Thrill Shakespeare (Andy) 58 Posted January 18, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2014 I am having some trouble with my photo uploading tonight. Every picture wants to turn sideways for some reason. Here are a few fuzzy shots from the race itself. I'll start the report tomorrow with the Expo, but I wanted to deliver some Olaf photos tonight! Walking into the pre-race area... In Hollywood Studios, I believe... More to come. Thanks for your patience! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799 Posted January 18, 2014 Report Share Posted January 18, 2014 Love it! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Thrill Shakespeare (Andy) 58 Posted January 20, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 20, 2014 Okay, here I am finally to give you a little trip and race report. The journey for anyone who runs a race at Disney begins with the packet pick-up and expo at ESPN Wide World of Sports. If you have never been to WWoS, I highly recommend taking a trip over sometime. I never visited until I first ran the marathon many years ago. I was quite taken with the architecture of the buildings and the very cool layout of the fields behind. Disney does a great job of making the various games and sports tournaments that are played at WWoS seem like major events complete with ESPN-style coverage. Very cool. I choreograph a dance team and come here for competition each year. It's really a great atmosphere. For packet pick-up, ESPN Wide World of Sports can be downright nutty. It's like some huge deranged scavenger hunt. Basically you have a mission that must be accomplished: find your bib number, shirt(s), and any other marathon paraphernalia that you ordered in a weak moment while registering 10 months or so ago. Of course, none of this is at the same location. That wouldn't be any fun! Before it sounds like I'm trashing RunDisney, I do think they do a good job of getting packets into the hands of everyone. I am in charge of a small marathon in Georgia and I know the complexity of organizing and passing out race materials. I can only guess what it takes when 20,000+ people run the marathon, 20,000+ run the half marathon, 10,000+ run the 10K, and heaven knows how many others run the 5K and Kids' Races. That's a lot of people. Of course, nobody does lines as well as The Mouse. DramaMama and I had another mission while picking up the race materials for the Shakespearelets and me: trying to capture the elusive New Balance RunDisney shoes. These are the "must have" items during the weekend. New Balance experimented with creating 2 running shoes last year based on Mickey and Minnie. The shoes sold out in a flash. So this year we got four shoes: stability shoes based on Sorcerer Mickey and Minnie and cushioning shoes based on Goofy and Cinderella. The result: some rather cool shoes which, at around $120, aren't nearly as ridiculously priced as the race itself. We got to the Expo early on Friday morning and immediately found the line for the shoes in the concourse of the baseball stadium. This wasn't the actual line for the shoes, mind you. This was the line to get an appointment to come back and meet with a shoe salesperson later in the day. Unreal. The sign on the wall told me that my size was already sold out in both styles, but DramaMama's size was still on the board. She waited for a number while I tracked down the packets. I had a nice surprise. Disney had separated the areas for packet pickup a bit this year. The Dopey (all 4 races) and Goofy (half and full marathons) Challengers had a separate area in one of the arenas to get race numbers. For a change, we did not then have to walk through the expo across the way to get our shirts. They were right there along with the additional purchased items. This really helped alleviate some crowding. Of course, I discovered that the Kids' Races had their pickup back over at the baseball stadium. No problem. I checked out the Expo along the way. For those of you who do not know the marathon scene, many marathons (and all major marathons) have an expo where vendors can hawk their wares to runners with cash to burn. Disney's expo is huge - lots of top names in running shoes, clothing, nutrition, and every other facet of the sport you can imagine. The biggest vendor there? That would be Disney, of course. Nobody merchandises like The Mouse. Next biggest? That would be New Balance and the shoes that people were treating like the Holy Grail. I liked them, but many people seemed obsessed with them. By this time DramaMama had not only gotten her number, but had her appointment time come around. Here's a look at the New Balance booth. I've never seen so many shoe salespeople running around in my life. By the time a salesgirl had led us through the chaos to a seat, we discovered that DramaMama's size had sold out too. She tried a close size, but it wasn't close enough. We were told about a prophesied additional shipment of shoes that might be arriving later in the afternoon. We said thanks but no thanks. We did not want our vacation to be about looking for a pair of shoes. Crazy. It seems like a lot of people were buying their maximum number of shoes to sell them on eBay. Lovely. I guess I could have bought my 4 pair and financed the Shakespearelets' college education, but that's just not my style. We found the packets and shirts for the boys and had a chat with one of the vendors who knew about my marathon (the Make It By Midnight Marathon - I was wearing my race director gear.) It always amazes me when people know about the marathon I co-founded 7 years ago. Bizarre. This was definitely the smoothest packet and Expo experience I have ever had at Disney. I'm not sure if it was because I came early Friday morning or if the new arrangement really helped. Either way, it was a big improvement Coming next...our site at Fort Wilderness and rented pop-up. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799 Posted January 20, 2014 Report Share Posted January 20, 2014 Great start! Disney loves to make money, so I can't believe they don't have other ways to buy those shoes. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mouseketab.....Carol 1,261 Posted February 8, 2014 Report Share Posted February 8, 2014 Lovin this report!!! Can't wait to see the race part! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
momof3kids-Yvonne 596 Posted February 8, 2014 Report Share Posted February 8, 2014 Great report! I too am looking forward to more. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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