The Walt Disney Family Fun 5k. An excellent reason to get up at 3am and freeze while waiting to run 3.1 miles on a Friday morning!

We went down for the Marathon. But, there is the 5k, thus an opportunity.

Don’t click to read more if you are on a slow connection. I have a camera and I wasn’t afraid to use it!

My Daughter, Mary, had been training (on and off) for most of the fall to run a 5k. Once we fell past the November time frame due to various reasons, it was pretty much decided that we would do the Disney 5k as her first.

It’s expensive, but can you honestly imagine a better first race? Ok, she’s eight. Now can you imagine a better race?

I was having a hard time doing so.

I bring you to present (then).

3am

She’s awake. The race isn’t for another 3 and a half hours. But she’s awake and as a result, so am I. Oh well, it’s better to be early right? We were staying at the Shades of Green, an absolutely awesome resort on the Disneyworld park for the military and dependents. Heading upstairs to the main room of the hotel, we waited for the first bus.

Ready to go!

Being on the park property meant that we had bus service from the hotel to the start line. For the 5k, I believe the first bus was 4:30am. We were on it.

In retrospect, we really didn’t need to get on that bus. But we did.

OFF to the Start Line!

When we got there, there was NO ONE there. Well, there were some people there, but let me show you what the general scene looked like.

That’s not the sun coming up.

But, since we were there early, we were able to get in to see the Three Caballeros (including Donald Duck!) first thing (and it’s a good thing too, that line got huge, QUICK.)

(Yes, that’s a Breath Thermo shirt, and shorts. It’s Florida.)

Did I mention that it was cold? I had planned to wear throw aways for the marathon, but hadn’t really thought about the 5k. I didn’t figure I was really going to heat up much at the pace we would be running, so I wore the Mizunu breaththermo shirt. You have to be exercising for that to really work. Duh. And shorts. DUH!

We had some Hot Chocolate and Coffee while we waited for everyone to show up. But that didn’t last that long, and thankfully everyone else started make their way to the start line. I was a bit happier then… Body warmth and people to chat with!

8 thousand strong!

Did I mention that the start was 6:30am? When that picture was taken, we still had an hour to go. I must admit, the hurry up and wait is not one of my favorite things about Disney races, and I was really surprised at how well Mary dealt with it. We talked a lot, huddled together and generally had a good time waiting and thinking about how great the run was going to be.

Ready to GO!

At last, the start was upon us. Ordinarily, I’d be in the first wave, but I knew that we weren’t going to be running this one fast. We had a bit of fun with some of the other runners noticing all the people heading into the first starting wave (Honor system, sub 9 minute miles). Personally, I saw people who would be lucky to run 15 minute miles entering into this wave… but that’s ok. We weren’t worried about it. They missed out anyways. The first wave didn’t have fireworks.

The Race!

Second wave, GO!

Technical problem or not, the first wave didn’t have fireworks. We did. We went out about 12 minutes after the first wave. It’s on!

Mary went out strong

(and as typical of most first time runners, too fast). But fear not, because about a quarter of a mile into the race, the hot chocolate became a hindrance and had to be dealt with. Potty break number 1! (No picture)

But we picked it up again, and began the trek anew. I knew that she wasn’t going to be able to run the whole distance, and had planned on pacing her with walk breaks. I had also planned on her being able to run between character stops, but that didn’t work out quite as I had envisioned.

Mile 1.

Remember that we went out about 12 minutes after the first wave (and therefore the clock start). This matches up with my split time pretty well, about a 14 minute mile. Considering a potty break was in there, I was pretty happy with my little girl. Considering that she had a smile on her face the entire time, I was ecstatic with her. And the best was yet to come.

Entering Epcot, Disney had the torches going, as well as cast members everywhere, cheering.

Since Mary was taking walk breaks, I took picture breaks!

Soon enough, we came across our first character encounter – Mulan. We hopped in line and waited for our turn. Thankfully, we did so at just the right time, as shortly before we came to the head of the line, Mushu the Dragon also came out to make an appearance. This thrilled Mary to no end.

Crazy Dragon.

I had problems with my original plan for taking pictures, but looking back, I made absolutely the right decision. I ran (slower than usual for me) with my Canon 5d Mark II, fitted with a 50mm prime. It’s not as heavy as my normal setup, and has the advantage of a very open aperture for low light (the last two pictures are about 5 minutes apart.) I had thought that I’d buy race photo’s from Brightroom, but they were nowhere to be seen for the character visits. So, having the heavier, but much more awesome camera paid off, big time. Disney had cast members at every stop, and they were more than willing to take pictures, thankfully.

Mary was happy as can be at this point, having her picture with Mulan (and more importantly, the Crazy Dragon), plus Daddy wasn’t pushing her hard to keep running… I wanted her to enjoy it. We can always work on speed later.

There’s that golf ball…

Watching the sun rise in Epcot was truly a beautiful thing. I ended up stopping her whenever she wanted to take a walk break and made her pose for me.

It’s going to crush me (the mind of an 8-year-old)!

Yes, we’re yelling for effect.

Right before this round of pictures, she needed to use the bathroom again, and this time, it wasn’t a porta potty! Real, live bathrooms, thanks to us being in the park! She was much happier at this development. Even happier when she realized the next characters were just ahead on the trail!

Jasmine, Aladdin and some monkey(s).

Another character stop, and a beaming little girl.

Mile 2: Still smiling.

Yes that clock is 12 minutes faster than our start, and yes, we’ve had multiple photo stops, 2 character stops, and another bathroom break. Clearly, we’re burning up the road.

But, thankfully, the water stop was coming.

I never understood how important and awesome a water stop was to her.

And the water was FREE! In DISNEY! Something is Free! It’s a Miracle! (oh wait, HOW much was this 5k?) I made a joke as we passed about this, and I honestly don’t remember ever getting as large of a response before. Everyone was having a great time.

Posing before the Golf ball.

We were entering the home stretch, and the magic of Disney was keeping Mary going. She’d been to Epcot once before, and remembered it fondly. Had the Geodesic been open, I’m certain she would have tried to detour into it.

Gotta involve Bambi.

Still Running strong!

Throughout training, I had to fight with Mary to run after we had passed about a mile and a half. There weren’t any problems for her to focus on today.

Doing the Hula.

My little goofball had dutifully posed and smiled and did a great job with photo opportunities, but she likes to cut up, and wants her silly pictures as well. Here is the last frame of her Hula impression, right before we reached the 3 mile mark. You can tell the race is taking a lot out of her.

Mile 3: We’re almost DONE!

She honestly could have gone for quite a while longer, given the pace and stops we were doing. Subtract 12 minutes and you are pretty close to our finish time. We’ll work on making sure the next one is sub 1 hour.

Finish!

I don’t know WHO is more excited.

Ok, I guess I do.

She’s done her first 5k, had a great time, and has a medal to show for it. It wasn’t an incredibly fast time, but it’s a PR, and those must always be celebrated!

Showing off to the Family

Heading to the Park to Celebrate!

This was a great start to the running weekend, but it wasn’t the end. We still had two more events to do. My son had to run for his Medal, and it’s a good thing Mary had energy left over, because she wasn’t done either.

I still had the marathon on Sunday, but that’s another post.