As we passed the first overpass, there was no Elsa like there is during Princess 10k which is fine. The first mile was painful in my shins and I was just hoping it would go away. There were the Penguins from Mary Poppins at the turnaround so I stopped.
As we climbed up the overpass, Flik and Atta were out in the middle so I stopped for a picture. One thing of note-the corrals were 10 minutes apart (I could see and hear each of the corrals fireworks as they went off). There was nothing else to see or take pictures of until we made it into Epcot after the half way point. This is also where my race fell apart. The pain in my shins got worse to the point it hurt to walk! I decided just to take it slow and steady and see what happens. My pace slowed a lot (from a sub-11 to an almost 13) but as I entered Epcot my legs finally felt better. I think it really is the lack of warmup-which I am going to try and figure out before Goofy as I cant do that again (it happened again during the half! Ahh)
I stopped for a picture with the stilt waters and continued into epcot. There is a water stop as soon as we entered Epcot by China. I stopped for a picture with Pinocchio and Gepetto in Germany which was about a 5 minute wait. We continued around world showcase and stopped for vacation genie in Morocco.
My favorite picture of the race happened in France where the Cast Members had out a French flag, a massive bottle of champagne. I was dressed as Lumiere so I had to stop. We continued out of the international gateway and I stopped for Chip and Dale at ESPN Zone!
I said hi to the Lizards and then continued around the Boardwalk and over to Swan/Dolphin and Yacht/Beach Club. Heading back into the park, I stopped for a picture with Sebastian
I had great running photos once we entered the UK and Canada and as we headed towards the finish line where I also got fabulous pictures by Spaceship Earth.
Finished the race and met up with some Lizards and then got some champagne to celebrate!
MILE SPLITS: 1:11:31--10:45/11:18/12:32/11:23/11:01/11:32/10:02 (final .3)
OFFICIAL RACE TIME: 1:42:01 (16:26 pace) 5k in 43:49 (14:06)
After that, headed back to the hotel to shower and get ready while meeting up with everyone. Off we went to Animal Kingdom where I got my musical mug, had my favorite margarita, had my tea, pork grits and had an amazing meal at Nomad lounge (recap coming soon!).
We then went to Disney Springs to check everything out and then went to Epcot for Food and Wine which was insane. It looked like a tailgate and everyone was wasted and it out of control. We still had fun though! After dinner, we went back to the room to get ready and get that extra hour of sleep before the half
I still am not a huge fan of this course-the stretch between mile 1.5 and mile 3 is just dark and boring. there has to be something they can add there!
What was the last 10k you did?