Laura's Disney Lines

We dared to run 13K, and we survived. :-)

Quick recap: This year is the 13th anniversary of the Tower of Terror and back in April or May Disney announced the Tower of Terror 13K and 6.5K, which as it turned out were being held the weekend that we already had a trip planned. So we signed up. Fast forward to race day...we took it easy all day and walked over to the Studios from the Boardwalk on Saturday evening - it was a night race and not scheduled to start until 9:30.

It had rained a fair bit earlier in the day but it was dry by racetime - dry being a relative term, since the humidity was about 157%. Even though the temperature was about 70 degrees, we were sweating profusely quite quickly once we started running. The race course started on the parking lot access road and went back out to World Drive under the "Welcome to Walt Disney World" archway, then doubled back on itself before getting onto Osceola Parkway. That was a little bit of an uphill - we had to chuckle at all the people who were complaining about it, since it was barely a bump in the road by San Diego standards.

Once we got alongside Wide World of Sports we had an off-road section, where we turned onto a dirt/gravel road. This was somewhat challenging because it was dark, even with the lights they had set up, and there were a lot of puddles to skirt around because of the rain earlier in the day. This was apparently the "Haunted Forest" section of the course, because there were a lot of Cast Members dressed in white shirts and pants on this section, who were banging pots, making moaning noises, running beside different people saying "I love you", crouching in the bushes saying: "Help me, help me", etc. Some of them were into it a little too much, maybe (Lee says that he thinks they were Cast Members who had been working at "it's a small world" for too long)...when we got into the Wide World of Sports complex itself there was a woman with a belt whipping it against a light post yelling: "Play with me! Who's gonna play with me!" :-) At Wide World of Sports we got to take a lap around the track and run on the grass of one of the big fields. We eventually made a loop around the complex and went out the parking lot entrance back onto Osceola Parkway, and passed the 4 mile mark not long after that.

After another overpass (higher than the first, but I didn't hear so many complaints on this one), we ended up back on World Drive again, where we got this feeling of deja vu as we passed back through the starting area again. We came into the Studios by the parade gate near Sid Cahuenga's. At the corner of Hollywood Blvd we saw Deb Wills and Masayo Kano cheering runners on, and made a quick stop for greetings and photos. Up Hollywood Blvd and past the Commissary and then we wound around the Streets of America. Lee said it reminded him of one of my runs - around home I wind around the neighborhood streets to add distance (I can easily do a 7 mile run without backtracking and without getting more than 1.5 miles from home) - and it makes him crazy. :-) Eventually we ended up in the back of the park on the Lights, Motors, Action stage, where we could see ourselves on the big screen.

Somehow we got backstage on the road the Backstage Tour vehicles use, and ran through the big tunnel in the costuming/props area. We popped back into the park on Sunset Blvd where we could see people who had already finished the race, though we still had about .75 miles to go. Lee was doing really well but I was getting pretty tired - the humidity really takes it out of me. We ran back down Hollywood Blvd and ducked past Oscar's filling station into the the Fantasmic! amphitheater area and back behind it, then came around the corner behind the Tower of Terror to (finally!) the finish line. My goal had been to finish in under 1:30, and we came in at 1:29:31.

After the finish was the usual routine - get the timing chips cut off, get our medals, get our picture taken, and then go through the food line. Even though we'd had some water at all four water stops we were still really thirsty. To exit the runner's-only area we had to squeeze back into the park near the Rock'n'Roller Coaster fastpass machines - that was quite a choke point. After we drank our water and ate our brownies we were somewhat recovered and went to retrieve our baggage and change into the dry shirts we'd brought - the ones we'd run in were soaking wet. It felt really good to put on our dry Tower of Terror t-shirts!

The medal is very cool - it's quite a hefty piece of metal with a lot of detail. And the red elevator is on a spring - if you pull it down and let go it goes back up.

We met up with Deb and Masayo again near the Tower of Terror before they headed off. It was after midnight and we started to walk out of the park, but then decided that since it was the Tower of Terror 13K we should at least ride the Tower of Terror! There was a bit of a line, and it took about a half hour, but it was a fun ride. The bellhop warned us to hold onto any loose articles - like medals. :-) Good idea - getting bonked in the face by that thing wouldn't have been much fun! From there we walked back to Boardwalk - we were tired, but still felt good. Though we were glad our room was on the side of the Boardwalk closest to the Studios instead of the side closest to the Yacht Club! :-)

Though we had an ok time, overall I have to say that we were quite disappointed in the race - of the four Disney races we have done, this was the least "Disney-ish". I'll write more about that next time.

Race is over - now it's time to eat, drink, and be merry at the Food and Wine Festival. :-)

Laura