Happy Haunted 5K report

brifraz

Marching along...
Premium Member
Original Poster
My 9 year old daughter and I ran in the 5K this morning at Wide World of Sports. My wife is running in the ToT 10 miler tonight, but we can't quite make the distance, so we did this morning's race.

Caught the bus from Old Key West around 6am. I highly recommend staying at a race resort for the ToT weekend events. The line of cars trying to get in the parking lot as our bus zoomed by was quite long. Using the bus also gave us quite a bit of time before we had to get in our corral.


Once in the corral (we were in Corral E, 5th out of 6) it was pretty crowded in there.


As the race got closer, we found our way to one of the corral fences and could almost see the pre-race show at the starting line.


They had two DJs doing a bit of Country Boy schtick to get things going and to make sure everyone followed the 'stay on the path' rules, the headless horseman visited (and threatened). Sadly, there was no threat about staying to the right when walking and to the left when running (more on that to come).


The race began with Corral A at 7:30am, but we didn't get up to the starting line until about 7:50am.


Once the race started, we found that despite the constant reminders, most people didn't seem to understand the whole stay to the right when slower thing. We were doing interval running - generally 1:1, 30 second intervals. At home, that has been yielding us about 12:30 per mile. We knew this would be slower because we would be visiting characters and the humidity would slow us down a bit, but we actually found the people to slow us down even more! A lot of folks were walking 3-4 people across and the path didn't really allow for that. Add to that, the folks from corral F who were trying to do 8-9 minute miles trying to weave and zoom through, and there was a lot of insane traffic.

Along the way, there were spots to get some pitcures. First was a Lion King display with a huge elephant skull with Scar lying atop. The second spot was a character greet with the Big Bad Wolf.


After that, there were spots with the lion from Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Captain Hook, Brer Bear, and two undertakers from the Haunted Mansion. We didn't actually stop at any of those because the lines were quite long and they weren't characters that DD was all that interested in meeting with! There were two 'official' water stops along with way, packed with volunteers who handed out small cups of water. Also, there were a number of coolers with paper cups - most likely added to the race route because of the heat and humidity. By race's end, the temperature was getting above 80 with humidity around 75-80%. Lots of sweating!


While our intervals didn't quite stay consistent (due to the crowds and exhaustion), we did continue to do 1:1 or sometimes a bit less. We did get back to a good pace by the end and even with the visits, managed about 14:30 per mile.


Post-race, we got a bottle of Powerade, a fresh banana, and a snack box with pita chips, graham crackers, a packet of hummus, a protein bar, and almond pops. After a short walking cool down, we sat and enjoyed before heading back to OKW.

This was my daughter's first 5K and she did love it, but is now ready for an afternoon nap - that's a good thing seeing as we will be at Hollywood Studios tonight until likely 3 or 4am. DW will be doing the 10-miler and is likely going to be between 11 and 12 minute miles, so from 10pm-12am, we will be enjoying the Villains Party alone and then we will do everything again with my wife (pending her energy post race).

Overall, I think the event was well done by Disney and enjoyable for us. Could there have been a few more character stops along the route, certainly...but, I'm not going to complain - a run around our neighborhood doesn't have any characters!
 

Longers

Well-Known Member
Well done to you both and thanks for the info as I am running my first 5k in November (Disney jingle jungle). Very useful info around using the transport. Good luck to your wife for later too.
 

brifraz

Marching along...
Premium Member
Original Poster
Well done to you both and thanks for the info as I am running my first 5k in November (Disney jingle jungle). Very useful info around using the transport. Good luck to your wife for later too.

Thanks - and best of luck to you!
 

Kristia

Well-Known Member
Looks like you guys had a great time! Congrats to your daughter for her first 5k! That is big accomplishment. Unfortunately at all the Disney races common courtesy seems to go out the window when it comes to walking 3 or more wide or coming to a dead stop without warning people behind you or....etc. I think it just goes with the territory when you have such a big popular race with a lot of people that have never run a race before. It happens in all of them from the 5ks to the marathon. Glad you were able to make the best of it!
 

PaulaT

Member
Me, hubby and my 2 girls also ran, congrats to ya'll for starting your daughter out early. We are too, mine are 11 and 9 and this was not their first 5k but it was their first Disney run. I agree, we used bus transportation which was great. I loved the expo also, it was super crowded at 12noon on Friday, but other than that, I spent ALOT of money there. Getting to and from race was quick, didnt have to wait at all for a bus, same goes for the party that night. The humidity got to us pretty quick during the race which I didnt expect being from GA. As for the party it was great, we arrived at 9:45 and they were letting us in. We did Toy Story 3x in a row, off and on quickly, then TOT a few times, RNRC a few times, and even did Star Tours. We also got pics with Cruella, Darth Vadar and I think someone from Hunchback of NotreDam. All that in the first 2 hours, then around 1am it started getting pretty crowded so we left about 2am. Over all a great experience and can't wait to come back in FEB for the Princess 10k with my oldest daughter.
 

JillC LI

Well-Known Member
Great race report. How wonderful that you were able to experience the race with your daughter. That FL humidity will getcha every time. Glad you took it easy and were able to enjoy all the characters. I agree that the crowds in a Disney race can be rather frustrating. Hope your wife enjoyed her race too.
 

Ariel484

Well-Known Member
Great report!! Glad you guys had fun. :) So cool that the Headless Horseman visited, and I love the picture with the Big Bad Wolf.
 

Phonedave

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the report.

Wow, corrals in 5K's. That is a totally forigen concept to me. Mine have all been just bunch up and run. Maybe let the elite people running 6 minute miles get in front. I've been in 5Ks that had to have had 50 people total in them.


-dave
 

Ariel484

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the report.

Wow, corrals in 5K's. That is a totally forigen concept to me. Mine have all been just bunch up and run. Maybe let the elite people running 6 minute miles get in front. I've been in 5Ks that had to have had 50 people total in them.


-dave
They corralled the 5K in January, too. I don't remember if I put an estimated pace in when I signed up, but I was in B and there were kids all around me so I feel like that one must've just been based on when people signed up. For the one coming up in November I definitely put in an estimated pace but I forget what it was...10-11 minutes per mile maybe? I'll have to check, I know I have a screen shot at home. But my bib # is 1085, so we'll see where that lands me.

They must have changed how the corrals were set up in January vs. this race - my bib number in January was 2886, which landed me in B (corrals were A-D), but I see @brifraz was #2372 and in E...so I'm guessing that's 500 per corral (lining up with runDisney's recent promises of smaller/more corrals), possibly putting me in C in November.

Sorry for the threadjack, @brifraz ...:) You forgot a shot of you and your daughter wearing your finisher medallions!
 

dreamfinder

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the report. Always good to see people running as a family.

Wow, corrals in 5K's. That is a totally forigen concept to me. Mine have all been just bunch up and run. Maybe let the elite people running 6 minute miles get in front. I've been in 5Ks that had to have had 50 people total in them.
-dave

Their self seeding never really worked. I have a picture from one race where there are about 10 of us at the start in the faster group, then no one for 20 yards til the next pace sign.

They corralled the 5K in January, too. I don't remember if I put an estimated pace in when I signed up, but I was in B and there were kids all around me so I feel like that one must've just been based on when people signed up. For the one coming up in November I definitely put in an estimated pace but I forget what it was...10-11 minutes per mile maybe? I'll have to check, I know I have a screen shot at home. But my bib # is 1085, so we'll see where that lands me.

January was based on registration time. They are now asking for pace, so hopefully they are doing the future assignments that way instead.
 

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