Faith, Trust & Pixie Dust! Jenn & Kevin 10/12/14 Italy/ADH/France - The End (7/2016 New TR Link!)

[elphie101]

That Rose drink you had sounds really good! I'm a fan of the Grand Marnier Orange Slushee, but this sound even better!!!

Bummer about the bacon cupcake... Sounds like you guys had a very fun day, depsite the WET.

I'm glad you were able to meet with the Roots and work through that first meeting awkwardness...that will make the actual day more comfortable I'm sure...

The shrimp thing looks good, but why the heck don't they remove the tails??

Brooke

The Rose slush was out of this world. I want one right now! I've never had the Grey Goose slush, since I don't love lemon, but I would be very happy to see La Vie En Rose replace either one of the regularly offered slushies - or they could add it as a third!

I would get the bacon cupcake again, and just ask them to leave off the pretzel bits - the pretzels were in a bin by themselves and sprinkled on as each cupcake was purchased, so it wouldn't be too hard.

Really enjoying the report so far! We wont get to do an in person planning session so it's really interesting to see how all that went (and I was curious what a cake tasting looked like! Love the photos!) Shame you had such a water-logged Expedition Everest, fingers crossed that's the end of Florida rain for you!

Also, totally living vicariously through your encounters with the Roots. Speaking of that though, I have to agree about another vendor we share. I haven't been communicating at all with Randy LaJeune but Jess has and she feels exactly like you do. You won't be alone in suggesting he improves in that area. On a positive note though, it's plain to see from your photos that Patricia does brilliant work! So good to see you can be at ease with that, knowing how fantastic you'll look on your big day is one less big thing to worry about.

Looking forward to the rest of your report!

I hope the photos give Jess some reassurance! I feel like the LeJeunes are one of those vendors that do better communicating via phone than by e-mail, though that obviously doesn't work when you have international clientele like you guys.

Even the FLORIDIANS were commenting on how unseasonable the weather was. That's when you know it's bad

 

[elphie101]

After Sas left, we wandered over to Journey Into Imagination to use our FastPass (we had let our Mission Space ones expire since we were wandering World Showcase with Sas) - only to find the ride was down. We decided to head over to The Land to check on the wait time for Living with the Land (one of the few things at Disney I had never done), but the wait there was posted at 30 minutes, a definite casualty of FP+. With not much else to do, we crossed the park again to check out the Festival Center at the Wonders of Life Pavilion, another first for me. It was at this point that we were really feeling the stupid decision to spend a day at the parks before running a race that night. My feet were pulsing and I was incredibly desperate to sit down, and we both wanted to start hydrating.

We took a brief stroll around the Festival Center and a poke at the merchandise before grabbing a table to sit down. I bought a bottle of water (the CMs teased me for not getting alcohol until I mentioned I was running a 5K in 8 hours) and Kevin texted his parents to catch up with them; they decided to meet us at the center.



We were able to get a few minutes rest waiting for them to show up, and when they did we poked around the shop with them before we heading BACK over to The Land so FFIL and FMIL could use their Soain FPs When we got back over there, Living with the Land was only showing a 10 minute wait, so Kevin and I decided this would be a great way to kill time and got in line. We lined up for our boat and got placed with another couple in our row, even though every other row only had 2 people in it

Anyway, behold Jenn's First Experience on Living with the Land:













I've got to be honest with you all - I think I dozed off for a bit there in the beginning (before it all got SUPER bright). I know this ride has a strong fanbase, but for me I'd stick it in the 'Do-every-few-years' group. (It joins the ranks of Ellen's, It's Tough to be a Bug, and Indiana Jones as things, in case you were wondering.) Conveniently, we got off the ride almost exactly at the same time as Kevin's parents got off Soarin, and headed back outside to find Figment had reopened.

So off we went to visit our Imagination!







Figment will always be a must-do for us, since Kevin LOOOOOOVES him. For whatever reason, we decided to keep beating the crap out of our poor feet and go back into World Showcase for some treats: for me, the mythical cronut, for Kevin the Unibroune La Fun Du Monde from the Canada beer & popcorn cart, after I remembered how much EasyWDW loved to sing it's praises.

No pictures, but holy crap was that cronut good. Incredibly awkward to eat standing, and I attempted to cut it which didn't work so well, but man oh man was it delicious. Hot and flaky, soft inside with a crispy sugary coated outside. I'm so glad this isn't one of the F&G seasonal treats, and I will 1000% be picking one up again, maybe with ice cream next time! (Mmmmmmm ice cream.) Kevin meanwhile was causing quite a hold-up at the beer cart - the register had completely shut down and they couldn't take his payment for the beer, so the CM gave it to him for free! Maybe it was because it was free, but Kevin declared it the best beer he has ever had in Epcot, even after I told him that it was actually the Trois Pistoles that the website recommended. He still loved his selection, and we headed up to the UK to browse the shops - or the boys did, while FMIL and I went to Buttercup Cottage for some Fairytale Cuvee. Yum!!




These topiaries are my absolute favorite - I especially love how few people seem to notice Peter at first.

Kevin bought a bottle opener, and we took his parents down to Eau de France again to show them the dessert party spot, and they totally loved it. Back up in France proper, we visited the new ice cream shop - tempting, but I decided to say no - but I couldn't quite walk out of France without having one last La Vie En Rose. Yes, we were racing in 7 1/2 hours, but it was only a 5K and when were we going to be at Flower & Garden again? The second one was just as good

Kevin's parents went back to Pop Century at this point, as they were exhausted. We decided it was about time for us to call a quits too, and since we had a Maelstrom FP that we could use we took the long way out by walking the entire World Showcase once more. As we walked, I looked longingly at all the food I had been hoping to try - the Moroccan pancake, the Chinese strawberries - but I was honestly full at that point, and needed to start really hydrating and taking care of my body for what was to come that night.

After making a few stops along the way to admire some of the greenery, we arrived to Norway and sped right past the 30 minute wait onto the ride. I have a weird affection for Maelstrom (probably like some people have for Living with the Land) but even I would never wait 30 minutes for it!


DISAPPEAR! DISAPPEAR!


Oh look, a bear.

We did the usual run-through-the-Norway-movie (someday I want to actually see it) and poked around the gift shop a bit. I tried the Norway perfume, as I'm still toying with the idea of having a wedding day scent (EW. Sorry fans of the Norway scent.) and took a peek at the former home of Elsa and Anna, before officially making our way out of Epcot.





Right after I snapped the Spaceship Earth photo above, Kevin mentioned that the next time we would be in Epcot would be 3 days before our wedding Things are starting to get real!

We meandered to the bus stop and arrived just as a bus was pulling up. We literally did a little dance, much to the amusement of the bus driver, and were back at Pop Century in about 10-15 minutes.

Kevin grabbed some waters at the food court for us and we headed back to our room to stay off our feet for the next hour. We had decided to aim for the 8:00pm bus to the race in hopes that any traffic or delays wouldn't affect us, and planned to meet Kevin's parents in Everything Pop for one last meal beforehand (they would be on the first flight out the next morning).

But first, let me take a picture of our race swag:


The orange tech shirt included in the price, the 'I Did It!' shirt I purchased, our uneaten chocolately protein bars, Marathon Mickey Vinylmation & his Expedition Everest medal, the Everest pin and of course, my bib! (I named our team Grim Grinning Ghosts.)

We relaxed and changed clothes and poked around on Facebook before walking down to the food court. The weather was misting rain at about 62 degrees, which was REALLY making me regret only bringing running shorts instead of the capris and pants I was using back in Massachusetts.

We all went with Italian that night:


Chicken Cavatappi for Kevin's parents (they split this, it was huge) and Cheese Pizza Bread for Kevin (he was craving "Disney Pizza", aka the kind they have at Pizza Planet & most QS)


For me, a Margherita Flatbread

My flatbread was made to order, which I didn't realize when I ordered it - it literally took 10 minutes. I felt awful, Kevin's parents didn't want to pay and sit until I had my food, but it took so long. Finally it was done, and there was another Jenn who also ordered a Margherita Flatbread, but even though the CM had two of the EXACT SAME pizza in front of her she was confused about who was who. Frustrating, when I felt bad enough about making Kevin's parents wait.

The wait was worth it for me though - my pizza was super fresh and hit the spot perfectly. Kevin wasn't as thrilled with his choice, and I believe his parents liked their meal well enough.

We walked around the shopping area with them one last time before we said good-bye to Kevin's parents and thanked them for coming. And then there were two of us! We went back to our room for a few more minutes of relaxing and to pin our race bibs on. Before we headed down for the bus, I asked Kevin to snap a pre-race photos of me.



Time for my first EVER race! I was an absolute bundle of nerves, and it was completely freezing, but the time was finally here!

 

[edeneye]

Yes! Expedition Everest hero shot! Even with a day in Epcot - which alone can be pretty exhausting - you look ready to go. I like that you mentioned to the CMs you were running a 5k, I'm guessing you soon found out that was only the half of it! I did that last year and then by the end of the scavenger hunt I was sure we were nearing 10k. Looking forward to hearing your experience!

Oh & I've heard tales of the mythical cronut from all the way across the seas. From that review it's now a Disney must-do for me next trip whether Stacey likes it or not.

 

[elphie101]

Yes! Expedition Everest hero shot! Even with a day in Epcot - which alone can be pretty exhausting - you look ready to go. I like that you mentioned to the CMs you were running a 5k, I'm guessing you soon found out that was only the half of it! I did that last year and then by the end of the scavenger hunt I was sure we were nearing 10k. Looking forward to hearing your experience!

Oh & I've heard tales of the mythical cronut from all the way across the seas. From that review it's now a Disney must-do for me next trip whether Stacey likes it or not.

I think Stacey is a few years behind on what's new and must-do in Disney - she could use an update!

I had meant to time the exact distance but that didn't work out as planned - I have read from other reports online that by the time you actually finish the race it ends up being around 5 miles (or around 8k says google!)

 

[elphie101]

As soon as Kevin took my pre-race photo I threw my sweatshirt back on - it was SO cold, and misting on top of it. We walked over to the bus stop and in almost no time we boarded our coach bus for Animal Kingdom - I think we did get on the 8:00pm bus as I had planned.

I must admit my exact memory is a little fuzzy here - I don't have as many pictures as I would like to help with the timeline, and to top it off I was as nervous as all getout. Kevin tried to calm me down, reminding me that I had ran/walked 2 miles before plenty of times, and this was only an extra mile on that (nevermind the scavenger hunt) and it's not like it was a half marathon.

We were dropped off at Animal Kingdom around 8:30, with an hour and a half to kill. In the misting drizzle. A lot of people were staying under the cover of the bus depot shelter, but we decided to start our treck over to the Butterfly parking lot.

Before I go much further, here's the race course, if you are unfamiliar with it:

All the pre-race activity was in the butterfly parking lot, where the race starts and ends. I had been staring at the map excessively before our trip - I knew the first water break wasn't until halfway through the race, and the obstacles were roughly at each mile marker (except the first one - now that I'm looking at it I was WAY wrong about that!). What you don't see here is the scavenger hunt route - from the butterfly parking lot you run directly back into the park and from there follow the same path as the race, but without going behind Everest - from Asia you run back out by the Tree of Life and make one more dash backstage (that patch of greenery between Dinoland and the 'Palm Courtyard' on the map) to finish at the same line.

We made it through the bag check and walked around a bit exploring.




The back end of the corrals, H-J - the balloons mark the corrals, there were 10 in total (A-J)


Our starting line and our corral! I must admit, it made me feel good to be in Corral A, even though it had nothing to do with my run performance and everything to do with the time I signed up! It did make me feel more confident though, to know we were right up front.

There were photo ops with Everest/Yeti themed backgrounds, but we didn't feel like waiting for them - Kevin wanted to keep moving to stay warm. As we got closer to 9:00 I decided to relinquish our clear gear bag to the bag check area (I wanted to wait as late as possible so I could throw my sweatshirt in). Kevin's bag had ripped back in the room, so we had all our stuff thrown in one big bag - fresh tops & bottoms for both of us, plus a change of socks for me and a non-sports bra for post race & deodorant. Looking back on it I regret bringing most of it, as it was a lot to lug around that night - I won't make the same mistake twice.

Now sweatshirt-free, we continued to wander around the parking lot to try and stay warm. Thankfully the mist had died down, but it was unseasonably cold. Kevin was annoyed that the ground was wet, as we was planning on doing some old track stretches on the ground, so we had to make due using each other for support. We noticed people starting to congregate in the corral, so we swallowed our pride and used the Port-A-Potties real quick (utterly disgusting) and went to stake out a spot towards the front.





We stood in our spot and bopped around to the DJ a bit - I finally heard What Does The Fox Say for the first time.......and I wish I hadn't. They also had some character actors up with the DJ, some story about one of the fastest runners having gotten lost in the mountain with the Yeti years ago who may have been spotted once more.

And then the sky opened up, and it started positively pouring on us.

There was nothing we could do but wait it out. We stomped our feet to stay warm and glared enviously at the people who had brought ponchos/umbrellas/trash bags. The "snow" blowing in the air actually starting soaping up our arms. The cast members were super on point though - even though they had no rain shelter whatsoever and were completely soaked, they continued their Yeti story and the DJ kept dancing with us after, doing the Cupid shuffle and YMCA with everyone. Then he asked us to pull out our best singing voices - and played Let It Go. I don't know what it is, but something about that dang song just fills me with energy and hope and the sense that anything is possible, and even though we were cold and I was nervous, I was screaming the words at the top of my lungs with 6000 strangers and so excited to be there.


Being excited!


.........if only the rain would stop.

The time started to tick closer and closer to 10:00pm, and with a minute left to go I went to turn on my running app on my brand new iPhone running case - and suddenly realized that I had never logged in on my new phone before, so it didn't remember me. And that's how I missed the start of the race because Jenn was too busy playing with her damn iPhone .

There was some burst of smoke and pyro, and with a Yeti roar we ran out of our corral. The rain was hitting us in the face, and I'm pretty sure I was shouting "I can't believe we're doing this!" Almost immediately I ran straight for the far right of the course and had to ask Kevin to slow down - last time he ran a 5K he did an 8-minute mile with almost no prep before the race. Even though we knew going into this that we would be running at my pace, not his, I think he was a little disappointed.

We slowly ran around the butterfly parking lot, and coming up I could see the first obstacle: the hay bales. I did a little mental jump for joy, as I (mistakenly) remembered that they were right around Mile 1 (oops.....).

(Obviously all race photos come from marathonfoto.com - I would love to purchase these photos someday but with all the things we need to buy for the wedding these just aren't a high priority. Also, we have way more photos of me than Kevin - I suspect it has to do with the fact that he pinned his number to his shorts vs. his stomach).

I can't extend my leg all the way since my hamstrings are short and understretched - makes for some funny jumping photos!

Jumping was exhilarating, I was bounding over the bales one foot at a time and I felt unstoppable (plus I could hear the photographer clicking away), but I knew I overdid it as soon as I tried to run again and I was totally out of breath. We walked for a bit and then set off jogging again, running through the gates and then into Animal Kingdom.

It had been almost a year since we were last in AK, but I forgot how many HILLS there are in the park. All of a sudden we were bounding up the hill at the entrance and then there was the Tree of Life, all lit up at night and gorgeous. I shouted to Kevin that we needed a picture with it as we turned around the corner and ran into our first character stop, Chip & Dale. We ran right on by though - we aren't big on characters in the first place, and being my very first race it was important to me to have as close an accurate time as possible so I would have something to compare it to.

We ran into Africa to a huge group of cheering cast members who made a wall forcing us onto the path to Asia. We ran along with some walking breaks and it was exhausting, though every now and then I surprised myself by getting into a groove of running - of course realizing I was there shocked me right out of it! We also had to concentrate on not slipping on the walkways, though thankfully the worst of the rain had stopped. We hit another wall of cheering CMs outside of Everest who set up a line of high fives for us and ran over the bridge and past Nemo and we turned the corner for our first stretch of backstage running.

Immediately we were hit with the water stop and CM volunteers waiting for us, which I gratefully accepted (Kevin, damn him, was fine to keep on going). We ran by a photo op with some of the parade floats and (I'm 90% sure) Mickey, and after a bit came across the Mile 2 marker. I was both confused (I never saw Mile 1, because I was looking at the wrong spot) and a tiny bit defeated - I was pretty tired. This stretch of the race is a service road behind Everest, where you run halfway down before circling back (so you get to watch all the people ahead of you running away). We took another walking break since we could see the next obstacle ahead of us - tire jumping! Plus this time we have photos of Kevin!

(I love how you can see me in the background of Kevin's pictures)

We made it out ok - definitely slower than we would have if the weather was better, we were both nervous about slipping on the slick tires. From there we quickly rounded the turn and made our way back down the road. For some reason there was something shooting fire on the side of the road - I don't if it was a dragon, but to my knowledge Yetis don't shoot fire. We ran by the tire obstacle again and I was suddenly very aware that I had never ran this far in my life, and I was feeling it!

It was a long slog down the service road as we passed the Mile 2 marker again and continued down a new stretch of the course. We met a cast member who was shouting "Runner to the left, clues on the right!" We weren't really sure why he was doing that - until a man came barreling out of Animal Kingdom on the opposite side of the cones from us, and we realized he was about to complete the scavenger hunt part of the race, and we hadn't even hit Mile 3 yet. Even Kevin was impressed - he had to have been running something like a 5-minute mile.

The endless service road continued and we took more walking breaks for me. Honestly this part of the course was worse then the first boring mile - like Mile 1 there wasn't much to look at, but at least in Mile 1 you were fresh and ready to go. Now I was just wheezing, wet and exhausted. Kevin made me promise that we would run across the finish line, which I agreed to, and we picked up the pace as we heard the growing noise in the parking lot signaling that we were nearing Mile 3, and the end of the race.

We ran by the Mile 3 sign and right into the third obstacle - crawling under a net. This was, by far, the worst of the three obstacles, because they had covered the bottom with astro turf, and that stuff was SHARP. Not only that, but it was already starting to get dirty from all the mud on the shoes of the runner who came before us. I spent at least a full 90 seconds under there, I know I couldn't move any faster.

The look on my face just cracks me up You can see how red my knees are from being irritated by the turf.

Kevin was waiting for me when I crawled out, and we started towards the finish line, when we spotted some other runners rinsing their muddy hands in a puddle in the parking lot, and we decided to do the same.

And there it was - the finish line. True to my word we both sprinted across - Kevin a bit ahead of me - and I crossed the finish line just before the clock turned to 35 minutes. Officially, we finished the 5K portion at 34:07 (aka when Kevin crossed the line!). I was thrilled with myself - I figured it was at least an 11-minute mile not counting the extra time lost to the obstacles, and my best pace to date.

I caught up to Kevin, and we walked over to the water stop to catch our breath. One of the character CMs from earlier was interviewing the second place male finisher - they were done with the race already. I was enjoying my awesome finishing time when we encountered the CM volunteers passing out mini sharpies and our first scavenger hunt clue - no stopping now, we have a scavenger hunt to complete, and our finishing time would depend on it!

 

[eandesmom]

As we were walking through the rain after passing back through the villas, it hit me: we just planned our entire wedding in 6 hours. Like that was it. Sure we still need the men's wear and my dress had to be altered and invites hadn't even gone out - but so many, the real bulk of decisions had been made and were done. It felt so strange.

that is CRAZY how much you had to decide in such a short time.

YAY for Kevin's mom and the T Rex save

After a long day of wedding planning, sometimes what you really need is a beer the size of your face.

Yes, yes you do!!!

I would definitely go back again (I just would order something else), the meal really hit the spot. It took until 7:30pm for us to realize that our last big meal was at 9:30am that morning (plus a wedding cake snack) - good to know for the actual day.

Goodness you must have been starving!

Packet pickup does not sound terribly fun, I am dreading that a bit. Tech shirt is really cute! Race shirts are a crapshoot, they almost always don't fit well but that one looks better than most. I only have one so far I truly like both in terms of looks and how it fits.

YAY for the Roots and seeing friends. Impressive work with the F&K kiosks given the time constraints but I am at Kevin choosing the Liberty Inn!

I don't think I've ever read an EE recap. So it's a 5k with obstacles and the scavenger hunt is at the end. I'd have bit it on the tires for sure and the turf knees...OW!

Fun updates (except for the rain part...BOO)

 

[Aschenputtel]

Congrats on making the race! Your photos are really funny, thanks for sharing them!

I'm excited to hear how part 2 turned out (I hope you didn't get soaked again?).

 

[alyaki]

Sounds like you two were having a blast that day!

On the subject of the Epcot rides, yay Figment! It's such a funny ride, when I started reading your latest post and you said it was down, I was worried you didn't get to ride it - good to hear that that wasn't the case. Also, I really liked Maelstorm (my spelling of that one is atrocious, so I apologize), but I think we only FP'd that when there wasn't really anything else we wanted to try. I do enjoy the Land ride, but it's mostly because we use hydropondics at home, and Raist has mentioned wanting to get into aeropondics too - so the growing areas are pretty interesting to us (we'll probably try to do the tour on the wedding trip). Though, we also found the Energy ride amusing. But, I really wasn't all that amazed with Test Track or Soarin, which seems to be most people's favorites, so maybe my opinion is skewed.

I will say that, while you are not sad about it...boo for missing Mission: Space. Love that ride. The snacks you two got (including the TWO Le Vie En Rose) sound delicious.


On the subject of the race - bleh for pouring rain! You two looked to be in good spirits in the pictures you posted though. That looks like a pretty interesting route to take, though I don't know how I'd feel about doing obstacles, especially on astroturf. *shudders* I hate that stuff.

 

[elphie101]

that is CRAZY how much you had to decide in such a short time.

YAY for Kevin's mom and the T Rex save

Yes, yes you do!!!

Goodness you must have been starving!

Packet pickup does not sound terribly fun, I am dreading that a bit. Tech shirt is really cute! Race shirts are a crapshoot, they almost always don't fit well but that one looks better than most. I only have one so far I truly like both in terms of looks and how it fits.

YAY for the Roots and seeing friends. Impressive work with the F&K kiosks given the time constraints but I am at Kevin choosing the Liberty Inn!

I don't think I've ever read an EE recap. So it's a 5k with obstacles and the scavenger hunt is at the end. I'd have bit it on the tires for sure and the turf knees...OW!

Fun updates (except for the rain part...BOO)

Honestly I couldn't imagine doing this whole wedding shebang without Disney. Just knowing that 4 1/2 months out (!!!) we basically have the whole wedding planned is a massive stress relief.

From what I've read they've started offering a men's cut vs women's cut for the tech shirts back with this year's marathon, and those who have the old shirts say it makes a difference. For me, looking at the photos now I think it's a less than flattering shirt though I did come home from Disney with 5 extra pounds of water weight - thanks a lot menu tasting!

I agree, you don't see a lot of EEC recaps, mostly I think because it's such a short race and a much smaller event comparatively (only 6,000 for Everest, where I've seen something like 25,000 for the Princess Half). It's easy to see just looking at the map how they make it seem like the scavenger hunt happens DURING the 5K, but I'm so glad it didn't actually happen that way.

Congrats on making the race! Your photos are really funny, thanks for sharing them!

I'm excited to hear how part 2 turned out (I hope you didn't get soaked again?).

No more rain! Thankfully the rain had pretty much stopped by the time we hit Mile 1 - I realize looking at the hay bale photos I look incredibly sweaty, but it was really just the rain!

Sounds like you two were having a blast that day!

On the subject of the Epcot rides, yay Figment! It's such a funny ride, when I started reading your latest post and you said it was down, I was worried you didn't get to ride it - good to hear that that wasn't the case. Also, I really liked Maelstorm (my spelling of that one is atrocious, so I apologize), but I think we only FP'd that when there wasn't really anything else we wanted to try. I do enjoy the Land ride, but it's mostly because we use hydropondics at home, and Raist has mentioned wanting to get into aeropondics too - so the growing areas are pretty interesting to us (we'll probably try to do the tour on the wedding trip). Though, we also found the Energy ride amusing. But, I really wasn't all that amazed with Test Track or Soarin, which seems to be most people's favorites, so maybe my opinion is skewed.

I will say that, while you are not sad about it...boo for missing Mission: Space. Love that ride. The snacks you two got (including the TWO Le Vie En Rose) sound delicious.


On the subject of the race - bleh for pouring rain! You two looked to be in good spirits in the pictures you posted though. That looks like a pretty interesting route to take, though I don't know how I'd feel about doing obstacles, especially on astroturf. *shudders* I hate that stuff.

Kevin adores Ellen, so I'm sure we'll be hitting it on our honeymoon trip. It sounds to me like you would both really enjoy the Behind the Seeds tour - we actually saw a group going by while we were on the ride.

I would definitely recommend the Everest Challenge, even to new racers like me. It's unlike any other race out there, at least that I know of. I don't know if I would necessarily make a trip down to WDW just for it, and so I've kind of accepted the fact that we won't do it again, but I'm really glad we had a chance to try it out.

 

[NoOrdinaryPrincess]

Awesome run pics!

 

[Seia]

Congrats on finishing your first race! I actually think the hay bales look fun, but I really don't think I'd like crawling under the net either. I hate that the weather was so bad for your race... seems like it rained your entire trip!

 

[elphie101]

We each grabbed a bottle of water as we crossed the finish line, and turned on the mini flashlight we were given to look at our first clue as we walked back towards the park:

We were able to figure out pretty quickly that the clue was referring the flags on our race bibs, but weren't really sure which one we were supposed to pick.

The only color I could see that wasn't on our bibs was yellow, and I just figured that was the right answer, and knowing that our final finishing time would depend on how quickly we finished the scavenger hunt the answer in our minds instantly became yellow. We started to jog ahead to the "Palm Courtyard", and looked for the volunteer with a 'Pool' sign (the clue-checkers were all broken up into groups, and the clue cards told you which group to head to in order to keep the volunteers from being swamped). We ran up to our clue-checker and shouted "Yellow!"

"Nope!"

Um, what. We were stumped. The team next to us shouted "Green!" and they received their clue, so we just followed suit and shouted green as well and figured we'd work the clue out for ourselves later. I honestly didn't realize till we were home that the clue meant the rightmost color flag on our bibs - aka green. We took a glance at Clue #2:

And decided to run over to Pizzafari first just to get ourselves there before we worked out the answer. As we headed back into Animal Kingdom, we merged our paths with runners who were only on the 5K section, and things started to get pretty crowded. I heard one girl who was running complaining about how some people were already on the scavenger hunt, and I sympathized. The corrals started 6 minutes apart, which meant that the last corral J wouldn't get to start until 11:00pm, a full hour after the race officially started, which is one thing if that's where you placed with your pacing when you submitted a time, but a whole different story if that's where you got stuck because you signed up late.

We walked over the dang hill in front of the Tree of Life, and there was a CM shouting "Runner on the right, clues on the left!" I felt like I was practicing poor runner etiquette, as we were literally on the same course but here I was, walking on the left-side just because we were already on our scavenger hunt.

We reached the Pizzafari checkpoint and under the bright overhead lights took a look at the words next to the green flag in Clue #1, as I wanted to actually figure this one out for ourselves:

We figured out that we were looking for a number in the Strength description, and saw that 'done' has 'one' in it. Well, 1 is prime, whole and odd, so we found the volunteer under Donald and shouted "One!" at him. He shook his head no and read out the last line in the clue: "What's hidden must ADD up. What's the second number?" Oops. We looked back at the clue and stared at it for a bit before we found it - "both reenergizes" had three in it, making the answer 4. We were correct, and received Clue #3:

We stopped at a table a little ways ahead and went to figure it out. Almost immediately we were joined by another team of two men, who asked if we wanted to work it out between the four of us. Technically, this is against the rules (only your teammate can help you with clues), but neither of us really cared and like I said, the fact that our overall finishing time and placing depended on the scavenger hunt was looming over our heads, so we quickly worked out the word puzzle, pretty evenly between our two teams. As soon as we had filled in all the blanks, Kevin and I dashed away and ran towards out meeting spot in Africa, where we were given Clue #4:

Picture borrowed from http://www.mickeymilespodcast.com/expedition-everest-challenge-2014/ - you'll see why in a bit!

This one was fairly easy to figure out - we just punched out all the items that would keep you warm, so we ended up with this:

We (ok, I) had to take a walking break on our way to Asia, and got passed by our former Clue-helper teammates. This was also were we encountered a major traffic jam: we had been staying to the left of the course as instructed, being clue-hunter, but when we reached our Asia clue stop we had to cross OVER the course and turn to the right back towards the Tree of Life, where the runners would continue straight towards Everest. There really was no easy way to do this, and I know I screwed up a few runners by crossing, which made me feel bad. At Kuala Lampur we got our 5th and final clue:

Every clue had a giant number on the back (1, 2, 3 etc) so we knew we just had to hold up Clue #4 as we crossed the finish line. We were in the home stretch now, so we took off past It's Tough to be a Bug and once AGAIN back up over the Tree of Life hill. Now there was three lanes on the path - one going into the park for the 5K runners and clue-hunters, one out of the park that we were on to finish the challenge, and a middle lane of those who were walking back into AK to start their after-party. I couldn't help myself, I started shouting "You can do it!!" to all the people still running - I don't think anyone really appreciated it though

We ran down through the Oasis and turned off into another backstage area behind Restaurantosaurus, where all the CMs were cheering and screaming for us, and I'm pretty sure I did a little fist pump of victory. We merged with the service road we had previously been on earlier, and I had to take one last walking break, but once again promised we would run across the finish line for good. We walked closer and closer and finally I decided we were going to run the rest of the way. We once again passed our clue-helpers and committed to a light jog all the way to the end.

We turned the corner and the crawling net was there on our left, which we thankfully ran right by. A few volunteers was standing in the middle of the path shouting "What's the answer? What's the answer?" Kevin held up Clue #4 and in absence of a second card, I held up my fingers. One girl shouted "Go! Go!", though it was funny to hear another volunteer say "Wait, that's wrong-" as the runners ran right by her. We could literally see the finish line and nothing was going to stop us at this point. I told Kevin to sprint across, as I knew he had been waiting to put out a burst of speed.

I watched him run ahead and watched the clock tick past the one hour mark, and then, finally, I finished!

(Look at that hair!!)

At 1:00:06, I completed my first Expedition Everest Challenge. We actually finished 169/1198 for Male/Female teams. What was most interesting to see once we got the official race results was that the 15 or so teams that officially placed after us actually finished the 5K portion before we did, however because we got through the Scavenger Hunt quicker we formally placed ahead of them.

We got our shiny medals and our sweaty, rained out finisher photo:

Delicious.

There were tables of bananas, powerades, waters and cliff bars. We each grabbed a banana and powerade, and I had a peanut butter Cliff bar - and it was DELICIOUS. The powerade not so much - I had never had it before but I really regretted not grabbing water later, as this was the only free food. We grabbed our gear bag and stopped at the restroom near the turnstiles to change. I was so warm from running I just changed into my fresh shirt and kept my shorts on - regret #1 for lugging my pants around all night. Both our feet were soaking wet from being raining on and running through puddles, but only I had thought to bring fresh socks - regret #2 for the night. We gathered our stuff together and limped into Dinoland for the after party. My feet (especially my big toe) were absolutely pounding and I could feel a blister forming in my arch, and Kevin said his legs hurt from running at half their regular pace We had to wait right around It's Tough to be a Bug for a break in the runners in order to cross into Dinoland - it felt exactly like trying to cross during a parade!

Dinoland was set up for a party - there was a DJ and flashing lights everywhere, and plenty of characters and places to grab adult drinks (as well as snacks and soda). Neither of us had brought our IDs, as we felt we wouldn't want a beer after a run, so we decided to head to our first post race ride on Dinosaur. (The rides open during the after-party were everything in Dinoland plus Everest and Kali River Rapids).

Dinosaur was completely dead, we walked right on and sat in the briefing room ("Flash photography? I wouldn't. That alters the homing signal and that's not good.") In minutes we were sent back to the past on a time travel adventure.


So I can't keep my eyes open for the T-Rex. I just can't. It scares the bejeesus out of me and every picture I've ever had on Dinosaur looks exactly like this.

After Dinosaur I suggested we go over to Everest, since I figured that would be the most popular ride of the night (especially with it being so cold, we thought only the crazies would go on Kali) and we should hop on now before more people started finishing the race. We walked across the bridge by Nemo (there were no more runners on this part of the 5K) and saw the mountain all lit up and gorgeous - I wish I had been able to take a photo. We walked right onto Everest and didn't actually hit a line until the red room right before the boarding area - now THIS I could get used to!

Honestly, riding Everest in the dark was almost worth the race by itself (that plus the medal of course!) It was a completely new experience and so exhilarating.


Well, I promise it was exhilarating, even if I look like I'm falling asleep here.

The line was still so short when we were done that I begged Kevin for a second spin, which was just as great as the first time around. He put his foot down at a third time in a row though, and we decided to say bye to Asia and start to make our way back to Dinoland with the idea that we would soon be leaving. I was a little bummed to only squeeze in 2 Everest rides, but we were both in a good deal of physical pain at that point. Walking around Epcot all day definitely killed our ability to enjoy the party that night.

We stopped at Restaurantosaurus for some food, and split a chicken nugget meal. I honestly think I ate about 4 fries and 1 nugget - I thought I was hungry but as soon as the food was there just looking at it made me sick. The atmosphere was fantastic though, they had a CM in front of the place who was cheering louder than anything at every runner who went by, shouting "YOU'RE UNBELIEVABLE! LOOK WHAT YOU DID! YOU'RE A ROCKSTAR! WAY TO GO!" and it was impossible not to smile at her. And with that we decided to go back to Pop and get some hard-earned rest.



We left the park around midnight and thankfully a bus was waiting for us, and within half an hour we collapsed into bed.

Overall, I had a great experience with the Expedition Everest Challenge. The weather totally blew, and I was in no mood to enjoy the party that night, but those were things that I couldn't control or change at the time. I don't know if I would specifically make a trip to WDW JUST for the race, but I'm glad we were able to try it out this time around, and I can't wait for my next Run Disney event. We are hoping to be able to squeeze in the Tower of Terror 10-miler as an anniversary trip next year, though that'll depend on a) when the race actually is (our APs will expire on 10/9/2015) and b) how that works with taking time off work. Fingers crossed!

 

[elphie101]

Congrats on finishing your first race! I actually think the hay bales look fun, but I really don't think I'd like crawling under the net either. I hate that the weather was so bad for your race... seems like it rained your entire trip!

It basically rained almost non-stop from about 11:00am Friday till 11:00pm Saturday, which I honestly think we could have handled if the high temps during that time had been more than 63 degrees. The cold plus the rain was the killer.

I've read Everest recaps where people mention running right by the obstacles - which you can do, the CMs won't make you stop to do them or anything - but where's the fun in that? Even though the net was awful it's still a part of the race and I'm glad I did it

 

[Aschenputtel]

Great trip report so far - I really want to do the Everest Challenge myself on day!
Thanks for sharing all the photos and hints with us - me and DF tried to solve all the clues ourselves, but I have to admit that's more difficult when you aren't a native speaker!

 

[edeneye]

Really enjoyed the Expedition Everest recap, took me right back to last year! I'd forgotten about that astroturf and how red it made my knees too but that just came flooding right back. The layout and obstacles sound identical, but of course the scavenger clues are different and seem much more creative this year! Its a shame the weather spoiled the party for you, I hope you at least got to see some of Baloo & King Louie's dance moves!

Yes! Everest is so good at night! It's funny you mention only crazies would go on Kali at night, we figured that too... so we went on it. It was EMPTY. We did a couple of laps from memory, it wasn't a great idea but I do love water/flume rides (and the cold). Oh & you're right about the Clif bars, I wasn't expecting much but ended up eating both mine and Jess'. Also, if you're thinking about buying any marathonfoto prints, I'd suggest waiting it out a little. They'll remind you when your deadline is but they do tend to send out special offers as you get closer to it. Obviously can't say for sure that'll happen this time but I got so many emails from them in the weeks after the race last year trying to convince me to buy something.

 

[Bewitch324]

Wow...you guys really EARNED that medal!!! Between the rain and the tired legs and feet and the cold...I'm sure that was a really tough race!! Sounds like a lot of fun though! I'd definitely like to try it one of these years!!

Sounds like it was a bummer that between wet shoes, tired legs, and a heavy bag, you weren't able to enjoy the after party or the rides too much, but it sounds like you definitely had a great time, so I'm glad for that. I've been in Animal Kingdom once after dark, and it truly has such a different feeling and atmosphere. Such a beautiful park at night, and Everest looks so awesome towering up into the darkness....

Thank you for sharing your race report! It was really fun to read about it!

Brooke

 

[elphie101]

Great trip report so far - I really want to do the Everest Challenge myself on day!
Thanks for sharing all the photos and hints with us - me and DF tried to solve all the clues ourselves, but I have to admit that's more difficult when you aren't a native speaker!

Especially where the majority of clues were word-based, I could definitely see how you might be concerned going into the race as a non-native speaker. That being said, the volunteers and even other runners are helpful, so if it's something you ever decided you really wanted to do I wouldn't let it stop you.

Really enjoyed the Expedition Everest recap, took me right back to last year! I'd forgotten about that astroturf and how red it made my knees too but that just came flooding right back. The layout and obstacles sound identical, but of course the scavenger clues are different and seem much more creative this year! Its a shame the weather spoiled the party for you, I hope you at least got to see some of Baloo & King Louie's dance moves!

Yes! Everest is so good at night! It's funny you mention only crazies would go on Kali at night, we figured that too... so we went on it. It was EMPTY. We did a couple of laps from memory, it wasn't a great idea but I do love water/flume rides (and the cold). Oh & you're right about the Clif bars, I wasn't expecting much but ended up eating both mine and Jess'. Also, if you're thinking about buying any marathonfoto prints, I'd suggest waiting it out a little. They'll remind you when your deadline is but they do tend to send out special offers as you get closer to it. Obviously can't say for sure that'll happen this time but I got so many emails from them in the weeks after the race last year trying to convince me to buy something.

Thanks for the tip! I definitely want a handful of these photos so I'll keep an eye out for the e-mails Honestly the weather wasn't too much of an issue (besides poor Kevin's soaked socks), it was more walking around Epcot that day that did us in. We just did a 5K today (I'll get to that eventually) and I was not nearly as physically exhausted, even though the race itself was far more difficult!

Wow...you guys really EARNED that medal!!! Between the rain and the tired legs and feet and the cold...I'm sure that was a really tough race!! Sounds like a lot of fun though! I'd definitely like to try it one of these years!!

Sounds like it was a bummer that between wet shoes, tired legs, and a heavy bag, you weren't able to enjoy the after party or the rides too much, but it sounds like you definitely had a great time, so I'm glad for that. I've been in Animal Kingdom once after dark, and it truly has such a different feeling and atmosphere. Such a beautiful park at night, and Everest looks so awesome towering up into the darkness....

Thank you for sharing your race report! It was really fun to read about it!

Brooke

You don't see enough Everest reports out there (even though this is the wedding board!) so I wanted to write it. Being in the park at night has me really excited for what's to come in the future for Animal Kingdom at night.

 

[elphie101]

Sunday May 4th

We had finally arrived - our last day in Disney. We actually slept past 8:00am this time after our long night before, but eventually rolled out of bed and decided to go get breakfast. Today we would be splitting up - I would be going with my BM Sinclaire to the Alfred Angelo in Altamonte Springs (about a 40 minute drive from Pop Century) to pick out her bridesmaid dress, while Kevin was headed to Downtown Disney to walk around, visit D-Street, and soak up a little more Disney magic before we headed home. Magical Express was due to pick us up at 2:25pm (our flight was at 5:30pm), but since it was Sunday Alfred Angelo didn't open till 12:00pm, so in the interest of having me not miss my flight we decided to get there right at noon in the hopes of getting back on time.

In the meantime, Kevin & I still had to pack. We headed down to Everything Pop to grab one last breakfast to bring back to the room:


A Pop waffle for Kevin, and a bounty platter for me - the only description doesn't quite match but it had eggs, potatoes, french toast, a biscuit and bacon (there may have been sausage too that I asked for off). I was famished and ate every last bite!

We ate in our room and then got to work packing everything up and then just enjoyed the various Disney resort channels on TV. (Not Stacey. Kevin hates Stacey.) Sinclaire let me know she was due to arrive around 10:30am, so we said one final goodbye to our room in the 90s and dragged our luggage down to Bell Services. We could have checked our bag for free, but since we needed to get off the plane in Boston as soon as possible (more on THAT later) we decided to carry everything on.

Sinclaire arrived and it was a happy reunion all around, and we then took off for Altamonte Springs while Kevin headed to the Downtown Disney bus stop. Traffic was minimal (for I-4!) and I got to drive through downtown Orlando, which I had never seen before. I believe with traffic it took us a little under an hour to make the trip, which meant we had arrived before the store was open. Alfred Angelo is located in almost a strip mall kind of place, so to kill time we headed into Five Guys Burgers & Fries, as Sinclaire hadn't eaten yet. I just got fries, but they were good! My first Five Guys experience.

Right at noon we walked over to the store, where 2 other brides were also waiting to get in. They paired us up with a consultant and we headed right to the bridesmaid racks - at first she didn't realize that everyone else back home had already pulled dresses, but once she did she was incredibly helpful. Reason #2 why I wanted to be there right at opening - if you don't have an appointment it's the only way to go!



Dress #1 looked great on Sinclaire - it gave her a teeny tiny waist. The one to beat so far.



Dress #2 was quickly nixed, it wasn't working so much.



And then there came Dress #3 - and she loved it! I loved it too, you can tell she felt awesome in it and it clearly went well with the dresses my other girls are wearing. Even though she had a few other dresses in the room, Sinclaire declared that this was it! They measured her on the spot and she ordered it, given that at the time we were just about 5 months away from the date.



Behold, my bridal party in their gowns! Well, models in their gowns. Also, pardon the horrible MS Paint job I did on Sam's gown - the way the website has the sleeves tied is truly insane.

Top row: Vanessa (MOH), Sam
Bottom row: Sinclaire, Amanda

The whole process took about 40 minutes. Since we had a little time to kill, we headed down to a family fair the next door apartment complex was having - Sinclaire had seen a Radio Disney van as we drove in and since she herself is a former Radio Disney DJ (back in Kansas City) and wanted to check it out. We made one last stop after the fair - Coldstone for me! I had been very good about staying away from ice cream but I couldn't imagine going a whole Disney trip without something! I had a butter pecan shake and it was divine, and we got back on the road to Pop Century. I let Kevin know we were on our way back - after DTD he had gone to Wilderness Lodge to visit his favorite hotel, and now started to make his way back to Pop.

It was about another hour back to Disney and we pulled up right about the same time as Kevin's bus did. We poked around the gift shop for a bit and then said goodbye to Sinclaire before collecting our bags and making our way to the Magical Express stop. The bus was pretty much on time, and with that our Disney trip was over.

The rest of the day was mildly uneventful. Once we got to MCO the bus driver tried to give us bags that weren't ours - when we pointed out to him, he figured out that some people had just walked into the terminal to board their flight without taking their bags. We figured they assumed their bags would be waiting for them at home - I wonder what happened when they got to their home baggage claim and found NONE of their bags! I hope they figured it out.

We made a brief pitstop at the Disney & Universal stores in the airport (where I almost bought a Ravenclaw shirt so I'd have something to wear for our Universal day on the honeymoon) and then headed out to our gate, where our flight to Atlanta was delayed. We killed time in our layover by having dinner at - believe it or not - Five Guys Burger & Fries. Last unhealthy meal of the trip!

We got stuck in the very back of the place for our Atlanta to Boston leg, and since we were on AirTran we were sitting separately. I was anxiously watching our progress home on the flight tracker, as we were planning on taking the 12:00pm bus back to our car (Kevin's parents had left it for us at the express bus parking lot), which of course was the last bus of the night. Our flight was due to land at 11:40. Thankfully we actually got in about 10 minutes early, though being stuck at the very back of the plane did not help at all. We ran through the empty airport and to the bus stop, where we saw the welcoming sign of other people still waiting for the bus. In the end, it didn't really matter, as the bus was 15 minutes late anyway We headed back to our car and ended up crashing into bed at 1:00am - great for when you have work the next day!

And with that, I can finally say THE END. Thanks for following along on the first trip report I've actually completed! The bright side to taking nearly a month to complete a TR is now I have plenty of wedding-related updates coming up next

 

[Aschenputtel]

Yay for finishing your first TR!!! And yay for having such an amazing planning session trip! Your last day seemed a great finish and thanks for the full pics on your bridesmaid's dresses, I just started looking at what would work for mine!!!

 

[kmg3366]

It all looks so amazing! I'm so happy for you! Can't wait to follow along with the rest of your journey.