So today was the day, the reason for this trip (well, along with the half marathon that Steve is running on Saturday!!) The day of the WDW 5k race!
I have to say I didn’t really sleep last night. I never do when I have an early get up, and the mixture of excitement and nerves wasn’t helping. This race was so important to us as it’s the one run we were all doing together to contribute to our overall 60km challenge to raise money for Young Minds, an amazing charity that works with young people on a whole range of mental health issues. The charity means so much to us as we sadly lost my beautiful, young cousin earlier this year as a result of a battle with mental health that most of us had no idea she was flighting. It broke our hearts and devastated the girls, as up to this point they believed only old people died. They decided they would like to raise some money for Young Minds (or Amy’s charity as they call it) and came up with the idea of a run. We decided on the 60k target and set up a JustGiving page which has raised over £1200 so far, which we are completely gobsmacked by but feel so proud of.
Anyway, as soon as the girls noticed I was up they bounded out of bed with the biggest smile on their faces and got dressed ready to start the day.
We had to catch a race bus at the convention centre, and we were there by 3.30am but no bus arrived until 4.05am. Still, we managed to get on it and drive into the EPcot parking lot where the race would start. The whole set up is huge. They had stages which were projected on big screens, music playing etc and it really was a party atmosphere. By the time we’d dropped our bag of and been to the toilet (Winnie was not impressed and had to be coaxed to use them!!) it was time to enter our Corral. You don’t submit a time for the 5k which is good, as I’ve never done any running in my life, but somehow we ended up in Corral A which is the very first group. The girls even got to do the countdown for our section of the corral to start as the lady on stage was chatting to them, asking them their age etc. We didn’t go right to the front as left that to the fast runners. I was a bit worried we’d hold people up, but I needn’t have been as so many people just walked the whole way/ ran very slowly. We managed to overtake lots of them!
During the course there are opportunities to meet characters. We met Chip n Dale in their rescue ranger outfits but didn’t do any others as the queues were 30 minutes long (and as the girls pointed out, we don’t queue 30 minutes in a park so why would we queue when we are trying to win a race?!!)
The actual race itself is beautiful (once you hit me 1 and get out of the EPcot car park!!) You run all around World Showcase, and as it’s still dark it looks so pretty. It really was amazing.
The girls did so well, running them taking short walking breaks, (Steve obviously had to stop for a Starbucks photo!) and before we knew it we could see the finish line!
They ran across the line and were so proud! Winnie was even happier when she got her medal and realised it had Pluto in it.
We headed back to the resort race buses and although the line was huge it moved really quickly. The bus stops at Boardwalk, then Swan and Dolphin, then Yacht & Beach so we hooped off at Boardwalk, called at the bakery for some snack credit muffins (the Doodle muffin was 👌🏻) before heading back and letting the girls nap (Steve obviously joined them!)
They slept until around 10.30 and then we decided on a lovely, chilled out pool day (although it was rather cloudy/ breezy!!) We grabbed a quick service late breakfast for the girls (their first Mickey waffles of the trip) and we had a sandwich (one was lovely, the other a bit of a spit zapper but all good when washed down with beer 🤣).
Around 4pm we set off for tea at Chef Mickey’s. Now I hadn’t booked this meal in advance as we wanted to see how we felt after the race, so once it was finished and the girls chose it (It wouldn’t have been choice as in the past we’ve had more bad meals than good meals there, plus it has always been so noisy) but it’s what they asked for as they wanted to meet Pluto & Goofy with their race medals, and after their amazing achievement today it’s the least they deserved. I booked a table. I originally had 5.30pm which was a little bit late, but after checking a few times a 5pm slot came up so that’s what we went with (5pm is the first tea time slot so you usually get fresher, hotter food) Honestly, ADRs are great but don’t stress if you don’t get what you want. I think we’ve only stuck to 2 of the original meals we planned so far!
I have to say that despite my initial lack of enthusiasm, the meal turned out to be really lovely. We were in one of the smaller rooms so less noisy, our server was wonderful (much better than Tiffins), the food was really good (I may or may not have had 4 main course plates!) and the character interaction was superb, especially with the girls wearing their medals. Pluto was pretending to run a race and also doing impressions of Goofy, Donald was acting huffy that no-one was dressed as him and Goofy was breakdancing with the girls! We were there an hour and a half so not rushed at all and felt like we’d had a really nice evening. The moral of this story is that it’s always worth giving somewhere a go, even if you’ve read bad reviews or even had bad experiences yourself. Places do change and I am always happy to eat humble pie if that is the case.
We decided to round off the night by getting a Minivan back to our hotel. Now I’m always very careful with my money and begrudge the price difference between regular Lyfts and the dotty versions, but the girls have always wanted to travel in one so we thought it would be a great way to end a fabulous day. The driver was really lovely and insisted on taking photos of us before we got in. The girls thought they were really fancy, and it was just the perfect way to end the day. Although, despite the driver trying to convince me otherwise, I’ll be back to the cheaper counterpart from tomorrow onwards! After all, Cinderella’s carriage would have cost less!
No plans at all for tomorrow (shock, horror!) so it’ll be interesting to see what, if anything, we get up to. These little ladies certainly deserve a rest if that is what they choose.
Doodle & Peg Do Disney 