Bling from the Wine and Dine Half Marathon Weekend:
It was an early Disney morning! Which means it was a little chilly but not cold.
We had to be on the bus “no later than 5:30 am” so I thought we’d be early and get on the bus by 4:30. Um. Yeah. Apparently buses didn’t start running until 5! Which explained the 4 buses waiting and no runners!
Ended up being among the very first to get to the starting area in the Animal Kingdom parking lot. Which is GREAT if, like me, you wanted to get the big picture op in! (Note – after I took the picture below and put it on Instagram, a girl came up to me to say she just saw my picture on Instagram!! Whoa!!)
After a bit of Disney Dance Party and some stretching, we checked bags and headed to the corrals. Since the sun was up, there were no fireworks at the start but that doesn’t diminish the excitement as Mickey and Minnie send the runners off on their adventure.
And it was an adventure for sure!! Though I didn’t make any picture stops, that doesn’t mean there were no pictures.
It was slow going for me because of some lingering pain in my glute but as long as I kept going things were all good!!
We finished up and headed directly to the bus – there was a big day of pool-time ahead and we needed to get right on that!! Resting up for tonight’s Wine and Dine Half Marathon!!
Expo Day!!! It’s here! It’s here!
So, at my last runDisney half marathon, the expo was, well, kind of a disaster – for me at least! So I was prepared for the worst when I headed up to the Wide World of Sports center. In a car, not the bus! Missed a turn and was headed toward Tampa! Okay, actually we were headed towards the Animal Kingdom. An interesting note: Heading towards the park, there are really no places to make a U-Turn. Different story going away from the parks! I guess they don’t want to give you a chance to change your mind when you’re going TO the park but hope that you do change your mind when you’re leaving!!
Eventually made it to the expo, parked and – as is now my habit – hit the runDisney merchandise booth first. Grabbed the goodies I wanted (Magnet, wine glass and lanyards for my nephews’ runDisney vinylmations!).
No problem at all! No line and the shelves still fully stocked!
I was picking up 2 5K bibs and 3 Half Marathon bibs and 1 after party ticket/gift card so my first stop was the line-less 5K booths! Piece of cake – got the bibs and then headed towards the lines to pick up the half marathon bibs. And, I have to say that I have never waited in a line to pick up a bib. Luckily 2 numbers were right next to each other and the great kid handing out bibs let me pick them both up!!
Next up – the big line to pick up the after party gift card. It was a long line but it moved pretty quick! By the time we had picked up everything my friend Jennifer had arrived and we all walked back to the car. The plan was to drop Christine and the bags at the resort and then J and I would go to the Animal Kingdom and meet everyone else for lunch.
We had a great lunch at Tusker House. It’s a buffet with loads of great food! And, well Mickey, Daisy, Donald and Goofy – four of my faves. (My absolute favorite Disney character is, of course, Winnie the Pooh!)
Anyway, midway through lunch our waiter brought out a cupcake with a birthday candle and a card signed by all of the characters!
Jennifer and I decided to hit some more rides while everyone else was heading…wherever they were heading!! I think they were going to Downtown Disney for a little shopping and partying!
After Animal Kingdom we hopped in the car and headed to Hollywood Studios (brilliant idea by the way – no bus to resort to bus to park). Hit a couple of the rides and went to see the Osborne Dancing Lights – my most favorite thing in this park at this time of year.
By now I was starting to wind down so we headed back to the hotel to wait for the last two arrivals! Plus, tomorrow was an early day to get out to the Jingle Jungle 5K at Animal Kingdom. Christine, Jenn and I headed to the bar to grab something to eat and wait for Kathy. When she arrived we headed to back to the room to sort out where people were sleeping and wait for Cate, who showed up almost just as we got back!
After chatting a while and then making introductions when my sister-in-law and the other girls got back it was definitely time for bed – my alarm was going off at 3:45 so it was already going to be a short sleep! And tomorrow was a big, long day!!
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