On Thursday morning I drove up to the Expo in order to guarantee we were able to get some merchandise from the runDisney booth. From my past experiences if you didn't get to the expo on the first day it was slim pickings when it came to runDisney merchandise! I knew it would be busy, but I was shocked at how insane it was! It felt like black friday shopping for runners! It was shoulder to shoulder people jam packed into a small little area trying to scramble and grab what they wanted without trampling everyone else. People were attacking the employees coming out with boxes of the wine glasses! I was able to grab the couple of things I wanted and get out of there before losing an arm!
The next day was Friday (also my birthday) Chrissy and I headed over to Orlando. I had made several reservations for our meals months ago. Our first stop was lunch at Beaches and Cream at Boardwalk. We had some delicious grilled cheeses followed by much necessary ice cream sundaes!
After lunch we headed over the the Expo to pick up our packets and see what other goodies we could find.
The most exciting thing we found was this!
After a horrible 13 miles in the rain for our first half and my second half being cut short due to increment weather this was seriously the best thing ever!
After the Expo we headed back to the hotel to check in. My mother in law was nice enough to let us use her time share for the weekend. We stayed at Wyndham Bonnet Creek Resort. I somehow forgot to take pictures of the room, but it was amazing! It was a 2 bedroom suite with a full kitchen, dining area, and living room. With 2 bathrooms it was perfect, no fighting over who got the first shower after running our races!
That night our friend Suzy drove out to celebrate my birthday at Boma. Boma is a buffet at Animal Kingdom Lodge with a variety of African inspired foods.
After dinner we headed back to the hotel and called it a night. 3am was getting closer by the minute! The next morning was our 10k. We decided to go all out this year and actually dress up. Chrissy dressed as Aurora and I chose Snow White.
The weather was beautiful! Cold in the morning waiting around in the coral but shortly after starting we warmed right up. Due to some unforeseen medical issues Chrissy was never able to run a local 10k to get a proof of time, so I started back in the last coral with her. It wasn't too bad. We were positioned right next to the starting line so we were able to watch all the other corals start. The 10k course took you out onto one of the main roads then into the World Showcase, around Boardwalk, and then back into Epcot down past Spaceship Earth to the finish. We didn't feel like it was too crowded and were able to get past most of the people without too much trouble. We had to run in the grass more than desired but overall we felt it was a good race. At the end we felt good and came in at 1 hour and 18 minutes. We didn't want to overdue it knowing we had to run a half marathon the next day.
After breakfast we relaxed at the hotel for awhile then headed over to Epcot. We hit up Character Spot and then walked around the countries, rode Living with the Land and Test Track.
After not sleeping well the night before I was happy to have gotten a full 6 hours before my alarm went off at 3am again Sunday morning! Today we decided to just dress for comfort. I bought some glitter gem Minnie iron ons from etsy and we coordinated the rest of the outfits with that.
The drive over to Epcot took a lot longer than the day before. I was glad we were in the back corals because once we got there it was another 20 minute walk just to the coral! Even though we waited an hour each morning this one seemed to go by much faster.
This was my first time running this course so I was looking forward to the new scenery and it was also my first time running through the Magic Kingdom. We started outside of Epcot and ran down World Drive down to the Magic Kingdom. This race has you starting and finishing at Epcot so we actually saw the first few people to finish the race running towards Epcot as we were just starting! It is so inspiring to see all these amazing athletes! We entered into the Magic Kingdom on the front side of Main Street and ran down Main Street towards the castle and then turned into Tomorrowland. We then ran through Fantasyland and through the back of the castle and out into Frontierland. It was amazing running through Magic Kingdom, but it was so crowded! With such small areas to run we were almost forced to walk in some areas because you just could not get around all the people!
After leaving the Magic Kingdom we ran back towards Epcot passing The Grand Floridian and Polynesian. At this point the sun started to come up and it was getting hotter and brighter. We are used to running at night so the sun can really take a toll on you when you aren't used to running in it! Chrissy unfortunately dropped her sunglasses in the porta potty before we started! But I went ahead and let her use mine, since I had more training during the daylight than she had. We really started feeling run down by mile 9. We usually don't start feeling bad until later on, but I think a combination of the sun and just running the 10k the day before really hit us! But we kept on going and we finally reached Epcot! The last mile (which felt like 16 miles!) takes you into Epcot down towards the World Showcase and turning around and heading back towards Spaceship Earth and to the finish. The last mile was awful and I really had to push myself to get across that finish line. But we did it! And we even came in at one of my goals to finish under 3 hours!
I was so impressed with Chrissy. Between our first half and this I was trained for a half I did on my own so I had been running a lot more than she had. But she did amazing, she kept right up with me with no problems and we shaved 26 minutes off our time from our first half! Our finish time was 2 hours and 50 minutes. If it wasn't for all the people and being forced to slow so many times we probably could have come in even faster.
My next challenge is to complete a full marathon! I have been going back and forth for the past year and I finally decided I am going to do it. I will be doing it alone, but Chrissy promised to help me train and meet me half way during my longer runs. I am going to sign up in April for the full at Disney next January. Wish me luck!
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