For a costume, I decided I was going to dress up as Snow White.
On the morning of the race, I got up at 3am (ugh!) and struggled to get ready in the dark hotel room while Jason slept.
We were staying at Pop Century and they had their own dedicated buses for the race. I got to the bus stop around 3:45am and the line was huge! Thankfully the buses moved extremely quick though and I was only in line for about 10-15 minutes.
The bus dropped us off in an Epcot parking lot and I met up with my friend Heather who was getting off the monorail. Then we started the long walk to the corrals.
Heather had to check a bag, so we headed over to the bag check area and then to potty before heading to the corrals. We were lucky to find portolets that hadn't even been used yet.
We got into the corral area and stood around until about 30 minutes before the race start. One more stop in the portolets and then we parted ways and headed to our individual corrals.
Quick picture before heading off.
I was thrilled to be in Corral C for the race. Since I was hurt, it gave me the extra time to stay in front of the balloon ladies.
One thing that shocked me about Disney was how many people were in each corral. That was a huge group of people all starting at one time. Once they released our corral, I'd say it took at least 5 more minutes for me to cross the start line.
They released each corral with fireworks and we were off!
I started off running until we came across Anna and Elsa on the overpass outside Epcot. They were also dumping fake snow on us, which was pretty cool.
Mile Marker 1
Around the time when we were making the sharp curve onto the overpass, we heard the fireworks go off releasing the next corral.
Soon we came up to Tinkerbell and Periwinkle. I would have loved a picture, but the line was too long to stop.
I finally hit the 5k mark right outside of Epcot and I was right around a 16 minute pace, so I was happy. They did have the buses ready to sweep right around this spot.
As we were running into Epcot, there were some tall guys on stilts.
Running into Epcot was such a magical experience.
While were in Epcot, I decided to make a stop for a bathroom break.
There were a few more characters throughout the World Showcase that I didn't bother to stop for.
Grabbed a gorgeous picture of the sunrise over Epcot.
I saw Donald over by the ESPN Club and knew I was way ahead of the balloon ladies so I stopped and got a quick picture.
As we were running back into Epcot, there was Minnie dressed up as a princess. The line was ridiculously long though, so I just snapped a quick picture as I ran by.
I saw Mile 6 and then it was a sprint to the finish!
After you crossed the finish line, there were a ton of volunteers handing out medals, Powerade, and snack boxes. Finally I got to the end of the chute and found my husband. We waited for Heather to finish the race and then hopped on a bus back to Pop Century.
After we got on the bus is when it went downhill. We were sharing the bus with Art of Animation at this point and we stopped there first. I started feeling kind of queasy. As soon as we pulled into Pop, I rushed off the bus and proceeded to throw up in the bushes. Throughout the day I still felt a little off. Finally I realized my salt was low and downed a Powerade and some chips, which made me feel a ton better. Not the way I wanted to end my first race, but thankfully was able to correct the issue easy enough.
Overall the race was a ton of fun and I would absolutely do it again.
I was really happy with my splits for the first half of the race. Then mile 4 sucked because of the bathroom break and picture stop. After that I did a ton of walking, so my time wasn't as fast as it should be. Not the best time, but I was happy I finished.
Finish Time: 1 hour, 51 minutes
What was your first 10k ever? How was your finish time?
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