Official Wine and Dine 2016 thread

[Ariel484]

I'm okay with not having a paper copy of the program, but I would have liked to have been able to save the PDF to my phone like in past years. I wanted to read the program while flying down - which I have done in the past by saving the PDF to the iBooks app on my phone - but that wasn't possible with the new digital program since I normally don't buy wi-fi packages while flying.

 

[CherieFran]

I don't really understand all of the negativity surrounding the digital program. In today's age of smart phones and digital devices, it makes sense on many fronts to go digital. Why make people carry around an additional awkwardly sized booklet when you can deliver the content to a device they are going to have with them at all times, anyway? It also saves a lot of paper when you consider the number of participants, so it is more environmentally friendly. I went to the DLH this year that also used the digital program exclusively. It was my first visit to DL ever, not just to race, and I found it to contain the information that I needed.

I think the cost savings are also being underestimated, too. The paper programs have to be digitally designed and set for printing, so I don't think the up front design cost is going to be significantly different between prepping the guide for printing and prepping it for digital delivery. It is a different style of content delivery, though, and the transition to that new style may be throwing some people off. I lost count of how many posts there were on here from people wanting to know how to link their bibs to PhotoPass. That information was both on the back of the bib and in the digital event guide (I was able to find it just pulling up the event guide as a non-participant). Any time there's a change there's going to be an adjustment period to it. I think we're just in the middle of that and if I were a betting man, I'd put a lot of money down that the electronic guides are here to stay. Hopefully they will continue to improve their usability going forward, though.

I'm fine with a digital-only copy of the event guide but I found the design to be cumbersome to navigate. There were several time I had difficulty finding the information within the guide because of the way it was laid out and the number of scrolls and clicks required to get to what I was looking for. I agree with @Ariel484 that a PDF would have been much easier to use. I don't like being at the mercy of a slow signal (which I often have difficulty with in the parks) when I just want a quick answer or confirmation.

 

[1lilspark]

I agree a PDF or some kind of printable version would of been good. As a first timer I just copy/pasted what info I felt I needed onto a word doc yet we still pulled up the digital guide about a half dozen times

 

[Chasing Dopey]

I agree a PDF or some kind of printable version would of been good. As a first timer I just copy/pasted what info I felt I needed onto a word doc yet we still pulled up the digital guide about a half dozen times

All true. A PDF is cheap, downloadable, and universally supported.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

I must say that we thoroughly enjoyed the entire weekend: 5K, 10K, half and after party!!!! And I was a little skeptical at first. Besides this one we've done ToT, Princess, Marathon Wknd, SW DL, and SW WDW -- our first W&D.

Some thoughts...

5K & 10K

• Enjoyed the courses, especially the 10K — thought they were lots of fun and had great amounts of park time.

Half

• Actually achieved a PR, something that I was not even trying for in the least — a nice surprise!
• At about mile 7 we fell in with a Galloway pacing group and decided to give it a shot. We had NEVER run this way — we usually run long stretches and work in some walk breaks when we feel we need them. Well, we ended up staying with them until near the end of the race — they had great energy and were lots of fun! Will definitely be giving rD great feedback about them.
• I was skeptical ahead of time about the course, but I actually ended up thinking it was just fine. I was THRILLED not to have to run the tour/loop of the whole AK parking lot like we did for SW — I HATED THAT!!! HATE. For real.

After Party

• Not sure what everyone's expectations were; we basically had none except enjoy food booths and MAYBE a ride or two
• We were VERY GLAD that the party was later, after having a chance to wash up and rest. I can only imagine what a zoo it must have been with a bunch of dehydrated runners drinking and drinking immediately after a half — not something I would have been too interested in.
• The lines at the booths were NOT long at all. Especially as compared to Thu-Sun before the party. We stopped at MANY booths, had lots of great food and drinks.
• We didn’t love the music, but we are rock/hard rock people — dance music is not our bag, but it was mostly ok.
• We did Soarin' with almost no wait at all; had already done the other rides two days earlier so did't think it was worth waiting in 30/60min lines. Do think they could have kept more rides open to minimize the waits.

Merch

• Surprised to find that performance jackets and 10K pins were being mailed due to a snafu — but fine
• Merch was generally good, I think… I just wish the “I did it” shirts were a bit more like tech material; I’d buy/use them more

Transportation

• We were at the Poly and had no issues all weekend. We did drive to the 5K though, so no experience with Disney transportation that day.

Course Photos

• Definitely like EVERYTHING about these as compared to MarathonPhoto.
• All photos linked online without a problem… some were even OK-looking…
• Pet peeve: seems like it’s often couples running together (though not always!) who slooooooow dooooown for a loooooooong stretch and hog the cameras together

We hope that they keep this race just as it is now: 5K, Challenge, morning races with night party. If they do, we will sign up for W&D 2017 for sure.


ETA: I should have added that ALL volunteers -- from the Expo to the 3 courses -- whom we encountered were TERRIFIC!!!! Many thanks to them all!!!!

 

[bellrae]

So, my thoughts on the weekend:

I really enjoyed the 5K. I think a lot of that had to do with being in A to be honest. I had the luxury of lots of free space and was able to run at the pace I wanted to run (no weaving - my watch had my distance as 5:01km at the finish line). I saw some of the later corrals on the out and back and they were a bit more congested, so I did feel for people in that situation. I really enjoyed the 10k course as well (understand it is the Princess course, but not having done that race it was new to me). Again, being at the front of B had a lot to do with that - I had a lot of space to run. I was underwhelmed with the Half course. I feel like I could have done that course anywhere in the world - and it was not worth the $$$s of running at Disney.

Transport was hit and miss at my resort (Boardwalk) and I would probably never stay at an Epcot resort for a race weekend again if they are going to lump all resorts into one transport route.

I really like the medals, and lumiere glowing in the dark was a nice touch.

Post race party sucked. I couldn't believe that there were only four rides open - as a result the lines were just as long at times as they are normally at Epcot (still waited 80 minutes for Frozen). I am glad I did the food and wine festival during the week and didn't wait til the party. During the week I never waited more than 1-2 minutes at the booths. Those lines at the after party were nuts and as a result I bought nothing from the booths. I ended up doing one walk around, riding frozen and going home. I would have been better off going to bed early. I wouldn't do this again.

I saw some bad behaviour during the 10K. A woman ran up to the drink station - demanded to know where the Powerade was (after taking a water) - and then when told there was none at that station she threw the water to the ground in anger (really? Get over yourself), but it ended up hitting the volunteer that gave it to her. Many runners called her out and told her it was not cool. She never did apologise to the volunteer.

At the 10K I did wonder about a few people and the legitimacy of the proof of time they submitted. There was a couple of people (together in a group) in A that were morbidly obese. I was in B, which left 10 minutes after A and I caught them within minutes of starting the race and they were already struggling walking - I can't imagine how they submitted a legit PoT to get into A. Whilst I applaud the fact that they were out there participating and clearly trying to make healthy choices in their life (and I am not passing judgement on their weight) - they were walking several abrest in a narrow part of the course (that first sharp turn) and creating an obstacle for faster runners. This is the kind of safety issue the corral system is there to prevent.

Loved that the half was on the day daylight savings ended and we got a bonus hour of sleep!

A big thank you to everyone in here that volunteered. I only had positive interactions with the volunteers the entire weekend. I appreciate your enthusiasm, time and support.

 

[camaker]

I'm okay with not having a paper copy of the program, but I would have liked to have been able to save the PDF to my phone like in past years. I wanted to read the program while flying down - which I have done in the past by saving the PDF to the iBooks app on my phone - but that wasn't possible with the new digital program since I normally don't buy wi-fi packages while flying.

I'm fine with a digital-only copy of the event guide but I found the design to be cumbersome to navigate. There were several time I had difficulty finding the information within the guide because of the way it was laid out and the number of scrolls and clicks required to get to what I was looking for. I agree with @Ariel484 that a PDF would have been much easier to use. I don't like being at the mercy of a slow signal (which I often have difficulty with in the parks) when I just want a quick answer or confirmation.

I agree a PDF or some kind of printable version would of been good. As a first timer I just copy/pasted what info I felt I needed onto a word doc yet we still pulled up the digital guide about a half dozen times

All true. A PDF is cheap, downloadable, and universally supported.

I think all these hit the nail on the head, not just for W&D, but for DLH, too. The electronic guide was not so much the issue as the way it was executed. RunDisney got way too cute and complicated with the format of the guide when a simple pdf would have provided the same benefits while also greatly increasing its usability.

 

[ReindeerMom]

At the 10K I did wonder about a few people and the legitimacy of the proof of time they submitted. There was a couple of people (together in a group) in A that were morbidly obese. I was in B, which left 10 minutes after A and I caught them within minutes of starting the race and they were already struggling walking - I can't imagine how they submitted a legit PoT to get into A. Whilst I applaud the fact that they were out there participating and clearly trying to make healthy choices in their life (and I am not passing judgement on their weight) - they were walking several abrest in a narrow part of the course (that first sharp turn) and creating an obstacle for faster runners. This is the kind of safety issue the corral system is there to prevent.

I was in corral B for the half and I noticed two obese women with challenge bib numbers 25xxx, which puts them in corral K, but their bibs showed A/B just like my legit 20xxx bib. I believe the new trend is to photo print just the corral letters and attach them to the bib covering the actual assigned corral. I checked their results and these women took over 4 hours to complete the half. They obviously would have been swept if they had started in corral K. While I would never encourage this sort of cheating, I do applaud them for completing the entire 19.3 any way they had to. So, shame on them for cheating, but great job on finishing!

 

[Ariel484]

I think all these hit the nail on the head, not just for W&D, but for DLH, too. The electronic guide was not so much the issue as the way it was executed. RunDisney got way too cute and complicated with the format of the guide when a simple pdf would have provided the same benefits while also greatly increasing its usability.

Totally agree. With the PDF you can search, too. I couldn't find search functionality in the event guide to just take me right to, say, the PhotoPass section. That was annoying.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

I was in corral B for the half and I noticed two obese women with challenge bib numbers 25xxx, which puts them in corral K, but their bibs showed A/B just like my legit 20xxx bib. I believe the new trend is to photo print just the corral letters and attach them to the bib covering the actual assigned corral. I checked their results and these women took over 4 hours to complete the half. They obviously would have been swept if they had started in corral K. While I would never encourage this sort of cheating, I do applaud them for completing the entire 19.3 any way they had to. So, shame on them for cheating, but great job on finishing!

I just really don't understand this. In a million years this would not occur to me to do. I cannot fathom why anyone would want to fake something that they didn't earn. And I really don't understand WHY you'd want to start out in a corral that you know FOR SURE you could not possibly keep up with and just spend the race having everyone pass you.

I guess short version: I just don't get this AT ALL.

 

[Ariel484]

I just really don't understand this. In a million years this would not occur to me to do. I cannot fathom why anyone would want to fake something that they didn't earn. And I really don't understand WHY you'd want to start out in a corral that you know FOR SURE you could not possibly keep up with and just spend the race having everyone pass you.

I guess short version: I just don't get this AT ALL.

They want the medal (and I'd guess the attention that comes with it) and they don't want to get swept. I don't get it either, because to lie like that shows a lack of integrity (in my opinion), but those are my guesses.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

They want the medal (and I'd guess the attention that comes with it) and they don't want to get swept. I don't get it either, because to lie like that shows a lack of integrity (in my opinion), but those are my guesses.

Agreed. I just cannot fathom wanting the medal if I cheated in ANY way to get it.

 

[camaker]

I just really don't understand this. In a million years this would not occur to me to do. I cannot fathom why anyone would want to fake something that they didn't earn. And I really don't understand WHY you'd want to start out in a corral that you know FOR SURE you could not possibly keep up with and just spend the race having everyone pass you.

I guess short version: I just don't get this AT ALL.

Simple explanation for these behaviors: fear of getting swept. The sweep timing doesn't start until after the last runner crosses the start line. Starting in a corral as far forward as possible adds additional time for completion of the race. If you guesstimate that each corral that you move up gains you ~5 minutes, then moving from L to B gains ~50 minutes on the sweepers or, looked at another way, adds almost 4 min/mile to the minimum pace to avoid being swept. As far as getting passed, who cares? At those paces, the people are there to complete the course and get the medal(s), not compete for an award.

I have also heard stories of people who pay/convince faster runners to sign up for and run PoT races in their name so that they can submit the better time as their own. Don't think that's the case here, as the bib #s don't support that explanation, though.

Big caveat to this post: I in no way condone or support corral jumping or cheating on PoT to improve starting position, just explaining why it is done.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

Side issue... are we the only ones who would like the opportunity to buy a shirt showing 22.4 miles?? We're the nuts who are doing every 5K + 10K + half!!

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

Simple explanation for these behaviors: fear of getting swept. The sweep timing doesn't start until after the last runner crosses the start line. Starting in a corral as far forward as possible adds additional time for completion of the race. If you guesstimate that each corral that you move up gains you ~5 minutes, then moving from L to B gains ~50 minutes on the sweepers or, looked at another way, adds almost 4 min/mile to the minimum pace to avoid being swept. As far as getting passed, who cares? At those paces, the people are there to complete the course and get the medal(s), not compete for an award.

I have also heard stories of people who pay/convince faster runners to sign up for and run PoT races in their name so that they can submit the better time as their own. Don't think that's the case here, as the bib #s don't support that explanation, though.

Big caveat to this post: I in no way condone or support corral jumping or cheating on PoT to improve starting position, just explaining why it is done.

I understand the "small why", in the sense that you gain additional time to complete. I don't understand the "BIG why" of why someone wants something they obtained by breaking the rules -- whatever they are. That's just something that I cannot connect with AT ALL.

 

[bellrae]

I was in corral B for the half and I noticed two obese women with challenge bib numbers 25xxx, which puts them in corral K, but their bibs showed A/B just like my legit 20xxx bib. I believe the new trend is to photo print just the corral letters and attach them to the bib covering the actual assigned corral. I checked their results and these women took over 4 hours to complete the half. They obviously would have been swept if they had started in corral K. While I would never encourage this sort of cheating, I do applaud them for completing the entire 19.3 any way they had to. So, shame on them for cheating, but great job on finishing!

Must have been the same group - it was two women and a man that I saw (all together). Must admit I didn't look closely at the big number, just the corrals.

I agree that they should be applauded for doing the races, but at the end of the day I'm not sure they understand that they caused safety issues for others and themselves by cheating like this. If they did understand and just didn't care, then that's a whole new ball game.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

My husband was in Corral B and noticed there was someone with another bib in addition to their bib. Not sure if the person whose bib it was was meeting them somewhere like the EPCOT parking lot or else where.

~

I do have to say there were a lot of rude people on the half course even in the later corrals. I didn't let it bother me though. I only started the half because I had already paid for my challenge and deferrals were no longer allowed and my husband was running as well. I knew I wasn't going to finish, especially after completing the 10K the day before, but I wanted to see how far I could go at least. I started in my seeded corral about halfway back on the far right side since I knew after the first mile, I would be mostly walking. At least I have a story about my Wine & Dine Medal to remember (the one where I couldn't train b/c of the boot!) and I'm very upfront about it. Am I still going to where my awesome Challenge Jacket? Yes! "Will Run For Fine Dining" is totally me!

The amount of rude comments about people making comments about walkers were a little ridiculous. If you are a super fast runner - you should have put in a proof of time from a previous race. I saw people running on the other side of the cones near Animal Kingdom where cars were trying to drive! Talk about dangerous! I know it was a pinch point but you shouldn't be stupid.

As I hugged my right side of the road, I still had people running up to my right side rushing by without signals or call outs.

I also saw and heard a lot of dangerous advice. I am one of those morbidly obese runners and have been doing this now for a few years - with good days and bad days. I think I went in knowing my limitations and not wanting to risk severe damage to myself (this was my 6th challenge weekend so I knew what to expect physically and mentally) When talking to people, I was very upfront about it all. The people that said to me "pixie dust will get you through it" or "oh you can make yourself finish" probably could have been dangerous to someone. If I had pushed myself to the point where I could finish - I probably wouldn't have been able to walk yesterday or today in the parks! "Pixie Dust Will Get You Through It" also isn't true if you aren't conditioned and prepared.

 

[Figment1990]

Side issue... are we the only ones who would like the opportunity to buy a shirt showing 22.4 miles?? We're the nuts who are doing every 5K + 10K + half!!

I've always wondered this too - especially for Princess weekend - they have the perfect name set up - "Triple Crown!"

 

[PrincessV]

It was all I could manage to respond to text messages over the weekend, let alone try to keep up here, so I just power-read through the last 10+ pages...

I had a GREAT W&D weekend! I've only previously run the past two, so my W&D experiences had been limited to a monsoon and a half-of-a-half... I figured it was either going to be "3rd time's a charm!" or "3 strikes and you're out". Very happy to report it was the former, lol!

Expo: It was fine - I hate expos, but this one felt reasonably sane and I was in and out with minimal stress. I got there around 11am Thurs.

5K: This. was. AWESOME! So freaking much fun with my running buddies with stops for all the official pics, plus a whole bunch we made up as we went along.

10K: I must have been pretty tired, because I don't remember a lot from this race, lol! Lots of pics and I'm smiling in them, so I apparently had fun. Goofed off a bunch and wound up behind pace at the end of World Showcase, so we got a move on through the Boardwalk area and goofed off some more once back into EP.

Half: I was graced with a killer migraine at 1am that just got worse by the hour leading up to the race - Tylenol wasn't working and in retrospect I should have just downed some Advil. I was ready to quit after the first mile or so, but found some friends and got some caffeine into me and got the pain down to a dull roar so I could finish and have fun along the way. I was surprised by the lack of... well, anything along Bear Island Rd. I thought they'd have some critters out like in the full! Other than that, I didn't mind the course.

Post-Race Party: I'm glad I went, I had a nice time chatting with friends, but I feel no need to ever do it again - IF they continue to have one. I had no interest in eating more that late and the loud dance music was a bit much; I'd have preferred more of the usual EP ambient sounds. I think I'm getting old.

Etc.: Apparently it was a little warm? Sorry, I don't mean to sound snarky! I'm so acclimated to the infernal summer heat here in FL, I honestly forget what our sun/heat/humidity feels like to northerners. It wasn't as cool as I'd have like,d but it was better than 95 degrees and 100% humidity, so I was happy!

I stayed "offsite" at Wyndham Bonnet Creek and drove to all the races - couldn't have been smoother. No traffic issues, no problems with shuttle buses for the half. I hit the road at 4:45am for the 5K, 3:45am for the 10K, and 3am for the half.

The only merchandise I wanted was a stemless wine glass and they were well stocked when I got there, so score! Only I used it last night and it feels... all wrong. Huh?! It'll make a great water glass by my bathroom sink, though. I'll stick with stems on my wine glasses.

The VoluntEars were just lovely - so thankful for their time and efforts!

I, too, overheard some less-than-kind comments on occasion during the weekend, but I chose to tune them out, as I do here when things take a downward dip. Overall, I thought the weekend was heavy on kindness and support for fellow runners and I was happy to be part of it all!

 

[Kellina]

Is anyone else not having their photos come up yet? I put in just what it said on the back HLF0xxxx and nothing comes up?? says it's invalid. am I missing something here or is it just taking a while? I'm getting nervous!