Life’s A Beach, And Then You Run: A 2012 Marathon Weekend Trip Report!

Hello friends! Welcome to the story of my Marathon Weekend.

The Cast (the only picture of the 3 of us from the entire weekend):

That would be mom (Kriss), my brother (Craig, aka Princes Craiggy, 25) and me (Shannon, 27).

This was my 6th trip to WDW, and 3rd trip in the last 12 months…lucky me! :sohappy:

Past trips include…

August 1995 (All-Star Sports)
May 2009 (Honeymoon at Boardwalk Inn)
November 2009 (Boardwalk Inn)
February 2011 (Princess Half Marathon/Port Orleans Riverside)
June 2011 (Split-stay: Animal Kingdom Lodge and Boardwalk Villas)

There’s not really much to say in regards to how this trip came to be…basically before the Princess Half in 2011, Princess Craiggy and I agreed that if we made it out of the half alive, we’d sign up for the 2012 Marathon. And here we are! Yay! :sohappy:

 

[Ariel484]

Next up was another moment that is always a great one in a Disney race…running through the castle! We all yelled “WOOHOO!” as we sped through and came out to see a packed Main Street USA:

So I didn’t realize this until looking at the official race pictures later on, but there were video cameras set up throughout the course. When I bought the photo package, I ended up with 3 videos!

Here’s the first one…both of us are running out of the castle. It’s hard to spot us at first…we come in at about the 20-second mark, starting on the left side of the screen and crossing over to the right. My favorite part of the video is right near the end where you can see me pointing to our next photo stop. :lol: I tried to figure out a way to embed this into the post and failed, so I made a YouTube account for the sole purpose of sharing these videos. :lol:



It’s a mystery to me as to how they sort out whose photos are whose. I’m sure they do something similar to Photopass for the character photos, but for the rest of the random photos of us running I keep imagining a bunch of interns squeezed into a room sorting through all of them. I was really clueless as to how our videos were properly assigned to us until Will pointed out another timing mat that we ran over on our way out of the castle, which you can see near the bottom of the screen. Our bib tags must’ve synched up with brightroom to assign our video. Neat.

So anyway, the photo-op I was pointing out to my brother in the video was in front of the castle. We hopped in line and didn’t realize that these were brightroom photos only (brightroom was the official photography company for the race) – none on my camera – until it was our turn. Boo! Good thing I shelled out the cash for the photo package!

I think they could've tried a little harder to not cut off the top of the castle, but whatever.

After the castle we took a right into Liberty Square. I mentioned above that in the weeks leading up to this race I had read and re-read marathon trip reports, and certain characters popped up that I really, really wanted pictures with. I know the characters aren’t necessarily the same year after year, but a girl can dream, right?

As we entered Library Square, I held my breath…I was hoping for Colonial Mickey, Donald and Goofy! But sadly, it was not meant to be. Instead we saw Naveen and Louis, who we’d met (along with Tiana) during the Princess Half, so we passed them up. Boy, was I bummed.

We entered Frontierland and passed Woody (another that can easily be met in the parks) and mile 11 near Splash Mountain.

Your eyes are not deceiving you…that’s a 22-minute mile! :ROFLOL:

And with that, it was time to leave the Magic Kingdom. I’ll admit I was a little let down by the characters there – I’d really been hoping for Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy or Goofy. On the other hand, I did get some new-to-me pictures (Mad Hatter, Rapunzel, Prince Charming), so all was not lost! Plus I would’ve been super excited to see Louis if we hadn’t already met him the year before.

On our way out of the Magic Kingdom, we ran into Mary Poppins and her chimney sweeping friends…in front of the Genie’s float from the parade. Very odd backdrop.

 

[enchanted_belle]

HEY, WHO IS THIS JERK RUINING MY PICTURE?!

IT’S PRINCESS CRAIGGY! :sohappy: (Dude needs to shave, no?)

:ROFLOL: He's back!! And agreed, he totally needs to shave... though, I'm not one to talk, you should see my boyfriend's terrible beard.

 

[TakeMeThere81]

I am loving this report!!! So glad you found Princess C again!! I love Mary and the sweeps, how fun!

And I love how the lighting is shining in these pictures, a lovely time of day to get pics on the MK!

Yay, bring on miles 12-26.2!

(I'm gonna run this one day, no doubt. You have me convinced!)

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

:sohappy: So happy to start reading the race part of your report! It's so exciting to see each mile marker I feel like I'm running it with you!!!

Did you jog the whole time??? Or did you walk some too?

And how was holding your camera the whole time you were running??

Sorry so many questions! haha
Can't wait to read more!

 

[Fievel]

Love this report. Thinking about doing the full next year, and really liking the experience you had!

 

[MKCP 1985]

…followed by our first character meet of the race in Mexico: Panchito Pistoles!

Okay, so I admit that I was really hoping for all 3 Caballeros together, but at least he’s a new character for us!

Panchito has had a makeover since last year! Here he is also outside Epcot's Mexico in the pre-dawn darkness (Yours is a much better photo!)

I love, love, love your 3 Little Pigs Photo and the uber-rare Ludwig Von Drake is one for the scrapbook, too!

 

[LeCellier.Lover]

OMG OMG OMG OMG! I AM LOVING THIS TR! Your making me want to run the marathon in years to come! Can't believe how fast the marathon winners finished, I could never do that Glad to know though that not everyone runs these freaky fast, so I feel like I actually could run one :sohappy:

I loled at your brother photobombing your Main Street picture, too funny! I also chuckled at him listening to a review for his nursing test.. hope he passed it? :animwink:

I also love all the rare characters you got to see. Very cool
Can't wait to read more it's very enjoyable to read!

 

[jhoff3405]

All caught up!

You are very inspirational! Love the pic of both of you with the castle, what an awesome experience!

Can't wait to read more...

 

[Ariel484]

He's back!! And agreed, he totally needs to shave... though, I'm not one to talk, you should see my boyfriend's terrible beard.

:lol: I just think he needs to commit...either you're clean shaven, or go all the way and grow the full beard. The in-between is...well, to each their own I guess!

I am loving this report!!! So glad you found Princess C again!! I love Mary and the sweeps, how fun!

And I love how the lighting is shining in these pictures, a lovely time of day to get pics on the MK!

Yay, bring on miles 12-26.2!

(I'm gonna run this one day, no doubt. You have me convinced!)

I hoped to find Princess C again, but really, what are the chances?! :sohappy:

You're right about the light in the MK pictures...I think we were there between 8:15 and 8:30.

And you MUST run it someday, Melanee! You could totally do it. Really, training for it was the hard part once those long runs got REALLY long...so that's something to think about.

So happy to start reading the race part of your report! It's so exciting to see each mile marker I feel like I'm running it with you!!!

Did you jog the whole time??? Or did you walk some too?

And how was holding your camera the whole time you were running??

Sorry so many questions! haha
Can't wait to read more!

No problem with the questions! :wave: I did NOT run/jog the whole time. From the beginning of the race I would run to each mile marker, take the picture, and then walk for a minute. I also walked through (I think) almost all of the water stops - because I am not coordinated enough to run and drink at the same time :lol: - and stopped for whatever character pictures I wanted.

Holding the camera wasn't too bad. It has a wrist strap so I made sure that was around my wrist the whole time and just tried to switch which hand was holding it every once in awhile. I felt guilty for sweating on it though.

Love this report. Thinking about doing the full next year, and really liking the experience you had!

Thanks! You should go for it...it'll be the 20th anniversary of the marathon so there might be a special medal!!

Panchito has had a makeover since last year! Here he is also outside Epcot's Mexico in the pre-dawn darkness (Yours is a much better photo!)

I love, love, love your 3 Little Pigs Photo and the uber-rare Ludwig Von Drake is one for the scrapbook, too!

Wow, they HAVE spiffed him up! At least you got a picture with 2 of the 3.

The 3 Little Pigs was definitely the most random character meet I had...and I had no idea how rare Ludwig was. Anyone who wants to, feel free to save that one and photoshop yourself in! :lol:

OMG OMG OMG OMG! I AM LOVING THIS TR! Your making me want to run the marathon in years to come! Can't believe how fast the marathon winners finished, I could never do that Glad to know though that not everyone runs these freaky fast, so I feel like I actually could run one

I loled at your brother photobombing your Main Street picture, too funny! I also chuckled at him listening to a review for his nursing test.. hope he passed it?

I also love all the rare characters you got to see. Very cool
Can't wait to read more it's very enjoyable to read!

Thanks Rachel! Maybe you and your friends can start training for the 2013 marathon after your June trip?!

You know...I have no idea if my brother even TOOK that test yet. I'll have to ask!

All caught up!

You are very inspirational! Love the pic of both of you with the castle, what an awesome experience!

Can't wait to read more...

Thanks! More to come...now! :sohappy:

 

[Ariel484]

After exiting the Kingdom, we passed the Grand Floridian and were at Mile Marker 12 and Chomp break #3:

There were 2 stretches of the course that I was most nervous for, and this one (miles 12-16) was one of them. I knew I’d feel bummed after leaving the Magic Kingdom (which I was), and we were looking at 4 miles of back roads before reaching the next park. It wasn’t bad though…the best part was how shaded it was. Now that the sun was out it was getting a little warm, but in the shade it was breezy and cool. Just lovely.

Pooh and Tigger were meeting and greeting just after mile 12, but we didn’t stop for them – again, they can pretty easily be met in the parks. We were approaching the Magnolia Golf Course when I saw a sad, sad sight. After just missing Mickey and Minnie during the Princess Half last year, I was hoping to get just one freaking picture with them on the course this time around.

And there they go.

NOOOO! COME BACK!

Sadness. We hopped in line anyway.

There were no trees to shade us here and the sun was getting a bit brutal at this point. I’d put sunscreen on that morning but it was surely sweated off by now. All of the other runners in line with us were asking one another if anyone had brought sunscreen…nope. I guess there wasn’t any at the med tents either. We were a crispy, sweaty bunch.

But at least we got to meet our pals! :sohappy:

 

[Ariel484]

After meeting the goof and the duck, we kept chugging along and came up to the relay exchange point.

(Seeing this sign, I thought, “OMG! That’s me! I’m running the full marathon!” Like I was just now realizing that…?! :shrug: :lol

I have to say, as someone that was not a relay runner, the relay exchange seemed to go pretty smoothly…by that I mean that if I didn’t see the signs or hear the volunteers shouting “Relay runners to the left!” I don’t think I would have known it was even happening. I thought this would be a mess with people leaving and entering the course, but it wasn’t. The relay runners actually turned off the course and the exchange was done in an area that the rest of us didn’t even see. Now that I think about it, I don’t even remember the 2nd relay runners entering the course after the exchange. It wasn’t a problem at all (from my point of view anyway…any relay runners out there who actually did the exchange maybe have different opinions :shrug. Well done, runDisney!

In the picture below you can see the cones guiding the relay runners to the exchange point on the left, while the rest of us continued in the right lane to Mile Marker 13.

That 13th mile was another long one – almost 18 minutes, due mostly to the line we waited in for Goofy and Donald, I think. Just after this Mile Marker the 3rd text update went out: at the halfway point in 3:08:50, a 14:24 pace. What I find hilarious is how much my projected finish time shot up over the course of 3.1 miles: from 5:52 at the 10-mile update to 6:17:33! :ROFLOL:

After Mile Marker 13 we had to turn around a corner as we got closer to Animal Kingdom. At points throughout the race my brother was a bit ahead of me (no big deal) and this was one of those times. He ran around the corner before I did, and I could hear “Bad” by Michael Jackson playing in the distance. “Good song,” I thought as I rounded the corner. “Hey, maybe a villain will be out!”

Then I looked up, saw my brother waiting for me with a grin on his face, and completely GEEKED OUT.

This is, without a doubt, one of my favorite pictures from the race. I was so freaking excited I didn’t know what to do with myself, hence my stupid pose or…I don’t know, whatever I’m doing.

I was most excited to meet Dr. Facilier (I knew Will was going to be pretty jealous of that one) but I didn’t even realize they got Scar in there as well until looking through the pictures later. A whopping 5 villains! WOOT!

 

[Ariel484]

As we ran away from the villains, the music switched to “Bad to the Bone” and I continued to geek out until we got to Mile Marker 14 (the farthest Craig had ever run up to this point). I am lame.

The next mile didn’t have a lot going on in the way of entertainment, and was actually the fastest mile of the race for me…11:56! Blazing speed!

After Mile 15 we saw Hook and Smee (who we met on the Princess Half Course) and John Smith (also met on the Princess Half course – see a trend here?) and Pocahontas (who I’d met in Animal Kingdom). And now we were at mile 16!

Woohoo! We’d made it through one of the stretches of the course I’d been dreading, and I was still feeling pretty good. I had a little bit of back and knee soreness, but Biofreeze from the med tents helped with that. It was completely bizarre to me that I was feeling better at this point than I had at mile 10 of the Princess Half.

Now it was time for another Chomp break. As we got closer to Animal Kingdom, we began to see CMs waiting for us with their animal pals. We saw a couple of owls, a goat, some donkeys, and a tortoise and a hare. I am definitely more tortoise than hare when it comes to speed.

We passed Jiminy Cricket (another character we had met during the Princess Half) and then ran into Rafiki!

Seriously, someone needs to give me lessons on how to pose with the characters. I always look like a dope.

Louie and Baloo were up next…we passed them up, and then we were in Animal Kingdom! It was interesting to be in a park with guests, which hadn’t happened all day. They were either somewhat interested in what was going on or they completely didn’t give a crap. You can see in the picture below that they had to wait on the other side of the cones to cross over the race course.

After passing Everest, Craig got his first ever Tree of Life photo:

 

[MKCP 1985]

After Mile Marker 13 we had to turn around a corner as we got closer to Animal Kingdom. At points throughout the race my brother was a bit ahead of me (no big deal) and this was one of those times. He ran around the corner before I did, and I could hear “Bad” by Michael Jackson playing in the distance. “Good song,” I thought as I rounded the corner. “Hey, maybe a villain will be out!”

Then I looked up, saw my brother waiting for me with a grin on his face, and completely GEEKED OUT.

This is, without a doubt, one of my favorite pictures from the race. I was so freaking excited I didn’t know what to do with myself, hence my stupid pose or…I don’t know, whatever I’m doing.

I was most excited to meet Dr. Facilier (I knew Will was going to be pretty jealous of that one) but I didn’t even realize they got Scar in there as well until looking through the pictures later. A whopping 5 villains! WOOT!

:king: You've got to find a frame for that one! :king: Total villanous awesomeness!

How were you feeling at this point in your race? Way past the actual halfway point of the 26.2 miles, but in the couple of WDW marathons I have run, I always felt like Everest was the true marker for being halfway done. As if you've run to the top of the mountain, and you've got the rest of the way to come back down to where you started - at Epcot! Those last 8 miles can be brutal!

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

Your picture with the villains is total awesome sauce!! I love it!! And "Bad" was the PrEFECT song to be playing for them!

Good to know they have some Biofreeze at the tents.. I was wondering if I would have to carry my own...

 

[crystalight33]

Oh I am loving this trip report!! Gotta love von Drake. Now, if you'd seen Kit Cloudkicker I would have freaked out lol. Love the Rapunzel exchange, that was really cute. It's funny how you miss a lot as you are running and then notice them as you go through your pictures, like seeing Scar. You can't beat that villain line up! How awesome! Also, great time so far. Did Princess Craiggy train as diligently as you did prior to the full? Can't wait for the dramatic finish !!

Edit: Your brother is being a good sport letting us call him Princess Craiggy.

 

[LeCellier.Lover]

This is THE COOLEST villain picture I've ever seen! :sohappy: I love how Scar's up top!
Yay yay 10 miles to go! :animwink:

 

[fractal]

Awesome villain's picture - in the elephant graveyard to boot! How awesome is that??!!!

Great report !

 

[diddy_mouse]

Love how "Bad" was the lead in to that amazing villains picture! I give that one a definite A for AWESOME!

 

[Ariel484]

You've got to find a frame for that one! Total villanous awesomeness!

How were you feeling at this point in your race? Way past the actual halfway point of the 26.2 miles, but in the couple of WDW marathons I have run, I always felt like Everest was the true marker for being halfway done. As if you've run to the top of the mountain, and you've got the rest of the way to come back down to where you started - at Epcot! Those last 8 miles can be brutal!

I know! That was the picture I was most excited to get.

I probably should have been talking more about how I felt during the race I don't think it's come up yet because there's really been nothing to tell up to this point - I was feeling pretty good and having fun. But it's funny that you talk about the last 8 miles, because that is where I started struggling, and I think it was more mental than physical because I was dreading miles 18-21 so much. I found I was telling myself that I *needed* an extra walk break during each mile, when I really didn't. Looking back on it, I think I did start to feel it physically around mile 18, but didn't feel bad until the very last mile.

Your picture with the villains is total awesome sauce!! I love it!! And "Bad" was the PrEFECT song to be playing for them!

Good to know they have some Biofreeze at the tents.. I was wondering if I would have to carry my own...

Oh yes, they are prepared with giant bottles. Here's a volunteer holding one during the 2011 Princess Half:

Oh I am loving this trip report!! Gotta love von Drake. Now, if you'd seen Kit Cloudkicker I would have freaked out lol. Love the Rapunzel exchange, that was really cute. It's funny how you miss a lot as you are running and then notice them as you go through your pictures, like seeing Scar. You can't beat that villain line up! How awesome! Also, great time so far. Did Princess Craiggy train as diligently as you did prior to the full? Can't wait for the dramatic finish !!

Edit: Your brother is being a good sport letting us call him Princess Craiggy.

Great time so far?! You're too kind :lol:

I don't know exactly how much Princess C trained, but I know he didn't run as much as I did (his work schedule is crazy) and that everything he did was on a treadmill (insanity!). He did tell me his longest run was 14 miles, yet he seemed in better shape over the final miles than I was...boys.

As for him "letting" us call him Princess Craiggy, I'm pretty sure he is not aware a.) that I call him that and b.) that this message board exists... :lookaroun :lol:

This is THE COOLEST villain picture I've ever seen! I love how Scar's up top!
Yay yay 10 miles to go!

I know! I love how they sneak characters in to these photos...in the old Up! setup at Hollywood Studios they snuck Kevin in as well...very clever.

Awesome villain's picture - in the elephant graveyard to boot! How awesome is that??!!!

Great report !

THANK YOU! I could not figure out what the elephant stuff was...DUH! :lol:

Love how "Bad" was the lead in to that amazing villains picture! I give that one a definite A for AWESOME!

A for Awesome indeed! I'm still excited about it!

 

[Kristia]

I love the Villain shot too! Lion King is one of my fav Disney films so I especially love that Scar is in there and it is in the elephant graveyard! Jealous they didn't have that last year! Here's to hoping for next year!