Disney Wine & Dine Half Marathon

Yesterday I travelled from Boston to Orlando for the Disney Wine and Dine Half Marathon with New Balance! I arrived at my gate 20 minutes before boarding per my usual routine to find out that we were delayed. We ended up waiting over 3 hours to take off due to an inoperable plane. JetBlue needed to fly another plane in to take us to the better weather.

I ended up eating almost all my plane snacks before we even took off. I grabbed these Power Wrap energy stix at Whole Foods in Sherman Oaks. Each one was 80 calories, very salty but only 120 mg of salt but delicious. I failed at go low sodium before my flight, one of my flying tips I try to live by.

By the time we arrived at The Grand Floridian, it was already dark out. You could see the top of the Magic Kingdom from outside my hotel which was super cool. My iPhone clearly isn’t cutting it for this shot.

After checking in, I had about 35 minutes to eat dinner, get changed to attend the Wine and Dine Half Meet Up and go for a 2 mile run at 11:30 pm. Yes, you read that correct. We arrived at Epcot a little early to take a ride on the newest feature at Epcot, Test Track!

First, you built a car using some fancy technology that was even amusing for adults. Then you hop into the cars on the track. They are obviously automated but as you go through the course, your vehicle is rated based on how you designed it for things like fuel economy, aero dynamics, turn radius, I think and more. After the “tests” are all done which is like a jerky slow roller roaster you go super fast reaching speeds up to 65 mph. Of course I’m filming with my iPhone as our picture was taken. It was a fun ride!

We made our way to the illuminations light and firework show immediately after to join the rest of the meet up. I can’t believe the parks put this on almost every single night!

After the fireworks, we listened enjoyed wine and food samples before the official welcome from runDisney and New Balance. Jeff Galloway was even there to talk about training! We also heard from the Food and Wine festival leaders as well as a nutritionist. Prizes were given out and then we were on our way to our shake out run around Epcot.

We finished around midnight at the big Spaceship ball thingy. We were treated to a glass of champagne and then I was officially toast from a LONG day. The picture below is using zero filter. How cool right?

Today is a busy day at ESPN and the expo. I can’t wait for tomorrow. Have you ever run a race at Disney World? Follow me on twitter or instagram for updates using the hashtag – #NBatDisney.