Walt Disney World Circle of Life 5K Race Report

Last year was my fist year doing the 5k through Animal Kingdom. It was alot of fun and was a good warm up for the Goofy Challenge. Also, the medal and t-shirt were awesome. It may have been my favorite race of the weekend, so when registration opened up, I registered right away.

On Friday morning, the alarm went off bright and early at 4:30am. I woke up, threw on my race clothes and was ready to go. Surprisingly, both of my parents decided to go, so we left the Princess condo and headed over to Animal Kingdom. It was chilly (around 47F) so mom and dad decided to stay in the car to be warm and I walked over to the start. The first thing I noticed was the lack of costumes. Usually, there are all sorts of costumes, but this year I don't remember seeing any. However, the tall people from Africa were there which was really cool.

The race started at 7am and we made our way around the parking lots and into Animal Kingdom. This was the only race I was planning on running, so I started off nice and slow. While I was running the first mile, I remembered that the last time I ran was in October at the Race the Dead 5k. I was surprised at how good I felt, especially after spending the entire day before on my feet at Epcot. My first mile was 11:28, which wasn't surprising considering the crowd and I was totally okay with it.

Mile two goes through the actual park (instead of the parking lot) and I actually don't remember much except running across the bridge and seeing lots of white birds in the trees over the river. I was feeling good wand was very pleasantly surprised to see my split at 10:20.

The third mile runs past Everest and the dinosaurs and I honestly wasn't paying very close attention to the park. I was remembering how fun it was to run and how nice a 5k is. I was still feeling good and smiling and was truly happy to be there. Again, I was pleasantly surprised to see my split at mile three because I ran a 10:15 mile. I couldn't believe that I ran negative splits!

The final stretch to the finish had lots of spectators but not alot of noise, which was kind of okay since I was in a zone. I stretched out and strided or strode (however you say it) and crossed the line. I never ran at puke pace which was a nice change from my usual 5k. My final time was 32:57 which was not even close to a PR, but like I said before I was pleasantly surprised at my fitness, especially since I haven't run in over two months.

I'm trying to think of the best part of this race and I think that maybe it was doing a fun race with fun people in a fun place and running negative splits. The t-shirt is cool and the medal is awesome. I'm not sure if we're going to Florida next year (we're actually considering Phoenix), but I will definitely do this race again.