Buzz & Woody’s Best Friends 5K

The alarm clock went off bright and early at 5 am on Friday morning.  It felt pretty chilly outside (even for this Albertan), so I dressed in capri tights, a long sleeve top and a midweight base layer.  My plan was to leave my top at the bag check, but the bag check was right after you got out of your car.  I wasn’t quite ready to give it up yet so I decided to race with it.  I hit the porta potties, started taking a couple of pictures, and then the announcer told us to start making our way into the corrals.

The corrals were crazy busy!  At first there was no getting in a corral as they were just too full.  Finally a barricade near the front was removed, a few people moved up and I was able to make my way in.  Yes, I was still cold…As the race drew closer Buzz and Woody came over to the start to cheer us on.  Then at 7 am we were off!  The course was so crowded to begin with.  This was a non-timed fun run, but you were asked to line up by pace.  A bunch of walkers set themselves up near the front of the race causing quite a bit of congestion for the runners around us that wanted to get by them.

We started through the parking lot and back lots of Epcot, then made our way into the park right by the Mexican pavilion.  There were several characters out along the way.  I saw Mulan in China and Minnie was waving to us from the Japanese pavilion.  My dad spotted Chip & Dale there when he went by.  When I saw Remy in France I had to stop for a quick picture.  I absolutely love running around World Showcase in Epcot so this was a pretty fun 5K for me.  Finally it was back towards Spaceship Earth, then out of the park, into the parking lot and on to the finish line.  I crossed the line in 35:47.  I got my first medal of the weekend and then waited for my mom and dad to cross the finish line.Once the race was done we figured we’d get an early jump start on the parks and head to Disney’s Hollywood Studios.  We wanted to ride Toy Story Midway Mania before it got too busy.  Yes, I was that cold that I was wearing the many clothes while standing in line!  After two rides on the midway and a turn on Aerosmith’s Rock n Roller Coaster we had done everything at the park we were keen on.  We left for a quick lunch of fish and chips at Raglan Road, then back to the hotel where I wound up conking out for a 2 or 3 hour nap on the couch.  Half marathon tomorrow!!