Today, I headed left from the resort to Disney World’s Wilderness Lodge… not many people know that WDW is actually built on swampland. The land that was dug up to create the various lakes being used as landfill for the parks.

It all means that the Disney ‘property’ the parks and hotels are on have loads of protected land around them and Wilderness Lodge is probably the Resort that gets closest to nature as there are miles of trails through there.

It’s about a mile from our hotel so I did a mile there, another back and then two miles on the trails. There were a few drops of rain around and that gorgeous early morning smell of fresh rain was on the breeze. It was still early so I had the trails to myself, save  a few deer that looked on nonchalantly as I passed.

While you’re here… a friend of mine and staunch supporter of the site, Ben Maher is running the London Marathon on behalf of kids cancer charity  Clic Sargent. Sponsor him if you can please http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/BenMaher

Click here for a Google Map and full details of the day’s run

Miles today: 4.15
Target: 438
Miles to date: 551.93

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This morning’s run was another dark one as we have another early start but I managed to just run a straight and back instead of going around the lakes as I have done the other days I’ve been here.

It’s something I’d not done previously as I had no idea where the road that goes right from our hotel goes, but we drove it yesterday (it heads to Epcot park) and so, even though I knew it was dark, I kind of knew where I was going…

I’m not sure if I ended up somewhere in one of the back lots at one point, but I did pass a building called Disney University – I’m sure they give Mickey Mouse degrees.

Click here for a Google Map and full details of the day’s run

Miles today: 3.00
Target: 435
Miles to date: 548.78

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I’ve not really got the time to do my two day’s speed training while here this week (each session takes more than an hour) so I think I’m going to have to stick to just the three miles.

As it was dark, it was another difficult run… While the Magic Kingdom castle was lit up this morning, the path’s around the resort can be a little hit and miss, so at times it was pretty dark. And when you are running by water in Florida, the last thing you need it to be is dark thanks to the gators that lurk there, so it all felt a bit bitty and saw me doing lots of running up and down the queue lanes I mentioned yesterday.

Click here for a Google Map and full details of the day’s run

Miles today: 3.00
Target: 432
Miles to date: 545.78

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Our hotel, the Contemporary Resort at Walt Disney World looks over Bay Lake which joins with neighbouring Seven Seas Lagoon (where we zipped around on Sea Raycers yesterday, see Worldofjames.com) and there’s a path that leads someway around the latter and so I headed that way, running almost as far as the Grand Floridian resort before having to turn back.

At the road that splits the two resorts (and lakes for that matter), I was a little short on distance but zipping up and down the queue lines, separated by chain, for the ferry boat service that starts later in the day and goes between the Contemporary and the Floridian made up for it.

Normally, I’d hate winding around them, this morning they were  a godsend.

Click here for a Google Map and full details of the day’s run

Miles today: 3.00
Target: 429
Miles to date: 542.78

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The shuttle launch pad could be seen from my room in the Disneyworld Contemporary Resort in the dark night sky and a combination of the excitement of seeing it and jetlag saw me waking up every 45 minutes or so… predictably, I set the alarm wrong and just managed to leap out of bed to see the end of the tail as she went up.

I’ve been up working since then and just went for my first run here. At first, it was annoyingly dark and I had no idea whether I could get around Bay Lake that the resort is on or not. I figured though that some of it at least would be fenced off and it wasnt wise to run around it in the dark anyway so I headed to the highway nearby, rounded that and as it lightened up, came round the back of the resort.

The sight of the lake as the sun was coming up behind it, palm trees swaying in the breeze with the sky a deep scarlet was amazing… I ended up having to do the same route twice to get the three miles in but it was worth it to come back to that view.

On the body front, 2 miles in, my knee seemed to seize up a bit… I’ll be keeping an eye on that tomorrow and going pretty slow.

Click here for a Google Map and full details of the days’ run

Miles today: 3.00
Target: 426
Miles to date: 539.78

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I expected to be sore as heck after yesterday but felt surprisingly fit, given the hour.

Off for a quick dinner and bed now… I’m knackered. See you tomorrow for the first Stateside run.

(Oh, and if you want to read up on Disneyworld, I’ll be blogging daily about what to do here on worldofjames.com)

Click here for a Google Map and full details of the day’s run

Miles today: 3.01
Target: 423
Miles to date: 536.78

Want to dedicate a run to someone or have one dedicated to you? Click here