living in a state of well controlled chaos

I’m planning to write some trip reports, probably split by topics instead of day by day. I know several of you want to hear about the race, so I’ll do that first.

Official Disney press release

We went to Disney’s Wide World of Sports on the day of the race for our packet pickup. I don’t know what it was like on Friday, but on Saturday it was fairly organized. We signed the waivers, picked up our swag (food samples, shoe purse, glade plug-ins, random other stuff) and our tech shirts. DH also bought one of the t-shirts and a travel mug with the race logo. I wanted a shirt, but as usual, the fit was long and tight which just does not work for me. We had Thing One and Thing Two with us and did not wait for the course overview.

Our packet included two one-day, one-park admission tickets that expire on 10/10 and were only good for Epcot or Animal Kingdom. IMHO, this was worthless. I really wish I could have paid less for the race registration instead of receiving these and I know I’m not alone. I was planning to toss ours in the trash but ended up giving them to T & E who did drive up from Ft. Lauderdale with baby M to visit with us on Friday & Saturday. They used them to go to Epcot on Saturday while baby M stayed with her parents.

We checked Thing One and Thing Two in to the Cub’s Den at Wilderness Lodge at 5:30 and headed over to the AK. We had been instructed to be in our corrals by 6:30, which was insanely early given that they started the 11 waves of the race 5 minutes apart, starting at 7 PM. This means we sat on the hot blacktop parking lot for well over an hour. This race was designed to be run in two person teams, although singles could register too. Teammates wore the same bib number and only one person wore the timing chip. We saw the Disney Moms Panel team in their matching shirts as we walked in. The waves were lined up by team make up with the single runners in the first wave, male-male teams in the second wave, female-female teams in the third and fourth, and co-ed teams split among waves five through eleven by bib numbers. We were in the sixth wave, so it was 7:25 PM before we got to start.

There was a bag check, so we checked our car keys, some water bottles (just in case), and the small camera. I had thoughts of running with the camera and trying to take pictures, but decided against it. I did keep my cell phone with me in the small pocket of my capris just in case something happened with the boys.

I suppose the team makeup made it impossible to start runners by pace, but once again, we had to weave in and out of walkers while faster runners had to work their way around us. By the second mile, we caught up to the walkers from the wave before. Right after the start, we were funneled down from a two-lane road to one lane, which only made the situation worse. Many runners, including us, went over to the grass as Disney security was there and not allowing anyone on the other side of the cones blocking us to one lane.

We started in the AK parking lot and made a big loop around the parking lot and obstacle course before heading into the park, up the left side of the Oasis, around the left side of the Tree of Life, over to Africa and backstage behind some of the animal pens before coming around to Asia, past Everest, past Chester & Hester’s, out through Dinoland and again backstage and around to the parking lot. Mile one was mostly parking lot, mile two started behind the animal pens, and I can’t remember where we hit mile three. It was getting dark as we started and was total dark as we made the turn behind the animal pens.

You can see someone else’s pictures here. We couldn’t see any of the stuff going on up at the start line, but heard it all.

DH decided to run at my pace, which is slow. I set my Garmin to autolap every mile and it reports that I did the first mile in 11:29, the second in 11:43 (including a one minute or so walk break), and the third mile in 11:42. I was struggling in that last mile, backstage behind Dinosaur, weaving around a lot of walkers and generally having a tough time. I did kick it up to 9 min/mi for the last stretch down the chute, but there was no offical time break at the end of the 5K/start of the obstacle course. Probably the best part of the race was coming out of the Oasis and heading down the hill towards the Tree of Life as the sun went down. I remember thinking, “oh yeah, this is why I took up running back in February”.

There were a lot of runners wearing hydration belts and Camelbak’s, which I thought was hysterical. It’s a 5K race people! With two water stops! There were also in some sort of costume or custom shirt, which did entertain us during the long wait to start. Memorable team names include “The Donner Party” and “Yeti, Set, Go”.

I could have used a water stop at the start of the obstacle course, but there wasn’t one. The first obstacle was three 4 ft or higher beams to hop over. I probably could have pushed myself up and swung my legs over, but there were a lot of other runners and I would have kicked someone. DH boosted me up and over all three. Then we had to climb a rope pyramid. Up and over, no big deal. I went down forwards, but many were turning around at the top. Going up, I noticed that Lou & Deanna Mongello (WDW Radio Show Podcast, Disneyworld Triva Book) was right in front of us. The next obstacle was a balance beam to walk. I was a bit concerned for DH, but we both did it quickly, then we had a 15-20 foot dirt crawl under a net about 18 inches off the ground. He did it hands & feet, I did it hands & knees.

Then we grabbed the scavenger hunt booklet & pencil and headed back into the park. By then I felt a bit rested and we actually jogged some of the way back in. Back up the left side of the Oasis, passing some who were in the last waves to start and off to solve the four questions. It quickly became clear that there were different versions of the booklet, I read later there were eight different sets of questions. The questions were not hard if you didn’t overthink them and some CM’s were helping more than others. Honestly, if you just stood still and listened to the other runners, you’d get all the answers pretty quickly.

Once we had all four questions answered (our last one was right in front of Everest) we came back around to Dinoland to the real finish. DH got his chip cut off, we got our medals, we handed in the book and were told that we had all 4 questions correct. We got a powerade & a banana. I remember seeing bagels too, but I’m not sure what else.

We finished the whole thing in 1 hour, 9 minutes and 59 seconds.

We went to retrieve our bag and saw Lou Mongello again. I introduced myself and talked to him for a minute. He gave me some WDW Radio Show buttons and copy of his audioguide to Adventureland CD, something I’m interested to check out. There were a lot of women in the restroom washing off their hands and knees.

DH and I headed first to ride Everest. The line was about 15 minutes long and we both enjoyed riding in the dark. It’s a great coaster in the daytime but even better at night. After that we went to ride Kali River Rapids with no line at all. We got soaked! We walked back by Everest and saw the line was more like 30-40 minutes. DH hates Dinosaur and I think the only other ride open was Triceratop Spin. What a shame that Primeval Whirl was closed during this time. Anyway, since the childcare was costing us $22/hour, we decided to head back and retrieve our children so everyone could get some rest. We did not stay for the award ceremony.

Video from Disney