runDisney Marathon Weekend 2024 Expo Day

Given the late bedtime from the previous night, we slept in and let ourselves wakeup naturally.  Too late for early entry at Animal Kingdom, so we took our time with breakfast and getting ready for the day and then headed directly to the runDisney Expo for the 10:00 am opening.  By the time we got there a little after 10:00 am, ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex was packed with runners anxious to get their race packets and scoop up Marathon Weekend merchandise.  We had to queue for about 30 minutes to get our race bibs, not bad really.  When we left the bib pickup building the line was out the door and around the corner.  Our timing was pretty good.

 

We got in and out of the Expo building quickly to get our shirts and checkout the vendors.  I had joined the virtual queue to get into the building with runDisney merchandise, but our time was still 90 minutes or more away, so we left the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex and headed to Animal Kingdom.  We needed our Starbucks and what better place to enjoy a beverage and people watch than sitting outside Creature Comforts at Animal Kingdom. 

 

We toured a little bit of Animal Kingdom, including taking the train to Raffiki’s Planet Watch and Conservation Station, something we had not done since 1999 on our first family trip to Disney with our three boys, aged 14, 11 and 8 at the time.  It was a nice trip down memory lane.

 

After that, it was time to chill back at the resort and prepare for the 5K the next morning.  We had a team dinner to attend at Give Kids the World Village at 6:30 pm.   I wanted to be completely prepared for the early morning before we went to dinner so I could crash as soon as we got home.

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