2 o’clock occurs once a day and it is not in the morning, unless I’m running a RunDisney race. Then that’s usually when my alarm goes off. I was horrified at the Expo when I realized this morning would be even a little earlier since I had to factor a bus ride into my plan for the 10K.
A Challenge consists of two races, a 10K on Saturday and a half marathon on Sunday for a total of 19.3 miles. Today was the Star Wars 10K. The plot of this year’s Star Wars Half Marathon – the Dark Side is that everyone is trying out to join Captain Phasma’s Stormtrooper forces. I didn’t know we needed a plot for a race but character integrity and what not. Both races are on brand new courses that start at Ticket and Transport Center (Magic Kingdom‘s parking lot, the TTC) and end at Epcot. I have personally never seen a race start at the TTC, but I’ve only been doing RunDisney since 2014 and they’ve been doing these races for almost twenty-five years. This meant I had to park at Epcot and get on a bus to the TTC. After my experience at the Wine and Dine Half, I wanted to make sure I had plenty of time so I left around 2:20 am. That was the time same I set my alarm for my first ever half marathon, but at least today didn’t involve waking anyone up for emergency costume modifications.
On the bus!
I applaud the poor Cast Members working these events. I can only imagine what time they had to get up. I was slightly miffed they didn’t give the parking attendants lightsabers to use instead of their normal wands, but the guy pretending to use the Force to park the cars in the correct spots more than made up for it. I was unable to find the actual row number for where I parked but I tried to note I was in the third or fourth row. I was really early! They actually were not letting us in yet, we were held at the bag check tables for about five minutes before the Cast Members started letting us through. Volunteers were inside handing out red glow stick “lightsabers” to everyone. I was on the second of the charter buses, and my efficiency training made me sit go all the way in the back instead of the front like everyone else but it worked out since it got me a seat to myself.
[lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”false”]I got off the bus at the TTC about 3:45 am. I had already been up almost two hours and the race wasn’t even starting until 5:30! At least it gave me plenty of time to meet characters. The first line I came to was BB-8 and I haven’t made it to his new meet and greet at Disney’s Hollywood Studios yet, so he was my immediate priority. His line moved fairly quickly and I only waited ten minutes. Then I moved onto the Jabba the Hutt line, which was a little longer. Jabba was more of a backdrop than a character, but he’s also the only one you can’t really find in the parks.[/lgc_column]
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BB-8!
Jabba the Hutt.
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Well, you can’t meet Boba Fett, but I’ve met him before. Thank you, Star Wars Weekends. I’m so glad I was exposed to them when I had the chance. My last stop was the backdrop that is apparently from Cloud City. I just thought it made for a neat photo and the rest of the lines had gotten to the point I didn’t think I’d get through them before they pulled the characters. They had Captain Phasma, Kylo Ren, Darth Vader and Boba Fett in addition to Jabba and BB-8.
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DJ Elliot.
This little girl is going to grow up to be awesome.
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[lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”true”]After I got that shot I wandered over the stage to watch DJ Elliot and a guy from the Disney Parks Blog (I have no idea what his name is even though they said it like four times, but I’ve seen him on live streams) give away prizes to people who correctly answered trivia questions. My personal favorite was a ten year old girl dressed as Rey who managed to finish a ridiculously hard quote. It’s the scene in the Millennium Falcon where they’re flying through the asteroid field and we thought it was going to cut off after C-3P0 so she could yell, “NEVER TELL ME THE ODDS!”, but instead it cut off as C-3P0 says, “The odds are-” [/lgc_column]
So this adorable little girl responds, “Three thousand… seven hundred… and twenty?” SHE GOT IT RIGHT! Let me tell you how I would not have gotten that, and they gave her like three prizes. Adults answered easier questions incorrectly. I hung out there until they said it was time to head for the start corrals. I made a stop on the way at my longest line of the day, for the bathroom.
[lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”false”]This is my least favorite part of any race I have ever run, standing in the starting corral waiting for it to start. It’s usually staring at my phone except nothing much is happening at 5 am for me to read and no one is awake to talk to. I had several friends running but they all had their own groups, and I didn’t even know for sure what corrals they were in. I wound up behind a group of Tie-Fighters. They had the wings tied to their arms, and while it looked amazing I don’t know how you’d make it through the more narrow parts of the course without knocking someone out. I applaud their construction though: foam core and duck tape. Simple, cheap and lightweight! They screened The Last Jedi trailer which was awesome, but I was too far back to see it very well. I did hear a guy yell, “QUITTER!” After Luke’s line about the Jedi needing to end.[/lgc_column]
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Corral D.
Waiting to start.
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The final bit before they sent the wheelchair racers off involved two Stormtroopers scaring the announcers off stage and giving everyone an intro about their tryouts to serve Captain Phasma. I was just disappointed it wasn’t the two Stormtroopers from the Star Wars Weekend intros and Hyperspace Hoopla. It lacked the genuine hilarity and playing off each other, and the voice actors weren’t the same. I think all park Stormtroopers should always be them, and I want them to get their own TV show. Seriously. Get on that, Mouse.
They were trying something new in sending each corral off in three “mini waves”, which best as I can tell reduced the number of fences they had to put up but still sent people off in the same quantities as usual. I wasn’t watching the time very closely to see what time I actually started but according to my runner tracking it was 5:52 am. I was itching to get going by then and was so relieved when the fireworks for Corral D finally went off.
I did no training for this race. I always mean to and yet I never do. Ever since I infamously ran a marathon once without training for it, it makes it even harder to convince myself to put the time in that I should. I can run one race without training, but I usually limp for a few days afterwards. (I stayed in bed for like three days after the marathon.) On the last Challenge I ran, Lumiere’s Two Course Challenge, I overdid it on the 10K and had nothing left in the tank for the Half. In order to prevent that from happening again, my plan was to walk as much of this race as possible so I could run tomorrow instead.
I crossed the starting line at a run but I held it only about as half as long as I normally do. Even when I do train, I’m lousy at intervals. I kept it at a fast walk from there for most of the race, which honestly I was still keeping pace with a lot of runners around me. We passed a high school marching band that was playing a medley of Star Wars music.
The first character I came to was R2-D2 probably three-quarters of a mile from the starting line. I didn’t stop for him and I wish I had, but his line was pretty long. For someone who doesn’t train, I end up worrying about time a lot. I passed the characters from Star Wars Rebels somewhere around mile two, and had I known who they were that might have been more tempting.
This is hands down my least favorite RunDisney course I’ve ever run. We had an almost three mile straight away between the TTC and the ramp to Hollywood Studios with only two character stops and a whole lot of nothing. There were a couple screens just playing the different movie clips. They had Vader’s chair for a photo op at the start of the ramp, and that is a LONG ramp. Even if I hadn’t been walking most of the race, I would have had to walk that. My bad knee does not like it when we run on uneven ground like that. Maybe it was because I was purposely going slow or the lack of volunteers cheering, but it just seemed to take forever to get to Hollywood Studios. (I would like to clarify there were lots of volunteers handing out water and I am grateful, but there seemed to be less than I have seen at other races.)
My first genuine moment of encouragement came from a security guard as we made the turn into the backstage area of Hollywood Studios. Darth Maul was right around the turn, but his line was HUGE. I kept going and found myself backstage between Tower of Terror and the “Fantasmic” stadium. The 501st was out in full force inside the stadium with tons of random characters, main and minor, from the series. For those who aren’t familiar, the 501st Rebel Legion is a group of dedicated Star Wars fans with screen accurate costumes. They had a big event at Star Wars Celebration last weekend and they have been present at every nerd event I’ve ever been to in my life, (MegaCon, Tampa Bay Comic Con, Star Wars Weekends, etc.). Coming out of the stadium I saw Boba Fett and Jango Fett, and they were so good I honestly can’t tell you if they were 501st or Disney.
There were several bellhops out in front of Tower of Terror before I got to Sunset Boulevard, but I decided it was better to just take a selfie. There was a set of two Stormtroopers that I passed, followed by another set. Had I realized I would be out of Hollywood Studios in the next few minutes, I probably would have stopped. My fault for not studying the course more carefully. I ran through most of the park since I was hyped up and there were Photopass photographers everywhere. Ever since my mom got worried by me walking in a previous race’s photos, I refuse to be caught walking on camera.
The run between Hollywood Studios and Epcot through the Boardwalk is a very tight one. It’s a sidewalk, a literal sidewalk, and it’s not wide enough to accommodate many people at once. There’s a lot of bumping and unintentional shoving. I’m also not a fan of running on the Boardwalk. It wasn’t wet this morning but it’s been wet previous races, and I watched a guy wipe out super hard taking a turn too fast during the Wine and Dine.
However, I did see one of my favorite shirts during this stretch! Anyone who’s not super familiar with RunDisney probably doesn’t know who the 
Balloon Ladies are, and I actually had to Google them before I ever encountered them. They are a group of lovely ladies that cross the starting line last and run at exactly sixteen minutes per mile, the longest average time you can maintain without getting pulled from the course. They run just in front of the bikes that do the actual sweeping. They don’t work for Disney, they are volunteers and their goal is to give people the encouragement they need to stay ahead of the sweepers. Naturally, there are some people who are afraid of encountering them and there’s gotten to be quite a few running jokes about them. Like this shirt! The only time I’ve seen the Balloon Ladies I’m proud to say was during the 2016 Walt Disney World Marathon, they were coming into ESPN Wide World of Sports as I was heading out.
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Walk around the grass. IT IS NOT THAT FAR.
Chewbacca!
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[lgc_column grid=”50″ tablet_grid=”50″ mobile_grid=”100″ last=”true”]Coming around the turn from the Boardwalk into the World Showcase entrance to Epcot, I spotted Chewbacca. Since I knew I was getting close to the finish line, I figured I could stop. I also seized the opportunity to get a Pokestop and catch a Magikarp. There was a Cast Member directing runners to go around the patch of grass in the median due to the pot holes in it. As I waited in line, the people behind me kept loudly complaining about her and the other Cast Members enforcing the rules. I had to bite my tongue in order not to say anything as one girl yelled in protest as they made her friend go around instead of going through the grass. All it takes is one person not paying attention, charging through and hurting themselves, and Disney has a lawsuit on their hands. Then the Cast Member that failed to stop you is in trouble and probably unemployed. I really, REALLY don’t like it when people give Cast Members crap for doing their jobs.[/lgc_column]
That is a strange looking Deathstar.
I ran through most of Epcot from World Showcase to Spaceship Earth. They had Stormtroopers standing on the stage next to the fountains looking menacing. People were taking pictures with them, but then I saw the Cast Members telling the next person who stopped no, so I kept going until I hit Guest Relations for another selfie.
I entered the backstage area that lead to the finish line to find more of the 501st waiting. I saw two more Mandalorian Bounty Hunters, including a female one with purple-blue armor. The last two characters were Rey and Tarfful off to the side, but I kept going. I’m not stopping for any Rey that isn’t an official Disney Rey or Daisy Ridley or herself. There was a sign stating these characters were fans and not official representations of Disney or LucasFilm.
I rounded the corner and broke into a full run until I hit the finish line, and had to pull up short because so many people were stopped just past it. I made my way down to the medals and was once again handed my medal instead of being presented it. I really don’t like that. The volunteer next to one I was in front of was putting them around peoples’ necks but I couldn’t get to her without cutting someone else off, so I just put it on myself. Not nearly as fun. The drink stations were next, just past first aid. I headed straight to the end for the blue powerade. I passed the photo booths and moved into the snack station and kept going all the way to the main area with the characters.
It took me a few tries to find Boba Fett’s line. I just wanted to get one photo with the medal and head out. He seemed to take forever but it was probably only half an hour. I was very surprised to learn he talks now! He didn’t do that the last time I met him!
My very last stop before the struggle to find my car was to ask a group in line behind me if I could take their photos. Absolutely best costumes I saw all day: Legends of the Jedi Temple. I couldn’t tell what the exact teams were but they had four different ones represented. They were also super cool about me asking them if I could take their picture. One of the girls just yelled at the rest of them, “GUYS! Photo time!”
Now I am sitting around in my pajamas and I’ve already watched Episode I and all of the Hyperspace Hoopla videos. BRING THAT BACK DISNEY!!! I’m trying to wait until at least 7 pm to try to go to bed so I sleep straight through to my alarm. Assuming I make it to the finish line, I’ll have that report up tomorrow.
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