We were off! The beginning of the race still felt congested but not as bad as the half marathon had been. We started with 6/4 intervals this time, hoping it would leave us time for more pictures. We wanted to stop for as many characters as we could, but did not want to feel rushed in making up time to keep a 16 minute pace including stops.
For the most part we planned to skip the characters we had gotten pictures with the day before. But, our Nightmare Before Christmas picture from the half marathon was very blurry and this was a favorite of ours. We stopped for another picture. I ended up buying a picture package afterwards (I wasn't planning to at the time) so it ended up not being necessary. But having extra pictures is always fun.
The sun was coming up when we stopped. We watched other runners go by while waiting for Jack and Sally.
We had another bathroom break early on. Although I had gone around 5:00 AM when we were getting to our corral, I had to go again by the time the race stared for us at 6:15 AM. I was going to try to wait until we made it to MK but I gave up before that when we saw short lines at a group of port-o-potties along the way.
Mile 1: 13:35
Mile 2: 12:09
Mile 3: 14:39
Mile 4: 15:35
Mile 5: 11:45
The 6th mile took us down Main Street in Magic Kingdom again. I was so happy to get to do this part of the run twice in one weekend! We went through Fantasyland before the castle and stopped for a picture with Alice and the Mad Hatter.
I was wearing my No Meat Athlete shirt (from a blog I like), which has a carrot on the front and says Runs on Plants on the back. I got a lot of love for my shirt during the race, with several other runners telling me they run on plants too. One guy told me he loved my shirt, even though he eats meat (and hoped I didnt hate him for it).
When Alice saw my shirt she said, Oh look! She likes carrots. The Mad Hatter said, She must be a rabbit
the white rabbit! That is why everyone is chasing her! They were so funny.
We stopped for a couple of princess photos we had missed the day before. I loved the background of the New Fantasyland for these photos with Ariel and Belle.
Next up was the castle! My absolute favorite! The line for pictures with a royal Mickey and Minnie was very long so we decided to pass on that one and just ran through the castle.
I just love how happy I look running through the castle and MK! If only every training run could go through the MK. This is my favorite picture from the race:
We were sad that Jessie from Toy Story was not in Frontierland when we ran through. I figured she might just be on a break. We made another bathroom stop while we had access to real bathrooms (and soap).
We stopped for a picture with Cinderella and the Prince just outside of Magic Kingdom. It was a very long line but it was another one we had skipped in our previous Disney races. I took a few pictures while we waited in line.
Eventually it was our turn!
This was probably our longest wait for a picture during the entire race, but it was worth it.
Mile 6: 20:52
Mile 6 was a long one thanks to all the stops, but we knew we would make up for it. Up next, we run through the Speedway!