Disney World Marathon 2016

Disney World Marathon 2016

            This fall my running training totally fell apart, but that was okay, sometimes other things in life are more important than running. I headed to Disney World with my only expectation being to have fun and it came through for me in spades.

            I have to admit that by the time I crossed the start line, I was sure I would never run Disney again. It is expensive and the logistics are mind boggling, but once we got moving, it truly was a rolling party. From the very start, I stopped in nearly every character line I saw, (skipping only those that were long and for a common character like Goofy.) Needless to say, this made for a very long time on the course, but it was so fun I didn't care. My second 5 miles took over an hour and 20 minutes, LOL. It was worth it though. Through the whole race I was texting my daughter about what line I was in and she was amazed at the characters, (she works in costuming at Disney World so she is hard to impress! )

Still dark

            I stopped worrying about run/walk intervals and just went to running from character to character, walking water and snack stops, and occasionally walking with people to chat with.

                       

Finally!

        We entered the Magic Kingdom with cheers and lots of spectators! The next 5 miles were my slowest as I stopped at the many character spots.

 

I told Alice I felt bad because we all smell so bad, LOL. The camera lady said, "No comment."

I was hoping for Sebastian, but he walked off set just as I got to the front of the line :-( 

 

Is there something behind me?
Out the back door and into the behind the scenes area with parade floats.

Hades' line had just closed so this was the best I could do

Comparing our gnarly hands

Not sure if Shan Yu was confused or trying to scare me, LOL

This was a major score, Barbosa never does meet and greets, only parades. When I walked up I said, "Pirates! The only people that smell worse than runners :-D " Barbosa said, "That would be you, Jackie!"

Some characters had really elaborate back drops

Our only character stop in Animal Kingdom

Brother Bear characters. My daughter didn't think these costumes existed anymore!

   It got tough about half way through, not quite a wall, but my lack of training kicked in. 

Stopped for these guys because I needed a break :-) Disney did an amazing job of making the lines go fast so it wasn't much of a break.

     

These guys were awesome! There was one with green face paint that was doing a full drill sergeant routine on the people that were walking up a small hill. Some were even dropping to give him 10 push ups!

I almost missed this one because there was no line. The runners were getting tired of stopping I guess.

Hollywood Studios! Getting close to the end!

I choked up a little.

No clue, but she waved her wand to make the pain go away. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to help

Epcot at last!!!

Last character

Ba-Bling!!

     I finally looked up my results two days later, LOL. I finished with a 5:55:49. This, hysterically, put me in the top half of my field for my age group and gender and nearly so in the over all! So, if you want to feel REALLY good about your finish time, run Disney, hahahahahaha. Granted, it is nearly impossible to actually run because of all the people walking. I heard some discussion about some huge snafu where many people with confirmed marathon finishes got stuck in way back corrals so I wasn't the only one with this issue. 

      After a shower and nap, we headed to Magic Kindgom to ride some rides, stuff ourselves stupid at the Liberty Tree Tavern (one of my favorites,) and visited Mickey.

Mickey and I played cards and had a great time

This was my first time seeing the fully animated, talking Mikey. He is pretty cool and gives loads of hugs :-)

Trying to take my lecture seriously

Hehe, Vader selfie

         Monday we spent the morning at Hollywood Studios and stopped into the Star Wars Launch Bay where both my daughter and son in law have been working long hours. It is awesome when Lord Vader recognizes your daughter as one of his personal servants!

Awwww, Wookie hugs

     I'm thinking I'll run Goofy next year :-)