Miscellany: Thoughts from the Disney 2023 Wine & Dine Half Marathon

I've always heard about people running races through the Disney theme parks, but I never had the disposable income or the free time to sign up for one, until this year's "Wine & Dine Half Marathon."

The first thing I learned about the "RunDisney" program was that you have to register way in advance to get a slot since they sell out in minutes - 6 or 7 months ahead of time, nonrefundable. The second thing I learned was that unless you want to wake up at 4 am to drive yourself, you need to stay in a Disney hotel to take advantage of the direct shuttles they have to and from the race.

Even then, RunDisney doesn't miss a chance to nickel and dime you. There is literally merch and advertising everywhere, and much of it from RunDisney's "partners." The expo has a bunch of vendors hawking their wares:

And there's a separate Disney merch store, too, selling some overpriced RunDisney stuff:

Then comes the day of the race. The runners (crowds of many thousands, even for the half-marathon) are grouped into corrals, where yet more advertising takes place. Eat before you come here, because a banana will cost you 4 bucks.

After some waiting, we are off to a staggered start, with fireworks for each "pulse" of runners released from a corral.

The half marathon course takes you first through EPCOT, then to the Disney Hollywood Studios, then back to EPCOT. It's pretty cool running through the new Star Wars area in the wee hours of the morning:

What you might not know is that the vast majority of your time will be on the highways near the theme parks - mostly featureless stretches of open road:

Disney tries to spice these areas up with character meet-and-greets and mile marker placards:

But these canned moments pale in comparison to being able to go "backstage," in parts of the parks most people never get to see (and this is speaking as someone with multiple friends who work for Disney). Seeing the sun rise over the greenhouse in The Land is (almost) worth the hundreds of dollars and hours of sweat it took to get there: