WALT DISNEY WORLD WINE & DINE HALF MARATHON

Where else could you attend an international food and wine festival and end up drinking a domestic beer, a Bud Light to be exact?  Walt Disney World’s food and wine festival, that’s where!

Our fall of 2010 weekend vacation in Central Florida’s Walt Disney World began on a high note by having a late breakfast with one of our favorite American families, the Clark family of Vero Beach, at one of our favorite restaurants, Mimi’s Café.  Mimi’s is located on Osceola Parkway ten miles or so from Disney’s mega acre spread and just 2.4 miles west of the Florida turnpike. 

After filling our bellies with the most delicious food this side of the Florida/Georgia border, we convoyed to Disney’s Wide World of Sports for the sole purpose of picking up our race packets and race numbers.  Austin, Travis and Cody took turns rolling down the grassy ballpark hills under the watchful eyes of Daddy Chris while Tina, Janet and I browsed through and around the many aisles and booths of the Wine & Dine Half Marathon Expo.

After spending an hour or so in the expo, we then drove to our respected Disney resorts, checked into our rooms, and basically did our own thing until Tina, Jan and I met at the event’s shuttle bus stop in front of the All Star Resort around 6:30 p.m.  The race was scheduled to begin at 10 p.m.

 

Our Disney marathon experience has taught us that waiting for the gun to sound is typically a long wait, and the Wine & Dine Half Marathon was no exception.  I will say, though, that the pre-race entertainment was enough to keep boredom at bay and most runners hyped, me included.  A lively DJ, good music, and hundreds of participating runners kept us all laughing and moving for the entire three hour wait, all while sitting and dancing on the grassy field adjacent to the Wide World of Sport’s complex. 

There were allegedly 11,000 to 12,000 runners and walkers signed up for this event, four starting line corrals, and as far as I could tell not one snafu of any significance.  No one organizes races any better than the Disney people.

When an awesome array of fireworks was displayed near the starting line, the race was underway.  Hordes and hordes of runners and walkers, all hyped, trained and ready to take on the magical 13.1 miles of roadways and two of Disney World’s theme parks, surged forward over the starting line’s timing mats. 

Log jams are typical during the beginning of most races, maybe a tad bit more in Walt Disney World.  Or maybe it was the simple fact that Janet and I were back-of-the-pack walkers, albeit fast walkers passing all other walkers and many slower runners.  Other than a few darkened congested areas along the course, more than we would have liked, the main log jam ended shortly after mile one.

Speed walking over the overpasses wasn’t a problem with me, but I could tell that Janet was struggling on the uphill climbs as well as our faster-than-normal walk pace. 

Instead of keeping to our plan of running every ten minutes for one minute, I decided that we needed to run for one minute and then walk four.  So not only was Janet bothered by the overpasses, she was slightly stressed by the sudden modification to a faster run/walk pace.  All of our previous training was walking only, so I easily related to her anxieties.

Shortly before we entered Hollywood Studios and not too long after walking and running through Animal Kingdom, I suggested to Janet that we slow down to whatever pace she would be comfortable with.  So from mile nine forward, we did very little running along with keeping our walking at a reasonable pace. 

Even though we finished the 13.1 miles in 3:09:09, we were overly pleased that we completed another half marathon without any signs of injuries or blisters, and we had fun doing so.  We were also pleased to learn that hundreds and hundreds of runners and walkers crossed the finish line well after our finishing time. 

We both surmised that the Wine & Dine half marathon had hundreds of first time marathoners, newbies as they are often called.  Based on who was standing around in the last corral and who raised their hands when the DJ asked if there were any first time marathoners, it was apparent that most of the first timers were young ladies.  Some looked to be very fit, many did not. 

Would we run this race again?  Probably so, but maybe not!  There are pros and cons to running in the darkness of night.  The main downside of running at night as far as we are concerned is not being able to see the surface of the roadways and pathways, especially in Animal Kingdom where the walkways were intentionally built to imitate non-paved trails.  In speaking with two different runners the day after the event, both claimed that they injured their knees because they were unable to see the surface of the roads. 

Some people mentioned that starting a race at 10 p.m. was way past their bed time.  We had no problem with the lack of sleep issue.

On the plus side, it was enormously delightful running and walking in the cool of the evening and not having the sun blistering your skin.  There was no need for sunscreen or sunglasses, that’s for sure. 

Another late evening plus was the absence of bathroom issues that typically haunt most runners and walkers during morning races.

The post-race party in EPCOT is another story all together.  If you’re into crowds, elbow to elbow type crowds, then you would have loved EPCOT.  We are not, so you know where we stand in regards to the wine and dine portion of the event. 

I understand that if you were one of the first runners to cross the finish line then the food and beverage lines were not that long.  But if you were an average runner, or slow as snail poop rolling uphill as we are, then most beverage and food lines were beyond intolerable – hence my domestic Bud Light and Janet’s Sprite.  Forget the German beer that I longed for all during the race.  The line at the German pavilion was endless. 

Summing up our three day stay at Walt Disney World, I have to say that we had a magnificent time.  We especially enjoyed touring nearly 100% of the Magic Kingdom (18 rides and shows) with Tina, Chris and their three very active boys after only three hours of sleep.  That’s right, only three hours of sleep from the time we fell asleep after the race up until we ate breakfast at our food court and then drove to the Magic Kingdom with the Clark family.   

And on the third day, Jan and I duplicated day two by walking hours and hours inside Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. Now you know why we train for and run marathons, to survive Disney World’s theme parks.

Did I mention that Expedition Everest made me slightly woozy?