For the Wine & Dine 5k on November 5th.
Good, that’ll give me time to get in shape for it. And by “in shape” I mean able to at least fake the pace I claimed I could do for a quarter of a mile. One of the dirty little secrets of this 5K is proof of time is on the honor system. I’m glad my daughter had done Disney races before and was hip to that, because I’d hate to have been stuck behind the many, many people slower than I am who lied like rugs about their pace. We last did the Princess 5k in 2018. That wasn’t my last 5k, just my last Disney race. I was signed up for the Star Wars 5k when everything stopped in 2020 and it was canceled.
The 5k is by no means a competitive race for 90% of the particpants. There are serious runners who run it to win. They will finish before our corral starts. It’s mostly a mad, happy mob of people in costumes or at least fun t-shirts, lighted Mickey ears, fairy wings, tutus, walking, jogging, sometimes running, music, laughter, greeting the dawn in a theme park. It really is a blast.
Signing up was a thing. You log in to or create your runDisney account, wait to get the click to register message, and the wait time was over an hour.
I had two laptops on my desk today, and I was watching the sign-up countdown on my wee MacBook while doing work on the work computer. Then I got IN, and could register, and had a few minutes of drama – because I had done runDisney races before, I had an account and my basic info, including my gender was saved to the account..
It had saved my gender, but would not let me pick a shirt, or let me finish registration until I had picked the goddamn shirt!! I didn’t get a drop down to select a shirt, and I didn’t know what was wrong. So my daughter, who registered separately, finished her registration while I was still cursing and trying to finish mine.
After I de-selected and re-selected my gender 3 or 4 times, it finally registered that I was female and let me pick a goddamn women’s shirt size. By then I think my blood pressure was near stroking out. And I’m doing all of this with half my brain listening to a project call on the other computer. (Remember: This is fun, this is fun, this is fun….) But I got in, and I have my confirmation!!
So, we are both set for getting up at O-Dark-Thirty (seriously, like, 3:30 am?) to get our asses down to Disney to do the race at 5 a.m. We didn’t register the Dancer for this one. She is not at her best pre-dawn. Neither are we, but last time I had travel cups of coffee for the drive, and we got more coffee there. It’s worth it. Our last race together was in 2018, and it was SO much fun. If The Dancer swears she can get dressed and sleep in the car on the way, I’ll register her for the Princess in 2022. My goal is to do all the 5Ks this year.
I admire you for doing actual marathons! I am not a real runner, I’m a mostly walker/sometime jogger, and I just do 5ks for fun. The Disney races are an indulgence because they’re pricey, but from picking up the bib at the Expo to the photo ops, the music, the entertainment along the course (at one spot during the Princess, a bunch of suspiciously hot young construction dudes in hard hats cheered us on). The Fairy Godmother started the race with a wave of her wand and fireworks. In the Before Times there were plenty of opportunities to stop for character photo ops. It’s more of an experience and a crazy party. We’ll follow it with breakfast, maybe walk around Epcot a bit, and go home to nap.
It IS really hot and humid here and even when it’s not brutally hot, we can always count on the humidity. Because I’m not at all competitive about my finishing time I always have a steel water bottle with me, plus there are water stops along the course.
Sounds like fun! Enjoy. I’ve run multiple marathons, loved it until the last one and pretty much ruined my hip but they are great and give you a real idea about your overall health!! Just take care in the heat and humidity.