A Peek Inside the Last Expedition Everest

While we were stressing out about getting all our stuff around for our first trip to Disneyland in California, there was another Disney race going on. The first weekend in May was the last Expedition Everest Challenge race. When I first started running Disney races, Expedition Everest was high on my list of the ones to run  mainly because I never thought I would be able to run more than a 5k race but we all know how that turned out).

Anyway, our friend Heather was fortunate to be able to participate in the last Expedition Everest and she wanted to share her experience here with you all..................

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Last November my friend Kelly and I were talking about how the Everest Challenge was ending.  She said she wanted to go and asked if I was interested.  Of course!  It doesn’t take much to get me to sign up for runDisney races.  So we signed up as a team, “Run with the Mouse”.

Expo

While I have read other reports on this race from past years, I knew not to expect a normal runDisney Expo.  There was a cheerleading competition that was going on at ESPN, so this year it was hosted in the Butterfly lot of Animal Kingdom, where the start of the race would take place.  We were staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, one of the three hotels that had official transportation that weekend, so we took the first bus to the expo and when we arrived, we were floored.  There were 3 small tents and one bus with official merchandise outside it.  People around us who had done the race before said that this was even smaller than past years. 

The first place we hit was the official merchandise area.  The items for sale were a men and woman’s version of the “I did it” shirt, the Everest Challenge pin and a generic runDisney hat.  I bought myself an “I did it” shirt and that was it.  We then headed to get our bibs and official shirt.  The official shirt was OK.  They were white, like bright white. 

There were three sponsor tents, New Balance, Fit 2 Run, and GoodSense.  This was the first runDisney expo that I have done in less than 30 minutes and spent less than $35.  A-ma-zing!  We went to the start line and took a bunch of photos with the photo op stations that were set up for the next night.  After an uneventful Expo, we headed back to drop off our stuff and to the parks.

Race

We had noticed that Kelly’s bib did not have a B-Tag so we decided to take the first bus to the race so that we could check out what might be the problem.  On the bus, there were other teams that only one teammate had the B-Tag, and officially found out that it was fine.  So it was all up to me to actually cross the finish line. 

We then had 2 hours to burn.  We were in Coral A, so we dropped off our bags and headed to the start.  There was a DJ there that was leading a bunch of dances who was a lot of fun.  I was told that he had done past runDisney events, but I don’t remember him.  Kelly was super focused for the race and clues and I had just taken a 5-Hour Energy so I was bouncing off the walls and dancing.  Someone next to her asked if I was alright.  Of course I was, I was at a runDisney race.

5k

Before we knew it, it was time to start the race.  First there was a 5k to get through, with just a few obstacles to mix it up.  We started through the parking lot of Animal Kingdom and before the first mile we hit our first obstacle.  It was the hay bales.  I have to be honest, I didn’t do all of them.  I was so excited and busy trying to take pictures that I skipped a couple of them.  Right before we entered Animal Kingdom we hit mile 1.  Right after we entered in the park, we hit our first character, Safari Chip and Dale (my picture didn’t turn out L ).  After we ran past the Tree of Life, we hit the other two character stops, first Timon from The Lion King and then King Louie from the Jungle Book.  Before we knew it, mile 2 was here.  We then hit the last two obstacles, the crawling under a net (oww on the knees) and the tires. 



Scavenger Hunt

Once we hit the finish line of the 5k we were given a bottle of water, a cooling towel and our first clue.  This was a hard clue.  We took our answer up to the volunteer a few times and were sent back a few times.  I finally heard someone say the answer with the correct answer and I copied and said 36.  Yes we cheated on the first clue.  I still don’t understand the answer.  It turned out that the answer we told was correct was actually incorrect.  It was actually 34.  A week later, I finally understood it.  1:11, 2:22, 3:33, 4:44, 5:55, 10:00, 11:10, 11:11, 11:12, 11:13, 11:14, 11:15, 11:16, 11:17, 11:18, 11:19, 12:22 – times two – once for AM and once for PM.  We got our second clue and headed into Animal Kingdom for a second time.

The second clue was a little easier.  It still took us a little while to try and figure it out, but ended up with CARABINER. 

We headed to the next area with our third clue.  This one we finally got on the first try, MOUNTAINEERS.

For the fourth clue we had the second half, but needed a little help from the volunteer.  He helped us sound it out and we got it, ELEVATION.  From then on I couldn’t get the song from U2 out of my head.

And then for the fifth and final clue, a word search.  We both love word searches.  At first we didn’t understand what we were looking for, but found a lot of the words from the clues in it.  We finally figured out that we had to find each word from our previous clues how many ever times it was listed on this clue.  This is where we figured out that we were told what was wrong for clue number one.

GO FIND THE HIDDEN YETI ON A CLUE CARD AND HOLD IT UPAT THE FINISH

The Yeti was on the back of clue number 2.  We headed to the finish and got our medals! 

The snacks afterward included water, Power Aide, Krave Chocolate snack things, and bananas.  With our hands full we headed out to get our bags and head to the after party.

After party

The Expedition Everest, Kali River Rapids, and Dinoland U.S.A. area were open.  We passed on Expedition Everest as it had a 25 minute wait and I had road it earlier that day and headed toward the River Rapids.  We planned on riding the ride and then changing out of our stinky race clothes into dry ones after.  The rapids were a lot of fun to ride in the dark but it was COLD once we were done.  We changed and headed back to check out the Everest ride.  It was now 45 minutes and I had to get up early for my flight the next day, so we headed back to the hotel.

Final Thoughts

I’m really glad I did this race.  It was a lot of fun!  I’m sad to see it go as I would totally do it again.  It was very underappreciated and under-noticed race.  The Expo was a disappointment, even with very low expectations.  I really wish that runDisney would have put more into this last race, it felt like this one was an afterthought for them, especially a week ahead of Tinkerbell.  The scavenger hunt was challenging and a lot of fun, especially with a great partner. 

RIP Expedition Everest Challenge!   Have you ever ran Expedition Everest? Are you sad to see it go?

Be sure to follow Heather on twitter @Heatherlas