Day 3: Friday, February 23 (THE BIG DAY!!!)
The alarm going off at 3:10 was a little rough this morning (remember we are not morning people at all!) but the excitement of what was coming helped us get out of bed. We shared a cup of tea as we were out of coffee and didn't want to overdo it on the caffeine, and grabbed our breakfasts: two bottles of Soylent.
We left the room right at 3:30 and waited no more than five minutes for a bus. We drank our Soylents on the bus and in no time at all we were arriving at the Epcot parking lot. We decided not to use the gEARcheck bags and to just hold our phones and such in our pants pockets, so security was a breeze.
We took the opportunity to use the bathroom and soon the corral areas were opened! We were both placed in Corral F but we were able to stay near the front of the corral throughout the waiting time.
Around 4:00 or 4:30 a DJ started playing various upbeat music, Disney and otherwise. While we waited we enjoyed looking at all the different costumes around us. Of course most of the costumes were various princesses; we saw LOTS of Ariel, Snow White, Anna and Elsa, and of course Rapunzel. We saw a good number of Belle, Cinderella, and Aurora, and a few Tiana, Merida, Jasmine, Pocahontas, and Mulan. We saw plenty of non-princess characters as well, from all kinds of Disney movies: from Mary Poppins, to Peter Pan, to Wreck-it Ralph, to Inside Out.
At 5:00 the Emcees took the stage to welcome everyone, make announcements, talk about the charity, and pump us up for the race!
Who recognizes the woman on the right dressed as Rapunzel??
It's Carissa! Did you know she's a dietitian and personal trainer in addition to the work she does with Disney??
Carissa and the dude host (don't remember his name, oops!) took turns interviewing various runners while we waited.
It's Bropunzel!
Around 5:15 C texted me that the three of them were parking. We texted back and forth as we waited for our turn to run but it would be awhile before we could actually see each other.
It was also around this time that Corral A started lining up at the start line. Because so many were running this race, a subgroup within a corral left about every two minutes. There were so many groups that we in Corral F didn't even start moving until after 6:00. As we were watching other corrals move we saw one of the best costumes of the day: a girl dressed as Belle in her blue dress, walking several paces behind the end of her corral, READING A BOOK!! Was that one of you forum folks?? If so, kudos to you!
Bye, F balloon!
Finally able to see the starting line! I thought it was a nice touch that EVERY subgroup got the fireworks to start!
Oh hi, Spaceship Earth!
SO CLOSE!
ALMOST THERE!!!
Up next: the race!!!