A One-Time Only Goofy's Race and a Half Challenge Trip Report

Hey everyone! I am back from a trip to WDW to partake in Marathon Weekend and more specifically to take on the Goofy's Race and a Half Challenge! This trip did not go entirely how I thought it would but it is over now and its time for a recap. My pictures especially for the races are a little lacking from my last marathon report. I just wasn't feeling it this trip. Cast of characters is just me (Kristy) and husband Dan.

Here is a link to my pre-trip report if you are interested in the backround - http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/goofy-challenge-pre-trip-report.857764/


The days leading up to this trip were very stressful. The Thursday before we left our gas furnace died. Luckily we have a fireplace and were able to keep warm with that and space heaters. We needed to get estimates and have it installed in less than a week. I didn't want my friend who was staying to take care of our animals to have to worry about keeping a fire going. Funds are stretched here already and a new furnace was not in the budget. Ugh. We had the new furnace installed on Wednesday and we left on Thursday morning. Talk about cutting it close! Along with having a furnace installed, my husband calls me on Wed while I am at work and tells me that our one horse is sick again. He had an issue in the past, which we thought had been dealt with and it resurfaced the day before we leave. STRESS, STRESS, STRESS! Call in to the vet but it is after hours by now. It is not a life-threatening issue but one that I don't want to be unattended to while we are gone. Needless to say, I was having second thoughts about this trip with all the problems we have been having.

We left our house around 3:45 am and arrived at our off-site airport parking about an hour later. We had a 6:30 flight out of Philly. We found a great parking service that will take you to the airport in your own car, drop you off and then pick you up in your own car when you come back. For an extra fee, at pickup, you can leave straight from the airport and they will get a ride back to the lot. Very convenient!

We finally arrived for the flight and there were a lot of other runners on this flight as well. We were all pretty quiet due to the early hour I think. In no time, we were boarding and then waiting to taxi.

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I was still pretty stressed having not heard from the vet yet. I just didn't have the normal Disney excitement. :( I tried to sit back and enjoy the ride. We did have a beautiful sunrise!

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Soon we were passing over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel system. Looks neat from the air.

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Starting to descend into the Orlando area, I see the Port Canaveral area! Kind of need another cruise! (at least I think it might be Port Canaveral)

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TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Thanks for reading! Can't hurt to try and train. Start slowly and see how you feel. All the races require a 16 min/mile minumum pace so even if you can run the whole thing, you can run/walk, do a very fast walk or a slow jog.
Disney also puts on 5K races (3.1 miles), which are great for newer runners: they are un-timed (no worries about your pace), a bit more relaxed, and are a more manageable distance. Hal Higdon and Jeff Galloway have good beginner running plans, and a lot of people (myself included) started out using Couch-to-5k. I'd maybe check with your doctor first considering your surgical history and DEFINITELY get fitted for shoes at a running store. Good luck!! :)
Thanks for the encouragement guys!! Maybe one day I'll see you at a Disney race!
 

Kristia

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
So when I last left off, we were about to go to our dinner ADR at LTT.

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We hadn't been here since 1995, so we were really looking forward to it. Sorry...I didn't take any pictures of the meal. I totally forgot. My pictures this trip are a little lacking at times especially for meals!
The meal is served family style and you are allowed to request refills of any of the items at anytime although they brought out plenty of food for us and we didn't need to ask for refills (except for drinks).

They started us with rolls served with honey butter (so delicious!) and salad with a strawberry vinagrette dressing. Both were super good! For the main course, we were served roast turkey, slices of roast beef and pork. Sides included stuffing, mac and cheese, roasted vegetables, green beans, mash potatoes and turkey gravy. Everything was really good and it really hit the spot. We hadn't had a whole lot to eat that day with all the running around! Our server was great and kept our drinks fresh and was constantly checking to see if we needed more food. Dessert was Johnny Appleseed's cake - white cake with apples and craisins with vanilla ice cream. Loved the cake! It was nice and light after the huge meal. Overall, I think we will be back in the future.

We still had some time before our Little Mermaid FP and we noticed that IASM was walk-on so that's what we did! I tend to take the same pics on this ride over and over, so this time, I tried to focus on some parts that I don't have pics of.

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Kristia

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
After Small World, we still had a little time before our fastpasses so Dan voted to go see how long the wait for Pirates was...

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Lucky for us there was no wait! Unlucky for us...we were stuck on a boat with a group of Brazilians (not part of a tour group) that were sooooo loud the entire boat ride. Apparently their group was split up in the line so some were in front of us on the boat and some were behind us. Oh brother! Everytime the girl behind me saw Jack Sparrow, she had to scream his name in my ear. Ummm...you do know he won't answer you right? Ugh!

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Don't spit on me camel!
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Time to head back to VOTLM! Can't wait to check out the new ride!
 

Kristia

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
The new Fantasyland is really a beautiful area especially at night.

Beast Castle - you can just make out all the people waiting to get into BOG restaurant.
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Prince Eric's Castle
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Pretty lights in the queue of VOTLM
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Time for the ride!
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Kristia

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
VOTLM continued -
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It was a very cute ride! Because we went through the fastpass line, we didn't see the regular queue area which I have heard is quite nice. Next trip, hopefully we can hit it early and see that area.

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TakeMeThere81

Well-Known Member
I am following along! You take some great pictures! I especially enjoy your on-ride ones. I really haven't exposed myself to the new Fantasyland much yet, I'm trying not to "study" it until we actually have a trip to WDW in the works. However, your pics are great! I still can't believe it's already opened, it feels like just yesterday that they announced the new additions were coming. We live in Oregon, so I have ridden VotLM in CA and it's a great ride!

Also, love all of your tech shirts! 3 for the price of 1! (sort of...) :)
 

Ariel484

Well-Known Member
Okay, you have me convinced that I need to fit LTT somewhere in our next trip...sounds delicious!

Love your in-ride pictures...The Little Mermaid ride was better than I expected! I thought the Ursula AA was awesome!
I am following along! You take some great pictures! I especially enjoy your on-ride ones. I really haven't exposed myself to the new Fantasyland much yet, I'm trying not to "study" it until we actually have a trip to WDW in the works. However, your pics are great! I still can't believe it's already opened, it feels like just yesterday that they announced the new additions were coming. We live in Oregon, so I have ridden VotLM in CA and it's a great ride!

Also, love all of your tech shirts! 3 for the price of 1! (sort of...) :)
Melanee, I took the exact same approach to New Fantasyland...at first I was looking at the pictures/concept art and then as our trip got closer I tried really hard to stop so I could just take it all in, in person! :)
 

Kristia

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I am following along! You take some great pictures! I especially enjoy your on-ride ones. I really haven't exposed myself to the new Fantasyland much yet, I'm trying not to "study" it until we actually have a trip to WDW in the works. However, your pics are great! I still can't believe it's already opened, it feels like just yesterday that they announced the new additions were coming. We live in Oregon, so I have ridden VotLM in CA and it's a great ride!

Also, love all of your tech shirts! 3 for the price of 1! (sort of...) :)
Thanks for reading! The new Fantasyland is very pretty and the theming is great! I can't wait for the minetrain coaster to open! I like the tech shirts this year too! It was great to get three of them and it made it easier not to buy as much at the expo. I kept telling myself I only needed to buy 1 shirt since I got three with registration!
Okay, you have me convinced that I need to fit LTT somewhere in our next trip...sounds delicious!

Love your in-ride pictures...The Little Mermaid ride was better than I expected! I thought the Ursula AA was awesome!
LTT was definitely good! I have heard different opinions on the place but we ultimately liked it. Make sure you use the bathroom before you go in though. The one in the restaurant is upstairs and it is TINY! There was a line to get in and it only has 2 stalls. Not sure if there is another one somewhere in there. I was surprised how little it was considering the size of the restaurant.

Ursula was definitely the highpoint of that ride!
 

Kristia

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
A few more from the new Fantasyland area...
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Seems like on this trip we skipped around quite a bit. This trip was a little shorter than most of the ones we have taken so we just went with the flow and didn't hurry. If we saw a short line, we hopped in. We noticed that Pooh was pretty short.

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Kristia

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Now for a quick relaxing turn on the TTA - It was pretty cool because as we were riding, Wishes started. We have never seen it from the TTA before.

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Our last ride of the evening was Space Ranger Spin -
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Dan, as usual, beat me but not by too much!

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We were starting to get a bit tired after having been going since 3 am that morning, so we called it a night. As we were leaving, the Celebrate the Magic show started so we stood on Main Street and enjoyed the show. I didn't have the best vantage point for pics so I just watched tonight.
 

Kristia

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Friday morning we slept in till 9 am. We were trying to take it easy today because tomorrow is the first of our race days! We went down to the Marketplace and we each had a breakfast sandwich. There were a ton of people milling about who had run the 5k that morning. I was still stressing about my choice in racing attire. I had not brought running shorts (because I really hate running in shorts) and I had only brought capris. I was so worried that I would be too hot so I decided to commit the cardinal running sin and go back to the expo to buy some shorts. It is usually not a good idea to buy something new and wear it for a race as you don't know if it is going to be comfortable or not. Last thing you want to do, is get 3 miles into a 13.1 mile race and hate the shorts your wearing because they are causing chafing in places that you didn't know existed!

Right after breakfast we caught a bus to the expo. I really wish I had taken my camera with me. The line to get into the expo was CRAZY! Luckily it kept moving, but the line wrapped around a large field that was on the side of the building. They were using the front of the building as exit only and the side as an entrance. This was only my 2nd marathon weekend, but I had never seen it that bad before. Most of the line was for people picking up their tech shirt bags so once we got in the building, we were able to bypass that. I found a couple pairs of shorts and got outta there!

We made our way back to our resort, picked up my camera and headed to Epcot. It was wonderful walking through International Gateway to enter Epcot. WS had already opened, so it wasn't empty but I still love the ease of staying at BC!

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We stopped for a photopass pic. I don't have the CD yet, but the photographer took one with my camera too.

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First up was getting fastpasses for Test Track. We were looking forward to seeing the changes.

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Mission Space Orange only had a 10 minute wait and since it is one of Dan's favs, off he went while I took some photos.

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Kristia

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Then we did something that we don't do every trip....Universe of Energy! It is good for some relaxin'!

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Caught the monorail coming through!

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Love the flowers on the trees. Not something we are seeing in Jersey right now!

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tiaragirl

Well-Known Member
Loving this TR, Kristy!

One of my fav pics so far is an unexpected one - the one on the TTA where the castle is lit up and Dan (I assume it's Dan?) is on the right hand side. So cool!
 

Kristia

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Loving this TR, Kristy!

One of my fav pics so far is an unexpected one - the one on the TTA where the castle is lit up and Dan (I assume it's Dan?) is on the right hand side. So cool!
Thanks Kenzie! I like that one too! (Yep that is Dan) Just enjoying the scenery. Wish I would have caught some of the fireworks too!
 

Ariel484

Well-Known Member
More pretty pictures! Did you ever actually get to ride Test Track? It was down ALL DAY on Saturday (at least while we were in Epcot) so we never got to check it out.
 

Tiggerish

Resident Redhead
Premium Member
More great photos!! I like the ones from IASW--nice idea taking the "rare shots", I'll bet few people take shots of Don Quixote and the platypi :)

I ate lunch at Liberty Tree last October and was underwhelmed by the entree (but totally wowed by the Ooey-Gooey Toffee Cake dessert), but lunch isn't family style, will have to try it for dinner sometime.

Epcot looks in fine form, the weather couldn't have been nicer for photos, I'm anxiously waiting to find out how it affected you guys while running those long races (following both yours and Shannon's trip reports!)
 

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