Across The Seas: Seven Seas Food Fest 5K
While I do love my tried and true events that I seem to throw money at and participate in every year I’m just as excited to try something new. So, when I heard Sea World was getting into the running event game and their prices were more at the price point of events the local runners club does vs RunDisney I decided to SEAS the moment. SEA what I did there…. Okay I’ll SEA myself out.
The event was tied to their Food Festival which was going on and runners in addition to a t-shirt picked up with bibs and a medal upon finishing received a ticket to use for a free festival booth food or drink item if they visited the park that day. While tickets were not included there was also a discount day ticket deal for runners (though I had family members who had an AP tier that granted them a friends and family comp ticket which I did use as I hadn’t been to the park since 2015)
The bib pick up situation was that you could either go to the Hilton Garden Inn on the Thursday or Friday before the race which we did or there was an area set up in the parking lot next to the port o lets for day of pick up.
As for the event itself the parking lot/staging area opened up at 545 and they said that you needed to be parked by 645 as they needed to close the entrance plaza to finish setting up the course.
Traffic was on our side and my family was parked and I was pinned up by 6:07. It was about a 3 min walk from where our car was to where the shoot was. It was self seeding and there were a handful of people curb sitting and a few more just standing or warming up around me. I just kind of mulled around before I eventually noticed they put up pacing signs and so I backed up towards the 8-10 m/m area since that’s where I ‘self seeded’ for Disney this past season instead of in the 6-7 area where I’d initially been standing.
My OOTD had originally been planned on wearing the silver skort made for the race with a green top and a silver headband for an Oscar the Grouch Vibe however with the headband not coming in time I pivoted as it was May the Fourth and wore a black Old Navy tank and my Kylo Ren headband instead
Weather was roughly 68 feels like 69 as I initially arrived and even when the sun went up it remained in this range
As we waited they had a pair of DJs/Announcers who first and foremost kept hyping that this was a FUN RUN and that only the top finishers would be ranked (and they won a free AP for a year. They also noted that while this was their inaugural 5K it wouldn’t be their last. They were having a Friday the 13th event tied to their Hall-O-Scream event and a third race later on in the season (it’s speculated that the Toys For Tots Christmas 5K that’s been hosted in the park will become an official Sea World event)
With it being a first time event there were minor hiccups mainly that there was a five minute delay in starting due to needing to finish setting up the course.
I eventually started at about 7:16 where there were stilt walking cooks hanging by the announcers
During the first mile there was one of Shamu’s Dolphin friends and an acrobatic act. I also debated lowering my earbud however the speakers that were in the parking lot were playing very skippy audio.
I reached mile 1 in 15:53 while my fitbit said I only moved 0.92 miles with a 17’10 pace.
Still in the parking lot there was another photo op with a whale fin and a 5K logo.
I finished the water I was carrying and past an area that looked like a break area for park ambassadors and so I tossed my empty bottle away.
I then got in line to meet Shamu which took about 4 mins.
After this there was a fun little tunnel that looked like you were underwater. I tried and failed to take a selfie in it and soon we were ALMOST on stage.
But First…Oscar and Cookie Monster were hanging out on their cavalcade floats. I don’t know if there were any ambassadors around taking photos as most people were taking selfies. I once more tried and failed to take a selfie but I did take okay pics of just the characters. All and All I think about 3 mins were taken in this area.
Once inside the park and into Sesame Street as a childless adult I held back tears and stopped some more to see Grover, Burt (Ernie had been with him but he left) and Elmo as well as just take the area in as a whole… this took about 7 mins total
When I got back into the park later I spent a good amount of time just taking in all the fun details and easter eggs and yes even finally broke down and sobbed during the actual cavalcade.
Once we left the land there was a water stop and a musician by the Germany Booth.
I finally hit marker 2 in 44:26 (30:26 moving) with my fitbit telling me I only moved 1.88 miles with a 23’29 pace.
Around the booths there were more streetmosphere performers as well as 5K icons on some of the festival displays
Also in front of Mako there was one of Shamu’s shark friends but I didn’t get a clear picture of him.
I finally reached marker 3 in 1:05:31 (51:31 moving) with my fitbit saying I moved only 2.97 with a 22’01 pace.
When I crossed the finish my fitbit only registered 3.4 so I decided to keep it going till I reached 3.1 with a time of 1:08:31 with a moving time of 54:31
Later on that day the watch face of my fitbit died and while it was coming in and out at random intervals I was reading on the FitBit help forum that this was a common issue with the Charge 5 ever since it’s last firmware update and that the Charge 6 wasn’t that much better so I invested in a Garmin Vivosmart 5. I don’t know how it will track runs going forward as well as splits/timestamping goes so it will definitely be a learning experience for sure.
691.39/2024 miles
UPCOMING EVENTS
Mayfair 5/11
Watermelon 6/8
Red White and Brew 7/4
Watermelon 7/13
Watermelon 8/10
Wine and Dine 5K 11/1
Wine and Dine 10K 11/2
Gasparilla 15K 2/22
Gasparilla 8K 2/23
PRs
1M {15:26} 3K {30:59} 5K {42:46} 8K {1:13:59} 10K {1:42:52} 15K {2:19:09} 10M {3:01:51} HALF {3:54:55} FULL {7:08:15*} *virtual full run in increments
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