Dopey Adventure, Day 6: The Conclusion

Today was the day. This is where the true test comes to determine if I'm truly Dopey. The marathon. It'll make you laugh. It'll make you cry. It'll make you so delirious you can't remember taking photos that show up on your phone. And now it was time to tackle it.

The alarm went off at 3:00 again and I slid out of bed and changed into my Mickey running outfit. By 3:30, Wendy was knocking on our door to walk with me, Ashley and Paul to the buses. It was really humid - 99% humid to be exact. I grabbed my inhaler and put it on my race belt which contained my gels, salt tabs, Tylenol and pretzels and we were off.

Once we got to the staging area and through security, Wendy went off in search of water and the rest of us headed to the corrals. Again Paul and I were planning to start with Ashley in her corral. We got to our corral and put some garbage bags down on the road to sit on and wait for the start.

Waiting to start.

Soon enough the fireworks were going off and we were on the run. The plan for the marathon was to walk at every water stop to save our legs. We also were giving ourselves permission to stop for whatever photo opps we wanted. Additionally, I had a plan to ride a little roller coaster during the race if the timing worked out like I hoped it would.

Mile 2 - halfway through Dopey!

I told Ashley we needed to stop and commemorate my halfway point of the Dopey Challenge which would occur at mile 2. Luckily there was a Mike Wazowski photo opp there so we got a 2 for 1. We stopped and grabbed a quick pic. Paul's knees were bothering him a bit so we kept an eye out for a medical tent. We found one shortly and its giant drums of Biofreeze.

Getting into the Disney spirit.

Miles 2-5 were fairly boring. It was dark and we were on the highway. There was roadside entertainment but nothing we felt the need to stop for. Finally we arrived in Magic Kingdom. It wasn't as foggy today so we stopped again to get photos with the castle. As usual, running through the Magic Kingdom was fun. There were lots of people there cheering and the music playing really made for a magical backdrop as we ran through the park. All too soon it was over and we were back on the roads.

We had settled into a good rhythm. Run, water stop, quick walk break, scan for character photo opps. At mile 10 1/2 we had a winner - Jafar from one of my favorite Disney movies, Aladdin. We had to stop. Not long after that, we ran by the Contemporary Resort and to our surprise, I heard someone yelling my name. It was Dan. He had come out to cheer. I waved and gave him the thumbs up to know I was doing ok and ran on. Not long after that, we stumbled upon what ended up being probably my favorite group race photo with Mary Poppins, Bert and the penguins.

Had to stop for an Aladdin movie character.

Aren't we adorable?

Now that we'd been running for a while, and having been soaked through with sweat by mile 2, I was worried about some spots on my arm that had started to chafe a bit the day before during the half so I stopped at a medical tent for some Vaseline. It was a mess and my hands were greasy. As I mentioned earlier, you tend to get a little delirious during a marathon and become unable to use common sense. Such as the time I thought pouring water on my Vaseline covered hands would help clean them off. Considering it's used by runners to combat issues with moisture, it wasn't my brightest moment. Needless to say I was excited to see Animal Kingdom coming up so I could find an indoor bathroom stocked with paper towels.

But paper towels weren't the only things I was excited about at the upcoming park. See this is where our best chance to ride a roller coaster resided. Expedition to Everest, one of my favorite Disney rides, was located right on the course. As long as the park was open and the line wasn't too long, we could totally do this. I checked my watch as we came to the road leading to the back entrance to the park. Ten minutes to park open. This. Might. Just. Work.

 I have NO recollection of taking this photo.

Right before entering the park, around mile 12, we saw Timon from Lion King and agreed we needed to stop for a photo. Afterwards, I shared with Paul and Ashley that we were probably going to be able to make the roller coaster work. Paul seemed a little suspicious of riding a roller coaster during a marathon. He's a fast runner - the idea of doing something like that was a completely foreign concept. But to give him credit, he was all in this experience for Ashley so he was game.

By the time we got into the park, it had just opened to the public and soon I could hear the screaming coming from the vicinity of the Everest ride, telling me it was up and running. As soon as the mountain peak came into sight, I pointed it out to Ashley saying, "THAT'S where we're going." We got to the ride entrance and I pointed around the corner to the single rider line, which generally goes faster. We exited the race course and jumped in line. There we ran into a group of runners holding laminated cards and it occurred to me that they were playing marathon bingo. They showed me one of their playing cards, which looked super fun. While we waited in line, we all helped them cross off another item - singing a Disney song with strangers.

Waiting in line for the roller coaster portion of our marathon.

Best. Race. Photo. Ever.

These folks had this awesome sign just outside Animal Kingdom.

Ashley, Paul and I all got on to the ride and were off and back on the course in pretty short order. We loved it! Paul even admitted that he was glad we took the time for a ride. Having accomplished my unofficial goal, I was in a pretty good mood, which was good because now we were getting to probably the most boring part of the course. The next several miles were fairly uneventful. During this stretch we stopped at a few more medical tents so our trio could load up on a combination of Biofreeze and Vaseline for various trouble spots.

Finally, around mile 17 we found ourselves getting ready to enter the ESPN Wild World of Sports Complex. Many people hate this part of the course. They find it pretty boring. I didn't necessarily find it boring but I did find it long. That part seemed to go on and on and on and on. At this point my feet were starting to hurt. Running for 4 straight days and 39 previous miles had taken its toll. The good part about this section was that I found my pal Mickey there and he had a fairly short line so we stopped for more photos. Finally we found ourselves exiting the park.

Mickey brightened up the ESPN section of the race.

We had just hit mile 20, when I hear Ashley behind me calling my name. Her breathing was ragged. Something was wrong. Out of nowhere she was having an anxiety attack. She knew that she just needed someone to talk her through it so I described to her what we were going to experience next and how after a couple more miles she will have run further than she ever had before and we'd celebrate. Paul kept reminding her to take deep breaths and we took turns trying to make her laugh. By mile marker 21, she was feeling good enough to take a photo with mile marker 21, even though she had a bit of forced smile. But she posted the photo on Facebook anyway because she knew how ridiculous it all was. She never did lose her sense of humor. I assured her that strange things happen to people at mile 20.

Things were going well....and then mile 22 happened. Out of nowhere I started having trouble breathing. Asthma attack. Ugh. Honestly, given the humidity, it was pretty surprising that I'd gone this far without any trouble. I slowed to a walk, grabbed my inhaler and took some puffs while Ashley ran ahead to grab me something to drink at the next aid station. It took me about a half mile for my breathing to get back to normal so I could start running again. I so was glad to have Ashley and Paul there to distract me while I was having trouble breathing.

Though my breathing got back to normal, I never did really feel back to normal. I couldn't put my finger on what the problem was but I just didn't feel good. Usually, miles 21-23 are bad for me but I rebound for the last couple. Unfortunately that didn't happen this time. We were getting to one of my favorite parts of the race. The end section of the race goes from Hollywood Studios to the Boardwalk to Epcot and then the finish. I had been looking forward to it but now I felt awful.

There were plenty of photo opportunities at this point so we stopped for a few fun ones. As we entered Hollywood Studios, they were handing out chocolate. It was glorious. Then as we passed spectators, more and more often they had tubs of food for us. It was great because at this point, I didn't have the energy to unzip my race belt to grab my own. Near the Boardwalk, I spotted a woman and her child holding a Sam's Club sized tub of pretzels. I grabbed one and put it in my mouth. I wasn't able to chew it so I just sucked the salt off and eventually spit it out.

Boo!

I love Sully.

Finally we got to Epcot. I was NOT feeling good. At one point I saw Dan again. He was excitedly yelling that I was DOING IT. I could tell he was really excited for me. It gave me a little bit of a needed boost. Ashley had to stop for a bathroom break but I was afraid if I stopped with her I would throw up and all I kept thinking was "I don't want to throw up until after I finish." Ashley darted off and Paul stuck with me. He could tell I was hurting so he kept talking to me, asking me things like "Can you see it? Can you see your Dopey medal? It's so close." All I could say was "I think I'm going to be sick."

With a mile to go, I was determined to finish strong(ish). I picked up speed and used everything I had in that last mile. Soon, I see Ashley had caught up with us. We turn out of the park and see the gospel choir. Seeing them is often an emotional experience at this late point in the race. I was just glad to see them because I knew I was in the final stretch of my 48.6 mile journey. Soon the goal I'd been working towards for almost a year was going to be accomplished. I couldn't quite comprehend that just yet. Maybe I still haven't.

All three of us finished together. As soon as I crossed the finish line and stopped running, an unexpected thing happened - my legs went all wobbly. I thought I was fine but apparently I was more wobbly than I thought and Paul caught me as I was about to fall. I felt fine but for some reason my legs weren't working like I thought they should. A sharp-eyed medic spotted us and came over to ask if I was ok. I said yes and refused her offer to go to the medical tents. She was super friendly and humored me but deftly directed me to a bench and gave me some ice. Actually, the ice felt pretty good so I sat there a minute and soaked up the glorious coolness.

Ashley snapped this pic. I told her not to let my mom see it until I sent her my "I'm alive" photo.

I was ready to get up soon and get through the finish line area. The three of us walked on and went through our respective Goofy and Dopey finish areas to have our identity checked before getting our additional medals. I had done it. Dopey was completed. I could rest now.

We took some photos and made our way back to the bus pick up area. By the time we got back to the resort, I had a message from Dan that Wendy had finished but was in the medical tent with really bad blood blisters. She had not enjoyed the marathon much at all.

We did it!

Mission Accomplished.

Back at the resort I was still not feeling good. I felt sick for about 2 more hours but after that I was good. I was expecting some major soreness, figuring running almost 50 miles in the last 4 days would take its toll. I kept waiting for the soreness to come. It never did. Not that afternoon after I rested in bed for a while. Not that evening when we went for drinks. Not in the middle of the night when I got up to use the bathroom. Frankly, it was weird.

That night I went for celebratory drinks with Paul and Ashley. Ashley had finished her first (and she says last - we'll see) marathon. We headed to Disney Springs and celebrated at Splittsville. After drinks, I left them and headed to the Polynesian Resort for a late dinner with Dan and a limping Wendy at Ohana. I think I ate my weight in bread pudding while watching patrons being led in a hula dance.

So I did it. But I didn't do it alone. I had so many people on this journey with me. Obviously, I had Dan and Wendy and Ashley and Paul. But I also had my family who ran and biked along with me on training runs and supported me even if they were not crazy about me doing this whole thing. I had friends like Lisa who sent me encouraging quotes. I had friends like Karin and Kristen and Amy and Jess and Barb and Dawn and Cheryl and Laurie and Jill and Kelly. I had Fleet Feet training program alums like Jeffrey and Jane and Angie and Barb and Erin. They ran with me at the crack of dawn or before dawn. They ran with me in the heat, in the cold, in the rain and once even in a blizzard. I had friends like Patrick who handed down his Dopey doll and cheered me from afar. I had friends like Jennie who helped me with my costumes. I had my PT Josh and his assistant Lauren who helped me get to the starting line injury free (and tortured me with planks, ASTYM, dry needling and some sort of electroshock therapy). I had friends who left me messages, sent me food. I had all these people and more.

When I had the crazy idea to do Dopey, I said it was a "one and done" thing. Dopey is expensive and exhausting. It requires a lot of time, training and tremendous lack of sleep. It was a goal and I knocked it off my bucket list. And now it's done.

During the week I was in Florida, I was texting back and forth with my friend Karin who had done Dopey the year before with our friend Cheryl. She wanted updates on how everything was going. Before I even left Disney, Karin sent me a text saying her and Cheryl had decided to do the Dopey Challenge again in 2018. And then my eyes rested on the last line....

"Are you in?"

Dopey Adventure, Day 5

Today is when things start to get interesting. It's big mileage time.

My alarm goes off first so I hop out of bed, grab my race outfit bag and head into the bathroom to get dressed. By the time I'm done, Ashley and Paul are pretty much dressed too. We make some bagels as we finish gathering up our stuff and there'a knock on our adjoining room door. It's Dan telling us he can't run. He  is pulling out. We feel bad for him but tell him ok and he goes back to bed as we head down to the buses.

When we arrive at the race start I can already tell the security check for this race is going to take much longer than the previous 2 days. We wait. And wait. And wait. Finally we get through and make our way to a porta potty. By the time we're done there, it's time to head to our corrals, which for the longer 2 races are about a half mile walk away. By the time we get there, Ashley and I have to use the bathroom again. More porta potty lines. We miss the wheelchair race start.

Paul and I were both seeded into faster corrals than Ashley but we decided to start with her in J. The fireworks go off to start our corral and we take off. Sort of. It's so congested, we can barely manage more than a fast walk. Ashley was really concerned with turning her legs around for the next day so she was determined to stay within 13:30ish mile splits for the first half of the race. It was hard for Paul and I to maintain that pace, so we would often run ahead a little and then wait for her. That seemed to work out for about 6 miles. I told Ashley then that I didn't think I could keep doing that pace without getting hurt. She was ok with speeding up at that point and we took the time to take more character photos after we left Magic Kingdom about halfway through the race.

The weather conditions were pretty good. No rain this time. Running through the Magic Kingdom was going to be Ashley's first time ever in the park so I made sure to snap some photos as we got close to entering the park.

There it is!

Ashley is about to see Magic Kingdom for the first time.

The castle - too bad it's too foggy to see it.

We stopped for pics in front of the castle in Magic Kingdom, stopped by an indoor (yay - soap! yay - paper towels!) bathroom there as well and then exited the park. I had told Ashley and Paul that the one character I absolutely HAD to get a photo with was Mickey Mouse so if we saw him on the course, we were stopping. They agreed.

Now that we were over halfway done with the half marathon, we relaxed a bit and stopped for more pictures. We got Sebastian from the Little Mermaid, Goofy (Ashley and Paul were doing the Goofy Challenge - we had to do that for them!), the Green Army Men from Toy Story and Genie from Aladdin.

Hey - I was dressed as Ariel (sort of) so I had to get this pic.

You can't do the Goofy Challenge and not get a photo with the big guy. 

This dude was yelling at people that they were NOT gonna walk that hill!

Less than half mile from the finish and we stop for this pic.

We were getting ready to exit Epcot towards the finish and passed the gospel choir. I didn't realize they were there for the half. I looked forward to this for the full marathon - it often makes people cry. Hey - we're tired and delirious by that point in a marathon. Give us a break. After the choir, we turn the corner and can see the finish. We're almost there! I'm about 5 feet from the finish line when I hear Paul yell , "Mickey!" Leave it to a police officer to notice things I would have missed. I immediately turned my head, saw Mickey had no line, turned around and ran towards him. Ashley knew what to do. She was already getting her phone out ready to snap a photo. I love that you can see the finish line in the photo, knowing I refused to go over it until I got my Mickey pic.

Probably my favorite race photo from the week. Love that you can see the finish line right behind me.

Race #3 done

Race 3 was done. We grabbed a bus back to the resort and decided we'd soak our legs in the pool when we got back. So we changed into swimsuits and headed for the pool. I was feeling pretty good after my 22.4 miles of running but my feet were sore and my calves were tight. I thought the pool soak would do me some good. After our soak and showers, Paul and Ashley decided they needed a nap but I needed food more so I met up with Dan and Wendy and walked to a neighboring hotel for lunch in their restaurant. During lunch Wendy realized we had made an earlier dinner reservation than we remembered so it turned out we'd be eating again in 3 hours. We slowly made our way back to our resort, stopping to take photos along the way.

We took our time getting ready for dinner. We had a great early dinner but I wasn't too hungry. I got my traditional pre-race "beer" and some pasta. We shopped around Disney Springs for about an hour and I popped into a store called Basin, that sold bath products. I was told they sold a bath bomb that was good for tired muscles so I picked up a couple of those before we left.

Pre-race group dinner. If you could see under the table, you'd see my neon green compression socks and a pair of black Oofos Sandals. Keepin' it classy.

Once we got back to the resort, I pulled the cheesecake I'd bought at lunch out of the mini fridge and ate it while I sat in the bathtub and soaked my legs and feet with my newly-purchased bath bomb.

What? Just soaking my legs and eating cheesecake on a Mickey straw handle.

My nerves took over. For some reason I was really nervous. I didn't know why. I felt mostly pretty good and I had trained well. But I couldn't shake the anxiety. I was running a marathon the next day. I had done a half marathon that morning. What was I thinking? I got a reassuring message from my mentor and read it more than once to calm down. Then it was to bed. The big event was the next day.

Dopey Adventure, Day 4

We had to get up even earlier now for the last 3 races.

It was raining.

My alarm went off at 3:00 and I soon learned that the thunderstorm that had come through the previous night was not yet done with us. I slipped out of bed as quietly as possible as not to disturb Ashley and Paul and got dressed in the bathroom. I grabbed a couple of ponchos from my suitcase for Dan and I and we headed to the bus for day 2.

Before the 10K 

The wait for the race to start seemed interminable. With rain falling around us, it was not much fun standing around. And it made my porta potty stop even less fun than normal. Do you know how hard it is to pull up wet CWX compression tights? It's not easy, let me tell you. Finally it was time to go to our corrals. The wait for corral D to get started seemed so long. Once we started, I peeled off the poncho thinking it was going to be too hot to run in. Thankfully, running in the rain wasn't as miserable and standing in the rain waiting to run.

The race was another fun one. After the first couple of miles of plain roadway, we made our way into Epcot's World Showcase and then onto the Boardwalk before finishing in the Epcot parking lot. I didn't get any character pics this time but did stop several times to take some photos.

There's just something cool about running through Epcot before the sun comes up.

It's so weird to be here when the park is closed.

We hit the Boardwalk at sunrise. It would be been beautiful if it wasn't overcast and raining.

It's so rainy here that my photo is blurry!

I found Dan at our meeting spot and we took off. It had started to rain harder so we just wanted to get back. As Dan got up, he was limping pretty badly. I eyed his leg and he assured me it was just a cramp and it just needed to loosen up. In any event, race 2 was done.

Race #2 done.

Back to the resort for showers and dry clothes. Dan was hurting pretty bad so he decided to stay put and ice his leg. Wendy and I had fast passes at Animal Kingdom. Ashley and Paul had to go get their race packets at the expo and then wanted to check out Disney Springs so we split up. It was still raining when we got to Animal Kingdom, arguably the worst park to be at in the rain since most everything is outside.Wendy and I waited under a shelter for a while and checked our app to see if Expedition to Everest, the roller coaster we had fast passes for, was still running. It was. We decided we were going to be wet anyway, we might as well be wet on a roller coaster. We used our fast passes and noticed that the standby line wasn't that long. People must have been afraid of rain. So we rode it again. And again. And again. And again. By this time, the rain had cleared up so we grabbed some lunch at the Harumbi Marketplace and then headed back to the resort.

A little rain is not gonna keep us from the roller coasters.

The sun had come out so I sat by the pool for a while and just chilled out. I was determined to not put as many miles on my feet this day in preparation for the next morning's half marathon. Dan was in a lot of pain and said he'd probably have to pull out of the remaining races. We told him to think about it a bit more before making any decisions. Dan and Wendy decided to just order pizza up to their room so Ashley, Paul and I went down to the restaurant and had an early dinner before heading up to our room to lay out our stuff for the next morning. Dan was still thinking he couldn't run anymore so we told him to sleep on it and decide for sure in the morning. The rest of us turned in for the night.

My mileage for the day: 14.6 miles. But 6.2 of these were for the race so really all I walked was 8.4 miles. Progress.

Dopey Adventure, Day 3

Ugh. 3:30 am comes so fast.

But this was it - the beginning of the Dopey Challenge. The thing I'd been working towards for a year was finally here. I wasn't taking any chances so I had set 3 alarms and asked Dan to knock on my door at 4:00 just to be safe. I hopped out of bed, put on my Jasmine costume, made myself a bagel with peanut butter and joined Dan for our walk to the bus. We were carrying his costume so we got a couple looks along with way from the runner zombies walking to the bus line.

We were a little worried about the costume. Two days earlier Disney sent out stricter costumer regulations and though Dan's costume conformed to them, we were still nervous because it was BIG.  We successfully got through security and breathed a sigh of relief. Our friend Alia, also doing Dopey, spotted us easily (I wonder how?) from across the parking lot and came to say hi.

Alia found Dan and I pre-race.

We did up our costumes good for the 5K.

Jasmine before I ditched the wig in the crazy humid conditions.

Standing next to Dan in his costume made me feel a bit like a celebrity because one after another people kept streaming towards us asking to take a photo with us and the costume. We must be in dozens of race photos of complete strangers. All the attention caught the eye of the race director and came over to talk to Dan. He was very nice and said because security let us in, he'd let Dan run in the costume that morning but if he was doing any other races that weekend to leave it home because it was a "prop". Dan was disappointed, but being a race director himself, he understood. His plan now was going to be to stop at every character on the course for a photo so he had plenty with his costume.

Another Fleet Feet-er!

Dan went to corral A where he was seeded and I went to D, where I ran into friend and fellow Fleet Feet runner Erin and her daughter. We chatted until it was our turn to start. Erin and her daughter peeled away at the first porta potty stop so I was on my own. I was having a blast. The weather was great once we got started and soon we were in the world showcase portion of Epcot. It was still dark and the lights were on everywhere and there were cool torches lit along the lake and great music pumping out of the speakers, It was awesome. After the world showcase, we ran into the future world section and right after mile 2 I caught up to Dan. We stopped together to wait in line for a photos with Stitch. Thankfully I went first because Stitch was so excited by Dan's costume, that we leaned in for a hug and got taken out by the enormous ears. His handler quickly escorted him away. We waited for him to come back but it was taking a while. I was getting parched because I hadn't been taking any water so I told Dan I was going to go on and meet him at the finish. Race 1 was done!

Stitch suggested I pose this way.

Race #1 done.

After getting back to our resort and taking a quick shower, I stuffed some of the food from our race goodie box in my purse and we headed to the Magic Kingdom. We had fast passes for Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and to meet Mickey so we had to get movin'. We were unable to get fast passes for the newest ride in Magic Kingdom, The Seven Dwarves Mine Train, but I had never ridden it so I told Wendy and Dan that I'd be willing to wait in line for that one. We stumbled upon a 45 minute wait, which was pretty good for that ride, and slid into line. Halfway through my feet started to get sore. They never did fully recover the rest of the day. We rode the coaster. It was pretty good. Dan decided to head back to the resort because his calf was bothering him and he needed to rest it. Wendy and I rode Big Thunder Mountain and met Mickey and decided to take the ferry over to the Polynesian before heading back.

We had to go visit Mickey.

We bonded.

How about a little ferry ride? We ran into some BloNo folks on the boat!

As we were doing that, I got a message from Ashley saying her and Paul had made it there and were hanging by the pool. I told her I'd meet them shortly. I got back to the resort, met up with them and the 3 of us headed to the Boardwalk for dinner and maybe ice cream. Unfortunately there was a 45 minute wait at Beaches and Cream so we walked to ESPN and had a delicious dinner there. We got done in time to make the last ferry back to Hollywood Studios where we could catch a bus back to our resort. We got back around 10 and I immediately got ready for bed. My wake up call the next morning was going to be a half hour earlier.

Ashley and Paul made it!

Before crawling into bed, I checked my VivoActive for my mileage that day. 12 miles. Oops.

Dopey Adventure, Day 2

We knew today was going to be a busy day. First we had to hit the expo to get our race packets. Then we had fast passes for rides at Epcot. Finally, we had to hit up Hollywood Studios. We had been informed that the Osborne Family Spectacle of Lights, which was ending its run after this year, would be extended to Wed, Jan 6th. Since none of us had seen them, we felt like we had to go. We knew this probably was not the recommended way to spend the day beofre the Dopey Challenge but day 1 was "only" a 5K so we figured, "The heck with recommended behavior" and went on with our plans.

First up, the expo. I've never seen an expo quite like a Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend expo - and I've run the Chicago Marathon, one of the world's "Big 6". The expo takes place in multiple buildings. We planned to get there when it opened because I wasn't planning on doing this Dopey thing again so I thought I might want to buy some race merchandise. I knew from experience the official runDisney stuff sells out quick so there we were on the bus to the expo at 9:30.

The line to get in to stand in other lines.

When we got there, there was a line to get into the expo, made all the more pleasant by the drizzle that started to fall. Finally we were in. I wanted to hit the official race merchandise first and after several cast members directed us in the wrong direction, we finally realized we had to go to a different building. When we got there, we discovered another line to get into the official merchandise area. After picking out the items I wanted, I stood in line for 15 minutes to pay. The couple in front of me spent $651 on merchandise. This was insane. I hadn't even gotten my packet yet and I was exhausted. Honestly, I think it was the most stressful part of the whole week.

After taking a deep breath and a bathroom break, we were ready to tackle the packet pickup. It went smoothly, though the line for my bib number was by the far the longest one in the building. I showed my ID, signed away my first child stating that I was indeed who I claimed to be, and slid over to have my mug shot taken. They would be looking this photo up on Sunday after I finished the marathon to make sure it was me and that I hadn't sold or given away my bib to anyone else. They do this before handing over your bling.

Mickey has our hearts.

What have I gotten myself into?

With our official expo business done, Dan, Wendy and I headed out, stopping to take some fun photos on the way to the buses. We headed back to the resort, dumped our bags, grabbed lunch and headed out to Epcot. We rode Test Track and the Finding Nemo ride. Dan and Wendy had reservations at Le Cellier for a nice steak dinner so I walked around on my own for a while and went to get some photos with some of my favorite characters. I may or may not have been the only adult in line who was not accompanying a small child. I'm a child at heart - that counts, right? Goofy must have sensed that about me because he encouraged me to dance a little jig with him.

Goofy could tell I was game for a little fun.

Me and my pal.

Minnie isn't so bad either.

With Epcot handily taken care of for the night, we boarded a bus for Hollywood Studios, where we were herded like cattle into the section where the light extravaganza could be found. We got there just as a music and light show started. It was magnificent. Even fake snow fell from the sky. Wendy, Dan and I all agreed we were so happy we hustled over there to see it before it was gone for good. Right after the light show, the evening fireworks display started, set to a Star Wars soundtrack. Since I'd never seen a Star Wars movie, Wendy explained what each part of the show represented.

We got to see the famous Osborne Lights! 

Pictures do NOT do this justice!

As the show ended, I pulled out my phone to check the My Disney Experience app and saw that the wait for one of our favorite rides, the Tower of Terror, was pretty short. So we left Dan on a bench and took off to squeeze a ride in before we left. We didn't get back to our room until about 11:00 and we had an early wakeup the next day for the 5K so we headed to bed. Before I crawled under the covers, I checked my Garmin VivoActive and saw my walking mileage for the day: 15 miles. Oops.