I gotta be honest - I was kind of not looking forward to this 10k. After I
signed up for it, I found out that they changed the course from what it was
last year. Last year, there was a long out and back along the edge of the golf
course, and it was where I bled a lot of time last year. I was looking forward to
beating my time there.Instead, the course this year would wind through mostly
neighborhoods and the town center. Meh,
we’ll see.
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| Garmin Map of the route |
We left home around 4:15 in the morning - way too early, it turned
out! Even though we were headed in the
Disney Direction, we skipped the donuts. We made really good time and got to
the Celebration Firehouse by 6am. The
race didn’t start ‘til 8! As you can imagine, we got an awesome parking spot.
I hopped out and visited the potty – as you can imagine
there were absolutely NO lines! I think
that I may have actually been the first runner there. All I saw were employees and volunteers! They
kind of looked at me like I had a second head…
I went ahead and did packet pickup, just to get it out of
the way, and to beat the crowds (what crowds?), then headed back to the car to
chill out. I plugged in my iPod to let it charge while I took 15 minutes to eat
string cheese (seriously, why does food not taste good before a race?)
I had to potty again. This time there was a line. Then back
to the car.
At about 7:45, I got out and began to get ready. Even though
I was literally steps from the starting line, I felt like I was late! I got in line to start and realized about 2
seconds before starting that I forgot to set the Garmin to find satellites.
Oops!
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| It's all quiet now, when you're the first person to arrive! |
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| Many more people now! |
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| I promise, I was more awake than I looked |
We took off, and Garmin found satellites about .11 miles in.
I was passed by a lot of people, very quickly.
Sad.
I was wheezing already, so I
took a hit from Vlad, the Inhaler.
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| Off I go! |
About half a mile in, I realized that there was a cop behind
me. Sweet, I’m DEAD LAST. That never gets old… <sarcasm>
I noticed at what should be Mile 1 that there were no Mile
signs. What the heck? Oh well. I kept running my intervals (really badly), but
I kept up with the two folks I dubbed Big Old Guy and LeiLei (she was wearing a
Sparkle Skirt in that print).
The first water stop wasn’t until Mile 2 or so. I’m no longer last, but I’m sure close! I
took water and Gatorade and kept on chuggin’ along.
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| As long as I can see someone, I don't feel lost |
Up until now, the course was the same as last year, but
after the water stop, the course began winding through neighborhoods with lots
of twists and turns.
Being in the back of the pack on courses like this really
reinforce HOW FAR BACK you really are. At some points I was completely alone –
I couldn’t see anyone in front of me, and at more than one point, I was sure
that I had missed a turn and I was lost.
 |
| Hello? |
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| I'm so lonely... |
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| Hey look! The Pink Ladies! I'm not lost! |
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| I think I'm lost again |
Doing my best to follow the signs, completely lost in this
Stepford town, I came across the COOLEST house, all decked out for Halloween!
It was a skeleton pirate ship!
I took a few photos and kept on movin’.
I didn’t want to become last again.
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| From this angle, you can see the siding on the house in the upper-lefthand corner of the shot |
Finally, after what seemed like forever, I came in to the
finish line.
My time sucked – it was
1:42:42.
Hubby and the Kiddo gave me hugs and I got my medal.
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| Way to cheer on the Back of the Pack folks, nonexistent crowds... |
Gotta complain here – the volunteers could really use some
training regarding how to hand out medals. NONE of the medals had even been
unwrapped!!
There was still plastic
encasing the medal itself!
It was really
sad…
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| The medals still have the plastic baggie on them!!! |
We stayed at the finish to cheer on the rest of the Back of
the Pack, including Big Old Guy, who officially was the last finisher.
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| Awesome Celebration Cheerleaders running in with The Big Old Guy |
Breakfast was way crowded, and I wasn’t even able to sneak
in for some OJ (it wasn’t out separate like it was last year). We grabbed a little bit of swag and headed
back to the car.
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| Good size water bottle, mints, and some chocolate |
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| Unisex-cut race tee. Meh - it's good for mowing the lawn |
Once in the car, I attempted to describe the cool pirate
house to the family. They (of course!) wanted to see it, so we ambled around
the town until we found it. They were as blown away by it as I was. While we
were there, at least 2 other cars stopped to check it out too!
Lunch was a pitstop at Arby’s, then we headed to Disney
(duh!).
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| I do love Arby's... when it's fresh. |
We parked at the Boardwalk, rather than at a park. We do
this for two reasons: 1) We’re frugal
and don’t see any value in spending $17 to park for 2 hours at a theme park,
and 2) We were planning on going to the Boardwalk Bakery on the way back to get
some tasty pastries, so we were still utilizing a parking space to visit the
Boardwalk. Some folks on Disney Boards think this is cheap, cheating, stealing
or otherwise uncool behavior. Whatever – I see no problem. (If we were going to go to a theme park for
an entire day, of course I would pay to park…)
We waited for a Friendship Boat to take us to DHS. While
waiting, I (again, of course) took some artsy flower shots.
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| Ooooh, artsy |
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| Friendship Boat Pileup! |
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| That's what you get for bringing bags, suckers! |
Our first stop was The Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow. This
is an attraction that never really garnered any attention, and was being shut
down.
Since we’d never been to it, we
decided to hit it up, just to say we’d seen it.
 |
| The artwork on the side of the building is really cool though |
Judging by the ‘crowds,’ a lot of people decided to do it
before it was gone. We were given Return Passes for 1:45, but were told that we
could wait in the waiting area (we were there around 1:15), which had shade and
benches. So we did. I still had my beverage from Arby’s to finish anyway, so we
just chilled out until it was our turn to go in.
 |
| "Fastpasses" for Cap'n Jack |
I can now see why this was never a popular attraction.
I zoned out through most of it, but let’s see
if I can explain it. You are led in to a ‘cave’ and then you are in a room with
a boat on one side and more rocks on the other, and on those rocks are lots of
treasure, like gems, jewelry, treasure chests, etc.
There are multiple screens in the room,
including one on the ship. Jack Sparrow comes up and tells you a story, and
then stuff happens, and then the story’s over. That’s pretty much the gist of
the attraction. Then you are led out of the room and you’re back outside in the
Florida heat.
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| The screen on the ship is below the sail; The row of skeletons is on another screen |
Luckily, DHS had given us something to combat that heat –
Wandering Oaken’s Trading Post and Frozen Funalnd!
We headed over to Soundstage One and was
greeted with, what else, a gift shop. There were lots of cute things in there,
but turns out we had to go around the building to get to the Frozen Funland part.
They only let in a few people at a time, and
once we were inside, we could see why!
It looked like a rave at a skating rink during the 80s! Children running
all over the place, tired moms and dads holding shoes or bags.
We decided to get in line to play in the
snow.
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| Seriously, this really is a lawsuit waiting to happen |
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| But don't worry - Super Cast Member is always on duty! |
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| "Refreshing" the Ice |
Between ‘sets,’ the snow was cleaned and freshened and then
the next batch of people (we were first!) were let in. After grabbing some
beach toys, we headed to the back corner where hopefully, we wouldn’t be
crushed!
The Kiddo, who has never even
seen snow before, was enthralled and quickly began digging in (the ice/snow was
definitely not fluffy snow, but more like what you’d get out of that old Snoopy ice maker toy).
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| The view from our peaceful corner |
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| Attempting to scoop the snow into a box |
After a few minutes, my inner child decided it was time to
build a snowman!
It didn’t have to be a
snowman… aw who’m I kidding? Of course it had to be a snowman!
It was tiny, but it counted!
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| I'm not exactly sure what she built... |
I think we were in the snow for maybe 5 minutes before it
was time to get out, which was fine with me. My knees were wet and I was
getting cold.
We passed the area they
had for snacks (cupcakes, frozen drinks, etc), then exited through the gift
shop, and back out.
At this point, we made our way out, taking lots of shots of
the Sorcerer’s Hat. It is going to be removed soon (thank God!), but of course
I had to have some “this is the last time I saw the hat” photos. Here’s some
that I really liked.
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| Typical Head-On Shot |
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| From Further Down (I want that SparkleSkirt!!!) |
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| Artsy Close-Up |
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| Ooooh, so artsy! |
Next stop was Magic Kingdom (I think we bussed over), to get
some fun Fall Season shots. We actually didn’t ride anything, eat anything or
go any further than the flag pole!
We
headed up to the Train Station while I did some photos, then came back down,
headed to the Bus Circle and rode over to the Boardwalk.
With a quick stop at the Boardwalk Bakery (see, told ya) for
cheesecake brownies, peanut butter cakes and Oreo cupcakes, we hopped in the
car and make our way home. I was exhausted!
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