2016 Disney World RunDisney Star Wars Dark Side Race Weekend

Disney grabbed us for one more RunDisney race series. In January we participated in another Star Wars themed race weekend - The Light Side. Florida's Disney location offered a companion series in April with the kicker of a bonus medal for doing the half marathons on both coasts. Like January, we were both signed up for the 5K and10K while Holly had the half marathon. The combination of the 10K and half marathon earns a challenge medal.

We arrived Thursday night, the night before the 5K. We did not have a chance to go to the expo so we were hoping our race bibs would be available at the start area. We checked in at the Boardwalk and figured we had enough time for some quick dinner at Epcot's Flower and Garden food booths. We split four booth offerings before meeting up with friends to watch Illuminations (Epcot fireworks). After the show we headed back to Boardwalk, enjoyed some time in BelleVue talking to one of our favorite WDW bartenders, then went to the room and fell asleep around midnight.

At 3:15 the wake-up call arrives the same time our phone alarms go off. Ugh! The race started at 6:00 but Dinsey logistics demands runners to arrive early. We drove to Epcot vs. taking the resort shuttles and arrived early enough at 4:15. We got our bibs no problem. With time to kill we decided to take advantage of the new character photo op setup that was available all three days (before and after the race). There were different Star Wars character/scene sets lining the stage area. You could have photos with Darth Maul, Darth Vader, Boba Fett, Captain Phasma, First Order Troopers, BB-8, Jabba, and rattarps. Disney photographers were on-hand to take photos for the runners (posted online and free to download for Annual Passholders and Memory Maker subscribers). Since we were early we could knock a few out with little wait. After that it was hang out with friends, wait on bathroom lines, and then wait in corrals.

The above statements can be applied to the other race mornings except for the race times. Each morning the start was a half hour earlier. The alarm went off around 2:15 on Sunday for the half. Dave stayed in bed that morning and met up with everyone later.

5K

We entered Corral A (first to start the race) about twenty minutes before the race. Almost as soon as we crossed in race staff announced they were closing the corral. So many people were still milling about and using bathrooms. Our corral ended up having less than 500 participants of a 7,500+ person race. As we were starting we noticed the family of a friend waiting at the side of the corral for their left behind family member using the bathroom. The course was the usual Epcot Course 1st mile parking lot, other miles Epcot.

The 5K is the only distance we can do together because of our separate paces and tolerances for intervals. We saw R2-D2 was the first character stop passed mile marker 1. We skipped it. The World Showcase was lit a bit differently for the race and Star Wars music was playing over the speakers. Fun! The characters from Rebels were at the American Pavilion and Chewbacca was by the Friendship dock by the International Gateway. We skipped both. The final character stop were Some New Order Stormtroopers on a platform by the Future World Fountain. Yep, skipped it. We crossed the finish line, collected our drinks and goodie boxes, took a picture with Boba Fett, and left.

Having Photo Pass was a nice touch. By entering a code and your bib number into the My Disney Experience App we had access to the race photos within a few hours - for free (with our pass). This helped to offset the ridiculous cost of RunDisney races.

Overall the 5K was "same race, different overlay". Seeing people in Star Wars outfits was fun, but nothing on course was different than expected. An appearance by Kylo Ren would have been nice. It was humid as expected this time of year.

10K

"Let's wake up earlier than yesterday". The worst part of race weekend is the early start. Being back in the room before the first firework show starts is a miserable feeling. We carpooled over to Epcot with our friends Lee and Laura. We were still pretty early so we killed time with character photo lines. We met up with more friends and eventually shuffled the almost 1/2 mile to the start line. Shuffle is literal. They opened the gates and we all slowly moved our way to corrals. Dave was the lone Corral B member of our group. Since he's slower he decided to take the head start and figured we'd finish around the same time. To make things worse - we were finishing the race at Wide World of Sports which meant we had to rely on busses to take us back to Epcot or the resort's.

Here's the race from Dave's POV:

"Somehow I ended up too far in the front of my corral. Once we crossed the line we were all really packed together for a while. Then came the off-ramp that narrowed to accommodate a single car - going from 4 lanes to one was crowded for me. It was warmer than the day before and I wasn't feeling it. Adding to the fun was I kept burping up the nasty Clif Bar I ate before the race. This was going to be slower pace than yesterday, even though I had a faster first mile (Likely caused by the push of the crowd and search for isolation).

Epcot looked the same as the day before and it was fun to go counterclockwise to UK pavilion. This was a good place for the bathroom. The Boardwalk was fun to go through, but then the narrow path to the Studios was not. At the front of the Studios there were a few members of the 501st out for photo ops. It was nice, but nothing like the California half marathon. I took a few pictures in the Studios and took advantage of the Tower of Terror restrooms. Since the rest of the course was not through parks or resorts I decided to take advantage of the familiar. I'm not one to stop for character photo opportunities, but they had Palpatine's chair at the 1/2 way point. Just had to wait on line.

The rest of the course was not much fun. Concrete and Trees. Right before Mile 5 participants crammed onto a narrow dirt paths for almost a half mile. That was really fun. Near the end of the course a few more members of the 501st were out, including a Darth Vader. Since I had a Darth Vader shirt on I decided to stop for a picture. I knew through text messages Holly and crew were nearby. I stood off to the side before crossing the finish to see if they were coming into sight, but then figured they may be stopping for pictures with the characters and moved on. I got some poor finish line photos because I was chatting with Rudy, the greatest race announcer in the world, as I crossed. He asked if Holly was close by. So much fun to know a race announcer.

I'm in the minority of my friends when I say I wish it was the race was on the traditional 10K course of Epcot-Boardwalk-Yacht-Beach-Epcot. There was not enough to engage me on this course passed the half way point. I really hated the fact that we had to wait on line 30 minutes for a bus back to Epcot. Apparently the wait was up to 70+ minutes later that day

Half Marathon (Holly's Report)

This is now the third morning wake up in a row for me. It was the earliest one yet at 2:15 am! Lee and Laura were driving this morning and I knocked on their door at 3 am. We made it to Epcot in no time at all and we now just had to wait two hours until we would actually start running. This was when it finally sunk in that I was done with runDisney. I love seeing and running with my friends but we are all so tired from getting up so early, that I would like to pick another race weekend that doesn’t require such early alarms, or just go to Disney with everyone and not run.

We once again had a long slow shuffle to the corrals and waited around for our turn to go. It was the same entertainment as the previous two days. The course would be a new one again so I was excited for that. We started in Epcot and ran along the Beach Club today to get to the Studios (Dave came out to see us along the Boardwalk path). Ran through the Studios and then out to Osceola Parkway to Animal Kingdom and back on Osceola to finish again at Wide World of Sports. It was a cooler morning this morning and we had a group of nine of us running together today. We all had fun and I think we were running a bit faster because it was cooler. We did slow down at the half way point because we were getting tired after three days of running! As with the first two days the characters on course were lacking. The 501st did save the day and I enjoyed running through three parks.

The medals were great, especially the Kessel Run medal that I got because I did the half marathon in January at Disneyland. We were all disappointed to learn that there was no beer available after the race due to the fact that the race ended in Osceola County and you can’t sell beer in the morning in that county. Something tells me that they will be changing the course next year or getting a special permit. They left too much money on the table, which is something that Disney does not do.

 

My overall feelings on the race weekend are that they are a fun weekend if you like Star Wars. They are way overcrowded however and the magic of running at Disney is over for me due to the overcrowding and the overall process of getting to the races so early to sit around and wait to start.

 

 

2016 Star Wars Race Weekend Disneyland 5/10K

We have successfully avoided the lure of RunDisney events since 2014 Disneyland Dumbo Double Dare Weekend. It took the lure of Star Wars to bring us back. Holly registered for the Rebel Challenge Race Series (10k, half marathon) in anticipation RunDisney would have a companion series in Disney World that would partner with these races via special medal. She was right. in April Disneyworld will host the Dark Side Challenge Series and link the two together via the Kessel Run Challenge that comes with a Millennium Falcon medal.

The photo of the medal we stole from the internet was taken by our good friend Laura. Check out her in-depth race report (something you won't get from us) at her great blog on AllEars.net: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

Getting to Disneyland was half the battle. Originally we had a round-trip on American booked Chicago-John Wayne/Santa Ana that landed in California at a perfect time to accomplish a lot on Thursday and left Monday at a later-afternoon hour. Two months before the trip American rearranged the whole schedule, cancelled our flight, causing us to book a one-way to LAX, then a return to Chicago on United via LAX. The flight into Cali was later than originally scheduled and we were worried we'd be wasting a day of park ticket. We landed a little early, good news, but navigating a rental car pickup at rush hour in LAX took an hour. Compounding our bad luck was the 105 closed due to a car fire. Siri diverted us through an unsavory neighborhood (Imperial Highway). We'd be lucky to arrive on time to get our bibs for the 5K race the next morning.

We pulled into the Disneyland Hotel (our home for a few nights and location of the race expo) around 7:10. Our grand plan: Run into the expo and pick up our stuff, put it back in the car, and then run to Disneyland to catch the new night time parade and fireworks starting at 8pm. We are happy to report we made it.

Main Street is where the first chant of "I hate Disneyland" occurs (we prefer the FL parks and believe DL has some of the worst processes and procedures). While waiting by the train station for the parade Dave really wanted a Diet Coke. They don't have food/drink stands every 30 ft like Disney World. He had to go to the other side of the circle and wait in a horrendous line at the churro cart, where the cast member was delighting guests with his cinnamon sugar coating techniques. The lights dimmed signaling the parade's arrival so he went back to meet Holly, defeated and bitter.

At least the new Paint the Night Parade was awesome. It had all the fun of SpectroMagic with a good mix of Disney and Pixar floats. After the parade we moved up Main Street for a better view of Disneyland Forever Fireworks. Great show, mostly due to the projections all along Main Street.

As soon as the fireworks ended we bee-lined to the Main Street Starbucks and got Dinner Part 1: breakfast sandwiches. We walked back to the hotel, grabbed our bags, checked in, then met friends at Trader Sam's for Dinner Part 2: flat bread pizza.

5K: We barely had 4 hours of sleep when the alarm went off at 3:50am. By 4:30 we were at the Runner's Village near our hotel parking lot. Lots of people in Star Wars clothes/costumes. We were both in Corral A this morning which is a good thing if you want any chance of character photos since the lines build quickly. We were staying together this race - something we are not good at because of Our separate pace / interval preferences. We did ok this day. Mile 1 was mostly boring surface streets and backstage. We skipped the first character line, Chewbacca, since he's in the park daily. Mile 2 was mostly Disneyland. We stopped for a picture with Ezra and Sabine from Rebels, but the castmember moved the camera and blurred the pic. Luckily, our friend Laura read someone's blog and found that someone took our picture and posted it. Very random. Mile 3 covered California Adventure Park and Downtown Disney. In the corner of Hollywood was a BB-8 photo opp. The line wasn't so bad at this point since we chose to skip other photo opps along the way. Getting this photo totally made Holly's day. We skipped the C-3PO / R2-D2 stop since we've snapped photos with them separately before. Our splits were something like 12+minutes mile 1, 18+ mile 2, 27+ mile 3. We spent the rest of the day enjoying the parks and time with friends while we added another 12+ miles of walking during the day.

10K: Here we go again. 3:50 alarm, 4:30 Runners Village, in the corral by 5:00. We were in Corral B today and we had separate plans for the race. Holly would run it with our friend Stan and Dave would just finish at his own pace. They tried to cram most of the course within the Disneyland property. This meant we took about 13 hairpin turns on the course as it repeated on itself many times. Still a lot of backstage areas incorporated on the course. In Disneyland Dave found Stan and Holly on line for the Ezra/Sabine photo opp and joined them. That was the last time we saw each other. Stan and Holly kept running through and Dave took it a bit slower and stopped for some photos.

Overall both races were fun. People were really into the theme and the weather wasn't horrible. They incorporated a lot of park time, albeit a lot of that is backstage. The rest of our Saturday was spent touring the parks, which actually means sitting at Pacific Wharf for hours with friends drinking beers. Most of us still had another long race the next day.

 

 

More from a Chicago Weekend July 2015

Holly covered the Rock and Roll Chicago Half Marathon in our last post. Here are some other highlights from our recent weekend in Chicago.

Rock and Roll 10K

While Holly ran the Rock and Roll Half, Dave joined a few friends in the Rock and Roll 10K. This was the first R&R 10K in our area and we originally guessed it would run the first 6 miles of the half course, giving us a nice tour of popular Chicago landmarks. Silly us....... We were given the last 6.2 miles of the half course which meant our start line was a mile away from the main start and our view was of a less-spectacular part of the city. We got to "enjoy" not having enough porta-potties at the start, with most never stocked with paper.  For Dave the course was ok for a one-and-done since we are "local" and do not frequent that part of town. If we came to town planning that the 10K would hit Chicago's highlights we would have been mad.

We watched most of the Andy Grammar post-race show and we actually enjoyed most of the songs. He's the kinda singer that you've heard their songs but had no idea who sang them.

Our room came with a guard dog. We named him Spartacus.

Virgin Hotel

We used Hotwire.com to book our weekend accommodations. We have discovered that if you read ALL the reviews of a hotel offer, and our familiar with your destination, you can figure out where you could be staying. After much investigation we found we had a decent offer available for the new Virgin Hotel. This is the first ever hotel for the record label / airline.
It was a wonderful experience. The staff was very pleasant and very customer focused. We were asked why we were in town and responded that we came in for the race. After being in the room for ten minutes a staff member visited to give us a Kind Bar and bottle of water with a hand written card saying good luck.

Our room was spacious given the very different layout of a two-section chamber. Your shower is actually part of the room and not in a separate bathroom. The mini bar is not a rip-off and guests can enjoy free drinks at social hour each night in The Commons Club. By free, we mean whatever you want (we think within reason) so the signature cocktail menu was not off limits. The restaurant decor was a mix of modern with kitschy casual. We did not seem to fit-in with the other clientele: model types, GQ fashionistas, and ladies dressed up for a big night out. But what was nice was the staff never gave us odd looks or made us feel out of place. If you need a quick ride and the car is available you can get a lift in the Tesla (we did - fun!). The hotel also has a rooftop bar (which you know we love) but it was a bit small and cramped for our taste with few outdoor seating options.

Food and Drink

Places we visited during the weekend:

Cerise: Rooftop at the Virgin Hotel. Beer list was lacking and it was a bit small compared to other rooftops. We didn't make it to the lower-level indoor bar, but we all need goals.....

Three Dots and a Dash: the basement tiki bar was able to accommodate our (then) group of five for 90 minutes at a table. We had fun finding out the guys at the next table flew to Chicago just to visit this bar. We delighted them by pointing out the bar's founder moved on to open another tiki bar in the city's north side. We came home with some unneeded drinking vessels.

Bottlefork: We stopped here for a drink before dinner and enjoyed the outdoor communal table. The beer list was unique, but not deep. The cocktail list looked tempting and the food that passed by looked great. Maybe next time we will spend more time here.

Weber Grill: Our friend Charlie said he loved Weber Grill during another visit to Chicago so we figured we'd get a ressie for our party of nine. As "locals" we often forget about Weber Grill since the city always buzzes about new restaurant openings. The food was great and reasonably priced for being in tourist central. We discovered a local beer we liked from Off Color - Scurry Dark Honey Ale.

McCormick and Schmick's: We went here for a few reasons: 1) Too early to go to bed, 2) Weather was awesome, 3) Patio on Wacker looking at the Trump Tower and Wrigley Building, 4) $50 gift card leftover from Christmas. Specialty Berry Mule was nice.

The Common Club: Virgin Hotel's second floor bar serves most day-parts with food and great cocktails. The crowd is a bit fashionable, but there's enough casual around to make anyone feel welcome (board games, comic books, light fixtures made of toys).

Jake Melnik's: Frequent readers are not shocked we stopped here. Great food and beer list just two blocks away from the madness of the Mag Mile. Everyone in our party enjoyed their food including BBQ sandwich of chicken, pork, and brisket and Jake's famous chicken wings. Be sure to try the PB & J wings.

Howells and Hood: (Another shocker) Stopped to have beer on the patio (over 120 on tap to pick from) but then the deluge arrived when the waitress brought our drinks to the table. Headed inside to keep out of the massive downpour.

Pizano's Pizza: We had problems here last year when they lost our reservation for 16 people and we had to make other plans rather quickly. A voicemail left for the owner ended with a personal apology and a gift card. Now Pizano's is on Opentable.com and they worked with us as we switched our headcount a few times. Folks enjoyed their pizzas and huge bowls of pasta. The generous gift card covered all 10 people with a few bucks leftover.

First Draft: Dave discovered this Printer's Row location last year and wanted to share his find with friends. Great beer list with unique options like a cucumber wheat and grapefruit radler served over ice with vodka, The poutine and burgers were excellent.

Fortunately we had a pretty successful weekend.

Disneyland 2014 10K Report and Video

While in Disneyland a few weeks ago we participated in a few runDisney races. Dave participated in the 10K and Holly participated in the Dumbo Double Dare - which is a combination of the 10K day 1 and the half marathon day 2. This also earned her another Coast to Coast Medal.  Here is the report for the 10K with video.

Dave's 10K Report
In some cases Disneyland's smallness can be a benefit and this is certainly true on runDisney event days. Guest staying on property have a pretty easy time getting from their resorts to the race start lines near the Disneyland Hotel (getting back to your hotel is a much harder task). We were able to get up at 4:00am for a 5:30 start time and make it to the start area with lots of time to spare.

The 10K was themed to the movie Lilo and Stitch so the tropical/Hawaiian theme was a given. What we all forgot about was that the Elvis theme also comes with Stitch. Our National Anthem send off was performed by an Elvis impersonator really overacting the role. Points for trying.....

Holly and I decided we'd do the race together and we wouldn't just stroll it like we normally do for a short runDisney race. I'd walk and Holly would run/walk and we'd maintain a decent pace. We've never really done this together before and we figured out why. I don't do a run/walk and find it unnatural. I also don't talk and pretty much prefer to zone out while exercising. This really doesn't make me a good race partner. Plus my sweat rate and need to stay under a certain heart rate adds to Holly's stress. At one point in Fantasyland we were that couple having a disagreement on course. Lessons learned for next time.

The first two miles of the course were off Disney property. We went by some hotels and through the Convention Center. We entered California Adventure through the back door by Cars Land (Mater and Lightning were out) and rounded over to Paradise Pier, through Condor Flats, up through the Hollywood area and then out a back way to the Esplanade (area between the two parks).

We crossed into Disneyland under the train tracks and made our way up Main Street towards Tomorrowland. Holly was expecting to see Darth Vader or Buzz Lightyear this morning for a character photo stop.   Not this morning.... We rounded over to Fantasyland and found Cops and Robbers Chip and Dale hanging out with an Elvis impersonator - think Jailhouse Rock. We spent some time backstage before heading back into ToonTown to go to Fantasyland and through the castle.

In Frontierland/New Orleans Square Stitch in an Elvis outfit and a random Hawaiian lady were available for photos. We waited at least ten minutes in this line. After we snapped the photo we headed towards Critter Country and backstage again. We exited Disneyland near the ticket gates and finished the race moving through Downtown Dinsey. We both got shout outs from our race announcer friend Rudy.

Overall the course was pretty good. The boring portions were over with early while it was still dark. A lot of time was spent backstage, which in my opinion is one of the reasons you'd do a runDisney race. The character stops were limited - which is something Holly wasn't happy about. We believe the rationale is they wanted to open the parks on time and having a lot of characters would cause runners to linger longer than desired. There were plenty of chances to take pictures along the course of rides and buildings.

Here's some video from the 10K.  We had audio issues with the camera so some of the comments are very fuzzy.  As we enter into Disneyland we are commenting on how someone liked our new matching shirts, but how we hated them because they were hot and they just stuck to us in the rare California humidity.

2014 Disney's Enchanted 10k Race Report

Here's Holly's recap of the Enchanted 10K:

I was registered for the Glass Slipper Challenge which involved doing the Enchanted 10k on Saturday and the Princess Half Marathon on Sunday. After some travel mishaps (again) Dave and I made it to Disney World Friday around noon and went right to the race Expo. It was not crowded and I was able to pick up everything very quickly and even was able to buy a couple pins with a small line at the official runDisney booth.

The Enchanted 10k was the same course as the 10k in January and I wasn’t really looking forward to it since it was such a boring course. My plan for the weekend was to try and run hard but still stop for some character pictures since I didn’t stop for any in January. Dave was not registered for any races this weekend and he was looking forward to a more laid back weekend with some spectating thrown in. Saturday morning I woke up at 2:30 and got ready to leave. I left a lucky Dave sleeping as his plan was to bring a pot of coffee out to the Boardwalk and start cheering around 5:30. I got to Epcot way too early and wandered around until I found some friends. It was nice to be able to talk to them to pass the time. I spent the time in the corrals with Mike and Michelle and it was fun to discuss our future race plans. Finally we were off and running.

The course was very crowded in the beginning and I had trouble running the pace I wanted to. The first character area was on the overpass and was a very neat Frozen display with Elsa interacting with the runners. No character pictures possible here, but I stopped to get a picture of her. Next up was the White Rabbit which I didn’t stop for. Then it was Pocahontas and Meeko. I was excited for that one and stopped. It was a pretty long line, but I was on a good pace so I stopped anyway.

Now the long boring stretch until you get to Epcot. I had a fast mile on this stretch and was feeling good. A quick stop for a picture with the toy soldiers and then back through the backstage area of Epcot. We came out at China and then did a short lap around the showcase. Characters here were Jiminy Cricket, Tiana and Naveen, and Marie. I didn’t stop for any of these. Next up was the lap around the Boardwalk and Beach Club, which is my favorite part. It is really pretty in the predawn light. I stopped for a picture with Baseball Goofy. It was a huge line, but again my pace was good and I wanted this rare picture.

Dave was just up ahead with his pot of coffee and he made me go back and come at him again because he wasn’t ready. After that section you head back into the backstage area of Epcot and come out right by the Imagination pavilion. A quick run by Spaceship Earth and the finish line is around the corner. I felt really strong and was pleased with my time, which included a bunch of time waiting for characters. I still think the course is boring and that they need to add more to the highway portion of this race.

Dave's comments

The first thing I did when arriving at the race Expo was to visit Guest Services to see if they could help me with some theme park ticketing issues. That particular location couldn't. So then I went to the cafe and bought a beer in a RunDisney souvenir cup. The beer with cup was $8.50 but you could get $4.50 refills. One of Disney's better values so I had to make sue we got a second one.

The morning of the 10K I made it to my spectating spot at 5:30, which was about 25 minutes too early since this was mile marker 4-point-something and runners would not be here for a while. I saw Baseball Goofy come out from ESPN and practice a photo with the handler. I ran over, seeing this as my only opportunity to get a photo. When I asked the cast member, he kinda hesitated and said "he's here for the runners". In my head I'm coming up with all kinda smarty retorts like "no kidding", "Do you see any runners right now"...but I held my tongue. In the end he snapped my picture.

This was a very odd spectating experience for me. I had just my small point-and-shoot and iPhone for electronics. I sat on a bistro chair putting me eye-level with runners while I had my pot of coffee on the table. This prompted many runners to talk to me. Great! I was an on-course spectacle. I had fun watching my friend Eddie speed by, taking pictures of other friends, and doing some Facebook photo updates of friends passing by. Holly had texted me that she was in line with Goofy, and I texted back asking for warning when she was almost through with him. She missed that text and caught me off-guard. So yeah I sent her back to get the one shot of video of her from the race. That video will be part of the Glass Slipper Challenge video which will be included with the Princess Half Marathon post.