Day 2, Part 1: Rogue Two, reporting for duty
Friday my alarm went off at 2:45 a.m. and I was out the door by 3:15 a.m. I was on the first bus to the runner's staging area armed with my fancy, collector's edition, one of a kind, custom made "DIS" sign so folks could find the pre-10K meetup.
Before I even got to the staging area, I ran into
@Z-Knight. We made our way to the designated meetup area and were soon joined by tons of runDisney all-stars, including
@FFigawi, aka John. It was great to meet John since we had interacted over the years on the Disboards, but had never met in person. Plus, we had a little adventure we were cooking up...
John had plans after the 5K to get a boarding group for a little ride you might have heard of called Rise of the Resistance. My recollection (John, correct me if I'm wrong) is those plans didn't work. So, I had proposed the day before that we try to get a boarding group after the 10K. After some consulting with fellow runDisney all-stars, a new option was proposed: get a boarding group *DURING* the 10K.
If you haven't run the 10K, the concept was simple in theory: leave the 10K course around Mile 4.5 (Boardwalk area), take the path to Hollywood Studios, get in the park before 7, use our phones to get a boarding group right after the park opened at 7, run back, avoid the balloon ladies and finish the 10K. Simple, right?
Well, maybe not so simple. We weren't entirely sure it could be pulled off for a number of reasons - starting time, pace, where would the balloon ladies be, etc. But, someone in our group chat gave us a super cool nickname: Rogue Two. And as far as I'm concerned, if you're going to be bestowed a really cool nickname, you darn sure better earn it.
So, with a lot of encouragement from our fellow runDisney all-stars, John and I left the meetup a little early to get to the front of Corral C, where we were both inexplicably placed for the 10K, despite times that suggested we should be in Corral B.
The timing of everything I'm doing a little bit from memory, so if my math is a little off, forgive me. I swear this whole adventure checks out.
We started around 5:40 a.m. and did approximately 10-minute miles. The first few miles were fairly uneventful, with the exception of
@Dis_Yoda hooking us up with Jello shots on the Boardwalk.
7ebf3366-c881-4ab4-8ff8-a9b3547414f6 by
Lee Hermiston, on Flickr
9b17d816-7b06-432f-86f2-6795534c1536 by
Lee Hermiston, on Flickr
Shortly after the shots, we veered off course. We didn't know if this was going to work, but dang it, we were committed to trying. Surprisingly, there was no one else on the path to DHS. I really thought someone else would be attempting this. So, either John and I are crazy or geniuses. I'll let the readers decide.
We got to DHS around 6:45 a.m. and into the park itself around 6:55 a.m. Just minutes to spare. We were definitely the only runners inside the park and we got a few looks, as well as a few questions. Most of them went like this:
Them: "Whoa, did you guys just finish the race?"
Us: "No! We're in the middle of it and we have to get back and finish!"
Them: *perplexed look*
As 7 a.m. approached, we shut off our WiFi, pulled up the
MDE app and started refreshing like crazy. At 7:01, I got the notification and we had a boarding group. Number 32 I believe. With our mission halfway accomplished (we still had to finish!), Rogue Two posed for a quick photo to commemorate the occasion.
(I don't know why it insists on uploading sideways, just tilt your screen)
Now, I'm a grown up, 36 year old man and John seems to be a fully-functional adult, as well, but I'm comfortable to admit that we were giddy on the run back to the 10K course. High fives and lots of, "I can't believe we pulled that off!" It was really awesome and some of the most fun I've ever had on a course. We, of course, sent texts to the group chat informing them we were successful in our pursuit.
On the way back, we didn't see any other runners and by the time we got there, it would have been pretty risky for anyone else to chance it. Given that boarding groups will *likely* be a thing of the past by next Marathon Weekend, chances are John and I are the only ones who will ever attempt this. Not gonna lie, I'm still dang proud of it. Rogue Two forever.
Anyway, we finished the 10K (now up to 8 miles).
2b72fc0f-ded9-4e04-be8f-3a1f94c444a5 by
Lee Hermiston, on Flickr
683659ef-0ced-4734-8311-fd62d33eaf73 by
Lee Hermiston, on Flickr
ee1ffab8-9c53-4994-bf9f-b7aaa4c2b971 by
Lee Hermiston, on Flickr
After celebratory parking lot beers and the first of many re-tellings of our adventure, I left to get on a bus back to my hotel so I could get cleaned up and, you know, actually use those RotR boarding groups we worked so hard to obtain.
John ... that was legendary.
b7043b6b-9933-4b98-863b-d66f93a9a79a by
Lee Hermiston, on Flickr
Next up ... RISE.