"Oh, I Thought You Said 1.31 Miles..."

I realize that as an Annual Passholder who can come and go to Disney World at her leisure, I have far less exposure to the usual meltdowns that accompany trips to Disney. I haven't invested the money that other families have and don't feel the need to force a day there if I'm not feeling it. It starts to rain? K, bye. It gets too hot? See ya later. I decide that I'm cranky and want to go home? Tchau. 

But running 13.1 miles through the Walt Disney World grounds definitely made me want to cry. Not because it was Disney World, but because it was 13.1 miles. A decision that I made on my own and a decision I kind of regretted about halfway through.

I was completing the Wine and Dine Two Course Challenge, which meant I completed the 10K on Saturday and then the half marathon on Sunday. And despite all of the complaining (of which there was a lot), the distance wasn't the worst part. Because, you know, I knew how far it was when I signed up. It was actually the back to back 2am wake up calls that I thought were going to kill me.  Disney does an excellent job wit pre-race entertainment that they seem somewhat bearable, but it was still 3am. 

The first 4 miles and the middle 5 miles were the hardest, mentally, because it was all highway running. When you're running through the parks, there's so much to look at and so many decorations and it's just so COOL that you don't necessarily have time to focus on "Oh my gosh, why am I still running? Why did I ever start running?" But there's LOTS of time to think about that while you're just running down the highway.

Apparently I only have one pose.

It's pretty hard to miss the PhotoPass booths along the course. They're set up in bright green pop-up tents, for crying out loud. Naturally, most people pose because why wouldn't you? Myself included. It's painfully obvious that I need to have more poses in my arsenal. 

I didn't feel quite as jolly in real life as I did in the majority of the photos. Back to back 2am wake up calls and 13.1 miles, remember? But in all honesty, I felt pretty good. I talked to people a long the way, I stopped for character photos, I danced at the DJs. For a half marathon, it was pretty fun. #DisneyMagic

Mile 8-- on the right

But then there was a PhotoPass at Mile 8 that I didn't see and the photo might be my favorite from the whole race. Disney Magic doesn't change the fact that it's still a half marathon. It doesn't change the fact that when I passed the 10K sign, I cried a little because I wanted to be finished and knew I was only halfway done. It doesn't change the fact that I spent most of miles 6-9 texting my friends telling them how many regrets I had.

Though I wasn't about to say it outloud, I wasn't blown away by the character opportunities during the 10k. They were fine, but I only stopped for travel Genie. So I didn't have high hopes for the half marathon, but also kind of had high hopes for the half marathon. And I wasn't disappointed. Not only did they have character opportunities, but they also had photographers out throughout Pandora since it was the first half to ever run through there. I might have squealed a little when I turned the corner towards France and saw Remy and Emile-- they were the two characters that I really super wanted to see. Dreams do come true.

ADPi runs Disney.

By noon, I had finished a half marathon, meaning that I had run 19.3 miles throughout the weekend. And despite that fact that I kept telling myself I would never do that again, yeah, I'd totally do it again.

Wine and Dine Two Course Challenge 2018-- I'm comin' for ya.