Thursday morning’s 5K was scheduled to begin at 6:15, our
Dopey bibs showed corral C, Suzy was Corral E so we planned on starting with
her, so she would have someone to run with.
I believe we left for the bus stop around 4:30-4:45, it was a short walk
from our room which was great,. All of the four races drop off at the EPCOT
parking lot and the first two start there as well, we arrived this morning around
5-5:15. To say it was cold is an
understatement.
First, let me explain Jeff and I are from the Kansas City,
MO area, I have run in colder temperatures, however, we WERE NOT used to
sitting in the cold wind, for an hour and a half prior to the race
starting! In the past when we have
arrived for a Disney race there are multitudes of runners mingling, taking
photos, stretching, having fun at the D.J. stage, etc. There was NONE of that this morning. Runners were huddled, almost zombie-like
around wind breaks and tents. Once we
made it to Corral E we did about the same, each corral was literally a huddled
mass. The emergency blankets? Turned out indispensable, but we were still cold! The
moment we saw runners in Corral C go by, it was hard not to want to run out and
join them! FINALLY time was up for
Corral E, it was only once we started that I realized how cold I had just been,
I was sluggish, and my legs, feet and hands felt like blocks of ice!
Our goal for this Dopey challenge was to repeat the 2:1 (run
2 miles walk 1 mile), pattern we had used last year, but to continue that
hopefully all the way through the full marathon too. For the 5K instead though we decided to run
1-mile, walk a mile, run a 1-mile. The
course itself starts in the EPCOT parking lot and spends the first mile
circling around EPCOT’s extensive parking lots.
About ¾ a mile in the course heads under Test Track, and at almost
exactly one mile enters EPCOT at the Norway pavilion and heads around World
Showcase. Pretty much by the time we headed into EPCOT I was much less of a
frozen Popsicle. We stopped at the
Morocco pavilion for the real bathrooms, and then continued through World
Showcase, through future world and across the finish line for the first time.
Overall, it wasn’t a bad time, except
for the COLD, I definitely won’t forget it that’s for sure.
Prior to the race weekend, there had been a lot of
discussion as to how Disney would verify runners for the Dopey challenge. In 2014 we received a bracelet for the 5K,
10K and ½ marathon, for this year, I had heard varying stories. One was that they would match us at the end
of every race with the photo we had taken at the EXPO, and/or they would verify
our time and make sure we were under the 16 min mile pace. Which normally would not be a problem, but it
certainly alleviated any desire to stop for character photos on the 5K, since
it was such a short distance.
In the end for the 5K and actually the two following races,
we just walked through the Dopey tent, no one stopped us to verify
anything. We picked up our typical snack
box, banana and powerade and headed to the buses to take us back to POR. There was a massively long line for the bus
back to POR but Disney had multiple buses lined up so overall it was really
quick. The biggest problem we
encountered is when we arrived back at our room, and none of our magic bands
worked to open the door! So there we all
were, it was frigid, we had a dining reservation in an hour and half and all I
was to do was get warm. Wasn’t going to
happen. I volunteered to run back to the
registration desk, and they sent a runner out to let us in. I didn’t see any major reason to fix the
magic bands for POR since we would be moving out and over to Old Key West in a
few hours.
After getting showered and dressed we got everything loaded
up, into the car, and headed for Wilderness Lodge for breakfast. Originally I think my plan was Whispering
Canyon breakfast on Friday morning, but I had changed it the day before, and
scheduled an Kona Café breakfast the next morning, great idea! For Whispering Canyon it was Jeff, Suzy, Mark and myself. When we were seated we found out our server
was Jeffro, (hope I am spelling that right), The three of us have been eating
at Whispering Canyon since prior to our wedding in January 2002, and we had had
Jeffro as our server several times over the years, like always it was good
fun. I loved the table next to us who
had NO IDEA what would happen when they asked for ketchup, and then ended up
with about 30 bottles.
So it was about noon at this time, and we decided to head
over to our next home away from home, Old Key West. Jeff and I are DVC members, since 2007. As DVC members we can book our home resort at
11 months and non-home resorts at 7 months.
Hoping to get a resort other then our home OKW I waited until 7 months,
finding nothing available other then OKW… I booked OKW. To put it bluntly we
had stayed at OKW a few times previous and never had a good experience, plus
due to excessive borrowing the previous year, we were limited on the # of
points we had available, so OKW it was. I was a little bummed about it, but I
think everything did turn out okay in the long run. We would be staying at OKW until Tuesday
morning, and then moving over to BWV standard view for the rest of the 5 nights
of our trip.
One thing I have always had particularly good luck at is
requests, I know they are never guaranteed, but most of the time I get what I
asked for, either that or I am pretty easy to please. At OKW I had requested Peninsular Road, to be
somewhat close to the Hospitality House, AKA primary marathon bus pick-up spot.
When we checked in at 12:30 our room wasn’t ready (no surprise), but we were
told we were building 45, which turned out to be a good location, about a 5
minute walk to the hospitality house. I
did find out later on that Disney ran the internal shuttle through the entire
resort for marathon weekend runners, so all that mattered was that we were
close to a bus stop, not something that was advertised AT ALL, but good
information to file away for the future.
So since we knew our room wouldn’t be ready for awhile we
headed out to the nearest Target store to stock up on snacks, bagels and Coke
to stock our room. The trip was over
quick and I checked back with registration when we made it back at about 1:30…
room still wasn’t available. We put the
cold food (milk, cheese etc.) in the cooler in the car, and then headed out to
explore the resort and Community Hall.
Since Suzy had never seen Beauty and the Beast (TRAVESTY!) I just had to
borrow the DVD from community hall, I LOVE the fact as members can borrow DVD’s
free, and the selection is actually quite good.
So back to Hospitality house, 2:30, no availability, so we
sat in the den area next to check in, and sat, and sat… Now I had signed up for
room ready text messages and never received it, so by 4:30… I was a bit
frustrated. Went up to the desk, guess
what? Or room had been ready for some time, yet I never got the message. GRRRR…
We made it to our room, 1st floor studio, great
location as mentioned previously, room was in decent condition, no mold, door
locked, all that stuff you think would be expected but we had had issues with
at OKW in the past. I spent the next
hour or so unpacking since we were at OKW until Tuesday it was to become our
own personal marathon central, I also laid out all my running clothing for the
10K on Friday. We decided to order pizza
for dinner, since there were no carb loading options to speak of at OKW, though
Olivia’s is usually pretty good for food generally. I frequently read the DIS
boards for information and updates on Disney and DVC, and many there had
mentioned using Flipper’s Pizza in the past, so I gave them a call, and they
delivered food pretty quickly (about 45 minutes), very inexpensive too when you
compare with normal Disney food prices.
We watched the movie while we ate and then headed to bed right around 8 P.M.
In the fear that we would oversleep I not only set the alarm
clock on my iPhone, Jeff’s iPhone but also set a wake up call. The 10K start time would become the norm for
the next three races at 5:30 in the morning.
My goal was to be at the bus stop between 4-4:15 am, so I was set to get
up around 3:15-3:30. That ended up
working well, got dressed, still wearing long running pants, short sleeve top,
running jacket and emergency “tin foil” blanket. Overall the temperature wasn’t much warmer
then the previous day, but thankfully there was VERY LITTLE wind, so we didn’t
quite freeze as much.
Again with our Dopey bibs we were assigned corral C, but
Suzy, with this being her first 10K, was in the last corral, Corral F, and we
again were starting with her for moral support.
This was our first time in the last corral, and hopefully the last time,
it was rather daunting starting a race when the first group of runners was
already finishing, and before the race started we could already see the pink in
the sky from the rising sun. My primary
complaint about the last corral is how congested it is! The course leaving EPCOT is not terribly
narrow but we spent about the first mile running in the grass or dodging
walkers, nothing wrong with walkers, but when you plan on running the majority
of the course its frustrating.
We headed out under EPCOT tollbooths, underpass, and then
onto the roadway and then made a sharp U-turn to head back towards EPCOT. Our goal again was run 2 miles, walk 1 mile,
and repeat. At this point we were about a mile from the start and could look
down and see the very last runner/walkers heading out, we also saw the balloon
ladies, and the sweeping crew. I was
truly surprised that there was already a walker behind the balloon ladies in
danger of being swept…
At this point the 10K followed the 5K route and headed under
Test Track then into EPCOT’s World Showcase.
Instead of heading the rest of the way around though the 10K exited at
the International Gateway and then headed for the Boardwalk. The next mile circles the Boardwalk and then
heads back, allowing Mile 4 and Mile 5 to pass right by each other, separated
by cones only. This highlights another
aspect of racing that really has begun to bother me, race cheating. I first saw this at a local 10K which was a
double out and back, where a runner “won” 1st place in their
division by only running one segment of the out and back. At Disney, we saw a few actually jump the
cones from Mile 4 to Mile 5, basically skipping a mile in the 10K. Personally I think the only people they are
cheating are themselves, and I guess they could be doing it for the “bling” at
the end. But really? Why pay the fees?
It’s not like Disney races are cheap?
Overall the rest of the 10K was uneventful, but fun, which
is why I love Disney races, they aren’t about speed they are more about
enjoying the journey. The three of us
were hoping to cross the finish line together, but ended up being cut off by a
few speed demons, which ruined a perfectly good picture, but what can you do?
Seriously though what is the point of running that fast in the last
corral? You aren’t going to win?!
After the 10K we made it to the bus, it was a shorter line
this time, we were dropped off at the Hospitality House and made the quick walk
back to our room, to shower and get ready for breakfast at Kona. Since Kona is
a MK resort we decided to take a bus to MK and then catch the monorail to the
Polynesian. Jeff and I are HUGE
Polynesian fans and are hoping to add on to the new DVC there soon, but we also
wanted to take a look at the new lobby.
Our racing friend/coach, Mark meet us again for breakfast
(or as he called it Brunch). Of course
being in corral A and running 7 min miles (UGH) this was the 2nd
meal of the day for him. :P I wanted to try the Tonga Toast that I had
read about for years, and it didn’t disappoint, I don’t want to even think
about the calorie content in them though. (Tonga Toast is French Toast stuffed with Banana and covered in Strawberry Sauce!)
After breakfast we wandered around Polynesian checked out the shops and
outdoor pool construction and bungalow construction. It was getting chilly
outside though, and the wind wasn’t helping much so our plans to visit EPCOT
was veto’d, as we were there for an entire week after the marathon and had
plenty of time to ride our favorites. We
instead headed back to the room, took a nap and then got ready for our last ADR
(Dining reservation) for that evening at Via Napoli, yep more carb
loading! We all had the vegetarian lasagna,
which was good, and I made sure to fill up with water, the warm forecast for
marathon Sunday was weighing heavy on my mind…
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