As a huge Star Wars fan, I love the Dark Side race weekend. I participated in all three races last year, and couldn’t wait to run them all again this year. The characters, the costumes, the music – I love the whole atmosphere!
Health & Fitness Expo
The weekend officially started on Thursday, April 20th, with the Health and Fitness Expo. I arrived at the expo about an hour before it opened, and was not surprised to find lines to already be long. One of my Team Shenanigans teammates arrived shortly after I did, so I joined her in line and the time passed quickly. I also realized that the woman in front of us was the same person that I chatted with in line at the expo in January! It really is a small world.
The doors opened about 30 minutes early, and we headed inside to see the merchandise (which was not shown in advance this time). I was able to quickly get everything I wanted and then headed over to grab my bib and shirts. All of the shirts were in the same building as the bibs this time, so there was no going back and forth. It ran very smoothly – no complaints from me about this expo! There were also more refreshment stations set up than I have seen in the past. There was one on the expo floor, and then a “Cantina” set up near the exit, serving drinks and snacks, and also a rather pricey Dole Whip inside of a Chewbacca mug.
Pre-Race
Race mornings at Disney start very, very early. Transportation began running for the 5k at 4:00am. I was up at 3:00 to get my costume on and be on the first bus. Mash-ups have become my thing for the Star Wars races, and I was particularly excited about my Rey-Punzel costume.
The start line of this race was in the Epcot parking lot. Just like last year, there were several backdrops with characters that were at the pre-race and post-race areas. The characters were the same each day: Boba Fett, Darth Vader, Captain Phasma, Jabba the Hut, Kylo Ren, BB-8, and a character-free Rogue One backdrop. The lines were fairly long, but I knew I wanted a BB-8 picture in my Rey costume, so that was the first line I hit. I followed it up with a picture with Kylo Ren (my least favorite Star Wars villain, but sometimes a costume just calls for a picture!). I love that they have so many characters and backdrops for this race weekend. It makes it a lot easier for runners who don’t want to stop, or aren’t able to take the extra time to wait in lines.
Runners…Set…Goooooo!
After the pictures, I headed to my corral (I was in B this time) to wait for the race to begin. If you’ve never done a runDisney event, there is a lot of waiting, and I like to be in my corral early. Once it gets close to start time, each corral will be walked (herded) from your waiting area to the start line. RunDisney is now doing smaller waves within each corral. This means that within each corral, there will be multiple starts. This spreads out the runners and helps with on-course crowding.
My plan for the 5k was to stop for every character that I was interested in. The first couple of times that I ran at Disney, I had such problems getting into a line in the middle of a race and seeing hundreds of runners pass me by. At my very first runDisney race (the Tower of Terror 10-Miler in 2014), I actually jumped out of line for my first character because I just couldn’t get out of that mindset that I should be running. Don’t worry, I got over that and now I’m all about stopping for characters!
The first characters on the course were Ewoks! I adore Ewoks, so this was a must-do for me!
I bypassed the Emperor’s Chair and before I knew it, I was heading into my favorite part of the course: World Showcase. In the dark, with music playing and torches lit. This is pure magic for me – I absolutely love it.
The next character was R2-D2, and even though the line was long, I stopped. I enjoyed seeing other costumes and chatting with runners while we waited.
The next characters were Sabine Wren and Ezra Bridger from Star Wars Rebels. I didn’t stop since I don’t watch that show, and I was anxious to see if there were any other characters before the finish line. Sure enough, there was one more. Chewy! Even though I have met him a few times at the park, I love that hairy guy and I wanted a race pic with him. His line was long and unfortunately he had to step away right when I joined. It was a few minutes before he returned, but the wait was worth it!
We ran back into Epcot just in time for a beautiful sunrise, past Spaceship Earth, and to the finish line!
I love this course. Running through Epcot is something I never get tired of doing. This 5k absolutely was a “fun run” for me – I enjoyed every minute of it!
