ToT 13K Race Report(Pics Added-Brief for Now)

[ultramickeymouse]

I agree with Scott and Carol about issues Disney had. They should have had about a 10 min difference between starts. They also should have been setup up earlier and more organized at the packet pickup(Fri 3:00pm). Even though the Final instructions said no transportation, there were busses taking people to DTD when we left around 12:45. Some people who picked up their packet on Sat said "they were working on it" about transportation. This helped lead to confussion and the traffice issues that delayed the race.

A lot of these issues that everyone mentioned should and easily could be corrected. As Stac posted, they have the race set for 10/25/08.

We will probably be back as we liked a "different" course than the standard rehashed courses of the other Disney races. It was a fun race that should only get better. Let Disney know about your concerns so they will make the corrects needed. The power of the people does work!

Good seeing all of you out there.

 

[princessrunner]

I am not a race afficionado but I do tend to agree. I was looking for the 6.5 corral and was surprised to just be told to stand off to the side. Then when the 6.5 started, it was not quite the fanfare of the 13K. I am not a speed demon but I did tend to have to run in the grass or on the wrong side of the cones a lot. I did enjoy it though. It was my b-day that day and the total reason for me doing the race at all....I do plan to go next year though and see if it improved at all.

 

[hoosmi]

So here's the longer version of the 6.5k report-

I've already complained about the traffic. If I could go back in time I would have ignored the special rate for ToT at CBR and just stayed within easy walking distance. Really, with no transportation, why was CBR singled out anyway? It's close to MGM but not at the rate we were going! I was freaking out because my daughter was soooo excited and I didn't know if we were going to ever park, much less race.

Here we are in the hotel heading out!

We found Becky and her sister Jen at the start (or they found us!) They were fun. Emma, who was hesitant to meet WISHers before the race, said "your little WISH friends are really nice." Made me laugh. We talked to a few other WISHers (hey Leanna with the super cool necklace!), but they were in the 13k. Saw other WISHers, but didn't know if we should wander up into the 13k crowd or not (I could easily have developed a "follow the herd" mentality and ended up in the 13k!)

We watched the 13k people take off. Emma's already developing into a racer- as the fireworks are about to go off, she decides she has to go to the bathroom. We made it in plenty of time. The start of the 6.5k was a mess- you weren't sure where to go so you wouldn't be in the way. First you're worried about being run over by the 13k people, then the speedy 6.5k people! I made sure we started towards the back of the pack, but there were still runners trying to pass us. Ok, I wouldn't ever want to line up at the very front, but if you're a runner, you don't need to be in the very back at the beginning (especially behind a 7 year old- how fast did they think she was moving?!)

The first mile out was all road. We had planned to meet Vicki (Tinks) and her 3 boys, but with the hectic beginning didn't find them. We did see her on the turn around- they were moving fast! The woman calling out times (hello, can't find a clock?!) was using the 13k times. I of course didn't pay close enough attention to the starting time for us to know how we were doing!

I liked the part where the 13k was next to us when we turned back towards MGM. It was fun to watch the really fast people and clap. Well, then we went past the starting line, and it was a lot less fun to have the 13k runners next to us. The 6.5k people tried to stay in their "lane," but it wasn't clear where it was and there were just a lot of people. I was very aware of staying out of the runners' way because I didn't want Emma to get trampled or hurt any runners, but it was confusing.

I did see one runner grab a 6.5k walker by the shoulders and basically push her out of the way. I was behind her, so I could tell it was one of those things where he was going too fast and didn't want to plow her down, but she looked a little disturbed. She was over closer to the 6.5 walkers, but I think the runner swerved to avoid other walkers. I've never been in a race where you have runners and walkers merging, so I don't know how it compares to others, but I didn't like it.

Still, being in the park was cool. Emma maintained a fast walking pace (I think about 16-17 minute miles). She totally got into the idea of grabbing a PowerAde and tossing her empty cup. I thought about telling her to wait for the trash can, but she was so into acting the part of a racer that I let it go. She turned to me at about mile 3 (no markers, so who knows?!) and said "I haven't complained once." I agreed and told her she was doing great. Then she said "you know, I am really proud of myself." We ran the last little bit, and crossed the finish line together at some mystery time (1:18:xx on the clock so maybe 5-10 minutes faster). We loved the medals!

We took pictures, and then it was off to RNR. It was the first time for both of us. I had no idea it was so crazy! Emma pronounced it AWESOME! Next, Tower of Terror, baby! Another first for Emma. She was so excited- as our elevator started, we looked at my watch and it was exactly midnight. Could it get any better!? Fun, fun, fun.

We then watched runners for a bit- we clapped for some WISHers who were looking strong! Finally, we went to the movie ride. That was one ride too many! We were totally exhausted. I forgot about how they play movie clips at the end- longest sequence ever! Made it to the car without too much trouble, and back to the hotel.

Last thought- learned a valuable lesson about walking. We spent the morning in MK and afternoon in Epcot. My heel hurt before the race even started! If I'm going to survive Goofy, I've got to remember that pain!

Jen in GA

 

[CarolA]

Oh yeah, the "entertainment" on the course they kept talking about.... They failed to mention you only got that IF you were on the 13K course, the rest of us.... Not so much LOL!



We will both be writing to Disney (if we can find an email address!)

Folks around me told me to give them another chance, but.... I don't think the boyfriend will. He's not the Disney fan and did this just for me. They probably lost his future entry fees.

 

[princessrunner]

Jen, my DF and I had a similar experience to the one you saw. Being that we were maintaining about a 10 mpm pace, we got passed a lot in the hairpin turns on the course by the 13Kers. One of them had room on either side of us but managed to push through the middle, throwing shoulders to both of us. I looked around to make sure we were not blocking the path for some reason and we were not. There was plenty of room. I understand that the faster runners were frustrated by being "held back" as I would have been if I was not running with my DF. I think that some of them forget that we are not all that fast, runners, walkers whatever. I also think this was a first race for a lot of people, judging from the cross country route I had to take once in awhile.

 

[Hockeychic]

Hey there we are back in really cold Canada!!!!

It was awesome to see old friends and meet new ones.

I agree with most of what I read here.

The wait before the race was crazy, traffic getting to the MGM parking lot was crazy it took us 30 mins to get from POP to MGM and that was at 7:45 glad we didn't wait any longer to leave.

There should have been some sort of pace corrals.

There should have been something different on each medal, by looking at it you can't tell which one you did....now of course you know but others don't....does that make sense.???

I would have thought there would have been characters along the way????

But all together we had a awesome time, walked the entire way with Robert and Linda and had a blast, they are awesome people, Dave and Erica joinned us and again there are awesome people and glad to have shared it with you guys

I will catch up on the other threads, just wanted to quickly post some of my thoughts gotta go catch up on laundry.

Hope everyone has a safe and uneventful trip home.

Oh....on the runway our plane stalled out twice....not just once but twice....boy it was a long 2.5 hour drive home.....

Kim

 

[swandiverpatt]

I thoroughly enjoyed the race. We got there early, coming in from the West (we live in Clermont). There was a small back-up at the light turning into MGM parking lots, but not too bad. Standing from 8:00 to almost 10:00 was a little bad, though (especially with the ear-splitting music going). With 4,000 participants + their guests/families, yeah, busses should have been provided and I suspect next year they will be.

For "entertainment" out on the 13K course, for those of you doing the 5K ... I really don't think you missed all that much ..... We saw one of the guys heading to the parking lot and I said, "Crazy shift must be over." He stared at me and said, "I'm still stalking you." *That* was funny.

Another funny moment -- going past a stretch of woods and hearing an owl going, "Whoo, whoo." Somewhere behind me a voice said, "It's me, dummy!"

All in all, being walkers we knew to keep it to the right. It was disheartening, however, to be walking your heart out at the beginning and having the bikes come up behind announcing the 5K runners and they zoomed on past us.

Without training, we kept a consistent pace and ended up with a 16.29 minute, so we're happy old, round people.

Co-workers who did the 5K said they were surprised they got the same medal. I think they should at least give different medals!

Anyway, we'll be signing up for this one again next year! We had a great time (beyond the fact we dressed WAY too warmly, forgetting things we'd learned at the half marathon). We were two big sweat puddles by about mile 3. It didn't get any better!

 

[ultramickeymouse]

Oh yeah, the "entertainment" on the course they kept talking about.... They failed to mention you only got that IF you were on the 13K course, the rest of us.... Not so much LOL!



We will both be writing to Disney (if we can find an email address!)

Folks around me told me to give them another chance, but.... I don't think the boyfriend will. He's not the Disney fan and did this just for me. They probably lost his future entry fees.

I would email wdw.sports.marathon.endurance@disneysports.com and cc Disneysports@Emmi.com . That should cover it all.

 

[Tinks]

Our race report:

The boys and I got to MGM around 5 - 5:30. I made everyone take a nap that afternoon but it certainly wasn't long enough! They were cranky! We grabbed a boat to Epcot in an attempt to see how the lines were for Soarin' and/or TT, but holy cow was Epcot crowded! We didn't see crowds like that our entire weekend where most MK rides were 10 minute waits for us so we did this and made our way back to MGM. Food and wine festival = crazy Epcot!

Leana said hi to us as we entered MGM around 6:00/6:30. She was heading to Fantasmic and we were going to grab a bite to eat. Easier said than done as we didn't have reservations and some quickie eateries were closing up shop! Luckily we found some chicken fingers over at Rosie's (I think ) Then we headed toward the entrance, hung out and made our way toward the tents.

Anne recognized me from the Minnie and made introductions to the Wish group that was hanging out. Thank you, Anne! It was fun to see such a big group. We made our way over to baggage check, and then walked with the group toward the start. At this point we separated ourselves and sat down near the lights. The kids were tired and hated the wait so you can imagine how thrilled they were to hear that the start was delayed. I was annoyed at that point. I figured anyone who was racing would have known to show up pretty early! D'OH!

The start of the 13K was fun, then the gal said "okay 6.5 people, five minutes!" So we made our way to the middle/mid-back of the pack. Five minutes later the gal came on and said "5 mnutes to start time." What??!! So we started exactly 10 minutes after the 13Kers. No fireworks for us.

We started off at a brisk walk but my 5 year old got too excited and was worried. "Don't you want to win, mom? Why are we walking?" so he took off. No, really. He took off! Full speed with the 3 of us laughing and trying to catch up. Walked for "one minute, mom" which was about 10-20 secs. then he would take off at top speed. The little stinker did that for 3 miles. I tried to corral him a bit because I'm sure he annoyed people along the way, but he was having a ball. We did manage to stay out of the runner's paths. At least, it seemed like it. He couldn't believe that people were cheering for him as we entered MGM. It just made him run all the faster!
Then we hit about 3 miles and he tired out. We walked the rest. We finished in just over an hour. Collected our medals, hit the store to buy a TOT race shirt, then meltdown began because the youngest refused to do TOT and the oldest was mad, mad, mad! (re: tired) So we went back to the resort to sleep. We were walking out at midnight. Good thing, too. The boys were asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow and we had to get up at 6:00 to catch our flight home. Yikes!

Notes: The times they were calling out were 10 minutes ahead of the 6.5K start. I only know this because my middle one, Joe, had his stop watch going to time us. I also forgot to grab my cell phone when we headed out to the race so I had no way to call DH or any Wish people. It would have killed some time during the long wait before the race when kids had meltdown no.1. A great moment for us during the 6.5K was when the 13K leader ran by. We saw him coming (the bike police were in front of him) and we all started cheering for him. Pretty cool. Also, I was glad the medal was the same! Well, kinda. I was really afraid that we stayed late for this race with cranky kids and we'd end up with some cheap plastic medal because we did the 6.5K. A nice 6.5 medal that was differently marked than the 13K one would have been great, too, but I was relieved to get a "not cheap" medal.

Had a good time. Wish I could have spent more time with WISH people but it was hard with the cranky boys.


On a totally unrelated note I have an announcement. Leana and her mom know this already because we chatted at the Minnie and discovered her mom lives in Indonesia. WE ARE MOVING TO SINGAPORE! It was announced at DH's work Friday. He is being transferred there for around 3 years starting this January. The boys and I will follow this summer when the school year finishes. (We didn't want to pull them out of school mid-year) Anyway, I really want to do the Minnie again this year as it is the last Minnie and my last opportunity to do a Disney race for a few years. Anybody up for it? I'm trying to see how to swing it.

Great job to all the Wishers who did ToT

 

[Scott H]

Oh I forgot, it was KEWL!!! to meet a few of you folks , just wish ( no pun intended) could have been more, really enjoyed meeting you all, well there is the 1/2 in January.

 

[sunshine girl]

I ran the 13K and had a lot of fun! I have to add my comments on the traffic issues... the traffic was AWFUL! Holy cow, I have never seen anything like it.

On that note, people who drive up to the front of a long line of cars and then force their way in, rather than wait in the line, are incomprehensible! Unless one is heading to the hospital or to some other such emergency, this is just bad form!! I saw a lot of racers who forced their way into the traffic line and a lot of un-Disneylike behavior. Bummer.

We were trying to get from the Pop to MGM, and after waiting in an interminable traffic lineup to turn left, we decided to use our maps and create an alternate route, turning right and making a big loop around Epcot and coming back around. This worked out well and we got in on time.

I've never seen the traffic like that at Disney before. You'd think they could have done the math on this one beforehand...

BUT, that being said I had a really nice time. The post-race party should be improved vastly (among other things, I needed more food options!) but I still had fun. And the medal is cool!

 

[DisneyMarathon]

Tinks,
I had sent you a PM about Singapore.

 

[andromedaslove]

Just wnated to pop in and post some of the pics DH got of the runners. Unfortunately, even though I set my camera to the right settings before I left it with him some things got changed and the pictures aren't fantastic. I edited the best I could and figured I would share what we did have!!

Dana

 

[JimB.]

My own personal quick report -

Went down Friday. We were going to camp @ FW. Check - in was uneventful. Get to our campsite & there was some Cracker Bubba's Big *** pickup truck in our site. Owners nowhere to be found. It took 25 minutes for FW to find us another campsite. Meanwhile we are clogging up traffic in our loop. It turns out Bubba's truck was from a party TWO LOOPS AWAY!!!. I guess the inconsiderate morons thought they could just plant their truck anywhere but where it was supposed to go....................

Anyway, I am (amazingly) still calm. Get the camper set up. Plug it in. No power. No lights. Reset all circuit breakers, switch cords, plugs, lights, say a few prayers, do a rain dance, perform a ritualistic sacrifice of a small woodsy animal. Nothing works. At All. Bummer. So DW & I decide we can't stay there.

So we drove up to the check-in building. Get on the phone. There are NO rooms that sleep 5 available at WDW. So we LITERALLY start going through the pages of the phone book for hotels. Fortunately, we found a very nice suite at the Buena Vista Suites about a mile away. First time we have stayed "off-site" in decades, but what the hey, it was a roof, a/c & comfy beds for all. PLUS a free breakfast buffet to boot. We finally got settled in about 11 pm. "Catastrophe" was an appropriate description of Friday night.

And I Slept HORRIBLY!!


Woke up Saturday feeling really tired.... picked up packet, napped, snacked, hydrated & proceeded to watch the Florida Gators puke all over the football field.

RACE TIME!!! - Traffic. What can we say. Ugh, Ugh & double ugh. It took over an hour from the hotel, & 50 minutes for the last 1/2 mile. Disney has GOT to do a better job at this. Perhaps have a different start point so that all entrances into the parking lot can be used.

BTW - This was the FIRST race I have run in since college (28 years to be exact). My fondest hopes were to break 90 minutes, but I really did not know what to expect. I ran w/a couple of friends, but we got split up within the first 1/2 mile.

I was really pleased at how comfortable I felt. Never any problems except for minor hip pain on the last mile, but at that point I was not going to stop if I got hit by a truck! I finished in 1:19:27, over 10 MINUTES below my goal.

One of my co-workers came in 2nd overall. Of the 2 folks I was running with, Bridget, the young speedster, finished 6 minutes ahead of me, & Jeff, another friend from work, finished in 1:40, beating his goal by 5 minutes.

It was really cool seeing all of the lime green shirts. I tend to be a bit shy about "web friends", so you will probably never see me wearing one. Sometimes I revel in my anonymity, but I look forward to seeing every one in January. I'll be running the 1/2, & volunteering as a bike paramedic for the full.

See ya there!!

Hmmm. Maybe it wasn't so quick after all............................



ETA: Running into MGM with all of the people cheering up & down the street was REALLY way cool.

 

[corinnak]

The traffic WAS distressing. My friend and I had taken a cab from CBR to MGM and I spent the next 20 minutes (or whatever it was) just kind of quietly freaking out because of the traffic.

We didn't understand the need to delay the 13K due to the race being chipped. It really was kind of brutally unsettling to be ready to go, ready to go and then suddenly...nope. Not going.

Overall, I had a good time, but as we were waiting for the delayed start, my friend and I were wondering why exactly we decided to do the 13K since the 6.5 provided the same shirts, the same medal, and MORE time in the park to play. With the race having been pushed back first to 9:30 (am I right that it was originally 9pm?) and then pushed back another 20 minutes, we saw our ride time shrinking dramatically, as we are not the fastest runners. We are not the slowest, either. As it was, we managed to ride on the tower and the roller coaster once apiece before they closed the rides down. We had been hoping for a little more, as this was the only park time the whole trip.

On the way out of the park, we talked to a man standing near the exits about the race - he seemed to be a guy in-the-know about the MGM park side of things and he told us a little of what had gone wrong with the traffic. It was such a small thing that they just missed - because park closing is going on at the same time, they had the traffic signals set to speed people AWAY from Fantasmic. It was not programmed to funnel people efficiently into the park. By the time they got the state patrol on the scene, it was already a disaster, he said. That is something that they will SURELY get right next time.

I think by the time we got to the end, most of the 6.5ers had finished, but it sounds like that was a REAL problem.

There was also the last minute final instructions including the changing of the packet pick up location. That was made too late in the game for people on trips to Florida without a computer to happen to notice the change.

Lots of valid critiques on this thread - I wasn't expecting so many kinks, even for an inaugural race, but I hope to run it again sometime.

 

[nicolita3]

Here is my report for TOT:
So DH and I left our apartment about 1 1/2 hours early even though it only usually takes us half an hour to get there (I am very paranoid so I insisted we leave early!) Thank goodness we did because the traffic was horrible! We almost didnt make it on time. I actually had to get out of our truck on walk while he was stuck in traffic, because I didnt think we would make it (it was about 9:05 at that point) so I finally make it to the starting line and I just sit back in the corner since I was doing the 6.5. Thank goodness my DH is so tall because I was actually able to see him wondering through the crowd looking for me about 20 minutes later. Then they announced since traffic was so bad the start would be postponed for about 20 minutes and wouldnt start until 9:50, that actually got quite a bit of boos out of everyone. Well once it started everyone for the 6.5 lined up all excited and we were off! It was a good race crowds cheering us on the whole time we were in the park. I finished in about 65 minutes. I was happy with that. After the race we decided to head to the rides. We walked right on TOT which was awesome, my medal almost flew off my head. Then we went again with zero wait. We also did star tours which was walk on. The longest wait we had was for the great movie ride which we only waited about 5 minutes for. At that point we were getting tired it was 1am but we had one more ride, rockin rollercoaster which we walked right on to. After that we were both so tired we decided to go home. We had a blast.

Oh and one of the funniest comments I had heard on during the race was from this little boy, we were running through the back of MGM and we saw this mobile storage unit and it had bars on the windows, and he looks over to his mom and says, "look mom its disney's jail!" I got a good laugh at that, it was just so cute.

 

[scuba diver]

Myquick trip report:

After the Chicago Marathon mess......ToT was great. Not perfect, but after seeing how bad a race can be run I've learned to live with a few little problems, especially with the first one. Chicago was the 30th anniversary and they stopped it after 3 hours.

I'll be here next year and will plan on getting there early again.

 

[EPCOTDUDE]

That is a great medal! I hope they look that good next year.

 

[cobbler]

Just got home today and had a blast. Didn't really meet any of the Wish'ers as I was completely lost for a while, finding out where to go.

We had traffic issues too. We left SSR at 10 to 8 and I jumped out of the vehicle (hubby drove) and tried to find out where to go.

I had fun. I did mostly running and finished the 6.5K in about 45-50 minutes. I just got over a cold the week before and obviously hadn't put any real running in for that week and a half prior. I tried to run on the cruise but only got to 1.5 miles before the coughing fits started. So I think I did pretty well considering.

It was a lot of fun and I hope to do more Disney races.

 

[goofyinohio]

I totally loved this event. It was my first Disney run ever. I didn't have any travel issues as I'd went to Epcot and then took the boat from the Boardwalk to MGM. Figuring out where to go for the start was not easy. I was going to stand at the front of MGM, but I saw some WISHers talking and then started following them and found everything. The 13k was awesome. Loved the Insane people. I thought the course was cool although I kept looking for characters. I finished in just under 1 hour and a half which was my goal. It was a great experience and gave me a feel of what the Marathon might be like.

Now a gripe I did have was picking up my packet was easy and then picking up my pin was also easy, but the whole buying merchandise thing was a mess. I must have waited an hour to get my stuff and then I had to check out which probably took another half hour or so.

To the party. I changed and then rode TOT and RNR and really couldn't figure out where anything else was. So if they had merchandise I didn't see it and if other things were opened I just didn't have time to get to it.

I appreciated all the people cheering for us because I was there solo and while I didn't get to look for someone while running I really appreciated the support.

I didn't get to meet any WISHers, but that was my own fault. I'm way too shy to go up and talk to people so for that I'm sorry.

Great job everyone!!! Can't wait until the Marathon now.