Wine and Dine 2019 Part 3: Half Marathon

There are a lot of people who think trying to PR a runDisney races is a waste of a very expensive race-cation. For me, that is just not the case. I live in central Florida so the runDisney races span the entirety of our good running weather. With four race weekends from November to April, it can be really hard to fit in another local race for a good solid PR effort. I'm also not a huge fan of character photos. They are nice but I love action shots so much more and you can definitely get those while PR'ing at Disney. I use the run walk method and runDisney pacers do too. It's a unique opportunity for me to have a pacer who uses my running strategy at runDisney races. And as there is no time of the year when it can't be 80F or hotter in Florida, I've got to take the good weather races when they happen.

And that is exactly what happened for Wine and Dine. After spending most of June through October running in high 70s to low 80s with 90-100% humidity, I decided to make a PR attempt at the Wine and Dine half marathon because the weather forecast was supposed to be in the low 60s and low (for Florida) humidity. My current half marathon PR was from Star Wars weekend where I also ran the challenge. So I spent most of Saturday post 10k resting and recovering after a brief trip to Animal Kingdom. I did a lot of foam rolling and took an epsom salt bath to help my legs recover and much of the afternoon was given over to napping and relaxing in the hotel room. Nutrition was also going to be key for my PR attempt so I made sure to stick to good food choices on Saturday. After the half, I could let myself eat all the things. I went to bed super early (at 7pm!) plus the time change gave me an extra hour of sleep.

Then it was up at 2 am again to get dressed and catch the 3 am bus. The half marathon also started in the Magic Kingdom parking lot so the pre race area was set up exactly the same as the 10k. The character lines were quite long again so we decided to just get a photo with Pluto who had not been out for the 10k. I headed out to the corrals early which worked out great because I ended up taking four port-o-potty trips before the race started! #runnerproblems

I was in corral E again for the half. I had two pace groups in my corral, 2:30 using a 60/30 interval and 2:45 using a 30/30 interval. My PR was a 2:41:43 and my goal was to hit a 2:36:00 which is the cut off for the Marathon proof of time. I decided to start with the 2:30 pacer and fall behind them when I couldn't catch up rather than starting with the 2:45 pacer and breaking ahead of them part way through the race. For most of the summer, I've been training with a 45/45 interval but I was still using the 60/30 interval I used all last year for my short maintenance runs so I felt comfortable committing to the longer interval pace group.

It was really scary deciding to go for the faster pace group which would be aiming for a 11:26 pace. That's a bit slower than my 10k PR pace so I know I could go that fast but I had not run anything nearly that fast since April. There was definitely the potential for the wheels to totally come off during this race! But soon enough, we were off and I kept my eye on the pacer flag as we headed into the most crowded section of the course.

It was so nice having someone else in charge of the intervals. I have had problems at previous races not being able to hear my beeps for my intervals because the course was too loud. Being in a group of run walkers also made it easier to navigate the course because a lot of other people were starting and stopping with you. The beginning part of the course is a dark stretch of highway so I really just focused on keeping pace with the rest of the group. I did pass Heather and Jen on the course but the pace group was moving on and I just had to do a quick wave and keep going.

Due to crowding on the course, our first couple of miles were under pace so the pace leads had to speed up during miles 4 and 5 to make up time once we had a bit more space to move around. This was during Animal Kingdom and I had to spend all of my energy keeping up rather than looking out for photopass photographers. One did manage to get a shot with me in it but it's definitely a challenge to get candid photos while running with the group.

For Star Wars weekend, running through Pandora and Africa in the dark was one of my favorite parts of the race. Unfortunately, the time change meant there was no way I was making it to Animal Kingdom before the sun came up. So it worked out that I was focused on running rather than anything else for this part of my race. Thankfully, it was very overcast so the weather stayed nice rather than having the sunbaking down on us from Animal Kingdom to Hollywood Studios.

I knew from Star Wars weekend that the next highway stretch would be pretty boring. I was also getting pretty tired from running a sub 11:26 pace. But by that point, we had made up our time and could back down on the speed a bit after mile 6. My original goal was to aim to stick with the pace group until about the halfway point and then evaluate how I was doing. I felt great about the more relaxed pace and made a new goal to make it to mile 9 with the pace group.

During Star Wars weekend, I struggled a lot from Animal Kingdom to Hollywood Studios. I was killing myself to stay ahead of the 2:45 pace group and ended up having to run with them for a bit leading up to Hollywood Studios. But this weekend I was still feeling strong and staying with the 2:30 pace group. Mile 7 passed, then 8 and I was still sticking it out. A sort of manic joy came over me as I realized just what an amazing thing I was doing. Sure, I wanted to PR but I didn't imagine that I'd actually keep up with the pace group this long. I actually started tearing up several times during this section of the race.

It also helped that I knew approximately where the water stops were from Star Wars weekend. While it was difficult to drink and keep up with the pace group, each water stop left me feeling refreshed enough to make it to the next stop. Then we hit mile 9 and were into Hollywood Studios. The in park section here was tiny and crowded so I didn't even bother trying to get a photo. I had eyes on the prize and that prize was utterly smashing my half marathon PR.

The next section runs from Hollywood Studios, past the Swan and Dolphin and around the Boardwalk hotel. This section before you get to the wide boardwalk at the front of the hotel is notoriously narrow and crowded. I was actually surprised at how well our pace group stayed together. But we did lose a lot of time and had to overcompensate once the course widened up again. This is when I really started struggling.

There are also a couple of small inclines going from the Boardwalk into Epcot and while they are laughably small hills to most runners, my legs were really struggling powering up them. Just as we were entering Epcot at around mile 11.5, I had to call it quits with the pace group and fall back on my own. I walked for a bit while I got the interval app on my phone up. I knew from experience that if I switched to a shorter interval, I could still maintain a pretty good pace and give my body a bit of a break. I went all the way to my shortest interval set of 30/30 for going around World Showcase.

At this point in the race, I was in a really good position to still PR as long as nothing catastrophic happened. I did want to get some photos from this race so I smiled passed each photopass photographer and started looking for the next one immediately after passing the last one. Disney usually crams Epcot full of photographers so I took the good opportunities I had for photos and didn't worry about those that I wasn't in a good position for.

The character lines in Epcot were quite short at this point but still too long for me to want to stop when I was running for time. I was not going to ruin my hard work by stopping now! Again, the course ran through much of the same backstage area behind Test Track towards the finish line. On the way to the finish, I saw not one but two different characters with literally no one in line for them. This time I did decide to stop and spend the 5 seconds or so it would take to get a photo. Neither the big bad wolf nor Lightning and Mater where characters I had any particular attachment to but I had such a joy at my performance so far that I wanted to have some character photos as part of that experience.

Soon, I hit mile 13 and heard the race announcers mention that the 2:30 pace group was crossing right on time. I pushed to a strong finish but decided not to sprint as my legs were done and I knew that I was going to have PR either way. Plus I had a great pocket for a good finish line photo. I definitely could have shaved a bit more time off of my race if I made different decisions at the end but I regret nothing.

Wine and Dine Half Marathon

Time: 2:31:58

Pace: 11:36

I was very emotional as I walked down that long, long shoot to exit the runner area. I didn't know my official time yet but I knew I had taken at least 8 minutes off of my half marathon PR. (Actual finish time showed I took 9:45 off and was only 10 sec per mile slower than the 2:30 pace group!!) It was so far above and beyond even my secret A goal for this race that I could hardly believe that I had done it. I'm pretty sure only dehydration kept me from crying as I headed down towards the reunion area. I picked up my challenge medal and stopped for an "I did it" photo before meeting up with Melissa and Will again.

Will had finally gotten his sub 2 hour half and was celebrating with a hard cider. Melissa also had a very good finish time at this race. Jackey from Joyful Miles had flown in to cheer on the half marathon and she was waiting at the reunion area too. It was so awesome to have people to share my victory with! Will volunteered to get me a celebratory champagne while I rehydrated and refueled with some more appropriate post race nutrition. I'm usually not one for alcohol right after a race. I know it's not a good choice but I needed to celebrate!

More of the Joyful Miles crew stopped by as they finished so we could all catch up and share our race experiences but we had to head back to the hotel before everyone finished because we all wanted showers and mickey waffles before the hotel cafeteria stopped serving breakfast. (We made it but just barely!)

Wine and Dine 2019:

Part 1: Expo
Part 2: 10k
Part 3: Half Marathon-You are here.
Part 4: Two Course Challenge
Part 5: Meet Up and After Party