If there’s one thing most people know about me it’s that I’m a Disney fanatic and, yes, that includes runDisney races as well. I know I’ve posted about a few Disney races here already, so now I’m going to tell you about another one of my favorites!
Last year was the first time I ran the Wine & Dine 10K, but my running buddy and I liked it so much that we decided to go back for seconds (get it?) this year. Now, a lot of you might be wondering why we just went for the 10K and not the half. Last year the half was full and the 10K opened a few more spots. This year we decided the 10K was all we wanted to do. It was pretty simple. We also signed up for this after we signed up for Chicago and thought that this would be a nice recovery run!
In typical pre-race style Michelle and I took a Friday off from work and headed to Orlando for the weekend. The 10K is on a Saturday so we had to take Friday to visit the expo. And also we had FastPasses for Hollywood Studios. The expo wasn’t a huge to-do. I feel like more people would have been there the next day in preparation for the half marathon that was happening on Sunday. This race series, like most Disney races has a 5K, 10K, and half marathon. It also offers a “two course challenge” of 10K and half marathon. I’ve yet to do a runDisney challenge, but if I were to do one I’d go for the Princess Weekend one. I’m not made of money, however.
Friday was nice and easy at Hollywood Studios with some best friend time that included a freak thunderstorm and tornado warning while in the park. It wasn’t anything we couldn’t handle with a bathroom hideout and a spirited coffee from Joffrey’s.
After we freshened up and tried to dry off, we had dinner and Disney Springs (check out The Polite Pig next time you’re there) and tried to get a decent night of sleep. If you’ve ever run a Disney race you know that the wake-up call is ridiculously early and you’ve got to get yourself to the start line at a certain time also. We had to be on a bus leaving the hotel by 4AM, so we got up a little after 3AM the next morning. Thankfully we were staying on Disney property and they were serving coffee. We woke up race day to temps in the low 60s and they kept dropping before the race even started. The corrals were packed and I swear I heard the announcer say there were 30,000 people racing. That’s a lot of Disney runners. Official race start time was 5:30, but we started closer to 6. The cold didn’t let up and, even though we’d just raced in the cold in Chicago, this was just different. Of course, I’m a born and bred Floridian, so anything under 75 is cold for me!
Once we were off it definitely warmed up. Michelle and I noticed at the expo the day before that the course had changed and we were a little disappointed. Last year we ran through Hollywood Studios and on the Boardwalk. This year the course was, well, boring. We took off from Magic Kingdom parking lot and basically ran through Disney property. Only the last two miles or so was through Epcot and that was only halfway through the World Showcase, then out a side passage in England and back around through France and the rest of the Showcase. I’ll admit that the Showcase as the sun came up was impressive, but not really enough to make up for the lack of excitement on the course. There were a few character spots, but no PhotoPass until we got into Epcot and it was mostly just other runners and traffic on the course.
I feel like a lot of runDisney fans run for those things (me) and I know I was a little sad at the change this year. I know it’s tough because it’s only a 10K and there’s not a lot to work with, but I hope something changes for the better next year. I love a good 10K and I think Disney puts on amazing races.
Other than that it was a great race. It was Michelle’s first time running since Chicago. I’d done a 10K the previous weekend and had some light workouts with my Girls on the Run group. We had great time considering we hadn’t really prepared. It was kind of funny because neither one of us were too worried about it. After conquering Chicago we might have been feeling a little cocky about it all. We didn’t bring KT Tape or fuel or anything really to help us prepare! There were a few times on the ramps where the crowd got to be a little much and our time was slow, but other than that we finished the race strong and happy.
After all, we were at the Happiest Place on Earth!
