I am never riding Space Mountain again! A Marathon Weekend TR Complete

[natebenma]

Yep, my sister who takes 20 selfies a day at least thinks I'm crazy for taking pictures of walls.

That's funny!

Of course, over on my TR I have people taking pictures of the corner near Starring Rolls.

Your pictures at the Osborne Lights are fabulous!!!

I have never seen the show, so I appreciated all the photos. Missed it by "THAT" much! I arrived Thursday night.

Pretty impressive walk from HS to EP for all of you. We have done the walk to the Beach Club several times, but never the full monty before.

Sounds like you enjoyed your dinner at Via Napoli, but you weren't blown away. We haven't dined there.

I love Illuminations too. That is one of the great things about a Beach Club stay. Many nights when my family has been too tired to leave the room, I go and watch the show by myself. And I'm back by 9:30.

This is another one of those picture overload moments. Illuminations is my favorite show.



Continued in next post...

Great pictures, but this one is just stunning!

 

[rteetz]

That's funny!

Of course, over on my TR I have people taking pictures of the corner near Starring Rolls.

Your pictures at the Osborne Lights are fabulous!!!

I have never seen the show, so I appreciated all the photos. Missed it by "THAT" much! I arrived Thursday night.

Pretty impressive walk from HS to EP for all of you. We have done the walk to the Beach Club several times, but never the full monty before.

Sounds like you enjoyed your dinner at Via Napoli, but you weren't blown away. We haven't dined there.

I love Illuminations too. That is one of the great things about a Beach Club stay. Many nights when my family has been too tired to leave the room, I go and watch the show by myself. And I'm back by 9:30.




Great pictures, but this one is just stunning!

Thanks! The Osborne lights were something I was very glad I was able to see once.

I enjoy via Napoli it was my second time there.

I really loved being so close to Epcot.

 

[SarahDisney]

The walk from DHS to Epcot really is beautiful ... so while I can understand wanting to take the boat, it's not the worst walk in the world!

Even if it wasn't the best spot, it still looks like you got a pretty good spot for Illuminations. You got a lot of great pictures!! I really love that show so much ... so I definitely enjoyed looking through your pictures.

You got about 800 steps more than I did that day.

I'm looking forward to reading your 5K recap!

 

[rteetz]

The walk from DHS to Epcot really is beautiful ... so while I can understand wanting to take the boat, it's not the worst walk in the world!

Even if it wasn't the best spot, it still looks like you got a pretty good spot for Illuminations. You got a lot of great pictures!! I really love that show so much ... so I definitely enjoyed looking through your pictures.

You got about 800 steps more than I did that day.

I'm looking forward to reading your 5K recap!

Yeah I think the walk between the two parks was ok but my grandma thought it would be right there once inside the park.

Yes illuminations is my favorite.

I did achieve my most steps ever on this trip.

Coming up next!

 

[emilyindisney]

After all that walking ya'll definitely deserved that amazing pizza- love that place!

Wow- kudos on some really awesome/unique shots from Illuminations!! I especially like the one with the glowing earth and the shadow of the ship, and the ones that caught the lasers in the smoke. Really cool!

 

[rteetz]

After all that walking ya'll definitely deserved that amazing pizza- love that place!

Wow- kudos on some really awesome/unique shots from Illuminations!! I especially like the one with the glowing earth and the shadow of the ship, and the ones that caught the lasers in the smoke. Really cool!

Yes I really like Via Napoli and would go back anytime.

Thanks! I was really glad I was able to get the lasers in my pictures. I think illuminations was one of my best photography shoots. I got some good ones with wishes that I will show later as well.

 

[Chaitali]

Cool photos of Illuminations! And I love checking my fitbit data when I'm at Disney. I get more than 20,000 steps pretty much every day, plus I always sleep well. Probably because I'm tired out from all the walking.

 

[rteetz]

Cool photos of Illuminations! And I love checking my fitbit data when I'm at Disney. I get more than 20,000 steps pretty much every day, plus I always sleep well. Probably because I'm tired out from all the walking.

Thanks! This was my second trip with my Fitbit and my first with my Apple Watch it was interesting comparing the two the entire trip.

 

[rteetz]

Get up you have a 5K to run!

I set my alarm for 3:15 AM and just to be safe I set three alarms on my phone, an alarm on my fitbit and my sister set an alarm. I was making sure I got up for the race! I always have a weird feeling that one day I am not going to wake up to my alarm and miss the race. It just so happens I woke up on my own before my alarm even went off...

I woke up first and then my sister woke up when my alarm actually went off. I got dressed and ready to go. I had a cliff bar so I had something in me as well as water. I am not one for eating much before a race. I know I should but the nerves and such just make me not want to eat.

Anyways my sister Jordan got ready and at that point my grandma also woke up but was just making sure we had everything and were ready to go. I had us out the door at 3:45, and were on a bus around 3:50 AM. I really like being early rather than being late.

We got to Epcot at about 4:10AM.



You could tell there weren't a lot of people there yet. We saw the photo ops so we went over to take some pictures.



I told my sister this day might be the only time we take pictures together. Jordan is a the picture taking queen, she has a selfie stick and one of those selfie cases that the Kardashians have. She has an addiction to taking pictures of herself.



We waited around until about 5:15AM before heading to the corrals. We both were in Corral B for this race.



And after about a half hour to 40 minutes of waiting we were on the move to the start!



I really love the 5K start signs with the screens that have different animations and stuff.





And we were off! For those unfamiliar with the WDW 5K it starts in the Epcot Explore Parking lot and then heads off to the right on some back roads before heading into backstage Epcot.



I believe Chip and Dale were out before we entered Epcot but we didn't stop as the line was longer because it was the first stop.

Mile 1 was right before going under the outside portion of Test Track. The time on the marker is not our time but the time of the start of Corral A. I thought we were still making good time though.



And then soon enough we were inside Epcot! There truly isn't anything like running through a Disney park. The torches were on and its just a great atmosphere.

Timon was our first stop in World Showcase.



Like I said before I told my sister this might is your opportunity to take photos with me and it may not happen again soon. So i took a selfie with SSE in the back ground.



We passed the American Adventure pavilion and someone else was out that I have never seen before I guess it was some black cat from bolt because Bolt was out later but we didn't stop because I had no idea who it was.

Anyways Marie was out in France so we stopped for her.



Making good time to Mile 2!



On our way to future world next.



Okay I am 100% certain we met Stitch just outside of Innoventions. Only one big problem the photo I had of it is gone. I have no idea where it went so just pretend its here.



Another selfie...



And Mile 3 it was only .1 to go!



We made it to the finish before the sun was even coming up. According to my time on my phone we did the 5K in about 38-39 minutes with character stops! We never walked only our rest time was waiting in line for characters.



And we were Walt Disney World 5K finishers!



We got our powerade, water, and snack box and headed for the bus which seemed to have incredibly long lines. Thankfully the buses were running efficiently and it went quickly. We were back at the BC around 8:00AM. We showered and got ready to head out but more on that in the next update!

A small recap/review on the 5K. This was my first Disney 5K, I have done many local 5K's for various things mainly the Susan G. Komen race for a cure. Anyways I loved this race and it was nice running it with someone rather than doing it alone. The course was great, I didn't see any problems with it. I still liked the 10K course better but this of course is a shorter race. I saw a lot of great costumes including some guy who had a giant mickey head harnessed to his back which was really cool and weird at the same time. We also saw some guys dressed as Tron with actual lights and everything. Would I do this race again? Yes absolutely, it likely won't be until I run Dopey though which may or may not be next year depending on what I want to do. I would also love to run one of the themed weekends like star wars or Disneyland.

Up next: A short morning in the Magic Kingdom

 

[KathyM2]

Thanks for sharing! I loved hearing about your race and I'd love to do a race there sometime....the timing never seems to be right for a trip though!!! I love your pics!

 

[rteetz]

Thanks for sharing! I loved hearing about your race and I'd love to do a race there sometime....the timing never seems to be right for a trip though!!! I love your pics!

Thanks for reading! I recommend a race to anyone. They are so much fun. They have many weekends for them too I hope you get to do one eventually.

 

[EastYorkDisneyFan]

I loved you pictures of Illuminations it's my favorite nighttime show as well. I don't take many pictures of it though as I am usually watching it and don't bother pulling out my camera.

However I do have bunch of pictures on my flickr account though from over the years and different vantage points
Illuminations album

 

[rteetz]

I loved you pictures of Illuminations it's my favorite nighttime show as well. I don't take many pictures of it though as I am usually watching it and don't bother pulling out my camera.

However I do have bunch of pictures on my flickr account though from over the years and different vantage points
Illuminations album

Last trip is took video of it and then this trip I took pictures. Next trip I'll probably just enjoy it. I like to try things with my DSLR so that's why I end up taking a lot of photos.

I'll have to take a look at some of your photos thanks for sharing.

 

[emilyindisney]

Awesome that you met all those characters during the 5k! I feel like the character lines for the 5k races are always so long, so great grabs!

 

[rteetz]

Awesome that you met all those characters during the 5k! I feel like the character lines for the 5k races are always so long, so great grabs!

Yeah we skipped the first one because it was long but after that they weren't bad at all. I think being in an earlier corral helped that.

 

[skier_pete]

Very cool. 5K is about the only race I could ever consider running. I've done the "corporate challenge" which is a 5 K I think several times. I don't actually run, because I can't I have too much pain in my feet and knees - but once I did it in like 50 minutes. 38 minutes seems like a pretty good time with stops for characters. I mostly would never do that run because of that 4 AM start time. Blech!

It's also nice that you ran/stayed with your sister! Funny about the selfies - I had a friend in college (this is back in the 80s way before the "selfie") that ALL of her pictures had her or her family in it. They would take vacation pix and every photo someone would be in it. The funniest was they went to an airshow and all the pictures were of them standing in front of little tiny planes up in the sky! Apparently if they weren't in the picture, we would not have known that they were there. So they didn't call them selfies back then, but there were still girls that wanted to be in every picture!

Oh, and great shot of SSE.

 

[rteetz]

Very cool. 5K is about the only race I could ever consider running. I've done the "corporate challenge" which is a 5 K I think several times. I don't actually run, because I can't I have too much pain in my feet and knees - but once I did it in like 50 minutes. 38 minutes seems like a pretty good time with stops for characters. I mostly would never do that run because of that 4 AM start time. Blech!

It's also nice that you ran/stayed with your sister! Funny about the selfies - I had a friend in college (this is back in the 80s way before the "selfie") that ALL of her pictures had her or her family in it. They would take vacation pix and every photo someone would be in it. The funniest was they went to an airshow and all the pictures were of them standing in front of little tiny planes up in the sky! Apparently if they weren't in the picture, we would not have known that they were there. So they didn't call them selfies back then, but there were still girls that wanted to be in every picture!

Oh, and great shot of SSE.

The 5K is the only Disney race not timed and they don't sweep unless you are really behind and they are clearing the course. The race doesn't start at 4am it starts at 6 but you have to get up that early if you are taking Disney transportation. If driving you don't have to arrive as early.

My sister doesn't want necessarily to be in photos with everyone else but she does for some reason love photos of herself.

 

[SarahDisney]

I totally get the not eating before the race thing ... I rarely eat before shorter races (I didn't have anything before the 5K this year), and I have to force myself to eat before longer races. I just have no desire to eat before a race ... there's too much other stuff going on in my head.

Looks like you guys had a lot of fun! I'm excited that you guys saw Timon ... he wasn't out when we got there (Rafiki was there instead), but that's a really cool meet! We saw the cat from Bolt (apparently its name is Mittens), and I was so entertained because I had never heard of this cat before, but there was still a long line!

I love your finisher photo with Pluto!

Thanks for sharing the recap - it was definitely interesting to read someone else's views on the race!

 

[rteetz]

I totally get the not eating before the race thing ... I rarely eat before shorter races (I didn't have anything before the 5K this year), and I have to force myself to eat before longer races. I just have no desire to eat before a race ... there's too much other stuff going on in my head.

Looks like you guys had a lot of fun! I'm excited that you guys saw Timon ... he wasn't out when we got there (Rafiki was there instead), but that's a really cool meet! We saw the cat from Bolt (apparently its name is Mittens), and I was so entertained because I had never heard of this cat before, but there was still a long line!

I love your finisher photo with Pluto!

Thanks for sharing the recap - it was definitely interesting to read someone else's views on the race!

Yes I figured I'd eat something so the small cliff bar was it.

Yes I saw rafiki was out later I would've met him if he was out either way that was a good meet.

Yes I love reading about other people's point of view.

 

[EastYorkDisneyFan]

Last trip is took video of it and then this trip I took pictures. Next trip I'll probably just enjoy it. I like to try things with my DSLR so that's why I end up taking a lot of photos.

I'll have to take a look at some of your photos thanks for sharing.

cool thanks I have a couple videos of it too. One I can't find anywhere but I do have one on my youtube channel