Hello friends! Welcome to my third recap of the 2018 WDW Marathon Weekend. Check out parts one and two here and here. As you may know, I participated in my second Dopey Challenge, which includes running a 5K on Thursday, 10K on Friday, half marathon on Saturday and full marathon on Sunday for a total of 48.6 miles. Without further ado…here is my Half Marathon Recap.

After waking up at another ungodly hour…we made our way over to Epcot to get ready to run the third part of my Dopey Challenge. Just like the 10K race, I had Rachel with me for the half marathon. The weather was still quite cold and windy like the mornings before. We ended up sitting in the car again for a good 10-15 minutes to stay warm.

After walking over to the corrals and waiting for another 45 minutes or so, we were off! The nice thing about having Rachel with me was that I still had a full marathon to go at that point, and she is always good about pacing me during a race.

We ended up finding a great pace/speed and just enjoyed being together while running a very familiar course. (This was the 6th time I’ve run this particular half marathon course.)

The course takes you around Epcot through the Transportation and Ticketing Center, up to the Magic Kingdom (including running through Cinderella’s Castle!) and back down to Epcot.

Quite a few of the miles are just on the roads, but Disney does a good job of spreading out numerous cheering sections, high school marching bands and character picture stops along the way.

As we crossed the finish line, I couldn’t help but be very grateful to have 3 of the 4 races out of the way.

After grabbing our medals and water/runner’s boxes, we actually headed over to the Disney character area and got a finisher picture with Pluto and Goofy!

We ended up seeing our friends Nick and Ciara at the end as well. They are always so sweet to come see us during the races. Unfortunately, the wind/cold was still very present, and after a few minutes, we were ready to get back to the condo and clean up/warm up.

The agenda for the rest of the day was pretty simple…Disney Springs for a few hours and the #werunsocial meet-up, and then back to the condo to rest up for my last big race!

We ended up getting to the Disney Springs area around lunchtime. After grabbing some food and walking around for a bit, we headed over to the #werunsocial meet-up.

One of the best things about running is the community, and #werunsocial is about just that. It is a group of passionate runners that love to meet up and support each other. So, when the chance to get together arises, that’s what we do. In fact, I’ve made several great friends through this community. I wouldn’t trade it for anything!

After spending some good time with running friends, we made our way back over the condo for the rest of the afternoon/evening. We grabbed some pasta (CARBO LOAD!!!) later that afternoon and I began to get ready for the final race, the marathon!! At this point, I was 22.2 miles down and 26.2 miles to go to finish my second Dopey Challenge!

Stay tuned for the fourth recap…WDW Marathon Weekend: Marathon.