Walt Disney World Half Marathon … Dopey Day 3

The night of the 10K, the bottoms of my feet were starting to hurt! I used some Icy Hot type patches on them while I slept, and woke up the morning of the Half with a little less pain. I was exhausted, though, and it was really hot and humid out. All plans to stop at some characters flew out the window and we decided to just stop at the Castle during the race!
We made our way to the start, after only a short wait for the bus. We decided to stop at the Potties, where we once again ran into Jennifer (and Todd) from The Final Forty. Still cracks me up that two Jersey girls who run a lot of the same races only manage to meet up when we leave the state!
We got to our corral just as the anthem was being sung. Why? It's over a mile from the bus drop off, and we got stuck in a bottleneck! We tried to circumvent the craziness and ended up going several corrals in the wrong direction! Ugh! We had plenty of time for a starting line selfie though!

These are not our fireworks. Why, you ask? Well, let me tell you! We were in corral K. As we walked up to our start, we lost sound for a while, and then we had no fireworks. Denied! Luckily, I took a pic when J started!

 We were off! The first half mile, we were covered in sweat and dying already. This was gonna get ugly! We decided right away that we would walk for a minute after every mile. We didn't want to wear ourselves out! The first several miles were very dull, they had some characters, but we were not really interested. We also lost a few minutes at a potty break, because the lines were insane. Luckily, the men started using the tree line, which certainly helped move the line along!
During the half, you ran past the Speedway, but you didn't go inside. Good deal, I am not a fan of the Speedway, and I was more than happy to zip on by. We had our tunes on, and I started singing out loud at this point. You know, because I can. Colleen even started singing along, even though she couldn't hear the music! This is why I love her. The song? Bruises. Because that's how I roll.
I do believe Compass came on around that time as well. I love me my Country Music!
We stopped to try and take a selfie at the gate to the Magic Kingdom and some nice soul offered to take our picture. It is still dark! And again, I must point out that we did NOT coordinate outfits before we got to Florida. All coincidence, all the time! But don't we both look cute in our green outfits? Yeah, we do!

We were hot, grumpy, and tired, but there is something about entering the Magic Kingdom that perks you right up. The crowds were cheering, and we got very teary eyed! We jumped up to run on the sidewalk a bit, and had a Volunteer take our pic. We look so awesome!

 We looped around and approached the castle, and that just never gets old! I LOVE running through there, and knowing that we would do it twice was even better! We jumped out of the path to get our castle pic, but we knew we would not be jumping in the air this year! We were so worn out already, and we were not even halfway there yet! We couldn't resist posing though!

 As we were joining the rest of the runners, we spotted this fabulous lady! My daughter told me I HAD to get my pic with Peter Pan, and here was my chance! What a great sport she was! Spectators are the bomb!

 We continued on through the park, and as we approached the Train, we were saying how we didn't get the appeal of the photo op. Last year, people were just posing with the conductor as we went by. This year, people were laying on the tracks screaming for help. OOOOHHHHH, now I get it! Oh well, we just giggled as we passed by instead!
After we left the park, it got a little dull. Around mile 9, my knee started to ache. Not good. It hurt to run, and Colleen's foot ached when she walked. We were not a good pair after that! We worked it out as best we could, and managed to gimp along the next couple miles. When we crossed the overpass at around mile 10, we could see the end of the runners, at about the 8 mile mark. We knew we had at least a 2 mile head start which was nice! I did not want to see those balloon ladies up close!
At around mile 11, Colleen stopped to use the bathroom and I discovered Biofreeze.

How did I never know about this amazing gel??? I rubbed it on my knee and my aching legs, and I was miraculously revived! Oh my heck! I want to buy this stuff by the gallon!
We really enjoyed the last 2 miles, I must say. The crowds were amazing, kids were calling out to me (by my costume name, Mike, lol) and people were giving us Twizzlers. It truly is all about the candy! For real.
Entering EPCOT was just amazing! This was territory I knew from previous races, and I knew exactly where the Finish would be. I did not like that we had to run to the lake and then turn back, though. I was afraid I would see those dreaded balloon ladies, but again, nowhere in sight! Whew! A few of the park visitors seemed a little perturbed that they had to wait for us, but the volunteers handled it like champs! Soon we were approaching the final stretch!
We couldn't resist a Gospel Choir selfie, they were truly amazing, and just what we needed at the end of a tough race!

Not long after, we approached the Finish Line of Day 3!!! A very very very cute guy gave Colleen her medal, and we remembered him from the day before. What a smile on that face! We stopped for ice before we hit the Finisher Photo area, doesn't it look fabulous on my knee? It was a great help, even if it did drip down my leg almost immediately.

The smarted thing we have ever done happened next. We.got.massages. They had a tent where you could get a massage for $1 a minute. I treated Colleen to a whopping 10 minute massage, because I am generous like that, and because I only brought a twenty with me! Our awesome sports masseurs gave us twenty minutes! OMG It was heavenly. That portly man made my whole race. I walked away as if I was never in any pain! It was a true miracle!
We decided that we would take it easy for the rest of the day. I needed to hit the LEGO store, so we went to Downtown Disney for lunch, and had some yummy food at the Earl of Sandwich. Of course, we had to take pics in front of the LEGO Dopey!

Ahhhh the wristbands. While Colleen made a quick phone call, I snapped this shot. I couldn't wait to take them off, I was beginning to feel ridiculous, but as we walked the parks, I found myself checking people's wrists to see if they were part of the club. You know, the total idiots Dopey club.

After lunch, we realized we didn't have that much time before dinner! We had reservations at Be Our Guest, so we took the bus to the Polynesian. We ran into our good friend and fellow PbRC member Mel, who tried to convince us to come to a get together before we went to dinner. We had absolutely no time, so we walked in with him, and parted ways so we could catch the Monorail to the Magic Kingdom. Our good friends, the Polans, were also eating there, so we merged our reservations and had a blast talking about our race that day.
Dinner was amazing, and I had this divine Lemon Meringue cake for dessert. Colleen had the Grey Stuff. It was delicious. Don't believe me? ask the dishes!

This is the room where you can have lunch! We stopped in for a quick peek on our way to greet our host.

Our host:

On our way out of the park, we stopped to meet a few friends:

And then it was time for another early night. We met this little guy on our way back to the hotel. He hopped along side us for a little bit, but he was too slow for us, and we lost him eventually!

Once again, I know I left some things out!
There was one woman that day who left a huge impression on me. At least, I think it was that day. It could have been marathon day, but I am not sure.
As we approached the Fire Company, and were just about to cross under the Truck Ladder, a woman came through. We had been walking at the time, it was at about the halfway mark, on a boring stretch, just before the Inspirational Music was played. Right around mile 7, I think.
She came barreling through and yelled out in a very rude voice, "WALKERS, MOVE OVER!" It was so ugly. There were no 'excuse me's" first, just that huge brash voice. So many of us commented about how rude it was. And so unnecessary.
Later, we passed her.
She was walking.
Being the mature human being that I am, I pointed out, rather loudly myself, that she was the one who had been so rude earlier. Was this appropriate? Probably not. BUT. I couldn't help it. So many of the people she passed were having a hard time, probably thinking of quitting, and her rudeness may have pushed some of them over the edge, It was ugly and hateful, and I just don't understand the point!
Anyway,
Overall I really enjoyed the Half. If the weather had been better, we would have breezed right through, but that heat and humidity changed everything! It was 10* out when we left Jersey, what a turnaround! I think we handled it beautifully, though, and were as prepared as we could be for the main event!
I hope to get to the Marathon recap on Monday or Tuesday! My cold is back, though, so no promises! I am so tired!

What do you do when a runner is rude? Do you just let it go, or do you speak up?