I went to bed around 930 and woke up at 445. I got dressed quickly, rolled and headed out to heat up my overnight oats that had frozen! I walked to the food court and then went to the bus. We had to be on the bus by 530 to make it to the start on time. I walked on at 535 and we left at 545 with a leading bus (our driver didn't know where we were going). We arrived in 10 min haha. I wish I could have slept an extra 30 min. Oh well.
I finished breakfast, used the Porto, checked my bag and went to chill by the DJ. All the photo lines were too long so I warmed with the whip/nae nae and then watched some awesome dancing and used the Porto one last time and headed to the corral. I was in A and right by the stage. Before I knew it, we were off.
We started off with the tradition tour of the parking lot. There was a lot of varying speeds and going back and forth so I held off to the side. I started too fast and My shins KILLED. ugh. I walked more and slowed it down because the last thing I needed was to have sore shins heading into the half tonight. But considering I PRed the marathon 6 days before, my legs were holding up very well. There were no characters and nothing to take pics with but there was a water stop before we heading through the AK entrance.
One thing that was different for this race from the others was the corrals were let off about every 2-3 min versus every 10 so the course was crowded the whole time. We headed through the entrance and headed towards the Tree of Life and then towards Africa. Flik was right by the entrance but had a long line so I skipped it. I grabbed a photo with the tree of life.
I finished in 56:38. My slowest Wdw 5k time but there was definitely more crowding than other courses with the short time between the corrals. I'm assuming it was so the park could still open. I wouldn't be opposed to starting at 630 so the run would be in the dark and definitely less warm and also allow more time in between.
One thing to note was it was warm and humid. Florida was having a freak heat wave and it was insanely humid-about 76 degrees and 100% humidity when we started and the sun was barely up. Luckily my costume was for warmer weather but many weren't. There were actually catchers at the end to make sure people weren't going to pass out. They gave us cold towels and water and Powerade. They were pulling out all of the stops which I appreciated as the dopey 5k that was freezing literally (34 degrees when we finished) and we didn't even get a Mylar blanket.
I grabbed a quick finisher pic and headed to the bus with my bag and food. I sat next to this adorable girl and she was so sweet and thank me for letting me sit next to her on the bus. We got back to the hotel quickly and was able to showered, recovered and head off for a quick breakfast before park time. We got in some Hollywood Studios time and a nice leisurely lunch at Mama Melrose before going back to the room and relaxing before the half marathon that night.
Did anyone else run or have run the wine and dine 5k? Anyone running a holiday themed race?