Ok I'm back
I was very happy with our stay at the boardwalk. I enjoyed the themeing of the area inside and out. Our room was large and well kept. Were were on the 1st floor with no view but I bet he views fromt eh upgraded rooms would be excellent. I loved being able to walk to Epcot and DHS. We were able to make a few visits to the World Showcase in the evenings. If I had more time there I think I would have enjoyed the easy access to the night life on the boardwalk but we just didn't get to squeeze that in on the is trip. I would absolutely stay there again although I do prefer the monorail resorts when traveling with DD b/c of the easy of getting around with the stroller and all her gear.
Back to the report
So after the 5K I took the bus back to the boardwalk. There was a bus waiting when I got to the stop. While on the bus I got talking to a man who had run the 5k with his 3 kids. That seems like such a great experience to share as a family. I'm hoping I can get DD to run with me when she is a bit older. I was back in the room by about 9:30. Buddy was out shopping while I took a quick shower. We then caught a bus for Animal Kingdom. We were lucky that one was pulling up just as we walked to the bus stop.
We had 10:20 reservations at Tusker house but wanted to get EE fast passes and try to ride Kilamanjaro safari first. We got our fast pass and the like for KS said 10 min so we thought we had time. Unfortunately it was really more like a 30 wait. I've been on the KS about a half dozen times but this was the most active I've every seen the animals. We got very good views of many of the "big ticket" residents like hippo/rhino/elephant and giraffes. Once we got off it was already 10:45 We ran over to Tusker house and they were still able to take us for the very end of the lunch seating. TH was one of my favorite charecter meal on my last visit. This time it wasn't quite as good. Maybe b/c DD wasn't with me or maybe because we were at the tail end of breakfast and the food was looking a little picked over. It was good enough and we did get to see Mickey and friends so we enjoyed it.
After breakfast we were excited to use our EE fast pass so we made a bee line for Asia. When we got there we saw the stand-by line was only 20 min. So we grabbed a second set of FP and jumped in the stand-by line. This was my first time on EE and I LOVED it. What a fun ride. When we got off we jumped in the FP ride and rode it again. From Asia we headed to Camp Minie Mickey to see the Lion King show. We just made it in before the show started which was perfect timing! I've seen this show a bunch but it was Buddy's first time and she was impressed. Next we headed to Dino land and got FP for Dinoasaur. While we wated for teh FP time we road the Triceratop Spin. I've never been on this one before but it had looked appealing to me. In the end it was a longish wait for a so-so ride. We went and used our Dino FP the doubled back to Asia to use our last EE fast pass. By now it was 3pm which was out goal time ot leave AK and head to Epcot. We were able to get a bus straight from AK to Epcot. I had forgotten this was available but it was a lot faster than going back to the hotel first.
Once in Epcot we headed for the World Showcase. We started making our way around from Canada. Buddy had never seen it before. Unfortunately since we had the half marathon the next AM we didn't want to partake in any of the usual "Drinking around the world" activities. We stopped and had Pastries in "France." By 6:00 we were exhausted and I was a little worried since my feet were killing me and I figured this wasn't a great way to feel the day before my first half marathon. We had 6:30 reservations at Bistro de France. I've wanted to try that place for a long time but it always seemed to "fancy" for DD. We opted to skip out on this in favor of pizza in our room and an early bed time. I think I was asleep before 8pm.
My alarm got me up promptly at 2:45 the next AM. I fumbled to put on my gear that I had laid out the night before and Buddy and I made our way to the bus stop. At 3:10 there was already a line. The first bus that pulled up was mostly full and they only let on about 5 people from our stop. About 5 min later an empty bus pulled up and we filled it. There were still about 20 people left waiting when we pulled away. By then it was about 3:30.
We made it to the staging area and found our way to the race retreat tent.
I had struggled with the decision of wether to pay for race retreat or not but in the end I deceided it was worth it to me to have a guaranteed warm dry place to be before and after the race. We had plenty of time to check our bag, take a picture with the Woody/Buzz/Jesse/horse crew and use the porta potty twice before it was time to head out to the starting corals. The race retreat did have a seperate area of about 20 porta pottys. I don't know if the line was much shorter than the larger area outside but we didn't have any problem getting in to use them.
I really didn't know what to expect as we headed out to the corals. I'm not sure exactly what time we started walking, maybe about 4:45. The crowds were unbelievable. It was just a huge moving mob of 27,000 people making their way down the service roads/parking lots of epcot. It seemed to take forever. I was in corral E and Buddy was in B. She barely made it to her coral when they started singing the national anthem and there were still plenty of people coming in behind us.
They stared the race in several (7?) waves. I was in the 5th wave (aka corral E) I had plenty of time to sit down and stretch before the race started. There was a lot of energy in the air. I was just soaking in all the excitement. It might have been nice to have had someone there to share it with but maybe there is something to be said for having an acomplishment that you can only share with yourself. Before I knew it we were moving forward to the start line and the fireworks went off for the start of the 5th wave. I was on my way!!
My plan for the race was to do 3min run/1 min walk intervals from the start and maybe switch to 3:2 later in the race. It was very hard to stick to the walk intervals early on. I think it helped that there were a lot of run/walkers in corral E so many people were doing the same thing I was. After the first 2 miles it was clear that I had dressed too warmly. I had debated a short sleeve shirt with a throw away sweater vs. my usually short sleeve shirt with my running zip up on top. I had deceided to wear the zip up and had pined my number to the front of that. I spent the fist 20-30 min dealing with reorganizing myself during the walk breaks. By mile 4 I was pretty much set with the zip up tied around my waist and the bib pined to the short sleeve shirt. I also was trying to juggle my camera which I had planned to keep in the pocket of the zip up. I must have been quite the sight. I guess it did keep my mind off the running for a little bit and I was pleased that I was able to keep moving at my usual pace while I got set up.
The first set of charecters I saw was Pooh/Eeorye. I didn't stop as there was a long line. Around mile 4 or 5 I deceided to stop for a potty break. I didn't really desperately half to go but I was worried about finding a place later. Turns out I shouldn't have worried about it. The lines for the bathroom got a lot shorter as we got farther in to the race. Next time I will know that I should wait unless I really have to go. Eventually we passed under the sign for the MK. It was still dark out at that point. I knew it would still be another couple of miles before we were actually in the MK but I had that "wow, I'm really doing this" feeing.
Running through the MK was amazing. The crowds really picked up as we got closer to the park. The cheering was so motivating I stopped an had a volunteer take my picture with the castle in the backgroud. I just love that shot
As we looped passed teh Teacup ride I stopped for a pic with Alice and the Mad hatter. Farther along there was Snow White and Dopey but I didn' stop. As we came aroudn the back of the castle I stopped for a pic with the fairy god mother. I skipped the photo stop in front of the castle with ASI. There were also photo-ops with the cast of The Princess and the Frog but I skipped it due to a long line. I was just on cloud 9 as we ran though the park. As we came out the back they had the steam engine parked to the side tooting it's horn for us. Then they had a whole pirate ship set up with Capt. Jack and a whole group of pirates.
As we headed down the road by the grand floridian I started to feel nervous about by time and was thinking a maybe I had stopped for too many photos. I had the thought that maybe I was toward the back of the pack and that if I couldn't keep my pace I would get swept. I must have had oxyegen deprivation to my brain b/c it was obvious that I was well ahead of the 16min/mile pace. Anyway, I skipped pics with the penguin from Mary Poppins and Goofy/Donald on the golf course b/c I was nervous about this. I did stop for Chip and Dale b/c their line was very short.
I found mile 7-9 to be the toughest mentally for me. I was starting to feel a little tired and it was still in my mind that not finishing was a possibility. I dont' remember exactly when but some time around mile 10 we ran up the clover leaf and onto an over pass. Looking down from there I could see the THOUSANDS of runners stretching back miles behind me and I realized that even if I walked to the end I would finish!! From there on I had a lot more fun. It felt euphoric even though I was tired and my right foot was hurting. I stopped for pics with Tiger and Eeorye and some fairy whose name I don't even know
. Entering Epcot was great but not quite the same as the MK. The excitement at that point was more about getting to the finish line. Once I came around the corner and saw the gospel choir I knew I was almost there.
Coming across the finish line was a tremendous feeling. I just kept thinking that I DID IT.... I got my butt up off the couch and moved it until I could run 13 miles! A year ago if anywone had asked me if this was possible I would have said no way. It is such a liberating feeling to do something "impossible". My official time was just over 3 hours but I stopped for pics/potty for a total of 28 min. All in all I was very happy with my finish.
After the race I picked up my medal and headed to back to the race retreat to meet up with Buddy. She had finished about an hour before me. We had some breakfast, collected our things and headed back to the hotel. After a quick shower we were on our way to the MK.
Have to do some work today. I'll try to finish up later.
. Those accomplishments are more than enough for now.
We'll be cheering you on from Ohio!
Please be sure and get plenty of rest! 
45 reservations at Flying Fish but we were just too worn out. We ended up with another night of Pizza fromt he board walk. Originally we had planned to go out to jelly rolls after dinner but there was NO WAY either of us was moving from our bed. We watched a little TV, packed up and passed out
