Race retreat - share your experience

[skiandrun]

Can people who have purchased the race retreat in the past share what was good and bad about it. Was it worth it?

thanks

 

[bumbershoot]

I did the retreat for the WDW Half.

I was running alone. I was asking my aunt and cousin (who came in from Daytona to hang out with my son all night and until I was finished) to NOT come see me finish. I am a heavy sweater and need a ton of water, I need electrolyte replacements during a longer run, and I'm finding that I *have to* eat something QUICKLY or my stomach sort of cramps up and won't accept food for hours and hours. I wanted a place to replenish myself.

Also, for TOT I missed my corral (and another two) because I got caught in a bathroom line. Everyone around me didn't care when they started, and said it's no big deal and I wouldn't miss anything. I think, now, that they were much faster runners than me that knew they could catch up, or maybe they were further back in corrals than me. I didn't want to get lost again, and figured having A place to be beforehand would be useful. In addition, I have bad night vision and felt lost even before I got into that portapotty line, and having A place would be nice to feel that I belonged.


In those ways it worked out well. I was later than I wanted to be for some reason, but I did bag check FAST and had a place to hang out in.

When they said it would be temperature controlled I believed them. That was an error. It was chilly in the morning and I wanted it to not be chilly. It didn't seem much different than outside once I was done. I wanted it to be slightly chilly then. Basically, the control of the environment basically seemed to be lights and a roof.

When I got back I did NOT like how far away it was from the finish. I also wanted more signage, because everything looked so different in the daytime vs early early morning. I didn't really know where I was going.

In the morning, the private portapotties were good and clean and decent.

After I finished the Half, ate, managed to pull off my compression socks, and rested a bit, the portapotties were a freeforall and were gross. No soap at the sink things. No direction on the sink things so it was hard to figure out. Some man had gone out the wrong door and was in the women's area, and he didn't care at all. Well...I did. There were no changing areas that I could see, and I was pointed to the big portapotties. EW.


There wasn't enough vegetarian food, but what they had was decent and fatty and protein-filled. They had hot sauce so I could eat the always-heinous-IMO Disney scrambled egg product. They had muffins. They had COFFEE. And muffins. Oh and coffee.

It just so happened that I had come down with some awful plague a few days before the run, and I felt like utter junk. I had started to lose my senses of taste and smell (they were basically gone for weeks) and that was about the only meal I was able to replenish myself with. (from Jan 4-18 I lost at least a pants size if not more, and DH recoiled from me when I picked him up at the airport, I looked so gaunt and scary...I can only imagine what it would have been like if I had not had all those muffin calories at the Retreat)




DH and DS will be there for my next WDW Half (I'm having a do-over; I can't let that one be my only attempt at it) so they can bring me all sorts of food and make sure I have chocolate milk and they can help me take off compression socks LOL and they will be my retreat.

But if I were running all alone again I would do it again. The Retreat helped to take care of me when I needed it. (people there didn't; but what they had there did)

 

[RnbwSktles]

I did it for the 2014 Marathon. I have a hard time saying if it was worth the money, but I am doing it again this year for just the marathon (I am doing Dopey).

Just as the PP said, the tent was not climate controlled. I didn't find the temperatures to be all that extreme in the morning or after the race, so it didn't matter too much. If it had been freezing that morning, I sure hope the tent would have been heated!

The bathrooms were nice if you went early on. Once the corrals started being called and people made their last minute trips to the potties, the line got very long. Still not as bad as the general public outside, but long. The soap was already starting to disappear by then. I am not sure they cleaned anything from the half marathon the day before.

The "exclusive" character photo was just with Mary Poppins, Bert, and the penguins (unless I missed something else). Not exactly a group of characters I needed a race picture with, but there was no line so what the heck.

Since I was alone, I liked being able to sit at a table and talk to people to pass the time. If I wasn't in the tent, I probably would have just sat down on the ground somewhere out of the way and fallen asleep.

The reason I am doing it again this year is that I like the idea of having a place to sit and eat right after the race. I felt terrible during the marathon and being able to relax and eat right after definitely helped. I never got one of the post race food boxes so I can't say if that would have been good enough. I don't think I ever used the bathroom after the race so I can't say how that was. Probably awful.

 

[ANIM8R]

Can people who have purchased the race retreat in the past share what was good and bad about it. Was it worth it?

thanks

I've done the retreat for the '13 and '14 marathons and have signed up again for '13. Whether it's worth it or not is really in the eye of the beholder, right? I can't justify in my case for the half but it is very much worth it in my mind for the full.

Before the start, it's a great place to 'veg', relax, and get some pre-race snacks. Also, I'm not a big fan of crowds (I know - Disney is the WRONG place for that!) and the retreat is a little more calm and to my liking than finding a patch on the asphalt somewhere to wait for the race to start.

I buy my wife the chEAR squad, so we meet in the retreat after the marathon. It's great that it's shaded and more-or-less climate controlled. Plenty of post-race food available and just a nice place to relax afterwards. In fact, I'm starting to think that is my favorite part of the weekend - the race is over, I still have that 'runner's high', I'm with my wife and eating! Plus, I'm in clean/dry clothes and it's not overwhelmingly crowded.

Luckily, the weather the past two years has been very favorable but eventually it's bound to be bad one of these years (either rain or cold). If/when that happens, I hope I'll have sprung for the retreat in those years!

So, yes, it's very much worth it for me for the marathon day.

 

[Outonarun]

I did race retreat several years ago for Goofy. I do not do it anymore because it is not worth it for me:

-- I do not eat any of the food or beverage provided,
-- I like to get to my corral early, therefore do not benefit from the climate controlled space, or private port-a-johns, or floor space for stretching,
-- I am not interested in the photo/meet-and-greet opportunities,
-- Massage right after the race doesn't feel good to me (I tried it at the Retreat).


However, if I was interested in the above, or if I was a new and/or nervous runner (I was this way at my first few race events), or if I didn't have a well-tested scheme for staying comfortable during the pre-race hour(s) in any weather, I would definitely do it.

 

[skiandrun]

Thanks so much for the replies. I went ahead and signed up because I am running alone and so I think I will be jumpy. Plus I have friends who talk about sitting on tarmac for three hours waiting for a race to start and that just seems like zero fun. If it snows I suppose I will feel very smart.

 

[satman1962]

Don't knock the snow. I did the retreat for the Disney Half in 2010. Sleet, rain, ice, and sub-freezing temps at race start. That retreat was the best move.