ESPN The Weekend and 5k Run

We were in Disney February last year and it just happened to be one of the “special” weekends in Disney, ESPN The Weekend, at Hollywood Studios. It was totally unplanned as far as the event went, we just wanted to use our annual passes one more time and renew them while we were there. We had gotten there for rope drop and noticed something going on off to the side of the parking lot, some sort of run, so I Googled it when I got back to a computer and found out that they had a 5k run that morning before the park opened that went through the park. So this year our passes needed renewing at the same time and I was still interested in the run, so I booked a trip the same weekend and registered for the run.ESPN The Weekend is pretty big, especially if you’re into sports. There are all sorts of personalities there from players to sportscasters covering all the big sports out there, though cycling is woefully under represented.  Last year for instance we met the Miami Dolphin cheerleaders at rope drop, you can find their pic on the article from that trip, they also happened to be at the 5k and a few of them ran with us as well. But you can sit in on Q&A’s with players, coaches, and commentators up close and personal like Chad Ochocinco, DeAngelo Williams, Scottie Pippen, Steve Spurrier, Brian Mcann, the Harlem Globetrotters, and Adam Vinatieri.

Unfortunately when I got up for the run and was driving to Hollywood Studios at 6:00AM, there were sprinkles around EPCOT and it was a little cool, I was a little uncertain of how to dress. 5k is just a little of 3 miles, not too great of a distance, but I knew I could keep up a 10min/mi pas so it would take me a little over 30 minutes to complete it which is plenty of time to get warm, I just wasn’t certain how long it would take if it were raining. There was a lot of buildup before the run started at 7:00AM with some costume judging, some of the nuts dressed up in honor of their favorite sports team and one lady ran in full hockey gear including the helmet, minus the skates. There were several other sports figures that ran with us and a few more that showed up injured like DeAngelo Williams who has been nursing a foot injury since last season, so we know he wasn’t just faking it to get out of the run. I ran as I had expected, roughly 10min/mile but the run was pretty cool since you got to go through the park before it was open. It starts on the left side of the parking lot, near the back of Indiana Jones, and runs up the small entrance to the park and back to the side entrance to Lights, Motors, Action. You run through the set in front of the stands and out onto the Streets of America, around Muppetvision 3D and past Star Tours, to Indiana Jones, around Echo Lake and almost up to the hat before turning down Hollywood Blvd to Sunset Blvd and Rockin’ Rollercoaster where you exit the park to go behind Tower of Terror and come back into the park and back down Sunset to Hollywood and out near the front entrance back to the parking lot. They had time clocks every mile and also used chip timing for accurate time.

Afterward I got back to the room and showered we went to Magic Kingdom where it did rain pretty good so we ate at Main Street Bakery and then walked on to many rides like Winnie the Pooh, Teacups, and It’s a Small World, many of the other popular rides had short wait times as well like 20 minutes for Peter Pan and Snow White was walk on. We then went to Hollywood Studios for a while, long enough to ride Toy Story Mania standby since fastpasses were all gone, and a few other rides, before heading to EPCOT, yes 3 parks in 1 day. We finished the day off at the Top of the World Lounge on top of Bay Lake Towers at the Contemporary which is where we ended up getting to stay this trip finally.

We’ve been trying to book a room at Bay Lake Towers since September and lucked up, probably since late February isn’t a busy season. We had a decent lake view room and could actually see the top of Space Mountain although we were only on the 3rd floor I think so fairly low. We also finally got to meet one of our Disney Twitter friends, Amanda Tinney of DisneyEveryDay.com, seems we always miss her when we’re in town. The Friday night we arrived I saw that she was on site though and tweeted to her when I was picking up my race packet and found out she was headed to the Contemporary for pin trading. Yes Disney folks, Amanda is a true Disney freak/geek and goes to the real events, not just walking up to some cast member asking to trade a pin at the park gate, and even had her little area of the table with the latest vinylmations. It was good to meet her finally and while we were there another Disney Twitterer Heather DisneyBigSis so we of course all posed for a photo and tweeted the pic of our little four person Disney Tweetup.

Sunday we went to the Rainforest at Animal Kingdom for breakfast and then into the park for a few hours. Kriss and I took turns doing single rider on Expedition Everest since we had Kellie. Kellie and I rode Triceratops Spin while we waited, which is one of her favorite ride, like Dumbo and Aladdin. We also rode Kilamanjaro Safari which we’ve done many times in the past, but this time we were held up on the savannah due to an uncooperative giraffe that felt the need to stand in front of the trucks. Every time he would move enough to let one pass he’d step in front of the next.

Again, another trip where we did several new things, and had a great time despite a little wetness.