Sorry everyone. I had the report done days ago but have been having a heck of the time getting the photos included.
I decided to just start a new thread with my pre-race report included, so if you already read just skip to the next post.
PART 1-PRE-RACE
First thing I LOVED meeting my cyberWDWMagic.com friends. I really feel that the runner's board is a good group of people. YES there are hundred of thousands Disney fans but how many of them are willing to throw on a pair of sneakers and spend months of training to run at 10:00 at night in 80 degree weather. Yes, we are crazy bunch and I love you for it!!!
I am disappointed with the pre-race info. Starting with lack of communication from RUNDisney and the lack of/misinformation given to on-property cast members. I got such mixed info regarding the busing from our resort to the expo. I called the front desk at our resort to ask about the wheres and whens on the buses and I was patched into the General Disney HelpDesk. What??? The person then read off the standard script.
The expo itself was kind of sad compared to other Disney races. There wasn't as many vendors and the overall energy was BLAH. Even the speakers were uninspiring.
The highlight light for me was meeting Jeff Galloway. He's a really great guy.
PRE-RACE:
We got on the first bus to the race and had a really cool bus driver. We were the first bus to arrive at the race and they wouldn’t let us off the bus. Had to wait about 10 minutes. Our bus driver offered to take pictures of us and kept trying to pump us up. We spent some time on the bus talking with other runners. I enjoy hearing about why people run at Disney. I was surprised at the amount of cars still in the DHS parking lot when we arrived. This area should have been closed off hours ago.
The Meet & Greet.--- Like I said it was great meeting you. I loved sensing the excitement in those that were running their first Disney event, discussing training, and hearing about everyone’s families especially those that were there to cheer you on (Tim, I think it’s great that your parents were there). It might have been a little bit away from the official pre-race activities but I think it gave us a good place to stretch out and talk before the race…plus I think if I had to hear "Call Me Maybe" one more time I’d probably haul off and hit someone. (And Melissa-we could so do the AMAZING RACE together!)
Once back at the official Pre-Race activites, there was the usual DJ trying to get the crowd pumped up but honestly I couldn’t even think about wasting one ounce of my energy to woot-and-holler and I'm usually the loudest WOO-HOO girl around. The humidity was draining and that was even before we made it to the starting corral. People watching was fun. I give people a lot of credit for running in costumes! There were some fun background settings for photo-ops but I didn’t see any characters.
Off to the corrals, my hubby and I were in Corral B. They had us start off in a starting corral. And they were definitely checking bibs and making sure you were in your correct corral. I heard quite a few people being told they could move back to run with a friend that had a lower corral letter but the friend could not move up. There were port-o-potties in each starting corral. We hung out there for bit before they starting moving us to the official starting line-corral by-corral. I have to say this was the shortest walk to the starting line for any Disney race I’ve attend. But then MORE waiting with the DJ counting us down. ONLY 15 more minutes …Are you ready? Only 10 more minutes…Are you ready? Only 8 more minutes…Are you ready? Augh!!! I was ready to run an hour ago…LET’S DO THIS THING!!!
An NO characters at the countdown.