Wine & Dine Terrain

[WDW*Dreamer]

I’m new to running and loving it. The Wine & Dine Half Marathon will be my first event at that distance. I’ve done a couple of 5k’s but never anything longer. I started training back in June. I have two main courses I run regularly. One is relatively flat. I can knock out my 13 miles without a problem there. The other is VERY hilly. I struggle to get 13 miles in less than 3 hours there. The ups are so steep my stride drops to about 6 inches and the down hills are a struggle to not fall over my own feet….there are no flat sections.

So, my question is, does anyone have any knowledge of the terrain we’ll be running for the Wine & Dine run? As many times as I’ve been to Disney I’ve never really noticed the lay of the land. I assume central Florida to be all flat. However, I once did RAGBRAI (the bicycle ride across Iowa) because my friends convinced me Iowa is flat. I learned during that week of bike riding that what looks flat in a car isn’t always as flat from the seat of a bike.

 

[cewait]

The W&D is flat with a few overpasses AKA hills in central Florida speak. If you look at the map the ‘hills’ are on the overpasses where we cross World Dr. and Lake Buena Vista Dr.; both out and back. While the course looks like we veer off left after crossing World Dr. on the back section I believe we are making some form of the marathon’s out and back section so once coming off the World Dr. overpass we will change sides of the divided road and head out for a little bit then u-turn and tackle the Osceola/World Dr. interchange. It is a slight up while turning right. The slope of the road is severe and finding a flat spot is next to impossible. Once on World we hit another hill as we come up off world Dr. onto Lake Buena Vista. From here only two other small hills await and they are the ones everyone forgets. We run along the sidewalk from DHS to BWV. As we pass behind the Atlantic Dance Hall we cross the canal used by Disney Transportation Friendships. Then we run along the Yacht and Beach Club walk and the final little hill waits at mile 13 over the canal heading to I-Gate at Epcot.

ADDED - Went back to the map and while it is not a good map to scale from expect overpass crowns at MPs; 1.5,2.1,6.5,7.1,8.1,9,12.4,13. Again these are really rollers in the grand scheme of things and not higher % grade climbs. The last two are by for the steepest climbs and still under 8% slope.

 

[WDW*Dreamer]

Thank You cewait. That's great info. I can handle overpasses fine. I've walked those paths between DHS, BWV, BCV, Swan & Dolphin, and Epcot before. Those rises over the water won't be a problem.

I'm really looking forward to this!

 

[John VN]

When DW and I were at WDW 2 weeks ago we walked the AK section since this is where she will finish her relay part. We walked through it faster than we have done in the past. This was the first time we even noticed the constant ups, downs and some off cambers. Although we have been to AK 10s of times, never gave them a thought.

Guess when one goes through there at a faster pace, things jump out that we never noticed before.

I am sure many will not think anything of these bumps in the road but for us they were eye openers.

2 weeks 6 hours and 38minutes to the start.

 

[cewait]

When DW and I were at WDW 2 weeks ago we walked the AK section since this is where she will finish her relay part. We walked through it faster than we have done in the past. This was the first time we even noticed the constant ups, downs and some off cambers. Although we have been to AK 10s of times, never gave them a thought.

Guess when one goes through there at a faster pace, things jump out that we never noticed before.

I am sure many will not think anything of these bumps in the road but for us they were eye openers.

2 weeks 6 hours and 38minutes to the start.

I have to say that the first marathon trip through AK was an eye opener. The paths are molded to look like a dried mud surface with animal tracks and such. It just looked like I would trip. The only real hazrd along these strecthes is that the edges of the pathways are curbed a bit; but the fencing should keep one off the curbing.

With regard to elevation changes in parks, the only real flat park is DHS and it even has a rise in it. MK has a 25 foot rise from the parking lot to Main. Epcot has about a 20 foot rise from the World Showcase lake up to Spaceship Earth and AK is a little rolling from land to land. But even with all this, I would say all parks are really flat when compared to a 'rolling' course.

 

[crewmatt]

Compared to normal roads in most areas Disney will be basically flat as glass. there will be some +/- 20 feet hills but they're all very gradual. The biggest hills will be things like exit ramps and overpasses. so I think you'll be good to go. For your first half marathon obviously start out slow. If you're feeling great at mile 8 then pick it up remembering you still have 5 miles to go.