We walked a bit more, past a first set of porta potties with a good sized line, and into a large open area where the announcers/music were. I had to use the bathroom again (for the 3rd time already), so we found another much larger set of porta potties with no wait on the other end of the waiting area. We listened to the DJ and announcers for a bit and actually ran into another fellow Enid Running Club member doing the Dopey Challenge.
At 5:00 am, we were invited to head out to the corrals. Everyone was supposed to be in their corrals by 5:30 am.
We were in corral E - the 2nd to last corral - we hadn't submitted any times for the corral placement as we were fine with just finishing upright and not much interested in our times. We had already decided that we would just walk the 5K. There was yet another large set of porta potties right next to the corrals which was great because I ended up using it one last time right before the start of the race. The start line was really cool - a screen went across the entire top of the start structure and they played an animated video before each corral started complete with sound effects and a small display of fireworks.
What was odd, I thought, was that the corrals were placed parallel to the start line and Corral A was actually the furthest from the start. Even though we were closer to the start than Corral A, there was still about an 8 minute interval between corrals after the race got started so we didn't start until well after 6:30 am. Since we had decided to be conservative and just walk the 5K, I was shocked at how rude some people were in the way that they were treating walkers - making loud comments about how walkers are "supposed to walk on the right", and people loudly declaring their path between walkers and that walkers should make way ("Coming through"). Unfortunately, this was the case each of the 4 days of races. Even still, it was Disney, and we enjoyed the scenery and entertainment. (I'm in the process of purchasing our Dopey Challenge photos but there was a problem with some of our photos only showing up under Seth's bib instead of both of ours so while that's being sorted out....)
We stopped to take a picture behind Spaceship Earth - the giant EPCOT "golf ball" which we could stop and do during every race as each one would pass behind it on the way to the finish line. We finished the 5K in 53 minutes and collected our first medal - the only one that wasn't actually metal.
When we finished the race and collected our medal, we picked up some water and Powerade, bypassed the picture takers, and skipped the food (bananas and a RunDisney box with snacks including oreos, tortilla chips, cheese spread, a protein bar, grape flavored craisins, etc) making our way to the Race Retreat where they were serving breakfast. Our Runners World Challenge wristbands got us in. The Race Retreat was very close to the finish line, but you had to go clear around it, through the large waiting area, and around to the tent.
There was a special section reserved just for Runners World Challenge participants which was kind of nice. We got some breakfast and coffee and relaxed in our special area.
Another perk of the Race Retreat were the characters available for pictures. We had decided that we wouldn't take any time from the race to stop for pictures so it was nice to have some character pictures from the race after all.
We took the bus back to SSRS via Port Orleans and made a beeline for the bathroom at the Carriage House when we arrived. I should have used the porta potties near the bus stop after having a bottle of water and some coffee and after waiting on the bus for a while. The bus driver was waiting for "stragglers".
We returned to our villa and threw our race gear into the washer - a nice advantage to staying in a 1 bedroom villa - we did a load of laundry after every race. I had spilled some coffee on my shirt, vest, and hat so threw everything in the washer including some clothes from the day before. By the time we got done showering and getting ready, our clothes were dry and ready for our next race.
We took a bus to EPCOT and slowly made our way to the Canada pavilion after stopping for a few pictures in front of the Ball. A mistake I had made a little while ago was purchasing the Memory Maker package from Disney thinking that our race photos would be taken by Disney Photopass Cast Members. I found out later that the photos were being taken by Marathonfoto and would not be available on Memory Maker. Boooo..... So we made it a point to take as many pictures as we could during our 2 days in the parks.
Our reservation for Le Cellier Steakhouse was at 12:40 pm so we made our way over to the Canada Pavilion and arrived just a little bit early. Even though we were a little early, the place was pretty empty and we were seated right away.
I chose the beet and goat cheese salad and we shared a poutine - it was just the right amount for a light lunch.
We decided to go to the France Pavilion to find some dessert but we were disappointed to see that the little French bakery there had been changed to an ice cream store. We walked to the back of the France pavilion into the food court but the wait was too long just to buy a little sweet snack so we left. On our walk towards Mouse Gear, we stopped to have a nice French photopass cast member take some pictures for us - he was very friendly and even took time to pose us. These were some of my favorite photos from our trip.
After Test Track, we headed out of the park and back to SSRS to rest up a bit before the pasta party. Even though it was just a 5K this morning, we were up so early that I was feeling sleepy and took kind of a longish nap - longer than I would normally take - a couple of hours. We woke up at around 5:30 and got ready to head back to EPCOT for the Pasta in the Park party. We had already decided ahead of time that we would just have dinner and skip the Illuminations show at 9 pm.
As we walked up to the world showplace pavilion just before 7 pm, the doors had just opened and the line was pretty far down - we walked almost to the UK Pavilion to find the end of the line but it moved very quickly. We were checked for our Runners World Challenge wristband which got us into the party. We were very familiar with the World Showplace Pavilion having attended the Party for the Senses a few times during the annual food and wine festival.
There were plenty of tables and seats arranged around a stage and dance floor. We immediately found the special tables that were reserved just for Runners World Challenge participants. There were 2 areas to get pasta on both sides of the pavilion. There were also 3 character meeting areas and the theme for the evening was Toy Story so one area had Buzz and Woody, another area had Jessie and BullsEye, and a third area had Lotso the bear. There was a drink station that had lemonade and water. There was a cash bar and also an area for "selfies" complete with little signs and props to hold up although there was a Cast Member there to take pictures for us.
We staked out our table first and then headed over to the selfie station because nobody was there. We got some cute shots.
We headed next to the pasta and I opted to stay away from the creamy pasta and got some green beans, salad with a vinaigrette, and the pasta with sausage. The food was just ok - kind of what we expected. I think I really would have just preferred straight spaghetti with some meat sauce.
After we ate, we watched the entertainment for a bit - there was a DJ and also a host and they were keeping everyone pretty entertained - especially when they held a "dance contest" - the DJ was hilarious between the music he selected and the dance moves that he had. The music in the dance contest spanned several generations which was fun. During the dance contest, we decided to hit the character greeting spots and get some pictures while the line was short.
Besides the character greets and the funny entertainment, my other favorite part of this party was the dessert. We saw the ice cream cart when we first arrived and by the time we made it over there, the mickey bars were gone and we were just left with ice cream sandwiches - which was fine. But then as we were leaving, we spied a 2nd ice cream cart which did have mickey bars so Seth had to get another one. I opted out because it's the pits having a bout with lactose intolerance during a race.
We headed back to SSRS and although the alarm was set for 3 am, I had a little trouble falling asleep because of my earlier nap.
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