Race Review: Disney Wine and Dine Half Marathon (Part 2)

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Part 1

As we started running, the excitement was palpable. People were so impressed by the fireworks and a lot of them were excited to be running their very 1st half marathon. As my 1st has long since passed, I always enjoy this part of the run. I was trying to get Cindy to ease into a pace with me as her last half was in August and she hadn't been able to keep up with the training due to being sick and her shoulder injury. We had planned to run the race together and that meant finishing together. So with that in mind, my 1st priority was to not have her go too fast in the beginning and hurt the possibility of being able to finish.

We found a good rhythm but before we knew it, we had found the 1st character stop. I realized at this point that what I had read about there being up to 30 character photo opportnities was most likely true. During the Tinkerbell half the characters were ONLY in the parks. We hadn't even made it into a park yet, we were within Disneyworld but still just on the road.

 

I began to try to calculate with our current pace and 30 photo stops what our finish time would be, I'm not sure why I bothered, but I did. I was pretty sure we would surpass 2:45, but I really had no idea. Obviously it depended on the lines for each photo. 

We continued on to the next stop and I felt really good without my hydration pack even though it was a lot more humid than what we were used to. The next stop was odd because there wasn't a professional photographer. If we had known that I'm not sure we would have stopped.

This is what I mean about taking your own photos, it doesn't work so well...

At this point we realized 10/1s were mostly pointless because of the photo ops. So we just ran when we could and stopped for the pictures when the opportunity arose. It was about 4 miles to Animal Kingdom and I felt really good, granted we were going pretty slow. There were lots of pictures stops in the park and I was enjoying myself just looking around as we hadn't visited this park during our trip.

 

Because we didn't go to all the places we ran during the day, I'm struggling to get my bearings from the photos but I think this was taken in Animal Kingdom too:

After leaving Animal Kingdom we looped, what I think, was the parking lot to find Jack Sparrow:

The next section was going to be the longest without water so I decided to grab some water/Gatorade at the station. Cindy got some Tylenol from the aid station as she was beginning to experience some knee pain and we continued on our way. I was feeling really good. I had tired legs, but nothing serious, mostly I think from walking all day beforehand. My stomach felt a little funny, but I wasn't concerned about it. Fueling for a night race is always an experiment. 

As we came back out on the road, Cindy really started experiencing more pain, but she insisted that it felt better to keep running, so that's what we did for a while. As we came up over a little hill, I could tell she needed to slow down so I tried to get her to match pace with me. Soon it was time to turn the corner towards Hollywood Studios and that's when we came up on the toy soldier:

He was ordering people around and referring to us all as soldiers. It was totally awesome!

It couldn't have been more than a kilometer to the back lot of Hollywood Studios at this point. This is mostly where I got confused because we circled Hollywood Studios twice, so I'm not entirely sure when each picture was taken.

After our 1st loop through Hollywood, we went back through part of the back lot, and there was a disco tunnel! I wish we had a picture of us running in here because it was so cool. Though, I hear some people didn't love it because of the fog machine. If you looked in the windows along the way you could see some of the places where they create and repair the costumes which was really neat.

Photo from the RunDisney facebook page

This also happens to be where we ran into 'Winterpeg' (Darrell, our fellow Canadian from Winnipeg). He said we were doing well time-wise. At this point, I'd quit looking at my watch. I was pretty sure we were going to surpass 3 hours, and though I knew we were doing this race to see everything and take advantage of the photos, it still stung a little bit. I kept reminding myself that we had done well at Tinkerbell and were sad we had missed out on all the fun stuff. 

As we weaved, what felt like, out of Hollywood Studios, I was nervous we were somehow going to miss the Osborne Spectacle of Lights, but thankfully we got to run right through it. It was absolutely amazing, every runner pretty much stopped to look at it in awe.

It was/is by far the most amazing Christmas lights display I have ever seen. I really hope the rumors about it being the last year aren't true, but if it is, I'm so glad I got to see it. 

At this point, we were both tired. My legs were not handling the stopping for much longer than a minute very well. The whole point of interval training is to teach your body to be able to run for 10 minutes and stop for 1 minute to recover. But the thing is, you're only supposed to stop for 1 minute, you have only taught your body not to build up that lactic acid that makes you stiff and sore for 1 minute... so, any longer than that and you're pretty much screwed. But alas, I was having too much to fun to worry about it.

 

 

As we came out of Hollywood Studios, I knew Epcot was up next but I had no idea how big Epcot was or how long it would take to get to the finish line. My garmin had died (I didn't charge it the night before, ooops!) and Cindy's phone with the Nike tracking app had also died. We found ourselves on the boardwalk (I think) and there were lots of spectators which was nice because there hadn't been many spectators yet. Spectators always give me the inspiration I need to run, but Cindy's knee was done and she just couldn't anymore so we walked. We read the signs and thanked the spectators and the volunteers. 

My stomach was really rumbling at this point. I figured I was just hungry because we hadn't eaten much prior to the race and it was well past midnight at this point.

As we moved further into Epcot, there were more and more spectators. I kept thinking the finish line would be just around the corner and that Cindy could just run that last little bit. But every time I'd get us running again, the finish line never came.

I think at this point Cindy was really frustrated, she told me to go on. There was no way I was finishing by myself, we had 1 more mile and we were going to do it together whether we were walking or even crawling.

The spectators lined the course at least 10 people deep as we passed by the Epcot ball/spaceship, I knew we had to be getting really close. And it really was only a little further before we saw the big loop into the finish. I've only ever walked across one other finish line and that was because of an injury at a 10k last year.

 

Even though we walked a lot and had a finish time of, wait for it, 3:22:58... It might have been the most fun that I've ever had at a race and I'm so happy I got to do it with my mother-in-law, Cindy! Seriously, people run a full marathon in that time, haha.

 

We earned our coast-to-coast medals that night as well!

After promptly collecting my checked bag with the Tinkerbell medal and getting this picture, my stomach went into a full blown meltdown. I was all of the sudden extremely nauseous and sharp stabbing pains were gripping my entire abdomen. I could barely walk, all I knew is we had to find a restroom FAST. On your way out of the finish line/recovery chute they handed you a drink of choice: beer, red wine, or white wine. I grabbed the sealed white wine and threw it in my bag with no desire to drink it at that moment. 

As we headed towards the entrance to the finish line party, I became increasingly aware that there was a possibility I might not make it to the restrooms in time. The gardens began to look like a very appealing place to empty the contents of my stomach. It also seemed that I wasn't the only one in this predicament, there were multiple people vomiting along the side. What was going on?!? This is horrible.

 

When we got into the party, the 1st restroom was lined up until the end of time. I didn't even consider it, we just kept walking. We ended up actually having to cross the course to get to a restroom that wasn't lined up as long. There was still a lineup of course, but it only took about 5 minutes or so. I felt bad about walking across the course, but obviously we waited for an opening and my options were running out fast. After 20 minutes in the restroom, I came back out still feeling dizzy, nauseous, and still clutching my stomach in pain. We crossed back over the course and followed the hoards of people. We asked around about how to get to the food and the rest of the party and were directed to where there were 100's of people standing along the side of the course where a cast member was waiting for a break in runners  and sending people across in waves. I was looking at the situation wondering if it was really going to be worth it. It was well after 1:00AM, we were tired, I was feeling sick, things weren't looking very good. I climbed up on a bench to see across the course at what the lineups were like on the other side. The thing is, I couldn't see anything, just people, not the ground, not anything but heads, 1000's of people. I looked at Cindy and said I'm really sorry but I just can't do this, she agreed that it wasn't worth it and we headed for the shuttle back to our hotel. As we walked, we passed more people getting sick in the bushes. I've never seen so many people sick during or after a race.

 

The shuttle for our hotel thankfully wasn't lined up at all (unlike the others). We were back within 10 minutes and unfortunately, and unknowingly, took a walking detour from the bus stop back to our room. Things in Disneyworld look a lot different at night!

 

When we finally got back, I honestly have never been so relieved to be back near a restroom and a bed. I was pretty sick for the rest of the evening. We woke up late, checked out of the hotel, and headed to the beach. I was sick for pretty much the rest of our trip, I'm not sure if I had the stomach flu or if night races just don't agree with me. I happened to have similar symptoms after a local night race last year.

 

Anyways, the beach was a welcome sight at the end of the day.

Race Review Summary

 

Package Pickup/Expo:If you're headed to a Disney race, be sure to leave yourself lots of time to attend the package pickup and expo. Most likely you will have to contend with long lines, though they are always very organized. The expo and merchandise, though it isn't cheap is always awesome, so go early so you don't miss out on anything!

Price/Value: $175-205 (depending on when you register, though it will probably be early because they almost always sell out)
I've heard a lot of complaining about the cost of BIG races lately on twitter and other social media. I get that it is really expensive especially when you factor in travel. However, a Disney race much like some of the other big race organizations isn't just a race, it is a total experience. For me, it isn't something I can do every year because I just couldn't afford it. But I enjoyed myself nonetheless and they are well-organized races with all the support you could possibly need. In this particular Disney race, you get to see 3 parks (the most of any other race as far as I've read) and there were definitely more photo ops in this race than Tinkerbell.

My only issue with this race is not being able to experience the Food & Wine festival and the finish line party because of the volume of people. I think if you're going to sell tickets to the public on top of the runners who got a ticket with their race fee, it should be a lot more limited. Even if we had gotten in there, there was no way we were going to be able to do very much with all the lineups.

Aid Stations: I didn't bring my hydration pack, just a spibelt to hold my phone and wallet. They are plenty of water/Gatorade and aid stations on course. I didn't find myself thirsty at all and I definitely drink a lot more than your average person.

Course Difficulty: Easy. Though a Disney race is just not the time to try for a PR. If you're going to spend that much money, take the time and enjoy the things you see and experience. I'd also factor in the weather in FL because although our race was at night, the other Disney races are not and it can get very hot which can be dangerous if you are not prepared. Though, I've heard they are very responsive to such things with extra hydration stations and other amenities.

Medals: Couldn't be more awesome.