My love of all things Disney is what got my to agree, so I was very excited about going to Disney, but very nervous about this 5K. We arrived in batches to our hotel, but we were finally there by about noon on Thur. Our rooms were not ready so most wanted to lay by the pool. Well....i can do that just about any day I wish so I wanted to go see the new Margaritaville hotel, so I headed that way. Ash had a school friend that now works at Disney so she headed for the parks...all the rest, held down lounge chairs. We were all happy...and the new hotel was amazing. Very expensive to stay so I was happy to just be able to walk around and see everything. I did sit a bar and have a snack...it was delightful. I headed back to the hotel where everyone was and our rooms were ready...after getting checked in, we all got ready to go...time to go pick up our race bibs and fun stuff.
Heading into the building to get our race bibs...but fun stuff along the way...
Heading inside...
It's official...we all have numbers, no backing out now.
We were missing Ashley, but she'll join us later for dinner.
Fun signs all around...this is a HUGE event.
After we got our bibs we headed into the convention hall to get our t-shirts and to see if we needed to buy anything....this place was huge. This was all race stuff, like socks, tennis shoes...etc.
Our welcome 5K sign....
So much fun decor...
We got our t-shirts and headed to another building where you could buy anything Disney related to the race. Kinda spendy, even for Disney...so we all passed and we headed to Disney Springs for dinner.
We decided on a Mexican Restaurant, was very good. We were close to where the balloon was taking off and it was a perfect nite for that...it was really nice all lit up
We got some gelato after dinner, which was rather disappointing and headed for the hotel. Needed some rest, we had a really early morning.
Slept quick, up at 4a and headed to the start of the race...EPCOT's parking lot.
There were tons of people, the costumes were amazing. Not sure I could have ever walked a 5k in some of those outfits.
There were Princesses there for photo op's
And there were long lines too...so pics from afar were ok..
Then it was time to go into our corrals....we all managed to get in the same one so we could walk together.
So many people that they even had to let corrals go in sections...i think we were section 3 of Corral A ...almost our turn to go under the big arch.
And fireworks went off when each section was told to go...and one group got let go
Then it was our turn..and we were off....
All the younger gals in our group ran the race, so we never saw them again. Us older gals, walked it and just enjoyed our morning...we were in no hurry...we were in it to finish it, not win it!!
Still dark..but sunrise was coming...
These frames made for some cute pics...
Sunrise is happening...
2 miles down...1 to go
.2 miles to go...almost there...
We can see the finish line...check out those costumes...can you say HOT!!!!
And we made it....woohoo!!!
All the younger gals were waiting on us...sorry we took so long, but we had a blast.
Lots of characters along the way, and great people watching
And we all had our medals...
Woohoo
Britt gave us all these shoelaces..just loved them
My one and only race bib...and medal
Folks are meeting you as you cross the finish line with your medals and tables of drinks and boxes of snacks. Was nice to have that. We walked around just a bit and headed back to the hotel.
Was now time to chill a bit.
We older gals hung at the pool and in the room...the younger gals headed out to do the Monorail Crawl...we met up later in Disney Springs for dinner at Edison's.
We got to Disney Springs a bit early and did some shopping, then headed to the restaurant. After a nice meal we headed back to the hotel, tomorrow we were all going to EPCOT.
Well, it turned out the younger gals had a lot more energy than we did...all being young Moms they wanted to cover Disney rides they don't get to do when they have kids...so they hit 3 parks and lots of rides. We older gals (and sweet young Ashley) only wanted to go to EPCOT. So, once again we didn't see them too much. But we 4 had a blast. 3 of us proudly wore or race t-shirts...we had earned them...lol!!
It was The Garden Festival ...love the topiaries...
Caught these guys playing
It was a bit warm, but the weather was really nice...and the flowers were beautiful
We enjoyed walking and sampling some food from the kiosk there for the Garden show.
We had a blast....
Time to ride the EPCOT ball ride...Spaceship Earth
There was also a chalk festival...there was some cool stuff
A bit later in the evening...Ash was able to see Baymax...a true highlight.
Seemed Shea liked him too
They had a fun time copying each others moves....
Now it was time to hopefully ride Frozen...I really wanted to, but not if the line was too long.
But, we made it...cute ride.
We got out of Frozen in time to catch Illuminations show...then we headed back to the hotel..showers and bed....it had been a great fun weekend, but tomorrow we all had to head home.
Thanks Britt for getting us all to do this....
