Arda's Top Three: runDisney Wine and Dine Half Marathon

This past weekend, my wife, Jennifer, and I ran the Wine and Dine Half Marathon at Walt Disney World, organized by runDisney. It was our first runDisney experience. It was also Jen's first half marathon.

The first thing I absolutely need to say is this: I am INCREDIBLY proud of Jen. She trained hard for this, for several months, and literally went from couch to finish line. She did the thing. What a warrior. It was not easy, but making that last step at the 13.1-mile mark, hand in hand, arms in the air in triumph, was such a thrill and a high I will continue to chase forever. She is a bada**.

And quite frankly, so are the other participants. It was such a wonderful atmosphere and a terrific vibe among the people running. You had a great mix of serious runners testing their personal bests in the first corral, and people of all walks of life and different physical abilities who came together for one common goal. To push themselves and to accomplish something great.

We were in the very last corral (G), and our goal was simple. Cross the finish line without being swept by the balloon ladies.

Oh, the dreaded balloon ladies. The visual representation of fear at the very back of the race. While training, we feared them. We researched them. If you fall behind them during the race, you run a high risk of being disqualified and unable to complete the race. "Swept". The horror. The balloon ladies were our boogeyman, our Thanos, our Maleficent. Maybe Maleficent was a good comparison because they are also misunderstood.

They were actually quite pleasant and kind, as they gleefully kept pace with balloons tied to their waists. Fun fact, though: It is actually the people on the bicycles behind the balloon ladies that you should fear. Luckily, we did not have too much trouble, and we avoided them the entire way.

It was quite the journey. Here are my top three things from the half marathon experience.

3) The starting line

Since this was our first runDisney event, we did not want to be late. We knew we were in the last corral, and we did not want to start right beside the balloon ladies, so we showed up very early.

We boarded the first bus at 2:30 AM and got there around 3 AM. We were still not among the first people to show up.

When the doors to the corrals opened, there were at least 30 people sprinting to the start of their corral, especially Corral A, so they could be front row and be the first people to start the race.

Of course, it is Florida, so we were worried about rain. We packed Mylar blankets just in case. You are not allowed to cross the starting line with them, but you can place them on the ground to sit on, or cover yourself with one if you did not pack a poncho.

Luckily, there was plenty of entertainment, including hosts, a DJ, plenty of interviews with runners, and cartoons playing on the big screens. There were at least 200 porta potties close by, which was a very welcome perk. At 3 AM, that counts as luxury.

We packed a bunch of gels and bars for breakfast, so the next three hours or so were spent making new friends and talking about our race concerns. Those concerns often revolved around the balloon ladies, who, as I mentioned earlier, are the ceremonial visual representation of the pace every runner must keep at minimum in order not to be swept from the course. That pace is a 16-minute mile.

Nothing builds friendship faster than shared balloon lady fear. :)

Finally, the race began, starting with the awesome athletes on wheels and then Corral A. Wave by wave, corral by corral, finally it was our turn in Corral G to be released into the queue.

And that was one of the most surreal experiences of the entire race. We were packed like sardines, and suddenly we were marching like
soldiers on a battlefield, in unison, as if a Sergeant was yelling "LEFT... LEFT... LEFT RIGHT LEFT" as we shuffled forward, closer and closer to the starting line. Many of us, in fear that we would either trip over the person in front of us or simply stumble and cause a domino effect leading to everybody hitting the deck, started to waddle like penguins whenever it was time to move... Which was funny in itself, because penguins were a major theme of the Mary Poppins-inspired Wine and Dine Half Marathon. In fact, penguins are on the medal itself.

Many of us packed hoodies or jackets that we planned to donate - there were plenty of bins in the gated-off areas right next to us as we approached the starting line, and you'd often see clothes being hurled into the sky over you like a Steph Curry 3-pointer, landing beyond the gates on the ground.

Finally, it was our turn to start, and off we went into the race.

2) The PhotoPass candids

There are plenty of Disney PhotoPass people taking no shortage of candids throughout the race.

It is very front-loaded. You will notice them especially near the beginning of the race, and definitely inside the parks. They are pretty scarce on the road, and definitely not backstage. But they are also positioned at the end of the race, so you will get fun snaps of you crossing the finish line, which is wonderful and welcome.

But one of the funnier things is this. When you look through all of your photos on PhotoPass, you will definitely see some flattering pictures of you panting, tongue sticking out, picking out a wedgie, scratching your armpits, whatever runners do in order to make themselves comfortable.

PhotoPass does not care about your good side. PhotoPass captures all of your sides.

After a while, I started to notice the tents approaching, so I just started cheesing for the camera. And I made sure Jennifer and I were holding hands in the air, elated, as we crossed the finish line, so at least we could get a nice picture there.

But let this be a fun, friendly warning if you have not done a runDisney event yet. There are cameras all over the place, and you will definitely be laughing at yourself when you see some of the photos.

Some of them are going to be like Where's Waldo, because on your bib is a chip that tracks your time during the race. The bib itself also acts as a notifier for the photos that are taken, as they'll match the photo to your visible bib number. So you might be deep in the background in a photo, in frame, and that will be sent to your PhotoPass account as well.

Definitely check it out after the race. It is a fun way to relive some of the great moments.

1) The course itself

If you are a Disney fan, and you have the capacity to run the half marathon, in my opinion it is absolutely worth it for what you experience and what you see alone.

You spend a considerable amount of time backstage, and running on roads that you would normally be taking shuttle buses on, or driving yourself to and from different areas of Walt Disney World, which in itself is pretty surreal. There was a moment as the sun came up where we were running on one side of the highway, and cars were zipping by on the other side, honking at us in encouragement.

There were a couple of lulls, like the Blizzard Beach parking lot, which in my opinion could have been spruced up just a little more. But that was more than made up for by the first 3 miles, which had no shortage of characters, including the world debut of the Bird Woman character from Mary Poppins, which was a really cool easter egg for Mary Poppins fans.

On this particular half marathon, we really got a great mix of the greatest hits like Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Daisy, and Goofy, but also very rare characters like Friar Tuck and Rabbit from Hundred Acre Wood.

DJs and entertainers were scattered throughout the course. For a lot of people, this was the first time traversing the parks with barely anybody in them, and that was a treat for Disney fans.

There were water stations roughly every mile or mile and a half, and it ramped up to Powerade and water as the race progressed. There were ample medical stations if needed. There were plenty of opportunities to take pictures with characters, though we skipped the majority of that simply because we did not want to fall behind. There were also plenty of opportunities to use the restrooms, both porta potties and actual Disney restrooms. At mile 9, a real Disney restroom feels like a deluxe villa upgrade.

I found the experience overall to be very comfortable, as comfortable as a half marathon could be. This felt like a very good introduction to running a distance like this, and it inspired me to want to continue, at minimum to do another runDisney half marathon. I am even debating doing a full marathon. It would be cool just to experience that.

The spots are often challenging to get. I was speaking with a few different runners who said groups of them have multiple browsers open just to try to get one of them through to be able to buy tickets for everyone, sort of like refreshing hysterically when concert ticket sales open up on Ticketmaster.

The registration fee is usually somewhere from $250 to $280, but for what you get, and for the overall experience, I found it to be worth it. Of course, you have to account for getting to Orlando, where you will stay, logistics, and food, etc. But if you have the capacity to do it, I highly recommend it.

Overall - wonderful experience. Jen came in chasing her first finish line. We both left already talking about the next race. See you soon (we hope!)