There's a Great Big MARATHON Tomorrow: Goofy Challenge/Marathon Weekend '15 FINALLY COMPLETE!

[Biggie Smalls]

All caught up- cute costumes for the race!

 

[courtneybelle]

Hi guys! I've been MIA for a while because of school, and I'm also overwhelmed by the new DIS update. But I'm here now to catch up!!

You guys are TOO FUNNY fighting over Cinderella's horse!

Yeah, Ariel's winter wear is a bit odd to me.
Uh. I don't know how to tell you guys this so I'm just going to come out with it. Drinks at BOG aren't free we've always had to order them at the stand! I haven't tried online pre-ordering though, so I guess it could be different for that?

Such cute meets with Donald and Goofy!!

Your FoF pictures are beautiful! Such a great parade.

Main Street at Christmas is sheer perfection.

I love your race costumes!!

 

[emilyindisney]

All caught up- cute costumes for the race!

Thank you!

Hi guys! I've been MIA for a while because of school, and I'm also overwhelmed by the new DIS update. But I'm here now to catch up!!

You guys are TOO FUNNY fighting over Cinderella's horse!

Yeah, Ariel's winter wear is a bit odd to me.
Uh. I don't know how to tell you guys this so I'm just going to come out with it. Drinks at BOG aren't free we've always had to order them at the stand! I haven't tried online pre-ordering though, so I guess it could be different for that?

Such cute meets with Donald and Goofy!!

Your FoF pictures are beautiful! Such a great parade.

Main Street at Christmas is sheer perfection.

I love your race costumes!!

I totally feel the school/new DIS thing! School's been so busy I don't have time to sit down and muddle through how the new boards work. I think I'm starting to get the hang though (and luckily school is slowed down just a tad!) Wishing you the same!

Hmm...maybe we did get charged for the drinks...? SO CONFUSING! I didn't think we preordered but maybe they can just add it on to our magic bands when we're there! I will continue to try to convince myself I got some special free perk!

 

[Ariel484]

Woohoo, race day!!

Ladies, the costumes are ADORABLE!! And I think you are really not alone in breaking the race shirt rule for that weekend!

NASA cargo launch?! Too cool! I must've been completely out of it that morning because I don't remember that happening at all!

Really smart to take it easy during the half!

Oh, Caitlin...I remember reading your posts about your injury in the Marathon Weekend thread. I'm so sorry it was bothering you during the half! It really sounds like you did the best you could in the weeks leading up to it - super smart to scale way back on the training. I'm sure it was disappointing though - so glad that you were able to finish!

Yeah, what the heck with the lines that day?! I agree, they were long!!

Can't wait to read more!!

 

[disneyhorselover]

Woohoo, race day!!

Ladies, the costumes are ADORABLE!! And I think you are really not alone in breaking the race shirt rule for that weekend!

NASA cargo launch?! Too cool! I must've been completely out of it that morning because I don't remember that happening at all!

Really smart to take it easy during the half!

Oh, Caitlin...I remember reading your posts about your injury in the Marathon Weekend thread. I'm so sorry it was bothering you during the half! It really sounds like you did the best you could in the weeks leading up to it - super smart to scale way back on the training. I'm sure it was disappointing though - so glad that you were able to finish!

Yeah, what the heck with the lines that day?! I agree, they were long!!

Can't wait to read more!!

I had heard about the NASA launch the night before and wanted to watch, but I totally forgot about it until we were walking out and saw some other people staring up at the sky...if they hadn't been watching at it I totally would have missed it too!

It was definitely frustrating especially during the marathon but at the end of the weekend I had that Goofy medal in my hand, so that's all that matters, right? Plus, now I have an extra excuse to go back-to have a great fun race....like yours was!

I really think the lines were so much longer that weekend because there definitely seemed to be less characters than years past-and definitely last characters than my other experience on that course (PHM 2014). Less stops = more people per stop....or I would think, anyways.

 

[emilyindisney]

Walt Disney World Half Marathon Part Two (MK Miles 5-7)
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We entered the MK through a backstage entrance and hung a left which spit out us out into the Town Square with Tony’s on our left. We turned the corner and there it was- the castle all lit with dream lights! When we got a little closer we stopped for pictures. Running down Main Street was amazing the first time (at PHM last year), but having the lights on made it AMAZING!! Plus, it was our first time seeing the lights in person, which made it extra magical!

We took the right into Tomorrowland and stop at Stitch’s Great Escape because Stitch was in fact on the run today.

Buzz was out but we kept running towards Fantasyland. The Queen of Hearts was out by the tea cups with a short line (a rare occurrence this race) so we stopped.

Across from the carousel a certain Mime was entertaining runners!

Ulf is from Tangled and performs daily in Festival of Fantasy. He doesn’t meet and greet in the park so I thought having him on the course was a cool idea! Still bitter about not being able to ride Cinderella’s horse, Caitlin wanted a picture with the carousel today to make up for it.

We made a bee-line for the castle where Elsa, Anna and Kristoff were waving runners on from the balcony. Umm...isn’t this Cinderella’s castle? Did realize the Frozen folks had moved in too...

Just before we passed under them we shouted “Kristoff, we love you!” which must have caught him off guard because he pointed to himself and goes “who, me?” I guess Elsa probably gets most of the attention Elsa was making it snow in front of the castle, which was a nice touch.

On the other side of the castle we stopped for more pictures because DREAM LIGHTS. Need I say more?

Louis from Princess and the Frog was out in Liberty Square but we’ve met him before and (no surprise) his line was long so we kept running until we saw mile six in Frontierland. The long lines were definitely starting to make me a little sad at this point. We didn’t experience this any of our previous races (besides the 5k), and we’ve clearly gotten a little spoiled by that.

There was a Country Bear on the porch of the attraction but I’ll be honest- I literally have no clue which one so we skipped him, haha! Plus-you guessed it! The line was really long!

The train was parked right by the course so we stopped for a picture with that too.

Any chance we can catch a ride to the finish? Just kidding...sort of...maybe…

Coming down a small hill backstage we found the Celebrate a Dream Come True royalty float with Snow, Aurora, their respective princes and…

Princess Emily!

We passed the Reedy Creek Fire Station and hung a left where we ran until we reached mile seven.

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[rteetz]

The castle lights are the best! I saw them for the first time as well this year and it was so cool. I can't imagine coming in running down main street seeing them. I seriously need to run the half and full.

 

[ZellyB]

Oh those Dreamlights! The castle was beautiful. I loved Ulf as well. That was a really pleasant surprise.

Over half-way there!

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

OK, having this be your first time seeing the Dream Lights???? Wow. Like seriously, there is very little in this world more beautiful.

You got to get a picture with the MIME!!!! That is wicked cool. I wish he actually did meets and not just the parade.

Elsa, Anna and Kristoff waving from CINDERELLA'S CASTLE!!!!!! I feel the need to curse, so I'll stop there.

 

[Ariel484]

Love the SGE picture! Perfect expression, Caitlin.

Glad you ladies got the ULF picture! Couldn't believe how short that line was!

 

[disneyhorselover]

OK, having this be your first time seeing the Dream Lights???? Wow. Like seriously, there is very little in this world more beautiful.

You got to get a picture with the MIME!!!! That is wicked cool. I wish he actually did meets and not just the parade.

Elsa, Anna and Kristoff waving from CINDERELLA'S CASTLE!!!!!! I feel the need to curse, so I'll stop there.

Every time I see the dream lights I swoon a little which makes every time like the first time? Did that come out cheesey? Hahaha because it should have!

When you put it that way about the castle it is definitely more annoying...at the time we were so excited to see Kristoff out that I overlooked it, haha.

Love the SGE picture! Perfect expression, Caitlin.

Glad you ladies got the ULF picture! Couldn't believe how short that line was!

Probably the happiest anyone has ever looked to be at the entrance to that ride!

I also couldn't believe there was nobody in line for Ulf....clearly they need to brush up on what is the second best disney movie of all time!!! (The first being The Lion King, sorry princesses...)

 

[disneyhorselover]

Walt Disney World Half Marathon Part Three (Mile 7-13)


Right after mile seven was the entrance to the Grand Flo where Mary and Bert were out. They had a little bit of a wait but it was worth it because the penguins were out too!



Ugh, the penguins are so cute! I love it!

We were very disappointed to see Lilo and Stitch were not out at the Poly! One of the reasons that we decided to dress as them was that we thought they would be out on the course as they had been in previous years. On the other hand, a pleasant surprise was the huge amount of crowd support in this section-lots of cheering spectators and fun signs! (Did anyone else see the “War Eagle” sign and the “Runners have nice buns signs”? We saw them so many times over both races that I lost count!)

We continued on passing the Golfer Mickey photo op because- you guessed it- the line was too long and we didn’t feel like waiting. That’s alright though because down the road we found Genie and Abu!



It was a little bit of a wait but we figured we might as well stop because we’ve never seen Abu before and he’s super cute! We were a little irritated because the line was moving pretty good until two of three people in front of us took a bunch of pictures and kept switching in and out of shots to get different group pictures. Like, seriously? All these people are waiting! One shot and keep moving! I thought that was runDisney etiquette but maybe I’m wrong? In a similar vein, we spent a great deal of time behind a group that would do the same thing at the mile markers...there were 3 or 4 of them and they would take 4 or 5 different posed shots at each mile marker...is that really necessary when a line starts to build behind you to take a pic with the mile marker? Again, I had never seen this in a previous Disney race-usually people are quick and courteous.

Moving on (both in running and writing) we found mile eight.



Tomorrow we’d be taking a left just behind the sign and getting on the speedway during the marathon! For today we continued straight down the road. During the Princess Half this portion of the course had tons of meet and greets on it. This race we found characters to be lacking here. Instead we focused knocking out the miles, taking a little walk break at each sign to mix up the muscles we were using.

Unfortunately it was right around here that my calf took a turn from bad to worse, and I had to take a minute to step off the course as it started spasming. It was really frustrating because I wanted to be thrilled about running through the most magical place in the world, and here I was not having a good time because of the pain. Thankfully, Emily coached me through it and I managed to perk up just in time to run towards the Epcot parking lot!

Using this strategy the miles really ticked by and soon we were coming around the sharp u-turn and the short overpass that brought us back into the Epcot parking lot. Here we found mile twelve:

And Sven:

This guy was dressed as Kristoff and had Sven strapped to his back for the race. We actually found out through a runDisney facebook group that he was the same guy who ran as Bolt with the Hamster strapped to his back during the full. Great ideas! He turned and realized the photo we took and had a good laugh about it...I hope, haha!

We came into Epcot, looped around Future World and stopped for a Spaceship Earth shot on the way back.

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The runDisney official photographer grabbed a shot of us too and we made the facebook album again with this one:

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From here we kept moving right to the end to cross the finish line in 2:50:29! We grabbed those gorgeous medals, stopped at the med tent to slather on some bio freeze and grab some ice and made our way to the Goofy tent. They weren’t checking times even though the program made it sound like they would be which was confusing. Another runner said he’d spoken with the race director who said they were only confirming times tomorrow. That sounded like a definitive enough answer for us so we grabbed our food and stopped for a picture!



We cooled down quickly once we stopped running so we headed straight for the bus to get back to the resort. Once again, there was a bus waiting right there for us that left shortly after we boarded.

Thoughts on the race: First off- running a half when trained for a full marathon was so much fun! I was able to enjoy the race so much more and it felt like it went by so quick! That being said- I was disappointed with the lack of character stops. There was a lot of characters that are runDisney race staples that were totally missing. Seeing as we dressed as Lilo and Stitch I was really disappointed to not see them anywhere! The weather was fine once we got going and the beautiful blue sky was a nice sight! I agree with that-even with my calf problems, the distance was really enjoyable. Our costumes worked out great and we got a lot of cheers of “Go Lilo! Go Stitch!” My biggest complaint was the character lines-does anyone else feel like there were WAAAY less characters (which in turned caused longer lines) than previous Disney races?​

 

[Ariel484]

Woohoo, great job, ladies! 1/3 Goofy!

We were a little irritated because the line was moving pretty good until two of three people in front of us took a bunch of pictures and kept switching in and out of shots to get different group pictures. Like, seriously? All these people are waiting! One shot and keep moving! I thought that was runDisney etiquette but maybe I’m wrong?

In a similar vein, we spent a great deal of time behind a group that would do the same thing at the mile markers...there were 3 or 4 of them and they would take 4 or 5 different posed shots at each mile marker...is that really necessary when a line starts to build behind you to take a pic with the mile marker? Again, I had never seen this in a previous Disney race-usually people are quick and courteous.​

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OMG! SO annoying! I agree, that stuff really gets on my nerves, and like you, I thought that was sort of an understood etiquette rule during runDisney races. Not cool!

So confusing about them not checking the times! Hopefully there is better clarification about that in the future.

Thoughts on the race: First off- running a half when trained for a full marathon was so much fun! I was able to enjoy the race so much more and it felt like it went by so quick! That being said- I was disappointed with the lack of character stops. There was a lot of characters that are runDisney race staples that were totally missing. Seeing as we dressed as Lilo and Stitch I was really disappointed to not see them anywhere! The weather was fine once we got going and the beautiful blue sky was a nice sight!

I agree with that-even with my calf problems, the distance was really enjoyable. Our costumes worked out great and we got a lot of cheers of “Go Lilo! Go Stitch!” My biggest complaint was the character lines-does anyone else feel like there were WAAAY less characters (which in turned caused longer lines) than previous Disney races?

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I agree on ALL counts! Especially the half feeling easier when you're trained for a full.

The characters on the course are definitely concentrated in the Magic Kingdom...and they even had a couple less than I was expecting (i.e. by the back side of the castle). The second half of the course was definitely lacking characters, in my opinion. And I do agree that it made the lines longer than I remember from past years.

Can't wait to hear about the marathon, ladies! And Caitlin, I'm glad you were able to make it through even when you weren't feeling your best! And with a decent pace, too! Awesome job!

 

[ZellyB]

Great job, ladies!! I completely agree about the half being enjoyable when you are trained for a full. It goes by so quickly and the whole distance is just fun.

I also agree on all counts about the character stops. The lines were terrible and I think in part that must be due to the lack of stops available. We didn't run into any trouble with people holding up the lines at least though. How irritating and I absolutely think that is an unspoken rule for these races.

Caitlin, sorry that you had the calf pain, but how great that you had Emily with you to get you through it. I hope that it got feeling better before the full.

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

These marathons and their unique characters really do make the whole thing really enticing. But the lack of etiquette you described really should apply to all character meets I think. I understand wanting variations, but there is a limit. Geez.

Congratulations on completing the race. So sorry about the calf pain though. I can't imagine having to deal with that . Great job you two!!!

 

[disneyhorselover]

Woohoo, great job, ladies! 1/3 Goofy!

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OMG! SO annoying! I agree, that stuff really gets on my nerves, and like you, I thought that was sort of an understood etiquette rule during runDisney races. Not cool!

So confusing about them not checking the times! Hopefully there is better clarification about that in the future.

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I agree on ALL counts! Especially the half feeling easier when you're trained for a full.

The characters on the course are definitely concentrated in the Magic Kingdom...and they even had a couple less than I was expecting (i.e. by the back side of the castle). The second half of the course was definitely lacking characters, in my opinion. And I do agree that it made the lines longer than I remember from past years.

Can't wait to hear about the marathon, ladies! And Caitlin, I'm glad you were able to make it through even when you weren't feeling your best! And with a decent pace, too! Awesome job!

Glad its not just us on the etiquette thing...I mean come on people, this IS a RACE...technically...sort of....haha

Thanks! I think it was actually my personal worst for half, but that was the goal so we could survive Goofy! I ended up being surprised at how quick our time ended up being, but I blame it on the lack of character stops.

Great job, ladies!! I completely agree about the half being enjoyable when you are trained for a full. It goes by so quickly and the whole distance is just fun.

I also agree on all counts about the character stops. The lines were terrible and I think in part that must be due to the lack of stops available. We didn't run into any trouble with people holding up the lines at least though. How irritating and I absolutely think that is an unspoken rule for these races.

Caitlin, sorry that you had the calf pain, but how great that you had Emily with you to get you through it. I hope that it got feeling better before the full.

Thank you! Yes I was very appreciate that Emily was willing/able to drag my sad injured self through both races....I certainly wouldn't have that Goofy medal if it hadn't have been for her!

These marathons and their unique characters really do make the whole thing really enticing. But the lack of etiquette you described really should apply to all character meets I think. I understand wanting variations, but there is a limit. Geez.

Congratulations on completing the race. So sorry about the calf pain though. I can't imagine having to deal with that . Great job you two!!!

Thank you! I don't mind when people take time to interact with the characters (in the parks, there isn't much time for interaction in races), but how many different poses do you really need?

Disney races are enticing...but addicting!

 

[courtneybelle]

So cool that you got to meet Ulf!!

I love that they had the whole Mary Poppins crew out.

Abu is the cutest!!

Congrats, 1 race down!!!

 

[disneyhorselover]

Saturday Post Race: Conquering Runger (Yak and Yeti Review)
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We got back to the room and showered, then had to resist the urge to nap and eat too much-we wanted to stay awake so we could get to bed early tonight, and we were holding off that post long run hunger (runger is a real problem, people) because we had an exciting ADR ahead of us!
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We hopped on a bus to AK, where we were delighted to find that the Christmas tree was still up! I think this is my favorite of the park trees-the animal decorations are just too cute and creative! We took some great PP pics in front of the tree.











We weren’t in any rush so we stopped for another set of PP pictures a few feet away.







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Our plan for the day was to eat lunch, use our 3 FPs, and keep our walking to a minimum, which meant we were skipping many of the animals and other details AK has to offer. This plan wasn’t that disappointing because much of AK was under construction and I’d rather put bigger focus on this park when all the projects have been finished.

After entering the park we saw a group of people bunched around a couple of trees and couldn’t figure out why until we got closer and realized it wasn’t a what they were looking at, but a who.

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DeVine was sort of just...standing there. This is the first time I’ve ever seen her so it was interesting but she didn’t really do anything so...I don’t know...I guess I wouldn’t recommend seeking her out, haha!

After running into DeVine we made our way around The Oasis to see the Tree of Life!







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And...construction walls. They were all over this area and made it pretty congested to walk through. We headed to DinoLand USA figuring that it didn’t really matter which way he looped back to Yak and Yeti. Donald was out so we jumped in a short line (maybe 5 minutes) to meet him after finishing his race! He was very excited for us and insisted we pretend to be at the starting line together because he didn’t run this morning.



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We kept moving and made it to Asia. We were a little early, so we did a little “window shopping” at the outdoor stands, where I tried on this lovely hat!



We checked in about 15 minutes early and were seated within just a few minutes. We had a table on the 2nd floor, right against the railing overlooking the lower floor. (And after spotting our medals, the hostess congratulated us and was kind enough to point out the elevator in case we weren’t feeling up to the stairs, haha).

As to be expected after a half marathon, we were pretty hungry, so we decided to go all out at this meal. (If you are unfamiliar with it, hunger after long runs is runger-an extreme kind of hunger where it is totally acceptable to eat everything in sight!) I ordered some sort of sparkling flavored water that was very refreshing, then it was on to the appetizer: Wok-Fried Green Beans!!!

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I had read good things about these in several reviews, so we decided to try them and they were delicious!!

For the entree, I had the crispy honey chicken with brown rice.



This was soooo good! The chicken was sweet and crispy and the rice was good.

Emily had the vegetable Lo Mein.

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This was good but it wasn’t quite what I was expecting it to be. The vegetables were a little less cooked than I was expecting.
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Even though we were pretty full at that point, there was one more thing I just KNEW we needed to order:



Fried wontons!! Unfortunately, this picture does not even begin to to them justice. I have had these on a previous trip and knew how good they were, and Emily agreed that they were totally worth it! If you have never had them, book an ADR at Yak and Yeti RIGHT NOW and order them. They are life changing. These were so good! It’s funny- we were so full but we suddenly found the space to eat all the fried wontons!
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I was really impressed with this restaurant. It was spacious, service was speedy, and all of the food was amazing. It was one of our most expensive meals, but then again, we don’t usually order specialty drinks, apps, entrees, and dessert. It was worth every penny though! My biggest complaint was there was barely enough room in my stomach for all those delicious foods.

Next up: An Expedition Everest preview​

 

[disneyhorselover]

Saturday Post Race Part 2: An Expedition Everest Preview

Another item on our bucket list was the Flights of Wonder show, and as it happened, the pre-show was starting just as we walked by on our way to Africa. For the pre-show, a handler brought a couple different birds out to talk about them and demonstrate some behaviors. There was a talking parrot and an owl, but my favorite was the first one which was a little bird (I can’t remember what kind) that had learned how to recycle! The handler would give him plastic bottles, and he would fly to one of the nearby recycling bins and drop the bottle in! I think that actually made him smarter than a large portion of Disney guests….
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This was the parrot:
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He could sing too! It was cute but I wasn’t totally sure what song he was singing, haha!
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We had great seats for the actual show, which was very impressive! It was very funny as well as educational, and the behaviors they had the birds trained to do was amazing! The coolest moment may have been when they brought a HUGE bald eagle out at the end.
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I can’t imagine having that giant bird sitting on my arm! Cudos to that CM! Here’s a couple other shots from the show:



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My favorite part was the tour guide character whose whole storyline poked fun at foreign tour groups with their flags on a stick! If you have never seen this show, I highly recommend it! I can’t believe I have gone this long without seeing it.
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Next we headed to Harambe for our first FP+ of the day- Kilimanjaro Safaris! The safari area was a little crowded, but we didn’t wait long with our FP.
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We had a pretty average safari-it was fun, but no special animal sightings that day unfortunately. I was hoping to see the lions because it was so cool but no such luck- oh well!
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After the safari we made our way back towards Asia-we definitely did our best to take it easy that day, as opposed to our normal power walking around the parks! We got to Everest a few minutes before our FP window opened, so Emily took some pictures.
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Soon, it was time to ride!
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It was fun as always (it is definitely in my top 3 for attractions in all of WDW), and we promised the mountain we’d be back tomorrow (during the marathon!!)
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Our next FP was for Dinosaur, but we had about an hour to kill in the mean time, so we slowly made our way to Dinoland, USA for yet another bucket list ride!
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If you follow our TRs, you know that Dumbo-style rides are our favorite, so naturally we had a hilarious time. The winner for this type of ride still goes to Universal IOA for the Red Fish Blue Fish ride. On all the Disney ones, we have to sing the song to ourselves. If you’ve never heard it…
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Getting back to the correct theme park...we took a fun spin and then still had more time to kill. Primeval Whirl had a long line (AK as a whole seemed to feel the most crowded out of any park we visited this week), so we skipped that in favor of a snack.

Emily had an ice cream sandwich, and I had a Mickey Premium. As Emily knows, it is dangerous to try to stop me from devouring a Mickey bar which is why there are no pictures of these, but I can assure you they were both adorable AND delicious.
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Now, something happened that we had never ever done in Disney before-we had more time to kill, so we just sat on a bench and watched the (Walt Disney) world go by. Usually, we are rushing from one attraction to another, but sitting on this bench was incredibly pleasant and relaxing. As most of you know, Disney makes for great people watching, plus we got to see some characters too! I know everyone always says stop and smell the roses, ect, but now that I’ve tried it, I get it!
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Finally, it was time for our Dinosaur FP. When we arrived, the FP line was rather long and moving suspiciously slow...our first thought was “uhoh, this can’t be good…” Turns out that it wasn’t! We eventually made it through the preshow, but just as we got to the loading area, they announced that they were shutting the ride down due to technical difficulties. It was weird- they announced that the ride was closed and everyone needed to turn around and go back up the stairs but no one moved. Ugh- frustrated. Like, what are you people waiting for? They said you can’t wait here! I was bummed we missed Dinosaur because I really love that one but we’ll just have to ride it next time! They gave us anytime FPs for AK, but since we didn’t wanna walk back to Everest and didn’t plan to be back at the park this week, they went to waste-oh well!
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At this point we decided it was time to head back to the resort to relax and get ready to go to bed early before the marathon in the morning! Our early wake up made it pretty easy to get to sleep early that night-I think we were sound asleep by 8pm!​

NEXT UP: The Walt Disney World Marathon!​

 

[disneyhorselover]

So cool that you got to meet Ulf!!

I love that they had the whole Mary Poppins crew out.

Abu is the cutest!!

Congrats, 1 race down!!!

Thanks!! Mary is always a fun photo but the penguins and Burt made it extra cute.