Marathon Day!!

 Today is the day that Molly completes her Dopey – after having done the 5K, the 10K, and the half-marathon on consecutive days. Today is the final race – all 26.2 miles of it. Me? I’m just along for course support.

So, I pack my bag of Molly’s necessities (M&Ms, Lays potato chips, power water, etc) and head out with her at 4:30am to catch the bus. Why am I going with her at this early hour? So I can be at my first appointed stop outside the Polynesian Resort – or around Mile 8.5.

We get to the start area at Epcot, and Molly headed off to her corral. I head to catch the monorail which will take me to the Magic Kingdom area. I then get in the line that is apparently the bag check line for the monorail. Bag check is common to get into the parks, but for the monorail? Once the line snakes out into the parking lot and doubles, the powers that be determine that bag check is NOT necessary for the monorail, and we get going.

I get to my appointed spot in plenty of time. There are several other spectators there, including one

woman with humongous boobs that I am afraid are going to fall out of her blouse at any given moment. Oh well, I guess we all have our ways of encouraging others.

Anyway, soon Molly appears and I provide her with her desired items. She appears happy and healthy – and only has around 18 more miles to go!

My next spot is outside of Animal Kingdom. I catch the bus and spend the next 45 minutes getting to Animal Kingdom (a ride that should take half the time). The reason? The marathon ties up a lot of roads, so we have to take the long way. As we head to Animal Kingdom, we pass many runners – some of whom look good, and some who don’t look so good.

Once I arrive at Animal Kingdom, I find a spot and get out the oranges that I had peeled last night. I put them on a plate and offered them to the runners as they passed. Some acted as if I were passing out gold bars! Again, some runners were trotting along as if this were nothing, and some were actually weeping at this point – which would be the halfway point.

Soon Molly comes trotting along and looks pretty good. Apparently she stopped while in Animal Kingdom and rode the Expedition Everest roller coaster. And why shouldn’t see? Anyhow, she took some more supplies and headed out for the last half of the race.

My next stop was at Hollywood Studios which is at Mile 22 of the course. I had a lot of time to spend in Hollywood Studios, which was good, since my phone was quickly running low on battery (and of course my emergency booster was back in the room). Luckily, Guest Relations will charge your phone for you, so I got enough of a boost to see me through. Molly arrived, we had a brief moment, and off she headed to finish the race. Along the way to the finish, she saw Steve at the Boardwalk, and she met Katie in France, where Katie had a pineapple cider to push Molly to the finish.

Meanwhile, I had headed out of Hollywood Studios where I heard my name being called. It was my friend Suzanne, who was sitting with her husband, waiting for their daughter Jessie Elizabeth, who was doing the marathon. We visited for a few minutes and then I headed to catch the bus to Epcot.

Once on the bus, I kept thinking I heard a tiny baby crying – young enough to still have that newborn cry. I kept looking around but saw no baby. Finally I noticed a baby seat covered with a baby blanket, situated between a lady’s legs. Other people started noticing the baby’s cries (because it cried the entire time). Finally the lady said, “I know, but it’s a short bus ride.” Um, not for your distraught baby, lady!!

Finally we got to Epcot and I headed to the finish line, where I saw Molly as she finished that last .2 miles to the finish line. Yay Molly!! She finished her 3rd Dopey Challenge!!

Once she was done, we found the bus to the hotel and headed back there for a nap before eating dinner in Canada. Steve headed to the airport to head home while Molly and I headed to bed. Tomorrow starts Phase 2 of our Disneycation!!

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Thankful today for: Seeing Molly at various places along the marathon course; passing out oranges to runners; Molly finishing the Dopey

Half Marathon Day!!

Okay, so today was the half marathon. That’s 13.1 miles. Which is fun anyway, and particularly fun if you’re nowhere near as trained as you should be. But does that stop me? Nope!

Anyhow, the morning was a repeat of yesterday, except for the rain, which was nonexistent. Get up, meet in the lobby at 4:30am, catch the bus, get to the start, start the race.

This time we started close to Epcot and headed to the Magic Kingdom, where the castle was all lit up and beautiful in the morning fog. Once you get through Tomorrowland and the castle, you head through Frontierland and out – and head back to Epcot where you do a loop through Future World and to the finish.

Just before Mile 13, some dude grabbed his leg and went to the side of the course and fell down moaning. Somebody asked if he was okay, to which he yelled, “NO!!” Luckily there was a cast member close who went over to him – since I had nothing to offer in the way of help, I kept going.

I made it to the finish, received my medal and headed for the buses. I got back to the hotel and had my obligatory post-race nap before heading back to the Magic Kingdom with Molly in order to meet up with Katie and Nancy for some roast beef mac-n-cheese and loaded potatoes (carbo-loading, people). Nothing much went on the rest of the day – Molly has THE BIG DEAL tomorrow, and I have to pack the supply bag. Time for sleeping!!

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Thankful today for: finishing the half-marathon; seeing Donald at the finish and getting a photo; lunch at the MK with Katie and Nancy

Minnie's 10K Day

Today was Minnie’s 10K. The race started at 5:30am, so again we met Katie in the lobby (Nancy opted out of the other races), only this morning at 4:30am. Steve was also doing this one and we had planned to take the car, but as we were headed to the parking lot, we saw a race bus, so we caught it instead.

It was beginning to drizzle rain, but we had ponchos, so we were fine – especially when the drizzle turned to rain. We trotted around the Boardwalk (where Molly saw Jessie Elizabeth, my childhood friend Suzanne’s daughter who was giving out doughnuts) and World Showcase to the finish. Steve had long finished and taken the bus back, Molly and Katie had finished and taken a bus back, and finally I took a bus back.

After drying off and cleaning up, Molly and I had lunch with Katie and Nancy at The Brown Derby. Again, the rest of the day went quietly – tomorrow the real stuff begins!

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Thankful today for: great day for a 10K; seeing Aisling at the first water stop; catching up with Molly at the resort; lunch with Molly, Katie, and Nancy and meeting Tiny

Family 5K Day!

Today is the 5K. Nancy and Katie are doing it with us, and it’s Nancy’s first ever 5K! They are staying at the Yacht Club and met us in the lobby at 5am (yes, we are crazy RunDisney people who get up at crazy-time in the morning to do these races). We all got in the car and headed to the start.

Kate, Nancy, and I were all in the same corral and took off at the same time. Molly was in a corral later than us, but quickly caught up with us somewhere around Germany (basically the course is a loop around World Showcase in Epcot). This was also about the time that we realized that we had not bothered to note where we had parked the car …

We finished, wandered around the parking lot until we did locate the car, dropped Katie and Nancy at their hotel, picked up some breakfast, and headed back to the hotel, where Molly and I decided to catch up on our morning’s sleep.

Of course Steve went to play golf, and after our nap Molly and I decided to have some nachos – a choice we regretted later. The rest of the day went by quietly – after all, tomorrow is another race!

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Thankful today for: fun 5K with Molly, Katie, and Nancy; finding the car after the race; breakfast shopping with Molly

Expo and Shopping Day

Today was the day to pick up our race stuff. For the record, Molly is doing the Dopey – 5K, 10K, Half-marathon, and full Marathon. I am doing the 5K, 10K, and Half Marathon. Steve is doing the 10K and Half Marathon. What that means is that we have a lot of race bibs and shirts to collect. We also wanted to look at the new RunDisney shoes – because we are RunDisney nerds like that.

So, we arrived at WWOS to pick up our stuff – along with the other zillion people who are here this weekend for the same reasons. We went here and there and picked up this and that (and yes, some new shoes) and then went to the expo where there were ten gazillion people. We decided to come back later to shop the expo but stop first to have lunch with Katie and Nancy, who are also here for the weekend.

After the madness of the expo, we dropped off Steve to play golf and Molly and I decided to go find the Sparkle Skirts store because they were having a sale (I’m a fan of the skirts, while Molly has never tried one). Needless to say, three hours later, we managed to get out with only three skirts. Each.

We picked up Steve from golf and returned to the expo, where the massive crowds were no longer an issue. We shopped around a bit and headed back to the hotel. Tomorrow is an early call!

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Thankful today for: shoe and skirt shopping with Molly; lunch with Steve, Molly, Katie, and Nancy