If You are Going to Jump at the Finish Line, Be Sure You Stick the Landing – A 2018 Dopey Run TR

[ZellyB]

Animal Kingdom, Hurricane Hannahs and Carbs, sweet Carbs!

​

We again had to work on getting ourselves warmed back up again with a hot shower (one of the rare complaints I had about the Poly was their less than great shower heads), and we settled in for a breakfast of champions!

​

We did get some pixie dust with this though because when we went to buy a coffee and the cinnamon roll, the espresso machine was down, so we told the young lady working the counter, “No problem, just two regular coffees”. When another worker came by to ask what we needed to have rung up, the young lady making our coffee said, “Oh no. They are all set,” and gave us a big grin. So free coffee and cinnamon roll. SCORE!! I guess she was just happy we didn’t get cranky at her for the machine being down. It was a nice little surprise.

We got a bus and headed back over to AK. I had a second FP+ for FoP, but we had a little time to kill first and thought we should take care of a little rehydration. And, yes, it was around 10 in the morning. Don't judge me!
https://flic.kr/p/2299Tik

​

It was still cold, but the sun was at least starting to add some warmth to the day. We decided to catch Festival of the Lion King while we were waiting. LOVE this show so much! Plus it was nice and warm in there. We were in the giraffe section.
https://flic.kr/p/DRzxdH

​

Once the show was over we had just about 20 minutes left in our FP window so started working our way over to Pandora. As we approached the FP entrance, we saw the standby wait was at 280 minutes or something. HOLY CRAP. That’s over 4 ½ hours. No. Just no. I was so thankful for those FPs. The ride was just as amazing the second time around. We didn’t spend much time in Pandora because of the crowds, so I look forward to a less crazy time in the future to explore more.

​

What even is that thing behind us? Who knows? And, yet, we dutifully lined up for a picture with it.

I had another FP for Expedition Everest so off we went.

​

Chris opted to skip the ride (that darn backwards portion), so I had a nice little chat with another lady while riding it. She seemed genuinely upset and sorry for him when I told her my husband doesn't like the ride because of the backward portion.

​

Also, that woman and kid behind us were hilarious - and terrified.

We were getting hungry by this point so decided to just put in a mobile order for Restaurantasaurus. I’m so glad we did. The line to order was out the door when we arrived. EEK! Chris waited for the food to be ready while I tried to find a table. I finally just had to sit down outside. It was cold, but manageable with the sun.

Our last FP was for Dinosaur. We both planned to be properly frightened for our ride photo, but I mistimed my horror apparently.

​

It was approaching time for the HH meet-up, so we worked our way out of the crowded park and onto a bus to Beach Club. There were a LOT of Dissers there and I feel bad that I didn’t get a chance to visit with more of you. I KNOW I’ll forget people I talked to, so I’m sorry if I leave you out or get your username confused, but I know I visited with @Keels , @FFigawi (thanks for the beer!), @BikeFan , @jmasgat , @sourire , @michigandergirl , @PCFriar80 , @MommaoffherRocker . I know Chris chatted with @rteetz , maybe @ReindeerMom (he thought that was right) and I saw some other familiar faces as well. I saw @DopeyBadger and his wife and sweet Gigi as well but never made my way over to talk, and saw @Barca33Runner as well (think maybe I said hi to you there). It really was great fun and I loved meeting those of you I did.

Eventually we said our goodbyes and headed over to Epcot. We did a little shopping and walking around until our ADR at Via Napoli. It was toasty warm inside and we got a salad and way too much pizza (clearly we thought we were hungrier than we were since we had almost half a pizza left). But it was delicious and we enjoyed it very much.

https://flic.kr/p/229aaYp​

[URL='https://flic.kr/p/22qSuYu']

https://flic.kr/p/22qSuYu


​

By the time we finished dinner it was around 7 PM and it had been a long day and, OH YEAH, we have a half-marathon to run tomorrow, so we strolled around to the monorail and back to Poly for race prep and bed. The forecast was ever so slightly better for the morning, so that made us happy as we collapsed into an exhausted slumber!


Next up: Half-Marathon Day![/url]

 

[Ariel484]

Wait, so did you go through this entire day with no nap?? Props!

No judging on the 10AM beer. Those races are so freaking early that it totally messes with your sense of time and it probably felt like middle of the afternoon. Plus, you're on vacation!

Hooray, DIS-meet! Glad you got to talk to lots of DIS'ers, such fun!

Via Napoli pizza is THE BEST. I want to eat that entire pizza right now! And hooray for free coffee!

 

[PCFriar80]

That's quite the day and a breakfast beer to boot! I'm with Chris on the backward portion of EE. For some reason, I fight it so hard that I hurt myself.

 

[TeeterTots]

Cheers! No judgment here! Lol

I’m so sad I missed my FP opportunity for FoP! I scheduled it for Monday, departure day, but with the 4 hr DME window still in effect I don’t think my tired legs would get me there and back in time! Oh well, next time hopefully (April woot woot)

Yay for DIS-meet....I was there you just didn’t know it because I was afraid to say, “hey, I know you two!” Next time!!!

Via Napoli, yum-O!!! My fav!! BFF only had a one day ticket so no Epcot for us this trip but we had a great day at MK on Saturday.

 

[run.minnie.miles]

And, yes, it was around 10 in the morning. Don't judge me!

It's basically runDisney's "5 o'clock somewhere"... totally justifiable!

The meet up sounds awesome and so does that pizza! Yum!

 

[rteetz]

No judging! Its 5 O'Clock somewhere!

Yeah no way I would wait 4 hours for a ride either.

I only barely got to stop at the meet up and the only person I talked to was @Chris-Mo since I was dropping off something for Keels. Wish I was able to be there longer. I had an ADR to get to in Epcot with friends.

Looks like a great day! Was this the day I saw you two at the monorail station at Epcot or was it after the Half? I don't remember it all runs together!

 

[ZellyB]

Wait, so did you go through this entire day with no nap?? Props!

No judging on the 10AM beer. Those races are so freaking early that it totally messes with your sense of time and it probably felt like middle of the afternoon. Plus, you're on vacation!

Hooray, DIS-meet! Glad you got to talk to lots of DIS'ers, such fun!

Via Napoli pizza is THE BEST. I want to eat that entire pizza right now! And hooray for free coffee!

Yeah, no naps. I think as we were headed back to the monorail and the exhaustion was hitting, Chris said, "Maybe a day like this before running the half-marathon wasn't the best idea." Oops. The pizza was delicious!

That's quite the day and a breakfast beer to boot! I'm with Chris on the backward portion of EE. For some reason, I fight it so hard that I hurt myself.

I feel badly for him on that because it really is a great ride. I think like you said, he just seems to fight against it so hard that he's miserable.

Cheers! No judgment here! Lol

I’m so sad I missed my FP opportunity for FoP! I scheduled it for Monday, departure day, but with the 4 hr DME window still in effect I don’t think my tired legs would get me there and back in time! Oh well, next time hopefully (April woot woot)

Yay for DIS-meet....I was there you just didn’t know it because I was afraid to say, “hey, I know you two!” Next time!!!

Via Napoli, yum-O!!! My fav!! BFF only had a one day ticket so no Epcot for us this trip but we had a great day at MK on Saturday.

I hate that you didn't get a chance to use your FP for that ride. It's incredible. Jealous you will be back there in April! And, I'm sorry we didn't get a chance to talk. Like I said, I wasn't the best at working my way around the group!

It's basically runDisney's "5 o'clock somewhere"... totally justifiable!

The meet up sounds awesome and so does that pizza! Yum!

This is why I love you people. Beer at 10 AM at Disney - perfectly acceptable.

No judging! Its 5 O'Clock somewhere!

Yeah no way I would wait 4 hours for a ride either.

I only barely got to stop at the meet up and the only person I talked to was @Chris-Mo since I was dropping off something for Keels. Wish I was able to be there longer. I had an ADR to get to in Epcot with friends.

Looks like a great day! Was this the day I saw you two at the monorail station at Epcot or was it after the Half? I don't remember it all runs together!

I totally forgot about the random monorail meet up! Yes, it was that night. We didn't go into the parks after the half or the full. I had front loaded most of our park time.

 

[cajunfan]

Enjoying your report!

 

[Nole95]

Nothing wrong with a beer at 10am.
After the marathon we ate one of those salads and the whole same size pizza at Via Napoli. I'm usually starving all day after running a long distance race. All the drinks in Epcot probably gave use the munchies as well.

 

[ZellyB]

Enjoying your report!

Thanks for reading along!

Nothing wrong with a beer at 10am.
After the marathon we ate one of those salads and the whole same size pizza at Via Napoli. I'm usually starving all day after running a long distance race. All the drinks in Epcot probably gave use the munchies as well.

I was surprised we didn't eat more of the pizza. We both felt starved when we sat down (thus ordering the big pizza), but just couldn't manage to polish it off. I guess that's not a bad thing.

 

[ZellyB]

Add on to our AK day. I totally forgot that we also got in a little medal time meet and greet with the Lady of the Medal - Minnie! And, oh yeah, this other mouse that she hangs around with!

https://flic.kr/p/22sESxJhttps://flic.kr/p/22sESxJ​

https://flic.kr/p/22sESxJ

 

[SarahDisney]

Yay free coffee! And even if 10AM beer wasn't acceptable on vacay (which it always is), you had been up since pretty early in the morning, so really, it was more like an afternoon beer, which you happened to have at 10AM.

280 minutes for FoP ... yikes. I know it's only been open for a few months, but that's still pretty insane. Good thing you had a FP!

Looks like you met some awesome DISers at the meet - yay!

 

[ZellyB]

Yay free coffee! And even if 10AM beer wasn't acceptable on vacay (which it always is), you had been up since pretty early in the morning, so really, it was more like an afternoon beer, which you happened to have at 10AM.

These are excellent rationalizations!

280 minutes for FoP ... yikes. I know it's only been open for a few months, but that's still pretty insane. Good thing you had a FP!

Looks like you met some awesome DISers at the meet - yay!

Insane is right! And, it really was a great time to meet fellow Dis folks.

 

[ZellyB]

Half Marathon Race (Start and through the Castle), and I’m a (BIG) Beautiful Butterfly!

​

Day 3 of the early wake-up calls, and this one was definitely a bit more difficult to jump out of bed. But, we did manage to drag ourselves out of bed and go through the same routine as before to get ourselves around. This time, though, no bus to catch, but the monorail instead. I had deliberately wanted to use a monorail resort this time since I felt like it would be advantageous for the races and while I think that’s true, that monorail was COLD!!! At least the bus was toasty. Regardless, the trip to TTC and the switch over to the Epcot monorail went smoothly.

Once we got there, though, I had a little GI issue that was causing me some concern. EEK! Luckily, I was able to go a porta-potty and things seemed to settle down from there. PHEW and TMI (Sorry!) Anyway, by the time I was done with all that, people were lining up to head to the corrals and we wanted to be at the front of our corral again, so we opted to skip the Dis-meet ( ) to head for the corrals.

We were back to our long, dark walk to the corral starts and it was interesting to see how they had lined things up with the fewer number of corrals. We headed straight to D though and got right up to the front of the corral.

​

Our microwave burrito warming strategy was in full-effect again and this time we sat down to give our feet a break while we waited. I was reasonably comfortable though during our wait.

​

We did see a few corral jumpers trying to sneak in past the volunteers monitoring the entrance to C corral. Some tried to argue with them, but they were firm and sent people back out. Kudos to those volunteers.

Eventually, we were headed toward the start as the prior corrals and mini-waves were sent on their way along with fireworks.

​

Pretty soon it was our turn though and off we went. Our strategy for the half was to run the first couple miles without intervals and take photo breaks as needed and then once we were a few miles in to start our :90/:30 intervals. I was really wanting to get to MK as quickly as was reasonable since we’ve always taken our time and the sky is getting light and I really wanted to see the castle in a bit more darkness this time. It probably would have helped if I’d actually told Chris my plan though because he kept asking me if we wanted to start doing intervals and I kept saying no.

The first mile or so is pretty dull and dark, but both Chris and I needed a bathroom due to the long wait in the corrals, so while it felt silly to do it, we peeled off to use a porta-potty around mile 1. Seemed crazy at the time, but in hindsight it was smart. There was no wait and we were in and out much quicker than had we waited for the real bathrooms at TTC or MK.
Hey, look, Mile 2!

​

Shortly after that, they had the big Mickey head hot air balloon out in the median.

​

Looking at it now in pictures, it's actually a little creepy seeing a huge disembodied Mickey head floating out there in the dark.

And then the Magic Kingdom gates!

​

Our plan with character shots was basically like the 10K. If it was a character we’d had previously, we’d cruise by or just do a selfie. With that in mind, we came up to the first character line of the day.

​

CARS!!! We’ve had them a couple of times before, so on we cruised.

​

Mile 3 and going strong! Next up was Wreck it Ralph set up (another we’ve had before), so hey, Ralph and Vanellope, hey!

​

And on we go. I think around the 4 mile mark was also the set up for Nightmare Before Christmas. We got over to the side to see who was out because I desperately want Oogie Boogie, but alas, Jack and Sally (who we’ve had before), so on we went.

Mile 5 and making our way to MK. Woohoo!

​

This year there was a change to the entry to MK. In previous years we were looped in through a side entrance back stage to Main Street, but this time we came straight in through the front and under the train. I LOVED this change. It gave you time to really get that sense of entering the Magic Kingdom and seeing the castle come into view straight on!

​

Per the usual, lots of cheering crowds and just loads of excitement and fun as you enter. All.the.feels.

https://flic.kr/p/JAuku4​

We made the turn to Tomorrowland and I think Buzz was there (done it)

​

and then we saw the Alice set up and saw the White Rabbit and Queen of Hearts (who we’ve not had before), so YAY first character stop of the half!

​

My best angry Queen expression there. LOL

Next was around the curve and heading toward the castle when we saw another new to us character hanging out by Ariel’s Grotto

​

Sebastian!!

https://flic.kr/p/Fpwq5b​

Now we’re talking!! He was new for us too.

We headed out again and soon made the turn toward the castle

[url=https://flic.kr/p/FpwwxS] https://flic.kr/p/FpwwxShttps://flic.kr/p/FpwwxS
https://flic.kr/p/Fpwq5b[/URL]​

and saw the next character line that was a must-stop as well. Pretty castle!

[url=https://flic.kr/p/22aVVEi] https://flic.kr/p/22aVVEi[/URL]​

Cinderella’s mice! Who do have names apparently – Mary, Suzy and Perla – but I don’t know which two these are.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/FpwwvY] https://flic.kr/p/FpwwvYhttps://flic.kr/p/FpwwvY[/URL]​

Through the castle!

[url=https://flic.kr/p/JAuvEV]​

https://flic.kr/p/FpwwvY
Sorry, nice Eeyore lady behind me for blocking you with my big hands!

[url=https://flic.kr/p/JAutFK]

[url=https://flic.kr/p/22aXhz2]
https://flic.kr/p/FpwwvY[/url][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/JAutFK][url=https://flic.kr/p/22aXhz2][/url][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/JAutFK][url=https://flic.kr/p/22aXhz2][/url][/url]​

[url=https://flic.kr/p/JAutFK][url=https://flic.kr/p/22aXhz2]
I hope Eeyore lady had some shots once I was past where my big Butterfly self isn't stealing her castle shot!

Next up: Let’s finish this thing, shall we?[/url][/url][/URL]

 

[Ariel484]

So funny story - I was getting all set to leave work and then I saw you updated your TR. So I am still at work.

Glad your GI issue cleared up quickly!

Somehow in all of the Disney races I have done, I have never seen corral jumpers! Why are people like that?? Kudos to the volunteers indeed!

I agree that the Mickey head balloon is a little creepy-looking...

GAH, so bummed you didn't get Oogie Boogie! I haven't seen him out yet either, just seen pictures. Someday we'll find him!

I LOVE that the course goes under the train station - I think the Tink course did that too right? Great change! And your outfit obviously is giving me life, never thought of that combo but it looks great!

SEBASTIAN!! So jealous, what a great meet!

You're a butterfly, gotta spread your wings...sorry Eeyore!

Yay love reading this!

 

[rteetz]

Great pictures!

Totally understand getting to the corrals early. I was lucky enough to get in the first wave of G both for the half and full and that was great. G and H were ginormous corrals too. I so wish Oogie would've been out. I think he was out for the half two years ago? That was the only time I met him. I should've stopped for Sebastian but I was running with Team Shenanigans and they decided to skip that one.

 

[TeeterTots]

Look at you, pretty butterfly! Love that top! Reminds me of @Ariel484 in the marathon (I think) last year.

 

[Sailormoon2]

You ARE a beautiful butterfly!!!

 

[PCFriar80]

Great pics! And I agree about the new entrance to MK! It was much better to see the castle full on for as long as possible vs. going backstage and making that sharp right hand turn in to Main St.

 

[Nole95]

We also like the new entrance into MK. At first I was worried it might be a big bottleneck, but we breezed right on through.