If You are Going to Jump at the Finish Line, Be Sure You Stick the Landing – A 2018 Dopey Run TR
- Thread starter ZellyB
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michigandergirl
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I love that you had a bathroom stop, ride on EE, and a beer in AK. That's awesome! I was also super hungry by the time I got to WWOS - I normally hate that section, but was so happy to see so many people handing out food - I ate ALL the food! Love your selfie pics in Epcot. I also got a beer in Germany and it tasted so good!
Congrats on completing Dopey!
Congrats on completing Dopey!
run.minnie.miles
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I want to reread your marathon recap a million times- such great detail and so much fun!! Congratulations on finishing a succesful marathon and Dopey!
TeeterTots
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Boy, you sure do look happy after those brews for sure! Super fun expedition! Nice landing ChrisMo! Congrats to you Dopey duo! Can’t wait to read about the celebratory dinner!
baxter24
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Those people handing out food at WWoS the past two years have been my heroes and of course the only time it’s ever cool to take candy from strangers! Congrats on completing the Dopey challenge and high five to Chris for sticking that landing!
ZellyB
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We were clearly on a similar time line and path for the races! I'm so happy to have finally managed to ride Everest.
Honestly, taking those selfies made the final mile fly by and it was really run too.
Right? Impressive.
Absolutely beer=smiles! LOL on "dummy" and yes I suspect that running costume would have been a bit cold!
I love that you had a bathroom stop, ride on EE, and a beer in AK. That's awesome! I was also super hungry by the time I got to WWOS - I normally hate that section, but was so happy to see so many people handing out food - I ate ALL the food! Love your selfie pics in Epcot. I also got a beer in Germany and it tasted so good!
Congrats on completing Dopey!
We made the most out of our time in AK for sure! I didn't realize how hungry I really was until we came upon those snack tables. NOM! NOM! Beer in Germany on the marathon is the best!
Aw, thanks! We had a great time!
Super fun race. Writing it up really helps me remember just how fun it was.
It was a great time. I heard Chris would have won the gold for his jump, but the Russian judge slammed him. I think he's bitter since they don't have a country in Epcot and thus no selfie from us.
We were super happy about those brews! I love beer on a race. Dinner review coming up!
Heroes is exactly the right term for them. Loved the salty choices since I'm usually over sweet stuff by then. Although the chocolate in DHS was good.
SarahDisney
So ... Yeah
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First of all, I love all of your character stops. And your World Showcase selfies - what an awesome idea!
(Although I'm wondering if they would have let you have the beer and pretzel in the picture with Snow White if you had offered her some)
Second ... I still think riding Everest during the race is crazy. Awesome, but crazy.
Third ... I actually cracked up when I saw the picture of @Chris-Mo jumping. It's a good thing he stuck the landing!
Congrats on officially being Dopey!
(Although I'm wondering if they would have let you have the beer and pretzel in the picture with Snow White if you had offered her some)
Second ... I still think riding Everest during the race is crazy. Awesome, but crazy.
Third ... I actually cracked up when I saw the picture of @Chris-Mo jumping. It's a good thing he stuck the landing!
Congrats on officially being Dopey!
michigandergirl
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If I remember right, I think it was you I ran into in line for Joy & Sadness? My friends were laughing at that picture because I had a handful of peanut M&M's in my hand! Those people were definitely heroes, especially the lady handing out pickles.
ZellyB
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That's a good thought about Snow White. I guess she is supposed to be German right? (It's a German fairy tale, yes?) She probably would have appreciated the offer.
It was totally crazy to ride Everest, but I'm telling you, it gave me a huge adrenaline boost when I really needed it!
I thought it was an hysterical picture. I love it so much!
cavepig
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Great marathon & pictures! Amazing jump finish to @Chris-Mo ! Calf pain sucks (I had a knot at ESPN come on that was awful trying to stretch out so feel for you on it) but way to run through it!
Riding Everest is awesome, I could never do that!
Beer, pretzel, selfies in each country way to live up that last mile!!!! Love it!
When I stopped Pluto was with a DJ lady and I think they were digging up fossils she was saying so hence the dino head.
Thanks for sharing!
Riding Everest is awesome, I could never do that!
Beer, pretzel, selfies in each country way to live up that last mile!!!! Love it!
When I stopped Pluto was with a DJ lady and I think they were digging up fossils she was saying so hence the dino head.
Thanks for sharing!
Lesley Wake
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baxter24
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That was me! How did I miss the lady with the pickles??? I stopped for a lady who had a whole table of food set out right after we left the baseball stadium near the parking lot.
PopArtGal
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Those photo ops are so cool. Plus I had no idea you had some access to rides.I FINALLY GO ON AN EXPEDITION!After making it past the stink of the treatment plant, we found ourselves pretty quickly on the short little out and back before entering Animal Kingdom. This part sucks. It's just packed with people and trying to keep any kind of decent intervals or pace is very hard, but we just tried to do our best. At one point though I very nearly lost Chris. EEK! I didn't hear the beep to walk and was weaving through people and left him behind. I eventually realized he wasn't with me and stepped off the road to look for him but it took me a bit and I was starting to panic. But, I found him and on we went. I was starting to feel a bit of fatigue here and getting a bit worried about the number of miles left to go.
Once past this little turnaround, you make the turn toward the back entrance to Animal Kingdom. Now able to spread out, it was much nicer to run again. It was right around 9 AM at this time, and I was really hoping to ride Everest, but was worried about how long the line would be since the park was open, but I just decided we'd see how it went. As we were getting closer to the park, we spotted another new for us character with a pretty short line!
Clarabelle!! Again with the short lines just like Horace. Where is the love people? But, worked for us!!
Next were some animals to pet, but we cruised on through and into the park. I think I remember King Louie being here as well, but we've had him before, and needed a bathroom break so we went on. We did take a stop for a real bathroom and the wait was a bit long, but it was fine really. As we were approaching Everest, I asked Chris if he was sure he didn't want to ride and he was still firmly no on that. I asked if he didn't mind to wait for me and he was also fine with that, so off into line I went. I headed for the single rider line, but as soon as I got in that line, a CM was saying to go standby because it was moving faster than single rider, so a quick u-turn and I was in line. I'd say I waited about 15 minutes before finally getting on the ride. I was seated next to another marathon rider.
I didn't pause my Garmin while on the ride either, which made for a fun Garmin route map!
Once off the ride, I found Chris at the exit. He told me he'd seen @rteetz coming off the ride shortly before me as well.We headed out again and I guess it was the exhilaration of finally riding Everest during the marathon, but I had a renewed sense of energy and was feeling so happy again. Of course, this might have helped as well!
My sweet husband had purchased us a little drink while I was riding. That's a good man! Can you tell we are happier now?
All too soon we were headed out of the park and across the parking lot (which always has great crowd support) and onto the long slog toward Wide World of Sports. Luckily, my adrenaline was holding up pretty good and we managed to maintain a decent pace through here. Mile 15!
There were the trampoline guys along in here as well, but you can see lots of people starting to struggle on this portion of the route. You also see all those people heading for mile 22/23 and headed for Hollywood Studios and it's hard not to get really jealous! We kept at it though and around mile 17 or so, saw an unexpected character with a short line. No photopass person, but a CM to use your phone.
Pluto! I'm not sure why he had a dinosaur head behind him, but whatever!
As we were approaching the turn into WWoS area, hundreds of other runners are headed the other way across the median. We thought it was funny that at the intersection there was a big sign flashing "No U-Turn". HA! I wish! Anyway, off we headed toward WWoS. I was still feeling good here, but Chris' calf was really bothering him, and we were taking some extra walk breaks. I hated it for him.I think we saw Minnie in here, but the line was crazy, so we moved along. Goofy was out on the track, but we've had him several times before, so we skipped again. I think it was in here that we saw @Barca33Runner and I slowed a second to say hi. He was having a very hard time and I was so worried he was going to have to stop, so I was really happy to read later here that he had finished the race and maintained his PERFECT Dopey status. YAY!!
And, now comes my only major regret of this race. We saw a huge character line with Mickey and Donald in it. I really wanted to stop, but we were taking such a long time on this race and Chris was hurting and we decided it was best to just skip it and go for a selfie.
Aren't they cute in their baseball uniforms? But, you know, we just needed to keep going. We saw Joy and Sadness while headed into the stadium, but we've had them before so we moved on past. Even typing this up, it feels like WWoS goes on forever.
20 miles baby!!
Happy because we just have 6.2 left to go.
Maybe around in here was an announcer who was warning people about how slow we were. LOL He was basically telling all of us that the last of the runners was about 3 miles behind us and if we kept up our current pace we'd be fine. I heard there were times stuff he was saying wasn't quite as helpful, but I thought it was a good thing to tell people here. We knew we were fine as we could have picked up our pace without a lot of difficulty, but I thought it was good for people to know they were still safe.
As we were FINALLY leaving WWoS, there were a couple of people with SNACKS!! OMG!! WE were so hungry and it was stuff like goldfish and pretzels and the like. I grabbed so much and told them thank you a million times. One table was also handing out Fireball shots! Um, no. I'll drink beer on a run, but that was a bridge too far even for me.
Anyway, finally we were out of WWoS and back on the road toward Hollywood Studios.
Next up: A trip around the World and the big finish!!
ZellyB
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Riding Everest was certainly a highlight for me! And, I was determined to enjoy that last mile to the fullest extent!
I love that Garmin route. It cracks me up! Beer on a marathon is the best!
I also did not see pickles! I wish I had though.
Yes, Everest is the main one, but there are people who also ride Tower of Terror and seems like I've heard Spaceship Earth as well.
ZellyB
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So shiny!!
Once we had our medals, we decided to head back to the Poly to rest and prepare for our night ahead! We made the walk over to the monorail and were quickly headed back to the resort. OK, one complaint here. While the monorail is easy in a lot of respects, it’s a huge pain that you have to go through bag check to get back to it. UGH! I had not realized that initially and I will say, that I didn’t think the monorail was nearly as advantageous for the races as I thought it would be. Anyway…
Once back at the hotel, we got cleaned up and just rested up while we waited for our reservation for our celebratory dinner at Victoria & Alberts. I did shoot a picture of the new bling! So much Shine!!!
It was great to just relax and nap and soon we got ourselves all dressed up and headed to the monorail for a short ride to the Grand Floridian. We got there a few minutes early and sat down in the atrium area outside the restaurant. Someone came out within a couple of minutes to tell us they’d be seating momentarily and right on time they called our name to head back to the table.
If you haven’t eaten at V&A before, it’s quite the experience. The main dining room is quite small and intimate and we were seated at our table along the wall and quickly met our two servers (and, no, I was a bad reporter and don’t recall their names.) They take your photo if you like once seated.
https://flic.kr/p/22NWA7f
Beautiful table setting, although the plate with V&A on it is quickly whisked away for the plates with the FOOD!
I placed my phone and glasses on my little purse table by my chair.
And we settled in to look over the menu and decide what we wanted. We did know that we were planning to both do the wine pairing with dinner. Hey! It was a celebration!! They start you out quickly with a small glass of rosé champagne. Yum.
]There’s also a harpist there who plays during dinner. It’s beautiful. She plays a variety of music, but plenty of Disney tunes mixed in there as well. Really adds to the atmosphere.
V&A is a Prix Fixe menu and you have a choice of 7 or 10 courses. We went with 7, although our sever told us the total amount of food is about the same as the serving sizes are a bit smaller on the 10 course menu. First up is an Amuse-Bouche.
YUM! The menu doesn’t say what this is and while I’m sure they told us I have no recollection of what it was.
They also provide you with a bread service and a sweet cream butter. They brought out a little container with salt in it as well to add to the butter. Loved the little tiny spoon.
https://flic.kr/p/23TFrez[/COLOR
You could order caviar for an upcharge, but we declined. So, next up was a seared duck breast with farro and Asian pears.
https://flic.kr/p/EeCsXF[/COLOR
Great again, of course. I think the puree here was celery and I'd already consumed some of it before I remembered to snap a picture. I am now a puree convert after have so much good puree this trip.
The next course had a choice to make, so Chris and I each selected a different item. Chris had the Salmon with artichokes and Parmesan Foam.
]I got an upcharge item which was Wild Turbot with capers and preserved lemon.
]These were both insanely good. The sauce with Chris’ salmon was amazing! I felt like my fish was better than his salmon and thus liked mine better, but he felt his superior sauce put his over the top. I guess ultimately we both got the dish we wanted.
We got another bread service next with another different butter. Also very tasty, but the butter was on this little serving thing.
You know how some amusement parks have those huge heavy stone balls that sit on a slight skim of water which makes them very easy to roll around. Yeah, that little ball of butter would just roll around every time you tried to cut into it. LOL. We did manage to eat it though.
Next up was Green Circle Chicken with Black Winter Truffles and Celery Root purée (my dining this trip definitely had a purée theme
).[url=https://flic.kr/p/22NWPF9]
https://flic.kr/p/22NWPF9This one didn’t disappoint. Delicious!
Next was the main entrée choice.
Chris went with Australian Kobe-Style Beef with Potato Rosti
[url=https://flic.kr/p/JWNoBF]
https://flic.kr/p/JWNoBF[/COLORI had the Lamb Loin with Roasted Carrots and Banana Curry
[url=https://flic.kr/p/FKRDoC]
https://flic.kr/p/FKRDoC[/COLORMy lamb was really good, but Chris’ beef was amazing!
Continued in next post![/URL][/URL][/URL]
ZellyB
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Next course! (Getting full now!!)
Selection of Cheese from the Market. This was fun because she brought out the cheese serving thing and described each cheese to us as she served it table side.
]
The finished product.
]
If you like cheese (and I do!) this was incredible. I also had a port with the cheese that was delicious!
We also got Chai Tea Ice Cream with Malted Milk Crumb.
]
Good, but nothing too exciting here.
And then, finally, dessert!
I went with the Grand Marnier Soufflé
]OMG!! So good!!
Chris had the Chocolate Bar with Coffee Panna Cotta.
]
Also amazing, but I liked my soufflé better.
Of course we ordered the coffee service as well which is just so cool to watch and the coffee is great!
]
Lastly, they presented me with a rose and a box of chocolates. We couldn’t eat the chocolates, so they bagged them for us to take home.
Then, of course, the presentation of the bill. GULP! But, we knew what to expect obviously, so we were prepared, but it is insanely expensive. But, for a special occasion, we felt like we got what we paid for.
On the way out, the hostess snaps one last picture.
I look sooooo tired. LOL A short walk to the monorail and a look down at the GF Lobby which is lovely.
And then off to the hotel to collapse into bed.
Next up: The last day in the parks with more than a little tinge of sadness
Selection of Cheese from the Market. This was fun because she brought out the cheese serving thing and described each cheese to us as she served it table side.
]The finished product.
]If you like cheese (and I do!) this was incredible. I also had a port with the cheese that was delicious!
]Good, but nothing too exciting here.
And then, finally, dessert!
I went with the Grand Marnier Soufflé
]Chris had the Chocolate Bar with Coffee Panna Cotta.
]Also amazing, but I liked my soufflé better.
Of course we ordered the coffee service as well which is just so cool to watch and the coffee is great!
]Lastly, they presented me with a rose and a box of chocolates. We couldn’t eat the chocolates, so they bagged them for us to take home.
Then, of course, the presentation of the bill. GULP! But, we knew what to expect obviously, so we were prepared, but it is insanely expensive. But, for a special occasion, we felt like we got what we paid for.
On the way out, the hostess snaps one last picture.
I look sooooo tired. LOL A short walk to the monorail and a look down at the GF Lobby which is lovely.
And then off to the hotel to collapse into bed.
Next up: The last day in the parks with more than a little tinge of sadness
Ariel484
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Ah, I do remember that about having to go through security to get back on the monorail! Definitely a pain when all you want to do is return to the room to shower and sit down!
Look at all of the shiny bling!! I'm looking forward to some bling pics!
OM GAHHHH Victoria & Alberts! It was a mistake to read this before lunch, I am sooo hungry now! The salt...glass (?) is too funny. I like how each different butter has a different "look" to it. It's awesome to see how different things are from meal to meal, from what I remember when we went in 2014, the only course I had that I see in your report is the Kobe beef (worth the upcharge!)...maybe the lamb was there too? It's great that they are so creative and change things up. I agree that the wine pairing is the way to go, even if it is pricey! And the coffee...well, you need that after the wine pairing.
Look at all of the shiny bling!! I'm looking forward to some bling pics!
OM GAHHHH Victoria & Alberts! It was a mistake to read this before lunch, I am sooo hungry now! The salt...glass (?) is too funny. I like how each different butter has a different "look" to it. It's awesome to see how different things are from meal to meal, from what I remember when we went in 2014, the only course I had that I see in your report is the Kobe beef (worth the upcharge!)...maybe the lamb was there too? It's great that they are so creative and change things up. I agree that the wine pairing is the way to go, even if it is pricey! And the coffee...well, you need that after the wine pairing.
TeeterTots
DIS Veteran
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Wow! What an experience and a great way to celebrate all your hard work! Your dinner looked amazing!
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