WDW Marathon Weekend 2019: 5k Race Recap!

So after a late-ish night, I was still SO ready to tackle the WDW 5k. I was ready to get this Dopey Challenge started!

I was up by 2:50am and out the door by 3:34am since runners had to be on the bus by 4am. I was on my way to Epcot by 3:45am and had met up with my running Ohana before 4. These early mornings are no joke 😛

We were just 4 strong this morning and it was definitely a little chilly. We headed to our corrals by 5 and just tried to find a nice center spot to keep warm and protect us from the wind. I wish I had brought a heat sheet!

The National Anthem was sung and then with a blast of fireworks we were off. I ran the first part with Nathan and we started in the 3rd wave of Corral A. Once we got going, things were definitely feeling cold and stiff, like we had been waiting in cold temps for awhile (which we had). After the first 1/2 mile though the temp was feeling okay and we were cruising.

I was just enjoying the run and taking it easy. Even this early in the race, the character lines were already pretty long. Flik and Princess Atta were backstage before mile 1 and they already had a pretty long line so we kept moving. There were vikings in Norway, Pinocchio was in Italy, Genie was in Morocco, Goofy was dressed in Scottish garb in the UK, and Donald was dressed in pit crew gear near Test Track. Donald had no line so I got in for a quick pic!

I really love the 5k. It’s a great distance and such a festive and fun race with Disney music playing throughout the park and all the pavilions in World Showcase lit up! Running on the Test Track side of Future World was pretty boring so still not sure why they made that switch but overall this is just a great race.

I met back up with Nathan at the finish and we decided to get into the bus line back to Pop since it was already getting long. Unlike last year they did not pull up the buses ahead of the race to let us start getting on so we had to wait in the cold for about 20 minutes for the last person to clear the race course and allow the buses to pull up and start loading.

We were lucky though since our bus was one of the first to pull out at around 6:50 and we were back at the hotel by 7:10. The plan was for me to quickly shower and then for Bryce and I to get to Animal Kingdom for as much of the 8am Extra Magic Hour as was left. He went down and got breakfast sandwiches and coffee while I showered (he did this every morning and this is one of the many reasons why I adore him) and we were out the door around 8:15.

When we got to Animal Kingdom we headed straight to Pandora but lines were already getting pretty long so we hopped in the line for Navi River Journey and skipped Flight of Passage since we had a Fastpass for later that evening.

We enjoyed the morning and grabbed a really tasty lunch at Harambe Market before heading back to the room for a nap. After resting for a bit we were up and out the door around 4:30, we rode Flight of Passage, had a delicious meal at Santuli Canteen, watched Rivers of Light (which I really like), and rode one more time on Expedition Everest (3 times for the day!) before calling it a night.

We were back in the room around 9pm and light out by 10pm, I had a race with real goals for the next day!