Life is a Highway (Springtime Surprise recap part one)

Yes, you read that right I’m splitting my Springtime Surprise recap into two posts because 19.3 miles of magic plus Expo ups and downs would make for a wordy blog post especially without being able to make separate cuts to skip to a desired recap…

The way I plan to break things up is for this post to be run the year progress, upcoming events, expo & 5k recaps with part two being 10k & 10 Miler recaps and my current PRs

With that breakdown out of the way here is my RUN THE YEAR progress

690.55/2023 miles

My current "step streak" is down to just one day as I took some recovery time after the challenge

Upcoming races:

5/13: Mayfair 5K
6/10 watermelon 5k
⅞:watermelon 5k
8/12 watermelon 5k
11/3: Wine & Dine 5K
11/4: Wine & Dine 10k

So once again there was a VQ situation and once again my address is just outside the bubble. On our end we tried driving but as 8:30 was fast approaching my 5K companion who lived in the bubble was able to snag us group 44.

When we picked my friend up just after 9 our estimated shopping time was 11:43.

When we arrived at the expo just before 10:30 it only pushed back three minutes to 11:49

Unlike with Wine and Dine instead of a line wrapping around outside the field house you were lead right in HOWEVER instead of heading downstairs you were ushered in the opposite direction to queue around upstairs complete with a room of overflow switchbacks... when we arrived however we just walked through the loop to get downstairs

My friend running the 5K was seeded in C while I was seeded in D. I am pretty sure I was the first challenge bib at the cut off as the people in the bib line to my left were receiving C bibs while I was the first bib number for my line

When will that happen again?

It took us roughly 15 minutes for bib pick up including a restroom break and by then shop time was down a smidge to 11:42

We made it over toward the athletic center to grab our shirts and look over venders when soon we were called to shop at 11:24

As usual we had some art going down the hall

After five minutes in the room o pain we were in the hall.

The strategy was grab magnets, 10k & 10 miler pins, pick up pre orders then browse properly.

I was able to get everything on my “list” aside from a 10k medal pin & headband (though that was because they didn’t have this event…they did have cute socks though)

And as I was checking out I saw that they WERE honoring what was printed on RunDisney’s blog in august and you could “return” your preorder to “rebuy” with an AP Discount

After that we headed towards the photo opportunities. I took my obligatory mileage sign pictures than waited about 50 mins for George Sanderson

Bullseye was meeting in the other queue alternating with Woody but since there wasn’t a cast member saying who you’d be meeting when you joined the line I didn’t want to gamble waiting another hour.

It was roughly 2-2.5 hours overall and the Pixar Party has only begun….

Welcome to day one of the Springtime Surprise challenge where today we run the cars 5k

Ca-chow!!!

I decided to go with a Pixar theme in my outfits this weekend dressing as Joy… (costume breakdown old navy running dress hand painted, blue bondi band, pinwheel from dollar store)

We had estimated a fifteen min walk to the lobby and planned to leave no later than 215…we left at 202 and it was only a seven minute one! I sat and had breakfast…tag teamed the lobby restroom and waited for the bus to finally arrive at 243.

At 252 we pulled out of the parking lot and arrived at Epcot at 303

At 310 my friend pivoted to the real restroom by the entrance to the park and since we were in different corals we didn’t see one another till the finish.

Characters on hand were Mater, Needleman, Bo, and Wall-E

I was pondering lining up for Needleman but since I didn’t know if he and George were swapping out I went for Mater since A) I figured post race his line would be massive and B) since he was a static figure the line would move faster.

It was roughly a 12 min wait so I decided to see if Wall-E’s line was still open. It was and it was long but considering it was 333 and it was a static figure as well I’d ride it out till 4 and see where I was. I was done at 359… (fwiw we met Miguel in November at 423)

At this point I headed towards the corals and after some pre coral water I was locked in place at 408.

It drizzled off and on which was quite refreshing while we waited. It was 69 feels like 71 otherwise.

Other fun facts:

Carissa’s daughter Claire was running again with her dad, grandma and grandfather “the Jeff Galloway”. While Carissa herself wasn’t running due to injuries this was John’s first race (and yes I did go out of my way to give him a congratulatory high five once I passed him MCing in the finish shoot)

There were 1,300 Perfect Season runners as in Wine & Dine 5K/challenge, Dopey, Princess 5K/Challenge, this weekend

The DJs and a lot of people in the crowd came to the race right from Taylor Swift in Tampa.

The 5K is untimed so it lessens any pressures one may have.

I was “off” …. And during the first mile we had a screen looping a scene from Cars and the audio was pumped in for probably at least a tenth of a mile prior “Lightning Comes Before Thunder” as well as a DJ.

I reached mile one in roughly 17 mins and at this point I was already knowledgeable about one character stop….with weaving I was at 1.03

There was a marching band backstage before making it into Epcot.

Edna Mode was meeting in Germany and the line looked insane it ended almost in outpost than wrapped pretty much through the whole pavilion and even though I only knew one other character at this point it was a hard pass

Next was Jessie in America who was said other character. I pondered for a moment waiting and tried refreshing Instagram to see if there was a post with characters… there wasn’t I pressed on I was 1.58 miles deep

At 1.62 was the sole water stop yum…

once in Morocco I tried miserably to selfie in front of the Muppet topiary but here is a pic

Just before heading backstage by the skyliner was a screen looping the Lava short (definitely a recommendation… )

I reached marker 2 in 20 mins (37 mins cumulatively 2.13 on my fitbit)

Shortly after backstage there was Russell & Dug

I knew a Bugs Life character would be next and I assumed it would be Flick, however when I saw it was Slim at I decided to jump in line… it was surprisingly only a 12 min wait

While I was waiting I entertained myself watching the Peter Pan topiary be pruned

Next were some friends from inside out. Sadness and Joy were swapping and while a little girl informed me Joy would be coming in a few minutes if I wanted to wait off to the side I instead waited for Sadness for about four minutes

At 3.01 according to my Fitbit the jamminators were rocking out followed by the marching band again, and a gospel choir belted Queen

A whopping 33 mins later (70 mins cumulative 54 running I reached marker 3 (3.53 according to fitbit)

Two minutes later after giving the above mentioned high five to John and waving to the sole non Pixar character Pluto I crossed the finish in 3.65 miles with a time of 1:13:48 (57:47 running miles)

After going through the shoot I met my friend midway through Needleman’s line (I didn't time this wait) Than waited for Bo Peep which was roughly 7 mins