Wow.
What a race. What a spectacle. Perfect weather – only a couple miles of hot sun, but mainly cool. Finished with a little rain shower as I ran through the counties in Epcot. Just outstanding.
Finish time = 4:26:36
My alarm went off at 2:30 am to get ready to run, with my body still on central time (1:30 am), this was rough. I dressed in a tank top and shorts – crazy since it’s been negative weather in Minneapolis. I ate a banana and a PB&J sandwich and drank some hot tea on the way over to the Disney Boat and Yacht Club Resort where Shanna, Kevin and Christine were staying. My mom woke up with me and took me in her car – have I mentioned how truly awesome she is! Waking up super early to support me :). Once at the Yacht Club, we boarded a bus to Epcot at 3:30 am. It was a little chilly just standing around, so I had a throw away long sleeve and a garbage bag from the hotel on. We hung out around the gear check until about 5 and then started our trek to the start – almost a mile from the gear check to the start line.
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| My amazing mommy woke up to take me to the start line |
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| 2:30 am at the hotel
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| My garbage bag I got from the hotel |
The national anthem was sung with amazing fireworks and then we huddled into our Corral – we started in corral G. Each corral was sent off with Mickey Mouse counting down and then fireworks – so awesome.
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| Christine, Kevin, Me and Shanna in our corral |
Within the first mile there were already characters and marching bands. The first stop was Magic Kingdom – talk about breathtaking!! Rounding the corner to see the castle all lit up. We got a few pictures in front of it and treked on.
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| Magic Kingdom, in front of the castle |
After Magic Kingdom, we were off to the speedway. The Florida Corvette Club lined the track and cheered us on. There were probably 50 cars there! Not the best running surface, but neat to run on it anyways.
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| Running on the speedway |
From there we headed to Animal Kingdom. On the way to Animal Kingdom, we were routed passed a water treatment plant.. yeah… We also stopped and got a picture with a few animals that were cheering us on the way to Animal Kingdom. You could definitely smell Animal Kingdom before we got there. Lots of volunteers lined the course through that park.
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| One of the animals before Animal Kingdom |
After there, we headed to ESPN World of Sports. We got to run around the warning track and then a lap around an Olympic size track. This was probably my least favorite part of the course, but it was still awesome.
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| On the way to World of Sports |
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| Behind home plate while running on the warning track of the baseball field at World of Sports |
After World of Sports, Shanna and I parted from Christine and decided we wanted to beat 4:30. We passed mile 20 and 3:30, so we needed to pick it up a little to do this.
We were off to Hollywood Studios.. they sent us through the back access, so we saw the back side of Tower of Terror. Didn’t see much of this park – it was kind of cool, they had us go through a tunnel that was pitch dark with strobe lights and loud music. On the sides you looked in windows and people were sewing Disney costumes.
I parted Shanna as we left Hollywood Studios since I was feeling really good. It started to sprinkle as I ran on the boardwalk. From there, I headed into Epcot, heading through the countries area. The rain picked up here – my leftover mascara from the day before burning my eyes. We ran passed the big golf ball thing at Epcot and rounded the corner to the finish. The last stretch I heard my mom and Hassan screaming my name and I smiled so big as I waved at them. I crossed that finish line and got my medal 🙂
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| Final stretch to the finish |
An awesome race and I ran negative splits 🙂
I would definitely do this race again!
