tower of terror 10 miler: reprise

Well, it's officially been a year since my first ever RunDisney race!  ToT was my first official race over 5K, and it was a learning experience and the beginning of a (healthy? expensive?) addiction.  

If you click back and find my write-up of the ToT 10 Miler last year- http://maggierunsdisney.blogspot.com/2013/10/running-disneys-tower-of-terror-10.html -take a look at it because I'm going to offer up some comparisons.  Some things were better (my experience at the expo) and some were, well, a little less exciting than last year (characters?)  

I was actually looking forward to the expo this year!  I literally had a shopping list of stuff I wanted to pick up.  MUCH better than how you would have found me last year, panicking and hiding in the bathroom.  The products in the booths were not so foreign and the crowds weren't as bad.  I got in, got my bib- last year, Corral G; THIS year, Corral B!  Woot woot!  I ended up buying some Raw Threads shirts (one for me and one for Stars Wars friend Lizzy Dragon), sparkly skirts from Sparkle Athletic, a massage stick, compression calf sleeves, and 4 Bondi Bands because Scot wanted some more of them but was like "Get me some manly ones with skulls or beer on them or something" but the Bondi Band girls were like, we don't have beer ones because this is Disney so how about this one with a glittery skull on it?  So, Scot got a headband with a glittery skull on it.  I shopped until about 20 minutes til closing then made the trek back home.

*Side note- I was stuck with a rental car all weekend long because the people at the dealership apparently think that "I need an oil change" means to replace my water pump from a recall without telling me and making my car have to sit overnight because they just couldn't get it done before the place closed.  So yeah with all the driving back and forth from home to work to Disney and back multiple times, I put 350 miles on that car in 5 days.  HA.*

After work on Saturday, I got down to All Star Movies, checked in, got something to eat in the food court (chicken and mashed potatoes, it's what I ate last year and I wasn't going to change anything!), then went back to the room for a good 2 hour nap.  

 We were in the "Love Bug" building!

I'd been worried the past 2 days about my calves, though.  They cramped up something awful on Thursday and I could barely walk, much less point or flex them on Friday. Stairs?  Nope.  That's what my new massage stick was for!  I rolled that thing all over my legs for hours before the run the day before and again that night.  Painful!  I was hope hope hoping that they wouldn't cramp back up during the run.  

When Scot got to the room after work, I got into my new Haunted pattern Sparkle Skirt and put on my light-up rings I got from the party store for 99 cents.  "Will Run For Cupcakes" headband on, and we headed to the bus.  Scot didn't come to the staging area with me like he did at Disneyland, he stayed back to get some sleep and would find me near the finish.

I joined the group dancing with the DJ in the staging area after I arrived- I didn't feel nervous like I did the year before for starters.  I didn't feel like the dancing around was going to deplete me of my energy, either.  So, I managed to have a good time.  I've done the warm-up dances so many times now I think I've almost got them down!  "Rollin' on the River" is my favorite.

Made my way into B about 45 minutes before race start.  I LOVED how not crowded my corral was!  I had plenty of personal space, there were maybe 500 people inside my fence, as opposed to probably 1,500 or more in G last year.  We all kind of cheered when A headed out, then our turn came.  The walk to the start was long of course, but it was also very quiet.  No one was talking, I was up front and we just all silently walked behind the volunteers with the ribbon separating us from the A group.  Like, it was creepy quiet.  However, once we got up to the start line the energy picked back up a little and everyone was looking ready for a good run.  The "hosts" up on the front stage, if you can call them that, were their usual awkward selves so I kinda sorta paid attention.  Talked to a couple people around me a bit.  Come on, let's get this thing going!  Finally, that familiar Twilight Zone music played, a countdown started, fireworks shot out of the top of the starting line, and A was off!  2 minutes later, it was the exact same thing and my Corral B crossed the start line into the night, with 10 miles ahead of us.

Here's something I learned from last year and made sure to implement in every race since- start in the front!  I was the last person in G to cross the start line last year and I spent the first 2 miles walking at a slow to brisk pace because it was too crowded to run.  This year?  I was out and making good strides right away.  Also, there wasn't that character stop less than a mile in like last year.  Not as much bottle-necking.

The first mile went by super fast!  I was at just under a 9 min/mile and felt great.  Calves were doing good, I had plenty of personal space to run.  The big fireball that they had last year in the pond along the exit ramp was gone, replaced by a big glowing eyeball.  Meh.  I was looking forward to the run through the Animal Kingdom toll booth, where they had the music and stilt walkers and puppets last year!  As I approached it, I saw the first character, Jafar.  Pass.  Animal Kingdom awaits!  

Um... hello?  Anybody here?  I was really disappointed when I got to AK- the stilt walkers weren't there this year, no puppets, no music.  Well, maybe a little music, but mostly just a recording of animal sounds.  I remember hearing an elephant.  And volunteers telling us to watch the speed bump.  Poo.  I paused to take a photo on the turn around on the bridge and giant spider.  My speed was still doing better than I expected so I was okay stopping.

After I hit mile 3, I heard a loud BOOM go off from what I assumed were the last set of fireworks at the start.  I looked across the median and saw a MASS of people!  Was I really in that last year?  I looked around me- the closest person to me was at least 20 feet away!  It looked like there was barely any room to even move in the farther back corrals.  I could see the line for Jafar was close to 100 people deep already.  Ick!  I kept going!  I started looking for Anita at the water station at Mile 4.  I found her at the end, grabbed a cup from her, said a quick "Hi!" and kept moving.  There were a couple more character stops along the way- Captain Hook and the hyenas from Lion King.  Pass.  The Queen of Hearts, well, I gave her a wave.  Just so she wouldn't want my head.

I made it to the first medical stop at the 5 Mile turn to go down the dirt trail into WWOS.  There was already a girl runner bent over on a chair outside the tent.  Rough.  Me?  Time still doing good, calves good and overall feeling fantastic!  I caught myself thinking, "It's only been 45 minutes and already it's halfway over!  Another 45 minutes and I'll be at the finish!"  Time was flying by!  The run down the trail was amazing!  The fog effects were nice, I saw the Wicked Queen as the Old Hag, and the temperature started dropping.  A front had come through earlier that day and running down that trail felt like someone just had a nice cool fan blowing on me the whole time!  It was a huge difference from the year before where I couldn't even see where I was going through the wall of people.  I had maybe 3 or 4 people in my vicinity this time.  Great!  As I popped out of the woods and onto the sidewalk, I looked over at the soccer fields- no special effects needed, there was a misty layer of fog covering the field!  The air was noticeably cooler now.  

I noticed something about the spectators at WWOS that was different than last year- it seemed like there might be fewer of them.  I think that's because my corral started ahead of 8 others that no one was there yet to cheer on family and friends farther back.  It seemed a lot quieter.  I ran up on a group of characters dressed as OHMIGOD IT'S THE HAUNTED MANSION GRAVEDIGGERS!  No picture line, I jumped right over and handed the photographer my phone.  It took maybe 10 seconds and I was running again.  

Less than a mile later OHMIGOD IT'S STITCH!  No line here either.  Snap, then on my way.  

My paces were still looking like anywhere between 8:20/mile and 8:40/mile.  With slowing down for water and a couple photos, I was still under a 9 min/mile!  The WWOS route took us around the track and into the baseball field again.  Again, the crowds were smaller but there were some folks that demonstrated pretty great enthusiasm for their numbers.  The 10K mark was inside the stadium, I hit it hard then sailed around the field and out back towards the main road.  Zombie football players and zombie cheerleaders for a team I've never heard of?  Pass.  I'd just turned back on to Osceola Parkway when OHMIGOD THE HAUNTED MANSION BALLROOM GHOSTS!  This one had a line!  Well, I mean, there was one guy finishing up and one girl after him and then me, so, you know. 

My favorite picture of the whole race!

It was a short little bit to the next water stop and Mile 8.  I remember last year this time my legs started hurting pretty bad.  This time I was still feeling good and glided back in to Hollywood Studios.  I just happened to see a guy in front of me stopping to take a picture of the top of the bridge so I looked up- hey, it's Hades!  Barely visible, but there.  Through the toll booth we went, and immediately around a construction wall and into the Lights! Motors! Action! set.  They had a video camera set up here as well as some more Marathonfoto guys.  I'd tried earlier to smile and not look awkward but I just do NOT take a good night photo.  We'll see what we get with that.  Most of the time I look bug-eyed and completely spastic.

I could hear some crowd noise as I approached the Mickey hat, I was keeping an eye out for Scot.  I saw him, standing behind a crowd.  I ran over and paused to give him a kiss as he fumbled his way to the front of the crowd "You're early!" he exclaimed.  Nice.  Off I went- the park crowd was really cheering loud now, the finish line was a half mile away!  I ran into the costume tunnel, it was lit up with a disco ball and music and flashing lights- such fun!  Felt like a party!  The finish line came up quick after that, and I kicked it into high gear hoping to finish in under an hour and a half.  

Yay!  Finish line!  Medal!  Free banana!  3 kinds of PowerAde?  Wow, what a luxury!  Blue, please!  The walkout from this race was as long as I remembered it from last year.  And dark!  However, I think we all came out at a different spot- closer to the Beauty and the Beast show than the main gate.  I found Scot under the L balloon back near the Mickey hat and ran up to him, jumping up and down- my race time for this makes a sub-2 hour half marathon actually possible!  Unheard of until today!  He was wearing a sweater.  Uh, what?  Turns out, that front cooled everything down to about 70 degrees!  I felt great for about 2 hours before I had to put my jacket on.  We rode some rides- good thing about finishing fast is that we didn't wait for than 5 minutes for anything!  Got myself a Mickey ice cream bar, yummmm.  By the time 12:30 rolled around, and definitely by 1am, everything had a 40 minute wait so we headed back to the hotel for some well-deserved sleep.  

Here's my info!

Bib # 519

Net time- 1:29:37

Place- 623/9,389 (top 6%)

Gender place- 182/6,150 (top 2%)

Age place- 38/1,102 (top 3%)

Update: as of today, I found out that there will be no Tower of Terror 10 Miler next year.  It could possible be due to upcoming construction at DHS, for the new Star Wars Land and/or whatever is taking the place of the Backlot Tour.  I have it from a reliable source that DHS is getting the Indiana Jones Ride from Disneyland, too, though.  Please let that be one of the upcoming projects!