2012 Expedition Everest Challenge race report

2012 Expedition Everest Challenge Race Report

Yes, I know-I haven’t even done my WDW Half, WDW Marathon Relay, ING Miami Half or Princess Half recaps yet.  They’ll eventually get on here (hopefully before the next of each race rolls around next year LOL), but for now while EEC is fresh in my mind I want to post this one up.

Just like last year I did a Friday to Sunday trip.  Stayed on property (of course) at Disney’s Pop Century resort-my favorite value resort at WDW.  My SIL and her DH were riding up and rooming with me (see “sharing expenses” tip) so we all left together just before 8am so we could be there in time for the noon packet pickup opening.  Once we arrived at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex, there was already about 30 or 40 people lined up waiting for pickup to start.  We joined them, lining up along the outside of the baseball stadium.  When they started letting everyone in, we walked through the inside of the stadium to an open area in the sun where tents were set up with everyone’s packets, a staged photo op area and very small area of EEC and runDisney items available for purchase.  We got our stuff, took some shots at the photo area, I bought the EEC pin, then we moved along to the shirt pickup area.  This year’s was a nice deep forest green with the EEC logo on the front.  

Headed to the hotel to check in, then out for some lunch at TGI Friday’s (another creative financing idea--turned in 150 stripes on my TGI Friday’s stripes card for a free steak entree coupon...gotta love free steak!) before heading to the Magic Kingdom for the rest of the day & night.  Saturday slept in a bit, then headed over to Epcot to meet up with some friends of SIL/BIL’s to wander.  But it was the sun was crazy strong and it was HOT HOT HOT so I left to go back to the room for a couple of hours before heading over to Rainforest Cafe at Animal Kingdom for a late lunch/early dinner (creative financing #3 of the trip--turned in some MyPoints for a $25 RC gift card so my meal was free!).  Even with trying to stay in the shade while at Epcot I wound up with some sunburned arms and a bit on my face...very glad I went back to the room when I did or the race would have been a bit painful!

After resting at the room after dinner for a while, we headed over to Animal Kingdom around 8pm.  Saw Katie, Steve, Becky and David from Running of the Ears right away, then wandered over by the stage area.  We had met back up with our friends from earlier that day (SIL/BIL were running as a team and the 4 others were 2 teams as well) and took a pic at one of the photo areas near the stage, then made a quick port-a-potty stop before heading over to get into the corral.  I lucked out and was in Wave #1 again (YAY!) so wanted to get a good spot off to the right side of the corral so I wouldn’t be in the way of the fast people.

Unfortunately, they held us all outside of the corral for a bit before letting us into the chute.  Everyone was stuffed together at the entrance which was a tad uncomfortable, especially since it had only “cooled” down to about 80 degrees and was still a bit humid.  Finally they let us in.

And then we were off!  I started off running as usual (yeah, moron creature of habit here, I never learn), then tried to switch to intervals trying to keep up with Katie, Steve and his daughter (they were doing 1:1’s), but it was just too hot and humid for me to do that so I switched to my fast walk instead.  About 3/4 of a mile in we came upon our first obstacles--just like last year we had rows of hay bales to hurdle over.  No problem at all!  We continued on, entering Animal Kingdom just after the 1-mile mark.  Out to the back of the park and into the backstage area to obstacle #2--and again just like last year we had the rows of tires to navigate thru.  I didn’t want to try run/hopping through them like you see football players do as I was sure I’d wind up flat on my face like I saw several people do, so I went through them but at a walking pace instead.

Back into the park for a bit, then backstage again before heading out--just past mile 3 was the last obstacle--where you were supposed to crawl on the ground under ropes (like you see army guys do in training).  They had that fake carpet-grass underneath, I’m assuming to keep you from hurting yourself on rocks, but the obstacle is set in a really loose sandy area so there was a lot of dust being kicked up and I wasn’t about to crawl through it with my allergies...and so I went around it (yeah, I know-that technically makes you ineligible for prizes but really--I’m never going to be fast enough to get a prize anyway so eh, no biggie).  It actually was slow going around it because of the loose sand-you couldn’t really go fast (or at least I couldn’t) without probably twisting an ankle.  Once around the obstacle, it was just a few more feet until the 5K finish line.

Next up we were handed our first scavenger hunt clue along with a mini-marker attached to a key ring that had a red-light flashlight.  Remember, there are different clues available so not everyone has the same clues.  Here’s my clue #1: 

  I figured this out really quick.  And I knew from last year not to head into the park with the clue, that the first station was outside the park.  At least this year there was someone there telling people the first clue station was there so they wouldn’t do like I did.  Got clue #2 

and headed into the park to Camp Minnie-Mickey.  Another quick solve!  Grabbed clue #3 

  I had to think about this one for a couple of minutes but tried thinking while walking so I wouldn’t waste any time.  I stopped for maybe one whole minute though to really look at what it said, then jogged on.  Made it over to Africa and got clue #4 

This one I thought was really easy so I quickly wrote my answer down and started running toward Asia where I got my final clue 

  Once I realized what I had to do, I flipped back through my clue cards to figure out the final answer, quickly wrote it down and ran all the way to the finish where I showed them my card, then ran through the chute to the race finish line!

I must say, I’m very proud of myself with the clues this year--I got them all by myself, no hints from anyone and since I knew what I was doing and where I was going this time around, I cut about 25 minutes off my overall time from last year!  One of the teams from our group finished a little bit before me and called out to me once I finished so we hung out waiting for the others to come on through (they were in later waves since the teams started after the individuals).  We all went for a ride on Expedition Everest (where I wound up losing my hat after the big drop-flew right off my head...yes, I’m calling WDW lost and found to see if they have it...that sure didn’t happen last year), then headed over to Kali River Rapids.  I decided not to ride that one (yes, the soaking would have been welcome to help cool down but I wasn’t getting back in my car like that) so waited for everyone else.  After that me, SIL and BIL wandered over to DinoLand USA...no wait for Primeval Whirl so went for a spin before heading out for the night.

This was another fantastic Disney race weekend.  Just in case I haven’t said it enough, I LOVE this event.  Already planning on heading back again next year--after all, I need to see if I can do it faster, right?  Now I have a nice long break as my next race isn’t until the Tower of Terror 10-miler at the end of September.  Time to really get back to the weight-loss regimen since I’ll be able to properly devote my time and not worry about race training for a few months.

Women overall 238/522

5K time 48:44

Scavenger Hunt time 25:42

Total time 1:14:26 (net time); 1:14:43 (clock time)