I was with a group of girls that were changing in the corner, right behind you. ETA: I feel I should add that heat sheets were held up as makeshift changing tents during this time...and I waited in line to change in the bathroom, not the corner.OMG yes! Not the creeper part - the all black/companion restroom part, lol! Too funny! Yeah, we started at the changing tent... looooong line outside in the cold - nope. EP entrance restroom... loooong line outside in the cold. A couple more EP restrooms... yep, loooong, cold lines. We wound up opting to wait in line INDOORS with heat - best decision ever! Hope you finally warmed up!
I have no idea.Of the 14k+ people registered, how many actually started the race? I'm thinking a lot of people never showed up, surely not all 14k+ registered runners showed up.
Honestly, I don't think it's TMI! I think it's helpful for future participants.Ariel! I just saw your post about the womens tech shirts! I LOVE it! I wore it for park touring and plan on wearing it around town. It's so nice! Is this TMI? I'm a size 6-8, 34DD bra with beefy arms and the small fit beautifully, just an FYI for future sizing questions.
Honestly, I don't think it's TMI! I think it's helpful for future participants.
It's funny though...I'm also size 6-8, 32DD with less-than-beefy arms and I like the fit of my medium shirt! It's REALLY nice.
I'm going to start off saying I know this is a shot in the dark-
I was the dork dressed up like Rapunzel with the owing hair. In all the excitement if the night I never got a picture of my costume for myself. I know a couple of period asked for a picture of the the costume. Are any of them DISers that are willing to share?
* About those who wonder about how to avoid the two hour wait in the paddock area before the race: you cant. I thought about this for a long time too trying to see if I could get around the wait, and I kinda pride myself on being able to figure out ways to beat the system. No can do. Im afraid there isnt a loophole here. You just cant move 14,000 people on to a race course in 15 minutes.
Except that we didn't wait in the corral for 2 hours. Part of that was because of the HUGE line for the buses at SSR (the construction caused such problems with the normal buses, ugh) and the long wait for that, then waiting waiting waiting on the bus to get to the dropoff spot. That took up some time! Then gear check, bathroom, finding a place to wash/sanitize hands (my portapotty didn't have sanitizer already), making our way to the corral. I think we waited just a bit longer than an hour inside the corral. Met some neat people, too.
* Rain is bad. Most of us dont run in it so it was hard to know what to do and how to do. ...I wore a trash bag poncho for the first three miles. Then I carried the thing stuffed in my Fuel Belt for another three miles.
My running partner for this runs all the time in the rain here. She wasn't prepared for it in Orlando because it wasn't expected. At home she would be wearing her wool running pants, etc etc. I slacked in training and tend to think I'll melt in the rain, but that wasn't always me. I was a rower in college, I've sat in boats in tank tops and shorts in the SNOW. I can handle it once we're moving. It's all about expectations and preparation, and so many of us weren't prepared either physically and/or mentally.
* All the talk about dark/slippery course? No to both. People posted stuff that made it sound like we ran in a hockey rink or that AK was lethally dangerous its so dark. Not for me. Never thought I was going to slip. Not even at the Boardwalk.
There were a few slippery spots for me. AK felt a little dangerous. I'm glad you didn't have that experience. And my eyes are bad in the dark (thanks, Lasik!) so what's light to one person is really really hard and scary for me.
* Thanks Balaga sox. Youre the best. No blisters. Feet not cold.
* I did notice as I came out of AK that my shoes were just soaked all the way through and were heavy. They did not get lighter.
I have some nice socks from RRS, can't recall their name. But for me I thank the bodyglide I put on the ends of my toes, between my toes, all around the balls of my feet even under. Oh so glad I did that.
Weirdly, blisters that I usually get (I don't feel them but they pop up weeks later), on the ends of my index toes, I don't think I got this time! Weird!
And no, the feet don't get lighter.
* I wasnt prepared for the number of people who arent really serious, regular fairly hard-core runners trying to do this half marathon....
At the W&D I saw a ton of people who clearly thought this was a 5K fun run. I saw costumes that were great but werent going to go 13 miles. I saw cotton socks (ouch). I saw a LOT of walkers. In fact, before I hit mile marker one the guy in front of me said to his running mates okay, I gotta walk. I was in corral I. How can you need to walk before youve run/jogged a mile?!
That just makes the race have a really different feel. So many first-timers (welcome!) and inexperienced folks who dont know (or think) to walk right and run left. Who stand in line for photos and then complain when they got swept. Who wore cotton socks and blistered their feet. Who just werent ready for 13.1 miles, period, and then surely werent ready for 13.1 miles in the rain.
Well, 13.1 isnt a fun run. You need to be ready for the distance. Its a long ways. Somewhere around mile 6 or 7 all of us get that wow, this is a long race feel. If youre running your first half, have never even done a training run longer than 5 miles and youve got 5 pounds of batteries and LED lights for your costume strapped to you ... it probably isnt going to go well for you. Yes, you look amazing. No, you arent going to finish.
I am a slower runner, I was underprepared, and I agree with you SO much. Thankfully I finally got the no-cotton clue, before I started back into jogging 2+ years ago. Whew! Even though I could be described in many ways up above, I agree with you and see the humor.
* Speaking of training, was having this conversation yesterday in the airport with a lady wearing her W&D run shirt. She had run a ton of Disney stuff, mostly halves. Got to talking about training and the importance of long runs on the weekends. Yeah, I never do any of that kind of thing she said. Oh really? You dont do long runs?! So whatd you run the W&D in? A little under two hours. Ugh! I hate her so much. No training and a sub two... oh boy. So there you go - everybody is different and everyone runs different.
I hate her, too. Naw, I wish I could BE her!
* Some people complained about the on course entertainment (or lack thereof).
Isn't it funny, I thought there was a ton of entertainment! Maybe not the marching bands and theater kids like at the Disneyland Half, but music quite a lot of the way, and I don't remember any silent hundred-mile slogs like I felt I experienced leaving MK for the WDW Half this year.
The green army man...I don't know what the person behind us did, but s/he got to do 5 pushups!
* Speaking of medals - do wear it the next day in the park. Saw tons of them. Awesome. Not so much on Monday but saw a few even then. Really fun. All of my other run medals are in a box of assorted running junk at home. To get to wear the thing was greatness.
I loved wearing my TOT medal in the parks last year! I looked forward to it for this run, especially since DS and I were too sick by the end of the WDW Half to even GO to the parks to wear our medals.
The W&D medal was sooooo heavy. I couldn't do it. My friend who was way better trained than I couldn't do it. We wore our shirts, instead.
The ribbon was also scratchy, even making sure the velcro wasn't what was scratching us. Too uncomfy.
We felt that on Monday, once our shirts had been worn all day on Sunday, the other runners would know us by our walk, LOL.
Talking about people's costume choices and saying people aren't serious runners certainly reads as judgement to me. I know people who ran in pretty fancy costumes who finished and finished strong.
Wasn't meant to be judmental. And the entire quote about the costume and not being a serious runner is "If youre running your first half, have never even done a training run longer than 5 miles and youve got 5 pounds of batteries and LED lights for your costume strapped to you ... it probably isnt going to go well for you. Yes, you look amazing. No, you arent going to finish."
It was an attempt at humor.
In retrospect, the 3 of us dropping back was a bad idea and we won't be doing it again. My friend that was originally in I didn't want us to drop back because she didn't want to hold us back, and during the first couple of miles she told me it was too much pressure to try to go faster than her normal pace. My other two friends took off from us around mile 4 and around mile 6 I was starting to really hurt, I think from changing my gait to run slower than what I am used to. Somehow it did not occur to my that slowing my pace would affect me like that.....
I've now run with two people who are much faster than me, and I've felt guilty both times. My brother more than doubled his easy-Half time by running with me, and ended up with injuries! Blood blisters and such because he's just not used to being on his feet that long.
And how you all say at least one resort has bad transportation? At the time, that was mine - Port Orleans Riverside. The line was HUGE. I waited maybe 25 minutes for a bus.
I'll take your word that you were being "funny", but have to point out that this^ doesn't come off as funny. I was also in corral I and I do run/walk intervals from the very start, so for sure - I was walking well before the Mile 1 marker, as were many thousands of other run/walk folks. That's how the Galloway program works: you don't wait until you're tired to start walk breaks.
I think the opportunity is that the folks weren't adhering to the 'to the right'/hand up opportunity....
But if you're intervaling, your hand is your signal
Bumber, I emailed rD ahead of time and they replied that we should arrive at Epcot at 7pm, at which time parking is free for runners. Then, they send you to a side parking area, dedicated runners' parking. You walk maybe 100yds to the shuttles NO WAIT WHATSOEVER at 7:15pm. I seriously couldn't believe how painless that whole driving/parking at Epcot thing was.
Ariel! I just saw your post about the womens tech shirts! I LOVE it! I wore it for park touring and plan on wearing it around town. It's so nice! Is this TMI? I'm a size 6-8, 34DD bra with beefy arms and the small fit beautifully, just an FYI for future sizing questions.
Thanks! It seemed like a fun idea for a night race, and the frying pan makes it a Wine and Dine costume, right?Unfortunately I don't think my husband got a picture of you, but he wanted me to tell you that your costume was awesome!
It held up ok in the rain. To be honest, the tutu started off being too big- I made it a while ago and lost some weight since but never thought it would be enough to merit costume adjustments, but even in that pic here you can see it totally falling off. The rain didn't help that AT ALL! I spent most of the race hoisting the tutu up. But I didn't get electrocuted by my glowing hair so I consider the night a win!That's awesome...I love how the Dis is it's own little community!
I didn't get to see you during the event... but that's a great costume. How did it hold up in the rain?
Pxefig, I saw you before the race, I was impressed by your hair and I pointed it out to my dh. And I saw you after the race by the bathrooms in the Land, where I went to change my clothes.
We should have some sign that identifies us as Disboarders so we can introduce ourselves.
I got my PF taped up by the KT tape pros. .
good idea...didn't even think about that, but I did bundle up a drawstring backpack to put my stuff into after got past security into Epcot so I wasn't carrying the big clear bag down to my knees.Yes a bag is needed. They stopped giving out bags when they switched to these boxes. I finished my powerade before getting grabbing anything else and then juggled until I got to bag check to put everything in my bag. You could wrap up a grocery bag to run with to have one for future Disney races.
me too on the shirt! Soft also!!I have no idea. The corral assignment sheet had 14,650 bibs...11941 finishers. I have no idea how you'd find how many started. Also...7928 female finishers, 4013 male finishers. I knew more women were running these races lately but I had no idea there would be about twice as many women as men doing it! On that note, love the cut of the women's cut tech shirt! I may actually wear this one.
File them under the "pricey but worth it" category. I actually did the same thing as you - bought one at the expo for the 2011 Princess Half Marathon and wore it for the first time. Luckily it worked out!Also, I'd like to shout out to Ariel484 who mentioned Sweaty Bands at some point in this thread - bought one at the Expo and since I didn't have a hat, I wore it for the race (I know, I know, bad luck but I need some way to keep my hair out of my face). This is seriously the best headband I have ever worn. I have a funny-shaped head so most headbands ride up the back of my head but this one didn't move all night! Thanks! I'll need more now
My and my friends' ponchos came off right before our corral started...everyone around us thought we were nuts and people were asking for them, so we ended up giving them away. I thought I'd feel like I was running in a greenhouse if I kept mine on. The most important thing to me was to not just get wet while waiting in the corrals, I knew once I started running it wouldn't be as big a deal.Poncho came off at mile 3 for me, 5 for DH. Then, I wished I hadn't ditched it as I started to cool down a lot by the end of the race.
Yes!! The fabric, to me, feels nicer than in past years and the fit is so much better. All of my old runDisney race shirts are part of a t-shirt quilt, because they were so huge and unflattering on my that I never wore them. This one I will wear!me too on the shirt! Soft also!!
And from a guy who runs so slowly that you can time me with a sun dial
Melmac, for all my complaints, I'm also thinking of a "do over" next year! I'm impressed you were able to keep the ponchos on so long. I wore an Under Armour wicking shirt and honestly never felt wet but did get pretty cold at the end.
My friend kept her poncho on until just about mile 10! I couldn't believe she kept it on so long. I had my trash bag around my shoulders (I couldn't run with my arms under the bag) and it came off before AK, I think. I carried it for longer but finally put it in a trash can. And I was wearing a tank top and fairly short running shorts (that were shorter and tighter because of wearing a new-to-me hydration belt). I'm sure some thought I was crazy LOL.
Melmac, for all my complaints, I'm also thinking of a "do over" next year! I'm impressed you were able to keep the ponchos on so long. I wore an Under Armour wicking shirt and honestly never felt wet but did get pretty cold at the end. I used Belaga socks, no body glide or vaseline and no blisters. I think it's in the socks. This is the first time I've read about runners using vaseline on their feet, thanks for the tip. I actually just ordered 6 more pairs of the same Balegas I wore for the race.