Last year we ran the inaugural Expedition Everest Challenge with our son Jason and daughter-in-law Krista. The guys teamed up as the Yeti Chasers, while Krista and I teamed up as the “Kelley Girls”. This year, we decided to make it another family trip. This time we were joined in Florida by our daughter Cassi and her family. Krista had to stay home, but son Jason was able to make the trip. He and Cassi signed up as team Yeti Set Go. Richard and I teamed up as The Dog Walkers.
We arrived at the Animal Kingdom shortly after 6pm, and then realized that the race started at 7:30, not 7:00. We made the same mistake last year. At least we are consistent! This left us a lot of time to stand around and become stiff and achy. As we stood and waited, the clouds rolled in, and the sky became somewhat ominous. Last year we signed up early and were in wave 3. This year we signed up late, and were in lucky wave 13.
Since there was a 5 minute wait between waves, this delayed our start until 8:35. Richard took off way too fast for me, with Jason & Cassi not far behind. I told them I’d see them at the end, and settled into a very slow jog. After a few minutes, Richard ran back to look for me. That is when we noticed the first few rain drops. The light rain felt good, and I was wearing my Goretex shoes, so I wasn’t concerned. As we entered the park, the wind picked up and the rain started coming down more steadily. By the time we got to the water stop, I wasn’t thirsty. After that, every low spot in the path turned into a puddle. Some of them were quite deep. Water ran down my legs and into my Goretex shoes, where it couldn’t get out. As I ran through puddles, it ran over the top. It was like running in a pair of swimming pools! By mile marker 2, we’d caught up with both kids. They were walking. I was still jogging slowly. The rain just kept coming down harder, with thunder and lightning to let us know that Nature was cheering us on. The puddles were so deep that we started splashing through them like little kids, giggling because we weren’t going to get in trouble for getting our shoes wet! The last 1.1 miles felt longer than the first 2, but finally we were sprinting toward the finish line, and the deepest puddle of all. The water was up to my mid-calf, and I was struggling to lift my feet above the water line. We finished in 40:50 and headed for the obstacle course.
I was amazed that they hadn’t shut it down because of safety issues. I attempted the first obstacle, but was too stiff to swing my leg over. I climbed over the cargo net, and then waited while Richard helped a lady who was struggling. Next up was the balance beam. I skipped that one. Richard made it half way before giving up. We did crawl under the cargo net, then headed toward the scavenger hunt. As we were picking up our books, we heard an announcement that the obstacle course was closed. As we entered the park, we saw that many of the finisher’s were leaving. We wandered through the different areas, hunting for clues and writing the answers in our books. We crossed the finish line and collected our medals just as the rain stopped falling. There was a lot of confusion at the finish line. We tried to turn our books in, and discovered that they were no longer checking answers. A few minutes later they sent the volunteers home and stopped giving out medals.
The after party was a bit of a bust, because most of the rides were shut down because of the weather. We hung around for a while, and the Expedition Everest ride was started back up. We rode it once, and then started heading for the gate. It was a very different experience from 2008, but fun in a very weird way.
THE DOG WALKERS 1882 40:50 5:47 39:59 2:26:38 1:26:35
YETI SET GO 1887 40:50 45:46 2:26:40 1:26:36
