Wine & Dine and Walk

This past weekend I flew to Orlando to walk in the Disney Wine & Dine 1/2 Marathon.  I've been training since August, so I was ready to do the real thing.  I was also ready to get away from the house and the kids for 48 hours and spend some time on me.

I flew in Friday night and April from Florida and her lovely husband, John (two of my favorite people), picked me up.  We didn't do anything crazy, just hung out in the hotel room and talked, but it was very nice and relaxing.  The next morning we had a carb-filled breakfast at the Kona Cafe in the Polynesian Resort Hotel.  It was so yummy and we were so full afterwards.  So far everything was going as planned.

From there we went to the Expo to get our racing bibs and shirts and get checked in for the race.  They had all sorts of vendors there selling every kind of running gear you could think of, and some you couldn't.  We hung out for an hour or two and then went off to Downtown Disney for a few hours.  There were a lot of things going on at Disney this weekend, so Downtown Disney was incredibly packed.  We didn't end up staying very long because we wanted to get back and take a nap.

John had to run an errand but April and I tried to nap.  Except we couldn't.  I don't know if it was excitement or nerves or just the fact that neither of us ever gets the luxury of taking a nap during the middle of the day, but we didn't sleep.  But we did rest, so that's all that mattered.  Around 6:30 we had a nice pasta dinner to get the last bit of carbs that we could and then we got ready to go to the race.

The race itself didn't start until 10p, but the last bus to the race was at 8p.  I'm not sure why they make you get there so early, but we had to sit around for almost two hours before the race started.  It was kind of cool to see all the people in costume.  I don't know if that goes on at a regular run of the mill 1/2 marathon, but tons of people wear tutus and unusual costumes at Disney races.  April's favorite was the guy dressed like Hulk Hogan with a yellow tank top, yellow Speedo-like running bottoms, knee-high socks, blond wig with hair down to the shoulders and a yellow sweat band around his head.

They broke everybody up into six groups, A-F.  John was in group A as he had run and qualified in a Disney race before, but April and I were in group E (thanks to a nice man at Runner Relations who moved me up from F) so we had to split up from him.  He got to start the race right on time, but by the time our group was allowed to start it was 10:20.

It was a long trek, but also a lot of fun.  Plus, after the race finished the kept the Food and Wine Festival open until 4am so we could eat yummy foods from all of the countries.  We didn't go to run, we both agreed to that from the beginning.  In fact, the conversation went something like this:


ONE OF US:  I want to do the Wine & Dine 1/2 Marathon, but I don't want to run.  Do you want to do it with me?

THE OTHER ONE OF US:  Only if we don't run, I hate running.  But I can walk forever.

THE FIRST ONE OF US:  Definitely, no running, I hate running too, but I can walk forever as well.


Looking back after that conversation and after the race, I cannot walk forever.  But I can walk a lot longer and fast than I can run.  In fact, if I had run the race I'm pretty sure my time would not have been any better and may have actually been worse.  We just kept telling ourselves "slow and steady wins the race" (you know, the crap that you tell your kids) and kept walking along.  Plus, there was so much to look at that it was very entertaining.

We did actually pick up our pace in the last couple of miles and start to walk really fast when we heard that we were behind the pace leader and we thought they weren't going to give us our medals.  That put a huge motivation out there and made us walk faster than we had ever walked.  There was no way after weeks of training and all the time and effort and money we had put into that trip that we weren't getting our medals.  We didn't beat pace, but we did both set a personal record and we got to finish the race which was most important.

The best part is that neither one of us was discouraged and we are planning on walking (and maybe running just a tiny bit) the Disney Princess 1/2 Marathon at the end of February.  We saw the medal at the Expo and it's awesome.  I can't wait!