Official Wine & Dine 2014

[walkdmc]

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.

 

[Ariel484]

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 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.

I didn't even try the changing tents. Last year the Soarin' bathrooms were dead when I got there, so that was the plan this year - I was surprised to see a line! Maybe more people bypassed the changing tent since the weather was so crappy. I'm with you, best decision ever!

I did warm up after a hot shower and putting on some additional layers back in my room!

 

[Ariel484]

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.

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.

 

[walkdmc]

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.

 

[Ariel484]

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.

 

[walkdmc]

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.

Oh yeah, for actually running in the tech shirt, a medium would've been better. I didn't think about that.

 

[bigtony777]

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?

I thought your costume was amazing!

 

[bumbershoot]

* About those who wonder about how to avoid the two hour wait in the “paddock area” before the race: you can’t. 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. I’m afraid there isn’t a loophole here. You just can’t 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 don’t 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 it’s 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. You’re 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 wasn’t prepared for the number of people who aren’t 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 weren’t 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 you’ve run/jogged a mile?!

That just makes the race have a really different feel. So many first-timers (welcome!) and inexperienced folks who don’t 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 weren’t ready for 13.1 miles, period, and then surely weren’t ready for 13.1 miles in the rain.

Well, 13.1 isn’t a fun run. You need to be ready for the distance. It’s a long ways. Somewhere around mile 6 or 7 all of us get that “wow, this is a long race” feel. If you’re running your first half, have never even done a training run longer than 5 miles and you’ve got 5 pounds of batteries and LED lights for your costume strapped to you ... it probably isn’t going to go well for you. Yes, you look amazing. No, you aren’t 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 don’t do long runs?! So what’d 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.

But he listed a whole bunch of things. Didn't train, wore cotton, wore the big costumes, etc etc. He wasn't talking about the people that, as my brother thinks of it, are showing off by still nearly winning the race while dressed as godzilla. The ones saying "What can I do to make this run MORE challenging?"

Wasn't meant to be judmental. And the entire quote about the costume and not being a serious runner is "If you’re running your first half, have never even done a training run longer than 5 miles and you’ve got 5 pounds of batteries and LED lights for your costume strapped to you ... it probably isn’t going to go well for you. Yes, you look amazing. No, you aren’t going to finish."

It was an attempt at humor.

Well, I got you.

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.

When we were waiting for SSR, there were THREE buses for PO that took off full of people! We were definitely there at different times.

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.

FWIW, it did come across as funny to me.

And if someone's saying "I gotta walk", they aren't doing Galloway, right? They would say "it's time to walk", or something like that. Not indicating that they *have to*. "I gotta walk" indicates being tired.

I do walk breaks. I don't do it Galloway style. I do it because I still *have to*. I don't *want* to. So when I'm doing a walk break, it's because I "gotta walk". The Galloway people I see aren't tired.

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

TOT, 3 Disney Halfs, a local Half now, a few 10Ks, some 5Ks....Wine&Dine was the ONLY only only time I have EVER seen anyone doing a hand signal for walking. Ever.

I'm short. I'm not looking at peoples' hands. A hand signal is lost on me. It was only luck that I saw a hand signal at W&D, because I happened to be looking at that time.

A hand signal might make the Galloway-er feel like they are showing intent, but to someone outside of that system, it means nothing at all. Just to give that perspective.

For me, I look on both sides and when it's clear I move and slow. I don't slow THEN move! And yep, my shoulders are exhausted by the end of a run when I'm changing my pace a lot.


And, frankly, so far I've seen more dangerous situations caused by RUNNERS who decide to pop by allllll the way over on the RIGHT than I've encountered roadblocks. My emotional reaction to the roadblockers might be higher (especially from mile 12 on the other night) but the danger IMO is higher from the people just shooting along further right on the course.

But then, what seems safe from behind might feel different to the one in front. I certainly understand that.

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.

Same basic size, and I also love the Small. Same with the WDW Half shirt. I regret with the DL Half that I traded up to a medium, because now it's just a shirt, not a shirt that fits. I didn't work this hard for this long to hide myself...I don't look perfect in body-conscious clothing, but nowadays I feel better in them than in clothes that hide me away!

I wish we could have known all that about parking. Since we were onsite, the free parking didn't affect us, so I figured we would think about getting there early, etc. Eh.

As a lady we chatted with in MK on Sunday said...it was a Character Building run! And the "my calves are going to explode, where is the bus, the lady in front of us on the bus was throwing up, why did they turn on the air conditioning" moments are all part of that for me and my buddy.

 

[pxefig]

Unfortunately I don't think my husband got a picture of you, but he wanted me to tell you that your costume was awesome!

Thanks! It seemed like a fun idea for a night race, and the frying pan makes it a Wine and Dine costume, right?

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?

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!

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.

We should! It would be nice to see the faces of the people we chat with. I had brought clothes to change into, but I honestly didn't want to take it off. The yarn braid and I have something special going. Honestly, it was my PW half time, but since EVERYONE was wet and miserable I'm glad I was while wearing sparkly tulle, because the cheers for Rapunzel lifted my higher than the bad moments brought me down, if that makes any sense.

 

[Melmac]

I first want to thank everyone on this thread for all the encouragement, tips and laughs during the lead-up to this race! I didn't post much but followed everything and it was super helpful. This will be long I think so sorry in advance

To start, this was mine and my DH's first half marathon and first runDisney event. I have done several 5K's and 10K's - DH has only ever done 5K Colour Runs.

My thoughts on the race experience:

Expo was really neat! I got my PF taped up by the KT tape pros. Merchandise was nice but what was up with the colour of the women's I Did It shirt?? I don't think they could have selected a more unflattering yellow. I saw a lot of women trying on the men's gray shirt (me too but it didn't fit right). I did pick up a purple sweatshirt and the Mickey ears car magnet. 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

I was worried about the fact it was a night run. I am not a night owl at all (bedtime is usually around 10pm with a 7am wakeup) so I was really concerned about not having the energy to run the race. Also, during training, the latest I ran was about 8pm so it wasn't even close to race time. This turned out to be a non-issue and something I worried about for nothing. We did some shopping Saturday morning and then went back for naps/rests/watch football during the afternoon and it worked out great.

We followed a training plan and felt ready for the race. We were doing 5 minute run: 1 minute walk intervals and trained at a 11:30 minute pace.

We had rented a car so when we saw the rain, we decided to drive to Epcot. We got there right around 7pm - they were directing racers into the lot directly next to the finish area. Caught a bus shortly after (they were loading 6 busses at the time). We decided to leave our change of clothes in the car to avoid the bag check lines and this was the best decision of the night (I'll explain later). We also thought we could change in/at the car before heading back into Epcot and not carry anything around.

Waiting for the race to start was … long. Because we were on an earlier bus, I think we got to WWOS by 7:30 and then had 2.5 hours to wait. We took some photos and then staked out a spot at the front of our corral (first race so we were in L). Rain started at about 9pm or so (I think?) so the ponchos went on. We didn't wear costumes so just tech t-shirts and shorts plus our ponchos. I was wearing Feetures socks with Vaseline on my toes and no blisters for me either! DH had on Nike Dri-Fits and did end up with a couple of small blisters (but no Vaseline so maybe this was the difference?). 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.

The actual race was great! My training paid off and I started strong and felt strong at the finish line. The rain put a big damper (har har) on the experience though. Due to the rain, we were running a slower pace than we trained - about 13:30-14:00 and my DH was worried about being swept (we averaged 13:43 according to my Garmin). We never saw the balloon ladies but we only stopped for two bathroom breaks and one photo, just in case. It was nice to see the characters along the course (I loved the Spectromagic section right before AK). Running through the parks was too cool and something no other race company can duplicate. We finished in 3:04 - my goal was sub-3 hours but with that weather, I'll take what I can get!

Finish line was a bit chaotic. Pass the line, get the medal, mylar blanket, water/powerade, food boxes etc. … were do you put it all?? There was one finisher photo backdrop next to tall tables that we dumped everything on for our photo but that was the only table I saw. I agree that a bag would be handy. At this point, we decided to skip the after party and just get a warm shower. I was shaking cold and the thought of putting on dry clothes just to go back into the rain was unbearable, honestly. We shuffled through the rest of the finish chute - pass the bag check lines and skipped the beer/wine line. However, they made you go really out-of-the-way to get to the parking lot. The could have set up the barriers for one way to parking, one way to Epcot right after the beer/wine station which would have been much more convenient. Taking the car and not a resort bus was the best decision of the night (besides the Sweaty Band). Dry clothes and straight out of the lot with no waiting. I also think it would have been good if we did go to the party - then we wouldn't have had to worry about carrying our stuff.

Overall, I thought the experience was great and I can't wait to do another runDisney event. I am trying to convince DH to have a do-over and sign up next year I really wish we could have stayed for the after party but I was so cold and miserable, it wouldn't have been any fun at all.

 

[walkdmc]

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.

 

[BuckeyeMark]

I got my PF taped up by the KT tape pros. .

Can you tell me more about the taping? I'm guessing PF is plantar fascitis? I run with that too - did the tape help?

Congrats on your run and thanks for a good write up!

 

[RunnerMomO]

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.

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.

 

[RunnerMomO]

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.

me too on the shirt! Soft also!!

 

[Ariel484]

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

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!

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.

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.

me too on the shirt! Soft also!!

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!

 

[U2_rocks!]

I did the 5K - I don't train enough to be able to manage a half without being swept. And I am very glad I wasn't doing the half - that rain would have killed me! I am from a hot place, and I was cold in the corral waiting for the 5K at 6 a.m. - I can't imagine running in the cold rain and being soaked to the skin for hours!

The 5K was fun, though I do wish there hadn't been so many traffic bottlenecks that forced me to slow down more than I wanted to.

 

[SunDial]

And from a guy who runs so slowly that you can time me with a sun dial

Did you call for me

I didn't run this one since I did the Tower 10 mile and doing Goofy in January. I am running this one next year. Have done 3 RD events with no rain. So reading along and picking up tips for future runs if it rains.

 

[bumbershoot]

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.

 

[BuckeyeMark]

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.

wore my trash bag for 3-4 miles... carried it another 3 or so. freaked out about getting cold and hypothermia. in retrospect not the smartest thing I've ever done...

 

[regul8ter18]

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.

I love my Belaga socks