I’m in a foul mood. It started poorly with an early morning run wherein a woman running toward me with light up laces yelled at me for not having lights on my shoes. It was 6:45 am, the sun was about to rise, I was on a well lit sidewalk. I wanted to tell her to go to a place of eternal damnation and heat but I was so baffled by her rudeness and know-it-all-ness that I was shell shocked silent.
I’m currently standing in a second line to enter the WDW Marathon Weekend expo after waiting in a separate line to pick up my Dopey Challenge bib and bag. In that line, the line marshalls made us march the fully tape demarcated queue, despite the fact that there weren’t enough people to warrant such a forced march and we could have just walked directly into the building. But orders are orders I guess.
I stopped at the Coca Cola Cheer Station to shoot a spirit video. I both am happy about and regret my shirt choice. Apparently it takes up to 24 hours to upload so I don’t have a link to it yet… but let’s just say (god, I hate that phrase… why not just say what you’re going to say instead of tagging it with “Let’s just say….” Get on with it, already!), let’s just say that I can hear the people sing…
I digress. Perhaps because I’m in this f’in line of comically insane proportions. You’d think EVERYTHING was free at the expo instead of it essentially being a runner mall merchandise extravaganza wherein there’s a VIRTUAL queue to get into a physical queue to try and buy shoes based on Disney attractions. Shoes based on attractions! And nary a Mr. Toad shoe in sight!
Still, I’m trying to get my traditional runDisney Ms Chiquita Banana photo. So here I stand in this infernal line.
You know it’s a long line when there are multiple water aid stations set up.
What am I doing here?!
Sigh. I normally find running to be a stress relief and a means to endorphin boosts. But this is just an aggravating rolling boulder of twisted rage and stress.
Told you I was in a foul mood.
***
After 37 minutes of being in line, I finally made it inside the Josten Center at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports. It was the same as every year… albeit perhaps less so too. After all that, in my quest to once again meet Ms. Chiquita Banana, she was on break and all they had to appease the masses was a lame Chiquita Plinko Board wherein a chip in a 1 slot netted you a banana, a 2 slot delivered apple slices, and a three slot was dealer’s choice. The guy working the board asked me what I wanted before I dropped the chip and despite landing in a 1, I won apple slices as my hopes were fulfilled. It’s the little things and to be honest, getting the apples instead of the bananas improved the day — which goes to show how kinda crappy the day was.
I ambled through YET ANOTHER QUEUE to access the Official runDisney Merchandise tent.
The designs this year were underwhelming to say the least or maybe I just wasn’t in the mood. I did like the back of the exorbitantly overpriced Dopey Challenge jacket (hint: it cost more than my Antarctica Marathon jacket):
I had pretty much resigned myself to this day being a time waster when as I rounded the corner who should I behold by Ms. Chiquita Banana herself! I grabbed a photo, albeit without the traditional banana hat (which by the way was sitting RIGHT BEHIND ME but I didn’t want to be TOO pushy). Still, tradition is upheld:
On my way out the door, I stopped at a few of the free photo booths both in the expo and at the “overflow” expo at the Champion Stadium next door. The fruits of such labors, as I’m on a banana kick, are as follows:
To save paper… or more likely to save some greenback paper… runDisney didn’t give me a runner’s participant booklet. So I’m checking online for the race details. Tomorrow’s 5K is scheduled to start at 6 AM. I guess I’ll set my alarm for… 4 AM? That’s much too early to queue up in the corrals. After all the miles, you’d think I’d have a better grip on how to do this. I blame my FOWL mood for an inability to think straight.
“Aw, phooey,” as a speech impediment sailor might intone.
