Day 2: DisneyGroom’s #Dopey Challenge Weekend- #DisneyFunRun5K 3.1 down and 45.5 to go!

I hate getting up early.

The alarm went off at 3:30am. Surprisingly, I managed to remove myself from the bed. Taking my “wake-up” shower, getting dressed, and eating my pre-run breakfast all went pretty quickly.

We managed to catch the first bus at 4:15am. It was not the Death Star I was hoping for, but it did a great job of getting us to the start.

This is the 1st runDisney event that I have run that did not have any pre-race characters, and wasn’t started by Mickey himself.

I did manage to run into Russ (@RussRunsAbita), so he got the 1st awesome selfie. Hopefully there are many more to come.

I piled into Corral E and waited for the start. I am a solidly middle of the pack runner, but I now have more appreciation for those at the back of the pack. Soooooo many runners ahead of you and the lines for all the characters seemed longer than the line for Toy Story Mania. So I took a page out of my sister-in-law's book and photo-bombed Dopey.

Again, notice how awesome my selfies are.

I did manage to get a couple of good photos along the way.

Michelle from the Mickey Miles Podcast

This woman Wins for Best Spectator Sign Ever

Mile Markers

Buzz Lightyear- (Sid Busch) If I can’t run as a Space Ranger, I’ll get my photo with one

Spaceship Earth- Still not the Death Star

Phone Booth- DisneyBride and I did that at last years Family Fun Run 5K, so I had to keep the tradition going

Some random dude FISHING in the EPCOT World Showcase Lagoon!

Volunteer that gave me my medal

Finish Line Character photo with Pluto- Recognizing my greatness

The course did seem less crowded than in the past. They seemed to allowed more time to pass between corrals. This was helpful. It was not the wall to wall people that I was afraid of. The first tenth of a mile and the last two tenths were the only areas that seemed to back up.

After crossing the finish line I ran into Erin @Lovedisneyrun of For the Love of Disney Running. She gets the honor of being featured in a selfie.

The line to pick up your Dopey band stretched on for what seemed like forever. The line did move very quickly, however a wider path may have allowed runners to notice the stream of volunteers waiting to band everyone and allowed the first couple of volunteers to breathe. I imagine this will be much easier with the upcoming races as we will have more time to spread out and finish at different times.

I grabbed a Powerade, a water, and my box (still hoping for post race Tonga toast) and headed to catch up with DisneyBride.

Back at the resort - DisneyBride got breakfast and magnanimously gave me her bacon. That is love.