Disney's Expedition Everest - The Race

I was pretty nervous about this. Yes, I know, it was my idea, but I never anticipated the bad news I would get from the orthopedist shortly after we registered for the event. If I could actually have trained for the 5k, I would have felt better about it, but that just wasn't in the cards for me. The doctor gave me cortisone shots the day before we left to get me through the race, but made it clear, "After this race, you cannot run again."

Disney provided race buses to transport everyone to the Animal Kingdom. We got to the race location around 6:00 p.m., which gave me an entire hour to worry before the 7:00 p.m. start.
We were in the 4th wave (total of 11 waves) and we would complete the run, tackle the obstacles, and then get our passports for the scavenger hunt in the park. The waves were staggered in 5 minute intervals, and since we were in the 4th, it bought us a little time in case we (read "Donna") couldn't meet the 16 minute per mile requirement. The other piece of good news was that if you couldn't complete an obstacle, you could basically go around it.

I just felt so bad. Renee is a very competitive person, and sets goals for herself each time she races. She assured me that if she was looking to win, she would have paired up with someone who could really run! She didn't mean that in a derogatory way, and when I could finally accept that she really just wanted to have fun- about 2 minutes before the race started - I felt better about the whole thing. BUT, I certainly didn't want to be LAST! Renee and I go back quite a few years, so she knows me pretty well. I'm expressive and talkative, but when I'm nervous, I get quiet. Renee remembers this well from our skydiving experience! I might be excited about what I'm doing, but I'm worried about it too. Just in case you've ever wondered, this is what fear and worry look like.As the waves in front of us took off, Renee and I discussed our strategy. Brent provided me with a spreadsheet with every imaginable combination of paces we could possible do to meet the required pace.

The problem is that you really do get caught up in the excitement. My plan really was to basically power walk the first mile and get my knees good and warmed up, then slow jog/walk the remaining 2 miles. But the adrenalin kicked in and we did a combo the first mile which didn't go quite as well as I'd hoped, but was an okay 15:30.

Mile 2 just sucked. My right knee hurt every time I tried to jog a bit, I was sweating like an oinker (it was very hot and humid), and I was worried about those other walkers who were now ahead of us. But, two things happened to give me a little boost. First, I would have laughed if I had any wind left when Renee said, "If you can smell the elephants, we're near mile 2." Ha! Yes, I could smell the elephants as we passed one of the animal outbuildings along the service road. At this point, people had made the turnaround (which I still couldn't see) and were coming back. "Look, there's the Mile 2 sign on the other side." Cool, that meant the turnaround had to be right around the bend....or not. Sheesh, it was still a good 1/2 mile to the turnaround, but hey, there for a second, I was optimistic I could make it. The interesting thing is that we actually did the second mile in 15:00. Crazy.

One more mile to go as we went past Everest. By this time though, racers who had finished the 5k and the obstacle course were back in the park doing the scavenger hunt. I was feeling a little better though because we passed a few walking teams that I knew were in the wave in front of us. Good news for me. Renee tells me we finished the 5k in around 48:00, which actually met the 16:00 pace requirement - we didn't need the buffer we picked up by being in wave 4.

Whew, we finally reached the obstacle course. The first obstacle was a series of corrals. You had to climb over the first beam, drop into the corral, climb the next, etc. I got over the first beam no problem, but landing in the corral was clearly bad news for my knees. I didn't yell, I didn't cry, but I didn't do any more of them either. I helped boost Renee over them and I ducked under.

Next was a net wall we had to climb up, over the top, and down. I didn't have any trouble with this one except for the crazy woman who seemed to be taking a rest - on top. I couldn't get my leg over without hitting her. A close call, but she finally moved a smidge and over I went.

Balance beams were the 3rd challenge. Renee and I hopped on beams next to each other, held hands, and flew across them.

The last challenge was a crawl under netting that was staked low to the ground. We didn't have any trouble with it, but boy were we filthy! We were now one hour into the race.

We grabbed our passports and headed back into the park for the scavenger hunt. The passport had 4 clues with questions that had to be answered. The clues took us to various parts of the park (we were lucky that we knew the park well and that Renee had grabbed a park map earlier in the day!). We had a little trouble with the first clue, but the remaining 3 were a piece of cake and we headed for the finish.

We crossed the finish line at approximately 1:31. After crossing the finish, we picked up our very cool medals, had our scavenger hunt answers checked (we got all 4 correct), and we were done. Whew. I have to say, it was a lot more fun when it was over than it was while we were doing it! Although, that's not altogether true. The obstacles and scavenger hunt were fun, but the 5k really sucked! I must say, Renee was awesome. She was very encouraging the whole way through the race. I know that I would never have had the thrill of finishing if it hadn't been for her. The good news is we were FAR from last!

The park was opened to participants and their families. Renee bought me a beer, and we headed over to Everest to take a ride at night. That was awesome. You're so high up and looking out over the Disney property at night was great. Neither of us have ever ridden the Kali River Rapids. I just hate to be wet and walk around the parks all day in sopping wet clothing. Since we were dirty and sweaty and weren't staying long, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to do the ride. We got a little wet, but there were some in our raft who really got drenched - yes, it's funny when it's not you!

We headed back to Coronado Springs where we picked up a bottle of Iron Horse's Fairy Tale Cuvee (which is only sold at Disney), changed into our bathing suits, and went to enjoy that huge hot tub and sip our champagne. All was right in our little world.