Poor Unfortunate Soles: Marathon Weekend 2013 (5K, Half and Full Marathon)-COMPLETE!!

[DVCMAUREEN]

Fun trip report! Keep it coming!

 

[buckeyecinderella]

Your report is off to a great start! Thank you for posting these!

I should have considered a separate thread for my "brief" report but I am a discussion board novice and was so excited about completing my first full I got carried away!

I can't wait to read more!

 

[dismagiclover]

I'm in! I'm hoping to finally go Goofy next year (and maybe even Dopey) so I need all the motivation I can get. Can't wait to hear all about it and see lots of fun pictures!

 

[Ariel484]

I love the pup's costume! Too cute.

Report is off to a great start and I did read your PTR so cannot play guess the resort but will keep the secret for those who can! Shh.....

I thought it was cute too!...but I may be a little biased.

I'm all in for this report! I can't wait to read all about the weekend and how the races all went! Kudos to you for being Dopey!! lol! I've ran the Princess twice and did the Tower of Terror last year with plans to do the Wine & Dine this year and hopefully the Donald next. Honestly, I can't fathom doing a full and really, really admire those who do!

Great start and your little fur baby is adorable!!!!

You know, I never thought I would do a full either...the things we do for Disney! I am jealous of your race line-up, I would LOVE to do ToT and W&D someday. And the races at Disneyland too...okay, all of them!

I'm totally in for your trip report! You're pre-trip report was so much fun!

I think we saw you running in Hollywood Studios on Sunday. We spent the morning there and had so much fun cheering on the marathoners. We were standing right where you guys came out of the back stage area. It was such a hot and humid day. I have so much respect for all of the marathon runners. We did the half and were done just as the sun was coming up and I thought that was bad but it was nothing compared to having the sun beating down on you.

Great job

How funny, you're the second person that may have seen me during the full...stepth0808 was in a character line at the same time I was but we missed each other. Thank you SO much for cheering on the runners...as you know it's such a huge help! How did you like the half? I forget if you posted a report in the marathon thread...?

Fun trip report! Keep it coming!

Thanks! Will do!

Your report is off to a great start! Thank you for posting these!

I should have considered a separate thread for my "brief" report but I am a discussion board novice and was so excited about completing my first full I got carried away!

I can't wait to read more!

I LOL'd at you belting your shirt and wearing as a dress! I agree, they did seem a bit bigger...last year I got a medium (lots of room in that one!) and this year I got a small and it's STILL a little roomy. Disney still has the best race shirts though. I re-read your report and I agree with a LOT of your thoughts on the course/weather/etc.

I'm in! I'm hoping to finally go Goofy next year (and maybe even Dopey) so I need all the motivation I can get. Can't wait to hear all about it and see lots of fun pictures!

Hi Jenny! Okay, not to sound like a creep...but I went back and found your half and full reports and read them a few times before I ran the full last year and this year!! So this is very belated, but thank you for posting those reports! I hope you get to go Goofy/Dopey in 2014.

 

[Ariel484]

2013 Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend Expo, Part 1

This first day of the trip was super hectic. Travel days are always crazy enough, but I also had two very important things that HAD to be done this day: get things squared away at the expo and get my annual pass/Tables in Wonderland card. The expo was my first stop...I wanted to get that over with as soon as possible. Disney sets up special transportation that runs all weekend whenever a race is happening, and that includes buses to and from the race expo. The buses sometimes run from the regular park bus stops and sometimes from the convention area of the resort (which is what happened in my case).

I was on the bus by about 12:40...we made one other stop at another resort and were en route to the Wide World of Sports.

I didn't pay attention to what time I arrived at the Wide World of Sports...maybe 1PM? One thing I do remember is that they didn't drop us off at the same area as last year and we had a pretty long walk (10 minutes or so?) to the expo itself. Boo to that.

I definitely went into powerwalk mode as I made my way through WWoS. These expos can get insanely crowded and overwhelming, so I wanted to be in and out as quickly as possible and get on with my day.

My first stop was the HP Field House for bib pick-up. Goofy and 5K runners were directed one way, half and full runners went the other way.

The bib pick-up area was nice and relaxed...ahhhh.

Super nice volunteers here. I picked up my 5K and Goofy bib as well as my brother's Goofy bib. I also changed his starting corral from H to B. This was funny to me...I'd used an old race time of his that just barely made Disney's cut-off (July 2011 I think), and he'd barely trained for this race weekend at all. No way did he belong in B...and that's not me being a jerk. He totally agreed. At any rate I was in Corral C, so he was going to drop back and run with me anyway.

The rest of the room...there was a special pick-up area for the ninety-five Perfect 19s (those that had run all 19 WDW Marathons and were now attempting to become Perfect 20s...can you imagine???). I think Disney was (rightfully) giving them special gifts.

I sped out of the bib pick-up area and found myself among the official race weekend merchandise. Shoppinnnnngggggg!

I picked out the goods (pretty good selection...I hear pickens were slim by the next day) and went to check out. I told the Cast Member that I had an AP Voucher (which I'd bought from the Disney Store just before the price increase over the summer) but not the actual pass yet...could she still give me the AP Discount? She seemed less than enthusiastic in general but ran the voucher through the register and gave me the discount. If she hadn't it would have been fine...I just would have used my Disney Visa discount, but this seemed to be okay.

And here are the goods...

Pins from each race...I'm not big on pin collecting but I do buy some occasionally (really only for resorts we stay at and special things we do at Disney, i.e. races and tours):

The marathon weekend Vinylmation...again, not something I normally buy but I couldn't pass this little guy up:

(more on the plush in a moment.)

Medals for the Vinylmation:

T-shirts...WOMENS CUT T-SHIRTS! WOOHOO!

Back of the Goofy shirt...there was nothing on the back of the blue marathon shirt:

Not to sound like a jerk, but I have to admit that I never felt like I was jinxing myself by buying the "I Did It" shirt...I felt like I was well-trained for the races and wouldn't have signed up in the first place if I didn't think I could complete all of them.

I also bought a coffee mug but forgot to get a picture...it's similar to the blue t-shirt above. Also, I should note that, again, the AP discount was good here along with the Disney Visa discount, and I was able to use giftcards to buy the official merch.

Continued in Next Post

 

[Ariel484]

2013 Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend Expo, Part 2 and Downtown Disney

Next stop was the Josten Center for the actual expo along with bag pick-up:

ACK. Look at those crowds...shudder.

Inside the expo there were signs everywhere warning us of higher-than-expected temperatures forecasted for this weekend...LALALALALA *plugs ears*

I headed all the way to the verrrrry back of the expo (near the "200" sign in the above photo) to grab the race shirts! NOTE: All of these shirts are UNISEX shirts. I finally wised up this year and ordered smalls...they fit much better than last year's shirt, which is a medium.

5K shirt (a t-shirt):

And the tech shirts from the longer races...LOVE these shirts.

Half Marathon:

20th anniversary of the marathon:

And Goofy's Race and a Half Challenge:

Now, remember that cute little plush in the picture above with the Vinylmation? Well, I'd forgotten to grab him earlier, so rather than return to the first building I just headed to the official merch area in the expo (all the same stuff) and grabbed one there. Again, I asked about the AP Discount, letting the CM know that I knew it was a voucher, but could I get the discount? Heres and idea of how the conversation went down:

Me: I dont have the actual AP yet, but I have this voucher. Can I still get the discount?
CM: Thats not an actual AP.
Me: ...right, I know. I still need to exchange it.
CM: That's just from a Disney Store. You could have just picked that up without paying for it.
Me: what? The CM in the HP Field House said it was fine (NOTE: I hate when people do this "but she said it was okay, wahh!" but I was seriously shocked at what the CM had said to me, so I just blurted this out)
CM: Well I don't know who SHE is, but she shouldn't do that.
Me: (realizing that I need to leave ASAP because I was starting to get pretty upset) You know what, nevermind. Can I use a Disney Visa discount?
CM: No, has to be more than $50.
Me: (big smile because what else is there do to?) Forget it. Heres my card.

Look, I know I was not entitled to that discount, and CM #2 is most likely correct in saying that CM #1 shouldnt have given it to me in the first place...but really, I could have taken the voucher from the Disney Store without paying for it?? REALLY?

So at this point I was carrying my camera bag, my bag of merchandise and the two bags with all of the race shirts. The expo was crowded and I was upset about the whole thing with the CM...so I just wanted to get OUT. I made my way to the exit and realized that I didn't remember activating the tags on the Goofy bibs (no tag on the 5K bib as it is an un-timed fun run), meaning that the chips werent going to record our race times. So I headed back into the HP Field House, got the activation done, and then headed out, only to realize AGAIN that I'd forgotten to do something. runDisney has started offering free commemorative posters/art cards for each race, and I had printed out a voucher for mine. I had run right past the booth where the cards are picked up at the expo...there was no way I was passing that up, so back into the Jostens Center I went to get my card.

Finally, FINALLY, I left the expo. The volunteers at bib and t-shirt pick-up had been extremely nice, but the CMs at the registers had ranged from indifferent to downright mean (and I feel awful for saying that, because the expo was hectic and I'm sure it was stressful for them too). I'd gone to both buildings twice, and the expo was becoming more crowded by the second. This trip was hardly starting off on the right foot (pun intended!).

But if theres one thing that can make a girl feel better, its a pretty, pretty purse.

Disney started releasing limited-edition Dooney and Bourke bags for the Tinkerbell and Princess Half marathons. Basically the bags would be available at the expo on a first come, first served basis. Inevitably the bags would sell out almost as soon as the expo opened and appear on eBay soon after...in other words, they weren't being bought by runners, and those that couldn't get to the expo until Friday or Saturday never had a chance to get a bag. So with Marathon Weekend runDisney made the bags available for pre-purchase so that everyone could have a fair shot. This was my last stop at WWoS...to get my bag. Very nice and calm experience here...the ladies running bag pick-up were extremely nice (I think they could tell I was totally frazzled) and one of them brought out about 5 bags for me to choose from.

And heres the winner:

Close-up of the runner Mickeys:

Honestly, I need another bag like I need a hole in my head...but look at how pretty!

I had my bag at about 2:30 and began the long walk back to the buses.

My plan was to take care of a few things at Downtown Disney, so it made sense to get on the Saratoga Springs/Old Key West bus, get off at the first stop, and head Downtown from there. At the bus drop-off area the buses were in a huge circle...I was at one end of the circle and needed to go to the other end to get the Saratoga/OKW bus. Rather walk all the way around the circle I began to cut through and saw a gentleman approach me. I knew what he was going to say before he even opened his mouth: I needed to walk all the way back and around to get to my bus. He genuinely seemed like he felt bad for telling me to go back and I just told him not to worry, it was my mistake...and just the way my morning had been going. What a baby.

I made it to the correct bus stop (bus was there waiting) and the driver asked where I was going...Saratoga or OKW? I told him whichever one was first, and he guessed that I was headed to DtD. He told me to hold tight...he had a plan for me. The bus took off soon and we headed to OKW first, then Saratoga. The driver told me to stay on the bus and that he'd drop me off at a back entrance to Saratoga so that I could walk to Downtown Disney. Sidenote: I've never been to Saratoga before, and it's BEAUTIFUL.

Anyway, he dropped me off at the entrance he'd described and told me how to walk to the Marketplace - just a 5-minute walk. I thanked him profusely...he was so nice to me after I'd had a somewhat crappy morning, and I was very grateful.

The day was looking up, but I was still in GO-GO-GO mode, i.e. still pretty frazzled. First stop in DtD was Team Mickey to hopefully run into a friend that had just started DCP. Unfortunately she wasn't working that day. Probably for the best as I really could not calm myself down from the weird little frenzy I was in...I probably would have scared her away! Next I headed to Guest Services to get my (real) Annual Pass and Tables in Wonderland card. Then I looked around World of Disney for a bit before deciding that I needed some lunch...but first I had to stop for some coffee at Ghiradelli.

Okay, are there any Simpsons fans out there? Because OMG, it's a real-life Leftorium!

Anyhoo, I ordered an iced Caramel Latte at Ghiradelli and told the CM that I wasn't sure if I had any money on the giftcard I was trying to pay with. The lady behind me offered to buy me my coffee in case the giftcard was empty. I told her it was fine, that I could pay for it...just wasn't sure which card to use, but she kept insisting. Apparently I really looked like I could use a pick-me-up. I DID end up paying for the coffee myself and we had a nice chat...and I told myself to just calm the bleep down. I'd taken care of everything that needed to be done and was at Disney...my first day could get better if I decided to make it better. So with that I slapped a smile on my face and headed to Wolfgang Puck Express to order my lunch.

One 4-Cheese Pesto pizza, please!

Way too big for just me! Really, really good pizza, but I personally like the pepperoni better, I think.

I also made sure to get an ice water (hydrate, hydrate, hydrate!) and enjoyed my delicious coffee. Finally I was starting to relax...ahhhh.

(I thought I deserved the whipped cream.)

Lunch was lovely, and I boxed up a few slices of the pizza so that Will could have it as a late-night snack after his flight arrived the next day.

After lunch (as much as you can call a meal at 3:30PM "lunch") I headed to the Christmas store to put in a couple of orders for personalized ornaments. The CM here was super nice too and reminded me that I could have the ornaments delivered to the resort rather than shipped home. I'd totally forgotten about this because I don't think I've ever used the resort pick-up service before, so he saved me a few bucks!

My last stop was Cookes of Dublin, where I'd hoped to get the chocolate beer cupcake I'd read about on the Disney Food Blog. The CMs had no idea what I was talking about, so I gave up and headed to the bus stop. Once on the bus to my resort I opened up the blog to find that, DUH, the cupcake was at Captain Cooks at the Polynesian, not Cookes of Dublin. D'OH!

Coming up next...finally checking in!

Continued in Next Post

 

[dismagiclover]

Awesome looking haul from the expo! I especially love that bag! If I actually do the Goofy next year, I may have to order me one of those. So cute!!!! I really don't like the Disney Expos either. Wayyyy too crowded. I've found Expos at other races are more enjoyable. Oh, and I'm happy to hear you enjoyed my previous race reports. I loved writing them and it's nice to hear people enjoy them. Can't wait for more!

 

[kaf7878]

I totally got a kick out of your expo report! I just wrote mine today as well. My feet were DONE after walking around here, there, and everywhere.

Glad you could turn things around--I know what it's like to get into one of those "frenzies"--totally stinks!!

I'm so jealous that you get to rotate three awesome marathon shirts--they are the best!!

 

[creativeamanda]

I'm here! So yucky about those CMs!

 

[ZellyB]

I didn't realize either that the shirts were unisex and got a medium. Way too big, but live and learn. When we run another Disney race, I'll know to get a smaller one.

And, we didn't get in until Friday evening and the expo was jammed still and very picked over. But we were still able to get the items we wanted. My DH got the same little Vinylmation guy. Too cute that you can buy medals for them too. Those must have been gone already or we overlooked them...

 

[BigEeyore]

LOVE the title! Brilliant!
You did get a nice haul from the expo! I just got a new D&B bag for Christmas (the retro print one) so couldn't justify the marathon bag but it is so cute!
So glad you are writing a TR about the weekend! Looking forward to more.

 

[Ariel484]

Awesome looking haul from the expo! I especially love that bag! If I actually do the Goofy next year, I may have to order me one of those. So cute!!!! I really don't like the Disney Expos either. Wayyyy too crowded. I've found Expos at other races are more enjoyable. Oh, and I'm happy to hear you enjoyed my previous race reports. I loved writing them and it's nice to hear people enjoy them. Can't wait for more!

Yeah, I had LOTS of giftcards from my birthday/Christmas...so awesome that they can be used at the expos. I really love the Dooney so much more in person than I did when I saw their promotional photo...for the Princess and Tinkerbell Half marathons they didn't change the patterns much from year to year so I wonder if the marathon weekend pattern will be the same too?

I totally got a kick out of your expo report! I just wrote mine today as well. My feet were DONE after walking around here, there, and everywhere.

Glad you could turn things around--I know what it's like to get into one of those "frenzies"--totally stinks!!

I'm so jealous that you get to rotate three awesome marathon shirts--they are the best!!

Some of those pictures in your expo report of the lines were NUTS! Last year I was at the expo on Saturday and it wasn't too bad...Friday must be the big day.

Love these Disney race shirts! I don't run in min because I want them to stay nice (and not get smelly).

I'm here! So yucky about those CMs!

Hi Amanda! Glad you're here!

I didn't realize either that the shirts were unisex and got a medium. Way too big, but live and learn. When we run another Disney race, I'll know to get a smaller one.

And, we didn't get in until Friday evening and the expo was jammed still and very picked over. But we were still able to get the items we wanted. My DH got the same little Vinylmation guy. Too cute that you can buy medals for them too. Those must have been gone already or we overlooked them...

I only knew to order a small because I made the mistake last year. The shirt thing is so lame...especially when 1. Men can get men's cut shirts at the Princess Half (and I think Tinkerbell too?) and 2. runDisney mentioned more than once that there were more women than men participating in marathon weekend...so give us women's cut shirts!!

I forget where the Vinylmation medals were, but I knew to look for them because I read about them on the Disney Parks blog a few weeks back. I wish they would have this stuff available online after the races...I'm sure there are lots of people that didn't get stuff at the expo that they wanted.

LOVE the title! Brilliant!
You did get a nice haul from the expo! I just got a new D&B bag for Christmas (the retro print one) so couldn't justify the marathon bag but it is so cute!
So glad you are writing a TR about the weekend! Looking forward to more.

Thanks! That's a cute D&B bag that you have! I actually kept looking around property for a smaller bag with the 40th anniversary print on it and kept only finding the huge $300 one (the 40th print is from last year so I don't think they're making new bags anymore )...I LOVE that print, but I honestly don't know what I would have done if I'd found a smaller one. Two Dooneys in one trip is a bit much!

 

[Ariel484]

Check-in...FINALLY!

After my loooooong morning/afternoon I arrived at my resort ready to check in at about 4:45PM.

Originally we'd been booked to stay at the Polynesian, which both Will and I were super excited about. After we booked we waited for a discount to come out, and when it was released we were disappointed to find that the only discounted rooms at the Polynesian were themepark-view rooms. Don't get me wrong, it was mighty tempting to book one of those, but they were even more expensive than the orignal room we had booked. So we asked about a few other places and ended up at...

The Grand Floridian!

The room at the Grand Floridian (another resort we wanted to stay at) ended up cheaper than any options we had at the Poly, so it was a no-brainer. The CM that checked me in, Nathan, was AWESOME. He was so nice and seemed genuinely interested in my race plans (or at least he did a good job acting like he was interested). We chatted for a good 10 minutes and he told me a little bit about the races he's run at Disney (the Wine & Dine - definitely on my to-do list, and the Royal Family 5K, which is held during the Princess Half Marathon Weekend). As I walked away with my room key in hand I heard someone behind me saying, "Mrs. Ariel484! Mrs. Ariel484!" It was Nathan running clear across the lobby to make sure I had a printout of the transportation schedule for the race. So nice!

Now, before I go any further, I do have one complaint about the Grand Floridian construction that was going on. There was the DVC stuff of course (which looked ugly, but I knew about it going in and it didnt bother me from a noise point of view) and the construction on the courtyard pool, which I also knew about because the Grand had sent us a letter about it 6 weeks or so before the trip began. So when I checked in I asked Nathan if we had access to a hot tub, since I thought that would be great for after the races. He said no, and the only options were for us to either use the hot tub at the Contemporary (no hot tub at the Poly, of course - kind of nuts for a deluxe resort, I think) or buy a $25 all-day pass to use the hot tub at the spa in the Grand Floridian. I didnt make a thing of it (and truly I am not sure we would have even had time to use a hot tub anyway), but honestly I find it pretty unacceptable that they'd charge guests for a pass to use the hot tub. Yes we were staying on a discount, but it's not like we still weren't paying a decent amount each night for our room. Seems like the $25 pass could be waived for guests since the regular hot tub wasn't available. But - SPOILER ALERT - that's really the only complaint I have about the Grand Floridian.

Anyway, I headed back through the courtyard and to our building for the trip, Conch Key. A CM was toucing up the landscaping near the building and greeted me very warmly as I made my way inside. This building is in a great location - right on the lake near Narcoossee's and the boat dock. Very quiet and lovely. We'd paid for a garden-view room - the cheapest room one can get at the Grand Floridian - but Nathan had mentioned that we were in a deluxe room on the 5th floor of the building. It sounded like we'd gotten some sort of upgrade!

Right before I got into the room, a mousekeeper stopped by and asked if I wanted the room cleaned that evening. I told her no thanks and that I'd just checked in. She welcomed me and gave me some chocolates...awesome!

And here's the room!

Looking in with my back to the door:

Sink area...we've been renting points at DVC studio villas on our last few trips and it was nice to have the double sinks again:

COFFEE MAKER. Very important:

One of the great perks of being on the 5th floor...vaulted ceiling!

You can see in the picture below that my suitcase had magically appeared in my room and was waiting for me!

And this, I believe, is what makes this deluxe room deluxe...an extra seating area:

A second TV in the cabinet:

I just couldnt believe how HUGE this room was...in fact it was so big I was afraid we'd lose stuff in there. Now, one thing you'll notice about the room - there's no balcony. I would guess this would be a problem for some people, but we didn't miss it...though I bet it would have been nice to sit out there in the morning/evenings and just take in the view.

Speaking of the view...we had a lot to look at. Here's the view sort of to the right. Ugly construction!

We didn't hear any noise from this whatsoever, so that was a relief.

And now, looking to the left...

Wow. Was not expecting that! If you look all the way to the left in the above picture, you can see the path to the boat dock. The boat ran to the Magic Kingdom, then to the Grand Floridian, then the Polynesian. We used the boat a lot since it was super convenient to our room and we like taking boats at Disney. Plus, we had 4 (!) ADRs at the Polynesian. So it was great.

I have to say, this was probably the best room we've had at Disney in terms of the room itself and its location. The bar has been set very high!

Continued in Next Post

 

[Ariel484]

Nighttime Wanderings, Part 1

After lugging the gear bags, my merchandise and camera bag around all day, the last thing I felt like doing was making the trek back to the lobby to retrieve my giant carry-on (which contained all of my race gear along with lots of other crap) - please note that this "trek" would have taken all of 3-5 minutes. I decided to be supremely lazy and call the front desk to ask bell services to deliver the bag to me...if I were smarter I would have just grabbed it when I checked in. An older CM appeared with my bag about 10 minutes later and talked to me about the races. He told me he'd met another Perfectly Goofy runner that was in his 70s and wanted to be "the last Perfectly Goofy standing." The runner asked the CM to trip any other Perfectly Goofy runners he happened to come across...haha! Anyway, this was ANOTHER awesome CM and by now I was super impressed. After my hit-or-miss morning with CMs it felt wonderful to be treated so nicely.

I quickly unpacked and organized my race stuff into neat little piles...the less thinking I had to do on the mornings of the races, the better.

The gear bags actually included STUFF this year, not just the iGiftBag (which is pretty lame in my opinion)...a 20th anniversary pin and shoelaces!

Not a ton of STUFF by any means, but better than last year.

I also attempted to get a decent mirror shot...something I've seen other trip reporters do. I was definitely becoming loopy by now and I probably attempted this picture 10-15 times...yep, I'm a cool kid. It got frustrating.

Oh hey, I did it!

I'm normally not into the "selfies" but I'm posting the above pictures because they are some of the only ones from the weekend where I'm not drenched in sweat. They are definitely the last ones of me after a full night of sleep. Seriously, as the weekend progressed I feel like I looked like a walking zombie at certain points.

By now it was about 6:15 and I still wanted that chocolate beer cupcake, so I headed out to the boat dock.

Looking down at Conch Key's "lobby":

Hidden Mickey Wallpaper in the hallway!

Elevator mirror shot

Outside of Conch Key...our room is on the top floor of the portion of the building that juts out with the red pointy area of the roof:

From the front of Conch Key...I spy a castle in the distance!

Continued in Next Post

 

[wiigirl]

Great pics!

 

[Ariel484]

Nighttime Wanderings, Part 2

First I headed to the boat dock to wait, but there was no boat in sight. I got impatient after one whole minute of waiting and headed to the lobby to catch the monorail.

Time to jam!

A monorail pulled up right as I got to the station (did I mention that I had weirdly good luck with transportation on this trip? Because I did ) and two stops later I was at the Polynesian!

I got the last chocolate beer cupcake – success! – walked around the Poly a bit, took some awful nighttime pictures, and headed back to the monorail station.

Okay, Avengerail…take me back to the Grand Floridian!

I rode the resort loop all the way around (the Contemporary still had the giant Mickey wreath up, but I never got a good picture) and got back to the Grand at about 7PM. After walking through the shops I headed to Gaspirilla Island and ordered the club sandwich – no tomatoes, no sauce – with a side of the homemade chips and a bottle of water (hydrate, hydrate, hydrate!). I originally planned on eating this out on the Gaspirilla patio, but a lady sat at the table next to me and lit up a cigarette...errrm no thanks. So I scooped up my food and headed back to the room at about 8 (tossed the cupcake in the fridge for later in the weekend).

Will and I chatted on the phone for about 40 minutes and afterward I just sort of putzed around the room – finished unpacking, double-checked my stuff for the next morning, ate my sandwich/chips, etc. Around 9:15 I heard some very loud music outside...

It was the Electrical Water Pageant! Neat.

After the pageant I knew it was time to go to sleep, but I had trouble tearing myself away from the ESPN WWoS channel on TV. This was (I think) channel 25 and it played an endless loop with information about the runDisney races. It was fun to watch, but the content was mostly ads for the other races...very little of the loop was dedicated to information about the actual races taking place this weekend. Dennis Marsico, the runDisney TV host, was featured a lot...he's incredibly cheesy but I'd jump at the chance to have his job.

Eventually I pulled myself away from the TV and made my final preparations for the first race of the weekend...checked my stack of stuff and my camera battery (!!!) again, laid out sunscreen and my contacts, got the coffee maker ready, and set 3 alarms: my phone for 4:30AM, a 4:40 wake-up call, and the room alarm clock for 4:45. I went to sleep at about 9:30...almost time for the first race!

Continued in Next Post

 

[Ariel484]

Great pics!

Thanks!

 

[ZellyB]

The Grand Floridian looks beautiful. We had our anniversary dinner at Victoria and Albert's the night after the marathon and it was incredible. The portion of the resort we saw was lovely. So glad you liked your room!

 

[BigEeyore]

Ooooh...ahhhhh...pretty room and nice view! Too bad about no hot tub though!

 

[tinkgurl]

Your title is just so clever!

Wow, your room is so big! And what great views!

That nighttime picture with the Castle all lit up sure makes me miss WDW!