Congrats to all the marathoners who made it through what sounds like a horribly hot and humid morning complicated by transportation issues and race delays. I did the last half in Anaheim (9/2017) when we had record heat and a red flag warning, and it was not fun--especially for those of us in the later corrals.
--I did the half on Saturday, and was very underwhelmed by the course. It was my tenth Disney Half (3 at DLR and 7 at WDW) in last three years and for me this was the worst course of the bunch. It seemed as if there was very little front of the park time. Couldn't have been more than a couple miles through the parks? The course also felt as if it had a lot more bottlenecks and tight places, but that could have been because it seemed more crowded than normal.
--super frustrating at the castle when everyone stopped to take selfies in a solid long line that literally blocked the rest of the course and we all came to a complete standstill. People around me were yelling, etc. and they finally moved. Seriously people.
--Character lines seemed longer than normal for us when we came through in F so no stopping for any pics
--The monorail from BLT went super smooth in the morning. Really great option especially given our bus ride back.
--We did Runners Square (more on that later) so we stopped by after the race to pick up our gift. As the tent was literally right next to the bus for BLT (third stop) we opted not to walk the long distance back to Epcot. I hate the buses, and we narrowly escaped disaster. Our bus driver was clueless; it had to have been his first run. After dropping off at Wilderness Lodge he took the wrong road after the parking lot even though it literally had construction/no access on it. He came to a point with a sign that warned construction ahead do not enter. I was in the front and could see him debating in his mind whether to continue because he was kind of stuck. Most people weren't paying attention until that point. I was about ready to say something if he went forward, but fortunately, he decided to back up the bus until he could find a place to turn around. Not knowing where he was going, he decided to drop off us at BLT before going to Fort Wilderness. God knows how long it took him to drop those runners off. We were (semi) joking with a few people as we got off that they should get off and take an uber. Hope they all made it without too much of a delay. It was a much quicker ride for us than usual, but stressful.
--This was our first time trying Runner's Square, and I have to admit (I know it gets dissed) that I liked it and would do it again. The food was exactly what I wanted (I had a bagel with peanut butter and a banana; loved the odwallas and chocolate milk after), and it was great to have bathrooms without ridiculous lines and a nice place to sit and relax before the race. We also took advantage of the photographer. I was bummed there weren't characters--I thought that was part of it--but when I asked one of the workers said that was last year. There was one of the army green guys around though and he was funny. I had to do jumping jacks
They did a walk out at 4:15 and 5. We opted to wait with most people until 5. For us that was the only negative of the experience. As we were in corral F, we walked *way* out of our way to get to our corral. I had over 2 miles in before we even reached our corral after the walk from epcot and the long walk back due to following the Runner's Square crowd.
--There was a huge bottleneck at corral F to get people in the corral as everyone had to pass through a very small opening to check bibs. I don't remember having this issue before, but that could be due to the time I was coming out. We are usually in the corral much earlier.
--I'm signed up for Star Wars in April, but after that I'm going to reevaluate my Disney races going forward. It's so much more of a hassle flying across country for WDW races, I really wish they'd bring back the DLR races, but that horse seems to have left the barn
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