An EPIC Expedition that was a true Springtime Surprise!!!

 

WOW, I can't believe this is my EIGHTH In Person RunDisney Weekend….man time sure does fly however Disney and Consistency rarely mix and while this was an inaugural weekend the pandemic and all its many ripple effects is very much a real thing…well…the weekend sure lived up to it’s name of being a Springtime Surprise…

I arrived at the expo at around 1034am which was on par with when I’d normally arrive however weather it was because of no merchandise pre-orders or a fair amount of Sunrise Yoga participants camping out at Wide World of Sports since 7AM but there was already a line looping around the side of the building with an ‘estimated’ wait of 2-2.5 hours….

I let my mom wait in that line before running over to get my bib. Along with the bib I was handed a slip of paper with a QR Code as part of the Everest 5K was that there would be a scavenger hunt in which we needed to download an app and scan codes along the course to unlock clues to solve in app once we crossed the finish line… more on that later.

About 50 mins later I had not only picked up my bib but my race shirt and a few bondi bands as well. Also I just had to see if the Virtual Shorts medals were on display and suffice to say a few days later I might have registered for one of the races at break.



At this point my mother was already in the indoor portion of the queue and the outdoor portion was practically nonexistent so I texted her to let me know what the situation was when she reached merch and I’d join her eventually.

As we queued down the hall to head toward the room of indoor switchbacks they had cute logos from all the races






After waiting about 20 mins I was in the switchback room and after waiting 70 ish minutes so was my mom..she told me the people behind her were fine with me cutting in so I crossed the room to join her and after ANOTHER half hour or so we finally made it into the merch room.

Things were pretty well stocked as they still had jackets and spirit jerseys a plenty…well most things were as for the 5K which was the only distance I was running they just had “Finisher” shirts and pins and at the moment who knew if the race was even going to start due to weather concerns.

I grabbed a finish pin as well as a generic weekend magnet and went back to look to see the pricing and size availability of the shirts when they restocked about a dozen race magnets. I ended up leaving with an event specific magnet, event specific finishers pin and the passholder weekend logo pin




As far as photo ops there were mileage numbers once again in the Arena as well as a fun frame outside…it was windy my hair was a mess…sorry in advance





Unlike with weekends past, the Everest 5K was a night race and so we headed to Disney Springs for some Gideon's (HOT COOKIE HOUR!!!!) and Blaze and then checked into Pop Century to take a rest until I needed to line up for the buses which were set to depart at 830.

Costume wise since the race was at Animal Kingdom I decided to go for something Animal Kingdom adjacent and dressed as Jane from Tarzan. My costume consisted of re-wearing my yellow skort from when I was Belle during Wine and Dine 2018 (and the Virtual 5K of 2020) as well as getting a Yellow “Real Legends” Top and my hat I got for Spring Dapper Day 2021 and enhancing them with fabric. I topped the look off with my sister's Terk Beanie Baby.



And off to the races we shall go as I arrived outside at 803 still playing the wait and see game about weather as I got into a line that stretched out across the entire bus area. At 817 a charter bus showed up but then pulled out as it was being used to transport Magic Kingdom day guests and not runners.

I took this time to type my bib number into the app for photopass and soon at 822 two buses showed up and the line soon began to move though it was doubtful I’d get on one of them making we worried as the “Event Guide” stated that runners should be in the parking lot by 915. Thankfully two more buses showed up and while the first set left at 829 I pulled out on bus 3 not too much later at 832.

Once the bus got to the Animal Kingdom gates we were three buses back and waited and waited and waited and watched as the cars driving in were heading through the toll plaza when soon we made a U Turn the other direction… Was the race called for weather? Nope, due to a bottleneck of Day Guest traffic we were simply being rerouted to the bus loop by a backstage bypass and by 9 we were heading through security. As we went through the metal detector, cast members were saying start groups had opened up and to head directly to them once we made it to the staging area.

There was a wall of people akin to Rope Drop where they would lead you down the pathway a few feet than stop to let day guests cross to get to the parking lot rinse and repeat and finally About 20 mins later I was finally at the entrance of start group 3 of 4





I didn’t even bother looking to see if there WERE photo opps at this point I just wanted to be ready to get going.

Once the race hosts headed on stage gears in my mind began to turn… was the fact that they were dressed as Rescue Ranger Chip and Dale, Webby, and June a hint that 2023 themes or was it simply just for the adventure aesthetic instead of going full Yeti.




As they talked we were given some bad news and some good-ish news. The bad was that due to weather the course would be shortened from a true 5K of 3.1 miles to move runners through the park to avoid any potential lightning…the good was that instead of having to focus on course to find the scan codes that a new link would be emailed out later in the weekend for all the app games clues.

Since this was Animal Kingdom they couldn’t shoot off fireworks at the start and so instead they just set off some smoke and blue lights




We didn’t talk about Bruno however as the corals let off they played pretty much the entire Disney Afternoon theme song catalog and there was more singing along to those bangers than the Tarzan, Lion King, and Jungle Book tunes peppered in.

At 1036 I was finally off and moving ….

In the parking lot there was a screen off to the side playing a Donald short followed by a few minutes later hearing John and Carissa in the distance saying that they were at the start of releasing start group four. I was about half a mile out at this point though the race wasn't timed so my goal was simply to be on the bus by 1250 am or be swept due to lightning concerns.

They had an Expedition Wagon out with people who I don’t know if they were Sports Hosts color commentating or simply streetmosphere performers asking if we’ve seen the explorer that was tied to the app game… I wonder if this was supposed to be a checkpoint if the in person game wasn’t scrapped.



We arrived at the park entrance and off to the side between the will call and tap points there was a musical act.

Shortly after passing through the entrance was mile marker one. I got there in roughly 16 mins
Off to the side just past the marker was DeVine and had I ended up dressing as her which was what I was very close to pivoting toward I probably would've waited even though photos were just cast members using runners phones and not photopass.



We reached the Tree of Life and CMs were calling out that if you wanted a photopass picture with the tree queue to the right but if you wanted a selfie step outside off course on the other side of the cones. I stepped aside to take the above pic and pressed on as Pandora was next.



They had two photo opps in the area one with the mountains that might have been photopass and one with another backdrop that was cast members using phones but I didn’t want to wait as aside from DeVine there had been nothing in terms of characters. I assumed it was the weather concerns or the fact that at the same time over at Epcot there was a Vacation Club Villain Event going on.

Finally there was Timon and Rafiki just short of entering Africa however as they were characters I’ve met before I didn’t feel it worth waiting in that line. I was still hoping that maybe we’d see Terk on course or perhaps Ledwig Von Drake as he’d been in Animal Kingdom a few days prior for an influencer event.

At about 1.8 miles there was a single water stop during a brief backstage interlude. Heading onstage where was expedition Mickey and as we passed a CM was yelling out “if you get in line now it’s a 20 minute wait and you will be meeting expedition Goofy” as much as I love meeting Goofy > Mickey I wasn’t going to wait 20 mins for a character I’ve met before even if this was a new outfit and it looked like another long line was up ahead…someone unique perhaps…

Nope just for a picture with Everest in the background IDK if it was cast members with phones or photopass but I just veered to the side to take my own pic as well as a cute one of Plush!Terk by the ride entrance




I reached mile marker two in 20 mins (36 elapsed) with my fitbit registering 2.1 miles ran so far.

We passed the Nemo theater and were met with a selfie spot in front of the KiteTales turtles



If there was a CM stationed there I probably would have had them snap a pic but since I was solo I just took one of the performers and pressed on over the bridge and into dinoland passing another group of musicians along the way.

As I entered Dinoland I spotted safari Daisy and decided that since I was at 2.3 miles in and I had no clue how much more the course would be due to the cut I’d just hop in. I looked at the Character Instagram that normally posts who was on course and upon realizing that yes, she was it on course I remained in line for 10 mins soaking in the sights of Chester and Hester's Dino Rama at night before posing for a pic





I reached marker 3 in another 18 mins (54 elapsed) HOWEVER it said that I had only moved 2.8 miles miles because they had cut a 0.20 mile backstage out and back from the course and and so 2 mins later I was crossing the finish line




Going by this I crossed the finish line in 56 mins while only being on course 2.9 miles. I kept my run keeper going as I snaked through the finish shoot and reached 3.1 miles OFFICIALLY in roughly 59 mins give or take (49 without a character stop)

After crossing the finish line I had been informed that there were some photo set ups by the stage and so I took a few pictures … while the picture of me was rather unflattering (and a cast member using phone vs a photopass picture at that) I did take this cute picture to Terk “Trashing the Camp”





If they had an official “I did It’ Photo op I never saw it as a slight drizzle began to finally occur and I started following crowds to the “Exit” area. I got to where I was being ushered only to be told this was the parking lot and for buses it was the complete opposite end of the area.

I FINALLY got to the bus area only to be ushered onto the bus of the WRONG resort. I tried to call a lyft but I kept getting an error message saying that my address and credit card were incompatible… Thankfully my mom was spending the night and I finally woke her up or else I’d be walking two miles by myself in a downpour at 1 AM with a questionable sidewalk situation.

In the meantime while waiting for my ride I finally opened up my medal to look at the compass situation only to find that the needle was broken. Though two days before there was a chance that medals would be shipped at a later date and it wasn’t as if I planned to display it open anyway so I just shrugged and went about my weekend.

All and all it was a fun experience and if the distances and themes intrigue me, who knows maybe I’ll do it again even if I’m blocked out of parks until Sunday of that weekend due to my AP tier especially if the key art is just as amazing as the marathon weekend ones just released that sadly I can't swing I mean LOOK








Oh and as for the App game…. I played it Saturday Afternoon after returning to my room mid-day due to storms and that shit was HARD!!!!






UPCOMING RACES:
Mayfair 5K 5/7
Watermelon 5K 6/11, 7/9, 9/13
Frozen Virtual 5K TBD
Wine & Dine 5K 11/4
Wine and Dine 10K 11/5

Marathon a month
March 8:04:21
FitLife

PRs
1M {15:26} 3K {30:59} 5K {42.46} 8K {1:13:59} 10K {1:42:52} 15K {2:19:09} HALF {3:54:55} FULL {7:08:15*} *virtual full run in increments
Run the year
574.67/2022 miles