The Wine and Dine Half Marathon has been a race my wife and I have had our eyes on for a while, but since it falls outside of our normal Disney schedule it’s taken us a few years to finally get around to it.. Typically, we head down in January for Marathon Weekend and do the Goofy Challenge (as we are in two months), but a race centered around food and drinking? Perfect! So this year, we skipped the January trip and saved it for November.
Before the race
Wine and Dine is a nighttime race, it starts at 10pm, so it’s a bit different than most other races out there. We had gotten down to Disney on Thursday evening and gone right to the parks and then spent Friday and Saturday in the parks as well so we were already kind of tired from constantly being on our feet. Though, that’s the best thing about runDisney races, we just have fun, we don’t care about times. There’s no pressure to push yourself hard.
We had lunch at the 50s Prime Time Cafe at 2:45 and then went straight back to the resort to rest and get ready for the race. The wife took an hour and a half nap or so, but I just laid in bed and opted for a short 20 minute nap. Once we were up and ready to go, we headed off the to the bus stop for our ride over to ESPN Wide World of Sports. We were on the early side so, by the time we got there, we had a ton of time to chill out. I had been tweeting with some folks who were looking to meet up so we grabbed a spot near the bag drop-off and relaxed. Not long after that, I spotted Krissy and our new friend Patrick walking by. I shouted over to them and they joined us. The always-thinking Krissy had a throwaway tablecloth on her to use as a picnic blanket so we all hung out and relaxed some more while we worried about the impending rain.
Over the course of the next hour, our group grew to include some of my favorite #runchat buddies and twitter friends Lauren, Nathan, and Heather and a quick hello from Ashley. But before we knew it, it was time to head over to the corrals.
We were in corral A with Krissy so we headed over there together and staked out a nice spot in the middle right in front of the little announcer stage. While hanging out, an older gentleman came up to my wife and asked what she was looking to run since her bib number was near his. He seemed a tad ticked off when she replied that she wasn’t thinking about time and just looking to have fun instead of going for “a 1:35” finish like he was. “Oh, you’re not taking it seriously.” Shortly after that, we were joined by new friends Audrey and Patrick again.
As we got closer to race time, the rain we were all worried about finally joined us. We’d all been checking the forecast furiously in the days leading up to the race and hoping the rain would hold off, but as the chance of precipitation climbed to 100% just around the start time, we knew the score. Luckily, the rain at least stayed light until the race started…for those of us in the earlier corrals anyway. I’m sure it was bit more of a miserable start for those further back.
The race
After a good 45 minutes of hanging out in the corral, the race was finally off with the obligatory runDisney fireworks. We all took off a bit faster than I had planned to run given my current state of running, but it was a pace that felt good at the time and was at least doable for a while. Krissy and Patrick took off even faster after about a quarter mile and were gone, leaving Audrey, my wife, and myself to hold down the fort at our current pace.
As the first couple miles went by, the rain started to pick up, but we had warmed up so it wasn’t too bad. We hit a few puddles and our shoes got soaked making it your typical rain run. Unfortunately, the rain scared away many of the characters and entertainment from the course so it wasn’t your typical runDisney experience.
Before we knew it, we were making our way into the dark, wet, and animal-less Animal Kingdom. We were having fun running together, though, so it wasn’t too much of a drag. We passed Krissy as she had stopped for a quick photo-op and then she was off again. And just like that, we were back out on the open roads of inter-park Disney purgatory for our trip over to Hollywood Studios, but not before I nearly drowned in a giant puddle I didn’t see until I was already swimming in it.
As we approached the 10k mark, the wife’s IT band issues were starting to creep up so we decided to walk for a bit instead of pushing it and risking it turning into a full-fledged injury. From here on out, we decided to do a bit of a run/walk thing, but the running was still at the same pace we had been running. To be honest, I didn’t mind at all. I was tired and starting to doubt I could keep the faster pace up anyway. While the rain wasn’t so bad when we were running, it was much more of a nuisance while we were walking.
We made our way into Hollywood Studios right around the ninth mile marker and knew, from here on out, we were going to have constant stuff to look at. We rounded by Rockin’ Roller Coaster, down Sunset Blvd, around Sorcerer Mickey’s hat, through part of the recently-defunct Backlot Tour, and right down the middle of the Osbourne lights. It was a great little section there.
Then it was time to make our way out of the park and head down along the river to the Boardwalk. Here, we decided to take another little walk break which got us yelled at by a catty runner who thought she was hot shit telling us we should be walking on the right side of the path. Last I checked, there was no unwritten rule about which side you walk on, you just make sure to get off to the side as quickly as possible without getting in anyone’s way.
Shortly after that little encounter, we picked it up again and made it our personal mission to fly by Ms Catness, which we did with ease. After our little jaunt by the Boardwalk, it was time for Epcot. The route through Epcot was much different than we’re used to from the Marathon Weekend races so it was a nice change of pace. We made our way through Futureworld this time and it was awesome.
We picked up the pace for a nice little finish and were relieved to be done so we could get to some dry clothes.
We ran a 2:09, which is a little slower than I had planned, but I didn’t mind. Again, I don’t do Disney races for time, I just like to have fun and I DID! Despite the rain, the race was a lot of fun, especially thanks to our new friend Audrey who stuck with us the entire time.
Post race…the changing tent
I’m putting this as its own section because, well, it was kind of awful. I had packed plenty of dry clothes to change into after the race and had debated waiting until I got into the park to change in a bathroom, but I really wanted out of my cold, wet clothes so I opted for the changing tent. I was really hoping there would be private changing areas inside and was prepared to wait for them.
There were no private changing areas.
Instead, there were just two big open areas. A men’s one and a women’s one. This was absolutely terrifying to me as a trans woman. Having to change in a giant area with other women is not something a women with a penis looks forward to. And it was packed too! With that many people, you know there’s at least a couple transphobes who would make a huge deal out of it if they knew I’m trans.
The worst part was that I had to change my underwear, too, since I was soaked all the way through. Luckily, my wife was there to hold the mylar blanket I’d just gotten at the finish around me and I was able get my bottoms changed without anyone seeing anything that might get me screamed for my existence. Without her there, I wouldn’t have been able to change. I would have had to wait until I got into Epcot to use a bathroom stall. Anyway, once I got the bottom done, I didn’t worry too much about the top, but I wanted out of there as quickly as possible.
Post race…the party
With that debacle out of the way, we threw on our ponchos (thanks, Krissy!) and headed into Epcot for the post race party. Of course, it was still raining a bit and I was still wearing my soaked running shoes and socks, but everything was still open. There was a slight bit of misery in the air as you could just feel everyone being cold and wet and not happy about it, but we did a lap around the World Showcase while stopping at numerous Food and Wine Festival huts for various nomming. After our lap, though, we were ready to retire for the evening. We were cold, wet, and tired. It was around 2am already…but there were still people running. :/
Thoughts
Despite the weather being awful, it was still a ton of fun and I’d definitely do the race again, but it’s probably low on my list right now. It’s tough to run a race that starts at 10pm, but all that food afterwards is a nice little reward.
