of effort and detail.  Here’s the thing: it doesn’t need to be complicated, it doesn’t need to cost a lot, and it really should be comfortable, especially for longer distance races.  My advice is to work with items you’d wear to run in the first place: shirts and bottoms made of soft, comfortable wicking material.  You can add items and embellish from there without breaking the bank or your resolve to finish your race!

The 2014 Princess Half-Marathon weekend was my first time putting much effort into costumes, and I’m very glad I did – it upped the fun quotient by a LOT!  My favorite was the Cinderella-themed outfit I put together for the Royal Family 5K:

This was absurdly easy… I bought a Cindy-blue running shirt on clearance online for less than $20 and paired it with a matching $25 skirt from Sparkle Athletic.  I’ll use both again, so the cost can really be pro-rated by a number of years of wearings.  Under my skirt, I wore a pair of compression capris I already owned, and around my neck I wore a black satin choker left over from a Halloween costume I wore a few years ago.  A $2 pair of white knee socks worked as “gloves” – I simply chopped off the feet.  And I topped the whole thing off with a tiara I’ve had for ages, though a blue ribbon would have worked, too.

See? Easy, affordable, comfortable, and, most of all – FUN!

Take pictures. Lots of ‘em.  Okay, if you’re a friend of mine on Facebook, you’re probably sick to death of my many race pics.  Sorry.  But, you know what?  I almost wish I’d taken more!  Especially from past races.  While it’s fun to share images from your races with friends and family, it’s even more fun to look back at them yourself and remember the good times you’ve had!

Taking a lot of pictures when you’re trying to run a race isn’t the easiest thing to do, and I’ll be the first to admit that I thought it would be hugely burdensome over long distances.  Hence the complete lack of on-course photos from my first few long distance races.  But I discovered some tricks over the past year that’s made it pretty easy to score more photos…

First, if you’re already carrying a phone that has a decent camera in it, use it.  I carry my iPhone 4S in an arm pocket and thought it would be a royal PITA to take it out and put it back in repeatedly, but I quickly realized a couple things: 1. With a little practice, it’s really not that hard to maneuver, and 2. I tended to take three or four photos in a row, then run a mile or more without any before wanting my camera handy again – so it was easier to run with my phone/camera in my hand between photo stops, then put it away for a while before pulling it back out for a few more shots.

Also, know that there is almost always someone available to take your picture, so make sure you’re IN some of them!  At designated course photo stops, you’ll find volunteers or Disney staff on hand to snap your pic with characters and props.  Don’t worry – they’ve seen every photo-taking device known to man and can use all of ‘em without instructions. Should you find yourself wanting to be in a shot without a dedicated photographer, look around and ask for help!  Chances are other runners are taking the same pic and will happily take your pic.  Be sure to pay it forward and take theirs, too.  Race volunteers and theme park staff members are also happy to help you out.

Plan out timing and transportation ahead of time.  Like, not at 3am.  Are you driving to a race?  Read the race materials carefully to learn the appropriate route/s and road closures.  Make sure you have gas in the tank.  And don't forget to turn on your headlights - 3am is freaking dark.  (Yes, I saw quite a few cars on the way to races with no lights on. Skeery.)  Figure out ahead of time how you'll store your car key while running.  Write down or take a pic of where you're parked.

Taking a race bus?  Find out ahead of time where it will be making stops - this varies by resort.  Locate your stop and walk to it in daylight from your room so you'll know where to go in the dark, wee hours of the morn.  Take a look at the race materials to determine where buses will be after the race, then follow the signs to your bus when you're ready to go. 

Most importantly, leave plenty of time to get to the race.  If buses start running at 3am, you can bet I'm on a bus or in my car no later than 3:05.  Because every race, at least one bus driver gets lost and takes forever getting to the race and the poor runners on board have to scramble to make it to their corrals on time.  And at every race, there comes a time when traffic is heavy and cars back up trying to park.  Leave early, don't get stuck in traffic, and enjoy the extra time to relax before your race.

Know thyself.  Race weekend is not the time to abandon your routine.  After months of training, and years of living in your own skin, you'll know your individual needs - do as much as you can to meet them.  How much sleep do you need to feel good?  What kinds of foods can you eat and how often do you need to eat?  Can you walk around all day and still feel good to run double digits at night?  Does heat and sun exposure wipe you out?  Do large, noisy crowds stress or invigorate you?  Think carefully about what you need to feel strong and healthy, and adjust your plans accordingly.

I happen to have a cast-iron stomach; pretty much nothing makes me have GI issues, so I don't worry much about food, but some folks need to eat very specific items to race well.  You can find menus for all WDW restaurants at Allears.net - check them out ahead of time and make meal plans accordingly.  Bring favorite items with you from home, or plan a trip to a local grocery store.

I need adequate sleep to be of sound mind and body, so I plan to be in bed by 7pm before early morning races.  I also can't spend much time on my feet before night races, so I spend afternoons before those napping.  It means forgoing some park time, but I know I'll be better for it.   If you don't need much sleep, or aren't bothered by time on your feet before racing, hit the parks and have fun!

Lots of folks bring nothing more to a race than what they'll carry on the course.  I am not one of those people.  I MUST foam roll before and after running, and I like a change of clothes after the race, and I need my reading glasses to read the eight-million new text messages and social media posts after racing.  Lucky for folks like me, runDisney's bag check bags hold a ton of stuff and are very easy to drop off and pick up.

Find a race buddy!  If your'e running a race with a friend, and you're in the same corral, and you're planning to run the same pace - great!  You're all set.

But the planets don't usually align that perfectly for most runners.  And it's totally fine to go it alone - I've done that more times than not.  But I promise - you'll have more fun at a Disney race with a buddy.  And it's pretty darned easy to find some...

Have a friend starting in the same corral? Super! Agree to hang out together in the corral, but run your own pace once the race starts.  Don't worry - you'll find more buddies soon...

Take a look around you in that first mile - is another runner going the same pace as you?  Do you keep passing each other on opposite intervals?  Did you both pull over for the same photo?  Say something!  "Hee hee - feels like we're playing tag here!"  Or, "I'll take your pic, if you'll take mine!"  Or maybe, "Have you done runDisney races before?"  Nine times out of ten, a short conversation will ensue and you'll find it to be fun!  Don't worry if you lose each other after a few minutes - there are more race buddies to be found...

Chat with someone in a porta-potty line.  Compliment a fellow runner's shirt.  Ask where she got her super-cute headband.  In the middle of my solo Enchanted 10K, another runner asked if my 5K and 10K tattoos were real - I told her they were temporary and where I got them, which led to a chat about running skirts, which led to talking costumes for future races, and in no time a mile had flown by!

A race buddy, even if he/she is a temporary one, is invaluable when your feet hurt, you're tired, your head's no longer into it, and you're ready to quit.  If you spy a friend, reach out, tell him/her how you're feeling, ask for a word or two to boost you up.  Look for other runners who seem to be in the same place and say something encouraging to them; it'll help you feel better, too.  Lead a cheer of "KILL THE HILL" and help a couple dozen other runners get through that final overpass.  When it comes down to it, we're all each others' race buddies, which is a pretty beautiful thing.

Which brings me to...

Join a running group.  Listen - I'm not a social runner.  A large part of what I enjoy most about running long distances is the chance to be alone with my own thoughts; out on a long run, I'm not Mom, or Friend, or Employee, or Blogger - I'm just me, free to let my thoughts run without interruption, or to blissfully not be required to think at all.  So I'm here to tell you that you don't need to be an outgoing extrovert to join a running group.

That's because running groups come in all sorts of sizes and packages.  There are local groups who meet to run and socialize, and local groups that meet to train hard.  There are online groups that "meet" across the miles in social media groups.  There are groups that welcome new runners, and groups that cater to elites; groups that chat only about running, and groups that talk about anything and everything; groups that focus on a certain race or series of races, and groups that aren't specific to any race at all.  There is truly a group for every runner, of this I am certain.

The key is to find a group that makes you feel supported, encouraged, secure and confident.  I had to try on a few different groups to find "my" running group, and when I did stumble upon it, I wasn't sure I even wanted to be part of a group at all.  But in the year+ I've spent with the amazing folks in my group, I've found a family of runners with whom I can be myself.  I can tell or ask them almost anything and get well-thought, honest answers and replies.  We can all have lousy runs and hear from our friends that we're not alone and tomorrow will be a better day.  We support each other through illnesses and injuries, and shout to the rafters to cheer each others' successes.  At races, we make time to connect in person through meals and meet-ups, on race courses and in Disney parks.  Though we may joke and lightly tease about silly things, we never go on the attack over differing views or life choices.  We encompass all ages, speeds, sizes, colors, genders and occupations and, though we have so many differences, our love of running trumps it all.

I can honestly say that I would not have run at least one race without the support of my running group.  Injured and afraid, I was 99% ready to bail on the WDW Half-Marathon this year.  It wasn't the kind of thing I wanted to admit to anyone, but I did to my running group - who promptly circled their wagons and convinced me that while I might not feel up to going for a new personal record, I could finish the race and have a really fun time doing it.  They were absolutely right.

Can you run happily without ever joining a running group?  Of course!  But I promise, finding a group that fits you and your needs can only be beneficial and is totally worth the effort of finding. 

TOTALLY worth the effort of finding you - GO TEAM!

I think that wraps it up!  Thanks for reading along - do you have more tips for running Disney races?  Share them in the comments, or do your own blog post about them, let me know, and I'll link to them here!

~~~

I've got one more, non-Disney long distance race next week, and then I'll be going into my off-season for the summer.  Because summer in Florida is freaking HOT, y'all.

However...

Remember how I was done with the Tower of Terror 10-Miler after the last one?  Yeah, well... I'm signed up for another round.  And the 2014 Wine & Dine Half-Marathon, too.  So in another six months, I'll be back to running Disney :)

My Fake-Africa Run: Route Review, Animal Kingdom Lodge

Everyone has a fantasy run, right?  Maybe it’s a race of special significance.  Or hitting a super-fast personal record. Or, perhaps most often, a picturesque location far from home.

My fantasy run falls into that last category – and it looks like this:

“If I know a song of Africa, of the giraffe and the African new moon lying on her back, of the plows in the fields and the sweaty faces of the coffee pickers, does Africa know a song of me? Will the air over the plain quiver with a color that I have had on, or the children invent a game in which my name is, or the full moon throw a shadow over the gravel of the drive that was like me, or will the eagles of the Ngong Hills look out for me?” 
- Isak Dineson, Out of Africa

Yes, I dream of running in Africa.  So, when a quick weekend trip to Walt Disney World landed Leo and I at the Animal Kingdom Lodge for our lodging, there was no question that I’d put in my scheduled Saturday run.

For those who’ve not yet been, Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge and Villas includes two large buildings constructed and detailed in a meticulously rendered African theme, Jambo House and Kidani Village.  Both are nothing less than stunning.  (For a full array of photos, I highly recommend a visit to allears.net’s Animal Kingdom Lodge and Kidani Village pages.)  The public spaces, rooms and eateries are all gorgeous in their own rights.  But.  The outdoor space is what really sets Animal Kingdom Lodge apart from other resorts – how’s about an African savanna right outside your window?  In Central Florida?!

Okay, okay – this is not a trip report and it’s not an advertisement for a hotel; it’s a running route review, right? On with it already…

Now I knew I wouldn’t be running with the giraffes.  And I’ve stayed at both Kidani and Jambo House often enough that I don’t need a map to get around.  But I’ve never before run there.  And I might have been a teensy bit excited about the prospect of doing so.  Remember – my African running dream?

My convoluted route - Jambo House on the far right, Kidani Village to its left, illicit trespassing on the far left.

I began in the porte-cochere of Jambo House and followed the paved path from there to Kidani Village.  This seemed like a loooong walk when Leo and I shuffled back from Jambo to Kidani after our Expedition Everest Challenge, but it fell far short of “long” while running – only a quarter-mile before I hit the Kidani parking garage.  Knowing that the garage traveled a decent distance under the Kidani building, I ducked into the garage and ran its length and back.

Not real exciting.  Certainly not Africa-like. Hmph.

Emerging form the parking garage, I hadn’t yet hit a mile, so I followed a path leading to the pool and circled back, outdoors, to a sign that pointed to the barbeque and sports courts across the drive from Kidani.  And I still hadn’t hit a mile.  And it still wasn’t feeling very Africa-ish.

But… a road leads to the sports courts.  And… it keeps going beyond them.  Okay, there’s a sign warning that only WDW vehicles are allowed past that point… but I wasn’t in a vehicle, was I?  So it didn’t apply to me.  I kept going.

Hey, this is kinda Africa-like!

MUCH better!  It was silent back there, apart from the tweets and twitters of birds and the occasional splash of a fish or turtle in that small pond.  The road was “paved” in the sense that there had once been a layer of asphalt poured down, but is now sun-bleached to light gray, beleaguered with pot holes and dusted with dirt.  It felt more like “trail” than “road” especially coupled with the wooded area to my left.  A truck full of hay bales passed me as I reached a fork in the road, but it didn’t stop and no one admonished me for being there.

At the fork, the truck entered a fenced-in area while I turned left, deeper into the woods.  Or so I thought.  Bleh.  A big, dirt patch with a handful of truck trailers in the middle.  Time to turn around.

I followed the road back to Kidani, took another loop around the pool, and then followed the path back to Jambo.  Just over two miles.  My goal was four. GAH!

Down to the bus stops, back up to the Jambo lobby.  Through the lobby (walking, not running – though I powered down the stairs…), around the pool deck, out to the savanna overlooks, back around the pool, through the lobby…

Three miles.

I thought about heading back down to Kidani, but opted to run a few speed laps up and down the parking lot.  When I finally made it to 3.75, I called it good and did another walking lap of the lobby and pool to cool down.

My feeling about running Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge?  Meh.  There just isn’t enough prime real estate to make more than a mile or so happen easily.  I really enjoyed the road away from the buildings… but I wasn’t supposed to be there, right?  Guess I’ll continue to fantasize of a run in real-Africa; fake-Africa just didn’t cut it.

However, never before have I had such a nice post-run snack/rest period.

View from our studio villa's balcony!

2012 Jingle Jungle 5K - Race Recap

I am way, WAY overdue for a race recap on Mickey’s Jingle Jungle 5K.  But it’s a tough one about which to write.  Though I can sum it up succinctly: It. Sucked. Royally.

To be clear, the race didn’t suck due to any wrongdoing by runDisney.  Nope, they did a superb job of putting this one together!  What sucked was my injured state.  And my child’s attitude.

My bout with IT Band Syndrome is already well documented in my blog, so I won’t rehash that.  Suffice it to say that I was still battling it and shouldn’t have run at all that day.  But I hadn’t been running in almost two weeks and felt great at the start.  Aaaaaand… look what corral we were put into:

Pictorial evidence.. 'cause it'll never happen again.

How can anyone start in corral A and not run the start of a race?!  I have no idea how we wound up there, but I wasn't about to be the only person walking through the start in A.  Pride cometh before a fall, right?

My son, Leo, didn’t train for this race at all.  I forced him to run with me a few times, but he was so miserable, I stopped bothering.  Still, he wanted to do the race and was excited about it, despite having had a very difficult week prior thanks to a burgeoning pre-teen ‘tude.  On race morning, he was sullen and sulky.  He was cold, but refused to do any stretching or moving around to warm-up.  He said he wanted to be there, but frowned and complained about the loud music.  He did perk up some once we started running, though.

The course itself was okay.  Lots of parking lot, lots of backstage area of Animal Kingdom (AK), and a little of the park, much like the course for the 2012 Expedition Everest Challenge we ran in May.  It was MUCH nicer to run the AK in daylight, though.  I never noticed as a slow-moving park guest just how lumpy, bumpy and uneven most of those walkways are… but I sure noticed as a runner!   Between scanning the ground before me and keeping track of both Leo and the pack of other runners, my mind was too busy to notice the growing pain in my knee until it was too late. 

Hi. My knee feels like someone's trying to rip it out, piece by piece. But looky how cute I am!

Despite a good deal of walking, by the second mile, I was way beyond “discomfort” and every other step was pure agony.  It ruined the race, as nothing could distract me from that pain.  I wanted to feel elation when we rounded a turn and saw the Finish, but all I felt was a loud cry from my knee, “Oh sweet mercy, we’re almost DONE!!!”  Adding salt to the wound, Leo shook me off when I reached for his hand to hold as we crossed the finish line.

I know he’s 10 and I get that he’s moody, temperamental and seeking independence.  But I was really hurt by his refusal to help his mom across the finish.  Doing my best to dam the flood of tears threatening to overflow, I accepted my very-cool medal, grabbed a water and snack box and led the way out of the finish chute.  I even managed to smile for a picture with Leo and our medals.  I made it to a medical tent for ice and we ate our snacks in equally icy silence in the middle of the parking lot.

My unofficial finisher's photo.

Finally, I explained to Leo how upsetting it was for him to refuse my hand at the end and asked him why he’d done that.

“I just didn’t feel like it,” he shrugged.

Ah, boys.  They say what they mean, and they mean what they say.  He just “didn’t feel like it.”  It wasn’t a commentary on his feelings at the time, nor was it a belligerent attempt to tick-off his mom.  We had a continued discussion about taking time to think of how our actions affect others and, on my part, not taking every little thing so personally.  Leo gave me a big hug, helped me to my feet, and asked, “So, we’re gonna go do some rides now, right?”

Oy.  I had indeed promised that we’d hit a few rides after our race, before going back to our hotel to rest and clean-up.  I’d been hoping my knee would be numb enough by then that I’d not feel the pain, like had happened after the Tower of Terror 10-Miler a month earlier… but no.  I winced with every other step, sucking in big breaths with the stabbing pain as we walked slowly toward the park entrance.  It remained at or around that level of pain throughout the day, finally abating with a double dose of Aleve, followed by a martini. Don’t judge.

My culminating thoughts on the race?  The Jingle Jungle was part of the Wine & Dine Half-Marathon weekend festivities, so Disney had a lot of race-type folks to handle all weekend.  Packet pick-up and the expo were really well-engineered – plenty of space for all and easily navigated.  The race logistics, too, were really well handled.  Putting us into lettered corrals was a nice touch, even if we did all start at the same time; it made for a lot less craziness at the start than I’d seen with either the Everest Challenge or the Royal Family 5K.  A metric ton of volunteers were fantastic cheerleaders, helpers and directors – they deserve a big round of applause.  And the Jingle Jungle medals were pretty darned spiffy.

But…

I’m not real sure we’ll do another runDisney 5K anytime soon.  For one thing, the cost is prohibitive.  The registration fee for the 2013 Expedition Everest Challenge has almost doubled to$110 per person.  That’s INSANE for a 5K distance.  Sure, it includes an after-party at the AK, but we’re Floridians with annual passes; we can go to AK any time without extra cost.  And, honestly, I’m finding that I enjoy the quiet solitude of my training runs so much more than the overstimulating, crowded conditions of Disney races.  Our local races are much closer approximations of my soothing training runs – only, you know, faster.  And.  Cheaper.  By a lot.  Add in one cranky pre-teen boy and I’m pretty unwilling to shell out a bunch of cash for a short race at Disney. We’ll see…

Still, I have that Princess Half-Marathon looming in the ever-decreasing distance.  Will my stupid leg EVER get better?  Stay tuned!

2012 Expedition Everest Challenge – Race Recap

Goodness – where do I start?!  There’s so much to tell about this race. 

Day 1 – May 4  We opted to make a weekend out of the event and arrived at Walt Disney World (WDW) early Friday morning.  Like, really early: out the front door at 6:45am to battle rush hour traffic through Tampa.  We made it to the Magic Kingdom (MK) just after it opened and spent a lovely morning doing our favorite rides with a friend who was on her last day of vacation.  My plan was to take it easy on our feet, and I know we walk and stand less at the MK than at any other WDW park.  We left after lunch to go to packet pick-up.

The Expedition Everest Challenge (EEC) packet pick-up area at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex went smoothly.  We grabbed our packet and shirts, took a couple pictures in the photo-op area, and signed the giant poster. 

"Chilling" at Base Camp

Temps were soaring and it was HOT at the sports complex!  We were more than ready to get off our feet and into a nice, cool pool.  Our resort of choice was Animal Kingdom Villas at Kidani Village.  Animal Kingdom Lodge was a host resort for the race, meaning that buses to and from the race would be available to guests staying there.  Since the race didn’t start until 9:30pm, I thought it best to let Disney do the driving and the nice lady checking us in confirmed that race buses would pick up at both the Lodge and Kidani Village.  Remember that.

A quick change in the room and we enjoyed an hour or so at the pool, where Leo sailed down the slide repeatedly and I pored over a cheesy tabloid magazine.  With no real plans for the evening, we decided to wing it for dinner and headed over to Disney’s Hollywood Studios.  In retrospect, that was a bad idea; it wound up being way too much time walking and standing the day before our race and my feet paid for it.  But at the time, it was nice to grab some pizza and salads at Pizza Planet and ride Star Tours before getting to bed.

Day 2 – May 5  Race day!  But we had an entire day to kill first.  Yet, I wanted to preserve our feet and legs.  What to do, what to do… after a late-for-us wake up around 8:30am, and after breakfast in our villa, Leo and I decided to use our Disney Vacation Club pool-hopping perk for the first time and drove to the Polynesian Resort to enjoy its volcano-themed feature pool.

We need to do that more often!  For two hours, Leo swam and played with other kids, while I read in a beach chair and generally blissed-out.  I don’t what it is about that place, but I think it might be the most relaxing spot in all of WDW.  

I could have stayed there all day, but we needed some true down time, so after eating a quick sandwich lunch at the Polynesian, we went back to our room for showers and sleep.  Or, in Leo’s case, lying in bed pretending to sleep.  He sure did try, but he was too excited to really zonk out.  At least we were off of our feet for several hours.  Mine were swollen and achy from the heat – did I mention it was in the mid-90’s all weekend? Ugh. – and not even rest, elevation and an ice pack did much to help.

We got up about 5pm to eat dinner and get ready.  Oh, and to watch the Kentucky Derby!  We love the Triple Crown races, so how better to get ready for our own race than to watch those gorgeous equines run for the roses?  None of our picks won, but it was still fun to watch.  All geared-up and ready to go, we walked out to Kidani’s bus stop just as an Animal Kingdom bus arrived – score!  Or not… it was a regular park bus, not the race bus.  The driver had no idea what we were talking about when we, along with another team trying to get to the race, asked if we were on the right bus.  Just then, another team walked by and told us the race buses were only picking up at the Lodge, not Kidani, and would be in front of the resort, not at the bus stops.  Grrrr.  The Lodge is about a quarter mile walk from Kidani; we had plenty of time and I wanted to go back to the room, get my car keys, and drive to the Lodge.  I just knew that walk would be brutal in the wee morning hours, coming back from running a race.  But Leo somehow convinced me to just walk over and we did. 

We found the bus and enjoyed a very short ride over to the race staging area in the Animal Kingdom parking lot.  It was around 7:20pm and the race wouldn’t start until 9:30, with our wave – Wave 4 – not starting until around 9:55.  We had a lot of time to kill and not much with which to kill it.  There were photo ops, but Leo’s in a phase of not wanting to pose for pics, so that was out.  A DJ was playing lots of good dance tunes, but Leo hates to dance in public, and I wanted to get OFF of my feet, so that was out.  The sun was still up and the blacktop was HOT – with more than two hours to wait, we were already feeling overheated and sweaty.  Once the sun went down, it got a little more comfortable, though the pavement remained awfully hot for sitting upon.  I may or may not have burned my backside.  I’m not telling.  We were there much too early, though being so early did mean a very short wait to check a bag.  Next year, I’ll plan to arrive later and not check a bag at all.

The infamous Wall o' Potties

Okay, enough of my blabbering – let’s get this race started!  Finally, around 9pm, they loaded Wave 1 into the chute and started the race.  Hooray!  Fireworks, cheers, pumping music with every wave.  All under the Super Moon, glowing its big, cheesy heart out.  It looked like utter chaos in the staging area as people made their way toward the chute, awaiting their wave’s announcement, but I was surprised to find that when the DJ said to load up Wave 4, people shifted around and we had no problem making our way in.  I decided to skip my Runkeeper app, since I’d be using my iPhone for pictures, and got my new Timex GPS watch ready to go… 3… 2… 1… and we were off! 

Through the big, bright Start sign, past the DJ booth, under the fireworks… and into a quiet, dark parking lot.  Talk about shifting gears!  It was nice, actually, after all of the loud lead-up, to have a mile of relative quiet.  Leo and I adjusted our pace, found our groove and were feeling good when we reached the first obstacle.

Hay bales.  One bale high.  Up and over.  Easy-peasy.  I’ve long fancied myself a hurdler (despite being 5’ 1”), so I channeled my inner Jesse Owens and hurdled those bad boys like a boss.  Leo wisely did the one-foot-on-one-foot-over method and we were in and out of the obstacle in no time.

After that, it gets a little fuzzy.  It wasn’t long before we entered the park and the course map shows that we went through a substantial amount of park before going “backstage”… I remember virtually none of it.  It was very, very dark and awfully narrow through most of it and I was very focused on not running into other runners; it never really opened up and it was a very crowded race route.  Excepting the well-lit Tree of Life, I don’t remember seeing anything noteworthy until we got “backstage”, where we encountered a number of bales of flattened cardboard the size of F-150s.  Yeah, cardboard!  “Look – Disney garbage!” we shouted with glee.  Yes, we’re Mouse geeks.  Not missing a beat, a race worker shouted back, “No ‘garbage’ here – that’s Disney RECYCLING!”  So we gave an even bigger shout-out: “WOOOOO HOOOOTY, Disney recycling!  Yeah, baybee!!!”

Okay, we may have been a little delirious at that point.  But the second obstacle was approaching and we’d been warned repeatedly pre-race that it was a “silent obstacle.”  That’s right – a silent #2.  LOL!  Ahem.  Well, the obstacle was rows of truck tires to be run through, NFL-style, and the silence was out of respect for the sleeping rhinos in a building next to the course.  It was very weird to hear an audible hush descend as we all arrived at the tires… right up until Leo broke the silence when he tripped in a tire and shouted, “It’s okay, I’m okay!”  Whoops.

Again, I remember precious little of the rest of our jaunt through the park.  Oh!  Except this: HILLS.  I never noticed before just how many little hills there are in Animal Kingdom.  We don’t see many hills running here in FL, so any incline is a big honkin’ deal to us.  So if you overheard Leo or me yelling to each other to “KILL THE HILL!” you now know why. :)

Out of the park, we faced the final obstacle, which, based on pictures and reports from previous EEC’s, we thought would be a climb over a cargo net wall.  We were pretty excited about the cargo net climb.  In fact, Leo had been telling me for weeks that he’d help me over if I got stuck.  We were totally ready to pull ourselves over the rope wall like a couple of monkeys.  So when we rounded the corner and found a sad looking net stretched about a foot off the ground over some Astroturf, we came to a literal halt and must have had the confused puppy look on our faces. 

“Huh???”

Leo quickly saw that we could choose to go around and skip it, but I pulled him back and insisted that we were going under that net, by golly; we would not be skipping any portion of the race!  I wish they had a split time for just that obstacle, because we flew past our fellow net competitors.  Sure, I got a big puff of dirt in my eye and a couple of brush burns on my backside (which really added to the blacktop burn, let me tell ya), but I was all sorts of badass as we finished the 5K and grabbed our first of five clues for the scavenger hunt portion of the challenge.

Yep, I was all sorts of badass, right up until I tried to read the clue.  

One of our clues

It was dark out there; very dark.  They gave us a feeble little red penlight, but it didn’t do much to illuminate the words.  Words that had to have been printed in a 5-point font.  And I, without my reading glasses.  And that was pretty much our undoing.  Leo did his best to read the clues, but he was hours past his bedtime at that point and it was taking us five minutes just to find out what each clue said.  And then we couldn’t figure out most of the answers.  Thank goodness for the fantastic volunteers staffing the clue checkpoints who, when I asked for a little help because I couldn’t actually read the text of the clues, just fed us answers.  Answers that still didn’t make sense!  Maybe we were just too tired for such an endeavor.  Or maybe we’d make lousy CSI agents.  All I know is that it took f o r e v e r to reach the final Finish line. 

I’m sorry to say that we did not enjoy the scavenger hunt part of the race at all.  Beyond my problems with the clues themselves, it was crowded and loud and just not our cup of tea.  But once we made it through the very congested finish chute and got our uber-cool medals, it was all worth it.  This is some seriously cool race bling, even if my compass only points to the right!

I have to say that the end of the race was totally anticlimactic and, frankly, a bit of a let-down.  We had to walk, not run, through the finish chute due to crowding, the poor volunteers handing out medals looked completely overwhelmed as they just handed them to us and yelled, “Keep moving forward!”, and I felt like salmon swimming upstream as I led us through the hoards of humanity to the water and Powerade table.  Bottles in hand, we finally found an opening through which we slipped into an open little area to rehydrate and get our bearings.  I’d stopped taking in fluids around 7:30 and it was nearing 11:30; I tore into my bottle of Powerade, took a big swig… and spat it out into the bush to my side.  It was HOT!  Just not un-cold, but warmer than air temp, which was still hovering near 80.  Crazy!  Leo and I ditched our bottle of blue bliss, as did most everyone around us; what a colossal waste.  Several bottles of marginally cooler water and a banana later, we felt recovered enough to enjoy the after-party.

Oh yes – in true Disney style, several rides stayed open late into the night for racers and their guests!  Our plan had been to ride Expedition Everest, the race’s namesake attraction, first and the entrance was right in front of us – but the posted wait time was 45 minutes.  Uh, NO.  There is no way I’ll wait 45 minutes in line for a ride in any conditions, let alone when physically exhausted, sweaty, hungry and in need of a puff from my inhaler.  So we set out on what would become a half-mile hike to find the bag check pick-up.  Along the way, we took a ride on Dinosaur and got our finisher’s photos taken.

When we finally found the loooooong line for bag pick-up, we were told it would be a 45-minute wait.

I turned around and got a beer from the nearest cart.

45 minutes to get my bag back?!?!  Crazy.  If it hadn’t held our inhalers and much-needed protein bars, I seriously would have abandoned it.  In the end it took less than 15 minutes, so I’m glad we stuck it out.  After a little break to wolf down said protein bars and yet more water, we took a (literal) spin on Primeval Hurl…, er, Whirl, and then finally made our summit bid on Expedition Everest to end the night.

Another half-mile hike to the bus, a quarter-mile from the Lodge to Kidani, showers for all, ice all over my legs and feet for me, and we fell asleep around 2am, the latest Leo’s EVER been up. 

Day 3 – May 6  We stayed in bed for as long as we could the next day, then packed up our things and checked out before heading to Epcot for lunch and a few rides.  I chose Epcot purposely, knowing it would force us to walk at least a mile.  It wasn’t easy – my feet were killing me.  But I’m glad we did it; I was ready to take a recovery run Monday thanks to the stretching effects of our Sunday walking.  After a huge pizza lunch at Via Napoli, we made our way back home, where the evils of reality hit me like a club: Leo’s summer camps had been canceled, several of my prescriptions had been screwed up, and a check I’d written had been processed in the wrong amount.  Oh joy.  Those EEC clues didn’t seem so bad in comparison.

In the end, we had a good time, though I much preferred the morning Tangled Royal Family 5K we did in Feb. to the EEC.  I’ve heard runDisney expanded the registration cap by quite a bit this year (the total number of runners was around 5,100) and it showed: the entire race felt crowded and disorganized to me.  Will we do it again?  Probably.  I’ll just be sure to stay OFF my feet the day before, not check a bag, and take a little more time to see just what I’m running through.

So, what’s next?  Three months of hot, sweaty summer training for the Tower of Terror 10-Miler!  That includes running during two summer vacations – several at altitude in the NC mountains, and a few at WDW.  Stay tuned – this could get interesting!