Wine & Dine 1/2 marathon weekend 2021

[Dopey 2020]

Thanks for the input on the newer shirts. Scratchy is the adjective I remember. It sounds like they are at least moving in the right direction.

Like others said, that was the best description of the last round of shirts. These are much better, also the fit is improved. The last ones had arms that were too long for me. I will actually wear these regularly as they seemed to be just as good in fit and feel after washing.

 

[NileNellie]

I went to the expo on Saturday afternoon and was so disappointed with the lack of merch. You’d think by now Disney would have planned for this. Not all of us can get to the expo first thing Friday morning.

 

[camaker]

I went to the expo on Saturday afternoon and was so disappointed with the lack of merch. You’d think by now Disney would have planned for this. Not all of us can get to the expo first thing Friday morning.

Why would Disney want or need to plan for this? They want the merchandise to sell. The expo closes relatively early and is usually not very busy on Saturday. If merch is left over on Saturday, they may be able to sell some of it at the finish line merch tent, but the reality is that most of what’s left at that point is going to have to be sold on clearance for little to no profit. i agree it’s disappointing not to get what you’re looking for. Things were largely picked over on Friday when I got there. It’s unrealistic to expect Disney to risk their sales to accommodate runners who want to show up late to the game, though.

 

[1lilspark]

Re: shirts
2016-18 with champion were great
2019 got the same size—-5K shirt fit snug couldn’t even pull 10k on over my head but was able to size up… very stiff and scratchy
2020 virtual & this year sized up from what I did in champion they are a bit loose in places but I like it

 

[HangWithMerida]

One thing I learned from this race weekend is that I want a resort with a food court for race weekends. I stayed at YC the past weekend, which I have stayed at before and really loved, but the experience was different for a race weekend. I was solo and trying not to overdo the parks, so I was at the resort more than usual. There is very little quick service food available. At one point, the kitchen at Hurricane Hannah's went down and the marketplace both at YC and BC has limited options. It was cold outside, and I didn't want to hike all over the boardwalk looking for food, but I had to. I just wanted french fries, such a simple things but had a hard time finding any. Oh, the suffering! THE Y&BC have great lounges and tons of table service choices, but for me, probably not an ideal race weekend resort despite the super convenient Epcot proximity.

 

[PrincessV]

I haven't had time to read what others thought, but I went in expecting a big ol' mess of a race weekend, and came out feeling like it was one of the BEST race experiences I've ever had!

I felt like the new start groups system worked beautifully: I was in s2, but started the 10k and half in the back half of s2 and the mix of paces plus open highway for the first mile or so really spread us out quickly. Not once was I held up by people slower than me, nor did I ever feel like I was impeding faster people. I was able to s top for soooo many more characters than I've ever done before, and was still at least 30+ minutes ahead of the sweep. It was great!

I was so impressed with the sheer volume of entertainment rD put out, especially on the half course. Wowsa. LOVED the live music!

Ample course support and the volunteers made up for the general lack of spectators.

I could really live without the 5am start times, though. Remember when 5Ks started at 6?!

I didn't last long at the after party, but it looked like it was going to be a fun time.

 

[HangWithMerida]

I was so impressed with the sheer volume of entertainment rD put out, especially on the half course. Wowsa. LOVED the live music!

Ample course support and the volunteers made up for the general lack of spectators.

I agree about the on-course entertainment. I particularly loved the hype woman dressed as yzma along the sidewalk area between HS and the boardwalk. She was delightful!

The course support was great as it always is. I felt like the cast members were even louder and more supportive this year than previously. They helped to make up for the lack of other spectators.

 

[The Expert]

I went to the expo on Saturday afternoon and was so disappointed with the lack of merch. You’d think by now Disney would have planned for this. Not all of us can get to the expo first thing Friday morning.

As @camaker said, it is a fine line between ordering enough and too much. And this year I'm sure supply chain issues complicated things. It does sound like they are finally cracking down on some blatant resellers, which I was happy to see (especially if they know they have even less supply than usual).

 

[Sara W]

I agree about the on-course entertainment. I particularly loved the hype woman dressed as yzma along the sidewalk area between HS and the boardwalk. She was delightful!

She said to me “Donald! How did you get into a Villians race?!?!”

 

[HangWithMerida]

I just went in to link my race photos. God I hate pictures of me running! There were also several of bibs that were almost my number but not quite. So I got several pics of other people running, most of which are almost as bad as my own.

 

[Dopey 2020]

I was so impressed with the sheer volume of entertainment rD put out, especially on the half course. Wowsa. LOVED the live music!

Ample course support and the volunteers made up for the general lack of spectators.

This - I stopped at the 10K photo ops, I was on a mission and didn't stop for anything in the half but noticed the amount of stops and entertainment (screens, effects, DJs) was fantastic. There was never a dull stretch, add in the cast members and some diehard spectators and this was possibly my favorite race.

Let's hope runDisney tries to top themselves for MW 2022

 

[lukemorenus]

Back home to reality... what an amazing weekend... so thankful RunDisney is back... can't wait for January!

 

[pixarmom]

Agree with all the positive comments regarding this very amazing race weekend! All very well organized as usual and the courses were fantastic. Ran the 10k with my youngest son, @mateojr. He now has a new 10K PR and was in the best running spirits ever! It was definitely his best race of all time - a lot of joy, talked the entire time and a big jump at the finish line! He's very ready for the half marathon in January and feeling great!

The half was wonderful. Definitely my favorite course (even though I didn't know much about the characters or theming!) Transportation was smooth, start line was well organized and I felt a lot less rushed overall. My goal was to comfortably run a sub-2:00 half after this long break from in person races, but not to PR (which I didn't.) My old @DopeyBadger training plan worked again - finished with a happy 1:53 and will definitely provide any stats that might help with those spreadsheets for January!

 

[SheHulk]

One thing I learned from this race weekend is that I want a resort with a food court for race weekends. I stayed at YC the past weekend, which I have stayed at before and really loved, but the experience was different for a race weekend. I was solo and trying not to overdo the parks, so I was at the resort more than usual. There is very little quick service food available. At one point, the kitchen at Hurricane Hannah's went down and the marketplace both at YC and BC has limited options. It was cold outside, and I didn't want to hike all over the boardwalk looking for food, but I had to. I just wanted french fries, such a simple things but had a hard time finding any. Oh, the suffering! THE Y&BC have great lounges and tons of table service choices, but for me, probably not an ideal race weekend resort despite the super convenient Epcot proximity.

This was how I felt for Beach Club the race weekend I stayed there too. On top of that my knee blew up after the marathon and all I wanted was to limp into a hot tub. It took forever to locate a hot tub in that pool area! And you can't avoid steps to get around. I limped around Stormalong Bay a while until finally a lifeguard took pity on me and asked what I was looking for. It was 40 degrees so the pool area was literally me & 4 or 5 lifeguards just standing around watching me be confused.

I do love those resorts for non-race stays but yes, I prefer Pop for a race weekend.

 

[ValW]

Just got home from a great trip and loved race weekend (except for the cold rain).

Club rD experience: The Lounge opened at 8am and they had all of our race goodies (bibs, shirts) in a reusable Club rD bag with a luggage tag. Free drinks (water/Soda/Powerade) and a picture area. At 9am they led us into the expo and it was GREAT! We had an hour to look at everything, try things on, and I actually got some Pass holder merchandise! Overall, the stress free aspect of race weekend was well worth the $$$ (for me).

The best part of the Half - which I haven't seen anyone mention - was the Wicked Forest and the giant smoke bubbles!! I can't be the only one who tried popping them!!

 

[HangWithMerida]

The best part of the Half - which I haven't seen anyone mention - was the Wicked Forest and the giant smoke bubbles!! I can't be the only one who tried popping them!!

Yes, the smoke bubbles were so cool!

 

[cel_disney]

What are smoke bubbles? Sounds cool!

 

[HangWithMerida]

What are smoke bubbles? Sounds cool!

It made a blanket of fog like a fog/smoke machine but mixed in were these 3-6 inch bubbles filled with smoke that floated out across the course. Made a really cool effect.

 

[Sara W]

I had no idea what that section was! I was expecting Ursula at the end of it, but when I didn’t see her I assumed it was some random, fun thing.

 

[Kerry1957]

Count me in as another happy runner. I had a terrific weekend and I thought rD did as good of a job on the course as they could have.

I ran the HM. Although I was assigned group S2 based on my optimistic finish projection, I dropped back to S3 to run with the 2:45 pacer. The pacer did 30/30 intervals while I am used to 90/30 intervals. The 30/30 didn't work at all for me as the run pace was a bit too fast and the more frequent pace changes wore me down a bit. So after a couple of miles I did my own thing and finished 13.4 miles in 2:42 (within 30 seconds of my Run the Bluegrass HM the week before and within a minute of my Morraine Hills HM six weeks ago).

The only drama was I tripped and took a nasty fall in Animal Kingdom, and scrapped up one knee (my "good" one) and both palms. It was purely an unforced, self-inflicted error and fortunately I did not take out anyone around me when I fell. I cleaned up my leg in a restroom, but my palms kept weeping with this disturbing stigmata effect (and I'm Protestant not Catholic ). I only lost a couple of minutes getting my act back together and I forgot all about it by mile 4 or 5 when I caught up to and passed the 2:45 pace group.

So now after one marathon and three HMs in the last 6 weeks I'm going to take the week off and then start my Disney Marathon training.