Let's talk the Expedition Everest 5k Obstacle Course Scavenger Hunt. First off, what a name. Second, it was fantastic! Everything started Friday, the day before the event, when you went to pick-up all your goodie bags and race gear. This is when we got our awesome shirts, our race bibs, and some other fun stuff in the race bag.
Everything had to be picked up from the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex and man was that place busy! Some advice to anyone who is planning on doing their first runDisney event would be to pick up their goods the day prior to the race. We had to go both Friday and Saturday because the person at the pick-up counter did not give the hubs his license back. Between the massive cheering event (which I think they plan on runDisney event weekends) and the massive morning races going on, the place was a mad house.
Fast forward to that evening and it was super fun. Again, everything was more crowded than I have ever seen Disney so getting into restaurants without a 40-minute wait was near impossible, but we were able to get a table pretty quick at Splitsville and have some yummy sushi a few hours before the run. runDisney recommended that we get to the Animal Kingdom by 8:30- about 2-hours before the race.
We were able to get to the parking lot by about 8:15 and decided to stay in the car for a bit since there was a legitimate cold front going through and it was raining as well. Once we got into the run area everything was laid out super easy. Dropped off the bag, found our corral, then hit the pre-race party without any hold backs.
The pre-race part was super fun with a massive aerobic dance workout lead by the nicest evil dance master ever. Seriously, it was a workout... but a fun one! We stayed at the front dance party area for a while, took some pictures at the photo-op areas, then headed to our "E" corral about an hour before the race started. The group dancing, also known as my favorite part, continued there!
Then, they started the races. Each corral was set to depart 6-minutes after the previous one. We were in corral "E" so we did not start the race until a little after 11:00 pm. It was still raining and still quite cold, but that ended up being the best thing ever with all the running and dancing and obstacle coursing.
First up on the obstacle course was the hay bales where some of our part got separated. Next, we ran through the park and got to see the most incredible view of Everest ever. Really, it looked like this. Of course, there were also characters throughout the run area and places to take pictures, but we did not do any of that for reasons I still do not understand.
The next obstacle was the tires, followed by the optional army crawl area. I did both and managed to stay up-right in the tires, even after a kind lady completely fell on me. Simple victories :) The hubs and I also met up during the run and were able to take a pretty awesome picture next to timed fire balls. It was pretty great, but I cannot find the picture anywhere on the runDisney photo section. Too bad.
After the army crawl, there was a short bit left, then the finish line where they handed out Cliff bars and bananas. Then came the scavenger hunt! This was the hardest. scavenger hunt. ever. Really. We had five clues, total, and needed help on four of them. But, once we answered our questions we ran across the finish one more time, got our finisher medals (which are the coolest things ever... working compasses!), and hit the post race party.
The party had singing and dancing and light beer and was held in Dinoland USA. It was pretty fun! We were able to do some more dancing, look at race products, ride Dinosaur, and go home. Overall, the race was incredible and just makes me want to do another runDisney event as soon as possible! Look out Wine and Dine 2015, I'm coming for you!
