Two firsts were celebrated out at Disney’s Animal Kingdom on September 27th, one being the Inaugural Expedition Everest Challenge 5K, and the other was the fact that this was the first organized race that I have entered. You heard me right, I crawled out of the woods, shaved, and ran alongside a couple of thousand other people out at Animal Kingdom. And guess what? It was pretty cool!
In the past I’ve steered clear from participating in organized runs and other outdoor events, but I had a good time and think I’ll enter some more things in the future. My wife, who is a better runner than I am, kept me moving the whole time. I trained for this race mostly by consuming large amounts of fast food and Chek cola. I need a Chek cola intervention and support group, I can’t kick the habit.
We had to get down to Disney’s Wide World of Sports early and pick up our race packets, after that we drove over to Travel Country Outdoors to check out their fantastic summer porch sale. As usual, it was worth the trip, there were great deals on all sorts of gear and clothing.
After depleting our checking account at Travel Country, we spent the rest of the time before the race over at the Animal Kingdom Lodge relaxing. Apparently, lots of other runners had this idea as well, you could see the race armbands on what seemed like every other person there.
Ever been to Animal Kingdom at night? Since the park closes at dusk, not too many people have had the opportunity to hang out there after the sun sets. Once the race was over, there was one heck of a Disney-style party located over in DinoLand USA. How all these racers had the energy to boogie down and ride Everest beats the heck out of me. I was whipped. To my defense, I had gotten up really early and spent all morning out at the Croom Crusher Adventure Race, shopping at Travel Country, and consuming sugary beverages.
Well, you know the drill. Watch the video above for some highlights and the awards ceremony (it was too long, so I embedded the YouTube one) and check out the gallery for a couple o’ pics.
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