11/23 COMPLETE! Course by Course, One By One...A 2016 Wine & Dine Half Marathon Trip Report!

Ariel484

DIS Veteran
Joined
Dec 27, 2011
Bonjour!

Let me tell you about my Wine & Dine weekend experience!

The cast includes me (Shannon, 32) and my husband, Will (31 - I’ll refer to him as Mr. A or Mr. Ariel484).
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This was a very important race weekend for me for a couple of reasons...

  1. It was my husband's first-ever 10K, and 3rd Disney race (he has done the Jingle Jungle 5K - now called the Holiday 5K, and the Castaway Cay 5K)
  2. It was my first half marathon and challenge weekend after coming back from an injury
In January, after years of back problems, I began to experience numbness in my left foot and nerve pain/weakness all down my left leg. I'd never experienced this before and it was terrifying, especially not knowing what had caused it - I just woke up one morning and BAM! Numbness and pain. Thankfully I was quickly hooked up with a doctor who knew exactly what the problem was (a disc in my spine was protruding and pressing on my sciatic nerve) and gave me some physical therapy exercises to help correct the problem WITHOUT surgery. Very thankful for that! :)

I ended up taking over a month off from running (I tried to start up again, but it was just too painful) and made the difficult decision to defer my Glass Slipper and Pixie Dust Challenge entries to 2017. I began running again in late February and was able to still go to Tink weekend to run the 5K and 10K. But coming back was difficult - I felt weak and slow (I still feel slow - compared to where I was pre-injury, anyway), and while the pain had greatly diminished, the numbness was still there (and still is now, though it has improved). I am not a naturally talented runner, and it's something I absolutely hated to do until shortly after graduating from college...so I'd essentially gone from couch potato to runner, and now I felt like I had lost all of the progress I had made over those years as well as the enjoyment I'd gotten out of my now-favorite hobby. I think running has become a big part of my identity, and suddenly I didn't feel like myself anymore.

It's been a really hard year (for other reasons as well, but this was a big part of it).

My last serious back injury was right after we bought our house in 2010 as a result of falling down some stairs (I think I need to just live in a padded bubble or something! :upsidedow). I was sad, turned to food to cope, and gained about 20-30 pounds. :eek: This time, I was sad and turned to runDisney race registrations to cope! :teeth: I signed up for Mickey's Holiday 5K and Lumiere's Two Course Challenge in March (after checking with my doctor that the thought that I could be half marathon-ready by November wasn't an insane idea) and the Goofy Challenge in April (again, after checking with my doctor). On a whim, I upgraded my Goofy registration to a Dopey registration a few weeks ago...so I was really looking at this Wine & Dine weekend as a good indicator of my Dopey training progress, since I had started training for Dopey in early September. :scratchin

And I signed Will up for the 10K...I was hoping he would want to try another race with me and we narrowed it down to either the Princess 10K or the Wine & Dine 10K. Wine & Dine is during Food & Wine festival, so that was his pick. :yay: Can't say I blame him!

Here we goooo!

Continued in Next Post
 
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Woooo! Always love your reports, Shannon! Can't wait to hear your take on the weekend (especially because you're well versed in the 'old' Wine and Dine weekends.)
 


Love your reports. Excited to follow along.
Yay, thanks! :)
Yay an @Ariel484 trip report I can't wait!
:yay:
Following along!
Thanks for being here!
Woooo! Always love your reports, Shannon! Can't wait to hear your take on the weekend (especially because you're well versed in the 'old' Wine and Dine weekends.)
Yay!! You were there this weekend too, right?

It was definitely...different than the "old" Wine & Dine, that's for sure.
Yay! Following along! :)
Hey! Yay!
Following along
Thanks! :)
Yes!! Trip report!! I'm so excited to read all about the trip and the races!
Yay Sarah!! :yay:
I was hoping you would write a trip report! :yay:
I do love me some trip reports... :)
 
Wednesday, November 2: Day 1, Part 1

One thing that had a big impact on this trip was the World Series. You know how there was another team in the series that was not the Cubs? I was rooting for that team - I am a native Clevelander and I have been an Indians fan for my entire life, so this was a huge deal.


The first few rounds of the play-offs were great. Since the Indians are not as popular of a team for people to watch, the games were at 4PM EST. But then we got to the World Series, and suddenly games didn’t start until 8PM EST...finishing after midnight! So we’d stay up and watch each game and then head to work the next morning. Over the course of a couple of weeks, we were pretty sleep-deprived. One of those games was the night before we were due to leave for Orlando, so I didn’t get to sleep until well after midnight.

My flight was due to leave at 7AM, so I was up sometime between 4:30 and 5. Mr. A had to work that day, so he’d be flying down later.

Drive to airport was easy, but American Airline’s check-in process at Cleveland is awful. You check in at a kiosk to get your bag tag, but the kiosk seems to never work (it didn’t work in August either - I wish I’d remembered this and just gotten in line to talk to a person) so then you end up standing in line for the desk anyway...and there’s only one person manning the desk and the AA credit card holders or whatever get to cut the line (which - if I had that perk, I’d totally do it, so whatever). As a result, I was cutting it a little closer than I would have liked to make my flight that morning, blech!

I made it to my first flight and was not pleased to find that, because I’d been held up at the desk, the plane was apparently out of carry-on space and I had to check my bag that had my race outfits, running shoes, Minnie Mouse ears, etc. in it. Not cool, AA! I checked the bag, got on the plane (where, ahem - there WAS carry-on space available, ugh!) and was OUT COLD the entire time. Ditto for my second flight after a super short 30-minute layover. Baggage claim to get my checked carry-on turned out not to be a big deal at all and I was on a Magical Express bus by 11:45AM with my super awesome purse sitting next to me!
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On property less than 25 minutes later!
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I think my resort was the second stop...welcome home!!
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EEEEEEEK
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I have wanted to stay at the Poly for YEARS and was able to rent points for a studio a few months back. So excited!! :yay:

Continued in Next Post
 
Wednesday, November 2: Day 1, Part 2

I was surprised and pleased to find that not only was the room ready, I’d gotten the exact building I was hoping for - Pago Pago, which is the closest building to the TTC! :yay:

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I LOVED this room (2119). The balcony was nice and big, and we were facing into the resort instead of out to the parking lot (like the rooms across from ours were). I’ll definitely request this room for future visits, the location was perfect!
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This is a panorama, so it’s a little distorted...
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I LOVED the bathroom set-up. It reminded me of the split bathrooms on DCL ships (a few other touches reminded me of DCL as well). One bathroom (“mine” for the weekend) had a stand-up shower and sink...
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...while the other (Mr. A’s for the weekend) had a shower/tub combo, sink and toilet. This bathroom was huge!
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Now, here is my one big complaint about this room. I am the kind of person that likes to unpack all of my stuff immediately and have it put away in drawers/the closet. With the murphy beds in these rooms, there isn’t very much drawer storage…under the TV is where you think there’d be a dresser, but it’s the fold-out bed.
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Really adorable artwork.
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I didn’t get pictures, but there are 2 drawers under the bed (which is tall enough to slide suitcases underneath - again, DCL-like) - that’s it for drawer space. The table in front of the couch opens for additional storage (again, DCL-like) and that’s where we’d put our dirty clothes. It just seemed like not enough storage space for clothes with the inside of the table, 2 drawers and closet...and that was just for 2 people! Would be way tougher for a family of 5, which is how many this room sleeps!

I’d mentioned that I was doing the races at check-in and the CM gave me this printed times guide, which was nice! I was expecting to get one of these at the expo, but we never did, so this one was helpful.
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Continued in Next Post
 
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Hate when the airlines make you do that! You "carry on" for a reason! I got attitude from the gate agent when I refused to gate check my carry on for Princess but I prevailed, lol!

Love, love, love your room! I have never stayed at the Poly but have been there a few times and just love it!

Keep the updates coming - love living vicariously thru your reports! :)
 
You never seem to have flights that go smoothly. That sucks they made you check the bags.

I've always wanted to stay at the poly too. That room looks awesome!
 
Bonjour!

Let me tell you about my Wine & Dine weekend experience!

The cast includes me (Shannon, 32) and my husband, Will (31 - I’ll refer to him as Mr. A or Mr. Ariel484).
20583939380_b55457e68f_z.jpg


This was a very important race weekend for me for a couple of reasons...

  1. It was my husband's first-ever 10K, and 3rd Disney race (he has done the Jingle Jungle 5K - now called the Holiday 5K, and the Castaway Cay 5K)
  2. It was my first half marathon and challenge weekend after coming back from an injury
In January, after years of back problems, I began to experience numbness in my left foot and nerve pain/weakness all down my left leg. I'd never experienced this before and it was terrifying, especially not knowing what had caused it - I just woke up one morning and BAM! Numbness and pain. Thankfully I was quickly hooked up with a doctor who knew exactly what the problem was (a disc in my spine was protruding and pressing on my sciatic nerve) and gave me some physical therapy exercises to help correct the problem WITHOUT surgery. Very thankful for that! :)

I ended up taking over a month off from running (I tried to start up again, but it was just too painful) and made the difficult decision to defer my Glass Slipper and Pixie Dust Challenge entries to 2017. I began running again in late February and was able to still go to Tink weekend to run the 5K and 10K. But coming back was difficult - I felt weak and slow (I still feel slow - compared to where I was pre-injury, anyway), and while the pain had greatly diminished, the numbness was still there (and still is now, though it has improved). I am not a naturally talented runner, and it's something I absolutely hated to do until shortly after graduating from college...so I'd essentially gone from couch potato to runner, and now I felt like I had lost all of the progress I had made over those years as well as the enjoyment I'd gotten out of my now-favorite hobby. I think running has become a big part of my identity, and suddenly I didn't feel like myself anymore.

It's been a really hard year (for other reasons as well, but this was a big part of it).

My last serious back injury was right after we bought our house in 2010 as a result of falling down some stairs (I think I need to just live in a padded bubble or something! :upsidedow). I was sad, turned to food to cope, and gained about 20-30 pounds. :eek: This time, I was sad and turned to runDisney race registrations to cope! :teeth: I signed up for Mickey's Holiday 5K and Lumiere's Two Course Challenge in March (after checking with my doctor that the thought that I could be half marathon-ready by November wasn't an insane idea) and the Goofy Challenge in April (again, after checking with my doctor). On a whim, I upgraded my Goofy registration to a Dopey registration a few weeks ago...so I was really looking at this Wine & Dine weekend as a good indicator of my Dopey training progress, since I had started training for Dopey in early September. :scratchin

And I signed Will up for the 10K...I was hoping he would want to try another race with me and we narrowed it down to either the Princess 10K or the Wine & Dine 10K. Wine & Dine is during Food & Wine festival, so that was his pick. :yay: Can't say I blame him!

Here we goooo!

Continued in Next Post
yay! Love reading your posts and it's fun because we "spotted" you in your BB8 hoodie at Tink :)
 
Yes- we were there as well!

The Poly :love::love::love: That whole room is a studio?! :eek::eek::eek: Those bathrooms!! Ditto on the drawer complaint at Beach Club Villas! The murphy bed was amusing but we were literally packing clothes into the drawers on the coffee table haha! I agree- the studio size must be an awful tight squeeze for a family of 5.
 
That Steamboat Willie purse is seriously amazing. Your pictures are really making me love the Harveys bags! (Also ... is that an InB BB8 hoodie I see in the picture?)

That room looks seriously amazing. I'm all kinds of jealous that you got to stay there! Sounds like you got a good location and the view is beautiful!

(Also ... sorry about the Indians. I was rooting for them.)
 

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