Drinking Around the World of Gatorade: WDW Marathon 2014!

[tmk0051]

Hello! I'm hoping to actually work on and complete this TR because there don't seem to be tons of reports about marathon weekend! I know I stayed up very late many nights reading a specific marathon one in the days leading up to my trip and it was so helpful!

This was my first marathon, second rundisney event, and sixth trip to the World! In the real world I am a teacher and I was lucky enough to get two days off for this trip. This was also a trip that combined a reunion with my two rundisney buddies, and two days with my local Texas running friends! It was such a whirlwind and I loved every minute of it!

We stayed at Caribbean Beach. We had a beach right outside our door and I spent a lot of down time in the hammock. I thought I loved Pop Century- but CBR may have stolen that slot!

So, here's us!

Me: Tressa, 26, running 26.2 to celebrate my birthday! This was supposed to happen back in December, but a freak ice storm cancelled the Dallas Marathon! Luckily I was already signed up for Disney (yup, was originally planning to basically run back to back marathons!) and that wound up being a good thing! Love Disney, and got into running purely because I wanted to run at Disney.

Tina: she's also 26, and lives in Boston. We've been friends for almost 10 years since we worked at camp together. She grew up in DFW so I see her a little more than just these trips!

Amy: is 27 and lives in California! She works for Disney (somewhere corporate) and gets us the half price hotel and free tickets! She's super fun. I know her through Tina and the three of us get along great. We can all be apart for months and when we meet up its like nothing has changed.

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I really hope that photo worked! That's me, Amy, and Tina on our first full day!

Then, my DFW running group included Doreen and Charlotte! After Tina and Amy left, I still had one more night to stay so I crashed their hotel room. We played at the parks the last day and a half and had a blast!

First up- arrival and day one at the parks! Stay tuned!

 

[PirateFish989]

I'm in! I'm a runner too and runDisney races are the best! I've only run Tinker Bell (I live in California) but one day I'm hoping to run the Princess Half and if I ever run another full marathon, it will be the WDW Marathon!

Also, I can't see the picture on my iPad, but it might just be the disBoards app?

 

[tmk0051]

I got the photo to work! Thanks to photobucket.

My flight was after school on Thursday, Jan 9. Right after school, I quickly threw on my Disney travel attire (Minnie shirt and bow- I am coordinated at all times while at Disney!) and sat through a boring teacher meeting. I ran out of there as soon as I could and made it to the airport!

My amazing running coach gave me quite the send off! She is also really into rundisney. She gave me a stuffed Funner Runner Goofy and some other Disney goodies, and on my last run before I left everyone in my group wore Mickey ears!

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Here is Funner Runner Goofy waiting at the airport!

The plane ride was nothing spectacular. I arrived at the airport and headed straight to the Magical Express!

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Lots of people were runners. I let Tina and Amy know that I was on the way! It was probably close to 10:30 or 11 at this point. Amy was running the 10k the next morning so she said goodnight. The Magical Express took longer than I remembered, but once we past through this, I really didn't care about the time!

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I got checked in, got my magic band, and waited for a van to take me from the lobby of CBR to my room. Once in my room, Tina woke up to say hi and I tried to get to sleep as soon as I could!

The next morning Tina and I got ready while Amy was at the 10k. Tina brought some oatmeal packets and shared them, while Goofy guarded my race bib (Amy picked it up for me the day before!).

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Amy arrived back and told us all about the 10k. Her medal was super cute! At some point I also bought a refillable mug from the food court. We got everything together and got on the bus to Magic Kingdom!

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The plan was to head straight to New Fantasyland and try to get in line for Be Our Guest. We had plenty of time, so we rode the Ariel ride and Dumbo! I had actually never ridden Dumbo ever- can you believe it??

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We still had time, so we met up with some princesses!

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and took some photos of new fantasyland

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Then it was time to get in line!

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Up next- our dining experience at Be Our Guest!