Disney's Tower of Terror 10 miler

This past weekend was runDisney's inaugural Tower of Terror 10-mile race.  Overall, I was extremely pleased with this event as well as my performance.

The festivities started on Friday with the Health & Fitness expo at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.  Here we picked up our packets, including our T-shirts and race bibs. 

This was by no means to the scale of the WDW Marathon Weekend Health & Fitness expo, but there were a decent number of vendors.  No one was handing out any freebies except for the Dannon yogurt booth, where we got a nice snack.  The only other free item to be gotten was the Lasting Commemoratives race poster, which you had to have a coupon for (found in the online goody bag emailed out prior to the race).  

 Hubby and I also decided to splurge a little on some of the runDisney race merchandise.  We came home with a pint glass, runDisney pin lanyard, the ToT car magnet and both pins (the pre-order and the medal replica).

I was lucky enough to get to work the Sparkle Skirts booth at the expo on Friday.  We had a relatively regular crowd at the booth, and I got to see a lot of friends as they stopped by to purchase a new skirt.  The best part was introducing new people to these skirts.  The fabric designs draw people in, but the features (anti-chafing, guaranteed to not ride up shorts, leg pockets and zippered waist pocket) sell the skirts.  I saw many people come in just to browse that left with at least one, and often two, skirts.  In addition to all the skirts on the website, they were also selling some one- and two-of-a-kind skirts.  Here are the two skirts I ended up going home with (the picture doesn't do them justice)... Green Goddess (one of the two-of-a-kinds) and Peacock Bordeaux.

SparkleTech Green Goddess (two-of-a-kind) and Peacock Bordeaux

Saturday, hubby & I were joined by a few friends for a breakfast buffet at Shades of Green's Garden Gallery, after which we headed out to the two outlet stores in Orlando.  We all did some serious damage at the two Disney outlets.  Laptop sleeves were 2 for $15, various t-shirts were only $5, and there was a ton of Disney Cruise Line merchandise, including a plethora of Disney Dream Inaugural Sailings merchandise.  After a few hours of shopping, we went back to relax in the resort room and get our things ready for the race.

Before we knew it, it was time to head out to the staging area for the race.  All parking was at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.  Once there, we were shuttled over to Disney's Hollywood Studios for pre-race staging.  Our group made it on to the first buses at 7pm.  Once at Hollywood Studios, we met up with all of our Running of the Ears friends until they made the call to corrals a little after 9pm.  We all wandered over to the A corral, made a final bathroom stop, and not long after that, were escorted to the start line.  Before we knew it, the countdown was on and we were sent on our 10-mile journey to the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror with fireworks.

It was an extremely humid night.  Many people were sweating while just standing around in the corrals waiting for the start, and it was less than a mile into the race before I was drenched.  My running husband Bob stayed with me for the first two miles.  Our race plan was to keep each other in check for those first two so we didn't go out too fast.  After we hit mile two, just before entering the Animal Kingdom parking area, we moved into race mode, though we didn't actually separate for another mile or so.  The race was going well at this point and I hit the 5k mark in 24:38 (7:56 pace).  I knew going in to the race that there was a good chance that I'd need a bathroom stop... it was just a matter of when it was going to hit.  I was good until about mile 5.5 and it hit.  Thankfully, this occurred as we entered Wide World of Sports from the trail, and there were real bathrooms available for use.  I lost about 2 minutes off my pre-stop pace there.  Bummed, but I'd been expecting it so it didn't bother me much.  Got back on my way and hit the 10k mark in 51:53 (8:21 pace)... which included a nearly 9:30 pace mile during my stop.  After that, I felt great, though it took me the next two miles to get back to my race pace again (all the sharp turns in the WWoS Complex could have had something to do with the slower pace too). 

Most of the race course was along Osceola Parkway - it was cool to see all the runners on the other side.  Watching for friends makes for a great distraction from the heat & humidity.  There was also a good amount of music on the course, and they had various characters scattered along the route.  Each mile marker was designated by a particular villain, however I cannot for the life of me remember exactly which ones I saw.  We entered Hollywood Studios at Lights, Motor, Action just before mile 9 and ran the remainder of the race in the park, weaving through the Streets of America, Pixar Place and finishing in front of the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.  About a half mile before the finish, I spotted my friend Jay running ahead of me.  Even though I was seriously wearing down at the point, I managed to push through and catch up to him.  This turned out to be the push we both needed as we were able to hold a sub-7 pace for the last stretch.  I ended up finishing in 1:22:14 (8:14 pace), which is a new PR for me.  Not bad for a humid night and a 2-minute bathroom stop detour.  I can only imagine what I might have done if I hadn't needed to stop.  I finished as the 35th female and 6th in the 30-34 age group... my highest finish ever in a big race (10400 entrants, 8724 finishers, 5653 females).

After finishing, Jay & I met up with Bob and found our way to bag check.  Sadly, this was on the complete opposite side of the park.  Though the walk was painful, I understand why they chose the venue they did for this.  They put it in a huge amphitheater where they could spread things out for easy locating and where runners wouldn't end up in a traffic jam.  They also provided changing tents that runners could utilize to put on dry clothes before heading out to the after party.

Our group didn't stick around for the Disney Villains Hollywood Bash.  It was looking pretty crowded and we were all exhausted and a few weren't feeling particularly well.  After a quick and easy bus ride back to WWoS, we were in the car heading back to Bay Lake Tower.

Got to see something pretty cool on the drive back.  We'd noticed during the day that they were putting the Christmas lights up on Cinderella's Castle in the Magic Kingdom.  As we drove back to the resort around 2am, they actually had them all lit up for testing!  The Castle is absolutely gorgeous when lit up for Christmas.

Overall, this was a great trip and I thoroughly enjoyed the race.  I can't wait to do it again.  Next year, we will be on a 7-night Disney Fantasy Eastern Caribbean Cruise the week prior to the race, getting off the ship the morning of the event.

WELL DONE runDISNEY!!  See you in 6 weeks for the Wine & Dine Half Marathon!