2015 Tinker Bell Half Marathon Weekend ** Check-In ** May 7-10, 2015

[Chiomaca]

The department I work (stores) can potentially put me all over DCA (and when needed DL and DTD). But Cars Land is my home team and where I am for the vast majority of my shifts.

Nice! Enjoy getting some great photographs. It's been awhile since I've shot anything in the Parks. Mostly because I have no working photoshop after my trusty laptop kicked the bucket a little while ago. My poor Nikon has gathered much more dust than I would have preferred lately. Hopefully I'll be a little more inspired lately and simply work OOC.

You'll have to tell us where to look for you! I have never just brought a camera into the parks and done a photo safari - I'm usually with family and hitting rides one after the other (teen-->adult) or dealing with little ones once my brother had kids.

That's my plan. Get the shirt I want 1st thing when I get there Fri and then it's just getting all the pics I want and watching the fireworks/show and new parade then WOC in DCA. If the rides aren't long, I'll ride, but I'll be there until Mon so Fri is just more of a be there to experience everything day.

Do you have a certain store in CL or could it be any one? I'm coming over there around 1 or so for the 3am WOC.

I think we're on the same schedule. I suspect a bunch of us have similar plans. I'm having breakfast at Wine Country Trattoria at 1am.

I didn't wear earbuds inside the park because I wanted to take it all in and enjoy. Well, when I finally plugged in, they didn't even work. So I had to do all those quiet miles with no distractions and I pretty much argued with myself the entire rest of the race. You suck! This is hard! Keep moving forward! LOL. It slowed me down quite a bit. Oh well, I finished and I cried and I love my medal.

I train mostly without music, so it's not so bad when I don't have them for a race. And when I do use them for a run, it really moves me forward. Glad you finished and love your medal!

We also stopped to watch Margaret Kerry speak and she was wonderful! So, so glad that we did that.

She was great! I saw her Thursday evening and really enjoyed her presentation, especially the tap dancing at the end.

 

[Miranda]

The pre order jacket was not the ones in the merch. store. It was a gray and pink stripe one, very unTink like I thought. As soon as I saw it I knew I would never wear it so I "picked it up" and returned it. There was no problem returning it since I knew I would never wear it !!! So much for the pre-order process. But I loved the two jackets for the 1/2 and PDC that was in the gen. merch area.

Oh! The teal one with the wings on the back wasn't the preorder jacket? Maybe they were already sold out then? I never saw any jackets in the expo area.

 

[Belle Ella]

Do you have a certain store in CL or could it be any one? I'm coming over there around 1 or so for the 3am WOC.

Nope! I can actually be a little difficult to track down without help, but if you ask for Jessica everyone in the stores should know how to get ahold of me (it involves a phone if they forget). When in doubt, check either the Radiator Springs Curios porch (where we have leather writing) or Ramone's House of Body Art. That's where I'm usually needed most. Otherwise I 'wander'.

Oh! The teal one with the wings on the back wasn't the preorder jacket? Maybe they were already sold out then? I never saw any jackets in the expo area.

Nope! That was just the jacket from the mercy expo. Sold out except for smalls on the first day I believe.

Can I just vent about something for a minute though? I'm not going to go off on the morality of Ebey-ers or complain about people who purchase multiples of things because it's really none of my business, but some of the runners got really snarky with me for wearing my teal Tink jacket. I got stopped by a lot of people asking about it all weekend because it did sell out fast. Some women made a huge deal out of it and were giving me grief about getting one and wearing it and the "woe is me I desperately wanted it and now don't have it" in a very negative way towards me. It was very frustrating. I got there at 6 something am on Thursday (after getting off work after midnight and going back to work straight after) and I waited until they officially opened the Expo. Don't make me feel guilty for making sure I got there to get merchandise I wanted.

Gaaah! It wasn't a lot of people, but it was enough to drive me a little batty.

 

[Miranda]

That stinks. I can understand being jealous, but to make someone feel bad because they got something you didn't is just dumb. I guess we missed a lot of the merchandise. We didn't arrive until Thursday and while we did go over to the expo at like 4 to pick up our tickets to use on Friday, we didn't go through it until Friday around 1 to do our shopping. I didn't realize that stuff sold out so quickly on the first day. One of the ladies we traveled with wanted wine glasses, so they went over on Saturday, only to find out they were long sold out.

 

[kirstie101]

Nope! I can actually be a little difficult to track down without help, but if you ask for Jessica everyone in the stores should know how to get ahold of me (it involves a phone if they forget). When in doubt, check either the Radiator Springs Curios porch (where we have leather writing) or Ramone's House of Body Art. That's where I'm usually needed most. Otherwise I 'wander'.

We're coming down for our family vacation the 2nd week of June and have 4 park days scheduled so I'm gonna try to say hi! When we're in DCA we're in CL a lot!

 

[kim3339]

Nope! I can actually be a little difficult to track down without help, but if you ask for Jessica everyone in the stores should know how to get ahold of me (it involves a phone if they forget). When in doubt, check either the Radiator Springs Curios porch (where we have leather writing) or Ramone's House of Body Art. That's where I'm usually needed most. Otherwise I 'wander'.

Can I just vent about something for a minute though? I'm not going to go off on the morality of Ebey-ers or complain about people who purchase multiples of things because it's really none of my business, but some of the runners got really snarky with me for wearing my teal Tink jacket. I got stopped by a lot of people asking about it all weekend because it did sell out fast. Some women made a huge deal out of it and were giving me grief about getting one and wearing it and the "woe is me I desperately wanted it and now don't have it" in a very negative way towards me. It was very frustrating. I got there at 6 something am on Thursday (after getting off work after midnight and going back to work straight after) and I waited until they officially opened the Expo. Don't make me feel guilty for making sure I got there to get merchandise I wanted.

Gaaah! It wasn't a lot of people, but it was enough to drive me a little batty.

Yay! I'm come look for you to say hi.

Sorry about the people saying stuff. That's wrong. In my opinion, disney races have been popular long enough and there are enough fb groups out there that you know how crazy merch sales are going to be. If you think you want something, get there early or ask a friend to pick it up for you. I knew going in getting there late Thurs night, there probably wouldn't be a lot left and I expect the same for DL in Sept. Yes it sucks and I think they should stock better and evenly throughout the weekend, but they don't so I know what to expect.

 

[Chiomaca]

Oh! The teal one with the wings on the back wasn't the preorder jacket? Maybe they were already sold out then? I never saw any jackets in the expo area.

No, the pre-order one looks just like the pre-order one from Marathon weekend, except gray with white side stripes instead of plain black. It's got a sparkly pair of running shoes on the back, completely generic. I ordered the one for Marathon weekend thinking it would be better, and I now assume the Avengers one will be similarly blah, so I'll return that one in November. The blue with wings sold out quickly, I guess. The white one and the PDC ones lasted longer.

Can I just vent about something for a minute though? I'm not going to go off on the morality of Ebey-ers or complain about people who purchase multiples of things because it's really none of my business, but some of the runners got really snarky with me for wearing my teal Tink jacket. I got stopped by a lot of people asking about it all weekend because it did sell out fast. Some women made a huge deal out of it and were giving me grief about getting one and wearing it and the "woe is me I desperately wanted it and now don't have it" in a very negative way towards me. It was very frustrating. I got there at 6 something am on Thursday (after getting off work after midnight and going back to work straight after) and I waited until they officially opened the Expo. Don't make me feel guilty for making sure I got there to get merchandise I wanted.

I missed the jacket last year, all the good merch in fact, so have made sure to arrive early for every Disney race since, except marathon weekend because I can't take that much time off (hence Goofy and not Dopey). I left my house at 4am EST on Thursday and arrived at the Expo around noon PST. I also hit the official merchandise section before I did anything else aside from checking in my luggage. I am frustrated by runDisney's general lack of concern about runners - I know it's unusual for race expos to limit things, but Disney has a different, collector-ish vibe that most others don't. I wish they would take that into account, although I know full well that they get their money, and that's all they care about. But there is clearly a larger market than they plan for in some things, which they should account for, either with item limitations or restricting access to runners for the first day of the expo.

It was rude of the runners and not fair given that you'd gone out of your way to get there, but as an east coast type with a job that's hard to work around (my leave request for Avengers has been in since the week before I signed up), I get the frustration when you can't show up in the first six hours of an expo. Not cool to take it out on a fellow runner, though.

 

[OctoberDisney]

Can I just vent about something for a minute though? I'm not going to go off on the morality of Ebey-ers or complain about people who purchase multiples of things because it's really none of my business, but some of the runners got really snarky with me for wearing my teal Tink jacket. I got stopped by a lot of people asking about it all weekend because it did sell out fast. Some women made a huge deal out of it and were giving me grief about getting one and wearing it and the "woe is me I desperately wanted it and now don't have it" in a very negative way towards me. It was very frustrating. I got there at 6 something am on Thursday (after getting off work after midnight and going back to work straight after) and I waited until they officially opened the Expo. Don't make me feel guilty for making sure I got there to get merchandise I wanted.

Gaaah! It wasn't a lot of people, but it was enough to drive me a little batty.

I hear you. That FB group that we are in (I am assuming it's the same one because of the meet up time) was starting to stress me out! So, so much complaining about the merchandise (and other things). I really didn't have anything in mind to buy but it was ALL THEY TALKED ABOUT. So, I can see where that would translate into people asking you about it and being rude. Ugh. Sorry that happened.

 

[MrsMcKenzie]

I am frustrated by runDisney's general lack of concern about runners - I know it's unusual for race expos to limit things, but Disney has a different, collector-ish vibe that most others don't. I wish they would take that into account, although I know full well that they get their money, and that's all they care about. But there is clearly a larger market than they plan for in some things, which they should account for, either with item limitations or restricting access to runners for the first day of the expo.

I agree that Disney needs to take steps to ensure that most participants are able to get the items they want at the expo. While it's true that Disney is getting money no matter who busy the merch - it should be important to Disney that race participants don't feel frustrated during the expo and race. They want runners (their customers) to look back at the entire race weekend (the product/service) and have positive memories.

 

[kelly 1]

I agree makes me angry with these ebayer! I wanted a wine glass I was in the official merchandise store at 3 on Thursday and they were sold out all ready. I was very disappointed . Yesterday I saw one on ebay it sold for $101.00. Also if anyone wants to see the gray jacket there is 1 on ebay. Can not believe people selling this stuff! Disney has to come up with a better system. Maybe offering to each runner the option to pre order all these items. So unfare that some people hoard items to make profit. I well I have done my sounding off. I guess I will write run Disney too !

 

[emzben25]

Lots of price gougers on eBay. There's one seller in particular that is selling the teal jacket in multiple sizes and quantities. I'm so tempted to buy one since I missed out, but I don't think it's worth paying $200 for it. And since I don't have a lot of vacation time, it's hard to take off another day just to go to the expo Thursday morning. I know everyone has been wanting Disney to allow preorders for some of their official merchandise. I really hope they implement it one day or at least somehow prevent eBay resellers buying everything.

 

[VickiHD]

With all the expo and merch talk going on.....I was in line at 8:00 am Thurs. and yes we had to go down a day early to do this. There were some items that "did not come in" according to Disney. The 1/2 marathon car magnets for one, can't remember the other items people were inquiring about. I went back later that night after listening to Tinker Bell in the speaker series and the magnets for the 1/2 marathon were in on the shelves. So what I took out of it was it can't hurt to check back to see if something new came in. On a positive note...I really liked the designs for the shirts and jackets, even the race shirts this year. I thought they were all done well.

 

[AmericanItGirl]

I tried curling my hair, but didn't work too well w/ the larger curling iron and shorter hair, but still was okay

The tricks I used for curling my hair were to do rag curls for almost 24 hours (tied up my hair on Friday morning) and to spray the individual sections with hair spray before rolling up the sections. They stayed very curled for the whole race, although they were not quite as tight at the end as they were at the beginning.

 

[Belle Ella]

The PDC medal pin was another that wasn't received on time and I missed the first time I went through. But I'm an Expo "stalker". I go in and out of the Expo all weekend long so I watch what arrived late, what sold out first, etc.

Another thing people keep forgetting to take into account are returns. They happen more than you would think. This is another reason it's always a good idea to go back and check, fingers crossed, that someone returned what you are looking for.

 

[Miranda]

Someone I traveled with said there was a lot of screwups with the necklaces... did anyone hear anything about that? I actually ended up with one by accident. When I went to pick up my bag and stuff, I had to initial that I got my pin and my necklace along with my race bag. But when I got home I was thinking about it and I didn't remember ordering one but I thought maybe I forgot because it WAS 8 months ago that I signed up/ordered stuff. But I checked my email and I had only ordered the pin. I don't know how that happened... it wasn't like I asked for the necklace, the printed out thing already had a spot printed out there for me to initial that I'd gotten it.

 

[VickiHD]

I can't believe it's already been a week since the big race weekend. A week ago we were all just getting ready for Sundays big race. I'm guess I'm feeling a little blue that it's all done and over with after so much anticipation and training. I've been wearing my race shirts all week....anyone else ??

All ready looking forward to next year.

 

[kelly 1]

Does anyone know if there is a 10 k finisher certificate? Got one for the half and the PDC but can't see one for the 10k. Yes hard to belive it was a week ago!
Anyone in for next year! I am! I have marked August 11th on my calendar.
Just doing maintenance runs right now doing the Goddess half over in Victoria June 7th. Should be a great party!
Anyone doing the Disney Half in September?

 

[VickiHD]

Anyone in for next year! I am! I have marked August 11th on my calendar.
Just doing maintenance runs right now doing the Goddess half over in Victoria June 7th. Should be a great party!
Anyone doing the Disney Half in September?

I'm in for next year!!!! Also doing the DL 1/2 in September.

You'll have to let us know how the Goddess 1/2 goes. I've been to Victoria once and really enjoyed it. Loved the weather and sights.

 

[kelly 1]

I'm in for next year!!!! Also doing the DL 1/2 in September.

You'll have to let us know how the Goddess 1/2 goes. I've been to Victoria once and really enjoyed it. Loved the weather and sights.

Let's try for a meet up! Doing the snoopy dance!
We staying again at the DL Hotel.

 

[Chiomaca]

I won't be back until Avengers. Well, and the 24 hour day. I'll probably put as many miles on my feet then as I did last weekend!