Tower of Terror 10M

The Good:

I really liked that there were bathrooms and water tables set up inside the corrals. They walked the corrals to the start line and continued to have a dance party, which bummed me out a little that I didn't have anyone to dance with, but I got over than and danced by myself. Not gonna lie, that was awesome. 

The volunteers were amazing, especially the ones in the WWoS area. The fact that they were having fun and cheering totally lifted my spirits when all I wanted to do was stop and find AC.

My favorite part of the race was coming back towards Hollywood Studios. The DJ was playing WHAM! Wake me up before you go; this is about the point where I went delirious with heat and danced until I couldn't hear it anymore. Have you ever danced during a race? I highly recommend it. Made that half of a mile so much more enjoyable. Must add that song to my playlist.

Since I got to run the inaugural race, if I keep coming back every year, I can be a legacy! Do you think it's worth it? I'd really like to do Wine and Dine next year (Anniversary medal, what?!) and I will definitely be doing The Disneyland Half in Sept (Coast to Coast medal finally, what?!). That would be a Disney race-cation a month for 3 months. My bank account has just keeled over at the thought.

The Bad:

You know what would've made it better? More entertainment. Osceola Parkway was hot with little to do during the Marathon Relay; it was sort of deja vu. Also, it was a tad annoying that the 1st character stop was at least 10 minutes long. But I stopped anyway. I had to. How often do you see The Hyenas from The Lion King?! Right?! That was definitely a good call. 

 The Lion King Hyenas 

 Dr. Facilier

 Grave Digger

 Stitch!

 The Big Bad Wolf

Running around Champion Stadium

(where the big 20th mile surprise will be for the marathon)

When we got into the park, I was sure that was where all the characters would be. . . but no. Not one. It was super depressing. Later, I found out they were in the parks, just not on the course.

I didn't really have an issue with the course. Even though I did get upset about running part of the 5k course (the dirt trail that was extremely narrow), mainly because I didn't want to walk that long but I couldn't get around everyone walking.

Once the finish line showed up, it was super dark and kind of anti-climatic.

The UGLY:

The obvious? The humidity was a killer and unexpected. I researched this race weekend (which was formally Wine and Dine) and I specifically remembering someone saying to bring a jacket for the end, because you might get chilly. Um, no. I was sweating just standing in the corral. Surprisingly, once I got over the fact my cape was going to stay glued to my back with sweat and my crown was going to be the cause of my heat exhaustion and I refused to take off either, I was good.

Standing/Sitting on concrete for 2 hours before a race is not appealing. I was also having flashbacks from Everest (which was equally as hot and gross) and didn't want to get to the race too early, but runDisney didn't give you a choice. They said to get on a bus no later than 8pm (for a 10PM race). Luckily, there were picnic tables to sit so I could save my legs.

A 10PM start is a little late for a long race.

The hill that you had to climb in order to get out of the finisher's chute? 
SUPER not cool. 

After I got ice taped to my knees, I waddled towards the park to find a place to wait for The Wicked Witches, the amount of people I saw in wheelchairs was unnerving. I heard "Medic!" about 20 times. Not gonna lie, that's scary.

THE AFTER PARTY:

The Evil Snow Queen totally approved of my outfit.

The main goal of the after party? Meet Maleficent. Mission Accomplished! It took until about 3AM to happen, but that's ok. It happened. Thanks to Sarah and her super awesome cast member skills, we found out she would be outside the hat all night opposite of The Snow Queen. (PS- Not having the inside scoop on where characters were was not cool either, runDisney. There were villains all over the park but no one knew unless they walked passed them) Our first try to meet her, she switched out with The Snow Queen by the time we got to the front of the line. I was ok with that because it was fun to meet the inspiration for my costume. Have I mentioned how much fun it is to interact with face villains?! They are fabulous and it makes my heart so happy. She approved of my costume, thank goodness.

We decided to wait in the 35 minute line for Toy Story Mania because it was definitely a must-do; 35 min was nothing compared to the normal 60. I'm not sure that was a good plan, because my legs/ feet were killing me, but it was fun! There was no way I was in any condition to ride Tower of Terror or Rockin Rollercoaster. I heard RR kept going down all night and tons of people were getting sick on it (hence why the TSM wait was so long I'm sure). Glad we decided to by-pass. After, we parted ways; they went to ride Star Tours and I went to get in line for Maleficent.

Yall?! It happened and I'm still reeling over it. All I remember was telling her she was my favorite and I was really excited to meet her, to which she responded "Clearly". Love her. So she asked me what my favorite pose was and I had no idea, so we went with the "Pushing away the peasants". Made everything completely worth it.

Who's your favorite Disney character that you geek out about meeting?