I never posted a review of the 2011 Marathon weekend of which I participated in the half marathon and my wife and children participated in the 5K for two important reasons. First, I had nothing in which to compare the experience except for my previous recreational stays at the park, and second, I was too caught up in the emotion of the experience to actually provide a review. Although this experience was just as emotional and exciting, I believe I can also provide a balanced view of the races and the experience.
Since I am long winded, this post will be broken up into 5 posts: Check-In and Expo, The Family Fiesta 5K, the Walt Disney World Half Marathon, The Walt Disney World Marathon, and Post Thoughts.
This year my children ran the 5K, my wife ran the half, and I ran the full. I had paid for my race early, back when the event opened and I had my $10 discount for having participated in the 2011 event. I signed my wife up in November and the children early in December. Aside from confirmation emails from active.com I received very little information over email about the upcoming event until a single email let me know it was time to print out my waivers. Of course, on the website there were updates made that included posting the course for each event, the event guide, and reminders of when the last day to change or transfer your registration were approaching. Why can't they send out email blasts? Other races tend to help psych you up by getting you caught up in the excitement of the experience. If you follow RunDisney on Facebook or Twitter you get some of this experience but for the high cost of this event compared with others and the relatively low cost of email reminders and bulletins, this would have been nice.
Check in And Expo
We arrived at Disney's ESPN Wide Worlds of Sports Complex for packet pickup at 11:00 AM on Thursday January 4th (the first day of packet pickup), since we had 5K runners. As always the HP Field House was well organized and picking up the 5K goodie bags, shirts, and bibs was quick and efficient. The same was true for picking up bibs for the half and full marathon. This is only true if you came prepared with your waiver printed out and signed. If you had to print a waiver or worse, wait in line at the information booth, you were going to be there a long time. Of course, marathon shirts and goodie bags are located at the Expo, but we'll come to that in a minute.
Also, as always, since there is no need for 5Ker's to go to the Expo (unless they want to of course) Disney sets up a RunDisney store on the floor of the HP Field House between the marathon and half marathon check in. The store was so crowded that the line to pay wrapped around the store twice. This is unnecessary. Although he same merchandise is sold at the Expo, the management of the crowd at the store made the store completely inaccessible. Last year when we arrived at 4:00 pm for check in, the store was manageable. So off to the Expo.
The Expo is housed at the Josten's Center a short walk from the HP Field House. The floor of the Expo was very cramped this year. We had been looking forward to casually walking the Expo and to pick up some odds and ends so we walked around to pick up our goodie bags and our shirts, and then to the Disney store for some merchandise. This part was very smooth and quick. Although the RunDisney merchandise store was crowded, it was about what you'd expect in any Disney store in the parks on a crowded day. My wife and I both felt that the options were some what weak, but we still picked up a couple of items. Overpriced, definitely. Be aware, they do take Annual Passholder discounts (both premium and regular) at the Disney merchandise store.
We then headed to the rest of the Expo. Here is where the story gets less fun. The Expo was not just crowded but impossible to navigate. The aisles were close and tight and the people were not patient. It seemed that everyone was oddly insistent about getting their way or to their destination no matter what it took. Although there were some deals, for the most part, the merchandise was full price, but you get to see some things that they don't often carry at the local running stores. We were looking for a couple of stickers, a Spibelt, and a headband. Yet even with that short list, we were on the floor for an hour, and not because we were casually looking, but because that was how long it took to move around the floor. Either expand the floor space or feature fewer vendors.
At last years event, the floor felt crowded, but you could still navigate the event and enjoy being there. In fact, the Wine and Dine Half Marathon held in October, had a great Expo that even reserved floor space for some of the speakers with an expanded seating area and several refreshment booths. I never realized how much the Expo got me excited for the run until this year. The vendors themselves were a mixed bag. In most cases the vendors were informative and energetic about their products. In fact, I was almost brazen enough to sign up for a couple out of the way events purely on the excitement of the staff working the booths. At the same time, some of the other guests made enjoying a both almost impossible. Many seemed tense, arrogant, and unfriendly. This was very different from my past experiences and was somewhat discouraging.
Both my wife and felt that being there early was of no help, and maybe made it worse. Next year we will reevaluate how we are going to spend our time at check in.
We headed to the hotel to check in and dump our stuff. We had some running around to do afterwards and still had to pick up our kids, but stopped briefly to look in the goodie bags. They were definitely not as full as last year and suffered from less goodies and more paper. Bad economy? I don't know, with the tens of thousands of participants, I would have hoped for more goodies. Ohh well.
The marathon and half marathon featured high quality long sleeve tech shirts with colorful logos minimal advertising. These were similar to last year and are thicker than most other shirts you get from these types of events. The 5K shirts were short sleeved cotton T's with a very colorful print on the front.
Next...... Day 1..... The Three Caballeros Family Fun Fest 5K....
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