Ideally, the day before a marathon, resting is the best thing you can do. However, when you're at Disney World with an almost 9 year old, hanging out in a hotel room all day isn't going to happen. Caroline doesn't really understand the concept of 'lazy day.' We didn't tour any of the parks on Saturday, but we still tempted fate and kept our legs pretty busy all day.
Knowing we had an early wake up call the next morning, Craig and I purposefully woke early on Saturday morning to help get our bodies acclimated. At 5:40 am, we heard the fireworks go off at the start line of the half marathon race that was starting just footsteps from our hotel room.
While the half marathoners ran their race, we leisurely got ready for the day and headed down to breakfast.
Caroline got a Mickey Mouse straw. At .49 per straw, this was the bargain of the trip. In case you didn't know this, Disney ain't cheap.
After breakfast, we had a few hours before the Expo opened, so we investigated the hotel grounds and took some pictures.
Then we went on a walk
and threw some coins in the fountain for good luck.
Then it was time to catch the bus to the race expo
at ESPN's Wide World of Sports.
Once our race bibs and tshirts were picked up, we toured the expo and bought a few necessities: packets of GU energy gels and fitness belts to hold our phones, camera, hotel key, etc during the race.
I wonder why they sell so many shoes at race expos? Who in their right mind would buy new shoes before a race?
After the expo, we took the bus back to our hotel, dropped off our stuff and then hopped on another bus to meet Craig's mom at Downtown Disney for lunch.
Hello, sandwich #2. This time I had the caprese sandwich at The Earl of Sandwich. Love. True love.
Caroline chose grilled cheese and tomato soup on the side. Unfortunately, the tomato soup burned her tongue.
All better!
The dancing fountains were calling Caroline's name. She's a water and dirt magnet.
Oopsie.
Getting splashed is thirsty work.
After Caroline's fun in the fountains, we walked and walked some more, eventually walking Craig's mom to her car to say good bye. We then took a water taxi from one side of Downtown Disney to the other, to avoid any extra walking.
Once we got to the other side, we waited to catch a bus to our hotel and did whatever necessary to occupy the time.
My pictures for Saturday end here. I'm not sure why I didn't break out my camera any more. For the remainder of the day, I took Caroline to the pool for a bit. The air was chilly and breezy, but the pool was heated. She had fun.
After that, we went back to Downtown Disney to meet up with my parents and sister who were going to keep Caroline for us that night. But, before we caught the bus, we made a pit stop in the hotel store to buy safety pins for our race bibs. Our race swag bags were lacking the obligatory four safety pins which runners use to pin their numbers on their shirts. Since we were in a hotel, our options were limited. We didn't have the time or energy to return to the expo so instead, we bought two sewing kits in the store. Each sewing kit contained two safety pins, which, we'd just have to make work. Four safety pins cost us $8.50. Next time we're at a destination race, we're packing safety pins. Lesson learned.
After a nice dinner with my family, Caroline got to pick out her early birthday present from Grandma: new earrings.
Mickey Mouse earrings, of course.
And then it was time to hand over our kid, take the boat back to our hotel and get some sleep.
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