The weekend of November 8th, I tacked a personal challenge - to earn the Disney Coast to Coast Medal. For those non-runners or those not familiar with my personal goal I set nearly 3 years ago now, the Disney Coast to Coast challenge is to run a 1/2 Marathon (13.1 miles) at each Disney Park in one calendar year.
I first learned about this Coast to Coast (C2C) challenge when I ran the inaugural Tinker Bell 1/2 Marathon in 2011. I thought I was going to do it last year - 2012 - but finances weren't in my favor to hit Florida - these races aren't cheap.
But 2013 was my year. I started by running the Tinker Bell 1/2 Marathon earlier this year and then last month I did the Disney Wine and Dine in Orlando. See I even announced it from my hotel room!
The Wine and Dine is a night time race - the first time I've ever done a long night run let alone a race through Disney World! We had to catch the shuttle at 8pm for the 10:00pm start (I was corral H and we started about 20 minutes after the official start).
The fun started at ESPN Wide World of Sports and finished at Epcot - but we ran through Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. I started out very well - despite half-assing my training. Here I am just shy of the 5K mark... 3 miles in.
After running through the streets of Orlando a bit, we made our way into the Animal Kingdom.
And we were greeted by our first sign of the upcoming holiday season...
This tree was massive!
We then ran through the park to the Tree of life. I've never been inside this park, but I hear it's the centerpiece of the Animal Kingdom. Hard to tell by the dark picture, but it was pretty impressive.
Then we ran to Dino Rama... reminded me of the back side of California Adventure in a prehistoric way.
Upon exiting the park I was greeted by a giant lit up Tigger (there was a person inside controlling it)
Again, not great quality on my phone, but you get the idea (yes that's me in the picture with Tigger).
After leaving the Animal Kingdom we ran through the streets of Orlando again reaching the 10K mark about the halfway point.
Shortly past this mile marker, they had a large Jumbotron in the middle of the road showing you what
was awaiting us at Epcot. On I ran to the Hollywood Studios park where I was greeted with various movie characters and sites.
Here I am with Elastigirl from the Incredibles, but apparently the flash wasn't on on my phone.
Then I hit the 10 Mile mark... only 5K left!!!
When around the corner who should appear... but Wreck-it-Ralph! Probably my favorite photo of the route.
I ended up ordering the professional version (this is from my phone) for my C2C frame.
I turned the corner from the line with Wreck-it-Ralph and walked into an amazing Christmas scene - The Osbourne Family Christmas. It was amazing! The pictures cannot do it justice. It think I sat in the street for about five minutes taking it all in!
And here is a shot of me looking back at where I'd just come from.
Leaving the Christmas spectacle, we ran into these familar guys. I had to snap a picture for Drew - my Star Wars nut.
As we left the park I ran into the Army guys from Toy Story. He was making fun of me (he was wearing a mic) because I was wearing my earphones the entire time and he thought I couldn't hear.
We then wound around the Boardwalk and off to Epcot.
I snapped this picture just to send Dave - "Are we done yet"? He was home with Drew watching my email race updates. I signed him up (as I did on Facebook) to update my times at the various mile points (5K, 10K, 15K, Finish)
At this point I was really winding down.. ready to shut down. It was really humid that night and I was running out of energy. When I saw the end in sight in that glorious oversized golf ball.
We ran under the Epcot dome and finished in a nearby parking lot.
I got the C2C medal!! My time was terrible thanks to poor preparation, 2 bathroom breaks, and waiting in line for taking pictures with characters - but I got the darned C2C medal and that's what I'm proud of! My final time was 3:25:10.
After the race we were handed either a beer or wine - of course I chose the wine. But the last thing I wanted to do after running 13.1 miles was consume alcohol. All I had on the brain was water, and FOOD!. With the race entry we were given access to an after party inside Epcot where I waddled - because I admit I was ridiculously out of shape for this run and ever muscle in my body hurt - to find food. The lines were ridiculously long and I made it to the US/Florida side where I inhaled some sliders and then was so so tired realizing I now needed to waddle back to the entrance to catch the shuttle back to the hotel. I was on the complete other side of the park... oy.
I made it back to my hotel room at 4am. Here is the bling, bib and wine I was handed post race.
And here are all the medals and bibs I earned by doing the 2 races and then the C2C special medal.
With that I'm likely retiring from Disney races - but I had a blast!
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