Disney's Wine and Dine 1/2 Marathon Weekend Part 3: Race Day-Pre-Race

Since the day was long aside from the race itself, I'm going to break it up into 2 parts. Yes, you still have to wait for my official race report.

The morning started earlier than I wanted it too. With the previous day spent getting up way early, traveling, arriving at Disney, then Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party until the wee hours of the morning, I figured I was good to sleep until 10-11am. At home, given the chance, I have no issues sleeping in that late. But I was at Disney and the excitement got the best of me, so I was up at 9:30. Luckily, having 3 kids, I know how to ignore noise when I want to and I slept through my roomies waking up. I'd hoped I would be able to get a nap in later in the day.

The day was a relatively easy day, with no park time scheduled. After showering and getting dressed, I headed down to find the other DisBroads and grab some breakfast. Most of the other girls had plans but I was going to join Amy at the expo. Breakfast did not disappoint, as I finally got to try Port Orleans French Quarter's signature, beignets.

They are made fresh with every order and while messy, they were outstanding. I took mine to go and we headed over to catch a bus to the expo.

Much like the day before, the expo was extremely tame compared to other expos I've seen.

Amy got her bib and then headed to runner's relations to show them proof of time to get moved up to Corral E, the corral I was in. She had a nearly identical 10k time to turn in. I'm not going to throw anyone under the bus or anything, but let's just say that she ended up getting a not so bright young man, whose strong suit was anything but math, and she was given access to Corral A. I'm not bitter or anything.

After she picked up her bib and got her shiny Corral A sticker for her bib, we headed to the Josten's building for t-shirt pickup and a bit of shopping. It was a bit busier than the day before and I could have used Gu, but the lines for Gu were long, I was trying to save my feet for the race that night, and I decided I had enough Gu to get me through to the mile 8 Clif shot stop during the race.

We didn't shop long as we had lunch at the Polynesian. Luckily the Polynesian was a host resort and we were able to catch one of their buses to that resort.

We would be meeting most of the other DisBroads, as well as Amy's mom and a few of her guests, at the Kona Cafe, which was a new to me restaurant. Like resorts, I like to try something new with each trip.

We arrived earlier than everyone else, and decided to peruse the gift shops. Then it happened. I came upon the big H2O toiletries stand in the gift shop. They had several of their lotions available for testing, and anyone who knows me knows I physically cannot pass up lotion. It's just not possible, and I will moisturize every available square inch. Amy found this out the hard way.

So moisture I did. Luckily the shop was pretty empty. Hey, I don't look this good at 30 with no effort.

We headed to Kona and waited for everyone to arrive. All of the DisBroads except for Patty were joining us. By our reservation time, everyone had arrived.

One of the reasons I wanted Kona for lunch was because they had sushi. Sushi was my typical pre-race meal, I eat it anytime I have a big race or long run. It does me good. I started with a phenomenal salad.

The sushi menu was rather limited, and I ended up ordering a caterpillar roll.

While it looked adorable, the first bite set my mouth on fire. It. Was. Spicy. The second bite wasn't any better.

This is my "This is spicy" face.

I ended up having to send it back to get something more mild. What I ended up with was ok, I ate it because I needed to, but it had an interesting Hawaiian flair(added pineapple) that didn't really appeal to me. We finished up and all headed back to our resort.

After a stop for my pre-race snacks and chocolate milk, we headed to our room, with several hours to spare. At that point I didn't think I could take a nap and was a tad worried. But once settled into our room, I got sleepy and fast. All the other girls in the room were still chatting and getting things ready. I crawled into bed, still thinking I couldn't go to sleep with the noise and I was out like a light. I slept for over 2 hours and was up a bit before 6, it was time to start getting ready for the race.

Stay tuned for the next installment of my weekend, the official race report!