Ready for splash n dash...I mean 2014 wine and dine!
WINE AND DINE EXPO
HOW TO MAKE A BACCHUS COSTUME
I was running through the rain, water down my face, in a poncho, with a numb leg from the Biofreeze on it so I couldn’t tell my Sciatic nerve was flaring up. I looked around and it looks like everyone has taking a shower with their clothes on and not dried off. I was leaving Animal Kingdom for what I knew would be the worse (the quiet and most boring) part of the course and all I could think was-OMG THIS IS THE BEST RACE EVER.
Let me back up to the beginning. I slept on an air mattress at my dad’s place in Texas and was too lazy to get up and get in a bed. Well I woke up with crazy sore butt and leg. Turns out my sciatica from last year was back. I got worse from being on the plane and carrying all of my stuff around the airport and had a rough few days walking around the parks and also some serious doubt that I would be able to run this race at all.
I had a lot of mental doubts in the race and when the forecast called for rain, I was really doubting it could work. I could barely stand on rides, how would I make it through a half marathon and then another half marathon?
I do not want to sidetrack this and I will write another post on my sciatica but let’s just say, I could barely walk after lunch on Saturday and decided to google- sciatica can I run and found an amazing website with stretches. I did the stretches for 1 hour and I could walk and sleep! I was cured (and Space mountain messed me up on Sunday night-ugh).
We had a plan we hope would work. Stay up late on Friday (until 1am), sleep in until around 9-10. Go to Studios for a few things and have lunch at 12 at Mama Melrose. Bring back leftovers for a meal before the race. Take a 2-3 hour nap and then roll and stretch and get ready. THE PLAN WORKED!
I went back before everyone else to stretch and roll and nap. I got in about 3 hour nap and we all woke up naturally around 530 so decided just to get up. We relaxed, chatted, planned and got ready. We double checked our change of clothes and came up with a plan as we had a locker to store our stuff. We took pics inside the room since we knew the rain was coming. We left to get on the bus and walked right on at 7:15. There was traffic getting to the start line but we were off the bus by 7:50. My leg was holding up.
We had a ton of time and waited to get a pic with Chip and Dale and then took time to stretch and debate ponchos. We all decided ponchos were a must and I am glad we did because as soon as we made our decision, it started to rain! We also decided to run the race separately (Devin in corral D, me in F and Damian in L) as we assumed not many photo opps would be out.
HOW TO MAKE A BACCHUS COSTUME
I was running through the rain, water down my face, in a poncho, with a numb leg from the Biofreeze on it so I couldn’t tell my Sciatic nerve was flaring up. I looked around and it looks like everyone has taking a shower with their clothes on and not dried off. I was leaving Animal Kingdom for what I knew would be the worse (the quiet and most boring) part of the course and all I could think was-OMG THIS IS THE BEST RACE EVER.
Let me back up to the beginning. I slept on an air mattress at my dad’s place in Texas and was too lazy to get up and get in a bed. Well I woke up with crazy sore butt and leg. Turns out my sciatica from last year was back. I got worse from being on the plane and carrying all of my stuff around the airport and had a rough few days walking around the parks and also some serious doubt that I would be able to run this race at all.
I had a lot of mental doubts in the race and when the forecast called for rain, I was really doubting it could work. I could barely stand on rides, how would I make it through a half marathon and then another half marathon?
I do not want to sidetrack this and I will write another post on my sciatica but let’s just say, I could barely walk after lunch on Saturday and decided to google- sciatica can I run and found an amazing website with stretches. I did the stretches for 1 hour and I could walk and sleep! I was cured (and Space mountain messed me up on Sunday night-ugh).
We had a plan we hope would work. Stay up late on Friday (until 1am), sleep in until around 9-10. Go to Studios for a few things and have lunch at 12 at Mama Melrose. Bring back leftovers for a meal before the race. Take a 2-3 hour nap and then roll and stretch and get ready. THE PLAN WORKED!
I went back before everyone else to stretch and roll and nap. I got in about 3 hour nap and we all woke up naturally around 530 so decided just to get up. We relaxed, chatted, planned and got ready. We double checked our change of clothes and came up with a plan as we had a locker to store our stuff. We took pics inside the room since we knew the rain was coming. We left to get on the bus and walked right on at 7:15. There was traffic getting to the start line but we were off the bus by 7:50. My leg was holding up.
We had a ton of time and waited to get a pic with Chip and Dale and then took time to stretch and debate ponchos. We all decided ponchos were a must and I am glad we did because as soon as we made our decision, it started to rain! We also decided to run the race separately (Devin in corral D, me in F and Damian in L) as we assumed not many photo opps would be out.
Chip and dale
We missed the teamrundisney meet up as we could not find it and got in line for a portapotty. Worst line ever as I was one of the last people to use it. I don't know how the line we were in was so slow but it was. However, I got in my corral in the back, where I wanted to be since I knew I would be going slow.
I decided to do 1 min running/30 sec walking intervals as long as I could hold out. Then I would walk it. It started really raining as soon as I got in the corral.
I was in corral F and it was our turn to go off before I knew it. I was worried about the poncho but it held up the entire race and kept my outfit dry-which was a miracle. The only part that got wet with the top of my shirt and then the bottom of my capri pants. I decided to wear capris and then my regular outfit and it worked great. My legs were pretty dry and I never was cold.Okay, well maybe I was a bit cold but I alternated having my arm inside of my poncho (one of my hands had to hold my wine glass!). My shoes of course got soaked but they dried overnight very quickly and were completely fine when I ran in them during Avengers.
From the beginning, the course was pretty open which was fantastic. As other corrals started, some people pushed through but it was never that bad. I stopped for a picture with the Country Bears around mile 1 and also tinkerbell’s light up friends from MSEP shortly after.
I decided to do 1 min running/30 sec walking intervals as long as I could hold out. Then I would walk it. It started really raining as soon as I got in the corral.
I was in corral F and it was our turn to go off before I knew it. I was worried about the poncho but it held up the entire race and kept my outfit dry-which was a miracle. The only part that got wet with the top of my shirt and then the bottom of my capri pants. I decided to wear capris and then my regular outfit and it worked great. My legs were pretty dry and I never was cold.Okay, well maybe I was a bit cold but I alternated having my arm inside of my poncho (one of my hands had to hold my wine glass!). My shoes of course got soaked but they dried overnight very quickly and were completely fine when I ran in them during Avengers.
From the beginning, the course was pretty open which was fantastic. As other corrals started, some people pushed through but it was never that bad. I stopped for a picture with the Country Bears around mile 1 and also tinkerbell’s light up friends from MSEP shortly after.
Start line
COUNTRY BEARS!!!
THE TURTLE! My fav MSEP FLOAT EVER!!
As we ran towards Animal Kingdom, I realized after this race, I will have run through all of the Disney parks. AK has been growing on me as of late so I was excited to see it at night.
I kept with my intervals pretty well but it was dark and quiet. Around mile 2.5, we saw the leaders, which was incredible to see people move at that speed in the rain. What was crazy was seeing all of photo opps where characters were supposed to be and weren’t. I was wondering who was supposed to be where.
Before I knew it, we were in the AK parking lot and I took a pic with the MSEP turtle (my favorite float in the entire parade) and this is where I realized I needed a new phone case. Everytime I took my phone out, it took forever to get it in and I was worried it would get damaged. However the poncho kept all of my electronics dry and safe.
I kept with my intervals pretty well but it was dark and quiet. Around mile 2.5, we saw the leaders, which was incredible to see people move at that speed in the rain. What was crazy was seeing all of photo opps where characters were supposed to be and weren’t. I was wondering who was supposed to be where.
Before I knew it, we were in the AK parking lot and I took a pic with the MSEP turtle (my favorite float in the entire parade) and this is where I realized I needed a new phone case. Everytime I took my phone out, it took forever to get it in and I was worried it would get damaged. However the poncho kept all of my electronics dry and safe.
AK having the time of my life
I got to a medical stop and got some Biofreeze. Since there were Medical stops every 2-3 miles, I decided to stop at every one to numb my butt just incase my sciatic started acting up.
Heading into AK, I saw the colored lights which to me has been such a signature of Wine and Dine recaps. I then headed up the path to the Tree of Life. It really is beautiful at night. I had to take a picture as no one was in line. A lady was yelling for people to come take their picture so I happily obliged!
AK is where the bottle necking began. I expected this as it bottlenecks during the day with the construction walls. It was really beautiful though and peaceful in the rain. I saw King Louie and Pluto out but their lines were long(really they were only like 15 people long but I was moving so slow, I was worried about getting swept) so I skipped them. My leg was feeling great so I wanted to keep it up. There were puddles everywhere which made the bottlenecking worse. The best were the volunteers standing by the large puddles telling everyone to move out of the way. Every once in awhile, there would be someone FLYING through the puddles and getting everyone else wet: so not cool!
Heading out of AK was the pirate ship which had the longest line of the night-really like 30 people . The rain was really starting to come down and the puddles in the parking lot were massive. I was started to get worried about my time (even though my miles had been 14-15 min miles) but once we turned out of AK back on the road, I saw they had not swept people just entering so I knew I was in good shape.
The next part heading to Studios was very boring with no photo opps and the rain really coming down. I ended up using a port-a-potty and a medical stop on the way. There were 2 overpasses where the wind really picked up and it was miserable for about 45 seconds. I had to run with my arms in my poncho.
With all of the Biofreeze I was using, I actually was worried my face would go numb. I had to wipe my face every few minutes to get the water out of my eyes. It only went numb once for a few minutes, other than that, I just used the rain to wash it off my hands.
Right outside of Studios, we hit the Clif Shot station and I found a mocha person right away. Let me take the time now to just thank all of the volunteers and cast members out that night. They all worked so hard in the rain to make sure we had a successful race. Right before this, the course did narrow with cones for cars to drive on! I was terrified a car was going to hit a cone so I made sure to run as far away as possible.
Finally made it back stage at Studios and the rain had let up. I was so excited and had a huge smile beaming on my face. I decided to stop at the Rock n Roll rest rooms just incase I had to pee again. Now is a good time to talk about fueling. Since I was going so much slower than usual, I never felt tired during the race. I did feel hungry but the clif shot helped with that. I still took water and/or powerade at every stop and also had a clif shot blok at mile 3, 6, clif shot around mile 9, and 11.5 (I felt like I needed a boost towards the end).
We ran pass the Sorcerer hat and I knew I had to take a pic. It would be the last time we ran by it (unless it is still up for the WDW marathon) and could see the Osborne lights and started to tear up. Literally, the Osborne lights were what was getting me through this race. I had to see them! We headed back stage where we got to go through the Disco tunnel (part of the old backlot tour) and had a great time. Finally we headed into Osborne and it was incredible! “Have yourself a merry little Christmas” by Judy Garland was playing and it was just perfect. The crowd was a great size and I got amazing pictures. Literally, everything was worth it in that moment.
Heading into AK, I saw the colored lights which to me has been such a signature of Wine and Dine recaps. I then headed up the path to the Tree of Life. It really is beautiful at night. I had to take a picture as no one was in line. A lady was yelling for people to come take their picture so I happily obliged!
AK is where the bottle necking began. I expected this as it bottlenecks during the day with the construction walls. It was really beautiful though and peaceful in the rain. I saw King Louie and Pluto out but their lines were long(really they were only like 15 people long but I was moving so slow, I was worried about getting swept) so I skipped them. My leg was feeling great so I wanted to keep it up. There were puddles everywhere which made the bottlenecking worse. The best were the volunteers standing by the large puddles telling everyone to move out of the way. Every once in awhile, there would be someone FLYING through the puddles and getting everyone else wet: so not cool!
Heading out of AK was the pirate ship which had the longest line of the night-really like 30 people . The rain was really starting to come down and the puddles in the parking lot were massive. I was started to get worried about my time (even though my miles had been 14-15 min miles) but once we turned out of AK back on the road, I saw they had not swept people just entering so I knew I was in good shape.
The next part heading to Studios was very boring with no photo opps and the rain really coming down. I ended up using a port-a-potty and a medical stop on the way. There were 2 overpasses where the wind really picked up and it was miserable for about 45 seconds. I had to run with my arms in my poncho.
With all of the Biofreeze I was using, I actually was worried my face would go numb. I had to wipe my face every few minutes to get the water out of my eyes. It only went numb once for a few minutes, other than that, I just used the rain to wash it off my hands.
Right outside of Studios, we hit the Clif Shot station and I found a mocha person right away. Let me take the time now to just thank all of the volunteers and cast members out that night. They all worked so hard in the rain to make sure we had a successful race. Right before this, the course did narrow with cones for cars to drive on! I was terrified a car was going to hit a cone so I made sure to run as far away as possible.
Finally made it back stage at Studios and the rain had let up. I was so excited and had a huge smile beaming on my face. I decided to stop at the Rock n Roll rest rooms just incase I had to pee again. Now is a good time to talk about fueling. Since I was going so much slower than usual, I never felt tired during the race. I did feel hungry but the clif shot helped with that. I still took water and/or powerade at every stop and also had a clif shot blok at mile 3, 6, clif shot around mile 9, and 11.5 (I felt like I needed a boost towards the end).
We ran pass the Sorcerer hat and I knew I had to take a pic. It would be the last time we ran by it (unless it is still up for the WDW marathon) and could see the Osborne lights and started to tear up. Literally, the Osborne lights were what was getting me through this race. I had to see them! We headed back stage where we got to go through the Disco tunnel (part of the old backlot tour) and had a great time. Finally we headed into Osborne and it was incredible! “Have yourself a merry little Christmas” by Judy Garland was playing and it was just perfect. The crowd was a great size and I got amazing pictures. Literally, everything was worth it in that moment.
my favorite picture of the night
THE LIGHTS!!!
We headed out of Studios and my intervals were done so I was just going on feel and usually doing 1:30 running and 30 sec walking when I could. The path to Boardwalk is pretty narrow and things came to a standstill often so I tried to just go with the flow of the crowd. We hit one last water stop and then on the path in front of Beach Club and onto Epcot.
As we headed through Epcot, it was the same course as the Princess 10k. I knew exactly where we were and how much longer we had. As we approached the plaza, the crowd support was great and just what I needed! I pushed forward as best as I could (however I did miss the Gospel choir!) and crossed the finish line with tears in my eyes. I honestly can't believe I made it through this race-the pain was insane the days leading up to the it-and add in the rain and everything else, it was one of my most trying races I have ever run.
My time was 3:17 which is a full hour slower than the race I had run 2 weeks early. 5 min/mile slower but I am still just so happy I finished. Out of every race I have run, it is the one I am most proud of. More than Glass Slipper or Dumbo or LA Marathon. I really doubted I would be able to run at all so the fact that I finished, really was a huge showing for myself. The tears were happy and just disbelief. Also, I was about to earn my 9th and 10th rundisney medal of the year! Crazy crazy! and my SECOND COAST TO COAST MEDAL!!
This is where things got crazy. I was trying to text everyone to see where they were and I could not get anything out of my phone as it was wet. As soon as I got through the coast to coast tent, it started POURING. It took me 5 minutes to get the knot out of my checked bag I had and also get my ID out for my drink voucher. I wanted my wine!
As we headed through Epcot, it was the same course as the Princess 10k. I knew exactly where we were and how much longer we had. As we approached the plaza, the crowd support was great and just what I needed! I pushed forward as best as I could (however I did miss the Gospel choir!) and crossed the finish line with tears in my eyes. I honestly can't believe I made it through this race-the pain was insane the days leading up to the it-and add in the rain and everything else, it was one of my most trying races I have ever run.
My time was 3:17 which is a full hour slower than the race I had run 2 weeks early. 5 min/mile slower but I am still just so happy I finished. Out of every race I have run, it is the one I am most proud of. More than Glass Slipper or Dumbo or LA Marathon. I really doubted I would be able to run at all so the fact that I finished, really was a huge showing for myself. The tears were happy and just disbelief. Also, I was about to earn my 9th and 10th rundisney medal of the year! Crazy crazy! and my SECOND COAST TO COAST MEDAL!!
This is where things got crazy. I was trying to text everyone to see where they were and I could not get anything out of my phone as it was wet. As soon as I got through the coast to coast tent, it started POURING. It took me 5 minutes to get the knot out of my checked bag I had and also get my ID out for my drink voucher. I wanted my wine!
After all of that, I had to wait about 10 min to get into the changing tent which was on grass. I then waited 5 min instead to get some room on the bench and I am glad I did.
Originally, I had decided to change completely but since my capris were dry, I left on my bottoms and changed everything else. I put on my DL half shirt, wine and dine shirt, rain coat and poncho and felt great. So many people were shivering because their body temp had come down but I felt great.
I decided to drink my wine as I walked to the locker to put up myself. It sucked because the locker had a key so we had to keep meeting each other but the locker was CLUTCH. It was so nice not to have to drag our stuff around all night, especially in the rain. nDevin had gone in the morning to get a large locker and we had it all day and still got our refund before we left. It fit 3 huge rundisney bags and still had a bit of room.
Originally, I had decided to change completely but since my capris were dry, I left on my bottoms and changed everything else. I put on my DL half shirt, wine and dine shirt, rain coat and poncho and felt great. So many people were shivering because their body temp had come down but I felt great.
I decided to drink my wine as I walked to the locker to put up myself. It sucked because the locker had a key so we had to keep meeting each other but the locker was CLUTCH. It was so nice not to have to drag our stuff around all night, especially in the rain. nDevin had gone in the morning to get a large locker and we had it all day and still got our refund before we left. It fit 3 huge rundisney bags and still had a bit of room.
notice the rain on my forehead-ha!
Bacchus got her wine!!!
After that, I drank my wine while walking to the after party. We had an amazing time and shut Epcot down! I had:
1. Carne guisada, fried plantains and Sangria at Puerto Rico
2. Cheddar cheese soup at Canada (they were out of ice wine!!!)
3. Mimosa Sunrise at Morocco
4. Something else that I honestly can't remember haha
We really got to see a lot of characters which really excited me:
1. Bert and Mary Poppins in the UK
2. Remy and Emile in France
3. Aladdin, jasmine and Abu (never met him before!) in Morocco
4. Prince Naveen and Tiana in America
5. Pinocchio and Gepetto in Italy
6. Dopey and Snow White in Germany
All of these characters had no lines either! It was so awesome!
Afterwards, we boarded Spaceship Earth at 3:58 and had a great ride. We got in the bus to our hotel at 4:31. We unpacked and showered and I got into bed at 5:30. None of us could sleep and we actually had a conversation at 5:45 to just stay up and head to AK when it opened at 8. Thank goodness we decided just to sleep because we would have done it too!
I spent the next morning, doing laundry (which may have went all day in the dryer?!?!) and cleaning the room so the maid could actually come in. We had a huge pile of dirty towels and dirty clothes by the door. We spent the whole next day at MK and our legs felt great!
Overall, wine and dine was the most amazing race I have run. I was definitely afraid of running at night but it never was an issue. I always said I would not do this race again next year but now I am not sure. I love it and Food and Wine is the greatest. I do not need to make a decision until March so I am going to see how school and everything shakes out. I would love to do this race again (and that way I would actually run all of the races in one full calendar year-crazy!!). I think next time I would want to also do the 5k-I really think it would so fun to run through AK again.
Have you ever run Wine and Dine? Did you run it this year, being nicknamed “Splash and Dine”?
1. Carne guisada, fried plantains and Sangria at Puerto Rico
2. Cheddar cheese soup at Canada (they were out of ice wine!!!)
3. Mimosa Sunrise at Morocco
4. Something else that I honestly can't remember haha
We really got to see a lot of characters which really excited me:
1. Bert and Mary Poppins in the UK
2. Remy and Emile in France
3. Aladdin, jasmine and Abu (never met him before!) in Morocco
4. Prince Naveen and Tiana in America
5. Pinocchio and Gepetto in Italy
6. Dopey and Snow White in Germany
All of these characters had no lines either! It was so awesome!
Afterwards, we boarded Spaceship Earth at 3:58 and had a great ride. We got in the bus to our hotel at 4:31. We unpacked and showered and I got into bed at 5:30. None of us could sleep and we actually had a conversation at 5:45 to just stay up and head to AK when it opened at 8. Thank goodness we decided just to sleep because we would have done it too!
I spent the next morning, doing laundry (which may have went all day in the dryer?!?!) and cleaning the room so the maid could actually come in. We had a huge pile of dirty towels and dirty clothes by the door. We spent the whole next day at MK and our legs felt great!
Overall, wine and dine was the most amazing race I have run. I was definitely afraid of running at night but it never was an issue. I always said I would not do this race again next year but now I am not sure. I love it and Food and Wine is the greatest. I do not need to make a decision until March so I am going to see how school and everything shakes out. I would love to do this race again (and that way I would actually run all of the races in one full calendar year-crazy!!). I think next time I would want to also do the 5k-I really think it would so fun to run through AK again.
Have you ever run Wine and Dine? Did you run it this year, being nicknamed “Splash and Dine”?
celebrating in Epcot
All done and back in our warm hotel room!
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