The Disney Wine & Dine half marathon was the last race on our " run Disney Bucket list" that we both wanted to do. Both of us were a little disappointed that it was no longer a night race like in the past, but of course we knew that when we registered so no use complaining about that now.

To tell you the truth, even though Disney races are always "fun" runs for us, I will admit that I had high hopes for this race when I signed up for it and started training for it. I know I mentioned this before, but the Wine & Dine half marathon would be the first Disney half marathon that I WOULD NOT be injured for and I was SO excited to run it and see what I could do. However 4 weeks before the race a metal dog gate fell on the back of my calf and caused two hematomas. That put me out for quite a while because running just plain hurt! Well, I was feeling guilty for not running so the Wednesday before the race I had the bright idea that I needed to run 8 miles. My calf felt very tight, but it held up. I could tell that my cardio had suffered from not running in a few weeks and I ended the 8 miles with 2 blisters and VERY sore legs. For sure the pain would wear off by race day on Sunday.
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At Epcot earlier in the weekend. |
I was so sore as I walked around Disney all weekend. I actually tried to limit my time walking around the parks. I was not starting the race out on fresh legs and that did not have me excited for race day.
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Photo courtesy of Kathryn (or Preston rather...lol) |
This race started at the ESPN Wide World of Sports parking lot. The nice thing about this is that as soon as the bus dropped us off, we did not have a long walk to the race staging area. The corrals were right beside the staging area so no long walk there either. While in the corral we met up with our friend Kathryn from Dancing to Running.
I kind of thought that we would run through ESPN Wide World of Sports like we did during the marathon but we didn't. We only ran on the highway in front of ESPN. In fact, we continued to run on the highway until we hit Animal Kingdom at mile 3 and we exited Animal Kingdom by mile 4. The rest of the miles were highway miles until mile 12 when we entered Epcot.
I have to admit that I did not care for this course. I say this not only because it was completely boring with very little characters and entertainment (unless you consider trucks blaring music entertainment) but also because I didn't care for the banked roads.
The day before I could feel my IT band starting to flare up and I crossed my fingers that I would be able to get through at least half the race before it started pinching. By the time I got to mile 9, I could tell I was struggling. At this point my sister is still running with me. She is all happy eating pretzles and swedish fish and trying to offer me some and I'm all like
No, looking at food is gonna make me vomit right now! I wanted to wait until mile 10 to start my intervals but I couldn't, my legs were SO tight. I had to take walk breaks after mile 9.
The good thing is that my IT band never fully flared up and it never kept me from pushing forward. My legs were very sore but it was just from not starting on fresh legs, it was not from being injured.
When we crossed the finish line I was so excited like I had just finished my first half or something. I was so happy that I was able to finished uninjured. I was sore, but not injured.
After receiving our medals, we still walked over to the medical area so I could get some ice just for preventative purposes.
A blogger friend once said that I should be sharing my race times and stats and since I have them handy here I'll share. We finished in 2:25 FLAT and ya know what, I'm pretty pleased with that. I knew this race wouldn't be a PR so coming in somewhere in the 2:20's is pretty much what I expected and I'm okay with that. I came in 2,875 out of 12,651 finishers ( I don't know how many runners actually started. I wish I knew.).

So even though I really didn't care for the course, and my legs were super tight (and felt SO heavy), I still feel like this race was a success and I am happy with how it turned out. I'm generally a positive person anyway so I rarely have a bad race regardless of how I do. I figure if I can make it across the finish line than I've accomplished something. One thing I know my sister and I were both disappointed about was that there was NO massage tent! We were both looking forward to a massage (especially me since my legs were hurting)! I do enjoy visiting Disney during this time of year but until they change the course (or add something exciting like when they use to have the Osborn lights), we agreed we probably won't be running this race again. -M