'The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror 10-Miler Weekend'

[a2grafix]

The wdwmagic.com Tower of Terror 10 Mile Race crew for 2012:

I'm sure they are all enjoying their medals and making the most of the Villains party right about now.

Totally cool meeting you all during the small meet and greet, for those who could make it out in time. Very surreal as, you know, for all of us we all go to Disney and are geeks. It was cool just sitting and relaxing near the flag pole while the cast members slowly moved up and multiplied as we got close to deadline get in your corral time.

I'm the dude next to Bradley (orange) and Joel. Wore an Air Force tech shirt and it was nice to get a few "Go Air Force" along the race route. Finished at 1:55.02 and almost was on fumes reaching mile 9. But it was my parents across the BAH who spotted me and cheered me on and I trudged on and crossed the finish line. Surprised myself that I could keep on going, except for stopping and walking for 100 meters or so during the powerade / water breaks.

I now understand what it means to run in a runDisney event. Unless you are at the starting line in the first few rows of Corral A, you don't get the luxury of personal run space, until say mile 5 or 6. I was forever zigging and zagging and slowly jogging and slipping through slower runners. Felt like I was walking World Showcase or Future World at the end of the fireworks and trying to reach the monorail back. A throng of people all going where you are going.

Only bad thing is that I have turf toe in my right second toe, I think, because it's grayish and bloodied in nail. I also felt the start of a blister to form Friday while walking the parks. Ended up adding 4-5 band aids on my feet. But it feels like I need moleskin and several days off my feet.

Even after running 10 miles, at end of race it feels like I walked all four parks over a course of 20 hours. My feet were, and still are quite sore.

Left the park around 3:30am and crashed about 4am. Didn't venture into Epcot until 1pm, but didn't care. Bumped into and talked to fellow 10 milers and we shared our experiences and disapproval of how the race route was set up, post race stuff, stuff like that. Didn't care too much and took it in stride since this was my first runDisney event.

 

[Blueliner]

First of all, thank you very much to Coryna and Joel for organizing the WDWMagic Meet and Greet on Saturday night! It was great to meet everyone.

Carrie and I both had good races. We ran the first 1.5 together, and then she sent me off on my own. The first five miles went pretty smoothly for me, although I could feel myself starting to overheat a bit after about the four mile marker. With an assist from the Biofreeze at the five mile marker, my back held up relatively well. I did mix in some walking for the second half of the race and ended up finishing in 1:57:15, which was a little slower than I had hoped for and a little faster than I had anticipated, given my spotty training over the past 6 weeks. Carrie exceeded her own expectations and finished at 2:08:29, which was great.

I thoroughly enjoyed the race. I think RunDisney has worked out some of the kinks (at least as compared to the inaugural Wine and Dine 1/2 I did in 2010). I think the wave starts, coupled with a wide course for the first five miles, helped with runner congestion. The bag check and bag pick up were much more efficient than the 2010 Wine and Dine. The changing tents at the end were a nice idea, but were a little small considering the number of runners, and a couple of fans would have helped (very humid in there). The number of open attractions after the race was great, and we barely had to wait in line for anything other than Toy Story Midway Mania (no surprise there).

We ended up leaving at about 3:45 and wandered around Port Orleans Riverside in the dark for a few minutes looking for our room. Alligator Bayou is hard to navigate, especially when you are about to fall asleep!

 

[melflip8]

I am stuck on bandaids . . . for anything longer than a 5K!

How were the villains? I saw photos of the Haunted Mansion grave diggers on the course, which I love those characters. I also saw Darth Vader and Cruella DeVil after the finish, because the runners all had finisher medals around their necks. What else did you all see?

I was SO upset that none of the Evil Queens were out. I thought the Character meets were a little underwhelming.

 

[fmingo36]

Here's my report on the race.
PART 1-PRE-RACE

First thing I LOVED meeting my cyberWDWMagic.com friends. I really feel that the runner's board is a good group of people. YES there are hundred of thousands Disney fans but how many of them are willing to throw on a pair of sneakers and spend months of training to run at 10:00 at night in 80 degree weather. Yes, we are crazy bunch and I love you for it!!!

I am disappointed with the pre-race info. Starting with lack of communication from RUNDisney and the lack of/misinformation given to on-property cast members. I got such mixed info regarding the busing from our resort to the expo. I called the front desk at our resort to ask about the wheres and whens on the buses and I was patched into the General Disney HelpDesk. What??? The person then read off the standard script.

The expo itself was kind of sad compared to other Disney races. There wasn't as many vedors and the overall energy was BLAH. Even the speakers were uninspiring.
The highlight light for me was meeting Jeff Galloway. He's a really great guy.

PRE-RACE:
We got on the first bus to the race and had a really cool bus driver. We were the first bus to arrive at the race and they wouldn’t let us off the bus. Had to wait about 10 minutes. Our bus driver offered to take pictures of us and kept trying to pump us up. We spent some time on the bus talking with other runners. I enjoy hearing about why people run at Disney. I was surprised at the amont of cars still in the DHS parking lot when we arrived. This area should have been closed off hours ago.

The Meet & Greet. Like I said it was great meeting you. I loved sensing the excitement in those that were running their first Disney event, discussing training, and hearing about everyone’s families especially those that were there to cheer you on (Tim, I think it’s great that your parents were there). It might have been a little bit away from the official pre-race activities but I think it gave us a good place to stretch out and talk before the race…plus I think if I had to hear "Call Me Maybe" one more time I’d probably haul off and hit someone. (And Melissa-we could so do the AMAZING RACE together!)

Once back at the official Pre-Race activites, there was the usual DJ trying to get the crowd pumped up but honestly I couldn’t even think about wasting one ounce of my energy to woot-and-holler and I'm usually the loudest WOO-HOO girl around. The humidity was draining and that was even before we made it to the starting corral. People watching was fun. I give people a lot of credit for running in costumes! There were some fun background settings for photo-ops but I didn’t see any characters.

Off to the corrals, my hubby and I were in Corral B. They had us start off in a starting corral. And they were definitely checking bibs and making sure you were in your correct corral. I heard quite a few people being told they could move back to run with a friend that had a lower corral letter but the friend could not move up. There were port-o-potties in each starting corral. We hung out there for bit before they starting moving us to the official starting line-corral by-corral. I have to say this was the shortest walk to the starting line for any Disney race I’ve attend. But then MORE waiting with the DJ counting us down. ONLY 15 more minutes …Are you ready? Only 10 more minutes…Are you ready? Only 8 more minutes…Are you ready? Augh!!! I was ready to run an hour ago…LET’S DO THIS THING!!!
An NO characters at the countdown.

Next up...THE TOWER OF TERROR RACE mile by mile

 

[MKCP 1985]

thanks for doing a race report, Coryna. Looking forward to reading all about it. You all were certainly in my thoughts on Saturday night. If I could have clicked my heels and been there, no doubt I would have!

 

[Mr mom]

My mileage today was a diect result of the pics etc in this thread, pumped me up seeing a pic of the WDW running club,lol

 

[Hannah1284]

Sorry we missed the meet-up! I forgot to check time/location before we left and then couldn't get it to load on my phone once we got there.

We finished in 2:44:31 - a 16:27/mile average. So I guess we're one of the folks that some ppl think should've been sweeped. We were holding steady at a 15/mile pace until around mile 7 when I started to get incredibly light-headed and DH had to force me to down two cups of powerade and a cup of water at the remaining stops. We had to stop for a few minutes to I could get my head on straight or I think we would've made the pace time.

But, we did finish on our feet and were able to walk the next day. It was our first race together and I still finished the full 10 miles (although I keep hearing rumors it was more than 10 total miles). All-in-all, I still feel like I accomplished a lot.We're trying to pick out our next race together and are planning to do a lot more training for that one!

Just curious...anyone else not normally get blisters but get them for this race. I have only gotten minor ones on the ball of my foot and at my ankle in the past (rare) but ended up with a massive blister (about 1.25 inches across, 1/2 inch high and 1/4 inch stuck out) on my right heel and several medium sized ones on my left heel.

 

[Runnin'Gator]

I think the reason there were people with 17+ pacing is because they somehow moved up or got themselves into the A and B corrals. I ended up starting from B and had to dodge walkers in the first few yards. It was incredibly frustrating having to run in the grass because of them. Oh well, moving on to the Wine and Dine.

 

[Mr mom]

Sorry we missed the meet-up! I forgot to check time/location before we left and then couldn't get it to load on my phone once we got there.

We finished in 2:44:31 - a 16:27/mile average. So I guess we're one of the folks that some ppl think should've been sweeped. We were holding steady at a 15/mile pace until around mile 7 when I started to get incredibly light-headed and DH had to force me to down two cups of powerade and a cup of water at the remaining stops. We had to stop for a few minutes to I could get my head on straight or I think we would've made the pace time.

But, we did finish on our feet and were able to walk the next day. It was our first race together and I still finished the full 10 miles (although I keep hearing rumors it was more than 10 total miles). All-in-all, I still feel like I accomplished a lot.We're trying to pick out our next race together and are planning to do a lot more training for that one!

Just curious...anyone else not normally get blisters but get them for this race. I have only gotten minor ones on the ball of my foot and at my ankle in the past (rare) but ended up with a massive blister (about 1.25 inches across, 1/2 inch high and 1/4 inch stuck out) on my right heel and several medium sized ones on my left heel.

Folks have been saying they sweated more than usual etc, I can only think that perhaps with all that sweat and pace being thrown off etc, you got a blister from the friction etc.

 

[Mad Stitch]

There were port-o-potties in each starting corral.

Now that's a good idea. They needed those at DL. They put so much effort into making sure everyone is in the right corral, then at DL anyway everyone was hopping over the corral fencing to go find a port-o-potty.

We finished in 2:44:31 - a 16:27/mile average. So I guess we're one of the folks that some ppl think should've been sweeped.

27 seconds above pace is fine. Seeing how humid everyone says it was I'm glad to hear they were lenient on the pace in this situation. It is safer to let people rest and get hydrated then have them get injured trying to earn a medal. I know I'm contradicting what I said above, I just view this as one of those gray areas where there really isn't a good way to draw the line.

 

[BryceM]

Ahhh, as a XC runner, I wish I could've done this! I should've told my team about it... Haha.

 

[melflip8]

(And Melissa-we could so do the AMAZING RACE together!)

Let's start working on that story girlfriend! I'm thinking a RunDisney Video Montage....

PS - Fairly sure your glow stick gave me super human Tron powers and pulled me through the race.

Can't wait to catch up with you guys next race and to hear your thoughts on this race!

 

[melflip8]

Totally cool meeting you all during the small meet and greet, for those who could make it out in time. Very surreal as, you know, for all of us we all go to Disney and are geeks. It was cool just sitting and relaxing near the flag pole while the cast members slowly moved up and multiplied as we got close to deadline get in your corral time.

Great meeting you too! You CRUSHED the race, impressive time.

 

[a2grafix]

Great meeting you too! You CRUSHED the race, impressive time.

How did you do in the race?

I was SO upset that none of the Evil Queens were out. I thought the Character meets were a little underwhelming.

I did see Gaston posing for pix on Sunset Boulevard. Was also hoping to see any of the major 5 characters at the starting point, on the race route, or at the afterparty. Nope. Not even Jack Skellington or Sally.

Didn't we see a Tower of Terror bellhop at the front desk / starting line?

Echoing everyone, I was quite hot as well, started to get hot under the shirt around mile 3. Never run in that type of humidity and will likely never will.

Full moon was out Sept. 29. How did Disney work that into the storyline for race night.

Lastly, never heard of the Twilight Zone song until Saturday night. It was on repeat quite a lot and it instantly became one of my top songs that is obnoxious.

 

[melflip8]

How did you do in the race?

2:25...considering the farthest I ran up to that point was 5 miles and how hot it was...I'm just happy I finished! lol

 

[wilkeliza]

Sorry we missed the meet-up! I forgot to check time/location before we left and then couldn't get it to load on my phone once we got there.

We finished in 2:44:31 - a 16:27/mile average. So I guess we're one of the folks that some ppl think should've been sweeped. We were holding steady at a 15/mile pace until around mile 7 when I started to get incredibly light-headed and DH had to force me to down two cups of powerade and a cup of water at the remaining stops. We had to stop for a few minutes to I could get my head on straight or I think we would've made the pace time.

But, we did finish on our feet and were able to walk the next day. It was our first race together and I still finished the full 10 miles (although I keep hearing rumors it was more than 10 total miles). All-in-all, I still feel like I accomplished a lot.We're trying to pick out our next race together and are planning to do a lot more training for that one!

Just curious...anyone else not normally get blisters but get them for this race. I have only gotten minor ones on the ball of my foot and at my ankle in the past (rare) but ended up with a massive blister (about 1.25 inches across, 1/2 inch high and 1/4 inch stuck out) on my right heel and several medium sized ones on my left heel.

I don't think you should have been swept. You maintained a pretty good mile pace before then and then like all the rest of us it went down drastically due to the humidity.

What I was talking about earlier in the thread was the people from the start who never got under the 16 minutes and were taken off the course and still got their medals, or were allowed to finish even though they were in the 3 hours range. 27 seconds over the required pace isn't that big of a deal especially when you had but at a 15 min/mile before that.

Like you said we finished and on our feet so that's what matters.

 

[JillC LI]

Great job everyone! I haven't been on the forums since Friday so I'm finally reading everyone's posts. I started off here, and now I'm off to the "What Did You Do" forum for more. I love the pic (although jazz hands would have been nice! ). Can someone please post who is who in the photo. I know many but not all of the faces. Sounds like a particularly humid evening, so kudos to all. Coryna, I look forward to reading your Mile By Mile Race Report.

 

[DisneyRunner]

I'm back home now, with the ability to get on a computer. I tried to meet up, but I was totally confused as to which direction to go. I asked a CM a question, but they did not know the answer. My DD also ran into CM's that were not knowledgable about the race. She was told by one CM, "There are two different starts and two different finishes." She was thinking to herself, "I don't think it works like that."

 

[DisneyRunner]

Also congrats to all the other WDWMagic people who finished. I hope to meet some of you tomorrow at EPCOT while I'm working Agent P.

We did Agent P. It was taking a while, so we stopped mid way through.

 

[fmingo36]

Great job everyone! I haven't been on the forums since Friday so I'm finally reading everyone's posts. I started off here, and now I'm off to the "What Did You Do" forum for more. I love the pic (although jazz hands would have been nice! ). Can someone please post who is who in the photo. I know many but not all of the faces. Sounds like a particularly humid evening, so kudos to all. Coryna, I look forward to reading your Mile By Mile Race Report.

We DID jazz hands! Not sure where that picture is...Joel?

As for the group picture (from left to right)
Brad (fievel),Tim (a2grafix), Joel (joel_maxwell), Me (fmingo36) , My hubby is standing behind me, Melissa (melflip8), Carrie (Chris' wife) and Chris (Blueliner)

And I'm still working on the race report. Hoping to add some pictures to the report.