After an easy 5k, we went a little hard at the parks. We walked around a lot and got a ton done, which was great, but it also took it’s toll on our legs. Going to sleep the night before I could feel it in my legs, not too, too much but just a little too much.
Wake up time: 4am. Out the door: 4:30am.
Wookie, my friend, and I made our way over to the start a little groggy, I saw my friend who was running her first challenge race ever after she ran her first 10k only a year ago (so proud of her) before making our way to our corral. We were in corral E (last corral) and waited for our start. We couldn’t hear anything back there. We couldn’t hear the announcers or the National Anthem until it was half way done. No speakers were set up so it was weird being left in the dark about what was going on.
We finally got to move up after a couple corrals went and were more aware of the race. C-3PO and R2-D2 were there again to see us off and in no time we were off!
This was a great 10k course. Except for the first 1, it was all in parks and in backstage areas.
The original plan was to stop for Chewie for a picture but when we got to him the line was 5 or 6 switchbacks deep. We decided to grab some selfies and continue on. This became the selfie race.
Lots of characters were out! Darth Vader, Chewie, some people from something else, Boba Fett, lots of Jedi and lots of Storm Troopers. It was awesome. However, the lines for said characters were not awesome and I actually turned into “that” runDisney runner when we got to Boba Fett.
Situation: We ran up to Boba Fett and the line was SUPER long (20-25 min) and we were already in the last corral so stopping wasn’t really an option for risk of being swept. So we did what we had been doing; pull over to the side, stop, and take a selfie. However, at this character apparently this was a safety issue and even though I was pretty much off the course I wasn’t allowed to stop. Granted there were people in the middle of the runner area that were stopping for selfies, which is an issue. But to be told I wasn’t allowed to take a photo of on course entertainment was annoying especially since the cast member was physically trying to block my pictures. I was less than nice to this cast member and then festered on this for the rest of the race because 1) I felt bad for her because I know she was only doing what she was told and 2) I knew there had to have been a better solution (or really any solution in this case). In the future at critical places like this, the cast member should be instructed to control the situation by directing selfie pictures to one side and runners to another. Telling runners they can’t take pictures is not an acceptable “solution” in my mind and this is the first race weekend I’ve ever seen this happening. Being a proactive cast member in this situation would’ve been key but unfortunately she didn’t feel empowered to make a decision like that from her management.
Anyways we finished the race and I really enjoyed it. The only part that felt really crowded for both the 5k and the 10k was running through It’s a Bug’s Land. I was mostly excited at the finish because I got to see two people I care about complete something amazing! Such a great feeling!
Great course, great environment, and I can’t wait to run this again!
PS Sorry cast member for being annoying, the situation you were put in by your management team was really just unfortunate. I’ve been that cast member before to uphold “silly” rules (silly=safety concerns from Disney that guests don’t understand) and I completely apologize for being a bratty runner.
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