This weekend I participated in my 42nd and 43rd runDisney events, the Expedition Everest Challenge:Family Edition(EEC:FE) and the Expedition Everest Challenge(EEC).  As some of you may remember we participated in the 2012 Expedition Everest Challenge event with E and she had a blast.  Needless to say G was a bit jealous, so when runDisney introduced the Family Edition this year we decided to give it a try.

The weekend started with me logging out of work early and taking E with me to hit the packet pick up at Wide World of Sports(WWoS).  The packet pick-up for the events had a little bit of an upgrade this year with a couple vendors on hand.  They had Sweaty Bands, Raw Threads and New Balance to name a few.  Since I was picking up for both races and all family members I had a good stack of waivers in hand as we went down the line and scooped up everyone’s goodies.

The EEC:FE included a bib customized with your team name, a cotton t-shirt, and a finisher’s medallion for the $35 registration per individual fee.  Teams could have between 2 and 6 people and was open to ages 4 and up.  Our registered team consisted of me, G, E, Steve and Pop (my father).  As team No Way Jose we named ourselves after our favorite Disney ice cream treat at the Yacht Club’s Beaches and Cream.  We wore clothes that followed the theme: Mom wore white and brown to be our chocolate and vanilla ice cream, I was in a white shirt dyed with tea to look like Peanut Butter Sauce, Dad wore brown to be our hot fudge, E was in a white shirt with brown and beige spots to be our whipped cream with chocolate and peanut butter chips and G was in a red shirt with a cherry drawn on the front.

We weren’t entirely sure what to expect of the EEC:FE when we arrived at Wide World of Sports in the morning.  Steve unfortunately ended up having to work so our team was me, G, E, Grammy and Pop (my parents).  The weather for the entire week was iffy so we were hopeful walking into the WWoS complex that it would hold out long enough for our adventure.  Unfortunately it spent the entire morning switching between a heavy mist, a steady rain, and no rain at all.  We made our way back towards where the kids races were then we spotted the EEC:FE check in tent on one of the ball fields.  We headed up to check in where we were greeted by our friend and fellow ROTEr Kimberly.  A volunteer gave us our clue book and an adventure map that was not of the WWoS complex then Kimberly explained how things would work for the morning.

We were given 8 clues to solve and we needed all of those clues to help us figure out what action we needed to do as we crossed the finish line.  There were no winners in this event, but they did ask that we all keep our clue booklets sealed until the race officially started.  That was easier said than done in the weather since the dampness kept making our yellow label seal pop open, lol.  When the race was officially started I opened the booklet and read through the direction really quick as instructed.   We had 8 clues represented by various symbols that we needed to travel various place in WWoS to help get clues to solve.  I flipped to the map of the WWoS complex and decided we should start at the furthest away clue and make our way back to the clue closest to the finish line.

There adventure map we were given had 18 different locations on it and each had an action wrapped up into its name, so for some examples there was Hop-A-Long Hideaway, Jump Pass, and Cartwheel Crossing.  Each clue gave us a location on the map to circle.

The clues were not terribly difficult, so a later elementary school aged child could figure them out given time.  Some were easy to guess by looking at the map like the one in this picture that included the two words with three letters each.  Others were easy to guess just because of the letters you were given.  For instance only one location had a “Q” in its name.

I think the hardest clue for us, honestly, was the one where we needed to find the difference between the yeti pictures.  This clue had no location and in the end wasn’t needed to solve the final clue.  The final clue had us draw a line through the locations in a certain sequence based on the icons that represented those clues.  Where the lines we drew intersected gave us a location name whose action we had to perform to gain access to the track and the finish line.

When we gained access to the track the kids took off running and left me and my parents behind.  I felt safe with them on the Disney track though so I didn’t try to chase them down.  When we did arrive at the finish Kimberly was there again and gave me my medallion.  They had some snacks available including water, Powerade, mini Cliff bars, and bananas.  I had trouble trying to explain to the kids that as kids they didn’t really need the Cliff bars and in my opinion would not enjoy the taste at all.  Carra, another ROTEr, was volunteering in the food distribution and it was good to see her.  A big thank you to everyone that volunteered that morning!

When we were done we hit the Art of Animation food court for some lunch then headed home to rest up for the EEC later that evening.

I think in the end we all had fun.  E wanted to have more control over the book, but with the questionable weather we were having trouble with keeping the book dry so the umbrella had to stay with the book and she couldn’t hold both at the same time.  Also I was typically the first to solve the clues and I think that prevented the children from feeling as engaged as they could in finding a solution.  I tried to keep them as involved as I could in finding the clues and gathering information but with both of them wanting to help I kept ending up with more information than I needed, lol.  For the low price tag I think I would try this one again.  Hopefully next year Steve can join us.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 5th, 2013 at 1:40 pm and is filed under runDisney, Running, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.