Day 2: Friday, January 11, 2013
2013 Walt Disney World Family Fun Run 5K - Arriving
This weekend was originally supposed to be strictly Goofy...so why sign up for the 5K? 2 reasons:
1. The super-cute finisher medallion, of course! (Picture to follow.)
2. The promise of an early-morning run through Epcot, which was missing from this year's marathon course.
I woke up that morning at about 4AM and couldn't get back to sleep because I was so nervous (not for the 5K itself, just for the overall weekend, I think). I hate when that happens!
I finally gave up at about 4:30 and got out of bed...made coffee, got dressed, put on sunscreen, etc. I didn't take much with me to this race - my breakfast (a bagel and peanut butter I'd brought from home), some cash, my room key and my Annual Pass. And of course, my fully charged camera.
For the longer races, resorts on the monorail don't have the option of bus transportation to the races - it's monorail or nothing. But the monorails weren't available for the 5K, so I headed to the convention area of the resort to catch the bus (which is also the bus stop for buses to and from the expo) at about 4:50. 5K transportation ran from 4:30-5:30, I think. Had a nice chat with the poor Mears employee that was manning our stop (Disney contracts out extra buses to cover the increased need during the races) and was on a bus by about 5. I ended up sitting next to a nice lady wearing a
Disneyland Half marathon shirt. She'd done a lot of half marathons and this was her first Disney 5K...her daughter was here to run the marathon and the woman was taking care of the grandkids during the longer races. Cute!
We made one stop at Shades of Green (from what I could see from the bus their lobby was still decorated for Christmas) and were dropped off at the starting area in one of the Epcot parking lots at about 5:25.
I don't know what the issue was, but I could not for the life of me get that bagel down. I don't know if it was nerves or what...but I ended up throwing half of it away.
Definitely regretted that later.
I really think the 5K races are great for new runners. Everything is just much...less. Less distance, less pressure (the runs are not timed, so no worries about falling off pace), and less to navigate at the starting area (picture below):
Above you can see a line of porta-potties to the right...we were dropped off from the bus right behind the porta-potties and it was just a short five-minute walk to the starting area (the starting line itself is straight ahead in the above picture - the tall sort of purple thing - starting corrals up and to the left). Much less of a process compared to the longer races, which I'll talk about later.
One other thing visible in the above picture on the left side is the grandstand, where spectators can wait at the finish line...so really the start and finish lines were very close to one another.
Essentially all we needed to do was walk straight ahead to get to the corrals. Mickey and Minnie were set up for pictures near the start (in their classic outfits) but I bypassed them because their lines were HUGE.
Starting line to the right:
Corrals to the left:
The above picture is actually the BACK of the starting corrals...you can see the fence separating Corral A and Corral B. For this race there were 4 corrals (A, B, C and D) and technically 6 starts - the lone wheelchair racer, A, B, C, D, and the stroller division. I guess the corrals were assigned based on when people signed up?
Not sure about this...essentially it was just a way for them to space us out a bit, I think.
In this picture I'm actually IN the back of the corral (volunteers are very strict about this - you have to show the printed letter on your bib)...Corral A is to my right.
Before I went into the corral I asked the volunteer coordinator about a rumor I'd heard, that there's a secret packet pick-up the morning of the 5K. He said there is, but it's mostly for people that picked up the bib earlier and then lost it. If people use the pick-up that morning they can get their BIBS ONLY - they have to go to the expo to get their race shirts. He seemed utterly perplexed as to why someone would do this morning packet pick-up...I could definitely see it being an option if someone's flight was delayed or they couldn't get to the expo on Thursday.
It was funny to be at the 5K start...this was MUCH different than the longer races. Lots more costumes and lots more kids who did NOT enjoy waiting around ("When is it going to start?", "I'm hot," "I'm tired," etc…made me think of Russell from Up!
). There was a DJ trying to get everyone excited by playing a variety of music - the Cuban Shuffle, ACDC, and the Chicken Dance (which REALLY bummed me out
) for example. My favorite part, though (and I forget the exact context), was when the DJ/host definitely said the words, "JUST a 5K."
Really dude, you just said that?! He quickly figured out his mistake and sort of stumbled over his words to try to make up for it...oops.
Eventually everyone figured out that we needed to turn around and move to the other side of the corrals, so we all started cramming in. Here’s the whole set-up…me in Corral B, starting line to the left, Corral A directly in front of me, finish line to the right:
Continued in Next Post
How was your dinner at Victoria & Albert's? We're saving up to have dinner there next January. 
)
This is great for us because we don't buy eacho ther presents often (we're both super hard to shop for) but we DO love great meals. I'm glad you guys liked it so much! And the wine pairings are a must, at least for me! 
Although I do think it contributed to long lines at photo stops...so that wasn't cool.
I made every effort to keep the pace nice and relaxed. At some point we passed Chip & Dale (huge line and they weren't wearing special costumes) and found the first mile marker near an entrance to a Cast Member parking lot.
I'll see YOU on Sunday, Goofy tent! At least I hope I will!
I stole like five packs of the fruit snacks and ate those until I got back to my room!
