Disney Wine & Dine Half Marathon, Part 1

On Thursday I got off work (old job, for those keeping track lol) and Hubster and I headed down to Orlando to check in at the Boardwalk resort, one of the host resorts for the Wine & Dine Half Marathon. I had to drive the 1.5 hours back home Friday morning to shadow someone at my new job for a bit, so that was a little sucky, but def worth it. (Allll that to come in a separate post - focusing on the race now.) While I was away Hubster enjoyed a little time alone, and some Disney mini-golf.

Friday afternoon, after I got back to the resort, we headed down to the buses for the expo. Since Boardwalk was a host resort they had direct bus service to the Wide World of Sports complex - nice! There was no line for the bus, and it arrived pretty quickly. Usually Disney transportation is annoying: hot, crowded, and slow. But they were using an outside bus service, so they were nice, quick, and air-conditioned. :)

We arrived at the expo around around 5pm and it was pretty crowded. They probably could have used a little more signage to direct people, there were lines everywhere, not really sure if 1/2 of them went anywhere. We finally managed to find the expo entrance and headed inside.

After asking 3 different cast members we found the packet pickup. It took about 20 minutes to complete that, check my D tag, and pick up my shirt. (Should have gotten a small, oh well - medium usually fits me, but this time it ran large.)

Hubster and I walked around the expo, there were a lot of 'blog famous' brands there: BondiBand, SpiBelt, Running Skirts, One More Mile, YurBuds (got some of those...wow they are amazing!), etc. Names we all know and love around the blogo-sphere. There was also a Disney booth with lots of Wine & Dine gear. I loaded up here. :) Jeff Galloway was spotted, and we enjoyed a quick chat with him. He was popular here of course.

My loot from the expo

After putzing around and spending all my money we decided to head back to the resort and grab some dinner. Again, it was an easy trip back, and we grabbed a bite outside on the Boardwalk at Big River Brewery. A lot of people were doing easy laps around the Boardwalk/Beach/Yacht Club area. Stretching for Saturday maybe?

Race Day to come next.... :)