The Official Expedition Everest 2013 Thread

[Cant wait for Disney]

Hey all you runners! Hope you had a blast! Ran my first 5k yesterday and had so much fun. Was there any info at the end about next year's date?!

 

[Syrreal]

That race was a blast! Had a blip when we were sent the wrong direction and actually ended up running almost 4 miles since we had to backtrack. Not cool. It was pretty messed up when you had both runners and the first hunters in the park. We would have gotten a much better time than we did had that not been the case.
We still managed a new personal record of 13:58 a mile which shaved off over a minute from my Jingle Jungle time last November.
I found the clues to be pretty easy and we made up some time there.
We just saw it as practice towards one of the 10K races.

How did everyone else do?

 

[momof2minnies]

So jealous-did this in 2010 w my DD and it was great then they changed dates to May-right in the middle of finals???

Want to do it again!!!!!!

Linda

 

[ATLJR]

That race was a blast! Had a blip when we were sent the wrong direction and actually ended up running almost 4 miles since we had to backtrack. Not cool. It was pretty messed up when you had both runners and the first hunters in the park. We would have gotten a much better time than we did had that not been the case.
We still managed a new personal record of 13:58 a mile which shaved off over a minute from my Jingle Jungle time last November.
I found the clues to be pretty easy and we made up some time there.
We just saw it as practice towards one of the 10K races.

How did everyone else do?

I had the same problem! I went all the way to Camp Minnie Mickey instead of heading towards Africa. I followed the "running group" and found out it was only members of an earlier corral who were running for their clues, whereas the people who were walking (that I assumed were on the scavenger hunt) were actually part of the corral ahead of mine I had caught. Once I got back there the volunteer seemed dumbfounded when I asked if this was the direction of the run... wasted a good 5 minutes due to back tracking and trying to find someone who had a clue where the actual running course was. I was on pace for a personal best time until then.

Nonetheless, the race was an absolute blast! It was my very first Run Disney event and I will certainly do it again. Didn't expect to essentially do a 10K with the scavenger hunt basically being the entire course again. To be honest though I kind of liked it. I have my first 10K in July and this weekend gave me a better idea of what I need to do to train for it and how the distance feels.It was also nice to have an actual "FINISH" to both sections whereas in the past people apparently complained of not knowing when they 5K ended.

As always Disney put on a first class event and the feel of it being a "bigger" event than a 5K made it very memorable. Costumes were great. Cracked up seeing the group of guys dressed up as the princesses.

 

[tifaas]

Hi everyone! We made it home ourselves today. I didn't have the finish I was expecting either. We had so much fun in the corrals and seeing everyone's costumes. We saw the guys dressed as princess's too. I loved the one guy in the Alice costume.

I am here to give everyone our perspective of the race since we were in the last corral. We didn't see any balloon ladies or pacers so if anyone is ever worried about that, don't be. I see on the list of times that some people even finished the 5k with an hour and twenty five minute 5k so hopefully that will put your mind at ease if you were concerned about that.

We took off and had a good pace out of the gate, and were trying to get over to the right to slow down slightly and get on our walk/run intervals. As we slowed down, I went to get a drink of water from our hydration pack as I get dehydrated pretty quickly and stepped down off the side of the road into the grass and twisted my ankle. I fell down pretty hard on my left knee as well. The medic's came in their golf cart and wheeled me over to the medical tent. They said my ankle was likely sprained and would need to get it x-rayed as it was swelling and couldn't move it from side to side. They told me I didn't have to go right then but when Urgent Care opened in the morning I should go get it checked out.

So they pulled us from the race and sent me back to the resort in a handicap van as I was put in a wheel chair due to not being able to put any weight on my right foot.

Instead of having fun at the after party, I was at the hotel with it elevated and ice on it as directed every 25 minutes. Not the way I envisioned the night ending.

We got up the next morning and went to the urgent care clinic. It was xrayed and it was sprained. So, they wrapped it for me and it's doing much better now. I have been mainly putting a heating pad on it and the swelling is already down quite a bit.

We have decided to use this as motivation to come back next year for that darn medal. I felt so bad for my DH that he didn't get to finish himself but he wasn't going to leave my side.

I wanted to send a thanks to those on the course that helped me. Especially the Disney Nurse that stopped along with her family. They were so kind to stay with us until a medic came to make sure I was ok. I don't know if you are on here, and I'm sorry I didn't get your name. However I was a wreck and I wanted to share my appreciation with everyone. You don't know how much it meant to me that you and your entire family were so kind to stop and help. I hope you had a great race and that I didn't slow you down too much for helping me.

 

[cewait]

Hi everyone! We made it home ourselves today. I didn't have the finish I was expecting either. We had so much fun in the corrals and seeing everyone's costumes. We saw the guys dressed as princess's too. I loved the one guy in the Alice costume.

I am here to give everyone our perspective of the race since we were in the last corral. We didn't see any balloon ladies or pacers so if anyone is ever worried about that, don't be. I see on the list of times that some people even finished the 5k with an hour and twenty five minute 5k so hopefully that will put your mind at ease if you were concerned about that.

We took off and had a good pace out of the gate, and were trying to get over to the right to slow down slightly and get on our walk/run intervals. As we slowed down, I went to get a drink of water from our hydration pack as I get dehydrated pretty quickly and stepped down off the side of the road into the grass and twisted my ankle. I fell down pretty hard on my left knee as well. The medic's came in their golf cart and wheeled me over to the medical tent. They said my ankle was likely sprained and would need to get it x-rayed as it was swelling and couldn't move it from side to side. They told me I didn't have to go right then but when Urgent Care opened in the morning I should go get it checked out.

So they pulled us from the race and sent me back to the resort in a handicap van as I was put in a wheel chair due to not being able to put any weight on my right foot.

Instead of having fun at the after party, I was at the hotel with it elevated and ice on it as directed every 25 minutes. Not the way I envisioned the night ending.

We got up the next morning and went to the urgent care clinic. It was xrayed and it was sprained. So, they wrapped it for me and it's doing much better now. I have been mainly putting a heating pad on it and the swelling is already down quite a bit.

We have decided to use this as motivation to come back next year for that darn medal. I felt so bad for my DH that he didn't get to finish himself but he wasn't going to leave my side.

I wanted to send a thanks to those on the course that helped me. Especially the Disney Nurse that stopped along with her family. They were so kind to stay with us until a medic came to make sure I was ok. I don't know if you are on here, and I'm sorry I didn't get your name. However I was a wreck and I wanted to share my appreciation with everyone. You don't know how much it meant to me that you and your entire family were so kind to stop and help. I hope you had a great race and that I didn't slow you down too much for helping me.

Sorry your evening ended that way, but sounds like nothing major happened. I second the shining knights who volunteer as med techs in these events.

 

[cewait]

That race was a blast! Had a blip when we were sent the wrong direction and actually ended up running almost 4 miles since we had to backtrack. Not cool. It was pretty messed up when you had both runners and the first hunters in the park. We would have gotten a much better time than we did had that not been the case.
We still managed a new personal record of 13:58 a mile which shaved off over a minute from my Jingle Jungle time last November.
I found the clues to be pretty easy and we made up some time there.
We just saw it as practice towards one of the 10K races.

How did everyone else do?

Think of it as bonus miles. You received even more value for your entry fee

 

[jeanigor]

Did anyone else have confusion on the second clue? Specifically as to why "Wear" was highlighted?

 

[luvmygrljb]

Did anyone else have confusion on the second clue? Specifically as to why "Wear" was highlighted?

I had trouble with all the clues!!! LOL

 

[frisbeego]

Congrats to all the runners! This looks like a great event, but unfortunately I can't work it into the schedule yet.

Semi-related question: On Facebook, runDisney posted a picture of a family in tie-dyed/cammo tutus. One person is wearing a gopro camera on a chest strap -- aka, the "chesty." Does anyone here have any experience with running with one? If so, what were your thoughts?

TIA!

 

[Syrreal]

Tifaas- so sorry to hear about what happened! I'm glad that you're ok.

We looked at our placing yesterday 472 of 982. Not too shabby after all even with the sidetracking and walking the whole scavenger hunt. At least we weren't the only one who got lost

 

[csjordan]

Hi All! Same question as PP: Has the 2014 date been announced? Thanks!

 

[Syrreal]

I would think that it will be the 1st weekend in May again.

 

[walkdmc]

I'm pretty sure I'm in the minority but just giving a different opinion on the run; I didn't like it.

I liked seeing the costumes, the laid back atmosphere and the actual 5K. I didn't like the "scavenger hunt" at all. I found the "hunt" boring and it added miles to the 5K. DH had his Nike foot pod/GPS which registered over 6 miles by the time we were done the hunt. Then, we walked to the after party which added more distance. So, if you are thinking of doing this run with kids or you expect to cover a 5K only, keep in mind the added distance of the "hunt".

I didn't like how they didn't offer the Powerade and bananas until after the "hunt" was over. Seeing as how the "hunt" took us twice as long as the run, it was a long wait for refueling. (can you tell I really didn't like the "hunt", lol). So, if you're used to refueling every 5 miles or so, pack a snack for yourself (in your armband, spibelt, whatever...which brings up the point of a spibelt. I never run a 5K with a belt but for the EE run, I'd plan on it).

I totally wanted to party at the after party. I didn't get to enjoy the ToT party because I was so spent after the run. I figured I'd be able to enjoy a 5K after-party since I run 5Ks all the time, no problem. However, I didn't party at all. I was so tired between the "hunt" and the finishing time that we got a quick bite to eat then left. We were back in our room by 1:30am and had to shower. So, also plan on staying up very late for a couple of days leading up to the EE so you'll be ready to party at 1am.

This was my third Disney 5K and we did the ToT 10-miler last year and this was my least favorite run. The medal is cool, though.

And LOL at "Man Jasmine"....

 

[sunshine girl]

We have decided to use this as motivation to come back next year for that darn medal. I felt so bad for my DH that he didn't get to finish himself but he wasn't going to leave my side.

I am so sorry you didn't get to finish! You have a good attitude -- next year will be better!

 

[sunshine girl]

Greetings all, I am back home (booo) after a few extra days at Disney post-race. I had a great time!

My perspective on the race itself: I LOVED it! I had a ton of fun. I ran the 5k and then ran the entire scavenger hunt, stopping just to work out the clues. I had trouble with the clues, but mainly because I couldn't focus ... was just too excited to concentrate! The next morning the answers seemed more obvious when I re-read the clues.

I actually enjoyed that it was more like a 10K! I was kind of expecting it, since the scavenger hunt part starts after the 5k ends I figured there'd be a couple extra miles. I liked getting to run through the park one more time.

I stayed out waaaay later than I expected and had so much fun at the after party. The dance party near Dinoland was hilarious. The characters were in rare form on the dance floor (even the DJ remarked that the characters seemed to be getting really into it)!

However, there was some room for improvement...

There seemed to be just one woman trying to direct runners vs. scavenger hunters at the fork between Camp Minnie Mickey and Africa, and she was NOT equal to the task. Not at all!! She was barely directing anyone and looked confused. I can easily see how people ran the wrong direction. That was definitely a course-planning and volunteer-planning mistake.

The tire-step obstacle was poorly planned. There was not enough room for everyone. (I had to wait in line to start it for almost 3 minutes and then go slooowly due to the people in front of me. Looks like it would have (surprisingly!) bumped me into the top 10 individual women to shave off those minutes spent waiting. Not like that's important, but hey! The racers shouldn't have to wait.) They needed two more sets of tire-step lines to alleviate the issue.

But I LOVED it and will be back, if at all possible! A fun and unique event. Congrats to all runners and hope everyone had a great time at Disney and during the race!

 

[cegreenf]

Hi everyone!

I just wanted to chime in also to say that we had so much fun at the race! We were a kinda beat up crew going into it (1-achilles tendonitis, 1- recovering from knee ligament injury, 1- discovered heel pain while training, and 1- got a cold that morning) but we still had a great time!

We had gotten to WDW Thursday morning, and did some pretty intense touring Thursday and Friday. Saturday was supposed to be a quick trip to Epcot really early to do Soarin, TT, and get back to relax. As always, things never work out- we didn't get to epcot until 10, and then there was the May the 4th Day we wanted to check out, so long story short I don't think we rested as much as we should have.

I agree with the previous poster about the tires- I basically walked through them, and I was hoping to see if I could actually run it or not. However, jumping over the hay barrels was a lot of fun, as was crawling under the net.

I wish this race had started even just an hour earlier - by the time we finished, regrouped, got back into the park and ate, the only thing we could do was go on Dinosaur, and walk through the dance party before we were all sleeping standing up!

But we are eagerly awaiting the announcement for the date of next year's race - now that we know how to better plan for it!

 

[bumbershoot]

It was good to hear your perspective, walkdmc. I had really wanted to do this, but the cost was getting to me, then DH got injured, and suddenly it was full.

But I recently did a RoadRunnerSports "Adventure Run" and I was very very close to actually *hating* the experience. The EE race is different because it had a race and then a hunt, vs the run/hunt being together at the "adventure run", but still, I think I would probably not have had much fun at the EE event. Glad to hear that perspective, because I would not like to pay all that money and then not have some sort of fun.


Of course, having an injury would be bad, too, so sorry to hear about the injury, tifaas!!!

 

[erinna]

This was a one-and-done for me. I'm glad to have done it, but I don't think I need to do it again.

The plusses: the time in AK after dark (esp Expedition Everest in the dark: woohoo!), doing a shorter WDW run at night meant I had some energy for the after party (unlike ToT, alas), the cool bling, the women's cut "I did it shirt," the cliff bars (which I liked better than the boxes we usually get) and my running partner was a TOTAL blast.

The minuses: the placement into carrels was confusing -- we're runners and we were in a later carrel surround by all walkers, so we had a bunch of weaving to do -- the obstacles were congested, and getting around the after party was a little confusing (esp figuring out what food and drink was where).

The volunteers didn't seem super well informed and when I asked one of them for a hint (which we were told we could do) she read me the clue card to me. Which was SO not helping.

I also just don't dig the whole clue hunt thing -- but that is a me thing and no bad on the race. I'd just rather run.

I'm glad to have done it once, but that's enough. Next stop: ToT!!!

 

[ATLJR]

There seemed to be just one woman trying to direct runners vs. scavenger hunters at the fork between Camp Minnie Mickey and Africa, and she was NOT equal to the task. Not at all!! She was barely directing anyone and looked confused. I can easily see how people ran the wrong direction. That was definitely a course-planning and volunteer-planning mistake.

Nice summary.

I didn't even see the woman at the fork when I got...err....sidetracked. I seriously think she was occupied assisting or talking to someone... I saw her when I came back through for the scavenger hunt.

I just couldn't quite figure out why they couldn't have just put a sign up right in the middle of the intersection with an arrow pointing left to Minnie Mickey saying "CLUE" and right to "5K"? Not only did my "detour" cost me probably 5 minutes and potentially my personal best 5K time..it also made me irritated for the next 1/2 mile or so (especially as I had to pass the same people I had passed in the first mile from my corral) . To add insult to injury when running on the service road it was excruciatingly painful to see the people I had passed right around the entrance to the park on the opposite side about to cross the tires..feet from me.. while I had to run all the way down and back.. knowing that's where I should have been at the very least.