2012 Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend Part 1

Here we are in mid-March and I still haven’t gotten my 2012 Disney Marathon recap posted. I was kind of hoping I would forget about this, but Jenn over at Eat, Sleep, Run Disney just posted hers, so I guess I better get mine out on the ole Interwebs. I may break this up into multiple posts since there is a lot to talk about.

So, before we get to the “big race,” let’s take a few steps back to Christmas. My wife and I decided to visit my brother and his family in San Francisco over the holiday break. We had an amazing trip and left with many souvenirs, the biggest of which was from my nephew, a chest cold. So, my wife and I were about 10 days out from the biggest races of our lives and couldn’t breathe more than 5 minutes without going into deep coughing fits. My wife took it much rougher as she was coughing frantically up to (and right through) her Donald Half Marathon. She was in such rough shape, she even skipped the 3 Caballeros 5k at Epcot (she’s still apologizing for keeping me up with her coughing fits). I had my own problems, specifically IT Band issues. In November, I ran a 10 miler and destroyed my previous 10 mile time, but in the process jacked my legs. This prohibited me from any serious mileage over the holiday break (my longest run was 13.1 miles), so I was thinking “I am literally going to die. I’m literally going to either poop myself or die.” This was going to be fun.

                         Disney 3 Caballeros 5k at Epcot

The day we got in, we decided to stay with my Mom in a nearby town and visit a bit. The next morning, I got up early and checked in on my wife, who for all intents & purposes was out of the 5k lineup due to her chest cold (yep, she was coughing all night!). So, I hopped in the car and headed the back roads to Epcot. I had driven this way well over a million times, but it was so dark and foggy I thought I was going to get into an accident. Worse still, it was about 28 degrees out, 10 degrees COLDER than Chicago! Luckily, I got there fine and hung out in my car to stay warm until race start. I had run “fun runs” at Epcot before so I knew what to expect – cheesy DJ, lots of folks who look like they run once a year, folks in costumes, and the “hardcore, serious runners.” It was all in good fun, but I had a reason to get out there, I had to see how my legs were feeling since not running for over a week. This time the setup a little different, Disney had wave starts to organize the runners, by pace to maximize the overall experience. I lined up in Wave 1 hoping to keep a steady 8:00 mile and since this was honor system, everyone else lined up in this corral, I spent the first 5 minutes dodging walkers (C’mon walkers, back of the line!!!!!)

Off I went and quite frankly, felt great! I love running through Epcot, it’s so wide you can really get into a groove and stay there. I knew I’d have some stamina issues, which I petered out at around mile 2.98. So, I walked for about 15 seconds and then pushed a kick to the finish. All in all a good race and I was pretty happy with my performance.The medallion, as per usual, a dinky, rubber keychain, certainly not worthy of the cost of admission.

I crossed the Start Line at about :15 into the race

After the race, I went back to my mom’s and picked up my wife. We headed over to the Wilderness Lodge & checked in (God, I love that resort) My wife was running the Donald the next day, so she wanted to rest up.

I think this is a good place to stop for now (I have a St. Patty’s 5k in 8 hours and need to get some sleep.)

Next post: Devin’s Donald

2011 Wine & Dine Half Marathon Race Recap Part 1

Last weekend my wife and I headed down to Orlando to visit family, friends and of course, participate in Disney’s Wine & Dine Half Marathon. We have run in Disney 5Ks before but this would be our first half marathon, so we weren’t sure what to expect. I was excited to be able to run through MGM Studios since I spent such a large part of my Disney tenure at that park, but equally nervous as I was recovering from a serious stress fracture in my leg. Overall, the entire weekend was amazing and we are both pretty sad to be back in Chicago after such a great weekend. Luckily, the WDW Marathon is right around the corner (with plenty of 5Ks & 8Ks in between).

We got in Thursday and visited with my wife’s parents for a bit and dropped off our dog (we tend to travel with our pup a lot. He’s a good traveler on the plane) to be babysat for the weekend. We were concerned the weather hadn’t cooled down yet like predicted and heard horror stories of last year’s race where it was so hot and humid people dropped like flies. Luckily, the cold front showed up and made the night perfect for running.

Friday, we met up with my mom and went to the expo at the Wide World of Sports to pick up our race packets and some RunDisney merch I’ve had my eye on. It was pretty empty at the packet pickup area so no long waits. I picked up my packet quickly and headed over to the Runner’s Relations booth to see if I could get in the correct corral (my stress fracture prohibited me from qualifying races during the summer). I was finally able to get a qualifying race and the person behind the counter changed my “C” corral to the correct “A” corral no problem.

After the packet pickup, we headed over to the expo to get our shirts and look at all the other great running gear. I ran into fellow ROTE’r Heather from www.runningwithsass.com at the Running Skirts both and told her I enjoyed her blog. We also got to meet Jeff Galloway which was super awesome (in a nerdy running kinda way). Even though, we didn’t purchase a book at the expo (we already had some), he spent a good time prepping my wife about the half marathon. He was super genuine and all around a great guy. That night we had a great dinner at the restaurant we had our wedding rehearsal dinner at and reminisced about the night.

Jeff Galloway

Saturday morning was the Halloween 5K at Animal Kingdom. My wife requested we walk it since the half was a mere 15 hours away, so we hung out in the back (thankfully, I managed to get her to jog a bit since the back of the pack was something akin to water buffalo trying to all make a narrow water crossing. As per usual, the pre-race was chock full of DJ’s corny banter and a repertoire of songs typically found on a bride & groom’s ‘Do Not Play” list. There were also a lot of characters for pictures which was nice for those who are into that kind of thing. Since this was an “experience” run and not a “timed” one, I decided to bring the little camera. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a lot of pictures. Oh well.

One of the few photos

Once the race started, the herd started to move to a slow crawl and we were off. Later that night we learned many of the paths used in the 5K were re-appropriated for the half marathon so it was nice to somewhat know where we were headed when running that night in the dark. The 5K started taking us all the way around the AK parking lot and in through the front gate. We, then moved through the path which opened up to view the Tree of Life which I think is a very cool icon for the park (more on that later). Past Camp Minnie Mickey, we headed over the bridge to Harambe and made an immediate right towards Asia. However, before doing so, we cut through the back area to Conservation Station and the backstage area for the Kilimanjaro Safaris. During the backstage run, we ran past the hippo and elephant enclosures but didn’t see any animals. The only ones that were on the course were an owl, and tortoise, and a ferret. Really, Disney? Really?

After emerging from backstage, we turned into Asia, where in front of Expedition Everest there was Goofy dressed as Himalayan Sherpa. I found this to be pretty cool since I am completely enamored by the actual Mt. Everest. From there, we headed through Finding Nemo: The Musical queue, past Countdown to Extinction and backstage. Since we were nearing the end, I decided to do some actual running and took off a bit. I waited at the Finish line for my wife and we crossed together which I thought was nice.

C'mon Devin!

The medal (ahem…medallion) was another cheesy rubber keychain looking thing that is rather sad (certainly, the price to run warrants a real medal), but we expected nothing less. Even though, we didn’t really “run” this, it was still enjoyable to motor through a park we seldom visit. I’m really looking forward for an MK 5K. Hopefully, in January.

After the run, we had breakfast at Whispering Canyon in the Wilderness Lodge. I’ve been there before but my wife hadn’t so it was fun to see her reaction of all the debauchery that happens when the staff interacts with the guests. However, our experience there was a foreshadow of my overall experience at Disney during our weekend (that’s saved for another post).

It was about 11a and we decided to check in at our resort, the Beach Club, knowing full well our room wouldn’t be ready. Turns out, it was! Well, our king bed was not available so they upgraded us to a water view with two queen beds so the room was kind of ready.

We hung out at the resort a bit and walked around the lagoon. For old time sake, we had lunch at the little pizza counter over at the Boardwalk which was delicious as always and then headed back to the Beach Club. Upon arriving back at the hotel, my wife exclaimed she left her purse at the pizza place so I had to high tail it all the way back over to the counter to see if it was there, which luckily it was. We napped until about 6. I didn’t sleep well as my anticipation for what lay ahead of me in just a few short hours.

6:00 came, we donned our running apparel and headed out the door to the bus for Wide World of Sports. The next time we entered our room we would be half marathoners……

End of Part 1.

One Week Out...

Next Saturday is the Wine & Dine Half Marathon. Currently, the forecast is 78 degrees, rain, and 80% humidity. Sounds more like a death march than a race, but we'll see how it goes.

For you Disney runners out there who may be going through your first Disney race, you may have some questions about preparation. If you have those questions, Eat Sleep Run Disney has all the information.

She has broken it down to how to prep a few weeks out, what to pack, what to expect at the expo and race, as well as pre-race nutrition. It's all listed here.

After the race, I'll be going back to more Walt Disney World type posts (as well as a race recap). For those of you running, best of luck to you all and I'll see you at the start line.