Trip Report You Are Braver Than You Believe, Stronger Than You Seem, And Smarter Than ... Nope. Piglet Goes Dopey

Hi everyone, welcome to my trip report. I’ve been reading lots of other reports and have really enjoyed them so thought I’d join in the fun. We’ve been back home for a week now, photos are sorted and it’s about time I got round to doing this.

I did write a pre-trip report (A Dopey Dream) but I’m a bit technically challenged and don’t know how to link it, so I’ll go over a few details.

Who:

Me, Sharon aka Piglet. About to celebrate a scary big birthday (50) next month. This was one of the reasons for the trip. Husband, Darren, older than me . Alice, turned 13 while we were there, and Lexi, 10. We live in Milton Keynes, UK and are DVC members. One day I will find a photo of all of us together that isn’t completely hideous.

Where and When:

Saratoga Springs Resort January 1st to January 13th
Cruising on the Disney Dream January 13th to January

Extras bits:

While we were there I just happened to run a couple of little races. 5k, 10k, half marathon, first ever full marathon. Just the sort of thing that normal people do while they’re on holiday.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

When I ran the half during marathon weekend in 2018, I was impressed by the number of port-a-potties on the course. Granted, the DLP half is about a quarter of the number of runners, but there are fewer port-a-potties overall. Along the course there are sometimes 1-2 along the course, but that is it. I always make sure I stop at the last restroom leaving the parks (at about km 7ish) because after that I never know where they might be and how many people will be waiting when I get there. Then again, my city has a marathon weekend and I am not aware if there are any along the route (I know there aren't any along the 10km route).

I was very grateful for them, normally I’m ok for a half marathon but all the waiting around beforehand really adds up.

I ran a half at home just before Christmas with a friend who was newly pregnant. She needed to go about 2 miles in so we were looking all along the course but there was nothing. Not even a secluded bush. I don’t know how she managed to finish.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Saturday 11th January: Half Marathon Day (cont)

So as well as providing an amazing amount of toilets around the routes, another thing runDisney are very good at is hydration stops. I’ve never run a 5k before that had a water stop. I’m used to one stop for a 10k, Disney had 3, and 3-4 for a half marathon. For this half Disney had stops about every mile and a half, offering water and Gatorade. Unfortunately the water was Dasani, but beggars can’t be choosers. The one thing I did notice at the water stops was how messy the fast runners are. I always take water then throw my cup/bottle either into a bag/bin or at the side of the road. Running through the first water stop after the start the road was covered in paper cups, I had to do a kind of prancing run to avoid slipping on them. Obviously the fast runners just drink and drop, probably one of the reasons that there aren’t any water stops in the parks.

After my first character photo I carried on along the road towards the Magic Kingdom. It was still dark but already feeling pretty warm. And there was a noticeable increase in the humidity over the last few days. The route veered off the road and through the TTC, hooray real toilets, and then carried back out onto World Drive.

As I was approaching the Contemporary I heard a honking from behind. A bit confused (it was still really early) I looked over my shoulder and it was the monorail cheering on all the runners . Passing the Contemporary, there were also lots of spectators, many with funny signs, it was a really good feeling to be cheered on.

After the Contemporary the route turned towards MK and I got my second character photo, Christmas Duffy. This was another pretty cool themed photo op with fake snow blowing around. One thing that made me chuckle to myself was the woman waiting in front of me. She was wearing quite an elaborate Belle costume and as we were waiting she pulled out all her make up to touch up her face. I try to carry as little as possible when I’m running, so it seemed quite weird to me that she would carry make up around with her.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Saturday 11th January: Half Marathon Day (cont)

I was really enjoying the race. Just running along slowly, taking plenty of walk breaks and taking everything in. It was warm but not uncomfortably so. And the spectator support was fantastic. People were supporting along the route through the TTC, the Contemporary and towards the Magic Kingdom. I was feeling so happy at this point, doing something that I loved in a place that I loved.

So next stop Magic Kingdom. I had really been looking forward to this and hoping I got there while it was still a bit dark so the castle would be lit up.

The route went in through the main entrance, around the right hand side of Town Square and a slight turn up towards Main Street. And then the emotions hit. The entire left hand side of Main Street was packed with spectators cheering everyone on. The castle looked beautiful. It was an absolutely amazing feeling and I burst into tears. I stopped to walk to try and take some photos while tears were streaming down my cheeks.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Saturday 11th January: Half Marathon Day (cont)

After Main Street, the route turned right through Tomorrowland. Yay, more real toilets, I had to stop in to splash my face with water after the crying. I think the photo below was Tomorrowland, it looks like the peoplemover in the background.

Through Fantasyland and back towards the castle.

Then I actually got to run through the castle ❤. This was the bit I’d really been looking forward to and it was awesome. It didn’t quite have the emotional hit as when I first turned in to Main Street, but I still loved it. I would have liked to have stopped to take a photo looking down Main Street but it was impossible to stop without getting in the way of other runners.

Obviously there were photopass photographers capturing the moment when everyone ran through.

Then from the Hub through Liberty Square and towards Frontierland.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Saturday 11th January: Half Marathon Day (cont)

The route then passed Splash Mountain and went out through the backstage area. There were a couple of characters back here. I love the parade float in the background of the Pinocchio photo.

I was pretty impressed with how the character photos were handled during the race. It was like a production line, hand over phone, pose, leave. Nobody was messing about with multiple poses, it was very quick and efficient exactly what is needed during a race.

After leaving Magic Kingdom the route went past the Grand Floridian and Polynesian and more cheering spectators. Then continued along Floridian Way until it met with World Drive to go back to Epcot. It got a bit breezy on the way back and sprinkled with rain a little bit, it felt quite refreshing.

One thing I noticed while running on the main roads was that I some places they slope from one side to the other. I did find it a little bit awkward to run on, it was irritating my left ankle a bit, but found if I ran on the left hand side of the road which was the top of the slope it was a bit flatter. I had some Achilles issues when I got home, I did wonder if this contributed to them.

One more character photo on the way back to Epcot, this was the one I’d missed on the way out.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Saturday 11th January: Half Marathon Day (cont)

The route headed back into Epcot via the bus stops and then through a backstage area around the back of The Seas and The Land pavilions.

Then continued down the side of Journey Into Imagination and into Future World.

And then over the bridge and around a tiny bit of World Showcase. I was glad this wasn’t my only race because I liked running around World Showcase in the others.

And finally out via Mexico and the same backstage route as the other races to the finish line.

One thing I noticed was that right at the finish line there were quite a few volunteers wearing gloves and holding out small plastic bags. It took a minute to register that these were actually bags. I don’t know whether they’d already had an incident that needed a clean up, but they didn’t have them at the previous races or the next day at the marathon.

As well as drinks and snacks after the finish, there were also lovely wet cooling towels being handed out. These were very welcome as it was feeling very hot by now.

A stop for a photo with my medal, then a bus back to the resort.

I really enjoyed the half marathon, it was definitely my favourite race so far. I did exactly as I planned and took it super easy with lots of walk breaks and stops for photos, so easy that I took almost an hour longer than my usual time for a half. The spectator support was incredible and that run down Main Street still makes me tear up a bit now just thinking about it.

 

[krisri18]

Saturday 11th January: Half Marathon Day (cont)

The route headed back into Epcot via the bus stops and then through a backstage area around the back of The Seas and The Land pavilions.

View attachment 470171

Then continued down the side of Journey Into Imagination and into Future World.

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And then over the bridge and around a tiny bit of World Showcase. I was glad this wasn’t my only race because I liked running around World Showcase in the others.



View attachment 470173

And finally out via Mexico and the same backstage route as the other races to the finish line.

View attachment 470174

One thing I noticed was that right at the finish line there were quite a few volunteers wearing gloves and holding out small plastic bags. It took a minute to register that these were actually bags. I don’t know whether they’d already had an incident that needed a clean up, but they didn’t have them at the previous races or the next day at the marathon.

As well as drinks and snacks after the finish, there were also lovely wet cooling towels being handed out. These were very welcome as it was feeling very hot by now.

A stop for a photo with my medal, then a bus back to the resort.

View attachment 470175

View attachment 470176

I really enjoyed the half marathon, it was definitely my favourite race so far. I did exactly as I planned and took it super easy with lots of walk breaks and stops for photos, so easy that I took almost an hour longer than my usual time for a half. The spectator support was incredible and that run down Main Street still makes me tear up a bit now just thinking about it.

Love that Donald medal!

 

[cgersic]

Thank you for keeping me busy during this closing! I'm checking your report every day

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Love that Donald medal!

Me too. Donald is my favourite of the fab five. I think the medal captures his personality.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Thank you for keeping me busy during this closing! I'm checking your report every day

You’re welcome and thank you for following. Hopefully I’ll have time for an update tomorrow. I still have six more days to write about so there’s a lot more to come.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Saturday 11th January: Half Marathon Day (cont)

My certificate for the half marathon. You can see there’s much less of a difference between the clock and the net time for this race. Much less waiting in the corral at the start.

Back at the resort, I stopped at Artist Palette for a quick breakfast. Yes, I had run a half marathon and it was still only breakfast time. Then looking forward to my shower, I headed back to the room. The shower was not a pleasant experience. As soon as the water hit me I let out a scream, my shorts had chafed on the inside of my thighs. A lot of runners will tell you, they don’t notice chafing while they are running and it’s the same for me. I didn’t notice at all and this was unexpected as I’ve never had chafing on my lower half before. I’d covered my upper half in body glide before each race. I was really worried about how I was going to manage during the marathon when I was already feeling uncomfortable. I’d read that diaper rash cream was supposed to be good so I sent Darren over to the shop to look for some, but apparently there wasn’t any on the baby supplies shelf. So I made do with some antiseptic cream that I already had.

Then a quick nap before we headed out for the afternoon. I had to get a quick photo with my medal and shirt before we left.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Saturday 11th January: Half Marathon Day and a birthday.

This was the day that Alice turned 13 . Anyone who has a birthday on holiday gets to choose what we do for the day and Alice had chosen Hollywood Studios. She wavered on where she wanted to have lunch, first picking Mama Melrose so she could have pizza then changing her mind to the Hollywood Brown Derby because she really loves the spicy tuna that they do.

Originally we’d planned breakfast at Cape May Cafe straight after my race so that I could show Donald my medal. But after that tiring first race day I’d cancelled that in favour of a more relaxing morning, and just accepted that I wouldn’t have my photo. But Alice wasn’t having that. She gave up her choice of birthday lunch and we rearranged for Hollywood and Vine just so I could get my Donald photo. She really is a very kind hearted girl.

I thought I’d share some older photos of the birthday girl from previous Disney trips.

First trip and first character meal. 4 months old.

First time walking around the parks. She was only two and we did have a stroller but she wanted to walk everywhere.

First runDisney medal. She had her birthday on that holiday as well.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Saturday 11th January: Half Marathon Day and a birthday (cont)

As our previous Hollywood Studios day had revolved around Star Wars and Toy Story Land we’d decided to spend today exploring the rest of the park. I’d had the same problem as before with the fastpass tiers and had booked an early throw away tier 2 so that I could hopefully book another tier 1 later.

Again not much of a queue to get through bag check at this time of day. Walking into the park felt quite strange, there was still Christmas music playing and all of the decorations were still up. It seemed a bit too late in the month for it to still be Christmas.

We headed straight over to Rock n Roller Coaster as it was getting close to the end of our FP window. This is another ride that Darren can’t do but the rest of us love it. Alice had a single rider sit next to her, I don’t know how anyone can have such a straight face during that take off.

Next we had to have a little bit of Star Wars for Alice’s birthday so it was off to ride Star Tours. It was the Rise of Skywalker sequence again, I don’t think they were showing anything else while we were there.

We had a bit of time to kill before lunch but not enough time to ride anything so Alice wanted to head over to Galaxy’s Edge to browse the shops. She had some birthday money to spend and thought that would be a good place to spend it. Surprisingly nothing really stood out for her and she decided to hold onto her money for the cruise.

One present she did get (a few days early) was this cute Loungefly backpack. She’d seen it online before we went and it now goes everywhere with it, she absolutely loves it.

Next was off to our late lunch at Hollywood and Vine. We checked in and waited approximately 30 seconds before our name was called. It was so empty in there, it was almost 3 o’clock by now, not a very popular time for lunch.

The food was plentiful if not particularly memorable, but the character interactions were very good and I do like their fancy outfits. First up was Minnie.

Then Daisy.

Then the main reason for being there, Donald. He made a huge fuss of my medal, he was lifting it up and kissing it.

Goofy came over while we were chatting with Donald and started pointing at himself and then at the medal. I told him I would be getting a medal with him on the next day, he acted very happy.

I only have one photo of Goofy with Alice, not sure why that is.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Saturday 11th January: Half Marathon Day and a birthday (cont)

We got some photos with Mickey on our way out of the restaurant.

Before lunch I’d managed to get an extra FP for Tower of Terror so we headed off in that direction. Alice didn’t want to ride, I think her tummy was a bit overstuffed from lunch, so it was just me and Lexi. Being very short, I never have much luck with the ride photo here, I always seem to be in the back row. You can’t see Lexi’s face at all just a little arm with a yellow magicband.

After Tower of Terror we decided to split up for the rest of the day. I needed to get everything ready for my race the next day, the girls wanted to stay in the park and watch a couple of shows especially Indiana Jones.

On the bus back to the resort I had a nice chat with a fellow Dopey runner. It was the first time for both of us and we were both feeling pretty nervous.

I stopped at the shop on the way back to pick up a few breakfast things for our last couple of days. I had a look over at the baby supplies and I found some diaper rash cream that Darren claimed hadn’t been there earlier. I coated my legs with it when I got back to the room, it was a lifesaver.

I set out my clothes and snacks for the morning and made sure my phone and Garmin were charging. Then in bed by 8 o’clock again.

Meanwhile Darren and the girls stayed until park close. They watched the Indiana Jones and Frozen shows, then they rode Toy Story Mania and Alien Swirling Saucers.

Darren took this photo of Lexi to send to a friend who always calls her sparkle.

They even stayed to watch fireworks which had changed back to Star Wars from the Christmas themed ones. I was a bit jealous, it sounded like they had a really good evening.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Sunday 12th January: Marathon Day

It was finally here, the day that I had spent months training for. I had been building up my Sunday long runs since July. In the 8 weeks leading up to Christmas I had long runs on Saturdays and Sundays, running at least one of them at half marathon distance or more. I don’t think I could have prepared better for this race.

Surprisingly, considering I was feeling a bit nervous, I slept pretty well the night before the race. I expect three early mornings and three races in a row had worn me out a bit. The marathon was due to start half an hour earlier than the other races, at 5 o’clock, and the buses were starting at 2.30 so I had my six alarms set a bit earlier. I didn’t need all of them though, I was up as soon as the first one went off. Darren got up with me to check I was ok and to help make sure I was covered in sunscreen. I was going to be running much more of this race in full sunlight and the last thing I wanted was to miss a patch on my back and get sunburnt before my cruise.

All during the race weekend there were warnings about how the temperature would be increasing. As soon as I left the room it felt different from the previous days. It was 2.30 in the morning and I already felt warm in just my running tank and shorts. And it wasn’t just the temperature, the humidity felt more like July than January. This was not going to be easy to run in.

I got to the bus stop at about 2.40 and just like the previous days the buses were lined up waiting. I jumped on the first one and it didn’t take long for it to fill up and leave. One thing I did notice was that we left the resort a different way. The other mornings we left Saratoga Springs via the less used exit onto Buena Vista Drive, today we went out via the main resort exit. From what I heard after the race this might have been something to do with there being a lot of traffic congestion that morning. As soon as we pulled up to the bus parking in Epcot it was obvious how busy it was, the bus had to wait in a queue to pull up to the bus stop.

Something else that I think runDisney do really well during races is their use of music throughout. There were bands and DJs along some of the boring stretches of road and there was music playing in the parks and at the race mile markers. There are three particular songs that really stick in my memory from the day of the marathon. Getting off the bus in the Epcot parking lot I was so nervous, I was seriously doubting myself and wondering why on Earth I had signed up to do this. The first song I heard was “Try Everything” by Shakira. Hearing the lyrics “I won’t give up, no I won’t give in” really boosted my mood, I had a little spring in my step and started to have a singalong to myself.

The queue to get through bag check was huge this morning, it looked like I would be there for ages. But like the day before it was very fast and efficient and I was through quite quickly. Walking into the staging area I heard my second memorable song, “Seven Nation Army” by The White Stripes. I have this on my running playlist so listen to it quite a lot, it’s the kind of song that always makes me run a bit faster. Strangely it’s the only time I remember a non Disney song playing.

The queues for the character photos weren’t too bad so I waited for a photo with Goofy.

Then I didn’t need anything in my bag until after the race so dropped it off at the bag check and sat down to eat my snacks while waiting for the corrals to open.

 

[Swissmiss]

i can’t wait to here about your marathon experience!

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Sunday 12th January: Marathon Day (cont)

I mentioned in the previous post that it was feeling hot and that runDisney had been issuing warnings about the heat during the upcoming race. So I’m just going to give a bit of an explanation of my understanding of the flag warning system used in a lot of US races so that you can understand how the race might be affected. There is something called the heat stress calculation which takes into account ambient temperature, relative humidity, the reflective properties of the race surface and environment and the cooling effect of the wind. This calculation is then used in a series of colour codes indicating how severe the weather conditions are. Green - ideal race conditions. Yellow - less than ideal, slow down and prepare for it to get worse. Red - potentially dangerous conditions, slow right down, be observant of any information from race officials and consider stopping. Black - extreme and dangerous conditions, the race is stopped and all runners must leave the course. At aid stations along the race route there should be coloured flags indicating which level of alert the race is at.

Before the marathon started it was already on a yellow alert. There had been lots of speculation online that it was highly likely that it would move to a red alert at some point during the race. It was definitely the sort of race that needed to be taken very easy.

Back to race morning and it was time for the corrals to open. They were in the same place as for the half marathon, what felt like miles away, so I took a slow walk over. The atmosphere on the way over was incredible. It was as if you could feel the excitement and anticipation, obviously mixed with a lot of nerves. There was lots of laughter and chat, and because there were far more solo runners a lot of this chat was between complete strangers. That’s one of the things I love about races, chatting to people who you don’t know but have this huge thing in common with. And at Disney races you have the extra Disney love in common.

There was a last minute toilet break before getting in my corral, the queues were massive at the portaloos near the corrals. And it was mostly women, the bushes along the side of the road were being put to full use by the men. I had to wait quite a while and only just got into my corral before the race start time of 5 o’clock. I was happy to be near the back though especially knowing from the previous day that I got a pretty good start from that position.

So the official start time of 5 o’clock came and went. I had no idea what was going on, the previous races had all started on time. I found out after the race that there had been so much traffic congestion on the way there that a lot of runners had trouble getting to the race on time. Even that some people who were being dropped off by car were getting out on the roads to walk to the start. So the race organisers had decided to delay the start to allow as many as possible to get there.

Finally at about 5.20 the countdown was on for the official start of the race. Lots of cheering and fireworks and the first runners were off.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Sunday 12th January: Marathon Day (cont)

Just like the half marathon the day before, I didn’t have long to wait until it was my turn to start. In fact, it was less than ten minutes after the first runners started and I was off. My first ever marathon. My legs felt a little bit stiff and heavy at first after all the other races but that soon wore off and I was plodding along quite happily.

I had a rough plan that I wanted to follow for this race. While the other races had been more for fun with lots of stopping, I actually wanted to run this one properly. I had a time goal of under 5 hours in mind, my half marathon PB is 2:04 so a sub 5 marathon should be doable. Also, knowing how hot it was going to be, I wanted to get as much of the race as possible out of the way while it was still dark. This meant no stopping other than for drinks or toilet breaks. If I managed to stay on track I was planning to stop for a beer in Animal Kingdom, Thirsty River bar was opening early before the rest of the park.

One of the highlights of the marathon is that you get to run through all of the 4 parks. This year the route had been changed slightly, it would be going through Epcot twice and it would be going through Blizzard Beach.

So even though the race started in the same place as the half marathon, it didn’t take the same direct route to Magic Kingdom. It looped back on itself and then followed the same route in and out of Epcot as the end of the half. So around the bottom of World Showcase and out via Mexico. Then back past the starting line at about mile 4. People were hard at work here packing up the corral area so that the roads could be reopened, it was strange to see that most of it had already gone.

The miles to Magic Kingdom were really quite uneventful. I was feeling pretty good and sticking to my plan. I was however already completely drenched in sweat. I think at this point it was the humidity rather than the heat that was a problem. It really had that running through a wet blanket feel to it. I remember at one point thinking it was starting to sprinkle with rain because I felt some water drops. Then I realised it was just that I was a bit too close to another runner and that it was his sweat flicking back at me .

Again the spectator support was phenomenal. Loads of motivational posters, cheering people, and my absolute favourite, high fives from little kids.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Sunday 12th January: Marathon Day (cont)

The route continued through the TTC where I shouted out a thank you to one of the spectators because he was holding an awesome flag . Then out past the Contemporary Resort and, already 10 miles into the race, into Magic Kingdom. Because of the late start to the race and the fact that there was an extra 3 mile loop through Epcot at the start it was later in the morning than for the half marathon. So it was already quite light while running up Main Street and although the castle lights were still on it didn’t quite have the same effect as the day before. It was still pretty awesome running up there though.

Now, in general, I really dislike race photos of myself. I always think I look miserable and that I’m really struggling. For the other races I chose the least bad ones, and there were some really bad ones . For the marathon there aren’t any least bad ones. I was hot and sweaty and red faced in all of them. And, spoiler alert, I was miserable and struggling towards the end. So I’m going to be brave and share them anyway.

I didn’t see any race photographers on the early loop of Epcot, so the first photos are of Magic Kingdom.

After this I stopped in the Tomorrowland bathrooms to get a quick blast of AC and splash my face with water. Then around the back of Seven Dwarfs and out through the castle.

Then through the hub to Liberty Square.

And out of Magic Kingdom backstage past Splash Mountain.

 

[Piglet_the_brave]

Sunday 12th January: Marathon Day (cont)

After exiting Magic Kingdom the route followed Floridian Way past the Grand Floridian where I saw a bit of a strange sight. On the opposite side of the road along the edge of the Magnolia Golf Course were what looked like 5 or 6 very large turkeys. I’ve seen lots of other wildlife on Disney property, but never free ranging turkeys before.

I was almost at the half marathon point and up until now everything had been going pretty well. I had been plodding along nicely, sticking to the plan for my pace and I’d got half of the race done before it had got too hot. And then, just after the Grand Floridian, is where disaster struck and it was completely my own fault.

One huge rule of long distance running is that you absolutely NEVER do anything new on race day. No new clothes or shoes. Nothing unfamiliar to eat or drink before or during the race. And I broke this rule. Because of the heat expected on race day, runDisney had been advising runners to not just hydrate with water but to use sports drinks to replenish electrolytes lost through excessive sweating. Electrolyte imbalance can be a very dangerous, even fatal, condition and most runners will have heard a story of an otherwise fit person who has died after a long race. So I made the decision to take a risk and drink some of the Powerade provided on the course. I’d had a little bit during the half marathon and I’d been fine, but I drank a lot more of it during the marathon. On the road between Grand Floridian and Polynesian I felt a bit of an unsettling gurgle in my stomach. Luckily there was a first aid station just ahead with a couple of portaloos with no queue. And the dreaded runners tummy had hit . I had some Imodium with me which I took, but I’m not sure if it helped and marathon day should probably be renamed ‘My tour of runDisney portaloos’ .

An upset stomach was not going to stop me though, I was absolutely determined I was going to finish this race.