Wine and Dine Half-Marathon

MKCP 1985

Well-Known Member
Im with you Zac. I just dont see how it cant hurt to have AA and Maelstrom open. At least those.

Ill be on the tail end of a 4 day vacation, a half marathon... I think my bed will be calling my name.

EDIT: Do we consider the countries attractions or just supporting shows that are in the countries, in other words will the countries be open?

Maybe there will be a dance party in the street with Donald Duck and Chip and Dale. :lookaroun :lol:
 

joel_maxwell

Permanent Resident of EPCOT
This "Party" has sounded like a rip off since inception. Our only hope is that Disney losses money on it and learns their lesson for next year. Charging people $35.00 to come into a park with no open attractions? Their basically trapping a bunch of family and friends and suckering them into buying a bunch of over-priced snack foods. It's a shame.

Like I said in a previous post, my wife and son will be at the finish line (which is outside the park and free to stand at) cheering me and everyone else on. I'll get my medal, quickly check out the area and get out of Dodge. I couldn't stomach any booze or spicey foods after a 13 mile run anyway. Give me my bagel, banana and Power Ade and I'm a Happy Camper! :)

Frank
Best beer I have ever had was at 9:30am after my first half in the after party. It was a Mich Ultra (ubber light beer) but it was a darn good one. Reminded me of college on gameday years ago. :D

Maybe there will be a dance party in the street with Donald Duck and Chip and Dale. :lookaroun :lol:
Kinky. :D Ill make sure to bring my camera
 

MKCP 1985

Well-Known Member
Best beer I have ever had was at 9:30am after my first half in the after party. It was a Mich Ultra (ubber light beer) but it was a darn good one. Reminded me of college on gameday years ago. :D

Kinky. :D Ill make sure to bring my camera

Agreed on the beer . . . it is a runners' tradition to celebrate a finish with a beer, and I have happily embraced that tradition. :king:

On the street party, it might look something like this:

DSC00253.jpg
 

joel_maxwell

Permanent Resident of EPCOT
Agreed on the beer . . . it is a runners' tradition to celebrate a finish with a beer, and I have happily embraced that tradition. :king:

On the street party, it might look something like this:

DSC00253.jpg
Cool Doug. I know that we might not finish at the same time, but Ill wait around to share one with you. I might be about 3 deep by then. :lol:

Get down Donald. Ill definitely take some pictures of that. Isabeau would just laugh and giggle that Donald was dancing. She is a big fan of his.
 

joel_maxwell

Permanent Resident of EPCOT
I assume he/she will be missing the game by running in the race, and therefore joked that he/she wants to see the scores during the race.
I get that and semi understood what she meant, but it is just one of those moments were I guess I looked way to into it. It sounded like the person wished someone would post score updates on wdwmagic. Well, not to be over simplify things, if you have access to wdwmagic my your mobile phone, you can access espn.mobile.com (or the iphone mobile app) and get live scores, stats etc. If this person was insinuating that Disney announce or posts scores of the Florida Alabama game during a marquee event, it just aint happening. LOL

I would love updates since Im an Alabama fan. If I wanted them bad enough, I would just take my iphone and get on my mobile espn app during the race. It isnt that important compared to the task at hand. :D Besides, it was a bit in a choppy sentence format so I could tell if they are a UF student or if they ar elooking for a UF student to do so.

All across the board, i was slapping my forehead. :lol:
 

Blueliner

Well-Known Member
Weather Update for Wine and Dine

Quick Heads-Up:

A tropical depression has formed just south of Cuba. Weather.com predicts that this tropical system has a good chance of moving north through Florida over the next few days. As of right now, it looks like the Saturday weather will be clear (isolated thunderstorms during the day, 30% chance of rain), with a high of 86 and an overnight low of 71.
 

joel_maxwell

Permanent Resident of EPCOT
Quick Heads-Up:

A tropical depression has formed just south of Cuba. Weather.com predicts that this tropical system has a good chance of moving north through Florida over the next few days. As of right now, it looks like the Saturday weather will be clear (isolated thunderstorms during the day, 30% chance of rain), with a high of 86 and an overnight low of 71.
Shhhh.

I saw that. Let's not talk about that too loudly. It might hear us. :D
 

Blueliner

Well-Known Member
Flying in Thursday afternoon...want to be there now! W&D 13.1 park-hopper!:sohappy:

I'm getting pretty antsy, myself. We're flying in on Saturday morning and back out on Monday evening. This morning, I found myself jotting down a little itinerary for Saturday, and I'm sure that before long I'll move on to a mini touring plan for Sunday and Monday.
 

dreamfinder

Well-Known Member
Quick Heads-Up:

A tropical depression has formed just south of Cuba. Weather.com predicts that this tropical system has a good chance of moving north through Florida over the next few days. As of right now, it looks like the Saturday weather will be clear (isolated thunderstorms during the day, 30% chance of rain), with a high of 86 and an overnight low of 71.

All indications I have seen show the depression hitting Florida tommorow or Thursday at the latest. Shouldn't affect the race, but it may affect people arriving at the airport. No whammy, no whammy, no whammy!!!!
 

Main Street USA

Well-Known Member
Yeah, shows it will be up around Georgia by Thursday morning, so no worries. Should have some nice, clean weather behind it.

Temp around race time should be in the mid to low 70s.
 

Main Street USA

Well-Known Member
Sounds good! We're headed out on thursday evening, staying at Port Orleans Riverside. Can't wait! Hope to see a few of you at the race!

I'll be wearing a long sleeve blue tech shirt with an NYC Tennis 2010 graphic on the front. Likely a black bandana, Saucony shoes with neon green laces, too.

Good luck to all!
 

joel_maxwell

Permanent Resident of EPCOT
I finished 694th out of 7275 half runners.

I had a goal of anything under 2 hours I'd be happy with and take it. I finished 1:58:28.

9.02 per mile. I had a average of a 8.09 minute mile for the first 5 or 6, then the fatigue set in and I was walking about 20-30 seconds about every 1.5 miles and slowed to a 8:45ish mile if my quick math is correct. Add the walk time and it averages to 9.02 per mile. Ill take it.

Had a lot of fun and the medal is worth it. Love it and is the hardest race I have done so far from the temp, to humidity level to the challenges of people and some of the darkness being at night. You really had to stay alert, especially in some of the AK areas and around mile 9 when you were about to get into the Studios. There were some really dark patches.

I hope to hear from everyone else soon.

I also had a great trip with my 2.5 year old the previous 4 days. Her first trip. It was so awesome. :D
 

Mulan

New Member
I finished 694th out of 7275 half runners.

I had a goal of anything under 2 hours I'd be happy with and take it. I finished 1:58:28.

9.02 per mile. I had a average of a 8.09 minute mile for the first 5 or 6, then the fatigue set in and I was walking about 20-30 seconds about every 1.5 miles and slowed to a 8:45ish mile if my quick math is correct. Add the walk time and it averages to 9.02 per mile. Ill take it.

Had a lot of fun and the medal is worth it. Love it and is the hardest race I have done so far from the temp, to humidity level to the challenges of people and some of the darkness being at night. You really had to stay alert, especially in some of the AK areas and around mile 9 when you were about to get into the Studios. There were some really dark patches.

I hope to hear from everyone else soon.

I also had a great trip with my 2.5 year old the previous 4 days. Her first trip. It was so awesome. :D

Congrats on your time! I didn't do as well as I'd hoped. I had a bit of a bumpy adventure getting there & I will keep this in mind for my next race at Disney.

I think I came in around 2:50 with about a 12 minute mile from when I started. I think I ran a bit fast for my liking, but I ran pretty cautiously in the dark spots. I was nervous I'd run into someone and trip them/me. I think that's the only thing I didn't like about the race - except for the sidewalk between HS and Yacht and Beach Club.

I love my medal. I'm making a shadow box for it.

Looking forward to running another race pretty soon. :D
 

joel_maxwell

Permanent Resident of EPCOT
Congrats on your time! I didn't do as well as I'd hoped. I had a bit of a bumpy adventure getting there & I will keep this in mind for my next race at Disney.

I think I came in around 2:50 with about a 12 minute mile from when I started. I think I ran a bit fast for my liking, but I ran pretty cautiously in the dark spots. I was nervous I'd run into someone and trip them/me. I think that's the only thing I didn't like about the race - except for the sidewalk between HS and Yacht and Beach Club.

I love my medal. I'm making a shadow box for it.

Looking forward to running another race pretty soon. :D
Live and Learn... and congrats on finishing.
 

Blueliner

Well-Known Member
Congratulations to all you Wine and Diners!

My wife and I had a great time down at WDW, and I thought the race was fun. The weather during the race was better than I had anticipated, and the weather on Sunday and Monday in the parks was awesome! I don't have enough meaningful thoughts to create a separate race report, but I'll share a few observations.

Transportation to and from Port Orleans French Quarter to the Wide World of Sports for the expo was good. It ran smoothly with minimal waiting around. I thought the expo was fine. The check-in went very smoothly, but there semed to be shortage of official race merchandise by the time we got there on Saturday afternoon.

Transportation from Port Orleans French Quarter to the Wide World of Sports for the race also was very good. They had buses lined up to get us there. However, the bag check, both pre-race and post-race, was insane. Pre-race, there appeared to be no rhyme or reason to the process, and we just kind of followed the herd and hoped we were in the right place at the right time to get our bags checked in.

From the perspective of someone starting from Corral D, it was really, really congested. I had an impromptu fartlek run during the first 3.5 miles of the race as I tried to weave in and out of slower traffic, which kind of threw me off. As we were approaching the Animal Kingdom, I felt like I had settled in and had a little bit of room to move. After being stuck in thick traffic during mile one, I had logged two miles at my goal pace, even though it required a lot of weaving. Then the course narrowed down to the width of a golf cart path (before entering the park). At that point, I was stuck, and it kind of just broke my spririt in terms of trying to keep up a pace that might get me to 1:59:59. With that said, I imagine it could have been a much different experience for those that submitted proof of time and started near the front in Corral A.

The hardest parts of the run for me were those areas where we seemed to be running the circumference of the parks (or their parking lots). The two that stick out were the area after exiting Animal Kingdom but before getting on Osceola Parkway, and the area after passing the Green Army Man but before entering DHS. For some reason, it was a little demoralizing to be running right next to the parks but not in them. I know the organizers have to cram the miles in somewhere, but I did not enjoy those miles.

In terms of my personal race, I caught my brother in law (who started in Corral C) at about mile 6. He seemed like he was going to be able to speed up a little and stick with me at a comfortable pace, so I decided I would stay with him. He started to struggle by about mile 8, and I had to decide whether to leave him behind or stick with him. It was his first half-marathon, so I stuck with him. He really slowed down by mile 10, to the point where I would turn around and he would be 15-20 yards behind me. I stopped a few times to let him catch up to me and walked with him for parts of the last 3 miles.

We stuck together to the finish line, with a chip time of about 2:25:00. This put me squarely in the middle of the pack for males and males in my age group. My guess is that if I had broken away from my brother in law, I may have finished at around 2:10, but I felt good about helping him make it through the run.

The post-race bag retrieval was a bit of a zoo, although I think they at least seemed to have a better organized queue (unlike at the start). We did not stick around the post-race party for long becuase my wife and brother in law were feeling sick, but they did allow me to watch Off Kilter, who did a great job (as always).

Some of you have commented about people appearing to have problems toward the ned of the race. My wife, brother in law, and I believe that it had to do with the CLIF products they were handing out at about mile 9-10. Both my wife and brother in law ate some of that stuff, while I declined. They both had major gastrointestinal issues. My wife cramped up and felt nauseous after feeling strong for the first 10 miles. My brother in law felt the same way shortly after finishing. Some others were making the same comments in the bag pick-up area. I suppose it could be a coincidence, but I really think the products must have had some controversial ingredients.

I really liked the race and likely would do it again. In my opinion, it is a virtually unbeatable time of year to go to WDW. However, my overall impression is that the race organizers should have limited the number of participants (including relay races) to something more like 5,000-7,500. At that number, I think a lot of the logistical problems (including the course bottlenecks, bag check, transportation issues, etc.) would have been alleviated. It just seemed like, in most respects, the planners had prepared for a smaller race.
 

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