Good morning WDW 10k and hello day 2 of the Dopey Challenge. 3:15am you always comes extra early!
Today me and my dad were running the WDW 10k and rain was in the prediction. I checked outside and it didn’t seem like it was raining too bad so it was time to pull out my…
the GREAT GONZO costume!
My dad was running/walking today too so I had some company while heading to the start area. We hopped on the bus around 4:20 and then waited… and waited… the bus wasn’t filling up quickly this morning. Finally around 4:35 we pulled out with a 20% full bus and I was hoping we were heading straight to Epcot but no, we stopped at Wilderness Lodge… and the Contemporary. We picked up a couple people at the Contemporary (where 2 buses were already waiting) and finally made it to Epcot at 5am.
I didn’t have a bag so I parted ways with my Dad at bag check and walked swiftly to the start area, quick stop at a port-o-potty and was in corral A by 5:12. A little tighter than I’d like it to be but, boom, still made it! Note to self: Give myself some extra time for the half.
Found my running friends in the corral and we started moving towards the start line. At this point it was warm but definitely a steady medium-light rain that wasn’t letting up. This was going to be a wet 10k.
Ready to go!
With a wonderful singing of the National Anthem and a countdown we were off! The rain was steady but with friends it made it that much better. We were off and on the roads outside Epcot!
We ran under the overpass where an Anna and Elsa area was set up for them to greet us… but no characters. We then got to the turn around point just past mile 1 where they had the Tailspin plane setup… and no character.
Where are my TailSpin characters???
Around mile 2, we finally saw our first characters, Flik and Atta. They had a pretty cute setup but with the rain and a line around these characters we kept going. Running backstage near Test Track (the only real bottle neck on the course) and entered World Showcase between Norway and China. I really needed a pick of Spaceship Earth so I peeled out in Italy to snap a pic. Not to self: Taking pics on your phone in the rain is hard and will take 3 times longer than expected.
It took so long and I lost my friends 🙁 I tried running quicker but I didn’t want to fatigue my legs and I wasn’t sure how far up they had gone. So let’s stop for more pics!
The best part of the 10k is definitely running around the Boardwalk/Yacht & Beach Club. It’s so pretty in the early morning. I was nervous that it would be slick with the rain but the wood boards had soaked up the rain and weren’t too slick.
So beautiful and twinkly!
An obligatory stop at the Seas!
After running in Future World West, we then headed to the finish area and completed this wet, 10k run through Epcot. Grabbed my medal, picked up my snack box and then met up with my running friends. Overall not the worst for a rainy 10k run!
Dopey Challenge day 2 done!
Since I didn’t stop for many characters, here’s the full list of characters I saw out or heard reported were out:
- Frozen set up – no characters but they showed up later (above on overpass)
- Tailspin set up – no characters – say pics of characters later at the turn around
- Flik and Princess Atta – On the road near mile 2
- Mrs Incedible – Backstage near Test Track
- Mulan and Mushu (reported) – China
- Remy and Emile – France
- Mike & Sully (Monsters U) – I only saw Mike out – ESPN Zone
- Phineas and Ferb (reported) – Future World Breeze Way
- Tweedle Dum and Dee – International Gateway
So that will do it for the WDW 10k. Time to rest up and get ready for day 3. Oh, and go to the Cigna Blogger Meetup at the Odyssey in Epcot!