Back on November 8th I finally completed my very first half marathon at Walt Disney World. My best friend Chrissy and I ran it together. We choose the Wine and Dine Half as our first because it took place at night. We have always been night runners, so this was perfect! We had trained for just about a year and had made it a total of 12 miles in our training. We wanted to save the 13 milestone for the actual race! We felt pretty prepared but then the weather forecast came out and it was looking like rain. After checking it every day up until the day of it looked pretty inevitable that we wold be running our first half marathon in the rain... Running in the rain, was not something we had practiced, so we were definitely nervous!
Since we never get a chance to get away we decided to make a weekend out of the race. We went up on Friday morning and spent the afternoon at the Expo. After spending way too much money we headed over to Downtown Disney for some more shopping and a very delicious dinner at Portobello Italian Restaurant. Seriously best meal I have had in a long time!
After dinner we were exhausted (not to mention our credit cards were also exhausted from way too much shopping!) So we called it an early night and headed back to the hotel. We stayed at the Double tree in Downtown Disney. Love the Double Tree for its spacious rooms and great prices (not to mention the free cookie on check in)!
On Saturday we wanted to have a relaxing low key day. We had decided that we weren't going to go to any of the parks. First of all being only an hour away we can go anytime and we also both get very stressed out by crowds and didn't want to add to our nerves! Plus we were very anxious about our eating plan the day of the race. We had a big breakfast at Captains Grille at Disney's Yacht Club and brought snacks and water to munch on and hydrate throughout the day. The weather was beautiful during the day (of course) so we took advantage of it and resort hopped. From the Yacht Club we explored all the other resort hotels along the Boardwalk just checking out the sites and browsing the gift shops. Oh and checking the weather forecast on our phones every 30 minutes just hoping something would change! Nope still called for rain to start around 8pm and to continue throughout the night. During our outings we kept seeing many people buying ponchos at all the gift shops for the race that night. We were thankful we had brought some with us!
After exploring the Boardwalk area we headed over to the Magic Kingdom resorts. We strolled around the Polynesian and Grand Floridian and stopped for lunch at Gasparilla Island Grill. We wanted to eat something healthy and small. My lunch consisted of veggies, apple slices and hummus dip and a yogurt parfait. My stomach was definitely confused that I wasn't feeding it pizza or grilled cheese! (What my usual lunch would have probably consisted of at a park!)
We still had about 2 hours to kill so we headed over to Animal Kingdom Lodge. I had never been before and heard the the animals just roam around the resort.
Sure enough they do! It was so cool! We hung out on the patio and watched them for awhile and then headed back to the hotel for a quick nap and more relaxing (and anti rain dances!)
We ate our bagels and peanut butter and then it was finally time to start getting ready. And the forecast still hadn't changed... rain was predicted starting around 8pm lasting until 3am. So we psyched ourselves up and headed out!
The race didn't start until 10pm but we had to be at World Wide of Sports by 8pm. Luckily during the 2 hours that we had to hang around the field it didn't start raining yet. We were so nervous it would start pouring before and we'd start out the race with soggy shoes! At 9:30 we had to line up in our corals. We were in coral K (second to the last!) Just as soon as we lined up the rain started. So thankful for those ponchos! Luckily the adrenaline and nerves were pumping so the cold hadn't set in yet! Finally at 10:45 it was time for coral K to start!
The first leg of the race was a 3 mile run towards Animal Kingdom down Osceola Parkway. Now usually there is supposed to be a lot of entertainment along the way but because of the rain there wasn't much going on between parks. Thank goodness I had someone to talk to because it was so boring! There were still character stops, but we didn't stop at any of them. We already run at a slow pace and were way in the back and didn't want to risk meeting up with a sweeper! A sweeper is the official run disney time keeper that will "sweep" you off the course if you aren't keeping up with the 16 minute pace requirement! We had always run faster than a 16 minute pace during our practice runs, but we were still nervous!
Running through the actual parks was amazing! I wished we were able to take pictures along the way. But we didn't want to risk getting our phones or a camera wet. After Animal Kingdom it was back down Osceola Parkway (Ahhhh!!) for miles 6 and 7. Then we turned onto World Drive and headed towards Hollywood Studios. Between mile 8 and 9 was a cliff shot stop. And it couldn't have come at a better time! Even though we still had the ponchos on we were freezing! I was surprised how I never did seem to warm up. We finally headed into Hollywood Studios. We headed in down Hollywood Blvd towards the Sorcerers hat and then I'm not quite sure were we ended up. At one point we ran through a tunnel that had disco balls and strobe lights and some pumped up music playing, it was a much needed pick me up! Then we finally entered the Osborne Lights! I was so looking forward to this part. I have seen the lights many times before, but nothing compares to running through them! I had gotten a second wind and was feeling pretty good. The rain even had let up for a small portion of time and we finally ditched the ponchos around mile 10.
Exiting Hollywood Studios was the final stretch! The course took us through the Boardwalk and into Epcot World showcase. Then we hit mile 12! Only 1 more to go! Never training past 12, I was really starting to feel it. Plus I was wet and cold and was so ready for this to be over! The final mile took us back towards Future World around Spaceship earth and back to the finish line!! They actually call your name as you cross the line (also at the same times as many others!) I was happy that I actually heard mine!
We did it! We finished the entire race without stopping once! We were so proud of ourselves for running the entire time, no walking at all! Our time was right around what we expected. 3 hours and 16 minutes. Not the best, but hey we finished and that was all that matters!
Our very wet and tired after shots with our medals!
We had planned on attending the after party at the Food and Wine festival but after being rained on for several hours we were just ready to head back to the hotel. Thankfully there were food trucks at the finish line, so we grabbed something and headed back to the car. Now if I have to complain about one thing it was this. After just running 13 miles in the cold pouring rain the last thing we wanted tot do was walk to our car! Oh and not to mention we had no idea where the car was! We parked somewhere in the Epcot parking lot to get the bus but really couldn't remember where and we were all turned around from where the buses actually picked us up at. Oh how we would have loved to see a parking lot tram at this point to take us to our car! After what felt like 3 hours (okay it was probably 15 minutes) we finally found the car. I don't think I have ever been so happy to sit down in my life!
So that is about it! My next race is the 10K at the Princess Half Marathon Weekend in February with my husband, and then he has finally agreed to run the half with me next January during Walt Disney Marathon Weekend!
