Mickey's Jingle Jungle 5k

Who doesn't love 5 am bus rides??

I'm one of those people who like to be on the first bus out, so at 4:50 I was dragging my husband through Pop Century.  Much to my dismay, we were NOT on the first bus, but they had a second one already there waiting as well.  We boarded and got ready for the ride, thankful they the weather wasn't the same as last year.  Last year was chilly and we had pondered trying to bribe the bus driver to stay in the parking lot until the race start.

       

When we got there we got in line for Mickey and Minnie pictures.  The line DID NOT move fast.  While we waited I snapped pictures of our corral balloon and they made it "snow" near the start, which was kind of neat.  After an hour wait in line they started telling us to line up in our corrals, which made us panic, but luckily we got the opportunity to run up, snap a quick pic, and Run to the corral!

  I was super excited for this race because I'm usually a very time orientated person so I don't stop for pictures much.  Since the Wine and Dine Half was SUPPOSED to be my husband's first half (more on that later), we decided we were going to run easy and actually stop for pictures.      The first mile through the parking was pretty dull, no pics and you're not yet in Animal Kingdom.  Once you're in the park it does get more exciting, though.  Right away there was a character, though we ended up skipping it.  It was a character from one of the bug movies.

The next stop was Rafiki and Timon.  We RACED over and got a pic, only to discover that it turned out blurry.  Sigh.  We travelled onward, noticing that the course seemed different this year and we weren't sure where the rest of the characters would be.

Then we started hitting lots after mile 2!  I LOVED the Christmas decor and the costumes the characters wore- I'm totally a Christmas nut.  I was super psyched as we stopped for the next three pics that were all decked out.

Was SO happy Donald was out!  He's my fav.  Santa Goofy was awesome, too!

Striking a pose with Chip and Dale!

Hanging out in the dog house with Pluto

 As we approached the finish line my husband picked up the pace.  He always wears something Bills to see if he can get a comment from the one announcer and sure enough, he did!  We received our medals and food from some awesome volunteers and guzzled down some Powerade.  As soon as the sun rose the temp and humidity had spiked!

Getting back to Pop was quick and easy, which was good since we wanted to get back, prepare for our move to the Beach Club Resort, and have time to relax for the half that night.  I thought it was a little stressful switching resorts between the races like that, but it was pretty easy and worked out fine.  Our room was ready in Beach Club around 1, so there was very little time in between.

Next up: the half marathon that wasn't!

Wine and Dine: The Expo!

Expo morning started with a hot and humid run on the path between Pop and Art of Animation.

Having just left NY, where the previous weekend's quarter marathon was in the low 40s, I thought I needed to acclimate a bit.  I felt like I was running in a swamp, but I really liked the path.  I had never run there before, and I really liked the 1.25 mile loop and seeing all of the other runners out and getting their sweat on!  After a quick shower it was time to go!

This being my husband's first half, we wanted to get to the expo super early.  We were there about an hour before and jumped in line, chatting with some other excited runners.

To our immense happiness we we're let in roughly a half hour early.  We booked to merchandise first and bought the things we knew we had really wanted.  There was so much stuff!

Then we got through the 5k and half bib lines pretty quickly, only to have to go wait in another zigzagging line to pick up pins and the commemorative jacket.
I wasn't too thrilled to have to get in yet ANOTHER line for this stuff, not quite sure why they changed it.

We went to the merchandise tent in the second building, just missing getting a shoe ornament (no worries, got one online from the Disney Store site).

While we waited in the MASSIVE line that wrapped out of the area and through the expo, we took turn getting our shirts.  Then we browsed some vendors

Loved this set up at New Balance!

before heading upstairs to listen to Jeff Galloway speak.

Overall I thought the expo was pretty well done, though I felt the new line for pins was a tad tedious. I was also sad they were letting people take 5+ of the shoe ornaments so they were gone within the first hour.  It was definitely busy, but we had a good time and spent A LITTLE too much... Oops!