Long day is LONG!

Today started at 4 AM for me.

Why?

Because I needed to be at EPCOT before 6:15 AM

Why?

Well, because the race started at 7 AM.

What? What race?

Why, the Disney Royal Family 5K, of course!

It was a BLAST! Of course, it was Disney, and everything Disney does, it does to the nines. There were over 6000 people running this morning, and they made sure it went off without a hitch. We started in the Epcot parking lot, went through backstage and under Test Track (where they were running the morning safety checks), between Mexico and Norway and around the Nations (and backstage again after France, coming out in England), out the main drag to Spaceship Earth, loop around the front of Spaceship Earth and back, and then out to the parking lot for the finish line. All along the route were Disney Princesses and other characters cheering people on (first time EVER I have seen John Smith as a character in ANY Disney park!) There were cast members out with noisemakers, and official photographers (which caused a small problem. More on that later).

And people ran in costume! There were more Rapunzels than anything else, which makes sense, because it was a Tangled theme race. I saw every princess possible, some costumed by men. There were Minnies and Mickeys and someone costumed the Beast, and someone else was Prince what’s-his-name from The Princess and the Frog. Oh, and someone ran as Maleficent. Evil Fairies do 5Ks!

The only problem today? Someone stopping for a photo op with one of the official photographers went for a better pose and stepped back with one foot into the line of traffic — right in front of me. I went arse over teakettle, and landed hard on my right hand. This happened at roughly mile marker 2. End of my running — I walked the rest of the race, finishing in just over an hour. And immediately on crossing the finish line grabbed the first cast member I saw and said “MEDIC!” They iced my hand, gave me instructions and told me to go to urgent care if it was still tender in 48 hours. Since I’m now using both hands to type, it isn’t broken. (It actually only hurts when I ice it. I’m weird.)

Afterwards, there was entertainment and food and a whole Expo that I actually went to yesterday when I picked up my race packet.  So I headed back north and went to Weight Watchers, then came home, showered and fell over.

A good day. Can’t wait to do it again next year!

Oh, and here. This is just over 2.5 miles in.