My runDisney Wine and Dine Half Marathon Race Recap 2013- #WineDineHalf #runDisney

Most of you know I LOVE runDisney races…and if you didn’t know…I LOVE runDisney races.  I love the characters and entertainment along the course.  The volunteers are always amazing and the water stops are well stocked.  The medals can’t be beat either.

The Wine and Dine Half Marathon is a night race at Walt Disney World and has an after party at Epcot.  I decided to dress up as a running version of Jessie from Toy Story.  Here is my post on creating my costume if you want to check that out.

The starting line was at the ESPN Wide World of Sports.  Runners were sent off with fireworks in grand runDisney fashion.

We ran on the surface streets out of ESPN Wide World of Sports to make our way over to Animal Kingdom.

Along the way over to Animal Kingdom I stumbled upon some of the bears from the Country Bear Jamboree!  I love big Al 🙂

One of my favorite parts about the Wine and Dine Half is that the Christmas decorations around Disney World are starting to be installed and the Christmas tree in front of Animal Kingdom was up!  Just inside Animal Kingdom I found Baloo.

We ran passed the Tree of Life and Everest and exited Animal Kingdom through a backstage area.  In the parking lot was Captain Jack Sparrow and Barbosa, but the line was crazy long (like it normally is during runDisney races) so I didn’t stop.  He always seems to be one of the most popular photo ops.

Next we made our way over the Hollywood Studios.  Along the way I stopped for a picture with Lilo and Stitch. 

The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights started the night before the race.  I love them!!!  We got to run through them which I think was my favorite part.

Just being near that many Christmas lights brings out the kid in me and gave me that extra boost of energy I needed around mile 10-11.

The pictures didn’t turn out super awesome in the Osborne Lights area.  It is hard to get a good picture on an iPhone…in the dark…with millions of Christmas lights around…while running.  hehe

Inside the Hollywood Studios backstage area I found a couple of my favorite people, Mr. and Mrs. Incredible.

We exited Hollywood Studios and ran along the path towards Boardwalk and than over to Beach Club.  We made our way through the backstage area of Epcot. We came into Epcot near Spaceship Earth to quickly exit again towards the finish line in the Epcot parking lot.  After I finished I headed into Epcot to walk back to Boardwalk where I was staying.  Since I have a 3 year old who decided she wanted to wait up for me I didn’t stay at the after party other than to walk through it back to Boardwalk.  I heard lots of fun music along the way and all the Food and Wine Festival booths were open for food and drinks.

I always have an amazing time at a runDisney race and this race was no different.

For more information on all the runDisney races visit www.runDisney.com.

Did you run the Wine and Dine Half or are you hoping to in the future?