Mickey's Happy Haunted 5K, Costume reveal, and the Cutest Runner EVER!

After doing several other 5Ks that ran through the Disney parks, I was a little apprehensive to do Mickey's Haunted trail run.

The trail run is held on the grounds of the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex. Since we had a car, we decided to drive ourselves instead of taking the race bus. If you do drive, you are allowed to park right in the ESPN parking lot and it was no hassle at all.

When we arrived at ESPN it was raining. I did pack a rain jacket for this trip but I did not bring it with me to the race.  Fortunately, Champion stadium was open so we were able to hang out in there and wait till it was time to start walking down to the corrals. (Side Note: Bathrooms are plentiful at Champion stadium.)

As we walked to our corral the rain changed to just a sprinkle and then as we lined up, it stopped. That's made me so happy! The corrals were on the grassy area behind the Jostens Center ( where the expo is). I believe they went from A to F. There were also port o potties lined up behind the corrals.

I will admit that I thought the start line ( and finish line) was a little underwhelming compared to the other Disney 5Ks I have done.  No big arch, just a flag. It was cute though.  They had the little stage with the DJ and Scarecrow Mickey up on the right. A few minutes before the race began, the headless horseman ran through the field on the left. 

Then it was our turn to start the race.  We were in Corral "B" and we waited like 5 minutes after corral "A" went, which I thought was a little long.  We started out running, but the grass was of course still wet so we slowed down.  We were on the grassy area for maybe 3/10 of a mile before we headed out on to the trail. I now realized why they gave 5 minutes between each corral. The path was pretty narrow so I'm sure they wanted to alleviate congestion.  Once we got on the trail, very few people were actually running.

I know this is a poor quality picture but I wanted to show you what most of the trail was like. There were several types of terrain, but I never felt that it was unsafe. I think the rain had packed down the sandy surfaces and there were not any roots sticking up or anything else that could be a tripping hazard. It was still a trail though, and the rain had made some of it muddy. I was still not looking forward to running this trail again at night ( as part of the 10 Miler).

Here are some of the characters that were on the course. At one point there were giant bugs hanging from some of the trees as well.  Over all I think Disney did a good job putting stuff out on the course.

And of course since I was in my Steeler's outfit, I had to get a picture with the Steeler's Zombie.

After seeing the football zombies, we were headed to the finish line! It was fun running into the finish line because we had people cheering for us yelling "Go Steelers".

We completed our first official race together! We decided we would save our "costumes" for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party and just wear our Steelers tech gear for the race.  Amy from Rock City Skirts sent me the yellow sparkle skirt to try out. Before I received the skirts, I was going to just wear a plain black skirt but I think the yellow sparkle skirt looks so much better! She warned me that the fabric for the yellow skirt was a little lighter weight then the fabrics for the other ones ( and when I got my skirts I compared the two and I understood what she meant). That didn't bother me one bit though. I still thought it was fabulous! I was able to pair this skirt up with my Steelers top, but if you wanted to do something more Disney related, Rock City has some Disney inspired skirts that are really fantastic, (think scales for little mermaid, cow print for Jessie, Dalmatian print, Pocahontas, and many more).  I'll be sporting another Rock City skirt for a future Disney race for sure! Any guesses what I might dress up as?

And Finally, this was absolutely the cutest runner that came across the finish line.

 

This is Kasey. He is a yellow Labrador and is a therapy dog. That is why he was allowed to run the race. He even got his own medallion. Isn't that SO cute? I would love to run with Belle and Baylee at a Disney race!

                  This is our cute shirt and medallion. I'm pretty sure both of them glow in the dark.


That's it folks! Overall, this race wasn't that bad. I prefer the 5Ks that run through the parks, but this was okay for something different.  And I have to say that the snack box at the end was one of the best they've given out...haha! I'm glad I got the same box later that night!   ~M


Have you ever run with your dog at a race? Have you run races where there were also dogs running?