What's Going On: Goofy Challenge 2011

Disney gave everyone who finished the marathon on Sunday free entry in to any park on Monday. All you had to do was show up at the ticket counter, show them your finisher medal and the pass they gave you at packet pick-up, and they'd activate the pass and let you in. We decided to go to Epcot with a bunch of my running friends to Drink Around the World. With 11 countries in Epcot's World Showcase, we figured this was as good a way as any to spend a day.

The plan was to meet up with everyone at Canada at 11am, so we decided to kill some time beforehand by taking a ride on the Test Track. We walked right up the singles line and found only two people in front of us. Things were looking great until the park ride gods looked down and realized Heather was in line. I don't have any other way to explain the fact that anytime she's on or in line for a ride, it's got a very high chance of breaking down. Sure enough, the Test Track ride broke, and after 20 minutes of "temporary closure," Disney finally closed it and sent us all out.

We got to Canada a little after 11, and ran into our second disappointment of the day: they don't start serving beer until 12. We killed time on some kiddy rides that Eva and Steve knew about. They have annual passes even though they live in New York, so yeah, they know their way around the parks. When we returned to Canada, we met a few other runners planning to around the world too. As the day went on, we met more and more people doing the same thing, including one group who started at Mexico and were going the opposite way around. We ran into them in Japan, about halfway around, and they were hurting. Starting with margaritas is not the way to go; much better to end with them.

We had a great time, half of us managed to have a different drink in every country, and we ended the night at England watching the fireworks and listening to the music. A great way to end a fantastic weekend!