This will be another quick write up – this time for the Walt Disney World 10k run that I did with my son (11) on Jan 5th, 2018.
It was his first 10k run and he had done the 5k with the rest of the family yesterday so I knew he was going to be tired and wasn’t sure how he would handle it. But he did great!
Another early morning, very cold as well again. Yay!
I let the boy sleep as long as I could while I showered and got dressed (at least the first few layers) and then I tried to wake him. I’m not sure how good a sleep he had because when I told him it was time he thought it was time to go to bed…he recovered quickly though.
After we were both dressed we headed out to catch an event bus to the staging area. We brought more Mylar blankets and a towel that we could use as extra insulation or something to sit on while we waited to start our run.
The bus ride was uneventful and there were many people there already when we got there. It wasn’t long before we were allowed into the corrals. Corral D for us this race – one back from where we were for the 5k but at least not in the end corral.
We wandered around a bit in the corrals and stepped out a few times to use the porta-potties before finding a place to sit down on the towel we brought and huddle under the Mylar blankets for warmth.
As they started moving the corrals forward we stood up and got rid of the towel – we should have hung onto it for a while longer. Moving up from Corral D to the start line took quite a bit longer than it had from Corral C the day before – in reality the time probably wasn’t that long since the mini waves they were doing kept things going but in the cold weather it felt like an eternity.
I could tell my son was getting nervous including his stomach starting to feel “weird” – so I kept him talking about the run and about other stuff
Finally it was our chance to get moving.
Not a huge amount to see in the half of the race before you head into Epcot but we had fun. I let him set his own pace – he dictated when he wanted to run and when he wanted to walk. It was good to see he pushed himself without going crazy.
We entered Epcot / World Showcase between the Norway and China pavilions (which is different from the 5k which comes in between Mexico and Norway).
At this point I started filming some of the run (sun was starting to come up and World Showcase was beautiful) and taking some pictures. Some of those will be below as will be some of the Disney photographer pics.
There were definitely characters out for pictures but we decided it was too cold to stop and opted to keep moving instead of standing in lines.
After you enter World Showcase you loop through that area of Epcot and exit out the International Gateway (Epcot’s back door to the Boardwalk hotel area) and cross the bridge to run along the Boardwalk. After that area you run past the Dolphin and Swan resorts before passing Disney’s Yacht Club and Disney’s Beach Club resorts and their great pool (Stormalong Bay).
You then enter the Epcot backstage area beside International Gateway – there was some construction there as they are building a SkyWay station in that location. They spiced up the construction area with some dressed up “construction workers” who helped cheer everyone on.
After the backstage you re-enter World Showcase by the England Pavilion, pass Canada and then head toward the Fountain of Nations and Spaceship Earth. You run around Spaceship Earth and then out toward the Epcot parking lot and the finish line.
The first half of the race isn’t particularly exciting but he second half is probably the best 3 miles of scenery you could hope for on a race.
As we progressed we got beautiful light as the sun was coming up – it ended up being a great day to run (if a bit too cold).
In the end, even with a few picture stops, the boy managed to push us to a faster pace than what we did on the 5k the day before. And he looked strong the whole way – super proud of him for training and pushing himself leading up to the races. The back to back races have to have worn on him but he push though strong! Good job dude!
https://youtu.be/CwfoyQMyyAs
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