Race Recap (Part 1)

This weekend was my 5K - The Tangled Family Fun 5K at Disney! It was a BLAST!!!

Thankfully my in-laws just happened to be down for the week and staying at their timeshare on Disney property. We were able to head over Friday, pick up our race packets and then spend the night at the timeshare. My parents were going to drive up early Saturday morning (which meant waking at 3am for them!) and pick me up at 5:30 am so my mom and I could run the 5K.

I set my alarm for 5am and attempted to get to bed around 9pm. Unfortunately my 4 year old had other plans for my sleep that night. My boys both normally sleep great all night but not that night. The 4 year old was awake coughing, moaning, complaining, rustling from about 10 pm until 2 am. He refused Motrin and just whined for hours. We finally all fell asleep at 2am, but I woke at 3 and 4 and 4:45. So at 4:45 I turned off the alarms and got up to jump in the shower, dress and eat breakfast. My parents arrived at 5:15 am so I met them, traded places with my dad and my mom and headed to Epcot.

A cold front decided to blow through that day so we were pretty chilly standing outside so early. We both brought light jackets to wear pre-race. The crowd was quickly filling up and we walked around checking out the awesome costumes people were wearing. We saw plenty of fairies, princesses, evil queens and even a few of the 101 Dalmatians! We vowed to come dressed fun for the 1/2 marathon next year! Disney had a DJ blasting music and the crowd was dancing and having fun.

The crowd in front of us. You can kind of see the start line.

Before we knew it we were making our way into the corrals. My mom and I lined up in the 11-13 min mile since we both run about a 12 min mile. In the end it didn't matter. It appears for the 5K nobody follows the rules. There were walkers and strollers in our corral even though there was a specific stroller and walker corral further back. It made for a frustrating start as we got stuck behind a number of slow walkers out the gate. The beginning of the race was basically a HUGE crowd of people herding like cattle down a tiny back road.

Mile 1 was a back street and took us about 14 minutes to finish since we were constantly weaving in and out of the walkers. The end of mile 1 brings you into the Epcot World Showcase. This was the fun part to run! Past the countries and the characters. We chose not to stop for the character photos but enjoyed seeing them all as we ran past. Before we knew it we were at mile 2! Disney employees were along the sidelines inside Epcot cheering us on. Next up was a spin around the famous Epcot globe and then out the park towards the finish line. I was in shock at how fast this race went by. It seemed like every time we looked up we were at a mile marker.

Once out of the park we headed towards the finish line. Here families were out cheering and we easily spotted our family cheering us on! It was great to see them out supporting us and holding signs. We felt great and both started to pick up the pace to the finish line. I couldn't believe how good we both felt and we agreed we could have easily run another 2 miles! We completed the race at about 44 minutes. Not a fast race but a fun one!

After crossing the finish line they funnel you out to get your "medal" and then a picture booth. It was a great race and I'm so glad we did it! We are both looking forward to doing the 1/2 marathon next year!!!

I'll post my Part 2 tomorrow. That will include my post race injury and the kid's races!