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.

 

Race Review: Disney Wine & Dine Half Marathon (Part 1)

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To read about our 1st day at Disneyworld & the Expo go here.

On the morning of race day we did our best to sleep in. We had a reservation at Ohana at the Disney Polynesian Resort at 9:30AM. After wearing sandals the day before (Birkenstocks) and getting a blister which I've never gotten before with those shoes, I decided my new Run Disney shoes were the safest to walk around in pre-race (I needed to break them in anyway so I could wear them during the race!).

Breakfast was the typical breakfast food including Mickey-shaped waffles, all served family style at your table. The pastries and pineapple orange guava juice were delicious! I didn't want to eat TOO much because the race was, of course, later that same day. We hung around for a bit to get our token picture with Mickey and Stitch and watched the kids do their Hawaiian parade around the restaurant.

After our delicious and relaxing breakfast, we headed on over to Hollywood Studios to check out another park. I'd never been there before so I was pretty excited. We made our way to Tower of Terror immediately after entering the park and probably waited about a half hour which wasn't bad at all. For the rest of the day we walked around checking out the various rides/shows. Unfortunately we never made it on the Aerosmith Roller Coaster because the wait was 160 min and there were no more fast passes available. I still enjoyed this park a lot, possibly more than the magic kingdom. I loved the Great Movie Ride, it was about 15 minutes long and you literally tour through some of the greatest movies of all time, totally up my alley having gone to film school.

We only stuck around until just after 3:00, at which point the plan was to go to Downtown Disney and get something small to eat. When we got there, Downtown Disney was a lot busier than the parks had been. It was almost overwhelming, but we trudged on through the crowd, bought some souvenirs for family and went to Earl of Sandwich for something to eat. I had eaten there in Las Vegas and loved it. The line was about 20 minutes long but we waited anyway. We were both satisfied with the sandwiches (Caprese for me & Hawaiian BBQ for Cindy).

Finally, it was time to go back to the room and get ready for the race. It seemed silly getting ready at 5:30PM when the race wasn't until 10:00PM, but we had to be on the bus by 7.

Cindy was dressed as Rapunzel (Tangled) and I was supposed to be Minnie Mouse (minus the ears cause I just couldn't run like that). The shuttle picked us up at our hotel right around 7:00 (there was no line!) and it only took a few minutes to get to the ESPN zone. At that point, we had just under 3 hours to wait. We immediately headed to the bag check lineup which wasn't long at all. After that we noticed some extremely long lines and I realized that you could get pictures with some of the characters while waiting. We got in a line, not entirely clear who we were lining up for, but hey, we had time to kill! About 30 minutes later, we found the chipmunks! (We must have totally missed this at Tinkerbell)

Next, we just moved right on over to the next line to get another picture, this one was for Minnie so it took longer. Thankfully, they had an awesome DJ and a huge screen with pre-race entertainment including a surprise wedding engagement! That seems to happen at every Disney race! It all helped pass the time.

And then again we stood in line... In case you wondering, this is a general theme at Disney races, well actually, at Disneyworld/Disneyland period.

We also met lots of cool people while standing around. Runners are awesome that way, we can always find something to chat about!

Here is Darrell from Winnipeg, we saw him during the race too and nicknamed him "Winterpeg"... For all you non-Canadians, it's a lot colder there than here on the West Coast or in Florida for sure.

We also found another "Cindy"!

After all those lineups we headed to the bathroom lineup which didn't take very long. At this point they were calling everyone into the corrals. We had talked lots about the race in the days prior and of course while standing around. When we did the Tinkerbell Half Marathon back in January, we had pushed pretty hard in hopes that we might make the top 3 mother/daughter teams (we made top 6). This time around, we wanted to take advantage of everything a Disney race has to offer which, in our minds, not worrying about our time. I really shouldn't have brought my watch but I did anyway out of habit. The plan was to basically stop for every photo and run in between each stop.

Note: If you're going to buy the photo package with all of your photos from Marathonfoto, it is $65 whether you have 3 photos or 30 (this time we were going to get our money's worth). There is usually a cast member there to take your photo with your phone or personal camera but, in my experience, they are almost always blurry (likely on purpose) and the lighting sucks because it is dark (either early in the morning or at night).

So with all of those things in mind, we headed into corral E. I was originally supposed to be in D but Cindy was in E and we weren't going for time anyway. I love the lead-up to the Disney races, it really is a celebration! There were fireworks with every corral start and a huge champagne bottle on the side of the start line where they had a bubble machine to make it look like bubbles were coming out of the bottle. It might have been lame, but I was totally impressed!


Photo courtesy of Run Disney's FB Page

Photo courtesy of Run Disney's FB Page

As we edged to the start I had some of what I thought were hunger pains in my stomach... I didn't have much time to worry about it though because within about 8 minutes we were off in the sea of people headed towards Animal Kingdom.

You'll have to wait to hear about the rest in part 2 of my review!

Disneyland Day 1: Expo & What I Forgot

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We have arrived at the mouse's house! I was pretty stressed today about getting here, checking in, and picking up our bibs. All in all it didn't go too badly, we were late feeding the Griffster dinner but he was a trooper and was only mildly perturbed. We are staying at a Disneyland resort hotel, and I have to say that even though the price was shocking we had a great experience checking in even though it was very busy. The second we walked through the doors you could tell that it is a family-oriented hotel, in the lobby they have a "story time" area with mini lounger chairs for the children. We were immediately directed to the desk by the staff members with iPads at the front door, the lady at the desk offered Griffin a colouring book right away and had us all checked in in less than 5 minutes with personalized room keys for each of us (including Griffin lol). We then made our way up to our room, it's nothing super fancy, but it is very clean and comfortable and kid proof of course, well so far... I also noticed that if you have older children you can get a room with bunk beds, cool!

After settling in we were off towards the expo. The closer we got the more runners I could pick out of the crowd carrying bibs and other Tinkerbell merchandise. Though I got flustered it actually was a very well organized packet pickup and it didn't take long to locate our bibs. It was more the fact that we had to also pick up our discounted theme park tickets, "ChEAR squad" packets, and Griffins kids race packet so we visited almost every booth. We then had to test our chip, they're the ones that go on your bib so that's great, and they had volunteers cheer you across the test line which was kinda funny! Also because we booked our hotel through the travel organization "Get Travel" associated with the "Run Disney" races we received an awesome run Disney rolling duffel bag with wheels for free!

So next it was on to the actual expo and to see the official race merchandise. I stopped at a couple notable booths. "Team Sparkle" was there so I couldn't pass up that opportunity and bought a silver skirt for some of my future races this year. Hmm, maybe a costume for New York! We also stopped at a booth that had all these light up arm bands, shoe laces, and rings. Nikki from Slow is the New Fast asked me to grab some more of the rings for her (she saw them last weekend at WDW for the Goofy Challenge). Since we were there anyway I grabbed some orange and black flashing arm bands to add to our costume. There was lots of other great running products that I didn't really take the time to look at because I wanted to check out the official merch before buying anything else. I left a little disappointed, they had a kids shirt that said "My Mom ran the Tinkerbell Half" but it was very girly so I couldn't buy it for Griff. I settled on a tank top and a hat for summer. I've got my eye on a Coast to Coast sweatshirt for November though. In case I haven't mentioned it, the coast-to-coast challenge is part of Run Disney; basically if you run two races, one at Disneyland and one in Disneyworld in the same calendar year, you receive a special medal. We are aiming for the Disneyworld Wine & Dine Half Marathon in November. If I can swing it that may also be race #13 for the 13in2013 challenge.

So here we are, ready to settle in for the night, I was unpacking some of my running things and I noticed once again that I've forgotten something very important. The charger for my Garmin watch, not the wall part but the cord that connects to the USB charger, and if you have a Garmin you will know how odd it is. There was a Garmin booth at the expo though so I hope I can buy the cord there tomorrow. On the bright side maybe I can look at some more stuff that I frantically ran past today.

Well better tuck myself in, we will be up bright and early to prepare Griff for his 100m dash (a Run Disney Kids Race)!

P.S. sorry about any missing links, I'll have to add them next week, I have limited functionality on the iPad. And don't worry I didn't buy the crazy Tinkerbell ears...