Anyway, from the Grand Floridian on til the finish, I didn't see my fan club at all. It was a very long stretch. Even though the race was already half over, the last half was excruciating. I also don't have as many pictures.
So after Grand Floridian, we started the trek towards the Animal Kingdom. So boring. I never thought I would say that at Disney World. But seriously, those roads in between parks can be really dull. Especially the back roads that the service vehicles take. I think we got to see the recycling center or some other kind of maintenance area. Exciting right? All the while, the only thing really keeping me going was the Sharpie fun facts signs, the food stand where I grabbed a banana, and the sudden urge to pee. I actually stopped a couple times at portapotties but the lines were so dang long that I didn't wait around for long before I continued running.
Finally, a break! The Animal Kingdom. We ran through a back entrance and were greeted by all kinds of exotic animals with their trainers, as well as some more Disney characters. And then...thank goodness. A real bathroom. Potty break with no line. I was happy :) And then running through the Animal Kingdom. I enjoyed it - we actually ran through a large portion of the park rather than just skirting the front like we did at the Magic Kingdom.
Here I am in front of Mt. Everest:
After leaving the Animal Kingdom, we ran around the bus stops in front of the park and at this point, the sun got really, really hot. I closed my eyes a lot because of the brightness. Then the heat really started to get to me. And then of course, we were back on roads that were not so exciting. I got to this point, I can't remember what it was called, something like Mile 20 lift? A bunch of photographers on a huge lift above us taking pictures. Maybe you can tell how bright it was getting:
At this point I was really starting to drag. Soon after the lift, I started to walk, I remember seeing the Wide World of Sports kind of near us. It was just so hot! And I started to feel the pain in my feet and legs. There was a slight hill around Mile 21, and after topping that, I started to run (at this point, really it was a jog) again. I knew that MGM was close.
Yep MGM was close. Around mile 22, we went in through a back entrance right onto the set of their backstage tour. We actually ran through the wardrobe tunnel. I got really cheered up to see High School Musical costumes in the windows. They also passed out mini chocolates...I think this was the last food station. We ran right by the big hat, which was also pretty cool. We ran through MGM out the front and onto the sidewalk that connects MGM to the back entrance of Epcot. At this point, I took another walking break. At first, I was very discouraged. I wanted to keep running, but the pain was just unbelievable. I've never felt that way before. I thought, it's just 4 more miles, that's nothing to me. Why does this hurt so freakin bad?! Then I just kept thinking about my training book though, and I held my head up high, because dangit, I was going to finish this thing!!! I prayed a lot in my head too, and I just kept thinking about my fan club and how much I loved them and couldn't wait to see them at the finish line. So I would run as much as I could, then walk. Then run again, then walk. Just basically did whatever I could take to keep moving forward. We ran around the Boardwalk and those resorts - I have some very unflattering pictures of me there if you really want to see them, haha.
Then finally, back into Epcot. You know that feeling when you come home after being gone for a long time, and you just feel so at peace and happy? That feeling flooded my heart. Oh hello Epcot. It's been 5 hours since I was here earlier in the morning, and I was SO glad to be back. Yay Epcot. We ran around the countries once more, and then back to the ball, and then the cheers were getting so thunderous that I started to cry. I couldn't believe all these people cheering us on. Waving signs, flags, etc. Even though I wanted to walk some more, I just had to keep going. The energy was incredible!!
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