You know you have a serious problem when you will drive 500 miles (each way, not round trip) to run 8 miles, so I am here to admit that I have a serious problem.  I am addicted to the Disney bling.

I ran the Inaugural Twilight Zone Tower of Terror 13K in 2007, and while I had a great time, the “inaugural” aspect of the race was very apparent.  Other bloggers, podcasters, and forum posters have covered the issues with this event ad nauseum, so I won’t go there.  The second running, however, was a vast improvement and I think any Disney race junkie would enjoy getting their fix at this unique event.

The race began at 10pm, which makes eating a little tricky (I learned an important lesson last year about not eating tomatoes prior to a race; a late lunch with fresh tomato sauce over pasta turned into severe heartburn from miles 4-8).  A relaxing stroll around EPCOT with Katie, The Fairy Godmother (longtime readers will know that’s Katie’s mom), and Mr. Fairy Godmother (Baltimore Dad, Mike) followed by lunch at Le Cellier rounded out the morning and early afternoon.  Everyone needs a fairy godmother, let me tell you!

Katie and I arrived at Disney Studios around 8-ish and were pleasantly surprised at how well the pre-race area was themed and organized.  We walked through the “lobby” (a spooky themed awning gateway), picked up our “room key” (a magnet in the shape of a key with the race logo), applied temporary race logo tattoos to our calves, and then formed our own small group of orange-hatted and orange-shirted runners (members of DisneyRunning.com).  We picked up some additional Orange Runners, then spotted a second orange group across the staging area.  It’s so much fun to have a built-in group of friends who share your love for Disney races, but that you’ve never met in person before!  A few of us had been at Baltimore two weeks earlier, so we exchanged hugs then shared introductions all around.  I was very excited to finally meet “Rozzie,” a runner who lives just a few miles from me in coastal Alabama.  As it turned out, I had actually seen her husband locally before, as he manages the Olive Garden and I like to eat there.  :-)

One of the orange runners was Colleen, who had been in Baltimore, and she brought a friend with her named Lisa who, I was told, had not done an endurance race before and was very nervous.  I had waffled back and forth all week trying to decide what pace to run, and had not fully committed to one or the other when I arrived, although I had decided that the slowest I would tolerate would be 11:30/mile.  Lisa said that she would like to maintain an average pace of 11:30/mile or faster, but Colleen wanted to run quicker, so I told her we could run together and I would keep her on track.  Roz also decided to join us, and I became the leader of my own little unofficial pace team.

Although we did face some of the typical early-race weaving, the start went relatively smoothly and we settled easily into our pace.  The race was themed as a walk back through time, so we found characters (villains, of course!), music, and dancers at various locations.  A run through Wide World of Sports broke up the long stretches of flat four-lane (an unavoidable negative of all WDW races), and then the last two miles wound through The Studios.  I missed most of the photographers because I was chit-chatting too much (a mostly useless attempt to keep Lisa’s mind occupied for the final stretch).  I spotted Mrs. and Mr. Godmother on the final turn toward the Tower, and then we headed for the rolling back-lot hills.  Lisa started to sag a tiny bit on the rolling hills, and Roz stayed close to her, but I kept pretty close to the goal pace, yelling back to them to catch me on the downhill.  On the last downhill, I spotted the 8-mile marker and the finish line.  Lisa and Roz not only caught up to me, but Lisa sprinted ahead on the last straightaway, finishing in 1:32:29, with Roz close behind at 1:32:31 and the pacer (me!) coming in at 1:32:33.  Initially, I thought I had beaten my time from 2007, but as it turned out I was actually 19 seconds slower for the 8+ miles - not that I am disappointed, mind you, as I thoroughly enjoyed leading my little pace team (hopefully the fact that they kept encouraging me to go on ahead was not actually meant to be a suggestion to go away).

At the finish, we spent a little time with our fellow Orange Runners, snapped a few photos, and found Mom and Dad Riley.  The Riley Crew (plus one - me) was joined by Steve, a fellow Orange Runner who had driven up from Port Charlotte by himself for the race, and we headed out into the main park.  The post-race party was much better than last year, as I had time to ride Toy Story Mania, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, and the Tower of Terror with very little wait.  As I drove back home on Sunday afternoon, I couldn’t help but feel that the long drive was absolutely worth it.  I got to visit the Happiest Place on Earth, got to run one of the Happiest Races on Earth, and got to meet up with the Happiest Runners on Earth.  Could a Disney race junkie ask for more?