Wine and dine half
It's here! My favorite half marathon and MY 50TH RUNDISNEY RACE! I dressed as Figment as he is one of my favorite characters and the mascot of the food and wine festival. I was up at 4:20 (yay extra hour of sleep), and we were out of the door at 4:50 and got on the bus right away. There was more traffic as the egress for wide world of sports is not as open as Epcot. We went straight to the portos and waited 20 minutes in the shortest line! Eek! After that, we checked our bags and headed to the corrals. I could stretch and relax a bit before the start. Jenny Simpson, the recent 1500 bronze medal winner in Rio was running this race as a training run at a 6:5o pace-haha
I was in corral D and we started about 5:40. Heading out of Wide World of Sports there was not much until after the sign where the Country Bears were waiting! Now came the boring part-there was NOTHING until we reached Animal Kingdom except 2 DJs. My legs were happy again and it was boring and I hated my life haha.
Once we reached Animal Kingdom, it got better!
Rafiki was at the entrance like during the 5k and Baloo was by Rainforest Café. Even better I got to meet Kathryn and her husband Preston in line! We continued through Animal Kingdom (still my favorite park to run through) and ran by Everest which was gorgeous with the sunrise.
Heading out of AK, there were some more stilt walkers this time from festival of the lion king, Meeko was out backstage which was nice as well. We continued on the path back towards the TTC-basically the middle portion of the Marathon but run backwards. Not far from AK, Chip n Dale were out so I stopped. This is also when I realized it was 7am so I could start making fastpasses for Marathon weekend which I did while in lines for characters. It made the time pass quickly.
We ran a short out and back (which I enjoyed more than I thought I would) we went by the stinky treatment plant and the next character stop was Mike and Sully. They had to take a break which was hilarious to watch them get in their tent haha. I waited about 10 minutes total which was my longest photostop of the day. We then passed the broke down tourists which were entertaining. Before we hit the area where the race track used to be, we got an awesome photo opp-Darkwing Duck and Launchpad!!!
We then joined up with the half course used for the wdw marathon/princess weekend. The clif shot area was in the same spot. We did not get another character until lilo and stitch close to where the Princes are for Princess weekend.
We continued to Epcot up the overpass with the green army men and into Epcot. I stopped for another stilt picture. As we got to the epcot parking lot, we headed backstage where Clarabelle and Horace Horsecollar were out. We then went backstage for one final water stop and then into Epcot! Phineas and Ferb were by Starbucks and vacation Genie was at the turn around at the entrance to World Showcase
Heading towards the finish I had to stop and take a picture with the Epcot ball. Again photopass pictures towards the end are AMAZING. And just like that, I crossed the finish line of my final WDW race of the year and my 50th rundisney race and yes I realized after my numbers were backwards haha
I hung out with the Lizards and celebrated with Jacque with champagne of course (picture above!)
MILE SPLITS: 2:28:11--11:23/11:38/12:17/11:23/10:13/10:31/11:07/11:14/11:00/11:16/11:30/11:50/11:36/9:06 (final .14 miles)
OFFICIAL SPLITS: 3:16:43 (15:01 mile pace)
5k: 39:33 (12:44 mile pace)
10k: 1:32:32 (17:04 mile pace)
15k: 2:23:08 (16:18 mile pace)
After that, I headed back to shower and get ready and then we headed off to California Grill for an amazing brunch! We then went to MK to get pictures with Mickey and ride a few things. We were fading fast so we went back for a two hour nap. We then had a hell of a time getting to Epcot. Lord-after waiting for 3 buses that were completely full, we took an uber and got there in 10 minutes for less than 10 bucks. There was a crazy line getting into epcot for the after party so we went in with our APs, got our glasses, and then got wristbands during illuminations. Our mistake was we didn’t eat dinner and all of the booths closed from 8:45-9:30! We were starving but waited in line at Puerto Rico and got some yummy food. We went to as many booths as we could and I basically drank at every one haha.
The party was super fun, not long lines for food but crazy lines for all of the characters. We tried to do Frozen but it never dropped below 45 minutes. We were able to wait less than 5 minutes for Soarin which was fantastic!
We stayed until 1am and didn’t get back to the resort until 1:30. I fell asleep on the bus and almost slept on a random guys shoulder-oops haha.
Overall, the course left a lot to be desired but the characters were great. I would definitely eat dinner before heading to epcot next time for the after party.
What was the last half marathon you ran? Ever go to an after party?
It's here! My favorite half marathon and MY 50TH RUNDISNEY RACE! I dressed as Figment as he is one of my favorite characters and the mascot of the food and wine festival. I was up at 4:20 (yay extra hour of sleep), and we were out of the door at 4:50 and got on the bus right away. There was more traffic as the egress for wide world of sports is not as open as Epcot. We went straight to the portos and waited 20 minutes in the shortest line! Eek! After that, we checked our bags and headed to the corrals. I could stretch and relax a bit before the start. Jenny Simpson, the recent 1500 bronze medal winner in Rio was running this race as a training run at a 6:5o pace-haha
I was in corral D and we started about 5:40. Heading out of Wide World of Sports there was not much until after the sign where the Country Bears were waiting! Now came the boring part-there was NOTHING until we reached Animal Kingdom except 2 DJs. My legs were happy again and it was boring and I hated my life haha.
Once we reached Animal Kingdom, it got better!
Rafiki was at the entrance like during the 5k and Baloo was by Rainforest Café. Even better I got to meet Kathryn and her husband Preston in line! We continued through Animal Kingdom (still my favorite park to run through) and ran by Everest which was gorgeous with the sunrise.
Heading out of AK, there were some more stilt walkers this time from festival of the lion king, Meeko was out backstage which was nice as well. We continued on the path back towards the TTC-basically the middle portion of the Marathon but run backwards. Not far from AK, Chip n Dale were out so I stopped. This is also when I realized it was 7am so I could start making fastpasses for Marathon weekend which I did while in lines for characters. It made the time pass quickly.
We ran a short out and back (which I enjoyed more than I thought I would) we went by the stinky treatment plant and the next character stop was Mike and Sully. They had to take a break which was hilarious to watch them get in their tent haha. I waited about 10 minutes total which was my longest photostop of the day. We then passed the broke down tourists which were entertaining. Before we hit the area where the race track used to be, we got an awesome photo opp-Darkwing Duck and Launchpad!!!
We then joined up with the half course used for the wdw marathon/princess weekend. The clif shot area was in the same spot. We did not get another character until lilo and stitch close to where the Princes are for Princess weekend.
We continued to Epcot up the overpass with the green army men and into Epcot. I stopped for another stilt picture. As we got to the epcot parking lot, we headed backstage where Clarabelle and Horace Horsecollar were out. We then went backstage for one final water stop and then into Epcot! Phineas and Ferb were by Starbucks and vacation Genie was at the turn around at the entrance to World Showcase
Heading towards the finish I had to stop and take a picture with the Epcot ball. Again photopass pictures towards the end are AMAZING. And just like that, I crossed the finish line of my final WDW race of the year and my 50th rundisney race and yes I realized after my numbers were backwards haha
I hung out with the Lizards and celebrated with Jacque with champagne of course (picture above!)
MILE SPLITS: 2:28:11--11:23/11:38/12:17/11:23/10:13/10:31/11:07/11:14/11:00/11:16/11:30/11:50/11:36/9:06 (final .14 miles)
OFFICIAL SPLITS: 3:16:43 (15:01 mile pace)
5k: 39:33 (12:44 mile pace)
10k: 1:32:32 (17:04 mile pace)
15k: 2:23:08 (16:18 mile pace)
After that, I headed back to shower and get ready and then we headed off to California Grill for an amazing brunch! We then went to MK to get pictures with Mickey and ride a few things. We were fading fast so we went back for a two hour nap. We then had a hell of a time getting to Epcot. Lord-after waiting for 3 buses that were completely full, we took an uber and got there in 10 minutes for less than 10 bucks. There was a crazy line getting into epcot for the after party so we went in with our APs, got our glasses, and then got wristbands during illuminations. Our mistake was we didn’t eat dinner and all of the booths closed from 8:45-9:30! We were starving but waited in line at Puerto Rico and got some yummy food. We went to as many booths as we could and I basically drank at every one haha.
The party was super fun, not long lines for food but crazy lines for all of the characters. We tried to do Frozen but it never dropped below 45 minutes. We were able to wait less than 5 minutes for Soarin which was fantastic!
We stayed until 1am and didn’t get back to the resort until 1:30. I fell asleep on the bus and almost slept on a random guys shoulder-oops haha.
Overall, the course left a lot to be desired but the characters were great. I would definitely eat dinner before heading to epcot next time for the after party.
What was the last half marathon you ran? Ever go to an after party?
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