My alarm went off at 2:30 am. I got dressed and headed over to the main area for ice and water. When I got there, I noticed the machines were all off. I asked about it and half the resort was without power. My area was doing fine. Now I understood why the cable channels weren’t working last night. If they would have told me part of the resort was without power I wouldn’t have questioned anything. I’m not sure why they just said someone is working on it. After talking to the ladies at the front desk, one went to the back area and got me all the ice they had. I truly appreciated the gesture. I filled it with the water on hand and went to wait for the bus. The bus stops had no light so there was a cast member with a flashlight waiting. Within a few minutes, the bus arrived. I heard ladies in the section by the main area talking about getting ready in the dark. I was totally grateful for my room’s power. I took a selfie on the bus.
Before long we were arriving at the Magic Kingdom parking lot.
I went through the no bag check line.
I’m not sure if we were earlier or the people just not waiting this morning because the lines were much shorter than the 10k.
Here’s the view of the stage from my place in the BB8 line.
The Ewok was to our right.
It didn’t take long at all to get to the front of the line.
Then it was my turn.
They actually had PhotoPass people.
At this point, a few lines were still rather short so I jumped in another one. Here were the characters beside my line.
It was only about 15-20 minutes and I got my second picture.
Also with the PhotoPass
By this time, the rest of the lines were pretty long. So, I headed towards the corral entrance. The corrals weren’t open quite yet, so I got a good picture of the start line.
Within 10 minutes, the corrals opened and there was a flood in. I made my customary stop at the port-o-potties.
There was water by the port-o-potties.
For this race, I was in Corral F.
There were a few people in the corral already.
Luckily, one of my running friends was right at the front. There was a lady laying on the ground next to her. I made my way over while trying not to step on that lady. Clarissa joined Rudy and the other announcer again for this race.
After about 40 minutes of being in the corral, it was time for the National Anthem. This time it was a male singer.
Before long, the wheelchairs started.
Followed closely by Corral A.
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AuE8IK6agmazlsQBOtwdyihCDIoWqA
Eventually, we made our way to the front. I believe Rudy had already left for the finish line.
I took a selfie with the start line. You can tell I’m already sweating from the heat and humidity.
And then, we were off!
This morning, I got a decent picture of the dedicated fans just after the start line.
However, the pictures of the staging area are all too blurry to even post here. We made our way around the sweeping right turn.
I decided to stop in the first character line again.
The wait wasn’t too long for Ray.
Shortly after Ray, we made an almost U-turn to the right.
At the gas station, we went right this time.
We could see the fireworks for the corrals starting behind us.
We veered to the left.
Then we turned left onto Bear Island Rd.
Mile 1 was along this dark section.
Taking advantage of the dark section, the used lights, lasers, and sound to simulate battles.
I took advantage of a very short line to stop at the throne.
Next came a well lit medical tent.
Then, water stop #1.
Followed by a bank of port-o-potties.
There was more mood lighting, lasers, and flame ups in the woods to simulate battles again.
I honestly love this section and it’s look and feel. They did great with it. There was a communication satellite on the right.
Then we found Mile 2.
On the right side shortly after the mile marker was an Ewok. His line was rather long and I didn’t want to lose time already.
Next we came to the facilities area with the smelly water treatment plant.
Rather appropriately there was a bank of port-o-potties here.
We ran through these gates that in general keep people out of the facilities area.
On the other side of the gates was Mile 3.
They had a screen playing movie clips across the intersection.
Soon came the 5k speed bump.
Soon we ran by the greenhouses. I’d love to tours these.
Next came a picture stop. The line was already pretty long and it wasn’t moving very quick. So, I just took a quick picture as I passed by.
To the right of this picture stop, the course narrowed slightly.
We made a right turn in the backstage area.
Soon we crossed some train tracks.
On the other side of the tracks was a bank of port-o-potties.
They were followed by water stop #2.
At what is the end of the picture above, we found Mile 4.
We took a right at the fork in the road.
Soon we were entering Animal Kingdom.
We entered into the Harambe market area.
I got a not so great selfie with the Tree of Life.
We turned to the right towards Tusker House. This cast member was pointing out restrooms.
There were a couple StormTroopers in a left turn.
We ran by the entrance of the Lion King show.
This was probably even better when it was darker, but we followed paths into Pandora that had mood lighting.
Soon we emerged into Pandora. The Pandora area really is pretty.
There are bathrooms to the right in this picture. I think I stopped there.
The course makes a left turn at that point and then goes under the flying mountains.
Cast members were out getting the queue ready for Flight of Passage.
I took a decent selfie with the waterfalls from the floating mountains.
There were some more bathrooms in this area.
Soon, we were leaving Pandora (sorry for the blurry photo).
As we were leaving Pandora, we could see the runners entering it.
There were some rebels in the main area.
Continuing by the main entrance, we headed toward Dinoland. There were more bathrooms on the way.
We entered Dinoland running under the sign.
We continued by the place we used to run through and leaded towards the left.
There was a right turn by the Finding Nemo show that we used to enter Dinoland this time.
We could see Expedition Everest through the Finding Nemo area as we turned.
We ran by the carnival area and I spotted the photographers up ahead.
They got this picture of me running.
There were some more bathrooms on the right in this area.
We left Animal Kingdom through these open gates.
On the left as we exited we found some cosplayers.
On the right was Mile 5.
I did stop for a picture with cosplayers since there was no line.
Kylo Ren blurred my picture. 🙂
This picture reminded me to put this out there. For the cosplayers, there are no PhotoPass photographers. In general runners will hand their phone to the person behind them in line. I’ve never had someone say they wouldn’t take a picture for me.
We continued on a big, sweeping curve around the pond.
In this area, we found water stop #3.
At the end of the around the pond run, we pass a guard shack. Then we continue right to run through this area.
We came out into the parking lot and found this screen playing clips.
We turned right at this stop sign before we entered the parking lot.
We continued on the path towards the front entrance.
There were some people already going through security to enter the park.
We continued by the entrance and back out to the parking lot. Some of the guest entering were cheering and high fiving and the walked by.
We made a right turn to head towards the parking lot entrance.
There was a super long line for the next phot stop. I am lucky to already have this picture a couple f times so I didn’t stop.
Speaking of the long line, here is a picture from the front towards the end of the line.
Mile 6 was shortly after the picture spot.
There was a parade bus (aka sweeper bus) waiting in the right turn. I was safely ahead at this point.
After the turn was a heavily used medical tent.
Next came a bank of port-o-potties with very little wait.
As we made our way around to the left, we found the 10k speed bump.
As we left the parking lot behind, we found water stop #4.
Then we were on the long, boring section of road. They tried to entertain using clips on screens, but the sun made it hard to see anything.
I was very happy to see Mile 7.
There was another screen on the bridge by the McDonalds.
At this same point to the left you can just barely make out Blizzard Beach over the trees.
Once we were off the bridge, there was a medical tent on the left.
A family was out on the side of the road cheering (with a cow bell).
To the left (in the grassy median) was the official Chewbacca photo stop. There were only a couple people in line, so I waited.
We took this ramp to the right off the road.
In the middle of the ramp was Mile 8.
At the end of the ramp, we made a U-turn onto the road.
There was a screen at the end of the U-turn but it was hard to see.
We ended up on a side road.
Along this road, they passed out sports beans.
Just after the sports beans were some hard to get to port-o-potties.
Water stop #5 was also here.
We could see the Hollywood Studios entrance and Galaxy’s Edge across the street.
On the left was another photo stop with a short line.
Mile 9 was shortly after the photo stop.
Soon we were making an almost U-turn onto the ramp. There was a screen at the turn.
The 15k speed bump was on the ramp.
Also along the ramp was this state trooper wearing the runDisney medal he had previously earned. I think it was from marathon weekend.
Some rebels were urging us to join them towards the top.
A medical tent was right at the top of the ramp.
Here’s a look back at the people just entering the ramp.
We stayed in the right lane since the road was open to traffic.
We turned right at this light to head backstage by Tower of Terror.
The stop I missed out on during the 10k was next, The line was fairly long, but not as bad as some. I knew I had a decent cushion at this point so I waited. I think it took close to 10 minutes.
After the photo stop came water stop #6.
We made a left and headed towards to Studios.
Along the way we found Mile 10.
Right after the mile marker (and you can probably see it better on the left of the picture above) was a rather steep ramp up and into the Fantasmic area.
In the Fantasmic area were some great cosplayers. I stopped for a couple pictures.
Here are a couple videos of other characters in this area.
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https://1drv.ms/v/s!AuE8IK6agmazlsQAKHGaZYKRjKnlvQ
We left the cosplayers as we headed towards Tower of Terror.
We ran around this area.
We found park guests and many cast members cheering us on as we turned on Sunset Boulevard.
I love the path of palm trees.
There were a couple Stormtroopers by the market.
Photographers were towards the end of the street.
They got this great shot of me. I love the blurred tower in the background.
There were more photographers just before Hollywood Blvd.
They got this shot of me I think taking the next picture.
Which was a picture of the turn onto Hollywood Blvd
We ran towards the Crossroads at the entrance.
We turned left just in front to find this photographer.
I believe he got this picture of me taking a picture of him.
We went briefly backstage through these gates. (The real bathrooms are on the left just before this gate)
We made one right turn at the end of the building.
Then we made another right.
We emerged just on the other side of the entrance.
They had one section of security blocked off for us to run through.
Due to the construction, we turned before the topiary and ran by the opposite side from previous races.
Many people were heading in to the Studios as we were leaving next to the Skyliner station.
We turned left and went under the Skyliner cars stopped during testing.
There was a lady in this section with a sign.
We were in the new bus terminals. I needed a bathroom stop and found the brand new bathrooms in the area.
Here’s a look back at the bathrooms in relation to the Skyliner.
We continued left onto the path to the Boardwalk.
It was surprisingly not super crowded and even had room for running.
After going under the bridge we came to water stop #7.
There were a couple of spectators dressed in theme in the Boardwalk area. This lady was my favorite.
Just after the Jedi, we found Mile 11.
There was a medical tent as we came to the end of the path.
We went to the right this time toward the Boardwalk.
We turned right at the water. Those are actually medical bicycles although they did give me a little scare.
We went by Big River.
The PhotoPass photographers got me in this area.
They also got this runner whose shirt made me laugh (and I could relate)
As we got closer to the Boardwalk hotel area, we found lots of spectators with signs. Here is one of my favorites:
Here is a picture of some of the spectators.
WDW Radio was out in force by Ample Hills.
Just beyond ESPN was another character stop. There was no line so I had to jump in.
I got a view across the water at the runners just entering the Boardwalk area.
We proceeded up and over the bridge.
We turned right and went downhill towards the International Gateway to EPCOT.
We turned left before the Gateway and into the Skyliner contruction.
There was still a good bit left to complete the station.
We turned right in the backstage area.
Then we followed the flow of the backstage pathways.
Eventaully we came to the gate
We emerged in the UK pavilion and turned right.
There was a crosswalk for guests in this area.
They positioned photographers (much to my chagrin) at the uphill towards France.
The picture they took wasn’t terrible, though.
You can tell by this picture going over the flat bridge after the uphill that we were all pretty much dead at this point.
The France pavilion was empty.
Mile 12 was in the Morocco area.
In Japan, I had a nice view of Spaceship Earth. Also, there was Illuminations floats still out on the water.
There were some PhotoPass photographers set up in the American Adventure area.
They captured this shot of me running by the photographers.
There were a couple cast members cheering in Italy, one had the Italian flag.
Since the Flower and Garden Festival was going on, there were some beautiful topiaries of Snow White and Dopey in Germany.
There were a few German cast members cheering with their flag.
PhotoPass photographers were set up at the edge of Germany.
They got this shot of me… gotta love the gravity-defying hair.
We continued around through the African Outpost. I loved this couple’s shirts!
The 20k point was in China.
A couple of cast members were cheering in China.
Norway was well represented including a brave cast member in a Viking helmet with sword. These costumes always take me back to my entertainment days since this is the exact outfit I wore on stage.
The Mexico cast members were very vocal and I loved that they used the maracas.
There were PhotoPass photographers at the turn by the Three Caballeros topiary. I was in the middle of the pack so they didn’t get one of me.
We turned right and headed towards Spaceship Earth. I have to admit I love running around the countries.
There was a Goofy topiary on the way to Spaceship Earth.
There were quite a few cast members and a medic at the Mouse Gear area.
We continued to the right of Spaceship Earth and you can just see the PhotoPass photographers at the back of this picture.
I’m not sure if I missed they were coming or if I was just done with running at this point.
We went right at the bathrooms to head backstage.
There were a bunch of cosplayers in this backstage area. You know they are not Disney when you see this sign at the start.
I was done waiting in lines so I tried to get pictures from the race path. In the background is the contruction on the Guardians of the Galaxy coaster.
I did get one picture since there was no wait. Funny… looking at this picture now all I can think is that it looks like I’m doing the bend and snap. (If you don’t get that reference, watch Legally Blonde.)
One more contruction picture for posterity.
I’m getting used to seeing this security guard when leaving the park now.
We finally found Mile 13 just before emerging to the spectator stands.
Once by the sing, we could see the finish around to the right.
There were PhotoPass photographers positioned at the end of the pathway before the straightaway to the finish line.
The announcers wer ein a tent on the right just for the finish. There were also StormTroopers just before the finish.
The PhotoPass photographers only got one picture of me crossing the line.
I took a selfie after crossing the line.
I continued down the path to get my medal.
There is a huge medical area on the right after the medals.
On the left, the were handing out cooling towles.
We continued around to the left. There were many tables that at one time had been filled with water and Powerade. I was glad they had enough left.
I continued towards the Challenge Medal tent.
Apparently too many of us finished at the same time as there was quite a line for the picture check.
Eventually, I made it up to the laptop check.
This wonderful gentleman place the challenge medal around my neck.
I had the 10k medal in my pocket and put it on before going any further.
You can kind of see it on my shoulder, but I had also carried my reusable bag with me. It is invaluable at the end of a race to carry all the stuff. I grabbed my snack box and banana and then waited in a picture line. Here is my official picture.
I really need to learn to stick my chin out so I don’t get the neck rolls. I left the picture area and crossed through the bag checks.
The reunion area was still pretty crowded. I turned right and headed straight for my bus.
I did like this shirt I saw on the way.
The Caribbean Beach bus had no line so I got right on.
I tried to get a medal selfie but it proved a little difficult.
I had my banana and Powerade on the bus.
I also got a shot of my very useful bag.
My official time was 3:54:16. This race is always hot and humid but the theme and characters totally make up for it in my opinion. I will be back next year for year number 5. My family is joining me since it is the end of Spring Break week and we will all be doing the 5k. I’m really looking forward to sharing the race weekend with them. I will also be running the Challenge.
Kristin Cooke 