Pre-race prep:
“Day” of race: Sigh. This is madness.
And yet… people are already lined up for character meet and greets. Like a lemming, I join the queues.
We were supposed to be in the Staging Area by 4:30 am at the latest… that’s so they could move us into the three corrals (A, B, and C) and have us stand around until… well, at least until 5:30 AM if you were in the first corral. They actually would break up the three main corrals into smaller “sub-corrals” to create a wave system of probably 30 corrals… but it sounds so much better to say there are “just 3 corrals” on the race literature. I assume there were something like 30 corrals because there was a minute or two between each “sub-corral” and as I was walking to my car at 6:30-ish the last corral was just setting off on their run. Talk about madness — they’d been standing around then for at least 2 hours. Those folks are amazing to me — true champions on top of their racing for putting up with that.
Given my racing record and times, I was in Corral A. The sub corrals are on a first-come, first out basis and thus because I had lined up for corral access a bit earlier than 4:30, I was lucky enough to be in the first sub corral of A. It makes all the difference to get out there and to the photo opps early. The lines just get progressively longer as the race wears on. That said, I may have missed some characters who were between scheduled appearances. Such is life, ya know?
The other bonus of starting in the first sub-corral is that you can finish fairly quickly because you aren’t bogged down waiting in lines. I think I wound up with a 22 minute and change 5K. And as a result, I was able to somewhat quickly make my way through the post-run meet and greets.
The Flintstone Onesie inspired a few appreciative nods from voluntEARS and fellow runners. Even the world famous Disney characters appreciated it once I told them I was sure someday soon they’d buy Hanna Barbara from Warner Brothers.
Anyhoo, I could tell tales of annoying British couple who cut the character lines and had the audacity to say to me, “That’s how you do it, mate!” I could tell you how I replied back to them, “Actually, that’s exactly how NOT to do it.” And the resultant stink eyes they shot me. But why focus on the negative?
Tomorrow — the Oswald The Lucky Rabbit 10K… as this year Minnie Mouse is kinda sharing the Marathon with Mickey. It feels counter-progressive and yet entirely of the moment that an older male would take the place of a female. Sigh. Madness.
Side Note: I love Oswald, I do. But I just feel like it’s kinda short changing Minnie, ya know? Like that lousy British couple thinking all’s fair in love and character photos. I tend to think all’s fair when all is fair… but what do I know… I just ran a 5K courtesy of my two feet:
Side Note 2: Fred’s dead, kiddos. Fred’s dead.
