In case you haven't figured it out by now, Andrew and I were having a hell of a good time for ourselves at the Disney Marathon.
It was like a jolly holiday, in fact.
The day was practically perfect in every way
Middle of the race, on the roads behind the Magic Kingdom, up alongside the Grand Floridian and Polynesian resorts, and then along backroad access ways between the parks.
It's a stretch where the villains come out in droves.
But not here.
Here, it's our favorite heroines, Jack and Heather, waiting to cheer us on behind the Polynesian
Can I just reiterate how gross it is that I'm sweating this much and it's only Mile 7?
(Insert Bodyglide promotional plug here.) Runners know of what I speak.
Truth be told this stretch of the race is one my favorites. It's on roads that you would otherwise never navigate or even see during a routine visit to any of the parks. The roads pass through acres and acres of isolated brush and wetlands that hide untold secrets of the Disney property.
But it's also where you encounter some of the rarest of characters, the ones you don't normally get to rub shoulders with in the parks.
And it provides you unique moments such as an up close opportunity to inspect the wicked queen's cauldron
Or the chance to flex muscles with Mulan's favorite bad guy, Shan Yu. The only thing missing here was my adorable daughter asking me why the bad guy wanted to hurt Mulan.
Captains Jack Sparrow and Barbossa were hamming it up with the landlubbers
As was Aladdin's nemesis, the evil vizier/wizard Jafar, complete with his King Cobras
This kid is Brave, I tell 'ya.
Heading into Animal Kingdom via the back way, we saw our only sunlight of just about the entire run. Or for that matter, nearly the whole trip. Ironically, during my last outing at the Disney Marathon, running with the brothers Scanlon, this was the same stretch where we first saw sunlight and also bumped into Captain Hook. The good Captain was nowhere to be found on this day, though.
Runners will understand this aside, but this couple below was a pair of fellow runners, a mother-daughter team that we kept bumping into at nearly all of the photo opportunities, because we were running at nearly the same pace for the first half of the marathon. We had lots of laughs together. In fact, they snapped some of the previous pics you see above, and we returned the favor. It was a wonderful parallel, this father-son duo sharing the experience with a mother-daughter tandem who were virtually the same ages.
Cheers to the Reinbrechts of Sylvania, Ohio!
Mufasa and Simba with the rest of the wild animals
A king's time as ruler rises and falls like the sun. One day, Andrew, the sun will set on my time here, and will rise with you as the new king..
The vultures were circling, waiting to prey on the slower runners
My boa was ready to keep running
The wildlife in Animal Kingdom was more than we could bear
The Tree of Life
Climb every mountain, run every race
Heading out of Animal Kingdom, on one of the longer straightaways of the entire race, where there's not much to distract you, you suddenly come across these cryptic crypt diggers
Yeah, I know how you feel, Andrew
Things were looking grave, but we kept our wits about us.
On to the home stretch!
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