I also posted this in the combo thread so sorry if it is a duplicate. First Disney Race and First Half Marathon quick recap and thoughts. As an uber planner and over analyzer I did a lot of homework on this race, Disney races in general, halfs etc. I was prepared for horrible lines, chaos, all kinds of things. My impressions as a total newbie to the distance and runDisney. New to running still really, I only started in April of 2013 as a reluctant concession to the fact I could no longer doing other things and well, at my age, I needed impact resistance. Doing the DL half was a "reward" for having to run in the first place. I would have run regardless but finagling an extra Disney trip by doing so was definitely a bonus prize.
Expo: My only real issue with the expo and packet pickup is the lack of directional signage to get you there in the first place and to clearly mark where packet pick up is, versus the expo itself and noting what was in the packet pick up area (pre-buy items and GET travel) versus at the expo which ended up making it a 2 trip outing to the pickup area as a result. Was it a big deal? No but signs would have been helpful. Lines? Non existent. That included getting a pair of the new balance shoes (in and out in 15, would have been less but decided to try a pair on) and the official race merchandise (which included getting a refund on my Dooney pre-buy purchase to get the passholder discount applied). Longest/slowest line we experienced was at the Raw Threads booth! I liked that Clif had samples out of what they were handing out during the race as it helped to decide if you wanted to take anything or not.
Merchandise: For me, I thought it was actually better than expected. Then again, I didn't have high expectations and as a result bought more than I thought I would. I was disappointed that there was no coffee cup and no generic run Disney items available but it wasn't a big deal. I did not see any shortages of anything, including the Dooney's, I had tons of patterns to choose from and while I didn't "have" to pre-buy, I was glad I did.
Best tip from the expo: You can walk down the stairs near the expo entry, into the womens bathroom. It has a door on the other side. Which enters right into the parking lot aka packet pick up area. Super cool shortcut.
Race Day Timing: We were up at 3:30 and left for the corrals at 4:30. From our hotel (Anabella) that was perfect, it is a 15 min or less walk. We still had time to hit the porta potties before heading to the corrals, take some pictures etc., and get to the corrals before it became difficult to do so.
Corrals: As a newbie it was a little confusing at first to get in the right "lane", we had to backtrack a little to get to our feeder chute. Once in the right lane though, it was easy and we were early enough that at the time we went in, I didn't see people trying to sneak ahead or congestion. I was pleasantly surprised to see more porta potties near the corrals, though there were not very many of them.
Cool pre-race moment: I decided to take advantage of those porta potties. The lines at that point were long, only time I had much of a line on race day for anything. People walking to corrals would occasionally "cut" into a porta potty when it opened before the person in the line could cross the stream of people. Our line developed a blocking strategy. I was chatting with the girl behind me and as we got closer to the front realized she was an elite runner (bib number under 20). Complete with Ariel skirt and all. Super sweet, normal, a bit nervous. At this point I think we had 8 minutes till the start. I told her to go ahead of me. She would be starting before I would! The look of thanks on her face was priceless. She had been about to bail out of the line. I confess, I checked her time this morning. 1:36!!!!! I cannot even imagine.
Less cool pre-race moment: As I made my way back to my corral, with maybe 4 minutes till the start, I could hardly get in and I noticed several people right outside the entry that were wearing bibs for corrals several letters back ( I was in C, these were F bibs). That totally bummed me out. There is simply too many runners and not enough volunteers at the gates for them to fully police entry, though they certainly tried. I did manage to get in, thankfully, and find my friend who had stayed in the corral while I braved the line. I did give up my stretching time with that choice which wasn't ideal but I don't think made a huge difference.
Race start: For me, this went very smooth! For those wanting to know I can tell you that they started A&B together and then C&D. From what I have read it sounds like the later corrals were also sent out 2 at a time which seems a bit much people wise. We were a bit surprised at no fireworks when the wheelchairs went, only a few during the national anthem.
Course and congestions: In general I did not experience much congestion. However, overall the group seemed to move quite a bit slower at the start than I had expected, the first 2 miles were definitely "full" but you could run and then boom you are in the parks. I guess I expected a sub 2 corral to start out much closer to that pace (and as a result really wasn't tracking) and was a bit shocked when I looked down and realized just how off the pack was, at that point I did not see a ton of passing, just the group moving basically together. My bad I guess for not checking sooner and doing my own passing but the slower start was not what I needed to hit the lower side of my goal range. I absolutely loved running through the parks and seeing what characters were out. I know many were disappointed with the volume and which characters but since it was my first, it was all good! LOVED seeing the step sisters on the carousel, the villains and the horses over in Frontierland. World of Color was absolutely magical, as was Carsland and of course, running though the castle! In general for our group, the lines looked minimal for most characters except for the storm troopers and the villans. I didn't stop for any characters but did stop to take a couple of horrible selfies at World of Color and then again at Angels Stadium. Once out of the parks, the on course support was really something else. Band after band after band, cheerleaders, dancers, the classic cars, I just loved it. I did have to take 2 bio breaks (a total bummer and a time killer, I think a combo of over hydration the day before and the humidity) and both were outside of the parks. Zero lines and tons of porta potties the entire course. Unfortunately I also had to stop to trade out my lenses. I run with prescription sports sunglasses normally. They have magnetic lenses that I can swap out for clear or other tints as needed. I wear the clear for night running and with the pitch black start I just wasn't comfortable going without, it would have made me crazy. I know I would have hit a road divider thing and done a face plant. LOL! I expected the sun to burn off the clouds and even if it didn't, for the brighter cloud glare to bother me so I swapped lenses at about the 10k mark which definitely cost me some time as well, awkward to do with sweaty hands. Tons of water stops, I think I hit 7 out of the 8? I was surprised how BIG the cups of water were. I actually wish they had been smaller, I didn't need the full cup but drank it all a couple of times simply as it was there. It was cool to see some supporters that were there early in the race, clearly move and then be there again at the end. My favorite though was the small frozen sponges that team MousePlanet was handing out. That was a magical moment!
A lot of folks I know did not like the Santa Ana trail part of the course, I actually liked it a lot, and I loved loved running through the stadium. After that though I do admit, the last 3 miles are well, a bit tedious. On course support was there but the course itself was somehow more "meh" than the pre-stadium part even though it was all city streets both times. Still, it was pretty darn sweet to cross that finish line and complete my first half. I am glad it was at Disney. It was on the high side of the range I'd set for myself at 2:13:35 but given the 2 bio breaks, the glasses lens change, a couple of selfies, walking the water stops and just some walking in general I am very ok with it and was still within my overall goal range. And honestly, even though it was wicked humid, I had zero swelling in my hands and I'll take the bio breaks over the swelling if I have to. It is a PR as it was my first, I definitely hope to improve it at Princess.
Finish and post race: I thought this was well done. I liked that there was a split for pictures or no pictures and loved the cold wet towel we were given right away. I was absolutely fine with the water and banana, and also the mocha gel I'd snagged at mile 8 deliberately to enjoy at the end. The box was fine too, I ate some of it on the plane ride home! The free flip flop booth was fun, I am not sure I'd wait for that again but it was kind of neat.
Gear check: I did gear check and was SO happy I did. I had developed a rather nasty blood blister around mile 10 (which also impacted pace those last 3 miles) and it was heaven to be able to put on my flip flops immediately. I had really worried it would be a hassle and it was completely painless at both drop off and pick up.
Key learning moment post race: Bring cash. There was massage and immediate medal engraving. I would have done both but had not brought cash (the idea of sweaty soggy bills kind of grossed me out but my debit card did me no favors post race lol).
Weather: It was WICKED humid. For us I think it was about 70 at race start and likely stayed the same the entire race, about 72 by the end. With cloud cover YAY! However the humidity was around 90%. I know the clouds burned off at about the 3 hour mark and it got hot quickly but the humidity dropped almost immediately too.
Post race in the parks: A lot less folks wearing medals than expected both Sunday and Monday. As a newbie I was very surprised to be congratulated on my marathon
when it was just a half. And that happened a lot. We were lucky enough to have a special outing with friends to the Club 33 Jazz Lounge post-race. We saw FAR more medals there than anywhere all day, I guess a lot of members were treating racers to the experience.
Hotel: We stayed at the Anabella and I was very very happy with the hotel, the room, the pool, the location, and the price. Of course Id prefer to be on property. But my wallet was thrilled with the value for the money where we did stay and we enjoyed a lovely, spacious, quiet room with a super comfy bed and slept well.
I'd do this race again in a heartbeat. In fact, now that I realize it is the 10th anniversary of the race next year, AND DL's 60th
I might HAVE to. I was lucky enough to do this with a friend who was placed in my same corral, it was pretty magical to share it with someone. Even though we didn't run exactly "together" (by our choice) we were able to share the experience from start to finish and that was wonderful. I can't wait to do it again at Princess.
) so I just started chatting with everyone nearby as I usually do. The volunteers at the corrals have to put up with a lot from people and it was interesting to watch. Thankfully where we were we didn't see too many people trying to move up, but the closer it got to the official race start the more I was shocked by how many people were still trying to get to corrals - even once the early corrals had officially begun and some people who had missed their corrals were still showing up and trying to get to the course. At that point they were just directing them to the back of whatever corral they could which caused some tempers to rise. Personally, I'm a believer that if you don't want to miss your start time get there early! Getting put into a different corral doesn't mean you can't run. Just my 2 cents and I'm sure a lot of people will disagree with me, but to each their own. I was starting to get antsy with the amount of time between the corral starts until I realized that A and B were sent together and then C and D and E and F. These were the smaller corrals up front, so I'm still not sure why they added the extra corrals if they were just going to send them off together. Everything went smoothly when they finally moved us up and we were off just after 6:02am.
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. Apparently the cast members taking the pics didn't wait to focus the iphone for any of them 
. Sooooo, which shoes did you end up getting?
This one's pretty long already, I think adding another year's worth of commentary would make it too long and confusing, especially for newbies.
