Disney Wine n Dine-Oct 1, 2011


Disney Wine n Dine Half Marathon is the kickoff event to the Epcot Food and Wine Festival that is also the largest nighttime half marathon. It is a marathon and relay series (4.8 and 8.3 legs) that starts at ESPN Wide World of Sports, goes through Animal Kingdom, and finishes up at Epcot.

This year was the second annual and also a celebration of Disney turning 40. There were approximately 12,500 runners total with 8254 completing the half marathon, representing all 50 states and 21 countries, yet we can proudly say a FL runner took home the trophy! The crowd was a large percentage female (5213 vs 3041) and the average age was 36. The oldest runner was 66 and youngest 14.

I arrived at packet pick up about 11am on race day and at the Marriott World Center by 12p to be poolside by 1p for a nap and lunch. As the evening quickly approached, I had some final details to add to my costume of the Pink Glowin’ Minnie before driving over to Epcot. I don’t know if it was the nerves, but I was not hungry at 6p for dinner, so I just grabbed a couple power bars and Gatorade to munch on at start.

 

I tried to leave the hotel about 630p. However, I spent half an hour waiting on the valet, when I realized they were not getting my car. By the time I got to Epcot to catch the shuttle over to start at ESPN, it was already dark and 730p. It took over an hour of standing in line to catch the bus, but I took this opportunity to make my glow in the dark pink ribbons for my tutu. I had my noise activated LED pink ribbon on my shirt glowing. It didn’t even need my IPOD for the noise to make it glow! Everyone talking was loud enough! I was super stoked, and was getting some awesome compliments as I started adding on the glow in the dark ribbons to my tutu. That is until I looked down and saw that my shirt stopped glowing. The batteries couldn’t have died already!! I changed the batteries, but still no luck, I couldn’t get it to work. I decided I would turn it off and mess with it again at start and finish up my glow stick ribbons.

The bus arrived at the starting area, and there were a TON of people. They had a stage set up and music was blaring, and people were dancing. Our bus was stuck waiting for the line of other busses to leave. I felt like we were so late, despite my efforts to arrive early! We finally got off the bus about 930p, just enough time to throw my bag into the gear truck, hit the porta outlets, and line up in my corral!

I started messing with my LED shirt again, playing with the many wires, disconnecting and reconnecting, taking my shirt off, putting it back on, taking out the batteries, putting them back in, all this playing and I finally got it to start working again! =) Boy, was that mentally draining! I don’t think I will worry so much about costumes so much next time!! …it takes away your energy!

Walking over to start, I was stopped by this gorgeous guy running towards me that was very interested in my shirt. I was so dumbfounded by his amazingly blue eyes, I murmured something, but not sure if it was even English! I lost him in the crowd, but I kept my eye out for him the rest of the race! Unfortunately I had no such luck in seeing him again.

There were 4 corrals, letter based, that had pretty big time differences between each letter. For example I was Corral B, which was about 2:15-3:00. There’s a lot of paces between there! Needless to say, it was a little packed for the beginning miles with everyone trying to spread out and be around people of their own pace.

We were packed in for lineup for about half an hour. They started with the wheelchairs, and did a new start every 3 minutes or so, with fireworks going off for each start! Mickey and Minnie were cheering us on as we crossed over the starting line!

The first couple miles my legs tightened really quickly….not sure if it was the cooler temps, but I am glad that I kept my compression leg sleeves on, even though I was wearing pants!

Right away we saw lighted floats, and people dressed up in costumes in lights, and stages of musicians. The music was really good. I did not bring my IPOD and I did not regret it.

There were a good amount of runners dressed up too…men and women in Lederhosen, lots of Minnies, lots of tutus, one guy was a Lobster and his partner was a Minnie Cook, there was a group dressed up as Thing 1, 2, etc, except they were Drunk1, 2, etc, Woody and his girlfriend were running too.

After we left ESPN, we headed to Animal Kingdom. It was a pretty good distance on the road between the parks, and not many spectators, since the roads were closed. (most spectators were at the end of the race). Animal Kingdom stunk. Literally. Not only of animal poo, but I guess they just redid the bark in the flower beds. It was not pleasant when breathing heavy! There were a ton of employees in the parks, cheering you on. It was cool to have supporters, but then at the same time you wonder if they volunteered, or were forced to ‘work’….they were after all in their uniforms. There wasn’t much to see in Animal Kingdom because it was so dark. The only thing I really noticed was the Tree of Life. We were quickly in and out of the park and then back on the boring road between parks.

The distance was going by fast. I kept to a slow and steady pace, so I wouldn’t do a lot of walking, since I knew I was going to be stopping a lot to take lots of pictures. I was, however, hot. I wore pants as my dad tried to convince me it was going to be cold. Well, it was cool at start, and pretty cold at finish, but still not cold enough to wear pants. I was uncomfortably hot which became distracting.

As we past by the 4mile sign, I checked my pace and realized my Garmin had stopped! The last time I looked was at the 5k, so it could have been stopped for a whole mile! I turned it back on, and decided that’s fine, I don’t need the time, I just need to know my pace. That is when I realized my batteries were dying. Great... No Garmin! Oh well, I guess it will just force me to ‘enjoy’ the magical world of Disney!

At around mile 6 I realized my LED pink ribbon shirt had stopped glowing! I once again had to play with the batteries, play with the wires…but nothing worked. I was warned heavy sweating could short it out. I had on an extra shirt, but wondered if it was enough. I turned it off, and tried to play with it again after another mile, but still no such luck. Still not sure what exactly was wrong, because by the end of the race, I was able to get it working again. (note to self, next time do a test run when wearing an electronic costume!)

At about mile 7, I just happened to glance up and saw the biggest shooting star I had ever seen in my life! I yelled out, and someone else saw it too, so that reconfirmed that I was not hallucinating! It was such a magical sight to see on such a clear dark night! I made my wish and continued on.

There were actually some good size hills..I guess mainly the overpasses, and entrance/exit ramps that we were on. One of them had Army Joe dressed up and yelling orders to all of us to ‘Get up that hill!!..You paid for this!”

Hollywood Studios was next, and that was a bit more entertaining. They had a ton of lights decorating the buildings (getting ready for Christmas??), and then the different Hollywood ‘sets’ were pretty cool to see. We got to run through an area of the behinds the scenes of the Princess Dress making area. All I wanted to do was go play dress up! Lol. Yes, the kid in me was out in full force!

I was surprised though, I had not seen as many Disney characters as I thought I would, or at least recognizable ones….but I guess those are more for the Disney marathon through Magic Kingdom, where we unfortunately were not going. There weren’t that many professional photographers out either. It seemed like they save the most of them for the last couple miles. It was good though, that they had an employee at each character to take our picture.

The course was well stocked with lots of water and Gatorade stations, and even Vaseline and Biofreeze stations! I am amazed how many runners were putting on the Biofreeze already! You couldn’t smell anything but mentholyptus and let me tell you, it does wonders to your nose hairs and sinuses when you are running hard! I say keep that stuff for the end of the race!

In and out of Hollywood Studios we went quickly again, and we were back on the road to Epcot…our final stretch….well, that’s what I thought! I haven’t been to Disney in years, so really didn’t know exactly where we were. One thing that spectators don’t understand is when you yell out “youre almost there!” and you are really Not almost there, it is only that much more frustrating to the runner! You think you are almost at the finish, so you push a little harder, run a little faster, only to realize you just wasted energy because you are still not almost there! …(note to self, next time double check the Garmin battery!!)

We ran through some Disney resort, and around some lake right outside of Epcot, and that is where all the spectators were at…we had tons of signs and lots of cheers I started to choke up the last 500 yards or so when someone yelled “you did it!”. I was not choking up because I completed this half marathon, but that I have now completed 7 in the past 7 months! It was a moving feeling, a moment of proudness for myself.

I turned a corner, and saw the finish line clock. Not having my Garmin, I really didn’t know what time I was at. I was just about my average time as previous races, but then I saw Mickey and Minnie right before the line. Of course I had to take a couple more minutes and take a picture with them! The picture was snapped, and I darted across the line, laughing.

The after party was the Food and Wine Festival. We received a $10 giftcard for food/drink and also a complimentary bag of regular after race food and a beer. The set up was good, with a nice changing area to get out of our wet clothes, which was good because it was Cold and windy!

All the food/drink vendors were set up around the huge lake in Epcot…it felt like it was another 3 miles that I walked around that lake, but I just thought of it as my victory lap! I grabbed my Polish sausage, and my Hawaiian beer, and made my way back home. I was too exhausted and cold to stand in line for rides. I was back to the hotel at 330am, covered myself with Biofreeze, and had an early morning of 8am to catch a flight to Grand Cayman!...my celebratory vacation!

13.1 Finish Time with 20 photo stops- 2:40:00