Well, I will do my best to write an accurate and somewhat concise report for my C25KRU! friends.

I started and it ended up being a non-concise report. I'll post that too, but I'm going to need more time to work on it.
The short story is this: Kate and I met up at the Adventurer's Club on Friday night and had a fun time, though I left early due to travel fatigue.
The next day, race day, Austin and I did a lot of family guilt shopping at various resorts and Downtown Disney. It was fun, but not the restful day I had envisioned. Midway through the afternoon, he headed back out to Animal Kingdom Lodge to get something he had seen the previous night after Boma and decided that he actually DID want, and badly enough to trek back over to AKL. I went back to the room with the morning's purchases, and tried to relax, rest a little, ice my sore spots, stretch out my problem muscles and get the race stuff ready. It went pretty well. We decided to skip dinner, but went over to shop at the CBR store and I bought a Greek salad for later and Austin bought a cookie for later.
We returned to the room and changed and put on our wristbands (they glow in the dark!!) that were required for the race and party. We put the chips on our shoes. Austin walked me through the whole thing because I had never done it before. Finally, we were all ready to go. I had arranged a cab to pick us up at 8pm, and we arrived in the loop at the same time as the taxi did. Away we went.
But then we ran into a HUGE amount of traffic leaving the resort and turning onto Buena Vista. It was crazy how many cars there were. Then we realized it was all traffic for the race! I was already nervous and this was not helping. I was feeling sickish and cold and tense and shivvery. Finally we got out and headed for the main entrance of the park. Which wasn't the right place to go, as it turned out. We headed over towards the Stage parking lot and finally saw tents and things that at last looked like the start of a race.
I heard my name called out and hooray! It was Kate! I got to meet her sweet mom and adorable little Russ! We talked a few minutes and took a couple of pictures.
That's it - the only one I have that turned out from the race. I know that Kate's mom took some more, though, and there are the professional photos yet to be posted online, so there is hope for more photos! I needed to check in my bag and also keep moving, so we moved along. The bag check went smoothly, and then I realized that the battery in my camera was low and maybe it would be smarter not to have brought it. But oh well. We wandered on to the start, and the huge line of port-a-potties.
They had a DJ and a huge screen and were playing stuff like Marilyn Manson and Rolling Stones and Ozzy Osborne. Lovely, right? Eventually, we decide we'd better call Kate, but as it is ringing, I spotted her! Austin wanted to move up towards the front, so off he went and Kate and I proceeded to wait for the race to start. I am leaving out the 4 individual potty stops I made - I wanted to be sure to be as empty as possible for the race.
We were very frustrated when they delayed the start of the race by another 20 minutes - that was 20 minutes of park time that we were going to just NOT get. And then we started to wonder where the benefit was to running the longer race. We paid more, worked harder, had less time in the park after AND got the same shirt and medal as we would have had we run the shorter distance. I guess what we got was a chip time and the wide world of sports. We also discussed running together versus going our separate ways. We decided to stay together as long as it seemed to make sense, but if we decided to split up later, there would be no hard feelings.
At last the race started. Within the first 500 yards, there was a man off to the side peeing in the woods.

The first segment was on the highway and there was a little out and back and we even ran outside the WDW gates. I saw Austin when he doubled back, but he didn't see me cause I was unfortunately more in the middle. It was exciting when the 13 split off from the 6.5 course and we were committed to the full distance. The banking of the off-ramp was uncomfortable, but workable for a short distance. Before we knew it, we were running through the woods at the Wide World of Sports complex. There were eerie speakers playing eerie sounds. They had brought in lots of portable lighting for the event, so it wasn't TOO spooky. They had cast members dressed in white along the sides acting crazy and banging pots (someone said to scare the aligators away.)
We got to the track where we did most of a lap and I said, "It is too bad that Kim isn't here with us, but given the hip problems, it's kind of lucky she didn't plan to come." Things work out, but we still wished you were with us, Kim! Somewhere between mile 3 and 4, there was a huge water stop with a medical tent, too. We had passed on the first water stop (I don't know exactly why) but got some water here. And on we went. We wove around all these sports fields - what a huge place! We got passed by a stinky man and I was glad he was running a lot faster than us. I told Kate that I thought we could make it to 4 miles before our walk-break. We were back on the highway. When we passed that 4 mile marker, we kept going, but ended up taking a short walking break at 4.25 miles. After a while, I said "OK - we'll start running again at that police car up there" and she said "What police car. I don't see any police car up there!" We still started running again at the police car.
I don't remember exactly how many little walk-breaks we took. Maybe Kate does, but at some point I got runner's brain. I remember when we were on the other banked bit of road - an off ramp, I think, we heard "Na na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye!" And I thought it was a speaker behind us, but it was another runner with her earphones out and her music turned way up. We sang along with it for a while, but of course, she passed us.
Eventually, we were running back over the same road we had run out on at the start and then we were approaching a back entrance of MGM! There was a water and powerade stop. I had water and Kate boldly had the powerade! There were fans inside MGM and they were cheering us on, which was nice. The run inside MGM was kind of long and loopy and I don't really remember how it went, but we saw Kate's mom on the way in and then looped around a lot and finally, at long last, we came up the street by Rock N roller Coaster and there was Austin! He waved at us and we ran right on past! Then we saw Kate's sister and her adorable son! Then the tough part - the back way into Fantasmic.
I had gone this way on the Fantasmic dinner package and knew what was coming. A long HILL. *******s! We ran up most of it, but the last, steep bump, I admit, we walked a minute. Whew. But then we were running downhill and then - THEN - we saw the finish line. We had run the whole way together and I said "Now it's time for a burst of speed!" And Kate said "I don't HAVE a burst of speed! But you go for it!" And maybe I shouldn't have, but I did. I crossed the finish line a whole entire 6 seconds ahead of her.

I'm thinking she maybe DID have a burst of speed just a few seconds after I started mine. Either that or my burst of speed wasn't actually all that speedy.
They cut off our chips. Then I was surprised to be faced with a volunteer who had a medal for me. She put it right around my neck. We walked on and got some water and brownies and bananas. They had more powerade, but again I passed - I had seen too much sports drink puking at the marathon. We walked on and found Kate's sister and then we found Austin, and ended up splitting up at that point.
Austin and I went and collected our bags. I had thought to change, but there was a long line at the restroom, so we looked at the RnRC line - 30 minutes. Yikes. We decide to head to star tours, but I got lured in by the tower. Good thing. We only had an hour by the time I got unqueasy and was ready to ride something. It was the best Tower of Terror ride ever. I don't know if they had a special sequence programmed, but we aplauded at the end of the ride, it was so good. I bought a couple of race technical shirts in the shop. It took longer than it should have. Ultimately, I am glad that I have them, but I wish I hadn't had to spend so much time to get them.
Then we went and rode RnRC and it was fantastic as well. I offered Austin to ride again and he said SURE! - it is his favorite ride, and he was planning to ride 4 times. But it was sadly 1am and therefore closed. Bummer.
We headed for the exit, but before we left, I changed into my non-soaked-smelly clothes at long last. And Austin checked our results on the website. Pretty exciting!
I have to get the kids to bed, but I will post the final results in a little bit.
