Disney's Wine & Dine Half Marathon Weekend 2016-The Half Marathon

My last post left us with having dinner at Ohana's at the Polynesian Resort. After dinner I headed back to the resort to get to bed at a decent hour.   Thanks to Daylights Savings, we got an extra hour of sleep.  They say that the third time is a charm.  We got to the race early this time and got to enjoy some pre-race fun (see my video recap for some fun clips).  We even got a pre-race picture with Chefs Goofy & Donald.

We eventually headed to our Corral (we were in G for this race).  Angie and I decided to try the same thing that we did for the 10K.  She would run ahead and hold out spot in line for the character pictures.  I caught up to her quickly before we even got to mile1.    They had a character spot for the Country Bears about a half of a mile into the race.  We ran into some other friends there too.

After this picture, we were off again.  Angie is so good at weaving in and out of others.  I just don't have the energy for that.  I just couldn't keep up with her this race.  I was starting to stress out about it.  I kept missing her at character stops and then I wouldn't even stop for them because I was trying to catch up to her.  I missed some good photo ops because of that.  I eventually had to give myself a pep talk.  I paid a lot ( A LOT) of money to do this race and I was too busy stressing out about trying to catch up with my friend instead of enjoying the experience.  I finally texted Angie and pretty much said "have a great run and see you at the finish".  I wanted to be able to slow down and get video footage so that others could see what a runDisney race was like.  I wanted to be able to stop for pictures with characters.  That was the best decision that I could make.  I got some good photos and videos and I was able to enjoy the rest of the race.  

The one down side to this race was the lack of park time. The only parks that we ran through were Animal Kingdom and Future World in Epcot. I would've loved to have more park time.  I also was not a fan of the many ramps that we had to run up because they were at a slant and my knees were starting to hurt.  Note to self...run at the top of the slant so that it is easier on your knees.  

Overall though, I loved all of the races at Disney.  I loved that I was never alone during the races.  They were so much fun.  As I was icing my legs after this race I was so sad because I wasn't going to be running another race the next day.  I am all the more excited now to run in the Princess Half Marathon in February.  

Did you run in the Wine & Dine Half Marathon?  What were your favorite parts of the race?

Be sure to check out my YouTube page for video recaps of the races.  If you'd like to read more about the runDisney Races, check out my friends at Joyful Miles and their YouTube page.  Until next time...