As I mentioned, I will be getting up early. Very very VERY early. Why? Well, it will be time for
I hope it is ok to borrow that pic... it just too cute.
The last bus that runs from the resort to Epcot that morning is 4am. I don't want to be on a super crowded bus. So I am aiming for 3:30am.
Today corral placements were announced as well as final race instructions. I am actually of mixed feelings regarding both my bib # and the corral that I was then placed into.
There is a total of 8 corrals not including the handful of elite runners that start ahead of time. Corrals A and B are reserved for ONLY princesses. No princes. Corral C then becomes the corral to dump all the fast princes that would normally be in A.
I am a bit disappointed in myself. I have been pretty darn diligent in training. Yet I didn't do "one last race" to get a time to submit. I figured that the one from October would give me a better start than what I had originally submitted. When I saw the time breakdowns today it looked to me as if my estimated finish time had not been updated at all. According to runners world and their race finish time predictor, my October time should have had me in a corral up from the one I was placed in. And if I had succeeded in running a 10k at my current pace... well, that may have even been better. I went ahead and contacted the run disney rep that I had contacted in the past to see what he had updated my time with. Well, he told me he didn't think I would maintain the pace that I had at my 10k so he gave me a finishing time of 2:30. Honestly, that is really good. It places me in C corral. However, another bit of mixed feelings... if he had only put 2:29 I would have been in B. This only matters because there will be all those fast princes trying to get past me in C. The start time between the two is just 7 minutes.
So I will catch that oh so early bus and then wait. Yes... wait. I need to be to my corral by 5am and then my start time is 5:49 am.
There is a 20 minute walk from the corral to the start that gets mixed into that..but I anticipated quite a bit of standing around cold.
The part of my mixed feelings on C corral is that I can not feel like I will be trampled. I do not intend to run this my normal pace. There will be time for pictures and such. I am hoping that I will not need more than 2 minutes per mile average. If I do then so be it. There are characters that are a bit rare that I may want to have my picture taken with. Then there are some that I can run right by.
As the sun comes up, Steve and Zoe will find their way to spectator areas. There is a tool that will aid him in finding where on the route to see me and how to use Disney transportation to get there. All I really care about is that he is there at the finish. If my guesstimate is correct, I should finish no later than 8:49. That is a solid 3 hours. My last 11 mile run I did in 1:52. So if I say a half hour for stops and the extra 2 miles at about 0:10:30, 3 hours should be plenty.
Once the race is over, I will make sure to collect all my goodies. I may even get my medal engraved. For those of you who may know how I feel about medals, you might find that strange. It won't be like I intend to display it or anything. The medal still isn't the reason I am doing the race. I would do it without the medal. However, to document my time and (I think) bib number on it might be a nice thing to do. However, I will be a tad pressed for time. You see I will be starving and need breakfast.. And we have a breakfast ADR at
Breakfast is at 10:15. This is going to be hard to get to. I think when I haphazardly made my ADRs, I really didnt think things through. I will be trying to get a slightly later breakfast. (even 15 minutes would help). I have given it some thought (thanks to putting together this post) and decided the only way this is going to work is if I don't check a bag at bag check that I have to retrieve and if Steve brings me a bag with essentials in it.
Yep, I am going to have to finish the race and then do a quick "clean up" before starting my day. I am sure it won't be too bad.... but not ideal.
Originally, I thought we finished in Epcot and therefor we could walk out through the international gateway to the BW.
We will finish in the Epcot parking lot and then we will have to take a taxi over. Now, I am planning on getting an AP and could walk through (since the park opens at 9am) However that leaves Steve and Zoe. Park Hoppers? For the sole purpose of walking through? Probably not. Switch days? Well, I have two ADRs IN Epcot the following day and I want a full day in Epcot.
Still, that ability to just walk through might be nice... then again after already running a half marathon maybe the taxi is better.
My thought is to hop into a restroom in the lobby area and change before we check in for our ADR. I figure between getting out of the epcot parking lot and catching the taxi we should have at least 30 minutes for me to do this. Too bad we are not staying at BW because then I could get that shower in.
This breakfast is important to me for two reasons. One, Steve ahs never been to Kouzzina. On our last trip, Kat Kora (is that how her name is spelled?
) was there signing autographs when we walked by. No one was going into the restaurant so there were people standing outside trying to get people to go in and meet her. We chose not to and Steve has regretted it ever since. Not that she will be there this time, but some how eating there will make up for it a tad. The second reason is that I ate my last post race breakfast here and it was yummy! Wanna see why? Sure ya do
I haven't even to look to see if that is still on the menu, but I sure hope it is. That combination of salt and protein was PERFECT!
Once breakfast is over we will be headed to
I think we will take a nice boat ride over. Once there we will want to do a few of our favorites like
for me.
for Zoe
And since Steve has never ever seen this guy
we will have to do this as well.
Beyond that I am not sure. I will have been up since 3am, will have walked a mile to a starting line and then ran 13.1 miles. I am sure to be tired and want a nap.
(not to mention a shower)
If we have stayed long enough that we are now hungry again we will grab lunch at some cs location. A favorite of mine is Starring Rolls, but I am sure that most of the goodies will be long gone by the time we are hungry. However it will be a first choice...if not we may try Backlot Express. If we do leave before we are hungry (which is quite possible) we will just go back later for lunch after a nap and shower has been had.
So while we will likely return for lunch, we wont probably stay too long. The park is only open until 7pm. This works just fine since we have our dinner planned for 6:30pm at
(borrowed from internet)
After dinner we will play it by ear. I am probably going to be quite tired and want to just spend the evening in the hot tub/pool and my comfy bed. If for some reason though we have an incredible need to go back out AND we have decided FOR getting park hoppers, MK is open with EMH till 11pm.
Changes to 2/24!!!
I cant believe that!!!
I had got a couple head bands too... thinking if the hat didn't work, maybe the head band would. 
It is always fun to get that mail with luggage tags and your package info. 
)
for no elk.
makes you want to wish you wanted to run. Thanks. I do think this will be the skirt I run in. 
