Official Wine and Dine 2017 thread

[croach]

Arrived at our hotel on Thursday and was at a walk in clinic a few hours later. Severe sinus, throat, and ear infections. It was awful. Got some antibiotics and a shot of prednisone and tried to rest.
By Friday night I was no better so I tearfully made the decision to skip the 10k although it was the last piece of my bucket list (do a race at all 4 wdw in one year before i turn 40 next week). I had even postponed ankle fusion surgery so i could make the dream a reality. Yay for bi-monthly cortisone injections.

Well long story a little longer, husband wakes me up at midnight as he now has food poisoning. He lets me know through the bathroom doors that if I go I'm going without him. Now I know I can't go because that means I would be alone and have to do everything by myself.

3:30am comes and I drag my tired sick self out of bed and get ready and I WENT.
Not only did I do it I beat my pr by, wait for it...............


18 minutes and 17 seconds

Turns out my family that did the races with me were slowing me down.
Take that 40! Suck on it triple infections!
Bite me jacked up ankles!
I DID IT!

Wow! Congrats on getting out there despite all the things going on and then crushing your PR!

 

[kbenson13]

The main difference to me between running DL vs WDW is the scenery. The W&D Half we ran through an empty parking lot for over a mile, we ran down desolate streets and free ways, and yeah that sewer plant, yuck. Sure, the forest/trees were nice, but still just so boring for me when I am paying $$$ for this race. In Anaheim, you get neighborhoods and people (SO MANY PEOPLE). You get crowds cheering you on the whole way, and I must admit I need that more than anything sometimes. Plus, I ran through Angel's stadium once a few years ago for a DLHM and since I am a baseball fan I LOVED it. In every DL race I have done you ran through the parks at the end anyway. And I didn't realize that stopping to ride a ride during a race was even a thing until this year. That's nuts. Haha. Anyway, to each their own. I am glad to say I did it, but I'll just cross my fingers they bring back DL races.

I get that about the crowds. Crowds are very cool. My very first 10-K a couple years back preceded a parade on basically the same route. There were a ton of people there for the parade but they cheered the runners on as we passed too. It was pretty awesome!

 

[KattyBelle]

I'm so glad that I decided to give W&D another shot this year! Congrats to all who participated!

10K -While there weren't too many characters, I loved the course and getting to see the full moon during the race. Unfortunately, my ankles got really sore later that evening since I spent a lot of time standing in line for post-race character pics & waiting for Epcot R/D. I was worried about how I was going to make it through the Half.

Half - I was relieved that I didn't have any issues with the buses. Stayed at POR (first time) and managed to catch the first bus on Saturday & Sunday. On Sunday we got there early enough that we had to wait to be let in. I was able to get through all 4 character lines with plenty of time to spare. I wish that the first character stop on course had been someone other than Tink & the fairies. I skipped it b/c the line was kind of long and I didn't want to risk getting swept. I didn't skip many after that. By the time I got to HS, I was worried that my DH wasn't going to make it to Epcot in time to see me finish, so I really started slowing down. I had just gotten in line for Emile & Remy when he texted that he was trying to park the car. He was able to get a spot along the fence to watch for me before the stands/Finish Line.

It was such a long walk back to the car (at the grass right in front of the entrance to the park), but I was glad to not have to climb the steps to get on a bus.

I really enjoyed the entire weekend. The bed at POR was amazing. I don't think I've ever been that comfortable in a hotel bed. I slept like a rock. I'm hoping to do W&D again next year.

It was incredibly sad to hear about the runner that passed away. I cannot even imagine. My heart goes out to the family and anyone who witnessed it.

 

[Luv2Run]

I'm finally back to reality after our W&D runcation. We stayed at the Grand Floridian for the first time, and my oh my it was gorgeous! And the beds are SO COMFORTABLE! Probably the most comfortable beds we've slept on in all of our WDW vacations.

Woke up on Friday morning with a scratchy throat, so I was chowing down on Zicam in the hopes of staving off a head cold. Didn't work. Got barely three hours of sleep on Friday night because I couldn't breathe through my nose. Ran the 10K as quickly as I could so I could return to the hotel and go back to sleep. Didn't get a PR, but came pretty close (1:02:30). I didn't even stop for post-race photos after I got my medal. Napped for a bit, then went to DHS for the afternoon. Went to bed early in preparation for the half the next morning.

Woke up at 3:30am still feeling like garbage, but mustered up the willpower to drag my butt to the half. Instead of my usual Sport Beans, I chomped on cough drops for the entire race. SUPER humid - I felt like they added more water stops than in years past, because it was so humid out. But, thankfully, it wasn't hot. Finished the half in 02:28:18. Not a PR, but pretty close, as well. I'm just happy I finished, given how sick I was feeling.

I usually hit the wall around mile 11, but thankfully, there was a spectator near Beach Club with a golden retriever puppy that she let me pet as I ran past. She shouted "Puppy power!" as I left, and that really helped lol.

Post-race party at Epcot was fun. We got to try many of the F&W booths. My favorite was the spinach and feta pocket in the Africa booth. It was tasty and spicy, which helped clear up my sinuses (haha). I also enjoyed the escargot croissant from the France booth, and the salmon potato pancake at the Scotland booth. We rode Soarin' and Spaceship Earth before heading back to the hotel around 12:30am.

 

[roxymama]

Sounds like there was some kind of crud floating around that lots of people ended up sick or with colds
Kudos to everyone who gutted that out.
My hubby got a little post vacation cold going and I'm in denial about not feeling my best right now. Glad it waited until we got home.

I had a really fun dis-week. I may have done Food n Wine wrong in that I wasn't super hungry and only ate two things and drank two things at the booths. But I did find all but one of the Remy statues with my family! I think we got distracted hunting (also it was hot out and I'm never hungry enough when I'm hot.)
If I do F&W again I will make sure to go to Epcot during the cooler evenings so I can be more gluttonous.

I have not run one day since coming home, but plan to get back to it tomorrow. Seeing the Avengers peeps having fun running definitely gives my will power a lil boost.

Oh and I did manage to get my shoe ornament at the expo so I'm excited to put up my tree (probably way too early this year) so I can hang this year's run-ornaments up

 

[Yorkieal]

We got back to the UK on Wednesday night but was straight back to work (I'm a teacher) and have only just had the chance to sit down to read back through the thread since before we left.

I can honestly say we had the most amazing vacation ever; my wife and I have visited WDW before but it was the first time with my daughter and it was ten times better sharing it with her. The entire ten days was magic but each day had at least one 'gives-you-shivers' moment, the best of which was at CRT on our last night. We seemed to be the last of a batch of bookings to get into the 'foyer' area and therefore the last to meet Cinderella. As the other parties were called up we someone ended up having Cinderella to ourselves for 20 minutes and she spent the entire time with my daughter (9) and was absolutely fantastic in engaging with her, talking about their dreams and Christmas, it was genuinely one of the nicest moments we've ever had as a family.

As for the races, I ran the 5K and DW the 10K. I've run all over the world including the London, Boston and London marathons but have honestly never experienced anything as wonderfully bizarre as the Fall Feast 5K on Friday morning. We have a few 'novelty' races here in the UK but nothing as grand as this! I was right on the start line (from an hour before the race) and was surrounded by the most random collection of participants you could hope to meet, from blokes who proper looked the business to a woman dressed as a giant Mickey Waffle! Fantastic!

I was having a proper crack at it but didn't have the quickest of races; the humidity, 5 days of WDW and eating vacation food (I wasn't going all the way to Florida to be strict with food!) but was delighted to have have been the first finisher. I'm reluctant to use the word 'Won' as it wasn't billed as a competitive race but the experience of been first coming into the Finish and having an ace moment with Mickey & Minnie was magnificent!

I had a load of photos taken with them with them in front of the Finish gantry (immediately after the finish), then more receiving my medal but they've not appeared on my Photopass. Emailed RD and Photopass but they can't locate them either. Any idea where I might be able to find them? Is there a Flickr gallery from the event or similar?

 

[Yorkieal]

A few pics from my Photopass;

https://twitter.com/Bedingham/status/926791391065227264

 

[roxymama]

A few pics from my Photopass;

https://twitter.com/Bedingham/status/926791391065227264

CONGRATS! That's awesome! I'm sure I saw you at some point as I could see the fastest people waaaaaaaay up ahead at one point early in the parking lot first mile. Too bad they don't give you the official win since you did beat everyone

 

[croach]

We got back to the UK on Wednesday night but was straight back to work (I'm a teacher) and have only just had the chance to sit down to read back through the thread since before we left.

I can honestly say we had the most amazing vacation ever; my wife and I have visited WDW before but it was the first time with my daughter and it was ten times better sharing it with her. The entire ten days was magic but each day had at least one 'gives-you-shivers' moment, the best of which was at CRT on our last night. We seemed to be the last of a batch of bookings to get into the 'foyer' area and therefore the last to meet Cinderella. As the other parties were called up we someone ended up having Cinderella to ourselves for 20 minutes and she spent the entire time with my daughter (9) and was absolutely fantastic in engaging with her, talking about their dreams and Christmas, it was genuinely one of the nicest moments we've ever had as a family.

As for the races, I ran the 5K and DW the 10K. I've run all over the world including the London, Boston and London marathons but have honestly never experienced anything as wonderfully bizarre as the Fall Feast 5K on Friday morning. We have a few 'novelty' races here in the UK but nothing as grand as this! I was right on the start line (from an hour before the race) and was surrounded by the most random collection of participants you could hope to meet, from blokes who proper looked the business to a woman dressed as a giant Mickey Waffle! Fantastic!

I was having a proper crack at it but didn't have the quickest of races; the humidity, 5 days of WDW and eating vacation food (I wasn't going all the way to Florida to be strict with food!) but was delighted to have have been the first finisher. I'm reluctant to use the word 'Won' as it wasn't billed as a competitive race but the experience of been first coming into the Finish and having an ace moment with Mickey & Minnie was magnificent!

I had a load of photos taken with them with them in front of the Finish gantry (immediately after the finish), then more receiving my medal but they've not appeared on my Photopass. Emailed RD and Photopass but they can't locate them either. Any idea where I might be able to find them? Is there a Flickr gallery from the event or similar?

Wow that's awesome that you won! I'll say "won" since you finished first.

Also I will be using "having a proper crack at it" to describe any good races I have from now.

 

[cavepig]

We got back to the UK on Wednesday night but was straight back to work (I'm a teacher) and have only just had the chance to sit down to read back through the thread since before we left.

I can honestly say we had the most amazing vacation ever; my wife and I have visited WDW before but it was the first time with my daughter and it was ten times better sharing it with her. The entire ten days was magic but each day had at least one 'gives-you-shivers' moment, the best of which was at CRT on our last night. We seemed to be the last of a batch of bookings to get into the 'foyer' area and therefore the last to meet Cinderella. As the other parties were called up we someone ended up having Cinderella to ourselves for 20 minutes and she spent the entire time with my daughter (9) and was absolutely fantastic in engaging with her, talking about their dreams and Christmas, it was genuinely one of the nicest moments we've ever had as a family.

As for the races, I ran the 5K and DW the 10K. I've run all over the world including the London, Boston and London marathons but have honestly never experienced anything as wonderfully bizarre as the Fall Feast 5K on Friday morning. We have a few 'novelty' races here in the UK but nothing as grand as this! I was right on the start line (from an hour before the race) and was surrounded by the most random collection of participants you could hope to meet, from blokes who proper looked the business to a woman dressed as a giant Mickey Waffle! Fantastic!

I was having a proper crack at it but didn't have the quickest of races; the humidity, 5 days of WDW and eating vacation food (I wasn't going all the way to Florida to be strict with food!) but was delighted to have have been the first finisher. I'm reluctant to use the word 'Won' as it wasn't billed as a competitive race but the experience of been first coming into the Finish and having an ace moment with Mickey & Minnie was magnificent!

I had a load of photos taken with them with them in front of the Finish gantry (immediately after the finish), then more receiving my medal but they've not appeared on my Photopass. Emailed RD and Photopass but they can't locate them either. Any idea where I might be able to find them? Is there a Flickr gallery from the event or similar?

There will be pics that show up in the Post Event guide which should be coming out soon, I would think some of the 5k winner would be in it maybe. It will be another edition when you are looking at the event guide when it shows up. Congrats on the win, how awesome!

Reminds me to share - - Here's B roll video from the half http://disneysportsnews.com/videos/
but then I wonder if you could email disneysportsnews too , I'm sure there's a contact on the site maybe they have some.

 

[lovingeire]

Hey everyone!

I got back late Tuesday night/Wed morning and am fighting the Disney crud now. Between being sick and coming home to snow and freezing cold I'm about ready to jump ship back to Disney! Had the most fabulous runcation! We stayed at Boardwalk and really loved the location for this particular race weekend. There were some cons for us as well, but I thinkt he location outweighed them. (My bed was strangely uncomfortable too and caused some back issues for me.)

Expo - Holy cow, this was the smoothest Disney expo I've ever been to. I was super tired from the Halloween party the night before so we didn't get there as early as normal, but it was so organized! Plenty of stock of everything. No crazy people that I could see. It really was a pleasant experience.

10K - I was surprised at the lack of character ops on this course in the beginning, but in general I do like the course. Plus, Oswald made it all worth it! (Even if it was the longest line ever and they warned us the balloon ladies weren't far behind!)

Untitled by

We were not on the first bus so we had to get this photo after the race. I think the line was equally as long!

[url=https://flic.kr/p/ZhBwHL]Untitled by

Half - This one was rough. My BFF was having foot pain and was struggling. It was ironic to me that my knees that I'd been so worried about were fine, but she was the one with physical issues. We cruised along and didn't stop until Country Bears. I wanted to make sure we had a good cushion. We stopped though for Mushu in Epcot and she just couldn't keep running after that. So it was a slow last mile and a half or whatever it was at that point. Loved the course though! Running through Pandora was cool!

After Party - We didn't make it to the meet up. I just couldn't pry myself from bed and my friend was having a hard time standing/walking and didn't want to do much extra. I'm bummed to have missed it! I did get to meet @Tall Todd and his lovely wife at Cali Grill during our brunch and enjoyed chatting with them. (Did you let Sarah take a nap Todd????? ) We had a fun time at the after party. We enjoyed some booths (Lamb Meatball, Beef Skewer, Crab Cake and Hawaiian Pork Slider were our favorites over the week.) I really thought Disney did a great job bringing the characters up a notch from past years. I enjoyed seeing some different characters at the party instead of the same standbys.

I did just notice as I'm typing that my new W&D $90 jacket has a snag in it and I'm super annoyed by that. I can't remember catching it on anything either.

Overall, this was a fabulous race weekend! Looking forward to next year![/url]

 

[lovingeire]

Great picture for starters!

I think DL has the advantage on WDW for the 10k simply because everything is so close together. There is just no getting around needing to have highway miles for a WDW race due to the size of the overall resort. For the half marathons, neither really has an advantage to me. For DL your in the park for at the beginning and then that's it until some backstage roads at the end. So lot of road miles just like WDW. WDW has better park time to me because it's spread out and I don't think you can beat finishing through World Showcase. You do maybe get some better crowds at DL but you get character stops at WDW if that's your thing. So I can definitely both sides of the "arguments" for races at both parks. I hope they bring the DL races back too - primarily bc it's an excellent excuse for me to go there.

I really agree with this assessment. I did enjoy the 10K at Disneyland due to the park time, but I felt the half left something to be desired course wise. Running through suburban SoCal is kind of like running at home. (I'm an LA native so it really is!) But once you're out of the parks for the half at DL there aren't the photo stops, PhotoPass etc. So besides spectators and bands there's really nothing to look at. I've only run Light Side there as I live on the East Coast now, but I think there are merits for both. I do love finishing my races at the parks at WDW. It really gives me something to look forward to throughout the race. And I like that WDW has characters on the road miles. And I know it's sacriligious to be a DL "local" and not be fiercely loyal to it, but I still maintain that the Land and the World are totally different experiences and if you don't adjust your expectations to that one of them will leave you disappointed. I'm still in camp I love them both.

Oh and I did manage to get my shoe ornament at the expo so I'm excited to put up my tree (probably way too early this year) so I can hang this year's run-ornaments up

I am stupdily excited to put mine up from this year as well! I love those darn ornaments!

 

[lisatav]

I'm kinda relieved to hear I'm not the only one sick after the race. I've been on the couch since I got home Monday and had to call out of work 2 days! Hope everyone that was sick is feeling better!

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

I'm kinda relieved to hear I'm not the only one sick after the race. I've been on the couch since I got home Monday and had to call out of work 2 days! Hope everyone that was sick is feeling better!

Yeah... my sister and I ran all 3 races, and we felt like we were coming down with something since we got back. As of yesterday, I am officially sick.

Meh -- still worth it!

 

[PaDisneyCouple]

We hope everyone had a wonderful weekend, and are bummed that folks got sick. FWIW- something's going around here in Pa, and nobody we know went to Wine and Dine last weekend.

Any other photos of what the merch looked like this year? We think W&D usually has good stuff.

 

[Figment1990]

Here in western PA, I'm fighting "the cold" that my son and mother had last weekend while I was gone. Haven't left the couch all afternoon. Thankful I wasn't sick last weekend for the race!

 

[Keith Tyger]

Got my banner hung!

 

[flav]

What an amazing time I had!

I truly enjoyed the entire experience, from when I first started to dream of a runDisney event to now as I am still emerging from the bubble!

Here are a few of my highlights:
- After long hours of research and comparison, choosing to do the Two Course Challenge: the 10k being a great warmup rehearsal for my first half marathon,
- Learning and getting excited about gears, runDisney processes, fueling, pacing, costumes, merchandise, meets... through professionals and DISboards,
- Wearing my dresses and sandals right until and during the Wine & Dine half-Marathon weekend, and returning home to sub-freezing temperatures,
- Getting sun, rainbow and full moon while in Florida,
- Walking and running over 150km (~100 miles) in 5 days, and not feeling a single pain,
- Meeting interesting and motivated people,
- Bringing back fond memories, solid medals and pretty pictures.

In short, I always knew that the journey was the most important part of a runDisney event, thanks to all DISers who so positively contributed to making it such a success!

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

What an amazing time I had!

I truly enjoyed the entire experience, from when I first started to dream of a runDisney event to now as I am still emerging from the bubble!

Here are a few of my highlights:
- After long hours of research and comparison, choosing to do the Two Course Challenge: the 10k being a great warmup rehearsal for my first half marathon,
- Learning and getting excited about gears, runDisney processes, fueling, pacing, costumes, merchandise, meets... through professionals and DISboards,
- Wearing my dresses and sandals right until and during the Wine & Dine half-Marathon weekend, and returning home to sub-freezing temperatures,
- Getting sun, rainbow and full moon while in Florida,
- Walking and running over 150km (~100 miles) in 5 days, and not feeling a single pain,
- Meeting interesting and motivated people,
- Bringing back fond memories, solid medals and pretty pictures.

In short, I always knew that the journey was the most important part of a runDisney event, thanks to all DISers who so positively contributed to making it such a success!

Excellent!! See you next year??

 

[thetasigma1186]

My wife and I enjoyed our W&D weekend! It was my 3rd...her second. We run the 10k together and she cheers me on for the half. The course was better than last year IMO but was it long to anyone else? I always run with my Apple Watch. The Nike+ app registered 13.93 miles!! Anyone else run with a GPS watch and have notice that discrepancy?

Also, on a sad note, my wife saw the young man collapse at the finish line as she waited for me. It was a startling sight as we wore the same color shirt. Prayers for his family. Such a sad event.

~Matt