The Wine and Dine Two Course Challenge was my third runDisney challenge but the first one I got to dedicate a full training schedule to without having other races interrupt my training. I'm not going to lie. This wasn't my favorite training cycle. Much of this training was done in the depths of summer (which in Florida can last well into October) and it was rough. I knew running back to back training runs regularly would eat into my social calendar but having the runs take so much longer due to the heat made it extra difficult. It even made me decide not to do the Wine and Dine challenge again. (Which lasted just until they announced the 2020 theme of villains! Guess who wants to do the challenge again now?)
I do feel like I had a much better approach to running a challenge than I did at my previous two. Challenges take a lot out of me and we decided to prioritize rest and recovery this trip rather than park time. I loved getting to just chill in the hotel room and read a book! We also made sure to get naps plus I took an epsom salt bath after each race. We made it to bed early on Saturday night before the half and did lots of foam rolling over the course of the weekend. I also made better food choices on Saturday. (There's still always Sunday to eat all the things!)
I know for a lot of people these runDisney weekends are their time to get in the whole Disney experience. As a passholder, that's not the case for me. I was ok doing just a few Disney things and saving the rest for a nonrace weekend. It's definitely something to consider when planning your race-cation especially if you are running a challenge. And our rest paid off because Will and I both PR'd the half marathon. The moral of the story: don't slack on your recovery during race weekend!
Will rocked out all three medals but I'm a big believer in wearing only one medal at a time. And that challenge medal was seriously heavy! I bring a medal holder with my in my bag to store my medals in while I'm going on rides like Space Mountain where they might fly up and smack me in the face. (Tutorial here.)
We ran into Jen and Heather in Magic Kingdom and we all road Space Mountain together. It just worked out that we all had overlapping fast passes. It can be hard to arrange meet ups with people during the weekend because we're all busy and we're all tired and we all have different priorities race weekend but sometimes really spontaneous things like this happen. It really added to the Disney magic! The people I've met through runDisney are just amazing and the weekends wouldn't be nearly as fun without them.
Up next is the post about the Youtube vlogger meet up which is always one of my favorite parts of the weekend. If you have a chance to go to a meet up, definitely do it! I know that various running Facebook groups do meet ups so be sure to ask if your group is doing one. It's so amazing to get to meet your internet friends in real life.
Wine and Dine 2019:
Part 1: Expo
Part 2: 10k
Part 3: Half Marathon
Part 4: Two Course Challenge-You are here.
Part 5: Meet Up and After Party
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