Wine and Dine 2019 Part 1: Expo

It's been a whirl wind runDisney weekend and I had such a blast. I'm starting the recap of my first Wine and Dine weekend with the expo. Will and I were running the challenge so we had to go to the expo on Friday to get our challenge bibs. We drove into Orlando early and were at the expo about fifteen minutes before it opened. For Star Wars weekend, we did this as well and it was really nice to get in and out of bib pick up quickly. We saw none of the crazy lines that are typical of opening day of a runDisney expo which is awesome.

The new ESPN set up dumps you right into the licensed runDisney merchandise area after you get out of bib pick up. It's really convenient especially if there are some race specific souvenirs you have your eye on. Sadly, we found the official merchandise pretty lacking this year. From talking to other people, it seems like a lot of stuff sold out on Thursday which is sad. I don't know if they ordered less product this year, if people went crazy because it was an anniversary year or if the ebay resellers were out in full force. I had my eye on the Wine and Dine Tervis mug and the mini medal replica pins all of which were completely sold out on Thursday. So I just ended up with the challenge magnet.

I've not been a huge fan of the generic runDisney merchandise. I get so much free running gear from the races I do that I can't justify buying more shirts when I got three from the race weekend already! Plus, they're designs tend to leave me underwhelmed. So my wallet left the official merch area still very full!

Then we popped over to the vendor area to get our shirts and check out the running stuff. The race shirts were an interesting selection of colors-gray, dark blue and bright orange. Personally, I love the bright colored shirts as it helps with visibility when running outside. So I was happy with the shirt designs this year. I don't wear a ton of long sleeved shirts since I live in Florida but these are pretty cute.

I also felt pretty underwhelmed at the vendor area. There were empty booths and it seemed like several regular vendors didn't make it to Wine and Dine this year. Since this is my fourth runDisney weekend this year, I already had my favorite companies and I tend to order from them when they have a sale rather than waiting to purchase in person at the expo. But the Altra booth had a pair of my discontinued Escalante 1.5 in my size so I snapped them up. Will also got a pair of Altra racers. Yay for new shoes!

I also picked up a few other souvenirs over the weekend. The 10th Anniversary gift for half marathon participants was a luggage tag in the shape of the medal. It's pretty cute and I'll probably hang it in my office next to my mini medal replica pins. We also picked up our passholder Food and Wine Festival magnet and coasters. So cute! :)

Wine and Dine 2019:

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