The 2022 WDW 5K – “The Ballad of Bouncer Roo”

With the ongoing pandemic and its resultant travel advisories/bans, my favorite tour group is once again unable to make it to the runDisney events. I’ve often waxed rhapsodic about them, so this is my tribute to TravellingFit, courtesy of their mascot Skippy’s American cousin, Bouncer Roo.

Crikey, Bouncer Roo!  We best be careful!  Who knows what other creatures we may encounter!

It has been a long time since we all could snap a photo with runDisney… and like the rest of the world, the new normal is both familiar and strange.  Lots of crowds, most masked and trying to keep a distance, but plenty of awkwardness, too.

The character interactions are as I expected, more standee and cutouts than live and in person…

But some things never change… lines for the porta-loos!  Bouncer didn’t miss this…

The staging areas and corrals, which apparently aren’t called “corrals” anymore but instead are called “groups” or sometimes “seedings?”  Except when they DO want to call them corrals, in which case, um… well…

Since I still call Lot C at the airport “The Blue Lot… where the crazed astronaut parks!” I guess re-branding doesn’t always stick.  And I’ll be darned if I ever call the Staples Center in LA the “Crypto.com Center.”  But I digress…

I did catch up with my old runDisney pal Nick Tarvin, a fellow long-term Dopey-runner who two years ago helped get me to the marathon finish line when I was REALLY struggling.  Nice to catch up with him… looking to try and snag a photo without portajohns in the background at tomorrow’s race.

Bouncer appreciated the fireworks at the start of each corral… er, I mean “group.”

For the record, I’m not the only one to snap photos excessively…

This being a 5K, there wasn’t a lot of time to snap pics… but I still took what I could when I could.  And there were a few actual character opportunities, even if they were roped off and in the distance as we stood socially distanced…

One or two stops didn’t have a cast member to shoot a pic with your phone… so I selfie-d this one and honestly it brings me a little, ahem, Joy.

The highlight of the course?  Sure, sure… it’s fun to see Epcot illuminated and EAR-idescent for the 50th Celebration of WDW…

But unquestionably the biggest thrill was seeing this: The “slightly-less-well-known-than-the-backside-of-water!”

Crikey, Bouncer! Its the BACKSIDE of the EIFFEL TOWER!

 Anyhoo, Bouncer Roo and I finished the race and snagged a couple of standee pics before calling it a day…

We missed Skippy and the rest of the TravellingFit crew, but sent some selfies to let them know they were here in spirit.

Oh, and we were able to reassure them that the finisher’s box still has the genetically enhanced cheese flavored substance (which is perhaps best described as “cheeze” with a Z).

One race down, three to go.