The Disney Wine and Dine Half Marathon

Chad and I love to run races- I stick with 5k races while Chad has ventured out into the world of full and half marathons. One of my favorite parts about running races is when you come upon the oasis better known as a water stop. Oh- water never tastes better than after you have run a few miles with another mile or so to go. Ah…….refreshing cold delicious water.

We have thought about doing one of the races over at Disney as it is only a few miles from our house and they have a race for any type of runner from the most elite couch potato to the most elite athlete. The only problem is that for the price of one Disney race we can run about 2 1/2 other races elsewhere. So this year we decided to volunteer for the Disney Wine and Dine Half Marathon.

We were assigned to work the water stop at mile marker 11.6 – the last oasis of the race before the 13.1 mile finish. The race started at the Hollywood Studios and raced all through Disney property ending at the entrance of EPCOT. Our water stop was on the lake in between the Boardwalk Hotel and the Swan Hotel.

We reported for duty at 8:30pm on Saturday night- picked up our snazzy purple windbreakers with the race logo on it and picked up our snack. Our snack was a bag of sun chips, a balance bar, two chocolate chip cookies, a package of peanut butter-cheddar crackers and a bottle of water. We then boarded a big luxury bus with the other 30 people who were also volunteering at our water stop. There ended up being 38 of us and off to the Boardwalk Hotel we went.

We spent the next hour and a half setting up tables and cups and filling them with water. We had twenty tables lined up along the lake and had to fill about 500 cups on each table with water and Power Ade. That’s a lot of liquid my friend……not even a camel could hold all that.

By the time the first runner made his way to our station we had poured about 10,000 cups of water and Power Ade- though we were expecting about 14,000 runners to pass our way, not everyone takes a drink- especially towards the end of a race.

As the racers started to run past us- we just sat to the side of the course holding out cups of water. We yelled “water! water!” and the racers grabbed the cups as they hurried past. Many of them took the time to thank us for volunteering as they ran past….at least those who still had any lungs left…..

My arm was getting so tired just holding these cups out- wow- I thought my arm was going to……wait…what??? What about the people who were running over 13 miles? How did they feel? I don’t know…my arm was hurting….and my throat hurt from yelling and cheering.

Actually, by the time they had gotten to our stop, they had already raced over 11.5 miles and everyone was still looking great. There were many characters too as in any race- we saw people dressed as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, lots of Snow White and Tinkerbell costumes. I saw one Alice in Wonderland, a Lumiere from Beauty and the Beast, a Super Mario dude, and several running Chefs (this race was linked to the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival). I wasn’t able to get pictures though (I mean I was working after all).

We passed out water until the last runner came by- about 3 1/2 hours after the race start. My back hurt, my feet hurt, my arm hurt…..but oh- how inspiring to see these athletes of all ages and all abilities racing to the end of a 13.1 mile course. I am so inspired now for my own Half Marathon in December. (I bet only then will I be begging for only a sore back, sore feet and sore arms!!)

Our evening came to an end at close to 3am. Chad and I debated going to eat at Waffle House at that hour but we were just too tired. We are hoping to volunteer again for the big one at Disney this January- The Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend event. YAY!!!