People often ask, “Why do you need to go all the way to Disneyworld to race? Aren’t there races here?” I think this video sorta sums up my answer:

Running at Disney is just more fun!

I did not carry my camera through the race or to the after-party, so I don’t have a lot of photos for this post. I ran this race last year with friends, but The Big Kid did not arrive until later that trip, so this was his first experience with a Disney half-marathon. We ran the inaugural Expedition Everest Challenge in 2008, but this was his first time at a longer, bigger Disney race. We both ran the Kentucky Derby “mini” (half) marathon in April 2011.

We arrived in Orlando Wednesday night went right out Thursday and did exactly what we were not supposed to do – we walked 11.5 miles! So much for a “low key” day. We were in the Magic Kingdom, then went to Epcot for 2 laps around Food & Wine Festival in World Showcase, then back to MK for dinner & the trek to the parking lot. Friday totaled about 8 miles for me because I did 2 miles with Jeff Galloway, then walked around the Expo, the Beach Club, & the outlet mall/Downtown Disney that night. So much for taking it easy before the race!

On Saturday I attended the Disney Moms Panel Meetup at Epcot, then spent some time resting by Stormalong Bay before heading out to the race start. We stayed at the Beach Club and were pleasantly surprised when we walked out to the regular Beach Club bus stop around 7 PM and hopped right on a bus to the start. Last year, my friends & I waited 30-45 minutes at the Yacht & Beach Convention Center for a bus with available seats. It did take a while for the bus to let us off once we reached the Wide World of Sports, but that was fine.

Once we arrived at the Wide World of Sports, we dropped his bag off at bag check – since he was likely to finish at least 20 minutes faster than me, we decided to check only one bag using his bib number. Then we waited. We wandered and snacked, then finally found the WDW Radio Running Team and spent some time chatting with everyone there. We listened to the DJ, watched everyone dancing, marveled at some of the costumes, and checked out everyone’s bib number to see if those lower than The Big Kid (424) looked faster or slower than him.

Finally, after a quick port-a-potty stop, we headed over to Corral A. We tried to hang near the middle but kept being asked to move forward. More waiting. Finally – an “interesting” version of the national anthem, fireworks, and we were off! I was so glad RunDisney moved to a wave start for those in the back corrals and also glad that every wave got their own fireworks. Running out of the WWOS through the turn on to the Osceola Parkway was a bit crowded, but not too bad. I mostly tried to hold my pace down and not chase the faster runners who were passing me. I still started out too fast, my 5K split was 31:33, technically a 5K PR for me by about a minute! Yikes. My first mile was a 9:53 and I pretty much slowed down every mile from there.

I loved the Animal Kingdom this year! Last year I felt boxed in by walkers & had to fight the desire to push & shove others out of my way. This year it was comfortable & easy. I caught up with the wheelchair racer near Expedition Everest and we passed each other a few more times before the end of the race. I did know I’d been moving too fast and tried to back off a bit as I left the Animal Kingdom. I ended up walking some short stretches once I was back on the Osceola Parkway.

At about 80 minutes into the race I made the turn onto World Drive and was so glad the out-and-back part of the course was removed. After that, the course changes messed with my head a little bit. I’m happy with the new course, for sure, I just kept remembering the 2010 race. Last year, we entered the studios at mile 10. I was at exactly 2 hours at that point and realized I did not have a 30 minute 5K in me to meet my goal time of 2:30. This year, it was right about mile 9, which was great. I knew I’d beat last year’s time but wasn’t sure how fast I’d be able to go for the next 4 miles. After coming through the costuming tunnel, I started wondering about The Big Kid. At 1:45, I hoped he’d finished and at 1:50, I really, really hoped he’d finished and felt good.

Out of the Studios, around the Boardwalk, waved to Deb Wills & the All Ears crew, then up & over the walkway to the International Gateway… oh, no, I have to keep running, the finish isn’t right here? Hey, there are people cheering. Hey, there’s some spotlights. Where the heck is the finish? Keep going, keep going, keep going, finally! The finish!

I crossed the finish line & almost immediately The Big Kid was calling me. I’d been hoping to finish around 2:15 since I was 2:18 at the Derby half. I was actually right at 2:24, so he was starting to get concerned that he’d missed me. I couldn’t hear him, but we stayed on the phone, I got my medal, my bag of food, and then I found him waiting for me right where runners could exit into the mix of non-runners & finished runners. He had already retrieved our checked bag and changed. I couldn’t believe it when he said he walked right in and the volunteer practically had the bag waiting for him to get to the table! What a change from last year, great job, RunDisney! The changing tents were fantastic too, much better than stripping down behind the entrance gate to the Millenium Pavillion.

I quickly changed into dry clothes & my compression socks, we grabbed our “free” beer, and hustled into the PARTY! I’d have much rather had a “free” wine, I think we ended up giving mine away to a random stranger. We met up with our friends for one loop around World Showcase. It seemed to me to be MUCH less crowded than 2010, both because I arrived at the finish earlier and because the partygoers were more spread out. Finishing in the front of Epcot made the experience SO much better. We were able to sample food & wine from some of the booths we skipped on Thursday during the soft opening of Food & Wine Festival. We dropped back by the WDW Radio Running team meet-up at 2 AM but did not stay long enough to be in the group photo, it seems. About 2:45 AM we finally gave up and headed back to the Beach Club Villas for a few hours of sleep before flying home to Thing One & Thing Two.

My race splits:
5K in 31:33
10K in 1:05:56
15K in 1:40:36
13.1 miles in 2:24:14
Overall Place 3203 / 8254
Gender Place 1568 / 5213
Division Place 322 / 953

I’ll spare you The Big Kid’s stats, but I do know that he was the 477th finisher overall.

I thought I had missed out on the opportunity to RSVP for the Jeff Galloway pre-race meetup this year.  I was busy at Thing One & Thing Two’s school that morning, doing PTA volunteer stuff.  When I got home and saw the blog post, I quickly fired off an RSVP with my name but figured I was way too late to be accepted.

A few days later, I got an email from RunDisney saying I had been pulled from the alternate list and was now invited to attend.  Unfortunately, I didn’t include The Big Kid’s name in the RSVP, so he was not invited.  Doh!

We decided I’d take our rental car to the Wide World of Sports at 7 AM and he’d meet up with me there at 10 AM for the expo.

Everyone met out front, signed liability waivers, and then we were driven around to the track at the back of the WWOS on golf carts.

Once there, we were treated to a “physics & form” lesson from Brooks Johnson!  I was not expecting anything more than just to show up & run with Jeff Galloway, so this was a real treat.  He actually had us up & running on the track in small groups while we focused on posture, foot strike, and arm swing.

Race director John Hughes talked a bit and promised us great weather for the run!

We also heard from last year’s winners about their experiences.

And then Jeff Galloway talked about his run/walk method.

Then it was finally time for us to run!  A group of faster runners took off with last year’s winners, mentioning something about 6 minute miles… the rest of us knew then we’d made the right choice.  Jeff wouldn’t quote us a pace, just that he wanted to “avoid huffing & puffing” and that we’d be doing 30 seconds running/30 seconds walking.  Overall we moved about a 13 minute/mile pace, I didn’t quite run the intervals since I dropped to the back to talk to someone from the Running of the Ears group, then caught back up to the main group.  In the last mile of the run, something he said finally “clicked” with me – he reminding us that his numbers are ratios, not minute:minute prescriptions.  One of the reasons I’ve resisted using his run/walk method is that I CAN & WANT TO run for longer than 3-4 minutes at a time.  I just keep thinking “3:1 or 4:1″ means “3 minutes running, then 1 minute walking”.  I think I’d actually be more comfortable with 6 or 8 minutes running, then 2 minutes walking.  After running this race, my third half-marathon, I’m ready to try this new mindset, especially if I ever attempt a full marathon.

Once everyone finished our 2 mile trail run through the swamp behind WWOS, we hopped back in the golf carts and moved back to the WWOS Grill, where Chef Gary Jones and Chef Mickey were waiting for us.

There should be no shortage of official Disney video & photos from this event…

The chefs and their assistants put together a quinoa-based muesli.  We all had a small taste.

We heard more about the future of RunDisney, including the promise of more events on both coasts and a focus on international participants.  Personally, I’m hoping for another full marathon, but we’ll see.

There were photo ops with both Chef Mickey & Jeff Galloway.

The RunDisney folks took some of the meet up, eat up participants to the front of the line for packet pickup.  Since I had to wait for The Big Kid anyway, I went on into the expo and bought a shirt from the One More Mile booth while there were no lines.  This year packet pickup was in an entirely different building at WWOS, which meant more walking around but a little less chaos in the main expo room.

Finally!  That’s The Big Kid in the Perry shirt and our fantastic South Florida-based friends who were coming to pick up their after-party tickets.

Disney Parks Blog post about the meet up

Disney Parks Blog photos on Facebook

At the end, we were given a RunDisney goodie bag that included both a WWOS bag and an individualized t-shirt with my Twitter name on it!  All in all, this was a fantastic meetup!  I was so grateful to be included and really enjoyed the entire morning.  Thanks, RunDisney!

(photos not tagged with @StateOfChaos were stolen from RunDisney’s Facebook page)

Waivers with bib numbers are now available for RunDisney’s Wine & Dine Half Marathon!

Several weeks ago, DH & I submitted our finishing times from the Kentucky Derby Mini Marathon and the RunDisney folks updated our estimated finishing times. I finished Derby in 2:18:01 so RunDisney adjusted my estimated finish time to 2:03 – yikes! Yes, my Derby time was an 18 minute improvement from the 2010 Wine & Dine half, but to cut another 15 minutes from my times sounds a bit ambitious. Derby was The Big Kid’s first-ever half and he finished in 1:57:18. RunDisney didn’t send back a new estimate for him, but he’s hoping for 1:50 or under.

His bib number is 424 and mine is 1736. Looks like we could both be in the first corral! I’m not confident I belong there, will have to try hard to EARN it!

It doesn’t look like 2012 is going to be my marathon year, but maybe 2013?

RunDisney just sent out the race details for the Wine & Dine Half Marathon. Just 75 days to go! I’m excited to go back and run this race again, this time with DH along for a short mini-vacation, just us. Thing One & Thing Two will stay home with their grandparents and go to school like all good second graders should.

I’m also really excited that RunDisney is changing several logistical things that should make this race more enjoyable.

Most importantly, they’ve promised to fix the nightmare that was the finish line & bag claim last time. The finish is moving to the front of Epcot, which shortens the out & back part of the course on the Osceola Parkway (a great added benefit as far as I’m concerned!). I hope to be able to claim my bag quicker and avoid feeling sick from being crammed in a small space with lots of sweaty runners.

They’re also planning a wave start with five corrals instead of one start with all four corrals slowly shuffling to the front. Waves will be five minutes apart. I emailed in our finish times from the Kentucky Derby Mini-marathon, so I shouldn’t be in the last corral and I’m really hoping our finish times will put us in corrals 2 & 3. I can live with 3 & 4, but I’ll definitely push my way to the front. The sooner we start, the sooner we get to the finish line party!

With any luck, the streetlights will be working for the World Drive/Buena Vista Drive part of the race, the “cooking stations” along the course will be moved to the after party, and Epcot will actually be cleared of guests who did not purchase a ticket to the party. If those things happen, Wine & Dine will be a perfect race no matter how my run goes!

We put off going to the expo until the morning of the race. It seemed like plenty of other people did too. DH & I ran the Expedition Everest Challenge in 2008, which also had packet pickup at Disney’s Wide World of Sports, but there wasn’t much “expo” to that. This was entirely different!

I was amazed by the amount of money flowing through that place! I contributed to the cause, of course, but not as much as some people were. I got two shirts with the Wine & Dine Mickey Mouse logo – one short sleeved tech shirt and one long sleeved cotton shirt. I would have LOVED to have one of the “I did it!” shirts with the course on the back but they were only in men’s cut, which I never wear. I picked up two other plain short sleeved tech shirts for cheap and a Sweatyband since I’ve heard so many great things about them. I really wanted to buy one of every shirt from One More Mile but the fit on their shirts was longer than the line at their booth, not good for someone who’s just 5’3″. I was also hoping to pick up another running skirt, but was unable to find one with shorts longer than 3.5 inches. I run in the Happy Hour skirt from SkirtSports and really like the 7 inch long shorts. Guess I’ll just order another one from them.

After the expo, I made a quick trip into Epcot for the Disney Moms Panel meetup at the Odyssey. Lots of panelists, old & new, where there, along with an odd assortment of Disney Twitter people, podcasters, and travel agents. This was yet another thing Disney emailed & posted about and made available to only X number of participants. I wonder if they also gave out media passes? I took some photos, talked to some people, and kept my fingers crossed that maybe they’ll pick me for the next panel!

I had a turkey sandwich from the Beach Club Marketplace and spent some time by the pool. Around 7 PM, we got changed and packed up for the race. By 7:30 we were headed for the bus.

The Beach Club was supposed be one of the race hotels, but the bus to the start was picking people up from the Yacht & Beach Convention center. It was the first in a few “WTF?” moments for the evening. A few busses came & went before we could get on one.

When we pulled into Wide World of Sports, the field was already packed with people and buses were lined up all along the drive waiting to drop people off. The line for bag check was amazing, most runners didn’t have their bag ready to go when they got to the front of the line, but it wasn’t exactly clear if we were supposed to make one line for the many trucks or go to an individual truck. Runners kept moving to the front to assess the situation, then they’d just shove into the front of the line.

After we checked our bags, we sat down for a few minutes. I ate my Clif bar. I heard later that Mickey & Minnie were there posing for pictures, but I never saw them over the crowd of probably 15,000+ people. We couldn’t understand anything the DJ said either. After a port-a-potty trip, it was time to head to corrals. There were port-a-potties lined up for what seemed like miles and more placed out on the race course. I was so exciting to finally be in this moment, the moment I’d been preparing for since April. When I started training, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to do it. By the start of the race, I was positive I’d finish, it was just a question of what the clock would say when I got there.

Because I had not run a race longer than a 5K before, I didn’t have a proof of time from a 10K or longer to submit, so I started in the back corral. In another WTF moment, my friend who was admitted from the waiting list and planned to walk the race, had a lower bib number and started in an earlier corral. I guess they just gave her the spot from someone who dropped out? We were in the corrals for a little while, then the fireworks went off! In the Expedition Everest Challenge in 2008, they held each corral to start in waves five minutes apart, so I expected that again. Instead, we just shuffled our way to the front and started running when we got to the start line.

I was not prepared for the crowd. Once we started running, people were everywhere. Zig-zagging around, running on the grass, shoving past me, or walking like grandmas in front of me. We had three lanes of road but it was still insane. The interval runners would shove past, then stop to walk, leaving me to crash into them. As we left the Wide World of Sports, there was a DJ. Exciting, right? Except he was yelling out stuff like, “you guys are the LAST to start!”, “you’ve only gone half a mile, it’s a long way to go!”, and “hurry up, you’re going to miss the party!”. WTFOMGBBQ! Not cool at all.

Out on the Osceola Parkway, runners started getting down to business. It was still crowded and people were still shoving. I did a lot of zig-zagging back and forth trying to get past people. There was a singer, the stilt-walkers from the Animal Kingdom, and floats from the Main Street Electrical Parade parking the median. There were a few spectators cheering on the sidelines, but I knew they weren’t supposed to be there. Before I knew it, we were at the 5K mark and I was disappointed with how slow I was. I wanted to start slow, but this felt too slow. I wanted to go faster, but just couldn’t get around people. My 5K split was 36:57 and my PR for a 5K is 32:30.

Entering the Animal Kingdom, we were all funneled down to one sidewalk. I kept thinking of the Expedition Everest Challenge and how far I’ve come since I huffed & puffed my way through the 5K. Running up the side of the Oasis, I looked at my Garmin and was only doing a 14 minute mile. I really wanted to start shoving people out of my way so I could RUN! At the water stop coming out of the Animal Kingdom, I caught up with my friend who had started in corral C, but walked most of the race. She was feeling good about how it was going so far. I passed Mike Scopa and asked if he’d been able to make the backlight on his new Garmin work. He indicated that it was not doing what he wanted it to but there wasn’t much I could do then to help.

As we exited the AK, another DJ was there shouting out football scores. We passed the buses for the first leg relay runners and noticed all the second leg relay runners hitting the course fired up and ready to go. I realized then that a good portion of the folks who started with me were likely first leg relay runners and I assume they were the slower runners & walkers. I have to wonder how the race would have been different if the relay runners had started after those of us running 13.1.

Back on the Osceola Parkway, I passed Mary Jo Collins and Deanna Mongello. I asked if they were texting Lou, I’m still not sure if they were or if Mary Jo was live-tweeting the race This was the best part of the race for me. The crowd thinned out and I put in my fastest mile splits on miles 6-10. My 10K split time was 1:14:03 and my 15K split was 1:49:57. I could have done without the out & back portion since that meant we were funneled down into a lane & a half. I remember thinking the mile markers were cool and that the water stop volunteers were awesome. I felt like there were plenty of water stops on the course. I took Powerade at all but two of them. I carried my own Clif Shots with me and took one at the mile 4 and mile 9 water stops.

Then we ran up the on-ramp to World Drive. Without that Toy Story sargeant tell me to “keep moving, soldier!”, I might still be out there. World Drive was DARK! We ran in the right lane, the middle lane was blocked off, and cars were in the left lane. I was glad to get off that road onto Buena Vista Drive, but it was even DARKER! All the street lights were off. I’m sure that wasn’t the plan, but what rotten timing. There were wrappers from the food stop all over the ground and I was much more nervous about my footing here than I was inside the Animal Kingdom.

One of the biggest WTF? moments of the entire race came as we entered Disney’s Hollywood Studios. We entered backstage near the Rockin Roller Coaster. There was a guy in a chef’s hat with a sterno burner, frying up a HUGE pan of onions and peppers! In the 9th mile of the race! I have a pretty strong stomach, but this did not smell good at all. One runner in front of me actually headed for the bushes at this point.

I was starting to struggle a bit in the final three miles. I hit mile marker 10 at about 1:57 and just wasn’t sure how fast I could do the final 5K. I REALLY slowed down at the last few water stops and had a harder time getting going again. We made lots of twists & turns, running offstage and back on. My Garmin dropped out for 15-20 seconds inside the costuming tunnel. It was very cool to run across the front of the Lights, Motors, Action! stage and see ourselves up on the jumbotron. Even more cool was realizing that the Osborne lights were on and Christmas music was playing!

More darkness and crowded sidewalks awaited us outside of the Studios and around the Boardwalk. There were several spectators set up here, but it was after midnight and over two hours since the start of the race, so most of them were just cheering for “their runner” and just sort of looking at the rest of us. The crowd further around by the Yacht & Beach Club was a bit more encouraging and the road signs at the side of the course made me smile, especially the one that said something like “you’ve just burned 1400 calories, get ready to party!”. Before I knew it, I was up and over the final bridge and heading down to the finish line just outside the International Gateway. A few runners behind me really kicked it and passed me in the final 100 yards or so, I just didn’t have any energy left to go faster.

Mickey was at the finish line! I did it!

I stopped my Garmin at 2:36:14 and kept moving. My official chip time was 2:36:03. I grabbed both a bottle of water & a bottle of Powerade, which I was very glad to have in the next half hour. They have me a bag with a banana, muffin, and I don’t know what else in it. I got my medal and skipped the photo line. I saw several people lined up at the medical tent. As best I could tell, everyone was cramming into the Millennium pavillion to get out into Epcot, so I joined in. Lots and lots of sweaty, tired people were all crammed into a small space and started dropping like flies. A few were yelling at the volunteers and finally I realized that I had to wait here if I wanted to retrieve my bag. I texted a few people and posted on Facebook that I was finished and finally made it to the front of the line. I had a dry shirt, lip balm, my food & drink vouchers & my camera in my bag and ended up ducking behind the large wooden entrance gates to the Millennium Pavilion and changing shirts there. Several other women had the same idea and one was kind enough to share the wet wipes she had stuck in her checked bag.

I finally made it out onto the Epcot promenade and it was PACKED. So many people were waiting for their runners and the cast members were just overwhelmed trying to direct traffic. I knew I’d finished ahead of my friends, so I used my food voucher and fought my way to the meeting spot we’d set up ahead of time. I felt pretty good and was just thrilled to know that I had done it! I noticed cast members pushing empty wheelchairs around, looking for runners who needed help. People were just everywhere and the lines for the Food & Wine Festival booths were longer than I’ve ever seen them. I’ve only missed two festivals since 1998, so I’ve seen a lot of lines.

I met my friends – one handed over her vouchers and headed back to the room. She scheduled an 8 AM flight home, which meant she had to get on a Disney’s Magical Express bus around 5 AM and it was close to 2 when we met up.

The remaining two of us took one loop around World Showcase to use the vouchers. I don’t think we bought anything else, the lines were just too long. Runners were lined up for the restrooms and many people seemed sick. We were somewhere around Japan when “last call” was announced. We finished our loop and made it back to our room at the Beach Club around 3:15 AM.

Overall, it was a really great experience. I’m sure Disney has had an earful about the few things that did not go well like the dark portions of the course, the bag pickup situation, and the miserably crowded post-race party. Hopefully, they’ll fix those things and add even more great surprises for next year’s event.

Here’s the stats from my Garmin:

Disney’s Wine & Dine Half Marathon 2010 by juptonrd at Garmin Connect – Details.

On Friday, October 1, I was included in the randomly selected group of runners to meet up and run with Jeff Galloway at Epcot. We were told to meet at the front of Epcot. It was still dark when I arrived.

Upon entering Epcot, we were all giving a black RunDisney shirt to put on! I wasted a lot of time trying to decide what to wear

RunDisney, I have four words for you – Women’s. Cut. Tech. Shirts! Please! This shirt and the race shirts are like dresses, and that means a lot coming from someone who spent her entire week at WDW complaining about the “long & skinny” cuts on all the t-shirts available for sale.

Jeff and some of the Disney people talked to us a bit before we started out.

Jeff said he’d be using 2 minute run/30 second walk intervals. Although the application said runners needed to be able to keep a 12 minute/mile pace, I’m pretty sure no one told Jeff. He was running somewhere around 8-8:30 and was overall moving around 10:15-10:30 minutes/mile. It was just too fast for me to keep up, and I really didn’t want to go all out since I had 13.1 miles ahead of me the next night. So, I was in my usual spot at the back of the pack, camera in hand, snapping away at Epcot getting ready for the opening of Food & Wine Festival. I eventually gave up on the run/walk system and just made my way through the two laps we did around World Showcase.

We ran in to someone else who was ready to join in!

We stopped at the front of World Showcase to pose for a picture. My Canon S3 was the “fancy” camera of the bunch, most were iPhones!

After we made it back to the front of Epcot, Jeff answered questions, posed for pictures, and gave us all an autographed photo of himself in front of the castle. He was extremely gracious and friendly to all of us! As 9 AM approached, we all had to make our way out of the park, but I think all of us were very grateful for the special experience!

Here’s the stats from my Garmin:

Epcot Run with Jeff Galloway by juptonrd at Garmin Connect – Details.

Wondering what finally motivated me to actually POST to my blog instead of just composing posts in my head and never actually typing them up?

I was chosen to run with Jeff Galloway on Friday morning at Epcot!!!!

Now, I’d like to believe I was chosen because the folks at Disney know how awesome I look in my running skirt.  However, it is really just because I have mad skillz when it comes to  hitting the refresh button and acting quickly when the moment arrives.  I perfected this art through many years of bidding on eBay for stuff I don’t need.

I’m so excited that I can’t stand it!