Flabby, Fat & Lazy, Run A Race & Oopsy-Daisy! 2013 Wine & Dine 1/2 Marathon! COMPLETE

[Ariel484]

Day 2: Saturday, November 9, 2013

2013 Mickey's Jingle Jungle 5K! Arriving

GOOD MORNING! NO SLEEPING!

We slept like rocks that first night. French Quarter had awesome pillows.

After taping my foot I made us coffee in the room, we got dressed and applied sunscreen, and quickly made our way out to the bus stop. We got to the staging area in one of the Animal Kingdom parking lots pretty quickly and after visiting the porta-potties we weren't quite sure what to do with ourselves. There were DJs and runDisney people pumping up the runners and one single, solitary character photo-op with Jingle Jungle Mickey and Minnie. The line was humongous but we had over an hour to kill until the race start anyway, so we joined the masses waiting for pictures with the mice.

The Line...the starting corrals are on the other side of the wall of people.

There were lots of families and lots of people dressed up...some as Disney characters, some as Santa/elves, etc. We were dressed as 2 sleepy people that were wearing non-festive running clothes.

The line for Minnie and Mickey got cut off pretty quickly...arg! So we just decided to head into our corral. Which corral?! Corral A! Not quite sure how that happened...seriously though, as you'll see from our times we're super fast. Don't blink or you might miss us.

While hanging out in the corral we ate bagels with peanut butter that I'd brought from home and chatted. I think Will was a teeny bit nervous, but he was holding up pretty well overall. The DJs kept playing some tunes and machines were dropping the famous Disney "snoap" on us to add to the festive atmosphere. It was fun.

The view from Corral A...the grey blurs in the picture are snoap flakes:

"What the heck are we doing in Corral A?!"

This photos reminds me...the night before I'd asked Will whether he planned on wearing his Magic Band for the race. He pointed out that, duh, it was our room key, so one of us would have to be wearing it. I have to say, it really didn't bother me at all wearing the thing, and in the past I've had to worry about carrying my AP, KTTW card and cash on me during races...so it was nice to just have the band this time.

ANYWAY...just before 7 a Disney vocalist sand the National Anthem and Mickey and Minnie came up to help with the start.

Continued in Next Post

 

[ZellyB]

Woohoo! So glad you are doing a trip report for Wine and Dine. We are on the plane waiting to take off for home after finishing the marathon!

Good news. Women cut shirts were available this time. RunDisney finally joins the new age.

I'm so excited Will is able to join you on a Disney run this time. So excited for you both.

Hoping the sore foot didn't cause you problems on the runs. I was fighting IT band issues for much of my training. Injuries are no fun.

Excited to read the rest of your report.

 

[wiigirl]

Great pics!

 

[Ariel484]

Woohoo! So glad you are doing a trip report for Wine and Dine. We are on the plane waiting to take off for home after finishing the marathon!

Good news. Women cut shirts were available this time. RunDisney finally joins the new age.

I'm so excited Will is able to join you on a Disney run this time. So excited for you both.

Hoping the sore foot didn't cause you problems on the runs. I was fighting IT band issues for much of my training. Injuries are no fun.

Excited to read the rest of your report.

Gisele!! How did the marathon go??? I hope you guys had a blast! I was sad not to be there this year.

WOMEN'S CUT SHIRTS. Finally, runDisney! Finally!! "RunDisney" finally joins the new age" made me LOL...it's too true.

I was excited to run with Will too...as you know, husbands are fun race partners. The foot was a bit of an issue but not to debilitating. I'm so sorry you had IT Band issues! That's the WORST!

Glad you're here!

Great pics!

Thank you!!

 

[Ariel484]

2013 Mickey's Jingle Jungle 5K! Part 1

3-2-1- GOOOOO! Smoke shot up from the starting line and we were off!

The first mile looped out through the parking lot...YAWN. We were pretty excited to be running though, so it seemed to go by quickly. I was THRILLED that my foot felt great. I'd programmed intervals into my Garmin beforehand (run 4 minutes/walk 1 minute) so we followed that for the first mile.

Just before Mile Marker 1 we arrived at the park entrance...I love this Christmas tree!

Not bad, not bad.

At this point, except for during races, we hadn't been to Animal Kingdom since summer of 2011. We were all too happy to right that wrong a couple of weeks ago!

Overall the character lines weren't too bad during this race...this was a relief after January's 5K with the huge lines. Maybe that's the difference between starting in Corral A and starting in Corral B.

Baloo!

I think Terk was out meeting after Baloo, but we skipped that photo-op. We couldn't pass up the Tree of Life though!

I found the weather to be pretty comfortable..low-mid 60s with low humidity and lots of shade thanks to all that Animal Kingdom greenery. It was very pleasant!

Our next photo-op came soon after the Tree of Life.

Run people, run!

The Figment in the picture below was our favorite runner costume:

See the tape on my ankle? At least it matches my outfit.

Next up we made our way through Asia. Good morning, Everest!

After heading through Dinoland we were back at Discovery Island...we were almost out of the park already. Boo!

(People on the right side of the cones are in the later corrals):

Run, William!

Continued in Next Post

 

[Ariel484]

2013 Mickey's Jingle Jungle 5K! Part 2

Getting funky:

While in this line I grilled Will about whether or not he was having fun...and he was! Woohoo! We discussed other Disney races and I'm hoping maybe I can talk him into the Tower of Terror 10-miler someday (or more realistically a Disney 10K)...fingers crossed! In the more immediate future I think he wants to run a race sans photo-ops to see how well he can really do. I can't say I blame him.

In the meantime, it was time to meet some festive 'munks:

And all too soon we left the park. Watch out for characters!

A 22-minute mile! Told you we were fast.

We both found this "Dinoland Administration" building funny...like, what department are you in? Dinoland Administration. Maybe it's just us.

After we passed Mile Marker 2 it was like a switch flipped - suddenly my foot was killing me. Ughhhhhh. I felt bad because I knew Will felt great and wanted to finish strong, but I was suddenly needing a lot more walk breaks. It was just so sore and sort of, I don't know, popping? BOO!

But hey, at least I was wearing shoes...UNLIKE THE GUY IN THE PICTURE BELOW (with the "My feet hurt" shirt). I have seen this before at other races but I will never understand it.

Right about now we were both commenting on just how bright it was and how we'd both forgotten sunglasses. Aw, phooey!

At this point we were almost at the turnaround of a loooong out-and-back. We passed up a photo-op with Pluto (long line) and made it to the turnaround.

We could see Mile Marker 3 in the distance...I wanted to run the rest of the thing in but I just couldn't. Another walk break for me.

I spy the finish line...!

And then it was over! Go Will, go!

He did it!

Oh yeah, I did it too!

Not sure what our time was (the bibs don't have timing chips for Disney 5Ks)...50ish minutes I guess. Who cares?!

We were shooed out of the finish chute and out to the post-race food area. Here they had the usual runDisney snackbox, banana, water and Powerade:

We didn't stick around for long after the race...we caught a bus back to French Quarter where we showered and I iced my foot. Time for a celebratory brunch!

Continued in Next Post

 

[Ariel484]

2013 Mickey's Jingle Jungle 5K! Final Thoughts

I thought this race was really well-done. The parking lot portions are boring but the energy around us was great and we had good entertainment. Everything was well-organized, there were 2 well-stocked water stops (pretty good for a 5K course), and we had a good spread of food to choose from when the race was over. There was a fun, no-pressure atmosphere throughout - I think this race would be great for first-timers and families.

As far as the foot thing, I realize that the smart thing would have been to skip the 5K and rest up for the half, but there was no way I was doing that. I've been wanting Will to do a Disney race with me for awhile now, and even though he's never really liked running he signed up - and trained - just because he knew how much it would mean to me. Except for the foot pain this was the most fun I've had running a race, and I'm incredibly grateful that I got to share this experience with him. Hopefully it's not the last Disney race we'll run together!

Creepy teddy bear eyes on the medallion...

Continued in Next Post

 

[KBrown88]

The Mickey Jingle Jungle looks fun! I am planning a moms' getaway with a few of my friends this October for the Food and Wine and the Happy Haunted 5k trail run. Have you done that race before? I am not a night runner or I would try the ToT 10 miler.

 

[Ariel484]

The Mickey Jingle Jungle looks fun! I am planning a moms' getaway with a few of my friends this October for the Food and Wine and the Happy Haunted 5k trail run. Have you done that race before? I am not a night runner or I would try the ToT 10 miler.

It was tons of fun! We liked it a lot.

I haven't done the Happy Haunted 5K yet...I might do that one this year, haven't fully decided. I did read a good report from that one though...in looking at it again I see that the Headless Horseman rode by before the race (!!! ) and that there were photo-ops with Scar, the Big Bad Wolf, Captain Hook, Brer Bear, some Haunted Mansion gravediggers and Pirate Goofy. So if the line-up is similar at all it seems pretty solid to me! That sounds like a really fun plan for your moms' weekend!

 

[Ariel484]

Post-5K Brunch!

Now that we were clean and dry (and in my case iced and re-taped) we hopped on a bus to the Magic Kingdom. From here we switched to the resort monorail (much faster today than it had been the previous day). We arrived at the Polynesian for our Kona Cafe ADR about 5 minutes early.

Ahhh.....

Kona was PACKED - we saw more than one group trying to get walk-ups be turned away. I think I may have seen one woman put in a carry-out order...is that a thing? You learn something new every day. While we waited some people asked us about the race (we were wearing our finisher medallions), so that was fun! Then they'd ask if either of us were running that night and I'd sort of stutter nervously...like, yes I'm starting the race but who knows if I'll make it to finish at this point.

We got seated about 20 minutes past our ADR time and we were STARVING!

The first thing we ordered was a Kona pressed pot to share...best coffee EVER!

We put our orders in quickly and were very surprised when our food came out 5-7 minutes later. This made me a bit nervous but everything tasted hot and fresh, so no complaints!

Will ordered the Two Eggs Your way (over medium in his case), which came with biscuits, sausage and home fries. Two thumbs up!

I was all set to order the fruit plate, but when we sat down our server informed us that there was a seasonal special, so I went with that instead. One order of pumpkin pancakes with maple pecan cinnamon butter, plus a side of bacon! (Obviously...gotta have the bacon.)

These were good, but they didn't blow me away. I think maybe because I'd had the exact same thing at a restaurant at home recently. The bacon was really good though...I definitely appreciate that Kona seems to have better, thicker bacon than most other Disney restaurants. And I definitely wasn't expecting 3 giant pancakes so it was a good deal.

Continued in Next Post

 

[Ariel484]

Room For One More...

We paid and hopped back onto the monorail. After gazing wistfully at the Grand Floridian (our new fave next to the Boardwalk) we get off at the Magic Kingdom!

YAY!

I'd been hoping to get Will's Annual Pass converted to the plastic version since he still had the cardstock kind...it probably wasn't a big deal since our Magic Bands got us into the park on the first try, but it still seemed like a good idea to get the plastic pass. The Guest Services line was out the door though, so we decided to come back later and (for the first time ever) hopped on the Walt Disney Railroad instead, getting off at (I think) the Frontierland stop. I'm pretty sure we checked the wait times at Big Thunder and Splash and deemed them too long. We did queue up for the Haunted Mansion though.

With the new FP+ line there's no option to skip the cemetery route...boo to that. I think we waited 20-25 minutes to get on the ride, which is probably the longest we've ever waited.

After the mansion I showed Will the new Tangled bathrooms. He was impressed but agreed with me that this movie probably deserves an actual attraction instead of fancy toilets...but whatever.

The weekend so far (crazy Friday + 4:45AM wake-up call this morning) was starting to catch up to us, so we headed back to Main Street.

The Guest Services line was gone now, so we were able to convert Will's AP pretty quickly. The Cast Member picked up the first card in his pile, which had Minnie on it. He seemed really concerned that Will wouldn't want a Minnie Mouse AP, but Will said it was fine. The CM seriously mentioned it, like, 5-6 times. It was weird.

We waited about 10 minutes for a bus and were back to French Quarter by about 1:30. Nap time!

Continued in Next Post

 

[wiigirl]

Great update!

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Love your trip report, thanks for writing it

My BF and I have run the TOT 10 Miler twice now and are looking into doing other Run Disney races. I'm excited you got pics with the characters, it seems like a lot of race reports skip over those and I'm always interested to know who you get to meet.

I am so jealous of the vinylmation medal I had never heard of those until we got home from our second TOT, and I have the Rundisney vinyl but mine doesn't have any medals.

All of your pictures are excellent. I'm excited to hear how you hold up in the bigger race

 

[cjhinch]

Following along! Enjoying your report!

 

[ZellyB]

Congratulations to you both on the run. I'm so glad Will enjoyed it. I hope it inspired him to keep up with running and maybe join you in another race. I love running with my husband, Chris. He's a great partner.

The 5K looked really fun, but the eyes on that bear on the medal...EEK! Still very cute.

Breakfast at Kona looked delicious as well.

The marathon was awesome for us. The cooler temps made it a much better run for me (although you wouldn't know it from my time. Ha!). I'm thinking about doing a trip report again.

I guess reading your report got into my subconscious because I dreamt I was at Disney last night and I saw you in line for a ride ahead of me. I kept trying to catch up to you but never could. Lol.

Excited to read more.

 

[emilyindisney]

That's quite a snoap flurry at the start line!

Congrats to Will on his first race, and congrats to you on race one of two! It looks like it was a fun experience!

Yum- pumpkin pancakes are my favorite pumpkin specialty!

Ahhh! The park looks so awesome for Christmas. I think MK has some of the nicest holiday decorations on property!

 

[Ariel484]

Great update!

Thank you!

Love your trip report, thanks for writing it

My BF and I have run the TOT 10 Miler twice now and are looking into doing other Run Disney races. I'm excited you got pics with the characters, it seems like a lot of race reports skip over those and I'm always interested to know who you get to meet.

I am so jealous of the vinylmation medal I had never heard of those until we got home from our second TOT, and I have the Rundisney vinyl but mine doesn't have any medals.

All of your pictures are excellent. I'm excited to hear how you hold up in the bigger race

A fellow Ohioan, yay! Thanks!

Oh yes, don't worry...more character pictures to come! That's my favorite part of runDisney races (besides the bling).

Ah...I'm sorry you missed your Vinylmation medals. You'll have to start collecting the other ones.

Thanks for the kind words on the pictures, that's always something I try to get better at with each trip.

Following along! Enjoying your report!

Thanks, and welcome!

Congratulations to you both on the run. I'm so glad Will enjoyed it. I hope it inspired him to keep up with running and maybe join you in another race. I love running with my husband, Chris. He's a great partner.

The 5K looked really fun, but the eyes on that bear on the medal...EEK! Still very cute.

Breakfast at Kona looked delicious as well.

The marathon was awesome for us. The cooler temps made it a much better run for me (although you wouldn't know it from my time. Ha!). I'm thinking about doing a trip report again.

I guess reading your report got into my subconscious because I dreamt I was at Disney last night and I saw you in line for a ride ahead of me. I kept trying to catch up to you but never could. Lol.

Excited to read more.

Thanks Gisele! Unfortunately he's shut down the running for now...something about not wanting to run in sub-20-degree weather? I'm hoping it'll work out that he can do a Disney 10K at some point. That would be fun!

YES...THE EYES. So freaky! And yes, Kona is always a solid brunch option, especially after a race!

Glad you guys had a good second marathon! Let me know if you start a report, I'd love to read about it! And I apologize for dream-me being rude to you in dream-WDW.

That's quite a snoap flurry at the start line!

Congrats to Will on his first race, and congrats to you on race one of two! It looks like it was a fun experience!

Yum- pumpkin pancakes are my favorite pumpkin specialty!

Ahhh! The park looks so awesome for Christmas. I think MK has some of the nicest holiday decorations on property!

Yes, we weren't expecting the snoap!

Thanks for the congrats, we really did have a great time!

The MK decor was really great, I was so glad that we got to see it (even though it was so early in the year)! It was funny because there were no other Christmas decorations anywhere else...Christmas came to the MK early!

 

[Ariel484]

"Is it just me, or are the servers here a lot better looking than normal people?"

After some much-needed sleep we caught a bus going to Epcot. I forget how long this drive took, but this was when we figured out that French Quarter and Riverside share a bus for Epcot. I think it was maybe 20-25 minutes with the extra stops.

We power-walked to Italy by way of Mexico, Norway, etc. Epcot was PACKED. Possibly the most crowded I've ever seen it...and we were in Disney over Thanksgiving a few years back AND were just there over Christmas/New Year's. I guess the combination of it being a Saturday night + the last weekend of Food & Wine + Veterans Day Weekend + Wine & Dine weekend made for some huge crowds in the World Showcase. It was kind of overwhelming.

Eventually we made it to Italy and checked in for our 4:30 ADR at Via Napoli (which has sort of become my traditional pre-race dinner of choice) about 5 minutes late.

In the months leading up to the Wine & Dine half (which I still planned on running at that point - I think I remember my foot feeling pretty good post-nap ) I'd done a bit of research about how people recommended eating during the day before the night race. I read that most people had a bigger lunch followed by a "snack" for dinner. I've never run a night race before (I did do a couple of longer training runs in the evening to try to prepare...I don't think it helped much though) but I knew that just a "snack" for dinner would not cut it for me. So even though this dinner reservation was early I still felt like I was sort of taking a risk. Hopefully I wasn't setting myself up for serious stomach issues later that evening.

We were seated in the big dining room and Will goes, "Is it just me, or are the servers here a lot better looking than normal people?" He wasn't kidding...the guy that brought our drinks looked like a male model!

Will ordered a Moretti in what he deemed a "witchin' bear mug!" (Except replace the "w" in "witchin'" with a "b." This is a family site, you know. )

I stuck to water, and lots of it. Our Male Model Water Guy was really good about re-filling my glass a lot...at some point he commented, "You must be thirsty!" and I giggled and batted my eyelashes. :geek: Okay, not really.

We put in our orders (pizza for me, pasta for Will) and our server warned us that since our entrees were cooked in different ovens, they may not come out at the same time.

Sure enough, Will's arrived first - the Candele (candle stick pasta, sausage ragu, polpettine meatballs, mozzarella, ricotta). You can see that he is poised to dig in ASAP:

It came out piping hot and Will really liked it!

My pizza came out 5-7 minutes later (which was not a big deal since we'd been warned about it ahead of time). I went for the individual pepperoni:

Since I was nervous about how dinner was going to affect the run later on I originally planned on eating 1/2-3/4 of the pizza...instead I stuffed the entire thing into my face and it was awesome. LOVE Via Napoli.

Continued in Next Post

 

[Ariel484]

Food & Wine On A Saturday Night...NEVER AGAIN

After dinner we took a left out of Italy to walk through the other half of the World Showcase and get a preview of the Food & Wine booths. This would be our first time attending the festival, and we'd SO been looking forward to it...but those Saturday night crowds were giving us second thoughts. There were SO many people - many were drunk and some were smoking right out in the open. No one was being belligerent or anything, and I think it wouldn't have been as big of a deal if there were less people and less smoking...but we were really surprised and sort of nervous for our planned Food & Wine explorations the next day.

Eventually we made it out of the World Showcase and to the cranberry bog.

What a weird job that would be, to just stand in the bog for a few hours answering questions.

We were back at French Quarter a bit after 6PM.

Rawr!

We took a lap around the pool area to find the hot tub because I was pretty sure I'd want to soak after the race later on. For whatever reason I could not for the life of me remember where the hot tub was, even though I'd seen it earlier that day. Turns out it was right at the pool entrance and we walked past it like 5-6 times. We still didn't realize where it was until the next day, even though we were actively looking for it. DUH.

We headed back to the room and I started getting stuff together for the race. This was the first time I was planning on checking a back and I double- and triple-checked to make sure I wasn't forgetting anything - clean clothes, flip flops, new KT Tape to re-tape after the race, Wet Ones wipes (since I wouldn't be able to shower after the race if I wanted to go to the after-party, which disturbed me greatly ), shampoo and conditioner (because if I couldn't shower maybe I could at least wash my hair in a bathroom sink???? Maybe???). Eventually I was afraid I had so much stuff that the clear plastic gear check bag I'd been given at the expo would rip, so I put half in a separate bag that Will promised to bring to the after-party (he planned on relaxing in the room during the race).

By now it was almost time to get to the bus stop, so I got changed, taped the crap out of my foot (which was feeling pretty good at that point) and taped my knee. Since my knee was what started this whole mess, it seemed like a good pre-cautionary measure. Besides my checked bag I also took my camera - of course - my phone, some Gu Chomps for fuel, and another bagel with peanut butter from home. I'd been hoping to get on the first bus to the starting area at 7PM and be first in line for character pictures, but I ended up getting on the bus later than planned at 7:30.

Wine & Dine Half Marathon Race Recap is up next!

Continued in Next Post

 

[dismagiclover]

Hey I just noticed you started this! I loved the 5K recap! I'm planning on Wine 'n Dine this year and I'm going to do the 5K too. It looks like they had lots of characters out! At the 5K this past marathon weekend I think they only had 4 character stops the whole race. I'm happy to see this one had more. Can't wait to hear about the half!