Disney's Inaugural Wine and Dine Half Marathon Race Report

When Disney decided to turn the Race for the Taste 10K into a half marathon with a relay, my husband and I saw this as the perfect chance to:

a) get in a race without too much training (since we were splitting the distance)
b) enjoy the Epcot Food and Wine festival
c) run a Disney race LATE at night (instead of in the wee hours of the day)
d) enjoy an Inaugural race and possibly become part of a crowd that will run it every year
e) be part of the first relay run locally (that I know of)

My husband would run the first 5.1 miles and I would run the last 8 miles. Start time was 10 pm so our projected finish was sometime around 12:30 to 12:45 (depending on how soon he got across the start line and how crowded the course was. I had a good feeling we could run the race together in 2:30.

We would party at the finish line festival in Epcot until 3 am and then crash at our hotel room at the Port Orleans French Quarter resort.

We treated this time away from the kids as a pre-20th anniversary weekend!

After ditching the kids (one was off marching elsewhere in the state, the other one off with friends to an Octoberfest event) we checked in at our hotel around 3 pm Saturday. We napped for a couple of hours since we were going to be up late, then walked over to Port Orleans Riverside for dinner before boarding a bus at 6:15 pm for the starting area at the ESPN Wide World of Sports. We were quite early, but we wanted to beat the crowds. The field where we waited to start would have been a nice place to picnic (note to self for next year).
Lots of porta potties and no lines - yet. There would be lines later.


This picture shows how empty it was around 7 pm.

We took some time to just rest up since my bus to the exchange point at Animal Kingdom didn't leave until 8:30 pm.


Arrived at the Animal Kingdom parking lot exchange area around 9 or 9:15 pm (how does it take 45 minutes for that drive - we can almost run it faster!). Again lots of sitting and relaxing before the race. As much as the DJ's tried to get everyone up and dancing around, we were resting!


I am usually not one to get character pictures but I decided to kill some wait time by getting a picture with Pluto.

The race started - there was an announcement at the exchange area that the start did happen, however I had been hoping that they would show a video of the start on the big screen (recommendation for next year) so we could see the fireworks and get excited at the race start!

Then we waited until the time we thought our relay partners would arrive and then got into the exchange corrals. My husband came in at 54:33 when I met him, took his flashlight baton, walked with him in the exchange area, then took off on my run. Our transition time was under 2 minutes.


I did stop for one other character pic because, amazingly, there was NO line next to Darth Vader!

For my portion of the race, most of the course was pretty unexciting, some places really dark, not much entertainment on the course like in the marathon, but we spent LOTS of time running around Hollywood Studios - and that was fun!


It was a bit warm and the breeze we had earlier was long gone, but I felt good and kept up a good pace. I was shooting for a team finish of 2:30. After Hollywood Studios it was like the end of the marathon, a trip down the sidewalk along the water along the Boardwalk, then into the back entrance of Disney, except that is where the race ended. My run of 8 miles (actually I ran slightly more than 8 miles and husband ran less than 5 miles - Garmin had me at 8.41 miles) took 1:33:40 giving us a total time of 2:30:09!


The finish area was a bit disappointing for a few reasons. First, they had the finisher medal picture area, but no way for a team picture to be taken since the area was cordoned off for the finishing runners only. Then we had to go through a tent to get our bag and get into Epcot and it was crowded and stiffling hot. Some folks were getting sick from standing in the heat after having run for the past 2.5 hours.

The next disappointment was the mob scene inside Epcot. Disney had sold tickets to the finish line party to anyone who wanted them. And folks took advantage of the $35 entry to the Food and Wine festival. The result was a way overcrowded Epcot with long lines to the food. Many runners left to get food at the hotel. We hung around and got food from about 6 countries with short lines in the 2 hours we were there. Late finishers got little or nothing. This will definitely have to be different.


Still, we enjoyed food, wine and even another character picture with Mulan.

The bling was great, as usual.

Finally, an update!

I have definitely been running since the end of March - which is the good news! But, like many of you, things have been busy and blogging has taken a back seat.

This is a quick update on what I have been up to.


April started out with some relaxing days out at Paynes Prairie Preserve - one of our favorite camp grounds. We got a chance to see some wild horses, deer and woodpeckers among other species. A campfire is usually just what the doctor ordered for relaxation! With Easter break, we got to spend an extended weekend!





The next big event was the local Corporate 5K. For the 8th year in a row I served as team captain for TeamSAIC. We had 70 employees, associates and family members come out and support the event at Orlando's Lake Eola. We had great weather - cooler with some clouds and a breeze - which made for a comfortable event. My older daughter and I ran-walked the race together for a 38 minute finish. Except for a little fender bender before the race, we survived without too much damage!

After a week attending a local technical conference an presenting a paper, I had a chance to attend the Kids House Gala held at UCF. There my husband and I had a chance to meet Roger Hodgson, the former lead singer for Supertramp who performed for the gala.

The very next afternoon we celebrated my older daughter's 15th birthday with a bowling party at Firk and Kelger's. A fun time was had by all!

Another week at a different local technical conference and yet another presentation, then a weekend of wedding festivities with some good family friends (local, thankfully). My husband was an usher for the wedding. The mother of the groom stayed with us and I made sure she got to the wedding on time! Everything went off with a hitch!

We got a week off from major events - only a soccer game to attend and time spent preparing our house for the following weekend - my husband's graduation from UCF - Summa Cum Laude - an endeavor that has been many years in the making!

We attended the ceremony with a live webcast playing back at our house for family and friends who couldn't go because we didn't have enough tickets. Then back to our place for the festivities!!

This past weekend was the Jim Payne Blue Ribbon Run for the Kids 5K which benefited Kids House. I have been part of the planning committee and spend the afternoon working the race! The weather was quite warm and some of our runners were pretty toasty when they reached the finish line, but the event was a great success, drawing over 1100 runners in its second year.

I think that catches me up! In the middle of all of this, I still managed to log 79 miles in April and so far 50 miles in May. I just passed 400 miles for the year. I have done so much better this year than previous years keeping my base mileage at a good level (15-25 miles a week). I am not training for any particular race right now - just adjusting to running in the heat again. Today is the first time in awhile I have needed to bring my full Fuel Belt on an 8 mile run.

Tomorrow I start summer school...Engineering Statistics. That should keep me from blogging too much this summer. Hope your running is going well this spring and into summer! I will be "seeing" you out there on the roads with more running adventures to come!

Running in Monterey

At the turnaround point of my Monterey Peninsula run.

Last week while on a business trip to Monterey, CA I got a chance to get a couple of runs in on the Monterey Peninsula Trail. I was staying on Wave St. along Cannery Row so the trail was a half block from the hotel - basically right across the street.

Running west, the cement trail turns to asphalt and dirt, then entirely dirt trail - following the shoreline.

On my first run, I went 2.5 miles in this direction before turning around for my return and took a few pictures and a video along the way.


My second run was in the easterly direction toward Fisherman's Wharf - less trail and more cement but interesting sights anyway!

The temperatures were quite cool (almost cold) with temps in the mid to upper 50s and breezy. It felt great in my short sleeves while running - but once I stopped running I had to quickly get inside and warm up.

After my second run, I quickly drove over to the other side of the peninsula to catch a beautiful CA sunset!


It is good to be home, but I will certainly miss running along the beach!

A New 10K PR and Pacing

Shirley and I after the race - both with shiny new PRs!
The Winter Park Road Race is usually the next race I focus on after running the Disney Marathon. For the past couple of years, my training had not gone so well - so I was thrilled that I had some great training in my buildup to the race and my best chance at a PR. My tempo runs showed I had a PR in me - my stretch goal was to try to bust 1 hour. Breaching the 1 hour mark was not in the cards for me today - but I am not disappointed because I felt like I ran a good race overall.....and had a 2:32 PR!

I got to the race early (around 6:30) so I could get a good parking spot. The 2 mile run was set to start at 7 am so I was a little worried I might not be early enough - but I got a decent parking spot and headed over toward the race area. It was cool this morning, about 53 deg F - and although my long sleeve shirt felt nice, I knew I wouldn't need it for the race, so I took the marathon approach, ditched the long sleeves and stuck with my short sleeve shirt along with a thin plastic rain poncho (a little more fashionable than the standard garbage bag). Most folks braved it without a poncho or bag...I did see one person with a bag on. Still, I was warmer and happier with my poncho.

I stopped by the Orlando Running Club tent and said a quick hello to Kitzzy who was transitioning from biking mode (she rode her bike around 5 miles to the race) to running mode. She then headed for the 2 mile start area (she ran both the 2 mile run AND the 10K!). After that I wandered around a bit, ran into a running friend from work, then made one more porta potty stop before lining up.


Given my anticipated finish time of around 1 hour, I lined up just behind the 9 min/mi sign. About 5 min before the race start I ditched the rain poncho. Then we were off!

My plan: Don't go out too fast (shoot for around 10 min for first mile) and treat it like my 5 mile tempo runs. Also part of the plan - iPod shuffle with a 180 bpm Podrunner mix.

It was a good plan. I hit the first mile at about 9:45 - not too bad. Mile 2 came around 19:33. I was behind a sub 1 hour pace but I didn't have the energy to push my pace anymore. I didn't want to run out of gas at mile 3 or 4 so I focused on running comfortably hard with my 180 bpm turnover. There were 3 water stops and I took water at all of them. The second stop is right before mile 4 so I took a Clif Shot there and made sure I drank enough to wash it down. The last water stop was around mile 5 or just after. Other than the water stops, I didn't take any walking breaks. When I got tired, I shortened my stride but maintained my turnover.

Just at the mile 4 water stop a woman ran by me and was just telling someone that I was her pacer! Then she said to hurry up so I could pace some more. I was right there so I ran up and agreed to keep the pace up and went ahead. The next time I saw her was a bit after mile 5. I had started to speed up but then bonked a bit and was having trouble keeping my pace going. She ran by and said I needed to keep it going. I told her that maybe she could pace for a bit since I was a bit out of gas. She said she would try and plugged on ahead. I worked to keep up with her. It was a nice diversion during mile 5. Coming around the corner at about mile 6 I passed her again.

At mile 6, you can see the finish line up ahead for the 0.2 mile stretch. I decided to go for it and picked up the pace - I was almost done! It was tough to hold the pace though - my stomach was starting to turn, but I kept telling myself that it would be done in less than a minute! And then, it was over.

1:01:25 - a 2:32 PR over my last PR 2 years ago.

Shirley was at the finish to meet me. Then the pacing lady came up behind me and greeted me. She introduced herself (I forgot her name AND I should have gotten a picture) and thanked me for pacing her to a 4 min PR. I thanked her for getting me through the end of the race as well.

I am happy with the results - a great PR time with the 1 hour goal out there for another day (perhaps on a flatter, straighter, brickless course). I felt like I didn't go out too hard, I maintained pace but didn't kill myself in the middle, and I finished strong. I can't think of anything else I would have done differently to try to finish faster.

My next race is the Corporate 5K. I am trying to decide whether to train to run a faster 5K time or to not run it at all and spend the time cheering on the other runners and taking lots of pics (I am the team captain). Given my training I would most likely have a shot at a 5K PR, however, this is not a timed race AND there are only about 10K other folks there - I would be weaving and avoiding folks the entire time. I would like to put my time up as one of the fastest women on our team....but it would be fun to run it again with my daughter. I have a month to decide! :-)

Hope everyone had great runs out there this weekend! I am going to slack off and take tomorrow off!

Sub-1 hour 10K??

Note the dead palm tree out in front of my house....when the cold is finally gone those dead leaves are coming off!!

I think I might have a sub-1 hour 10K in me....

So I am putting it out there for this weekend's Winter Park Road Race.

Unless something unusual happens, I will PR this weekend (current PR is 1:03:57).

If I have a really good day, I think I can bust 1 hour. That is a 9:39 min/mi pace which I think I can maintain. That is, as long as I don't use my usual 10K strategy, which from the comments on Shirley's blog, a number of other folks use. It's the "go out too hard and try to survive" approach to 10Ks. What I really want to do is go out easier, negative split, and finish strong. I do it on my 5 milers all the time, so this should be a no brainer.

I just need to watch the start....I think I will focus on mental training for the rest of this week! :-)

Race report Sat or Sun we shall see!