After leaving MK, we again were faced with some pretty crowded roads, although they seemed like it wasn't quite as tight as it had been during the half. Honestly a bit of this section of the race is a fog for me. But, we were doing reasonably well. We could see a character stop up ahead on the left and we spotted Mary Poppins. We've never had a shot with her and the line wasn't too bad, and we'd had no character shots yet, so we hopped over to get in line.
As we were waiting, we heard someone behind us say, "Oh good, you guys found her." We turned around and saw these guys...
I thought these were just awesome costumes although I couldn't figure out how they could stand to run in those getups. Still, completely amazing outfits. Pretty soon we were up at the front
Pretty Mary
We headed off although I would have loved to linger and see how Mary interacted with the chimney sweeps. We cruised on for a bit and the golf course was coming up on the right. I told Chris that regardless of the line, if Goofy was out, we were stopping. Sure enough, he was there with Donald in their golfing duds. The line was HUGE, but we stopped. Chris timed it and we were in this line almost 15 minutes.
I was convinced that they were going to pull Goofy out before we could get up there, but luckily no. My favorite shot from both races...
So, so happy that we got the chance to see Goofy while on the race course.
We ran on feeling pretty good and happy. Pretty soon it was time to enter the raceway. This is another section of the course that's not too interesting. And, it's a horrible entry into the racetrack. It's a very steep down and up with a sharp turn to get into it. Who thinks that's a good thing to do to runners?
We got into the speedway and cruised around without much fanfare. in 2013 when we ran they at least at Lightning McQueen and Mater in here for pictures, but last year and this year, no character shots at all. So, we just kept moving along until we were eventually done and headed out. At this point I was starting to get pretty down about the run. My legs still felt pretty good, but I was just mentally D.O.N.E. I just was tired of running. And, of course I'm running along thinking, "17 more miles of this." But, still, whatcha gonna do at this point, but just keep running.
Shortly after leaving the speedway, we saw the 10 mile marker sign and just being in double digits lifted my spirits a bit.
I think it was somewhere right around here that we also came upon the villain set up. We've gotten this shot twice before, but I've always missed Maleficent. Well, this time she was there, but holy cow the line was CRAZY. We were now a little below the 15 min/mile mark as we'd gained back some time but I think we were still something like 14:50 min/mile, so sadly we ran on past. I'd also thought I remembered it was on this stretch that you would start to see signs like, "Are your dogs tired?" which led you up to a stop that in years past had included Pluto, Bolt and Dug. But, this year...no.
We cruised on along and past the smelly treatment plant (at least I think this is the stretch where that is). Wow! It really does smell horrible here. Disney puts up all these little factoid signs about how many gallons of water they process here etc, but sorry, Disney, that does not distract from the smell. Blech.
We soldiered on here knowing that not far ahead lay Animal Kingdom and another opportunity for some fun scenery and photo ops.
While we were in the raceway, I had told Chris my legs were getting sore and tired, so he pulled out some Excedrin we'd brought along. I took those and as we were approaching AK, they were starting to do their job. I felt my spirits lifting as we approached the park. These big puppet things were out.
Ha! The guy behind us in this shot cracks me up!
Then there was a line-up of various animals. We stopped here a couple of minutes to look them over. We look better than this guy!
There was also this funky bird. His feathers looked like a reptile of some kind.
We headed on into the park and saw a stop with a very short line and it was a character we've not stopped for before. Hey, Jiminy!
We ran on into the park and again in a pretty short distance we saw this guy with absolutely no line. I couldn't figure out why nobody was stopping, but hey, good for us.
Hi, Baloo!
We zipped along and both decided a real bathroom stop was in order again. We ducked into one and there was basically no line, so we were on our way quickly again. Cruising along...
I think maybe Daisy Duck was meeting here in Dinoland but we had a shot with her and Minnie from back in 2013, so we ran on past. Sadly we were heading out of AK far too quickly and I knew some long and unpleasant miles were ahead of us. But, the treck through the park had been so much fun and seeing this sign always makes you feel good. Halfway there, baby!!