Well I personally think the weekend was a big success. I think that everyone had a great time running and playing in the parks. There were many smiles and some really awesome costumes.
This is the first time I did so many races in a row. I have participated in 7 RunDisney ½ marathons, but this was my first 5k and 10k. I will say that the 5 k was so much fun. It was so nice to see so many families running together. I love this about Disney. It’s all about the family. The race was fun. Nice and short. A great warm up for the rest of the weekend.
I loved how even though this was only a 5K it was treated like it was the ½ marathon. There were fireworks at the start of each corral and characters along the way. The first mile was a bit boring as we ran through the parking lot, but the last 2 miles were fun. Running through Epcot, seeing the characters and taking pictures of the World Showcase lagoon with the lights shining on all of the pavilions.
The next day I woke up early…again…for the 10K. Again, this started in the parking lot near Epcot and again each corral was treated to fireworks. No kids in this race, so things were a little more serious, but still so much fun. As we started our run and headed out to the parking lot I was anticipating a long boring run until we got back into Epcot, but almost right away we had our first character. We saw princess Elsa on the overpass waving to us and there was snow!! Disney snow, but beautiful none the less. The day was a little humid, but everyone seemed to be having fun.
The last day was the big show. The ½ marathon. Once again we had fireworks for each corral. This year was a bit different than the last years. There were more corrals than ever. The last corral was letter “P”. The fireworks went off for each corral about every 3-5 minutes. So it appears RunDisney has divided up the corrals so there were fewer people in each corral, but more corrals. So that last corral got their start over an hour after that first corral took off.
If you don’t know by now, the winner finished in 1:11:00. So she was crossing the finish line just minutes after, or about the same time, that the last corral started. But I can guarantee she didn’t stop for any character pictures. I doubt she had any fun. Well, not as much fun as those of us behind her taking pictures with friends on Main St USA and in front of the castle or with the characters.
Hi, my name is Donna Genco and I have been married to my husband Frank since 1988. My husband was active duty military for 20 years in the Coast Guard. We have lived on the east coast, from Cape Cod to New York City to Virginia. We lived in south Texas twice. Our most recent station was Hawaii, where he retired. We are now back on the east coast. We have two boys, Frankie, who is active duty Air Force Academy, and Tony, who is a student at Rutgers in NJ.
