Walt Disney World Half Marathon Pre-Race

Race day started very, VERY earlier.  Much earlier than I remember my first Disney half starting back in 2006.  If memory serves me correctly, I didn't have to catch the bus until 5ish.  The start wasn't until 7:30 or 8ish.  This year our wave was set to take off at 5:49 a.m.

We got ready freakishly in-sync and grabbed some food downstairs in the hotel lobby.  Our hotel, the Hilton Bonnet Creek, had an awesome spread of food and drinks for the runners.

And they had a cheer squad waiting for us outside!  I still can't believe these people were willing to wake up at such a crazy hour just to cheer on a bunch of complete strangers.  Kudos to Hilton Bonnet Creek!!   If I ever do another Disney race, I'll be staying there again, at least through race day.

We got on the bus at 3:20 and arrived at EPCOT by 3:45.  Then started the most unbelievable unDisney like mess in all of Disney history.  For some unknown reason, Disney expected to get 30,000 people through a gate the width of two cars.  And I'm pretty sure someone forgot to unlock that gate or something because we had to stand in this ridiculously huge mob of people for about an hour before we even started moving.


Once we did start moving towards the chutes (Disney advises a 20-minute walk) to the start, it was at a molasses pace with half steps... for over an hour!!


The bottleneck got worse as we got closer to the chutes as people who were the usual large crowd a-holes tried to get off the paved street and run past everyone on the sides towards the next gate sized opening.  They were just making the whole situation worse.  If you were one of those people... bravo for being so selfish!  RIDICULOUS!  I kept telling Bryn that it wasn't anything like the first time I ran the race in 2006.  We arrived so bleepin' early at EPCOT so that we could get to our chute and SIT DOWN!  We did exactly what runDisney suggested.  Obviously, I'm still disgruntled about all of this.  I hate it when Disney lets me down.


We arrived at the very back of our chute with about 18 minutes to spare.  At that point there was no where to sit or point in even sitting.  The race started within just a few minutes of us arriving in our chute.  Luckily we did get to see some fireworks as the elites took off down on the course.

Bryn and I didn't have too much time to really get nervous.  I think we were both relieved we made it to our chute before the race actually started.  I wouldn't be surprised if there were many who did not make it given the unbelievable screw-up on Disney's part.  I tried to stretch my legs out but they were already feeling heavy from the two hours we had been our feet standing and inching our way to the start.

This is the before race shot.  I think I look a little tired.  I didn't feel tired but I certainly felt a little rushed and out of sorts.  I knew one thing though, I was absolutely ready to get the show on the road!!