Disney Wine and Dine Half Marathon Overview

Then it was just us two wolves running around the desert together in Orlando looking for strippers and cocaine a place to change and dinner. We changed at Publix (after our directionally challenged selves did several U-turns of course) and discussed everything from politics and religion to running strategies over pasta and salad at TGI Fridays. Despite the rush from earlier, we figured it would be best to check our bags a good two hours before last call, so we spent about three hours hanging out with a very enthusiastic runDisney host and a whole lot of costumed folks ready to run and get drunk. We dabbled in the Cupid Shuffle and Macarena. Then it was finally time to get in our corrals. Since Emma had never run before they stuck her in Corral C and since it’s much more fun to be nervous, excited and freezing with a friend, I headed back with her. Turns out, neither of us should have been that far back because we were about to cut some b*tches as we tried to start running after the shotgun and fabulous fireworks went off. We probably lost a whole two minutes in that first mile because there were so many slow pokes in front of us. Another lesson learned.

We stuck together pretty well for the first nine or so miles as a mega-death blister formed and throbbed on the side of my left big toe. Finally I needed to slow down and told Emma to go on without me (another lesson learned: When Emma says she’s not good at something, she’s lying — always. 😉 I then went on my journey through Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and Epcot alone. There were mascots everywhere, a giant mechanical turtle, an EPIC Christmas light display (seriously, it was amazing) and finally crazy, trippy fog with a ceiling of laser lights above it leading us to the finish line. Lately my GPS watch has been fritzing on me, so I didn’t bother bringing it. I set the stopwatch on my iPhone just so I’d have an idea, but I was interested to see how I did without constantly checking my pace. I didn’t look at the stopwatch for almost the entire run because, in true running fashion, my music library kept shuffling on the slowest, saddest, most un-epic running songs ever (nothing like these, maybe I should take my own advice..), so I was pretty stoked to see that there was still a chance I could finish under two hours (my fastest one yet was 2:01:51 from the Five Points of Life Marathon in Gainesville about two years ago) at mile 12. Of course, by this time I was completely exhausted and my blister had probably developed its own brain by this point, but I was determined to at least not slow down.

And I didn’t. I finished in 2:00:43, and I officially have a new Personal Record. I am also feeling pretty stoked because not only do I think that if I had been in Corral A I could’ve broke 2 hours, but I also get to train with Emma in San Francisco when we live together, doing epic races and pushing each other to run faster and be better.
After we finished, found each other and tried to not barf for a while, we started limping around the food and wine festival. The only bad part about going to a food and wine festival after running 13 miles is that you really don’t feel like eating much (oh, and your legs hurt like hell). I decided to use my complimentary $10 gift card in South Korea and Japan, but like I mentioned here, my drink voucher had to be saved for another time — there was no way my stomach was about to tolerate any kind of alcohol. Some how we still managed to stay out until 4am and didn’t arrive back at her place until 5am, which probably explains why I can still barely walk. These calves better be huge by the time they stop burning.. Just saying.

It was a wonderful weekend and I am so glad we got there before 4.

Linking up here & here!