The Walt Disney World Wine and Dine Half Marathon is a race we have enjoyed participating in for several years. It was very different from other race weekends because it was a night race, starting at 10:00. It included a big finish line party at Epcot’s Food and Wine Festival. All of the food booths and some attractions were open, and the party went until 4:00 a.m.

It also was quite different because the 5K and half marathon both took place on Saturday – the 5K in the morning and the half at night. There were only those two events for adults. The Kids Races were usually split between Friday and Saturday.

The last couple of years the nighttime race aspect has brought weather challenges. 2014 was what we called “Splash and Dash”, because it rained for the entire race and much of the after party. In 2015 was the “Quarter Marathon”. The start was delayed an hour because of lightning in the area. Disney was rightly concerned for the safety of volunteers, spectators and runners and evacuated all of us to the shelter of buildings at the start line at ESPN Wide World of Sports. As a result of the delay the course was shortened, and we ran not quite 7 miles rather than 13.1. Everyone still received their medals, though!

This year when the race was announced runDisney added a new 10K race, and with that came a new 10K/half marathon challenge as well. It also meant that it turned into a more traditional runDisney race weekend, with all races held in the morning: 5K on Friday, 10K on Saturday and half marathon on Sunday. The after party at Epcot was still scheduled, but it was held Sunday night instead of Saturday night.

As you might imagine, the changes were met with some consternation in the runDisney community. I’ll admit that I wasn’t very happy about it. While I understand the weather being a problem in recent years, there was something very special about Wine and Dine being
a nighttime event. It was unique in that it was at night – and getting to go straight from the race to the party was a terrific way to finish the event. These changes made it just about like any
other runDisney race weekend. Runners who make more of a long weekend of the event were dismayed because if they wanted to experience the party they could no longer return home on Sunday afternoon.

Even before the changes were announced we’d already planned to run the race again this year, so this didn’t really affect our plans. And with two pieces of Inaugural bling (the Wine and Dine 10K and Lumiere’s Two Course Challenge), of course I had to be there. 🙂

Of late, many of the runDisney half marathons have not been selling out quickly, but this one did. Just hours after registration opened all events were sold out. And then we had to wait months for additional information on the events – like what the race courses were going to be like, and how the after party would work.

Eventually we learned that the 10K course was going to be the same old boring 10K course that most of the other races use. Starting and ending at Epcot, with over half the race on roads outside the park. Whoopee.

But the half marathon course was new. It still started at ESPN Wide World of Sports and ended at Epcot, but the Studios portion was completely eliminated. Instead of going to Animal Kingdom and back to the Studios, the half marathon course went to Animal Kingdom and then took back roads to World Drive near the Car Care Center. This is essentially a reversal of part of the marathon course. From there it went to Epcot – that last 4+ miles is the same course most of the other Walt Disney World half marathons take. I was not very excited about this course, either – I knew there was going to be lots of miles on boring roads. And instead of visiting three theme parks as we did before, it was only two.

For admission to the party we were mailed an actual ticket, along with a letter telling us the ticket was required, and that our bibs would not get us into the party. We know some runners that didn’t receive their tickets before they left home, though.

Race entry also includes a $15 gift card that can be used for food and beverage, or really anything else you can purchase with a Disney gift card. Our gift cards were sent to us via email – the bar code could be scanned and used that way.

Thursday, November 3 – Expo

We arrived at the Expo on Thursday afternoon around 4:00 – it had opened at 10:00 that morning. We were surprised to see the construction of a new arena at Wide World of Sports was well underway.

The banners for the different races were out – those are always really nice photo ops.

The Expo wasn’t crowded, and we didn’t wait long to pick up our packets.

There was a meet and greet location with Lumiere, and the line was pretty short so we did that. We were running his challenge, after all!

There was a merchandise area in the packet pick-up building, and we checked that out. There still seemed to be quite a bit left.

Lots of shirts, and some nice artwork.

There was quite a bit of Lumiere’s Challenge merchandise, though as Lee pointed out, most of it was for women and not men. There were a number of shirts as well as a jacket.

I thought the 5K shirts were really cute – I was sorry that I wasn’t running the 5K! (But getting up early three mornings in a row just wasn’t appealing.)

Shirt pick-up for the Challenge was in the Milk House – the rest was over in the Josten’s Center. The shirt designs are really cute, but I don’t understand why they still insist on giving us long-sleeve shirts for Wine and Dine, when it’s still pretty warm at that time of year in Florida.

And what is it with Disney and gray shirts? Way too many of those lately.

The other issue we’ve noticed with the shirts is that the graphic on the front has become much larger and more elaborate over the years. But since it’s a rubbery-iron on, that part of the shirt doesn’t breathe at all. So it makes the shirts a lot warmer and they are not very comfortable to actually run in. I wish they’d go back to a simpler and smaller graphic.

As usual the main expo was over in Josten’s Center.

There was even more official merchandise over there. I was able to get the mini medal pins that I wanted.

They had all of the “I Did It” shirts, too, though we didn’t buy any of them.

But other than the I Did It shirt and the mini medal pin there was NO 10K merchandise – we were told that it wasn’t until they put it out that someone finally realized that “Inaugural” was spelled incorrectly. So at the last minute they pulled it all. Wow. I’m not sure how they can go through as many approval levels as this stuff must have to go through without anyone noticing the mis-spelling. Disney needs to hire some proofreaders. I’d be happy to volunteer my services. Believe me, I know how to spell “Inaugural.” 🙂

The rest of the Expo seemed to be the typical merchandise and vendors. We weren’t around for any of the presentations.

There was no printed event guide this time at all. And the on-line event guide was a weird interactive magazine format, so it wasn’t anything that you could download easily for yourself! I really didn’t like it. There was a one-page event guide available, which a volunteer found for us. I was surprised that wasn’t included in our packet pickup. Another thing that wasn’t included in our pickup was the sticker with our bib number on it to be used if we checked
a bag before the race. Instead, volunteers had to handwrite one for anyone who checked a bag.

Here’s what I came back with from the Expo. I need another race shirt like I need a hole in the head, but I liked the purple Remy shirt and bought it – got lots of compliments on it, too!

Friday, November 4 – Mickey’s Holiday 5K

This 5K is held at Animal Kingdom, and has a holiday theme. We didn’t run it but we have a number of friends who did. It always looks like a lot of fun, and I’m sorry we missed it this year. But as I mentioned earlier, the idea of yet another early morning convinced us otherwise.

The race medal is one of the new metal medals, rather than the rubber version that’s been distributed in the past. Really cute.

Saturday, November 5 – Inaugural Wine and Dine 10K

Another 5:30 race start. Since the half marathon starts at ESPN Wide World of Sports and ends at Epcot I was hoping that the 10K might do that, too, but no. It was the same 10K course that’s used for the Marathon and Princess weekend 10Ks. After the disaster that was the Star Wars Dark Side 10K in April, which went from Epcot to Wide World of Sports, I can perhaps understand their reluctance to simply reverse that route, but I still hoped for something
different. They could have done a variation of the “quarter marathon” course that we did last year, which would have let us experience the Studios.

Since the start was at Epcot we opted to drive our rental car rather than take the bus. We left about 3:45 and had pretty minimal traffic.

We were very happy to see that there were four character photo stations set up in the pre-race area. The lines were very long, though, so we hoped to get some photos after the race instead.

Before the race we met up with some former members of Team AllEars – it was great to see them again! Many of us have kept in touch via Facebook, but it’s always nice to get together in person.

One nice thing about the 10K race is that the start line is right next to the pre-race area and we didn’t have a long walk to the start line like we do for the half marathon and marathon. I was in
corral A, but not very close to the front, so my photos aren’t very good.

It was great to see Rudy Novotny back as a race announcer. For some reason he’s no longer doing the runDisney events in California, but he’s still working the Florida events.

I was hoping to get another personal best on this course, so I was running for time, and didn’t take any photos. My friend Stan, who is faster than I am, ran with me. He did his best to keep me on track for a PR, but I just didn’t quite have it in me. It was about 68 degrees and humid for the race, and that was a little too warm for me to do my best. I finished in 58:12, which is still a good time, but almost a minute slower than my best 10K time.

This 10K course is BORING. The first three miles took us through the Epcot parking lot and out onto World Drive. We went backstage at Epcot and finally into Epcot’s World Showcase at Norway at about mile 4. Then we ran counterclockwise all the way past France and out the International Gateway, and ran around Crescent Lake and past the Boardwalk, Yacht Club, and Beach Club resorts. We went back towards the International Gateway again but turned left and ran backtage behind the UK and Canada and out into Future World. We ran around Spaceship Earth and then out to the finish line.

I hoped that runDisney would learn some character lessons from their counterparts in Paris, but no. There were just five character stops, plus one stop with stiltwalkers and another with a large
Sebastian puppet. The penguins from Mary Poppins were just past mile 1 (that seemed like a very odd choice) and Flik and Atta were around mile 2. Geppetto was at the Italy pavilion and Genie was at the Morocco pavilion. Chip and Dale were outside the ESPN Club on the Boardwalk.

But as I mentioned, there were characters in the pre-race area. And since we’d finished early, the lines weren’t too bad. I was finally able to get my photo taken with Remy and Emile – which I hadn’t been able to get at Disneyland Paris.

We also saw Mickey and Minnie.

Goofy and Donald were dancing to the DJ’s music (“Happy”) when we went up to see them.

Lumiere was also there, but since we’d gotten our photo with him at the Expo we didn’t wait in line.

It was still dark when we’d finished with the characters. Even though it was relatively warm, we were sweaty and soaked and getting a little chilled just standing around, so we headed back to our resort.

Later I checked the results. There were 9,260 finishers, which is pretty good for a 10K with about 10,000 entries. I finished 7th in my division, and I was very happy about that.

Next up: The Wine and Dine Half Marathon

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