Springtime Surprise Weekend (April 13-16, 2023)

That was a blast, but there was part of me wanting to do this one my own.


I understand this completely. When I did the DLP Half, I went with my husband and it was nice to have that buddy during my first race. But this time, I really wanted to prove to myself I could do the races on my own. It's me sticking to a training plan, me navigating the start area, and me pushing myself to get to the finish lines.

I think while "necessary" might be relative, you have to stop and look at the bigger picture. How will completing this make you feel in the long run? It'll probably give you a morale boost that'll carry over into your daily life long after race weekend. The sense of accomplishment will last far longer than the justification of "I don't really need to do this."
At least, that's how I look at it.
 
Here I sit, with minimal running motivation. So I started pricing out making a trip for just the 10mi. And pretty much no matter how I slice it I'm looking at $1000 if I want to drive 2.5hrs each way to a larger airport and fly down Saturday morning, or $1500 if I want to fly out Thursday from our local airport. Bah. I really like the medals this year, but I'm having a hard time with justifying the cost for the virtual these days.
The temptation has been removed—the 10 miler finally sold out

hey @DopeyBadger : the 10 miler finally sold out
 
I painted my core memory balls for my Springtime Surprise 5K Joy costume last night. I decided to paint the little ones translucent, shimmery, sparkly white and let the color-changing LEDs choose the emotion of the memories.
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The big one obviously needed to be yellow for a Joy-ful memory, and the picture I chose (thanks for the suggestion of doing this @DopeyBadger ) is my finish line shot from the Princess 2022 Half—my first ever in-person half marathon.
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I got it printed on transparency paper (film?) at FedEx and cut it down to size. I didn’t think about it being inflexible, so I had to use ModPodge to secure it midway into one half of the ball and seal the edges so the yellow paint wouldn’t get onto the front of the picture.
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All the lights are remote controlled, so I can turn them on once I get settled in my corral. I do have to turn on the little ones individually with the remote so they aren’t synced up, but that takes all of a minute (there‘s going to be 10 of them, but one light is currently dedicated to my Maleficent staff)
 


Basic park hours have been released for Springtime Surprise Weekend, and based on Epcot opening an hour later on Sunday and HS opening half hour later on Sunday, we can safely assume the 10 Miler course goes through both those parks. I wish runDisney would get a little more creative with their race routes, there must be another 10 mile route we could run.
 
If it ends up being the same route as last year that would (sadly) not be surprising…

On positive note, are ppl interested in doing any prerace meetups or a Hurricane Hanna’s meet up? Still lots of time but thought I would put it out there.
 


I may be in for HH depending on if my friend is still in the parks and/or wants to tag along… hopefully if I do make it out I’ll find you this time and not arrive with the area closed due to lightning
 
Regarding HH DISmeet, it will depend on exhausted DD15 gets from the lack of sleep, so we would be a maybe. We plan to be at HS on Friday and Epcot on Saturday so we would be a close 😀
 
My family is with me this trip so I don't think I'll be able to make it to a HH meetup. Wish I would've gone MW!
 
In case this is helpful to anyone - if you have Delta flights booked with miles, and if you have a Gold or Platinum Delta Amex (personal or business) you can now book reward flights with 15% less miles. I just checked and canceled and rebooked my April fights, and saved 20k miles. Nice little perk!

I'm also in my ADR window and got everything I wanted. It's getting close!
 
Do you think I can make an 8:00 am Keys to the Kingdom Tour after the 5k? I'm staying at Pop but don't necessarily need to go back to the hotel. Maybe I can grab breakfast an an MK resort hotel after.
 
Do you think I can make an 8:00 am Keys to the Kingdom Tour after the 5k? I'm staying at Pop but don't necessarily need to go back to the hotel. Maybe I can grab breakfast an an MK resort hotel after.
Depends on what corral you start in and how fast you want to go. I've gone from 5k, to Pop, showered and still made it to MK for rope drop. I was in corral d and stopped for no characters. I did about a 35 minute 5K
 
Depends on what corral you start in and how fast you want to go. I've gone from 5k, to Pop, showered and still made it to MK for rope drop. I was in corral d and stopped for no characters. I did about a 35 minute 5K
Does that mean that the busses back to the resorts start earlier for the 5k? I really want to rope drop HS that morning and still worried that I will be stuck waiting for the bus to BW or YC to leave.
 
Does that mean that the busses back to the resorts start earlier for the 5k? I really want to rope drop HS that morning and still worried that I will be stuck waiting for the bus to BW or YC to leave.

Assuming that the 5K course is similar to the one that they use for the other races, the buses for the resorts cannot leave until everyone has started since they use the same road as the runners. Usually it takes about an hour to start everyone so the earliest the resort buses would start running would be around 6:15.
 
Does that mean that the busses back to the resorts start earlier for the 5k? I really want to rope drop HS that morning and still worried that I will be stuck waiting for the bus to BW or YC to leave.
I was able to rope drop HS after a 5k last year, didn’t exactly have a fast time for that one either. Finish, right to the bus, quick shower and back out. It’s doable.
 
Let’s play a game of fun with Disney IT….
I always forget when dining opens so I just checked at 1205 florida time it does show 60+4 but than gives me an error message

the one harder to get reservation we want hasn’t yet opened for reservations period so it will be a whole different battle when that happens
 
Looking for some suggestions for lunch on the day I go to the expo. If all goes well, I should be at Pop around 11:00 am. I either want to go somewhere first to grab lunch (don't want to eat at the food court) and then take a bus to the expo, or get to the expo and go for lunch after. Trying hard to stick with Disney transportation. Any ideas for me?
 
Looking for some suggestions for lunch on the day I go to the expo. If all goes well, I should be at Pop around 11:00 am. I either want to go somewhere first to grab lunch (don't want to eat at the food court) and then take a bus to the expo, or get to the expo and go for lunch after. Trying hard to stick with Disney transportation. Any ideas for me?
Assuming it's not a park day for you? You could take the bus to Riviera and eat at Primo Piatto, which is really good (mobile order from the bus!) then take skyliner back to Pop, or do the same for Beaches n Cream at Beach Club, but try to get a reservation there. Ale & Compass at Yacht is another favorite of mine, and easy to get a lunch res. Same goes for anything on the boardwalk (bus to boardwalk, then skyliner back to Pop, etc.)
 

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