WDW Half Marathon Race Recap
This one is going to be a bit long winded, so please bear with me. My goal is to cover some of the Disney aspects and the race itself but we'll see where my rambling takes me.
Disclaimer: I am a runner first and a Disney fan second. That isn't to say that I'm some sort of elite runner (because I definitely am not), but I started running long before I got into runDisney. I'm sharing this race recap to illustrate my own personal experience because when I ran my first Disney race in 2014, I could not find much information on what the experience was like for a seasoned runner. I know that some of my complaints will seem minor and my experiences are probably not what the vast majority encounter but that doesn't make them any less valid or true.
Goals
1. Arrive at the start line on time and prepared to run a half marathon
2. Have fun
3. Finish before 7am so I could secure a Remy boarding group
The Expo
We aren't big "merch" people and were only attending the expo so that we could pick up our race shirts and bibs. However, we did walk through the merch area to see what was there. As you probably know, by Thursday afternoon there wasn't much. Typically, the medal and race shirt are enough to commemorate my experience but I do like to look just in case something catches my eye. In this case, we left empty handed.
We then headed towards the next building to get our bibs. Much to my surprise, my bib had me in s1. I was able to submit a POT from the 2019 Princess 10K but based on some of the Dopey starting group assignments, I was assuming that I would be in s2. However, I had forgotten that the marathon/dopey/goofy have different POT requirements than the HM. This was a really pleasant surprise because it was going to be a big help in accomplishing goal #3. After bibs we picked up our race shirts which were inconveniently in yet another building. I think this is normal for Disney, but I've never had to visit 3 different buildings to pick up all my race gear in other races. I'm pretty sure they put the race shirts in the other building just so those other vendors get some foot traffic, but it doesn't make for a smooth experience for those of us that just want to get in and get out. After all of that we were off to Disney Springs for our 5pm dinner reservation so my mom could get to bed early for her 10K.
Pro Tip #1: Have a plan for dinner the night before your race(s). Personally, I prefer to make dinner reservations for an early dinner. I've learned the hard way that I don't want to spend the time and/or energy trying to figure out dinner the night before.
Pre Race
My mom ran the 10K on Friday so I was able to use that to test out how transportation was going to work for the HM. We were staying in the Jamaica section at CBR. This turned out to be a great spot because it was the first bus stop and right next to the skyliner. Based on the 10K, I knew it took about half an hour from the time I got on the bus to get to the drop off point at Epcot. Since Disney was encouraging arrival by 3:30a, this meant catching the 3a bus. It ended up only taking 15 minutes on Saturday morning so even with the mile walk from the buses to the staging area, a stop at the potties, and the additional mile walk to the starting area, I was still in my corral early and it was pretty much empty. Goal #1 accomplished. I know some hate on the pre race announcers, and the speakers in my corral were insanely loud, but they do help pass the time.
Pro Tip #2: If you're staying at a resort with multiple bus stops and your stop seems overly crowded, walk to another stop. I forget which stop it was (probably Barbados?) but by the time our bus got there, the stop was absolutely crammed full of people and we couldn't fit everyone on our bus. I'm guessing the earlier buses were filling up before they got this far into the resort and I was on the very first bus that went to this stop around 3:45am even though buses started running at 3a.
Miles 1-6
The race started with the typical pre-race fanfare and fireworks. Being in s1, I was quickly across the starting line (my gun/clock time only have an 11 second differential). I knew I was surrounded by faster runners so I deliberately tried to run slow. I also knew it was very easy to rack up extra mileage on a course with as many turns and wide roads so I did my best to run the tangents but found it very difficult to see the course ahead with it being so dark and not having an entire corral of runners ahead.
The very first character I saw was Mary Poppins and Bert. Their line already had ~20 people in it and since I've had a photo with them before, I decided to keep running.
Mile 1 was finished in 8:30, a smidge faster than I planned on starting so I did my best to slow down a hair. Shortly after mile 1 was a penguin from Mary Poppins which only had about 5 people in line, so I decided to stop. In general, I have a rule that I'll stop for any character if there's less than 5 people in line. For some reason this line moved slower than I expected but I was already committed so I waited it out. After the penguin was Tinker Bell and her friend (no idea her name) which I stopped at especially for my cousin who is a big fan. Mile 2 ended up being a whole minute slower than mile 1 (9:30) which I mostly attribute to the penguin line...so worth it though
Pro Tip #3: If there's a line for the early character stops you can sometimes catch these on the way back. In hindsight, I could have saved myself that minute by waiting for the return trip since both Tinker Bell and the Penguin were out on my way back to Epcot. However, I have tried that strategy in the past only to get burned when the later corrals were still on that portion of the course and the line was much, much longer.
For better or for worse, I don't remember much of mile 3 (8:36) but there must have been another character here because my pace slowed just before the mile marker. I'm going to assume this was Nick Wilde. There was no line so of course I stopped. At first I was slightly disappointed because I would have much preferred Judy Hopps and in the past the characters would switch out but much to my surprise Judy was just a bit further down the course so I was happy to have them both. Shortly after Judy was the TTC which is always an energetic spot with lots of fans. Thank you to those that wake up early to cheer on us crazy runners, your dedication is amazing and much appreciated! I quickly approached mile 4 (8:34) and was soon making my way into the Magic Kingdom.
I really love the HM entry into the MK. Running through the main entrance and onto Main Street is truly magical. I managed to keep it together until I spotted my mom in the crowd. After that it was a lot of tears. There's just something about the atmosphere that's overwhelming (in a good way). I don't even remember the 5 mile marker there was so much else going on (8:37). I stopped for pictures with Buzz, White Rabbit and Sebastian since they all met my less than 5 in a line rule although I would have stopped for Sebastian regardless. I have a photo with him from the 2018 marathon and it's still one of my faves.
Next up was the castle and I really wanted a good photo. I've always tried to find a gap and have never been successful. There were always other runners somewhat blocking me. This was a different story though, probably my favorite picture from the whole race. Nailed it! Also, it kind of looks like I'm literally flying. My feet aren't even on the ground. That is pure Disney magic!
After the castle, I stopped for a quick photo with Colonial Mickey. Mickey is my mom's favorite and she was disappointed not to see him on the 10K course so I knew I had to stop for him but there wasn't really a line anyway. The run through Frontierland was not very well lit which I'm sure is thematically more accurate but it's difficult to keep a good pace when you can't see the ground. I wish they'd put some additional lighting in this area. The final stop in MK was a photo with Jafar. I'm not the biggest villains fan but there basically wasn't a line so I felt compelled to stop anyway. I wrapped up mile 6 in 8:50 which I was incredibly pleased with since I had stopped for 5 characters along the way.
Miles 7-12
I was feeling really strong at the halfway mark and started to do some running math. Spoiler alert: This is never a good idea. I knew I could comfortably run the final 5K in under 27 min and my HM PR was 1:50:xx. My math told me that if I could get to the 10 mile mark before 1:23:00 that I could set a new PR. However, I wasn't going to let a PR pursuit stop me from having fun (goal #2) so I still stopped for a photo with Horace Horsecollar shortly before the 7 mile marker. Mile 7 was done (8:44) and the official race time was somewhere near 1:02. This is where the bad runner math threw me for a loop. For some reason, I thought I was only 2 miles away from mile 10 and I knew I could run 2 miles in 21 minutes. I kept running and was pretty well convinced that I could get a new PR until I realized I had forgotten an entire mile. Eeeesh. Bad math my friends. Once I realized the PR was out the window, I recalculated to see if I was still on pace to finish before 7 am (goal #3). The sub 2:00 was still in reach so I did my best just to run a reasonable pace and not speed up until I got to that final 5K.
Of course, I was still stopping for all the photos and that included Clarabelle Cow. I owned the Minnie n Me Best Friends books as a youngster so I've always been a big fan of Minnie, Daisy, and Clarabelle.
Shortly after mile 8 (8:40) were Lilo and Stitch at separate stops (stopped for both). I don't remember so many separate stops in the past with the same character theme. It seems they used to be together or swap out. Is this a new thing? I'm guessing maybe it's to do with keeping the performers a safe distance from one another? Once I got to this point in the race everything sort of blurs together so you'll have to forgive my memory. I do remember that ramp at the end of mile 10 was BRUTAL. I don't remember it being so long or so angled before. The uphill itself wasn't challenging but my entire right side was unhappy about the camber. At some point I stopped for a photo with Thumper who at the time I thought was Flower. I knew the character was from Bambi but it wasn't until after I took the photo that I remembered Flower is the skunk...my brain was mush at this point.
The Finish
The final mile of the race was tough. I had been pushing the pace the entire race even though I wasn't chasing a PR because I wanted to see what I could do (and of course for that elusive Remy BG). Clearly my brain was done but my body was also ready to be finished. At this point I broke my character stop rule as I ran past Bolt and another character that I didn't even know. It would have had to be someone particularly special to me to get me to stop at this point. I'm happy that we ran past Journey into Imagination as Figment will always have a fond place in my heart but I do wish there was more Epcot in this course. I didn't even get a glimpse of World Showcase or the lagoon and even Spaceship Earth was hard to see with all the construction walls. I'm sure it will be better next year but compared to the MK, the Epcot portion is meh.
When I crossed the finish line, the clock said 1:55 so I knew I had met goal #3. Goal #2 was also accomplished as I had a lot of fun along the way. Although there are areas I would like to see improvement, the race itself has a great atmosphere and it's always brought a smile to my face. Overall a very successful race
Official Results
Time: 1:54:57 - New Disney PR by nearly 10 minutes and shockingly my second fastest HM ever. This race has me confident that a new HM PR is in my future. I lost a lot of fitness over 2019 and 2020 so I'm really thrilled to be where I'm at now. I'm not quite back to 2018 shape, but I'm getting there.
What's next?
I'm already registered for a HM at the end of April and another June. Depending how the April one goes, I may take the June one easy but knowing me, I'll still want to push myself to see what I can do come race day. After that, I'm planning to scale back a bit this summer before ramping up for marathon training in the fall.
. To be honest, I've been so busy with vacation and the holidays the last couple of months, the race itself has snuck up on me. I haven't had much time at all to think about the race which has been a bit of a blessing. I was even surprised today when I received the email from runDisney about expo check in passes.
. I needed to get the run done in the morning and there was freezing rain on the way so I headed for the apt treadmill room. It was fine. The treadmill annoyingly only lets you run 5k at a time so I had to take a brief break in the middle. On the brightside, I got to do a bit of heat acclimation and the ice covered sidewalks on my way back to my building confirmed that the treadmill was the right decision. 
. They've been due for replacement for a while but I was really hoping to get them through the half first. I bought the newer version of the shoes but with all the missed runs, I've only worn them a few times. I'm going to try to get a few more runs in them this week but now I'm not sure if they'll be "race ready". I have two other pairs of shoes that I sometimes run in so I'll likely bring at least one of those. The second pair gave me excruciating arch pain for the majority of my 10 mile race so those are definitely a no go. 
that silly penguin. I was trying to pose like a penguin but I don't think penguins ever put their wings in the air like that. I'm still happy with the photo but my brain cannot be trusted at 5am. 
. I caught some sort of cold and was overly fatigued and sneezing. Despite this, I was ready to dive right into training on Tuesday. The -25 WC and aforementioned ice path, kept me on the treadmill. The only note I have is that I could feel my hip but it wasn't in pain. 
. Oh well, at least the next few weeks won't be as annoying if I'm on the treadmill. 
