Battles on the Homefront: Everest Challenge

Sorry I have been quiet lately. I've had a lot going on with life and preparing for Mac to come home for R&R soon.

Anyway, here is a very quick recap of the Everest Challenge. I had a blast and Mac wants to do it with me next year.

I got in to Orlando on Friday night which was a little closer to the race than I would have liked but it was the best deal on flights so I did it. It was really fine because it is a night race but I wish I had gotten in earlier on Friday instead of at 8pm. I met up with a few people for drinks at the Poly pool bar and then went back to the room to get some sleep. Saturday I took the day pretty easy. It was HOT and I knew that if I did too much I would be wiped out before the race. I went to Epcot for my traditional pre-race meal at Via Napoli then I headed back to my room. I was so hot that I took a cold shower before resting for a little while. I had been trying to hydrate but I was sweating so much it wasn't working. I had to cool off so that I could drink and keep some water in my system before getting ready for the race.

I headed down to get on the bus around 7:45 and shortly arrived in the AK parking lot where the race would begin. I was by myself so I just wandered around for a while. I was taking a picture of the Start line when I recognized Lara, one of the girls I had met the night before. I hung out with her and Diane at the start and we all really hit it off. Because it is an obstacle course 5K and I hadn't been running regularly before, I knew I wasn't going to be going for a PR. I talked with Lara for a little while and decided I would just stick with her. This was the kind of race that is much more fun with someone. We ended up walking the course and talking the whole time. It really was a blast. We weren't fast, but we had fun. Once the 5K was over, we grabbed our first scavenger hunt clue and headed back into the park. The clues were word games and I loved them. It felt like we basically did another 5K because we went all over the park to get all of our clues. Once we had all of the clues solved, we had to figure out the password to get into the finish area. Approximately and hour and a half after we started, Lara and I grabbed our awesome medals and headed into the after party. We met back up with Diane who had ran ahead of us during the race and we hit Everest for a quick ride. Then we hit Kali River Rapids to cool off before grabbing some food and hanging out for a little while. We finally hit Everest one last time before making our way out of the park to the buses at around 1:45AM.

This race was obviously very different than the half marathons but it was a lot of fun. I loved the after party and really enjoyed meeting some awesome people while I was there. I definitely plan on doing it again.