Expedition Everest Challenge with Amanda

This past weekend, my sister Amanda flew down from MA for a ridiculously short visit, so that we could run in the 2012 Expedition Everest Challenge. It was a great weekend, filled with success and happiness.

Pre Race Preparations

On Friday I picked Amanda up from the airport and we simply went back to my apartment, watched TV for an hour or so, and then called it a night. (Not wanting her to miss any school, I’d booked the last flight of the night for her, so it was around 10pm when we got out of the airport).

Saturday morning we impulse-decided on breakfast at Boma at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, which was fantastic. From there, we drove to the ESPN Wide World of Sports for packet-pickup. We turned in our race waivers, and got our bibs, final race instructions, race shirt, and pins. They also had a series of “Course Talks” in which a runDisney Cast Member went over the course and what we could expect. Before the talk started, we asked her to explain the “Scavenger Hunt” portion of this event. It really wasn’t a “Scavenger Hunt” in the traditional sense. We didn’t have a list of objects or people to find or search for. Instead, we were to be given clues to solve, and once we solved each one and turned it in, a volunteer would give us the next one. We’d have to solve all five before crossing the finish line.

We drove over to Epcot next, and went on Mission: Space and the Seas with Nemo. We looked at Spaceship Earth but the line was fairly ridiculous, so we decided to try again the next day. Instead we got some lunch off-site and then drove home to rest up for the race.  We watched TV, played a game or two, and had a small dinner of Mac & Cheese.  At 7pm, we left my apartment for the Animal Kingdom.

Race Evening

We got to the Animal Kingdom around 7:30pm.  The race was scheduled to start at 9:30, with the race instructions telling us we had to be in the corrals by 8:45pm.  Try to contain your shock that I was early.

We waited in an unusually long line to check our bags.  Like, ridiculously long, longer than any runDisney race I’ve ever seen.  When we got to the front, it became apparent why it was taking so long – Disney Security CMs were inspecting each bag, like they do when you enter the park.  I am assuming now that this is because bag pickup was actually in the park later that evening, so they had to check all the bags that came in.  Since Amanda and I signed up as a two-person team, we had one bib number, and therefore the volunteers tied our bags together with a ziptie.

We wandered around the parking lot at Animal Kingdom for the next hour or so, listening to the increasingly less entertaining DJs, who were trying to make a running joke that absolutely did not work.  Our bibs placed us in Wave 3.  As I’ve always been in the last wave in all previous runDisney events, I assumed that there were only 3 waves this time (which matches the last 5k I did in January).  However, as we were wandering around, we saw bibs on people that listed all the way up to “Wave 8”.  Why we were placed in such a preferred wave, I have no idea.  Must have been random, I guess.

The National Anthem was sung, and Wave 1 was instructed to fill the start corral.  Fireworks (of course, it’s Disney…) kicked off the official start to the event.  Six minutes later, Wave 2 repeated the process.  When they took off, it was our turn to get into the corral.  I looked at Amanda and could tell that this was all a bit overwhelming.  Training for a 5k by running on your own a few times a week is significantly different from actually participating in a race with over 5,000 other people.

The Everest Challenge

5k + Obstacle Course

When the Fireworks were shot off for the 3rd time, we started.  We were using the Jeff Galloway run-walk method, with Amanda putting her iPhone on Jeff’s app and dictating our run/walk segments.  We were following a rough 20 second run / 40 second walk pattern, having to adjust due to the crowded race course.  The first mile took us from the start line through the Animal Kingdom Parking lot and to the front gate.  Just before the first mile marker, we came upon the first obstacle on the course: hay bails.  These were not difficult.  They were basically lines of hay made up into miniature hurdles, maybe a foot and a half tall.  Amanda and I both cleared them without issue, but other participants chose to step on top of them, step over them, or even simply run around them.

I motioned to Amanda that the first mile was coming up, and she reacted with a look that said “Really?”  Apparently we were doing better than she’d thought.  We next entered the Animal Kingdom park itself, running through the Oasis and up to the bridge to Discovery Island.  It was marginally less well lit than I would have expected, but not dangerously so.  We started circling the Tree of Life clockwise, running toward Africa.  We passed the entrance to Killimanjaro Safari and reached the backstage area.  As predicted, the odor here was rather unpleasant.  This was about mile 1.5, and here is our first water stop.  Unfortunately, the water was rather disgustingly warm, but hey, it was water.

The course through backstage narrowed significantly, because runners ahead of us were coming back the same way, with naught but a row of cones to divide us.  Just after making the turn around, we encountered the second obstacle: tires.  There were three or four “lanes” to choose from (or, again, they could be skipped entirely), but even so everyone slowed to an absolute tip toe.  No one was running through the tires – even if someone wanted to, the person in front of them would have prevented them from trying.  We made it out of the tires without problem (my heel caught on a rim at one point, but I recovered quickly enough), and continued our run/walk, reaching mile 2 while still backstage.

When we got to the point where runners behind us were entering the backstage area, we got our second water stop.  Again, unfortunately, water was nastily warm.  Back onstage now, as we ran behind the Tree of Life into Asia, and then over the bridge back to Discovery Island.  We again went backstage, this time near the Oasis.  Every so often, Amanda and I agreed to skip one of the ‘run’ segments, as our time was well within the pace requirements.  This entire backstage area near a small body of water was obviously not normally lit, as they had a series of loud generators and attached street lights, painting the way forward for us.

As we exited the park via this backstage area, I could see the sign for Mile 3.  Almost there!!  A 5k is only 3.11 miles, so the finish line must be just around this corner, right?  Well, yes, but you forgot about the 3rd and final obstacle, Paul.  A rope crawl (think every boot camp movie you’ve ever seen).  We got on our hands and knees, got under the rope, and crawled our way through it.  The only problem I had was that the bottle of water in my racing belt was on my backside, and kept getting caught on the rope, threatening to  pull my belt down (and my shorts with it).  Fortunately for everyone involved, that didn’t happen.  We got out from under the rope, and the finish line was literally right there.  Amanda and I had to remind ourselves that the race portion was now finished, as we almost instinctively went to start another run segment.

Scavenger Hunt

But wait, there’ s more!  Unlike every other runDisney event I’ve done, this one didn’t end with crossing the finish line.  Now we had to make our way back to the front of the park, to begin the “Scavenger Hunt” portion of the event.  Each team was given a clue card and a keychain with a red mini-flashlight and a red marker (why no one saw how that would be a bad idea is beyond me…).  Here was our first clue:

Expedition Everest Clue #1

 

As you can see, it was fairly simple brain teaser.  We solved it in a matter of seconds and then started making our way back to the front gate of Animal Kingdom.  We decided we were done running, and would take the Scavenger Hunt portion much more leisurely.  We even stopped to use the rest rooms on Discovery Island.  We finally made our way over to Camp Minnie Mickey.  Each step in the hunt actually had about 5 different clues, to try to curtail any cheating.  So we had to find the specific check-in area for our clue.  Once we did, and showed our solution to the Volunteer, she gave us our next clue:

This process repeated itself as we traveled to Africa and Asia for clues 3 and 4:

It should be pointed out that the organization here left a little to be desired.  There were people coming and going from the hunt stations, with some people still trying to run through it to get a good time, and others (like us) walking.  There were no paths set up for those entering the station and those leaving, so it was a free-for-all with everyone trying to squeeze past each other.  Plus there were still stragglers on the 5k portion of the course.  I’m not saying it was “bad”, just that it could have been better with a little more planning.

The final race clue required us to use all the previous race clues to solve it:

Once we solved this final one, we presented it to the Volunteers at the final station, and then saw the real finish line.  We agreed to, for the heck of it, to sprint to the finish.  We did it.  We finished.  Go us!!  🙂

Post-race Party

After crossing the finish line, we were given powerade, bananas, and water.  And oh, yes, we got our medals.  The medals are beautiful.  Unlike other 5ks, this is a real metallic metal, not a piece of rubber.

Everest Challenge Medal

But wait, it gets better.  The medal opens up, to reveal a compass!

Everest Challenge Compass

After getting our medals, we went to go claim our bags, so that we could change into some non-sweat-filled clothes.  But the line was insane.  Like, at least 30 minutes long.  I couldn’t believe it.  I assumed it had to be some kind of temporary glitch, so we decided to head back toward Kali River Rapids instead, figuring that getting drenched with cool water would actually feel really good right now.  There was a posted 5 minute wait, but that must have just meant the time it takes to walk through the queue, because once we got there it was a complete walk-on.

After Kali, we walked back through the park toward Dinoland (where the packet pickup was), navigating our way through the throngs of people still finishing the race.  Unfortunately, it wasn’ t a glitch.  Bag pickup really was that bad.  I have no idea why.  To anyone considering a runDisney event – this is NOT how bag pickup usually is.  It’s usually virtually instantaneous.  I have no idea what the problem was, why they were so bad at it this time.  It took us about 30 minutes, and when we finally got our bags, we discovered that they were still ziptied together.  With no way to cut the ziptie.  What on earth were they thinking?!  How did NO ONE realize this was a problem?!  Did they think we were bringing scissors on the race course with us?!  Ugh.  I was really disappointed in runDisney for this one.  Usually they organize everything so well, but this was just a debacle.

ANYway…. after having to tear our bags open so we could get our stuff, we each changed into clean clothes.  We were feeling pretty beat, so we thought of just leaving right then and there, but we noticed that Dinosaur only had a 10 minute wait, so we did that first (again, other than the pre-show, it was basically a walk-on).

After Dinosaur, we made our way back over to Asia and asked a nice couple of guests to take our picture with our race medals with Everest in the background.  This, my friends, is what you call happiness and pride:

Everest Challenge Finishers!

We left the park around 12:45am, took a tram back to the parking lot, got in the car, drove home, and collapsed. 🙂

Meeting the Group

On Sunday morning, we each slept in a bit (which, for me, meant about 8:15am).  After showering and such, we took off for Epcot to meet up with the Weekly Walt Disney World group.  We met up with one of my friends (Kevin B) outside MouseGear, then went shopping there for a bit (Amanda had a $10 gift card from Disney Movie Rewards).  Upon exiting MouseGear, we randomly ran into a bunch of my other friends, getting pictures with a penguin behind the fountain (only about Disney can you write a sentence like that).  We all walked over to World Showcase, and took the Friendship boat to the other side of the lagoon.  We then walked over to Italy and checked in at Via Napoli.

When everyone else arrived (I think 22 of us in total), we were all seated at one huge table.  Lunch was delicious, with a lot of good conversation and fun people.  Amanda told me more than once how much she liked these people and was having a good time, which made me kinda deliriously happy.

After lunch, Amanda and I walked over to the Mexico pavilion to ride the Gran Fiesta Tour, then met back up with everyone at the hall behind Club Cool for our weekly meet.  Amanda even decided to participate in our weekly Beverly toast (and I still have no idea why we’re doing this to ourselves).

We then said goodbye to the group, and went over to Spaceship Earth, which had a significantly smaller wait than we’d seen the previous day.  Then we decided to hop over to Magic Kingdom for a ride on Amanda’s favorite attraction (Carousel of Progress).  On our way up the monorail ramp, another guest stopped us and gave us two any-time any-attraction FastPasses!  Whoo! When we got to the MK itself, we each got a pack of SotMK cards, then took the WDW Railroad to Fantasyland, so that Amanda could see the new Storybook Circus area.  Then we walked over to Tomorrowland and used those FastPasses for Space Mountain, then over to CoP.  Finally, one round on the TTA, and then it was time to leave WDW.

I took Amanda back to the airport, we had dinner at one of the restaurants there, and we said our goodbyes when her plane started boarding.  Overall, it was a great short trip, a lot of success was had, she met all my Orlando friends, and we were both very happy with it.

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