So after a very long delay caused by multiple midterms and projects pre-spring break, I finally have some time to fill you in on my latest adventure to the sunny parks of Orlando, FL. On February 24-26, Macy (my roommate) and I took a trip to Orlando, FL to embed ourselves in the magic that is Disney World! The main purpose of this trip was to run the Disney Princess Half Marathon, but a great extra benefit was that we got to spend a few days in the parks! The entire three days we were there we probably had only 9 hours of sleep, but it was well worth it! Our first park was Animal Kingdom, where the highlight was a very realistic safari. We even narrowly escaped being charged by a rhino! I could have touched him! We also saw a lot of other animals - here I am with some alligators.
Another cool ride at Animal Kingdom was Expedition Everest - the line was even interesting! Here, Macy, Kennedi, and I are standing in front of the Mt. Everest look-alike ride!
After that we got to explore Disney's Hollywood Studios where I finally got to ride the Tower of Terror! I've always wanted to ride it and it was really fun - the special effects were amazing and the view when the doors opened to the outside of the building was spectacular!
We also rode the Rock'n'Rollercoaster, but the line was 75 minutes long - in my opinion, not worth the wait! Don't get me wrong - very cool ride - but not worth a 75 minute line. We were hungry after that, so we ventured to Downtown Disney to try to get into some cool restaurants. We wanted to eat in the T-Rex restaurant or eat some big Italian food to prepare for our race the next morning! Unfortunately, everything had a two hour wait and we were delirious with hunger, so we ended up settling for El Pollo Loco! Hahaha - fried chicken, the perfect race fuel? It was really delicious - but probably because we were way too hungry. We got to sleep at midnight and very unhappily woke up at 2:45 am the next morning to get up and going for our 5:45 race start! Here we are at 4-something in the morning heading to our race corral! My princess was the Black Swan - the only one in the 17,000 participants, and a really big hit with the spectators!
After our very early 5:45 am start, we booked it up to mile 9 - ten minutes ahead of our normal pace! We started at Epcot and ran to Magic Kingdom, through Magic Kingdom, and back to Epcot. Even though after our 9th mile we started to slow down, we both hit PR's and my time was 1 hour and 53 minutes! I placed 445th out of the 17,000 participants. Proud finisher and intense competitor--->
Obviously, my make up ran. Kept up until about the 13th mile though! Overall, I think this costume is a win. :)
Crossing the finish line!
We got some really nice medals and a few epic pictures out of the race along with our PR's and, despite our exhaustion, hit Magic Kingdom for the rest of the day!
Poor Macy hurt her foot during her race, but still set a PR! Go Macy!!
We had to catch a 6 am flight the next morning, so after 3 more short hours of sleep, we made the hour drive to Tampa and made it home safe! The most incredible half marathon and miniature spring break I've ever had!
