Disney 2014: The Race

We inadvertently planned our trip at the same time as the Disney Marathon Weekend and as I had heard about how much fun the Disney races are, Matt & I decided to sign up! Of course we were on vacation so we didn't want to worry about running too much so we signed up for the 5K Family Fun Run. It was a nice distance for us as we didn't have to worry about training and only had to moderately watch what we ate, especially relative to those running the half and full marathons! 

Our race was that Thursday morning and the start time was at 6:15. We had to be in the corrals no later than 5:45 so to give us plenty of travel time, we set our alarm for 4:30. Yes. We woke up at 4:30 AM on vacation. It wasn't easy but I'm so glad we did it!

The area we arrived in. Picture was taken later that day from the monorail

Starting line!

Our corral, C!

Excited to run that morning

We got to the start of the course with plenty of time to spare and there were tons of people already there-- the race was full with 10,000 runners! Of those, 7,000 were doing the Dopey challenge. What is this challenge? Over the marathon 4-day weekend, there was a 5K, a 10K, a half marathon, and a full marathon. The Dopey challenge consisted of all 4 of those runs, back to back. It is definitely not for me but I am very impressed with those that did it! 

Anyway, they had some fun DJs playing music and getting everyone energized. Finally race time rolled around and fireworks went off as each corral was told to go. 

The course was a great one as we ran through Epcot's World Showcase and a bit of Future World. I didn't get any pictures while running but there were several characters along the race route for you to stand in line & get your picture taken with. Also, several of the runners had dressed in fun costumes so that was fun to see.


Our time wasn't that great (about 31 minutes) but given how crowded and twisty the race course was, we were OK with it.

Right after  finishing, turning to look back at the finish line

Besides getting the amazing opportunity to run through World Showcase, our favorite part was the amazing celebratory brunch we had at Kona Cafe!

After getting back to the room

Matt with his spiffy race shirt & medal

My pineapple & macadamia nut pancakes

Matt's Tonga Toast

So I would definitely do a RunDisney race again! It was awesome running through a park and it was a lot of fun. But next time, I would probably try to schedule it at the beginning of the vacation as it was a little stressful worrying about the race, even if it was a relatively short distance, in the days leading up to it. The way we tour Disney World involves a lot of food and walking, two things that aren't ideal pre-race. Thankfully we were both OK and didn't sustain any injuries. Most importantly, we were able to have fun and make some unique memories on this trip!

And this is my last Disney trip-related post. Thank you for letting me share it with you. I loved getting to relive these memories and I hope you enjoyed getting to see some of the things we got to do :)

Now back to your regularly-scheduled programming about our 'real' life. Yay grad school!