runDisney Paris 2018 10K

Part 2 of the 36K challenge: 10K on Saturday 22nd of September

The theme for this 10K was evil sidekicks! So, we went as two of the three hyenas. The race started at 7AM, we were again in corral B and started at 7:23AM.
Meg, Pain and Panic did the pre race entertainment. I was a bit disappointed that Pain and Panic weren't on course, they are on the medal! I only got this blurry picture from them.

I like that they have kilometer markers again for this race, they didn't have those at the 5K.

 It was quite chilly, so we left our vests on until the first photo stop.

First photo stop was the castle! I know I am pale, but I look a bit like a ghost, I am so white in the photo! I must have absorbed all the flash..

We left the Studios parks already after 1,2K. First characters were the evil stephsisters, nearby the Castle Stage. The line was looong! They were so funny, hysterical! I think that was also the reason the line was long, they interacted with everyone.

 Backstage: cars from Autopica!

 Character stop number 2: Mad Hatter and March Hare. The long wasn't that long, but we met them on course with Alice and White Rabbit during the half marathon in 2016.

 The floor is lava! Love flying photos!

Character stop number 3: although we have met Brer Bear and Brer Fox before, we stopped anyway, because the line wasn't long and we did want character photos!

Character stop number 4: Flotsam and Jetsam! (Ursula's pets) So cool! It was almost our turn, but then 1 left! So we let about 10 people in front of us, because I wanted both of them!

Character stop number 5: Mr Smee! We stood in line, but he was going to switch with King Louis in 5min. How is King Louis a villain sidekick?!

 We got a lot of backstage meters.

Characterstop #6: Kronk! I love that movie!

 They did something new this year! They had a character on stage after the finish line. Hades was there today, chillin with my villain ;-)

I did it! 15K done, only 21.1K to go!

Tripreport Magic Run Weekend Disneyland Paris 2018

This was the third time that we were participating in the runDisney Paris races! We've been looking forward to it from the moment the weekend of 2017 was over. We booked everything with annual passes discount in November 2017. In december 2017 I had a (keyhole) knee surgury, conclusion: my ligaments were torn. I decided I didn't want the surgery to heal them, because they couldn't garantee if the prognose will be better than what I was experiencing now. I started back from scratch in April, and on May 22nd my Jeff Galloway Challenge training started. I had to do the runwalkrun method, because I couldn't even run for 2minutes without knee kramps (yeah, very hard to explain what I felt. When I walked the pain went away). 

We signed up for the 36K challenge! 5K on Friday night, 10K on Saturday morning and a half marathon on Sunday morning. Enough introduction, let's talk runDisney!

We stayed in hotel Santa Fe from Thursday till Monday. I am only doing a Trip Report about the races, not the parks. 

Thursday 20 september: de Expo!

The Expo opened at 3PM, we went there around 5:30PM. There are signs everywhere to guide you to the Expo.

 After we got our bib, we got all of our 5 tshirts at the same desk! That's a huge improvement, previous years we had to stand in line for each individual shirt and bib.
Corral placement was completly random, we got in B.

I always love the wall with the names of all the runners!

Still have to get the photos from the other camera from the Expo... The Expo is very small, and has very little merchandise! They fill the space up with merch that you can buy in the parks...

The 5K: Thanos themed!

We were Thor and the Winter Soldier! Unfortunally John had to throw away his hammer, they said it was a weapon... It was made out of styrofoam and was very light. 

The entertainment wasn't very entertaining. A lot of French, and I have no idea what they were talking about. Something about making us ready to become an agent? And there would be lots of suprises on course.

There weren't any kilometer markers, there were infinity stones!

Before km marker 1 was the first character stop:   Guardians of the Galaxy: Star Lord en Gamora. We waited about 17minutes when they announced that Gamora would leave in 5min! We stood in line for her! Luckily, we got our picture with her! Star-Lord greeted me with "Hello princess", but I am a soldier!

We went through both parks on this course! Next stop was in Disneyland Park in Adventureland: Black Panther! The line was loooong! He took a little break while we waited, but that only took 3minutes. So glad that I met him, Wakanda Forever!

We lost a lot of time because of these two meets. We weren't even halfway and we were already 1 hour on course! Next characterstop were Thor and Loki! We already met Thor in July, but I really wanted a picture with Loki. Loki took a break, but we waited 25-30min in total, so when it was our turn, he was back! We did had to chose between taking a picture ourselfs, or let the photopass photographer take one. While we were in line, we saw the balloon ladies, and they passed us! That made my boyfriend a little worried, but I knew they don't swep on the 5K. 

There was some really cool decoration in the Studio Tram Tour attraction! I regret that I didn't take more pictures.

Last characterstop was Captain America and Black Widdow. We skipped them, there was a really long line and we were way too long on course. We have met them in July, so we didn't mind to skip this stop.

Fi-nal-ly! After 1 hour and 41 minutes we finished! Our longest 5K ever! We were lucky to start in B, so we could do 3 out of 4 character stops. (My Garmin said the course was 5,65KM we had to zigzag across a lot of walker, so that must have been it.)

1 race down, 2 more to go!

Dag 9: zondag 8 oktober

De planning lekker omgegooid! Ik wilde heel graag eens bij O'hana in het Polynesian Resort eten, maar het was ons niet gelukt om een reservering te scoren. Een dag van te voren keek ik nog eens, en er was een plekje vrij voor het ontbijt!

Tip: ook al is het 180 dagen van te voren niet gelukt om een reservering voor een restaurant te scoren, blijf proberen! Er zijn veel mensen die dubbele boekingen doen, en dan later besluiten om er 1 te laten vallen of om wat voor reden ook te annuleren!

Het werd dus een nog iets bijzondere tripje dan dat het al was! Ik had het al gemeld: hier heeft mijn vriend mijn ten huwelijk gevraagd, bij mijn favoriete character Stitch! Daarna liep de fotograaf met ons mee, en zorgde dat het bekend was dat we iets te vieren hadden. Je kreeg een Hawaiiaanse lei, en zo konden ze herkennen of iemand iets aan het vieren was!

Dit was ons uitzicht! Het kasteel van Magic Kingdom kan je zien. We wilden 's middags naar Universal's Citywalk gaan, en daar ook wat eten. Maar omdat we zo vol zaten van het ontbijt en we zo dichtbij Magic Kingdom waren, zijn we heel even het park ingegaan. Echt maar heel even, want het was mega druk! We hebben geen attracties gedaan. We wisten dat de country bears rondliepen in Frontierland en die hadden we nog niet ontmoet. Plus, we hebben het gratis spelletje Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom deze trip ontdekt! Ik wist al wel van het bestaan af, maar we hebben het nooit gespeeld! Omdat het maandag Columbus Day is, was het dit weekend erg druk in de parken! Goed moment om even rustig een spelletje te spelen!

Tip: Speel Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom! In mainstreet, links, zit een gebouw waar je start om dit spel te spelen. Per persoon krijg je een pakketje met 5 kaarten. Deze heb je nodig om de slechterikken te verslaan! De kaarten zijn erg leuk om te verzamelen, ook hierin zitten kaarten die common, uncommon, rare en very rare zijn. Plus je hebt bij Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party en Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party speciale party kaarten die alleen op die avonden te verkrijgen zijn, max. 1 per persoon! Mocht je toevallig ook kaarten hebben, en je hebt dubbele om te ruilen, stuur me maar een PB! We hebben nu 9 dubbelen, en 4 dubbele party cards en we moeten er nog 32 van de 70! Het is een heel leuk spel wanneer het weer slecht is, en wanneer het super druk in de parken is! Je maakt soms poortjes open, en er zijn veel mensen die het bestaan van dit spel niet weten, wat soms verbaasde blikken oplevert als jij met je kaart opeens ergens een gordijn opzij schuift en er begint een filmpje te spelen!

Hierna zijn we naar Universal gegaan.

Tip: Ik weet het niet helemaal precies, maar overdag is het parkeer tarief bij Universal ongeveer $20. Mocht je alleen voor de Citywalk gaan, kun je overwegen om 's avonds te gaan. Volgens mij betaal je na 19uur geen parkeerkosten! 

Na Universal hebben we de auto ingeleverd bij het Swann Resort, daar de bus naar Disney Springs gepakt waar het ook super druk was! We vonden het wel goed voor vandaag, lekker op tijd naar het hotel!

Nog 6 dagen Disney tegoed!