Disney's Inaugural Enchanted 10k Race Report

The first half of the Glass Slipper Challenge. If you read the first two entries from my weekend(and if you didn't, you can read them here and here), you'd know I'd been battling a stomach virus in the days prior. The day before the 10k, I felt better, but eating and drinking weren't quite meshing with me, so I wasn't able to pack my food in like I normally would before races. After a day at Epcot on Friday, I was able to sleep well Friday night, and woke up feeling even better on Saturday morning, although still far from 100%.

The events leading up to the race, the snafu with billing and having to hash that out, on top of being wiped out by that stomach bug, on top of just being pregnant, had me in a bit of a funk. I wasn't thrilled with the 2:45 am wake up call, but tried to turn my frown upside down.

This race was different from my others. Usually my husband has played supporter in the sense that he takes care of our 3 kids while I run and race. He has never been to any of my races before, local or otherwise. It's not an issue, dragging our 3 hell spawn cherubic offspring out in public for a race isn't the easiest job, so he supported me by keeping them at home. But this time was different. It was just him and me on this trip and I'd convinced him to run the 10k with me. I was excited to do this with him and to give him a taste of my Disney racing obsession.

We had the pleasure of being able to leave a little bit later because instead of waiting for a bus, we were able to take the monorail over to the Epcot parking lot. The ease of this over the buses was definitely a plus. We arrived and went to meet the rest of the DisBroads. All of us, with the exception of summer, were doing this race.

The DisBroads had a Mary Poppins theme going on, I was too lazy to follow along for this race, and my husband isn't that much of a team player.

Aside from being the first race I was doing with my husband, this was also my first time meeting DisBroad Shannon in person. Patty, Shannon and I met long before Disney running and the DisBroads and the blogs. About 6 years ago, we met in an online group for, let's just say, like minded political folks. We've since ditched the politics and chosen to bury our heads in Disney's sand. It's a much friendlier way to live life.

The girls were happy and dancing and me, I was still feeling funky. At the start of the race, they were going to go ahead and the husband and I were going to be taking it easy. I was pregnant and still weak, and my husband hadn't done one lick of training. Normally that kind of thing wouldn't have been recommended, but well, it turns out he had no issues with this and I spent most of the race trying to keep up with him. Men.

We started off from Corral C, the middle of the pack. All of the waiting and naturally, as soon as we set off, I had to go to the bathroom. The first mile and a half of the race is one big stretch of highway. There is nothing there, and this includes bathrooms. I grew increasingly irritated with Disney's lack of planning in terms of restrooms. For as long as we have to stand in the corrals and wait to set off, they could at least slap some portapotties within the first mile. But no, not this time. At almost 1.5 miles in, I had to go to the bathroom so badly. We came to a medical tent and there was one, yes, one bathroom. I got in line but after a couple of minutes I wasn't willing to wait anymore. We ditched the line and I was forced to do something I have never done before. I had to head off into the wooded median to drop my drawers and relieve myself in the woods. Not cool Disney. Not cool.

Feeling much better, we continued on. The first 5k was down, and we still hadn't seen anything of any interest along the way. I was very disappointed in the course thus far. the lines for the few characters we had passed were very long and we decided not to wait, not to mention the characters themselves weren't anything exciting.

Finally, at around 3.5 miles in, we entered Epcot, from a back gate that lead into Norway. We ran around the World Showcase and out the back gate. Here is where my grand plan kicked in. Months before, when the race course came out, I saw that part of it went along the Boardwalk, right past the Boardwalk bakery. There is a certain dessert, a cheesecake brownie, that I dream of. During our last trip, the bakery was closed for renovations, so I missed out. It had been years since I had one, and I fully intended to stop in and grab a snack during the race. Carb loading or eating for two or something like that, right?

Plus I figured it would make for great pictures. I'm all about photo ops. Luckily the bakery opened at 6:30 so by the time we made it to that part of the race, it was open and my brownie was waiting. So when we hit it, I stopped in.

And I scored!

Things were going well as we entered Epcot again and came up on mile 6. I had to go to the bathroom again and we passed an actual restroom in the park, so we stopped. My husband told me to hurry, so I set off to jog. And there it was. A sharp, shooting pain in my lower back, that traveled up my back and down my leg. I immediately stopped and told him I couldn't. It hurt. A lot. I limped to the bathroom and went, still in pain. I wasn't sure what happened, but walking was very hard from that point on. I just wanted to finish the race, eat my brownie and sit down. I figured I needed a good stretch and to lay down for a bit. We finished in 1:49, my slowest 10k ever, especially considering aside from bathrooms and the bakery, we didn't stop. I was happy to be done. We had breakfast planned, I wanted a shower and to take some Tylenol and get my back to feeling better.

Unfortunately, my  back problems were just beginning.

So my overall thoughts on this race. I was not a fan of the course. The first half was about as boring as boring gets. I had done the Tink 10k 5 weeks prior and that had a much busier course, with lots to see. This course didn't, and if this is standard for 10k courses at WDW, this was probably my first and last 10k. With as expensive as that 10k is, I'd like to see a little more jazz out there. I was also pretty miffed at the lack of amenities along the first couple of miles of the race course. Given the weather  is usally warm for these races and people are hydrating quite a bit, then the wait in the corrals before starting the race, you'd think something like bathrooms would be common sense within the first mile. Apparently Disney didn't feel the same way. With the course as boring as it was, from long stretches of highway to the not so wowing characters on the course, I can't see myself signing up for this particular race again.