I figured that this would be one of the busiest days of the race weekend because of the popularity of the half marathon distance. As we made our way to the bus stop, we saw buses lined up down the street and knew that it was going to be crowded. It turns out that there were only about 11,000 participants in the 10K (more than half of those were Dopey Challenge participants) and for the half marathon, there were over 21,000. As our bus pulled away from SSRS, I counted 6 more buses waiting.
We skipped bag check again and walked right in and made our way over to the Race Retreat. This was the first day that we would be able to hang out inside, use the private bathrooms, and have a bite to eat before the race. It was noticeably more busy in the Race Retreat than we had seen the last 2 days.
We sat down and relaxed in the Runners World Challenge area and around 4:15, they gave us instructions about our "VIP walk out" to the start corrals. We would all be taken through the crowd hanging on to a rope (a la "school style") and would be led over to where we would take a shortcut to the start line. We each hung on to the rope as we left the Race Retreat but it was so slow going. There were about 50 Runners World Challenge participants.
Once we got past the crowd, we let go of the rope and they actually led us across the grass and through the trees to the street where the start line was. It was significantly closer to go this way than it would have been to go clear all the way around the other side (we were told the normal walk out was over 0.5 mile). Unfortunately, the corrals were arranged differently this time with the A-L corrals one right after the other behind the start line. The M-P corrals were parallel to the A-L corrals and to the left but the entrance to corral M (our corral) was blocked off from the direction we were walking (from the front to the back). The M-P corrals were set up for people walking from the back towards the front so this meant that we had to walk in between the 2 sets of corrals all the way back past the P corral and then do a U-turn to get to the other side and walk all the way back to the M corral. It probably ended up being just as far to walk as if we had taken the regular walk out route. That was a little frustrating.
I was really hoping that the corral waves would move faster today - which it did..about 3-4 minutes between corrals instead of 8 minutes but because we were all the way back in the M corral, our start time was about what it had been the last 2 days - about 45 minutes later. At least it wasn't over an hour like I thought it would be.
It was definitely warmer and more humid this morning and really foggy. I didn't take long for me to shed my long- sleeved half marathon tech shirt and wrap it around my waist. I had to mess with it the whole race to make sure I didn't lose it ending up rolling it up and double knotting it around my waist. The race started with even more fireworks than the previous 2 days. After one more quick run to the porta potty after the race started, we got on our way having decided that we would be conservative and do a run/walk interval of 2:4.
It was SO crowded that a lot of our run intervals were spent weaving in and out between people. I figured out that my right foot was a lot happier if I ran on the grass on the side of the road even though it was more uneven so I spent as much time as I could on the grass. We didn't get very far and because I was worried about the availability of a potty, I went ahead and used the first porta potties we got to (they were actually there for the other side of the road for people who had made the turn and were heading back from the Magic Kingdom). I figured potties would be scarce for the next 5 miles or so until we got to MK.
It was elbow to elbow with other runners pretty much the whole way. I had even made a mistake when I saw a cast member in their car driving towards us on their way to work and waving that I put my hand up to wave back and a woman actually SMACKED into my lifted hand with her face. She was that close. She gave me the dirtiest look I've ever seen in a race and all I could wonder was why she was so close to me to begin with.
I remember commenting to Seth about how the entrance to the Magic Kingdom (the point at which you pay to park) is so exciting for people driving in - that the kids in the car are probably going bonkers so excited - but this entrance was a LONG way from the actual MK! We seemed to go forever before we actually got to enter MK via the TTC.
The run through the Magic Kingdom was pretty awesome - running down Main Street towards the castle all decked out in shimmering lights and as we went looping through Tomorrowland and into the back end of Cinderella's castle, there was a snow machine (soap bubbles) and Cinderella, Prince Charming, and Aurora were waving from up above as you passed under the castle. The cast members from the Royal Table were lining the passageway cheering and clapping. There were a ton of photographers snapping pictures as you went through and out of the castle (and, I realized later, some rabbit ears hovering behind me thanks to Seth).
We were a little behind in pace to begin with but eventually caught up a bit with some more speed walking.
The run back to EPCOT was pretty boring and was especially brutal when we had to take a wide, banked on-ramp to take an overpass. It seemed to go on forever. We finally made it to Spaceship Earth for the third time and stopped to take a picture although Seth was having trouble seeing because his glasses were so fogged up.
We finished off the half marathon running the last 0.2 miles and came in right under goal pace. We had actually made up a lot of time because of the 3 bathroom stops along the way. This time, instead of mylar blankets, Disney gave everyone a cooling towel after they finished.
I was relieved that my legs really felt pretty good after the race. My right foot was complaining but not much more than it usually did after a training run. We decided to pick up some food from the Artist's Palette at SSRS and take it back to the villa with us. When we got back to our villa, we took turns taking an ice bath. We had filled up pretty much all of the glass and metal containers in the kitchen with water and had frozen them over the last couple of days in the freezer. It worked pretty well and we filled them up again to get ready for the final race.
We ate our lunch and took a brief nap then made our way back to Disney Springs to catch the 2:15 pm showing of Star Wars - The Force Awakens. It was a good way to relax without just hanging out in our villa.
We had dinner reservations off-property at an Italian restaurant but Seth really didn't want to go out for dinner so I cancelled it on Opentable and booked us a last minute reservation at the Turf Club right at SSRS. We had eaten there once before and it was pretty good. We got there just before our reservation at 5:30 pm and were seated outside on the covered patio which was nice and just starting to cool off a bit as clouds moved in and it eventually starting pouring rain.
We decided to share the crispy shrimp appetizer as well as the Turf Club pasta which was just the right amount of food without getting too stuffed. The pasta was just ok. We made our way back to our villa in the pouring rain and got ready for our final race setting the alarm at 2:30 am again.
I spent a little time googling and reading a bit about the Balloon Ladies and about being swept during the marathon. I was a little worried about the possibility of being swept and had that little nagging doubt that always seems to creep in when you're about to undergo a big race even though you know you're prepared for it. The Balloon Ladies are volunteers that walk the Dopey Challenge (with Mickey balloons from Disney) from the very back of the last corral at exactly a 16 minute per mile pace. Each of our 3 races so far were well under the 16 minute per mile pace cut off and we were 3 corrals ahead of the Balloon Ladies so I felt more confident and quickly drifted off to sleep.
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