Disney World Wine and Dine Half Marathon: All Our Dreams Came True... NOT

One of the only pics we could get with my phone 

I think that everyone who has done multiple races has done at least one where it feels like everything in the whole world is against you, well this was that race for us (mainly for Brady). We signed up for the Disneyworld Wine and Dine half marathon last February and spent a whole lot of money. We were really excited about it, we had done one Disney race previously in Disneyland and it was really fun, so naturally we assumed this one would be fun as well. In the Wine and Dine you run through 3 of the 4 parks, Animal Kingdom first, then Hollywood Studios and then you finish at Epcot.

We caught a shuttle over to the starting line, this was one of my biggest problems with the race, they shuttle you like 2 hours before the race and you literally just sit there bored out of your mind. Then right before the race just our luck, it started to pour! It was freezing! Even for Florida it was cold! Then right as our corral is about to start my phone died! We were planning on taking a lot of pictures with the characters so we didn't have to buy them, but my phone was dead so that was out of the question.

So the back of my knee had been hurting for awhile and I decided to take a month off before this race to let it get better. I ran only about 3-4 miles the week of the race, I wasn't trying to get a PR for this race so I was fine if I had to walk a little. But of course when it comes to the race I don't have a slow button. We started the race with my parents and the 4 of us ran together for the first 3 miles through  the pouring rain and then it hit me. My knee started to kill when I ran, walking didn't hurt it was just running. So from mile 3 to mile 13.1 I walked pretty much the whole way! Did I mention it was pouring rain?! Ya it was pretty miserable, this was supposed to be the happiest place on Earth and I don't know if I've ever been more miserable. I walked 10 miles in the pouring rain freezing my butt off. Luckily I have an awesome wife who stayed with me until mile 10. I finally convinced her to run the last 3 miles and try and enjoy it.

The scenery was pretty good, it was a blast running through the parks at night, Animal Kingdom was awesome, Hollywood Studios was stunning with the Osborne Christmas Light display, and Epcot was whatever, it was the very end of the race and I just wanted to be done with this stupid race.
My total time ended up being 3 hours and 20 minutes, not quite as good as the 1:50 I ran a few months before. Did I mention it was pouring rain the entire time? While I was walking 10 freaking miles!! It was a relief to finish the race, Disney was smart and handed out space blankets to everyone which was a lifesaver. It was really cold!

As crappy as I felt, I felt even worse for Kassia and my mom and dad, they had been done for almost an hour and they had to just sit outside and wait for me in the cold rain. We finally made it back to the car and got to bed at 4:00 am. To sum that night up.... it sucked!! I found out from my mom and dad who were able to run the whole thing, said they didn't enjoy it either because of the weather and the late start. We decided we were done doing races that start so late at night. It's better to get it done in the morning.

Luckily for us we had an entire week left of our vacation and we were able to hit up Disneyworld, and Universal Studios including the new Harry Potter World.
Here we are 2 months later and I just barely started running again, slowly increasing the mileage and trying to avoid more injuries. I am injury prone like nobody else, if I can get through this tri season it is going to be a miracle! but I'm so excited to work with Balanced Art Multisport, aside from getting us in great shape their goal is to keep everyone injury free. Here's to hoping this year is a success and I don't have to walk 10 miles in the rain!