I am but I am still gasping for breath after a 10 min warm up at the studio 
Thank you!
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Here’s the thing: the first mile ALWAYS sucks. No matter how long you’ve been doing it and no matter if you use intervals or not. I imagine that 10 minute warmup is similar!
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That’s great! I’m looking at the programs , will have to start off very slowly… but it sounds like a good goal!
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That’s true!
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Ok I’m going to try and pick back up where I left off. But I’m so exhausted. After the W&D weekend, then playing catch up at work, and going on my son’s first scout campout this weekend, I’m out of steam. But I want to get this all down before I start forgetting things. It’s been more than a week already after all!
Saturday November 6th (Day 2)
Wine & Dine 10k
B and I woke up at the crack of dawn. Oh wait, no, it was about 4 hours before that… We had laid everything out the night before so we were out the door in just a few minutes. Now is a good time to bring up the fact that I was unprepared for the weather this weekend. Not only was it wet, but it was cold. It was also crazy windy so windchill was close to 40 the morning of the 10k. I had packed for warmer, dry weather. Shorts and tshirts, as well as a light jacket. So glad I brought that with me… For running, I just had my usual running gear, nothing to put on over it. Thank all that is good in this world that my friend B brought big black trash bags! If it hadn’t been for that trash bag I would have chattered my teeth to rubble in the corrals. Well, I’m getting ahead of myself now.
So we got our running gear and trash bags on, and were walking to the main lobby around 315a. We popped out front to look at the bus lines and there weren’t any, and there were 3-4 buses waiting. So we decided to stay in the lobby for a bit to stay out of the cold. Didn’t want to get to the corrals earlier than necessary. We went outside at 330 and got on the last bus that was there.
We were off the bus and walking towards the corrals at 355a. The race start area was the southern end of the TTC parking lots. I stopped to get a picture in front of the nautilus on display. We made a pitstop at Portapotty Mile and then into Corral S1 at 410a. There was a guy in front of me that had an awesome Gaston running jersey, much better than the tshirt I’d wear for the half. He said he got it off Etsy. Gotta get me one. We pretty much just stood there in the cold drizzle until the race started at 5a. The RunDisney entertainment crew was great as usual though. The race announcers, DJs, character appearances, it was not hard waiting around except for the horrid weather. I was so cold I didn’t take off the trash bag until I’d been running about 10 minutes. Shoes were soggy. It sucked.
At exactly 500a we were off! We were in the first wave of Corral S1 - I crossed the start line less than 30 seconds after the clock started. Previously I’ve always been in the 3rd corral, so started a good 30 minutes after the clock. I was just happy to get this race started and over with to get out of the drizzle windstorm (winds were blowing like 20-30 mph), it was miserable. The course started us out going south on World Drive towards HS.
The first character stop was just a minute or so down the road: Maleficent. What a stunning tableau to start the first in-person race with! I LOVED the villains theme!
After Mile 1 was a huge TV screen showing some Oogie Boogie scenes, and then Jack Skellington. This was the first character “greeting”. About 20 people were lined up waiting to get their “distanced” photopass shot. I generally just take a quick photo as I’m taking a walk break. Unless there’s no lines, then I might hop in for the photopass. But as you will see later, the photopass photos were often rubbish.
After Mile 2 was Oogie Boogie himself. B and I were debating the villains all weekend. Who was really evil and who was just a bad person? Oogie Boogie started this off, because B thinks he’s the worst because he is “Evil Incarnate”. Maybe he’s right. There was also a large TV screen showing some Evil Queen scenes, and then the Evil Queen herself!
Miles 1 and 2 I ran at a pretty good pace (for me), around 10:30 min/mile. Then I started dragging a bit. Maybe the weather, maybe my heart just wasn’t in it, but I think I was just tired. By Mile 4 I was only doing about 11:30 min/mile. Then by the end of the race I was getting close to 13:00. That is the opposite of what you want to do as a runner. Oops. To be fair I also stopped more the last few miles for pictures, so 15-30 seconds could be that.
After Mile 3 was the first DJ truck. I love these. The DJ is cheering for you, saying all kinds of fun, witty stuff and blasting high-tempo music. It is a great energy boost. Especially since the first 3 miles were all highway. Highway running is the worst part of running at WDW. It’s fun to run through the parks, but there are a lot of highway miles in between. Close to Mile 4 we entered HS via a back entrance by the Fantasmic theater, swung around in front of ToT, down Sunset Blvd where we saw the first non-character photopass photographers, and out a side street to bypass the HS security area.
After Mile 4 we were running along the footpath between HS and EP, which is notorious in RunDisney as the worst bottleneck. It’s a little wider than a standard sidewalk, let’s say its 6-7 feet across. Not very wide for RunDisney crowds. I’m in a few RunDisney chat groups (Facebook, Reddit, etc.) and several people reported that some jerk was bowling through slower runners along this part of the course. Shameful. Nobody should be trying to get a personal record at Disney in a crowd of tens of thousands of runners. OK back to my story. Close to the Boardwalk we saw this strange glowing head, which I suggested was from Fantasia. I was right. Apparently his/her name is Chernabog. Then we saw the Big Bad Wolf, one of my favorites and there was no line so I hopped in for my first character photopass photo. It didn’t turn out at all, B got a pic for me that turned out better.
I think you can notice in these pics that my body is starting to hurt. I’m ready for this race to be over.
After Mile 5 we were entering Epcot. There was a giant TV screen showing Ursula scenes, then we saw Governor Ratcliffe and Goob Yagoobian (Bowler Hat Guy). We stopped for some photos by Spaceship Earth and I made a video plug for my St. Jude Fundraiser
Mile 6 was pretty much the finish line (a 10k is 6.1 miles), which we crossed at 611a, so that’s the only thing left really besides grabbing our medals, the post-race snack box, and the long walk to the buses, which we boarded at 620a.
Some final thoughts, actually just one. This race sucked. I was cold and wet, just miserable. Being at Disney made it tolerable, otherwise I would have said this was the most unpleasant run I’ve ever had. Now, back to the hotel to shower, and a fun day at MK!
10k Misc
Here are the maps of the 10k event:
My net finish time was 1:10:52. Here’s how I placed:
Overall 2124/9228 (23rd percentile)
Males 1057/2849 (37th percentile)
Males 35-40 162/385 (42nd percentile)
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Ok this Profile Name is amazing for a runner, and perfectly describes how I would feel about running a 10K:
I loved looking at your pics of the Villains course! Very fun!
As someone who finds running a chore (I run on a treadmill but only because I know I need cardio), this whole Run Disney thing just doesn’t compute in my brain. I’m glad there are others out there who enjoy it though.
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He told us all about it over in our running thread - super clever! He has a blog (inactive right now) and his fundraising team for St. Jude is under that name. (I’ll brag about his awesome work in case he doesn’t 
)
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LOVE this! One of my all time favorite Disney movies!
That is a very cool jersey indeed. Guy looks like he fits the part too (more than you - he’s super smug in this pic anyway)
Awesome!!!
Hey way to be positive! 
Booooooooring.
LOVE your video! Always love hearing folks’ voices 
Sorry dude Way to persevere. You got lots of photopass pics! You didn’t look miserable! But it sounds like it was not a lot of fun at all. At least it’s over!
Not bad at all!
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B and I talked a lot about Gaston, since he’s my favorite villain and B thinks he’s terrible, on the “evil” end of the villain spectrum, can’t understand why I like him. So of course we get into a conversation with this guy in the picture, and he’s way more into Gaston than me. He’s going on and on about why Belle should have married Gaston. He was very macho about it, but still lighthearted, even laughing at his own arguments a bit. The ladies around us were getting into it too, everyone was ganging up on this poor Gaston lover…
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Um, sir… I’m not sure that’s possible…
That’s like saying I’m not that into the Tree.
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I would have agreed before I met this gentleman. It was good to know that I’m not alone in this world. LOL!
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Awesome work out there and way to persevere. You really got comfortable with the uncomfortable during that one!
Thanks for your work with St Jude as well. It is really amazing and your video has inspired me to go to your website.
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Rope Droppin’ Magic
After getting cleaned up and changed we got some breakfast at the Pop food court at 720a. We also set up Genie+ and made our first selection: Splash at 9:00. That actually worked out well because it was down all morning and it turned into an anytime pass.
Now we were fueled up and ready to go. Walked straight onto a bus to MK and made it on to Main Street at 800a. I forgot how much I love the Christmas decorations. B didn’t care for it because its too early. Can’t do Christmas until after Thanksgiving. Boooooo to that attitude. One of my favorite things on this trip was the Christmas music playing everywhere.
We made our way to the 7DMT rope drop crowd and were in the front 50ish people, so we knew we would practically walk on. By the time they let us through the crowd had built up all the way back to the hub. They waited until 830a exactly (early entry). We were on 7DMT at 842a.
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Wow! that park is empt…
nevermind
holy humanity!!
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Thanks for sharing all the details on the race. It’s so helpful! I’m sorry you had such crappy weather. Good on you for showing up and doing the run anyway! I wonder how many people bailed at the last minute.
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Yeah it was very busy the entire weekend. I didn’t use G+ on my bonus day when B left, and I ended up waiting about an hour for the safari, and an hour for RnRC single rider! I think the “pent up demand” is finally hitting the parks.
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We talked to a few people that were bailing on the half. It was still cold for that one, but not wet. The half was much more pleasant than the 10k.
ETA: haha, that last statement is funny, because the 10k was not pleasant at all!
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I thought the same thing. I was like where are all the people when I saw that picture of Main St. And then I saw the crowd.
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