WDW Marathon Thursday - Jan 10 2013

WDW Marathon Weekend...I have been looking forward to this since the Princess Half in Feb 2012.  My plan going into Princess was to follow it up with the Wine & Dine half, but that plan went out the window when Bob Hitchcock described what was in store for the 20th Mickey Marathon!  Bob is the head of runDisney PR and he is a salesman!

I was so there!  But it wasn't just going to be me...my sister and brother-in-law wanted in on the action and a new family plan was hatched.  Unlike all of our previous runDisney trips this one was going to be adults only!  It was going to be all expos, meet ups, racing and park fun!  So we planned, we booked, we registered, we trained and finally the weekend arrived!  Along the way I did 3 other marathons and at least a handful of half marathons as well.

I was ready for this race, but was the Florida weather ready for me?  I left snowy New England and arrived on Wednesday morning.  I picked up the rental car and the groceries at Whole Foods before checking in at Bonnet Creek.  It is wonderful to have familiar food, a two room suite and a full kitchen when there is some serious racing and fun to be had.  That afternoon I got in a 3 lap run around the Boardwalk just to test the conditions.  I was in a full body sweat within a mile!  The main goal of the weekend became staying hydrated for the races.

Thursday morning our plan was to get to ESPN and the expo before it opened. We took some photos around the area and then got into line for our race bibs.  We were going for official runDisney stuff only that day.  Friday we would return for everything else.

My first sighting of Goofy!

Ladies in waiting (Jen, Marcia and Erin)

Always wonderful to bump into Bob Hitchcock!
He was out early to make sure that things were ready to go!

I peeked into the expo before it opened to scout the area!

Check out that merchandise! Donald Half merch for sale.

Clif products anyone? Yes me please!

Over at the speaker area Jeff Galloway was giving advice.
Someone asked how to fuel after the 1/2 for the full.
 Jeff said to take in 300-500 calories within the first 30 minutes.
(I think I have the calorie figure correct)
So that is what I did.
I crossed that line and headed for my fuel,
but not until after I had stopped to talk to Dennis from runDisneyTV.
More on that later.

Okay so even though it was not at the official runDisney booth/bib stands we stopped to check out the runDisney shoes at the New Balance booth.

After leaving the expo at something like 10:30 am...I could not believe we were leaving so soon either...we were off to MK.  We had a noon reservation for lunch at the Plaza Restaurant.

Sisters on the Monorail headed to Magic Kingdom!

First stop Mickey Mouse! Know your priorities people!

Then the major...

...and of course the castle!

Before lunch I popped in to have a set of Minnie ears embroidered with
"for the love of Disney running"
and
"@LoveDisneyRun"
 Then I wore them almost all weekend!!!

 After lunch it was time to visit a few good friends and have them sign my race book.  I put together a book of all my favorite photos from the Princess Half and had folks sign it (runDisney folks and character folks).

I could not resist taking a seat!

Hungry runner...please let me in...

Be Our Guest

"Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate" or at least that should have been  the name of it!

It is all about the dessert cart!

Which one looks good to you?

At the end of the evening we said goodnight to the Beast.

Between dinner and the fireworks we said hello to Tink.  She loved my book!
Of course I was dressed as her for the Princess Half...so 75% of the pictures were runner Tink!

 I leave you for now with the fireworks! I made a lot of wished that night!  Next up WDW Marathon Friday and you know what that means...WDW Marathon Meet Up!