Disney Princess 5k….. with a Golf Cart Parade

 I haven’t made it a secret that I only managed two miles of the Disney Princess 5k. After a long weekend in NOLA, averaging 15k steps a day, a couple of days off, and then a day in Animal Kingdom, my feet were toast.

On race morning, we walked 3/4 of a mile from our room to the bus, and then another 1.25 miles from the bus to the start. Why Disney can’t manage to drop us off closer to the start I’ll never know. Before the race even started, I’d walked 2 miles. 

We waited a while for the race to start, moving along slowly to the start line, adding more time on my poor feet.  Within a half mile after we started, my friends had pulled ahead of me. I could barely go below a 22 minute mile. Every step was agony. I was determined to finish, since I knew that I wouldn’t be able to start the next two races. 

I did get some great character shots.

 

My friends waited for me inside EPCOT, and stayed with my until I got to around mile two and I realized I wasn’t going to make it. The pain was insane and I still had days of Disney to get through. I walked up to a security officer and asked for a ride to the finish. It took about 40 minutes, since I had to wait for all of the runners and walkers to go by, but eventually my chariot arrived.

They were so sweet. They even slowed down when they saw I was taking a pic! They said they would take me all the way to the finish, or I could try and walk it in. I had them drop me off at mile 3 and walked the last tenth. The commentators were so sweet to us, and I got to cross the finish line and get my medal.

We then walked another mile to the busses. So let’s do the math. Two miles before the race. Two miles of the race. One mile to the bus. Five miles total. 

Someone who is supposed to a friend insinuated I don’t deserve my medal because I didn’t finish. I wear it proudly. 

I spent the rest of the day in EPCOT on a jazzy. I’ll post more about that later. I learned a lot of things about people from that jazzy. Most of it wasn’t good. We all need to better humans!

Stay tuned….