Race recap: WDW Slightly-more-than-half Half Marathon
Orlando, FL | January 6, 2024
In which 
I hit up the expo on Friday at lunchtime and had a surprisingly long line for bib pickup. Last year I went around the same time and had zero line. I guess that was kind of foreshadowing
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The switchback portion of the line for bib pickup, which was followed by more line to get to the main floor.
I didn't linger much at the expo because I was hungry, so I grabbed a pretzel and a beer from one of the kiosks outside. Once I finished my pretzel, I took my beer and wandered around the Disney merch area, which still had some stuff but had clearly been pretty picked over, and I didn't see much that appealed to me. I did find a pair of generic rD shorts that I liked, though, so that was nice.
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I took a photo with the 13.1 sign because the line was short, which I guess ended up being sort of funny in the end. I still feel a little weird about posting photos of myself here (who are these 36K people??) but also I decided it was more fun this way.
All that had taken a lot longer than I thought, so it was already almost 2 by the time I left WWOS. I parked at Epcot and made a beeline through the park to International Gateway and then to HH. Glad I was still able to chat with a bunch of folks from the boards! I left the meetup in time to catch the last Voices of Liberty show
I was planning on a pretty relaxed evening, but then I heard the news here on the DISboards first that the course had been shortened, which kept my brain quite occupied until bedtime! I went to bed at 9 and actually fell asleep around 11
Woke up a little before my 2:30 alarm...so yeah, about 3 hours of sleep
I got to Epcot around 3:45, which was my plan, but it took about 30 minutes to park and make my way to the starting area, so missed the meetup I think
However, I was amused to see all the people doing laps around the parking lot. Called it!
I made my way to the back of A. Unfortunately I basically couldn't hear the announcers at all. Somehow we did get better sound for the national anthem. I had forgotten about the fireworks for "rockets' red glare" and "bombs bursting in air," which was cool
I ended up in the third wave of A, with waves releasing every couple of minutes. It didn't seem like they sped up the start? This based on the fact that it looked like the balloon ladies had just left when passed above the start line a little more than an hour later. The first wave of runners did go off right at 4:45 though.
The course started off crowded and stayed that way pretty much through Epcot. I feel like the highways were narrower than the ones we normally run on? I remember having a lot more space during the marathon.
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Robin Hood character shot
The character list Bree shared ended up being surprisingly accurate considering they had to completely change the photo spots for the modified course. It was nice that they had signs at the end of the line for the characters, but it was really hard to see what they said in the dark. Maybe I just have really bad night vision? The lines were longer than I expected - I stopped for about 7 characters which took 40+ minutes total. Eventually I started running faster when I was actually moving and using the wait as recovery time.
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Mickey and Minnie character stop
The weather was okay when I was out there. Warm and humid (I am definitely increasingly glistening in my photos, lol) but no rain. Wind was mostly kind of nice except that it blew off the ears of a woman right in front of me and then I ran into her when she stopped and turned around abruptly. I don't blame her because I'm sure I would have had the same reaction (and there's definitely no chance I could have dodged or stopped in time), but it was quite...um...startling
Between the camber and the crowding, I ended up doing a bunch of running in the grass. I felt slightly like I was going to twist an ankle at times but I didn't so it's fine. It's all fine.
Finally after what felt like forever on the highway, we made it back to Epcot. Coming into the park with all the CMs and/or volunteers cheering was one of my favorite moments of the race. It's not Main Street, but it was pretty cool!
Once we got into the park I felt like I finally had space to move. I was moving right along at a decent pace, although as the race went on my legs got stiffer and stiffer at each character stop! I swear I realized and then immediately forgot every single time that bright lights = Photopass, but I actually got some decent pictures from the park.
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Running through Italy I think
When I came through the last bit, the gospel choir was singing "Zero to Hero" which I loved
Since I was dressed as Cookie Monster, I had planned to be nom nom noming a cookie coming through the finish line, but when I took one out of my flipbelt, it had crumbled. Oops! That's what I get for not trying it in training. I was a little sad that nobody really commented on my costume, but oh well, I liked it.
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Running in front of Spaceship Earth
I was kind of relieved to hear other people in the MW thread confirm that the character lines were unusually long for this race. Last year in the marathon I stopped for I think 14 photos and 4 bathrooms and it added about 20 minutes to my time. This time 7 photos and no bathrooms took 40 minutes. Eek! But hopefully this will remain an outlier and next time the lines won't be so long. I ended up with:
GPS: 7.16 miles
Moving time: 1:01:06 (8:32 pace)
Official time: 1:42:28 (14:24 pace)
This was my hardest "workout" since the marathon and my legs were a little grumpy afterwards. I did a little stretching while eating my remaining cookie. Then I heard the announcers asking people to head out due to impending inclement weather (around 6:45 IIRC). I had forgotten to remember where I parked so I spent some time wandering around the parking lot as the drizzle picked up. Fortunately I found my mom's car (and only had to use the alarm once) before it started pouring. It took a while to get out of the parking lot and then I got to drive home in the rain. Yay...
I got back around 7:30 and apparently no one had taken the dog out yet, so I did that and fed him before I even changed out of my gross clothes
Then I changed, had another snack because I was hungry, and realized I hadn't accounted for character stops in my fueling "plan" and should probably have had something on the course. Oops again! Then did some strength training because I guess the race just wasn't enough for me
After showering and walking the dog again, I hit a wall around noon (more due to three hours of sleep than the workout) and napped for about three hours
Not sure what the Princess challenge will look like - hopefully I'm not sleepwalking through the half!
It was kind of a weird race, but I feel like rD did the best they could under the circumstances. Personally I didn't mind the shorter course, although the route wasn't my favorite. I'd probably have been more upset if it were my first half or if I were doing a challenge, but as it was I didn't have anything attached to the specific distance, and I was just happy there were still lots of characters on the course. I have no plans to make up the miles, but between walking to/from the car and walking the dog, my watch says I have covered 13.6 miles today (with one more walk still to go), so, you know...
Homer Simpson "close enough" GIF
Anyway, I'm planning to head to Epcot tomorrow morning to cheer on the marathoners. Will probably be in Germany, I think (read: I want a pretzel), starting around 10. I'll have to check the DISer list for people's costumes to see if I can spot anyone! I've got a noisemaker and am planning be in my HM race shirt and a dark gray jacket, so wave if you see me! Good luck to all of you running tomorrow!
He can stare at it for hours while I cheer. 
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A very not-accurate HR graph
). I did 2 x 10 [per side]:
