Sometime back in 2016, the BF gifted me with a WDW Half Marathon registration since it fell on my birthday. Fast forward to January 2017 and we’re headed to Walt Disney World!! It looks to be all set for a great weekend with my two favorite guys, my son and the BF!!
On our drive we were greeted with a gorgeous sunrise and later a stop for cawfee.
After a little over 5 hour drive, we arrive…
Its’s straight to the Expo and Runner Relations!! A few weeks prior, I was unable to sign my waiver and after calling runDisney they said to go to Runner Relations and they would take care of the error…I was not alone, apparently around 200 other runners had the same issue.
We find Runner Relations…AND the line, for us, 1.5 hr wait!! Once we were able to speak to a volunteer, she was able to fix the system that would allow me to have a waiver to sign. The system had 2 Rick Delahayas, the only difference between the 2 was the shirt size!! The volunteer updated my information and said we were good to go to get our bibs.
Soooo, I find my bib number in the book and it is assigned to Rick Delahaya!! I asked that volunteer if that meant MY name wasn’t on the bib which confused her and led me to explain what happened with my waiver. She handed me my bib and it had Rick’s name on it…come on it’s my BIRTHDAY race!! Then it has corral P on the bib!! We had submitted a 2:30 projected finish time and apparently this was included in the mess up with the waiver. That volunteer directed me back to Runner Relations for corral issues!!
Back to Runner Relations for another 1 hr wait to find out that it doesn’t matter if you submit a time for corral assignment, they can exercise the right to put you wherever they want…touché!! This volunteer told the BF that it was basically his fault, that he should’ve had not registered me, things get messed up when you do that. This was not what I had expected and caught me completely off guard, I was a little upset that my bib didn’t have my name on it AND that we would now start in the last corral…this would not be the last disappointment for this race.
We walked through the expo in disappointment and really didn’t look at much. We did end up with a t-shirt, a hat and a few GU. We grabbed a cup of pretzel bite to hold us over til dinner and we were off to check into our room.
Dinner was a Raglan Road in Disney Springs. This is a favorite place when in Orlando, we’ve never had a bad meal.
While at dinner we had received a weather alert from runDisney, they were monitoring a system that was pushing through from the west. Shortly, after the first alert we received the RACE CANCELLED alert, potential for lightning in the area…WAAA!! WAAA!! And there it is, the triple header of my weekend. I was just getting over the disappointment from the Expo over a bowl of bread pudding when finding out I wouldn’t be running at all hits me…
On to Saturday morning…
We slept in til around 6:30, since there was no 2:30a wake-up call…plus, it’s my BIRTHDAY!! Of course we looked out the windows and could see that it had rained, but currently there was no adverse weather to be seen. We decided to put on the runners and get a few miles in before going to breakfast and then the parks!!
Our first 5 miles were pretty uneventful. We would pass and wave at several groups putting in their miles since they were doing either Dopey or Goofy. During our last two miles the sky turned black, the wind picked up and the clouds emptied out on us!! We took cover in a parking garage and after thinking it was all clear, we ended up under cover at a shuttle bus stop. Once the rain let up, we made it back to the room having put in around 6.5 miles. That was enough for me…I wanted to celebrate my BIRTHDAY!!
We started at WDW Magic Kingdom and went straight for the Nutella Waffle!! The Boy got something else, but was eyeing my waffle!! We rode a few rides, ate more park food, spoke to Mary Poppins about her Penguins, and then headed to Epcot!!
We had a FastPass+ for Soarin’ and it was delightful!! They have updated the scenes to iconic places around the world…LOVED IT!! Of course we had cawfee, it was quite chilly and headed to the World Showcase for dinner at Tutto Italia Ristorante in Italy.
After dinner the plan was to head back to Magic Kingdom for the fireworks, but we were chilled to the bone and just ready to get warm. Did I mention that with the weather that had moved through, it brought a cold front and our thin Florida jackets were no match for the wind and cold!! So it was back to the room to warm up and plan for tomorrow!!
On Sunday THEY ride Everest…
It was a 10 o’clock show for us at Animal Kingdom for our last day at Disney. We were able to see and cheer for some of the runners passing through the park, mile 13 was just outside of Everest… Go Runner Go!! The Boy and the BF rode the coaster twice…once in the middle car (you can see the NIKE swoosh) and once in the FRONT car!!
We made a loop around the park and got our candied pecans and headed for the car for the drive home…
In the weeks to come we emailed and phoned disney several times. We finally received a link that allowed us to transfer to the WDW Wine & Dine Half Marathon in November.
However…still no medal in the mail!!! When/If we receive our medals we will run 13.1 miles with our Disney bibs and proudly display our medal!!
My Kind of FIT 