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Five go round in Florida - Tower of Terror 13k

by Debbie Masding

We had booked a holiday in Orlando for October half term before realising there was a race held at one of the theme parks, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, it was an almost unanimous decision for the whole family to compete (youngest daughter Becky is convinced she can not be blood related to people who would choose to run a race). The event hosted two races, 13k and 5k with over 5000 entrants in total. My daughters Emma (20) and Becky (17) both competed in the 5k (Emma did some training Becky did absolutely none) whilst I, my husband Simon and Emma’s boyfriend Joe all took part in the 13k run.

The race started at 10.30 in the evening when the temperature had dropped to a pleasant 80 degrees (a glorious and humid 90 during the day) which added to the sparkle of the occasion and the park had been closed to the all but runners and guests – so the excitement and fantastic atmosphere was delivered in a way that only Disney can make so special.

I had the previous weekend completed/struggled round Abingdon marathon so was happy to take things easy, this was Simon’s first ever race so we went round together in 1h 20m and were happy to take in the sights and just enjoy the occasion. Joe clocked in 6mins ahead of us and did really well. The girls had fun too and took just over 30mins to finish the short course.

The park was kept open until 2am and gave us the chance to go on some of our favourite rides Rock ’n’ Roller-coaster and the Tower of Terror itself (this is my favourite – a random free fall of 130ft in an elevator!). Not quite so pleasant was queuing up along side lots of hot and sweaty runners but the banter was good and it was fun to talk to competitors from another country.

We’ll certainly run together again and I think I have persuaded them all to run AA’s Linda Franks in January 2010!

There was a serious side to the event too. It was run in aid of Leukaemia and Lymphoma and we raised around $500.