If you are talking about the guy who had on the blaster pack, and the DJ made a crack about him wearing highwater or something like that I think we all just missed each other. I was like 5 or 6 behind him in line for Mickey pics. I did hang out over where I thought the meeting area was, but didn't see anyone.
I was immediately behind him and his girlfriend - she was wearing Snow White sleeves. His costume was awesome, and hers was not fully committed! :lol:
I saw two cooks on course. I didn't even think they were sampling. I thought they were going for the aromas. One of the two I saw had a fan he was using to blow the aroma into the course. Both seemed to be overwhelmingly spicy/flavored.
I only remember seeing one - good catch!
My thoughts, they didn't have their act together for the pre race stuff at all.
Starting with the expo, at the Beach club took 4 or 5 CM's telling me that there was no bus to the Expo there, that I had to transfer to All Stars, Downtown Disney, or take a Taxi, it took me 25 mins to find the bus.
The expo itself was ok. Merch selection was a little meh. I was hoping to find a polo, but nothing doing. It looked to me like their merch designer couldn't make up their mind on the logo. Some stuff had the soles/glass logo, others had a Chef Mickey logo, and there were 2 or 3 others. Registration was nice and smooth at the 5k, but the guy at the half didn't tell me anything about a wrist band or the food vouchers. Kinda crucial part in my opinion.
In other races, there have been frames and coffee mugs - I didn't see either of those here. They did have some glasses but overall, the merchandise could have been much better.
No issues with the 5k. Course was pretty good, the grave digger photo op was awesome, wish the line had been shorter.
Sounds like the grave digger photo would have been really good.
Bus transportation issues continued with the half marathon. Got in line at 7:30 for a bus, didn't get on a bus until 8:15. And there were still several bus loads worth of people waiting behind me. No idea when they got loaded. Then getting to the expo, had no idea where anything was. Saw the sign for the bag check, and started tracing the line back. After 20 mins of barely moving, it suddenly starting surging forward. At that point they were just taking bags from people and piling them on the ground. Plenty of porta potties which was good. I then tried to find the other forum members, but no luck. Got in line for Mickey at like 9:10, like 10 minutes to get through that line, not bad at all. When I went over to corral A, I managed to make my way about 1/4 of my way in. And then got stopped by a mass of people sitting on the ground, with no room to maneuver. I understand getting people in line early, but 30 mins? And not enough room to even actually get into the corral? I don't know if the others were the same way, or if there were that many people who corral jumped, but seeing a mass of people out the entrance to the corral wrapping back along the B corral isn't right. And only being a few hundred feet back, I could barely hear the DJ at the start, not sure if there were other speakers further back or not.
I was in Corral B, about halfway back, and I heard no speakers. I could barely hear the lady singing the National Anthem until she was almost 1/3 of the way through it. I noticed a guy standing at attention with his hand over his heart before I heard her singing.
On course, it was awesome as usual. Almost overkill at times. At one point leaving the AK parking lot I could hear music from 4 places at once. The spectro floats were cool to see. I was hoping for more rare/random characters one course/post race party, but it was a decent mix. Chip/Dale in spectro costumes, Hippo/Ostrich from Spectro, pre AK, spectro fish in AK parking lot, Rafiki w/jeep, AK parade animals in AK, Timon/FOTLK at the AK parking gate, stilt walkers on course, Frozone, Karl, Darth Vader in DHS. 2 random chefs somewhere, assorted bands/DJ's on the course, green army man at some on ramp. My only on course issue was that somewhere around milke 9, there was no lights for what seemed like 1/3 of a mile. Volunteers/spectators on course were awesome. It can't be easy to cheer at that late hour for people you don't know.
Ooh, I forgot about Timon with the warriors, and the spectro fish in the Animal Kingdom parking lot! Some of the cheer squad cast members in the Hollywood Studios park had lost their enthusiasm by the time I came through. :lol: It was like "clap . . . clap . . . " :lol:
Finish area was ok. I finished early enough that there was no post finish congestion. Bags were a bit out of order which I could see being an issue later on, especially since they only really had the single line that then split up at the tables. Call me crazy with the heat, but a space blanket would have been a welcome touch. While walking around Epcot I chilled down way to fast, and did not feel good at all.
I saw a couple people wearing the space blankets and got excited, then deflated when I realized they had brought their own from prior races. How did they know?? :lol: I wrote Disney an e-mail this afternoon suggesting some changes at the finish line for next year and encourage everyone else to do the same. They need that feedback! 
Post party was both great, and ehh at the same time. The area between United States and Canada was awesome. Plenty of people, servers walking around selling drinks, etc. But once you made it past the US, it just died off. They had a decent array of entertainment, every country had a musical act, and most had characters. That said, I only saw the Jaminators setting up in Norway, and saw Mulan in China and Donald in Mexico. I never knew that the boat rides were open.
I think that if they had done a better job of describing the post race party beforehand it would have gone over much better here on the boards. Saying that Norway/Mexico would be open, and that they had 10 musical acts scheduled, plus characters is hugely different than the flyer that had the kiosks, and a musical guest at American Adventure.
Overall a pretty solid inaugural event. Some definite growing pains, but not bad.
