It is I, BB-8KSH. You may not recognize me with my mouse ears. But that’s how I roll when I’m at the inaugural Star Wars Dark Side 5K.
It was a typically early morning for a runDisney event, albeit crowded earlier than even I expected given my mantra of “I should get there early… maybe even earlier than that.”
And so despite arriving at 4:40 AM for a 5:30 start, they had already closed off pre-race character lines. This was due to the sheer volume of runners waiting and the time it would take to corral us into our corrals. Nonetheless, I was able to score a shot with my brother from another droid mother… and to snag a shot with my mother and my brother from… You know what? You get the idea.
I was in the “A” Corral so thankfully I got to start in the earliest wave of runners (only the wheelchairs were ahead of us, as they should be). A lot of folks around me were going to be running all three days — today’s 5K, the 10K tomorrow, and the half marathon on Sunday. Ka-ching, ka-ching, ka-ching. Me? I was only doing the 5K and 10K so, ya know, just ka-ching, ka-ching.
The pre-race announcements were the usual patter and the uneasy balance of “hey, this is for real — the First Order/Empire is here and we’re training to be stormtroopers!” make-believe with the reality of, ya know, we’re at Walt Disney World and this is a running event. It’s a surreal mindgame — how much do you play along with the make believe and how much do you enjoy the moment as a bit of theatrical shenanigans? It’s a topic my Mom and I… I wouldn’t say wrestled with or struggled with… but it’s a topic we certainly laughed about: How exactly is one to pose next to a Dark Lord of the Sith who is REALLY into character? Should you smile? Stand off to the side? Hug him? Furthermore, it’s an intimidating moment to have a bounty hunter point authoritatively at you and motion you to stand next to the greatest smuggler in the galaxy currently frozen in carbonite. But narratively speaking if we’re talking about the First Order, Han has long ago been freed from hanging out at Jabba’s Palace… and Darths Maul and Vader are long dead and turned to dust in Kylo Ren’s victory rock garden of vanquished foes and friends. Yet we stand in line for Boba Fett, who if we agree this is the era of the New Order, is currently only 30 to 35 years into his thousand years digestion in the belly of the Sarlaac at the Great Pit of Carkoon. It all makes one’s head spin.
But at 5:30 AM when they said “punch it,” you take a few seconds to get the coordinates from the navi-computer, take off in a flash of light!
This 3.1 mile loop through Epcot was a fairly standard route for runDisney’s shorter events. This was the first year with DisneyPhotoPass taking over from MarathonFotos and they did a decent job of keeping things moving at the few character meet and greets along the way. It felt a little underpopulated to me, although they had a lot of characters in the parking lot for pre- and post-race pics… and it was a short distance…. Still, I couldn’t help but feel I missed out on the Ewoks at this moon of Endor backdrop in the opening mile:
From there it was a short push through the back entrances to the World Showcase, home to the various countries that ring the aptly named World Showcase Lagoon. Ducking and weaving past people to get to the next photo opp stop, I was treated to a droid reunion with R2-D2…
And a meet up with Ezra and Sabine, two of the Star Wars Rebels… albeit oddly no C1-10P (Chopper for short), a droid that would seemingly be easy to bring out for the fans.
I missed the turn out for Chewbacca and had to double back over the grass to say hello to my favorite Wookie…
Although I’ll always have a holiday special place in my heart for Chewie’s woefully inappropriate dad Itchy. I suggest a new strategy runDisney — let the Wookie pose with his family next time. To have a family portrait with Chewie, Malla, Lumpy and Itchy? The mind boggles.
Heading back into FutureWorld for the final mile, I stopped for a quick photo of topiary Mickey and Spaceship Earth… plus realized only to late I should have gone for a Bill Murray as John Winger in Stripes for my Storm Trooper review — that’s the fact, Jack!
Heading into the home stretch in the Explore Parking Lot, I heard what I think was the final corral being sent off. There was supposedly 6 minutes between the corrals meaning that I was coming in at just under 30 minutes for the 5K, folks in corral E were only just starting. I assume their lines along the course would be longer… I was lucky enough to start and finish before they got too bad.
Post-race, the various photo opps were still available and so we took advantage of what we could. Supposedly the same characters would be out and about for the other days’ events but I wasn’t sure if my Mom would be able to join me on Saturday. She was able to grab a few shots while I was running. I have to say, my Mom is incapable of looking mean or angry in the photos — she tries but it just doesn’t happen. I think she’s too nice and good a person to pull it off. She should never play poker.
But here’s some choice shots from the post-race festivities.
Characters were scheduled to be out until 8:30 AM. We waited for Captain Phasma until about 7:30 before deciding the line wasn’t moving and I was dripping from the humidity and getting a bit chilled… not because of the air temperature but simply because I was standing around. We felt like we had taken our best shots… one or two in a million… and so we figured we’d blow this thing and head home.
While that photo opportunity with Phasma may have been my last hope, the truth is that, no, there is another.
Tomorrow is a 10K. The force is strong with this one.
