speedvegan

This year’s race was not as “magical” as last year’s, but we still had a blast ! As a reminder, this race includes a 5k through Animal Kingdom followed by an obstacle course and ending with a scavenger hunt through the park. There was supposed to be an after party, but nature had different plans for us this year.

We had until 3pm to pick up our packets this year, so we opted for driving there on Saturday and skipping the water park which I think really tired us out last year. I went for a ride early in the morning while Geoff dropped Luka off at Central Bark. It didn’t take long to get to Disney’s Wide World of Sports and pick up our packet. Disney’s got these race things all figured out. They’re extremely organized. The highlight of the packet pickup was getting race shirts that actually fit ! I was blown away.

Next we headed over to Ethos Vegan Kitchen for lunch. Ethos has got to be one of the best vegan restaurants I’ve ever tried and I’m so proud that it’s right here in our otherwise-anti-vegan state of Florida. Everything we’ve tried has been SO good. This time we opted for a bbq seitan sandwich (day’s special) and a seitan philly sandwich. They were both awesome, but I liked the philly better. I’m not a huge bbq fan.

After having a bit of a rest at the hotel, we headed out to the race. On the way, Geoff said “the sky looks ominous.” And boy, was it ! I feared it would rain but thought the race gods would wait until everyone was done with the obstacle course at least. We arrived at the race a few seconds before the first wave was off, so we had to wait for it to run past before we could park. We were in wave 8, so we had plenty of time to spare. Before we knew it, we were off.

The Run
I think our run was stronger this year. We picked up the pace quite a bit in the beginning and got all the way to the front of our wave and then settled into a more sustainable pace. There were a lot of walkers again this year, but there seemed to be a little more room than last year for some reason. Geoff’s been nursing a foot injury for the past few months and hasn’t been running as much, so I was very proud of him for making it through the run and at a very decent pace. Our 5k time was 26:43.

The Obstacle Course
For some reason, I remembered the wooden barriers being shorter last year, but I must have been imagining that. I certainly struggled with them this year and have a scab on my knee and bruises all over my legs to prove it ! Geoff helped me through all the obstacles, finishing that portion of the race in 4:16 with big smiles on our faces. It was finally time to use our noodle !

The Scavenger Hunt
This was the part of the race that I definitely felt was harder than last year. First of all, there seemed to be a lot more versions of passports and we kept getting confused by volunteers ushering people through to different places. Also, this was the time during our trek when the rain started to come down. It was bearable at first, especially since it was quite hot and a bit of a sprinkle was very much appreciated. Then it started to poor with an intensity that I had never experienced while out for a casual jog. Our passports were soaked and it was hard to write on them. Plus, being frustrated, we didn’t take our time with the clues and ended up getting two of our answers wrong which was a huge blow to the geek in me, but I was happy to be done, medaled and on our way out of the rain. Our scavenger hunt time was 22:01 and total time was 53:00, slightly longer than last year’s. I blame the rain.

We didn’t stay for the “after party” and judging from the amount of people asking for the exit, I assume not many did. We later found out that the course was closed due to the weather. In a way I was happy that we were able to finish, but felt really bad for the waves behind us and those walking the 5k. I sure hope they didn’t have to do the obstacle course in that rain. I also felt bad for the first timers. Geoff and I had a awesome time last year and regardless of what happened this year, we’ll always have those perfect memories from the inaugural race. I can’t imagine a lot of the first timers returning next year especially since the race will be in June. One thing’s for certain, Geoff and I won’t be there. June is just too hot and one of the things we really liked about this race was doing the Epcot Food and Wine Festival the next day. For that reason, we’ve decided to skip this race next year and do the Race for the Taste 10k instead. It’s in October, so it should be cooler and we get to do the Festival. Perfect !

After a nice hot shower at the hotel, we went to Downtown Disney’s House of Blues for dinner. I was starving but the only vegan items on the menu were a side salad and fries. The music was good though and the beer helped. We headed over to Ethos for brunch on Sunday and had the french toast special and biscuits with gravy which I’d been craving for quite a while. Then we hopped over to Epcot for the Food and Wine Festival which was hot and humid, but absolutely wonderful. We’re looking forward to that part of it again next year !