After the 10k, we went straight to Animal Kingdom to explore Pandora - The World of Avatar! The Avatar Flight of Passage ride was out of this world! It felt like I was actually riding a Banshee! The effects were super cool. It's like as a futuristic version of Soarin' only you're on a Banshee in Pandora. We rode other rides and took advantage of photo-ops with characters. By 4:45PM we went to get our cars at Epcot before checking into the hotel.
The shower at the hotel was amazing! I started a pillow fight and jumped on all three beds (its my hotel tradition). Two of the divas went on a two hour adventure to pick-up dinner. I took a nap while they were on their adventure. Once they returned, we ate dinner and had a funny conversation about their dinner adventure among other topics that exhausted runners find amusing(basically everything was funny at this point). After dinner, we went to bed.
On Sunday, we caught the bus from our hotel at 4AM to the Magic Kingdom parking lot for the start of the half marathon. Our costume theme was Beauty and the Beast (Beast, Belle, Gaston, and Lumiere). The fellow runners and volunteers loved our ensemble! I video called my sister, Kim, and we sang "Happy Birthday" to her. I also video called Taylor, which was fun even though I woke her up (sorry, Taylor). I got into character as Gaston and boasted about my charm, beauty, and muscles throughout the race. I was arrogant and narcissistic! Whenever anyone cheered, I acted as if they only came to the race to cheer me on. It was a blast! We focused on having fun and stopped for photos along the course. Another running diva was handing out cold towels at the finish line, so we found her and took a selfie together! After her volunteer shift, we all went to lunch.
Most of us took a nap after lunch to rest up for the after party at Epcot Sunday night. We washed our outfits so that we could wear them to the after party. The running divas even made doing laundry fun! Cindy and I explored the hotel. We played ping-pong, went down slides, enjoyed a bedtime story, and learned how to draw Nemo. The after party started at 8PM and ended at 1AM. We entered Epcot around 8:30pm and we left around 1:15PM. We rode rides, ate and drank at the food and wine festival vendors, and took advantage of more photo-ops with characters. In one of the lines, a guy was excited to see Belle (Cindy), until he saw Gaston (me) and then he wanted nothing to do with Belle. He asked me if we could take a picture together and inquired if I could flex for the photo. He handed Belle his phone and before Belle took our picture, he felt my muscle. I told him it was real! lol After taking our picture, Belle proceeded to take a selfie of her and the Beast. It was absolutely hilarious!
By the time we got back to the hotel early Monday morning, it was almost 2AM. Despite not feeling my best, I kept up with the divas all weekend! I experienced stomach pain this weekend. I gave vague answers when I was asked how I was feeling. My plan was not to acknowledge the pain. The pain wasn't constant. However, when it hit me, it took effort not to hunch over, moan from the torment, and wrap my arms around my belly until it went away. Speaking of pain, the bottom of my left foot also hurt. Was it really hurting though, or was it ghost pain? Whether real or not, pain probably slowed me down a little, but it didn't stop me (story of my life). this weekend was the break from reality I needed! I laughed so much that my face cheeks hurt, too!
