After packing the car, gassing up and grabbing some Krispy
Kreme, we were on the road around 9:30 this morning, off to Disney and the
Tower of Terror expo.
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| Up the hill to the Expo |
Our first stop was to head to the Expo, to pick up our
credentials for tonight. After getting those, we walked around and checked out
the expo a bit. I had to ogle the Sparkle Skirts – of course! – and I also
wanted to check out ArmPockets. I recently got an iPod 5th
generation, and my current no-name armband was too small.
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| I decided to get one of these, but in purple |
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| Can I have one of each? |
After the Expo, we told the Garmin to take us to the hotel
and it took us down this super-sweet backstage road called Sherberth
Road. It is right outside of Animal Kingdom Lodge, and takes us directly
to Baymont/US-192! I’m definitely gonna have to remember this trick!
Before checking in, we decided to just grab some lunch at
the McDonald’s next door. It was very yummy (which usually happens when I’ve
not had McDonald’s for a while!)
We checked in to Baymont and were given a room on the 5th
floor at the back of the property. You can see Everest from up here!
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| Out of the picture, to the left, is Tower of Terror, the Earful Tower, Summit Plummet and Swan & Dolphin! |
We unpacked and attempted, unsuccessfully, to take a
nap. Mostly we just chilled, and then we were back up at 5:30 to get
ready to go to the Magic Kingdom.
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| We don't need no stinkin' comforters! |
We picked up some Gas Station Nachos™ and Slurpees at
7-Eleven, but the shortcut to the Magic Kingom (via Sherberth) was so quick, we
didn’t have a lot of time to enjoy said nachos!
We parked at the big, white tents in the Magic Kingdom
parking lot and checked in with the volunteers. We were given a bright
yellow tee shirt, a lanyard, a flashy/blinky button thing and a glow bracelet.
We were given a Ziploc bag for our 5 snacks and were allowed
to duplicate this time! (Usually at bigger races, you can’t). I got 4 bags of
Chex Mix and a package of Oreos, as well as a bottle of water.
Exiting out the back of the tent, we put on our shirts,
lanyards and flashy things then grabbed our bus out to DHS.
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| Hubby said I looked too boring in the first pic he took, so he took this one |
Our Team Leader was Fred, and frankly, he looked a lot like
Jeff Galloway. Fred asked who among us had done medals before, and I shot my
hand up (hey, I did medals for the Tom Walker here in Gainesville – he
never asked WHERE we’d done medals!) So, we got to be in the Medals/Chill
Towels group. We headed off to the finish line area. (The people who stayed behind set up water, Power-Ade and bananas).
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| A sea of Power-Ade |
Among the 30 of us in this group, 12 of us were assigned to
hand out Chill Towels, and the rest of us (the three of us included) got to do
medals! Yippee!!!
Before getting started, the Kiddo and I took a potty break
at a Cast Member Trailer backstage. Yeah, I took photos (but out of respect to the CMs, I will only post one)!
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| Off to the left (behind the trash can there), is a sitting room with a TV where about 4 CMs were watching basketball |
A member of the group, Christine, was dubbed the unofficial
Group Leader to guide us in how to put up the medals.
Step 1 was to take out the medals from the box (there were 3
groups of medals in each box), remove the plastic baggie hanging over the medal
and hang them from a peg on the medal rack.
Step 2 was to unclip the cable ties holding the bunches of
ribbons together.
Step 3 was to make them Show Ready – straighten out the
ribbons, make sure the medals were hanging face-out, etc.
No one did a very good job listening to these directions….
Medals were hung terribly! A lot of them were hung BY
the cable ties, which tightened them and made them almost impossible to remove
with the scissors they gave us. Other groups were hung by one or two ribbons,
so when the cable ties were removed, all the medals fell on to the ground (and
got scratched/dirty). And even worse, the bunches themselves were janky right
out of the box; the ribbons where all twisted and tangled together! Ugh,
this is a lot of work! And no one did a very good job of getting the little
plastic baggies IN to the trash!
Luckily, we had a CM helping pick up trash with her little grabber
stick. She was great.
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| CMs fighting to the death with Grabby Sticks |
Very quickly, Christine and her hubby Greg realized how
awesome we all were (we as in the family)! Christine gave me a pair of scissors
and I became a “clipper” – I would go through and cut all the cable ties so
that others could begin to straighten the ribbons.
The medals needed to be Show Ready by 10:30. There
were a LOT of medals to straighten out, but we were all doing okay. Some
people gave up at this point, and decided that napping was a better idea…
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| Beautiful, show-ready medals |
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| Napping Volunteers and CASES of medals |
Once we finished getting them ready, I snacked on a Nutty
Bar and walked up towards the Finish Line for a few photos. I passed Christine,
who said that she would be calling the group together ‘in a minute’ (in my
world, “in a minute” means 5 minutes or so…) I took some fun photos and
made my way back to the medal area where she really did call the group together
in a minute!
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| Yeah, I'm totally running! |
The Original Line Up for Medal Disbursement was to have
volunteers stand on a line (drawn in masking tape on the ground) in a V with
the smaller part of the V in front, and the wider part of the V in the back
(like this < ). Christine thought that was a stupid idea –
and I totally agreed with her), so we pulled up the tape and put the V the
other way (like this > ).
As a reward for being awesome, me, Hubby and the Kiddo were
part of the first group to hand out medals.
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| Christine is the one in the shorts. Notice the awesome open V formation |
The original plan was to have each volunteer take a peg of
medals (about 25 medals) and hand them out. When they ran out of their second
round of medals, they would switch out with another volunteer. When a person
left the line to switch or get another round of medals, the remaining volunteers
were supposed to step forward and fill in the gap. This would ensure that
everyone got a chance to participate and to be in the front of the line.
Christine also asked who had a big mouth (i.e. be loud) and
I totally raised my hand for that too! I have a God-given gift in projecting,
what can I say? She said that she would need someone to help direct both
volunteers and runners at some point later in the evening.
The first runner came in around 56:53. I like to guess their
time, and I had made my prediction of 57:04, so I was pretty close (I think he
upped his pace near the end). My first
medal was given to Rick, who came in 6th place.
Once I made it through my first batch of medals, I went back
for 2nd and told that volunteer that I would switch out with him. He
shrugged and didn’t really want to switch. Okay, then…
Very quickly it got busy, and I can’t remember a lot of what
happened, but I can tell you that something really awesome happened – I got to
fist bump Jeff Galloway as he came through!!! He finished around 1:45. Highlight of my night, right there! Do I classify as a stalker now?
Anyway, back to volunteering. Now is when my big mouth came in handy –
Christine and I had to repeatedly ‘yell’ at the other volunteers to stay in
line, don’t crowd the runners, etc. Eventually
Christine told me to STAY in my line and be in charge of that side, and she
would handle the other side.
On Hubby’s side (closer to the medal racks), the volunteers
were not switching at all. They would step toward the fence, grab more and get
back in line.
I did switch out at one point, but it wasn’t for very long because
for some reason my side ended up with only 4 people (instead of 6), so I went
back out and stayed to the end.
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| Action Shot!!! (What terrible posture!) |
The plan eventually went to crap. People didn’t want to be
in the handout line; people couldn’t stay in one spot (they crowded the
runners); people weren’t moving up; people weren’t switching out.
People were not celebrating the athlete either, which pissed
me off. I would put the medal ON the runner, if they wanted me to, but if not,
I would at least congratulate them and call them by name (you can see their
name on their bibs)!
It was crazy how fast I went through medals, but Greg took
care of me. He’d see me coming and have a bundle for me and another when I
asked. (I took two at a time once it got busy).
One of the volunteers really made me mad – he wasn’t holding his group
of medals up (it was practically clenched in his fist like a bundle of grocery
bags), and when he did hold up a medal, he would let it dangle sadly
(*drooping), and say “here ya go” when a runner came up, like it was no big
deal. ARG!
After a while, the crappy volunteers left (they decided to
snack and chill out), so us GOOD people were left at the finish line, making it
much more fun.
At this point, too, is when the crux of the people came in.
I’m in the front and bearing the brunt of the crowd. I would run out of medals
quickly. But this time, Christine would stand in the middle of the V and yell
that all volunteers with yellow shirts have medals. I began hollering this too,
but if someone came to get one from me, I would add “But mine is fabulous!” or
“But this one is just for YOU (and say their name)”. Made the runner feel good.
It was still so busy that all I recall was more yelling,
more medals and more happy back-of-the-pack runners. I do remember seeing the Balloon Ladies coming
through. I’ve only seen them once, so it was good to see them outside of a race
I was participating in.
From here on out, I was cheering extra-loud for everyone
that came through. Sure, any good runner can do a 10k in 90 minutes, but those
of us in the back, struggling to come in at ALL are the ones who need the extra
love!
Christine began gathering up extra people and medals – left
6 of us out there to finish up (Hubby and Kiddo, I think was out there) – the
rest were told to count and box up unused medals. Hah!
I asked the other Volunteers if I could give the FINAL
runner her medal. No one objected.
Soon the remaining group came in and the last runner came up
to J’s side, blubbering like a fool. She had cancer three times, and the docs
told her she should be dead. Unfortunately, another volunteer gave her a medal
before I could.
Christine took my remaining medals to pack up and I could
finally stretch.
We were hoping to be let in to the after party. No such
luck.
Go to chat with Christine and Greg before Team Leader Fred
came by.
There was water, PowerAde, runDisney boxes and bananas left
– we could each take one of each. I got blue, red and yellow PowerAde, a water
and 4 runDisney boxes (there were LOTS of boxes left – everyone took a lot).
We officially finished at about 1:30am, and we headed back
to an area to wait for the buses.
Where’s the bus?
The 1st bus showed up at 1:45, but it filled up
before we could get on. The 2nd
bus showed up at 2am, but still no room for us. Finally, at 2:15 or so, we got
a bus – a Disney Cruise Line bus, too! I
was so glad to see that bus by then, because it was getting really chilly
outside, and I don’t handle cold very well.
We took the bus back to the Magic Kingdom, checked in and
got our complimentary ticket for working the race, then drove back to the
hotel. At this time of night, there was nowhere close to park, so we had to
park in the overflow parking lot, and just took the stairs to our room.
I honestly don’t remember even getting ready for bed, I
conked out hard!
I woke up around 8:30ish and couldn’t get back to sleep, so
I noshed on a donut and played with my iPod for a while. Everyone else got up
around 10 and ate breakfast while I packed up.
We checked out and decided to the Boardwalk. Nope, that lot
is full (well, Valet was available).
Beach Club also had a very long line at the Guard Station, so we continued
over to Yacht Club. We got lucky there and were able to park in Visitor
parking. As we walked towards the
resort, we saw that there was a large convention happening – that explains the
crowds (in addition to race weekend folks!)
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| Lighthouse Porn |
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| Looking across Crescent Lake to the Boardwalk |
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| Race Weekend + Food & Wine Festival + Weekend = FEELS CROWDED™ |
We took a Friendship Boat to Epcot. Our first stop was
Soarin’, which we had a FastPass for. I
think it took 7 minutes to get to the ride from when we started.
After Soarin’, we took a little boat ride on Livin’ with the
Land.
Next stop was a sad one – we had to say goodbye to
Maelstrom. It was going to be closed to
make room for a “Frozen” themed ride. I
always liked this ride, though it’s short and cheesy.
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| That's the highest Stand By Time I've ever seen for Maelstrom |
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| Yes, we took a family shot outside (inside?) Maelstrom! |
After paying our respects, we took the Monorail over to Magic
Kingdom just in time for the new Festival of Fantasy parade.
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| Magic Kingdom all dressed up for the Fall Season |
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| How YOU Doin'? |
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| This heartburn is killin' me! |
We tried to get more FastPasses, but there was nothing good
left, so we headed to lunch at Columbia Harbour House.
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| Save where you can - "entree only" saves you $2 if you don't want french fries! (I can steal from the family!) |
We scored a ride on the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, then we
caught the beginning of the Move it! Shake it! Celebrate it! Parade before
heading to the bus stop.
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| Greetings from the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train |
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| Hey, lady - that's peeping! |
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| Micky says hi |
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| I'll just leave this creepy photo for you to remember this post by |
We bussed to the Boardwalk and got some tasty munchies from
the Bakery, then walked back to the Yacht Club, picked up the car and headed
home.
We got in around 9ish, and too sleepy for a shower, face-planted
into bed and didn’t wake up until my alarm went off!
