Volunteering for the WDW marathon

Hi again! So much has been happening the last few days that's it's been hard to write about my experience volunteering for the Walt Disney World marathon.  So here we go!!

The Walt Disney World marathon is a long weekend. The expo starts on a Wednesday and the marathon doesn't occur till that Sunday.  This is why my dad and I drove down early.  On Saturday morning, January 10, we left my grandpa's to make our way over to the  marathon expo to pick up our volunteer credentials.  Before we got to the expo, we picked up Brittany, who would also be volunteering with us.  We got to the expo around 10:45 and went to pick up our credentials and look around for a bit.  After looking at some of the many booths the expo had to offer, we decided to try and check in to the hotel.

We were staying at the Courtyard Marriott off of Palm Parkway.  It was very nice for a great price.  We arrived a little earlier than check in time but they had our room ready, so off we went to drop our stuff off in the room.  After bringing everything to the room, we were really hungry so we decided to go to downtown disney for some lunch, and the choice of lunch was Earl of Sandwich (YUM).  Brittany and I both had the holiday turkey sandwich, which was AMAZING; I highly recommend it to anyone who like Thanksgiving dinner.  After lunch we decided to get some Ghiradelli ice cream because no downtown disney trip is complete without it.  We got the cookie bits sundae and it was delicious as usual.  After walking around downtown disney for a bit, we decided to go resort hopping for a little bit.  We parked, and started, at Fort Wilderness, because that's my dad's favorite resort, and then waited for my cousin Samantha to meet up with us.  Once she met up with us we went to the Contemporary so we could take the monorail to Polynesian.  We got pina coladas there.  After Polynesian it was time to head back because we had to be up super early the next morning for the marathon.

We woke up about 3am, and then went to pick my cousin up at her hotel.  We then had to drive to Blizzard Beach to get on a bus that took us to our location, which was mile 12.9 behind Animal Kingdom.  At Blizzard Beach, they also gave us a bunch of snacks and a jacket, which would come in handy later in the morning when it started raining.  We got to our location and we set up the tables and cups.  We filled them with water and then the runners started to come.  It was a lot of fun and I will probably do it again.  We took the bus back to Blizzard Beach so we could pick up our tickets and then head back.  Once we got back to the resort, we took a really long nap before we brought Brittany back to meet up with her parents.  All in all, the experience was a success.

Found a very special Delta Gamma!

My aunt is just the coolest...this was her 2nd marathon!