Video Recap: The Napa Valley Marathon Expo

Hi Guys!

Today I am sharing a video recap of my experience at the Napa Valley Marathon Expo. This was one of the most fun expos I have been too, with a laid back feel and plenty of space for runners to relax before race day.

Which race expo has been your favorite? Leave a comment to let me know which ones I need to check out in the future!

Race Recap: 2019 Disney Princess Half Marathon- Arrival and the Expo

I thought I had everything planned out perfectly for this race weekend – flights booked, outfits planned, fastpasses at the ready – and then mother nature stepped in, and shouted “You know what New York needs? A snowstorm!”

Then just like that, I suddenly didn’t have a flight to Florida anymore – what?! I had booked flights for my parents and I on southwest. We like to fly out of the smaller airport on Long Island, MacArthur Airport in Islip, since it makes for a less stressful travel experience compared to LaGuardia and JFK, and I like that southwest usually has very affordable fares, with options to easily change flights if needed. We had even opted to purchase early bird check in, but 24 hours before our flight when I tried to pull up our boarding passes, I received an error message – and then about 30 seconds later I got an email that our flight was cancelled, due to an impending snow storm. Dang it winter!

This was on Wednesday morning, as I got ready for work. I pulled up the other available flights, and in a panic booked a flight for Wednesday at noon, figuring it would allow us to leave before the storm. The issue? I had not even begun packing, and I really needed to go to work that day to tie up loose ends before being out of office for almost a week. I called my dad, who talked me off the panic packing ledge that I had climbed onto, and we decided to rebook for a later flight on Thursday, as they storm was supposed to be over by then.

I spent the next 24 hours checking the weather and flight status obsessively, and while the weather got a little nasty during the day on Wednesday and that night, by the time Thursday rolled around the skies were clear, and our new flight was ready for departure. The downside to this later flight? I would be getting to the race expo later in the day, and unable to meet up with Kasey and her family when they headed to the expo, as they had fast passes in the afternoon, when I would be going.

By the time Mom, Dad, and I landed in florida, collected our luggage, picked up the rental car and got on the road to Disney it was rush hour in Orlando, and we got to sit in traffic as we made our way to the hotel – not how I had envisioned the first day of the trip going, but I was rolling with the punches as best as I could.

When we got to the hotel dad wanted to take a ride up to target to get supplies for the room – snacks, a coffee maker, and what not – but I was itching to get to the expo. It closed at 8, and it was already 6:00, and I wanted to have time to experience as much of the expo as possible. So Mom and I decided to take the bus from the hotel to the expo while dad made the supply run. We got lucky, and there was a bus waiting on the side of the hotel when we got there, and we were able to hop on right away.

Kasey, Aunt Karen and Hallie had already been to the expo earlier in the afternoon, and while I knew some of the merchandise that I had my eye on was already sold out, that didn’t stop me from searching for one of those damn tye-dye princess half spirit jerseys. Did I find one? No. Was I a little disappointed? Yes, but at the end of the day I really did not need to drop $70 on a shirt anyway.

Mom and I headed into the Visa center first, where the RunDisney official Merchandise was housed. We wandered through the aisles, checking out the various wares, and picking some items out. I really liked the color schemes and art styles that they used for the race this year, and was happy to spot Jasmine and Mulan on some merchandise. By the time I made it to the register my haul included a pair of Mulan jogger style, a fairy tale challenge jacket, a half marathon hat, a passholder shirt, a wine glass (that I later shattered) and a Tervis travel mug. Mom even picked out a few things, as she was walking the 5k with me the next morning, including a t-shirt, the same Mulan pants as mine, and a 5k headband. I got a lot of items, but the merch was so tempting this year that there were many more objects that I was a little bummed to be leaving behind.

Once we finished shopping we headed over to bib pickup, and got our numbers. We were there late enough in the day that this was a fast process as there weren’t too many runners around. I tried to get a few photos outside, but it was already getting dark so their quality was less than stellar. We walked over to the exhibition hall after, where the non-Disney vendors and race shirts are to pick up our shirts. There was no wait to get into that area of the expo either, although the show floor was a little crowded as we made our way to the back of the hall to pick up our shirts.

The expo was getting close to closing, so the only other stop that we managed to make was at the pandora booth, where they had a photo op. Mom any I got our photo taken, and then it was time to head back to the hotel and get our bags and outfits set up for the 5k the following morning. Her one race morning request? That I didn’t tell her how early we would be getting up.

Disney Marathon Weekend: Expo Day

By the time our alarms went off on Friday morning, Jennie had managed to join us in the hotel room, without waking anyone up - I guess we were all exhausted from travelling the day before. There were extra magic hours at the Magic Kingdom that morning, so we planned to start our day there, then head over the the expo, followed by a visit to Animal Kingdom. We only had two park days, so we wanted to make sure we made the most of our park time.

By the time everyone was ready to move it was almost 8:00, when the park was set to open, so we opted to call a Lyft instead of waiting for the bus - not something I usually do in Disney, but like I said before, it was a short trip. Standard Lyfts can’t drop off directly at the Magic Kingdom, so the driver took us to the ticket and transportation center, where we were able to hop on a monorail, that brought us to the park. A big benefit of arriving through the ticket and transportation center was we got to go through security there, where the line was much shorter than it is at the main park entrance.

Once we got into the Magic Kingdom and were scanned in for extra magic hours, we decided to make our way to seven dwarfs mine train, as Jude and Mike had never been on that ride. The posted wait time was 45 minutes, but luckily it was actually closer to a 20 minute wait. After the ride we headed over to tomorrow land, where we rode Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyears Space Ranger Spin. They were handing out stitch stickers as we entered the second ride, which Mike was particularly happy about, as Stitch is his favorite character. We had time for one more ride before breakfast, and since we were eating at Be Our Guest we decided to go on The Little Mermaid ride, since it was right next door.

Breakfast at Be Our Guest was wonderful, as always - there is good reason that I always make a stop there during my Disney trips! We checked in with the hostess, and were lead into the restaurant shortly after. We hadn’t pre-ordered our meals, so there was a bit of a wait to place our orders, but once we made it through that we were seated in the main ball room, and given our tray of pastries while we waited for our breakfast. The restaurant uses RFID technology associated with magicbands to know where you are seated, and soon enough our food had made its way to us. Mike and I both couldn’t choose between the open faced bacon and egg sandwich and the Croque Madame, so we each ordered one and split them. Both were delicious, but I think I preferred the bacon and egg sandwich just a tad more. I also made sure to have some of the pastries that they brought to the table - you have to carb up in the days leading up to a marathon, right?! Jude and I also made sure to remind Mike to drink lots of water, so he would be well hydrated for his first half the following day. Of course, the meal was finished off with a “Master’s Cupcake,” which is topped with the famous “grey stuff.”

After breakfast we made it onto The Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean, and then met up with my sister-in-law Liz, and her Boyfriend Bobby. Bobby works for disney, and Liz was in Florida visiting him during her school break, so I was happy we were able to find a little time to hang out. We wandered around magic kingdom a bit, taking in the sights, and eventually made our way over to the Dumbo ride, and then the people mover. Our last order of business before saying goodbye to the magic kingdom was a character meet and greet - Stitch! Since he is Mike’s favorite character and we had no way of knowing if he would be out on the half course, we wanted to make sure to pay him a visit at least one. It was a very fun character interaction, and we all left the park with smiles on our faces.

We parted ways with Liz and Bobby, and walked over to the contemporary to catch a bus to the expo. We got lucky, and one was off loading runners just as we got to the bus stop. I was excited to get to the expo, even though we didn’t spend as much time there as I usually like to. Our first stop was the RunDisney merch, since that building was closest to where we got dropped off. When we walked in they were offering free airbrush tattoos, so we all decided to get one. Minnie for me, Stitch for Mike, Mickey for Jude, and the Castle for Jennie. They came out super cute, and I loved that it lasted all weekend.

Then it was on to the merchandise - I tried to limit myself in how much I was buying, since I already own about 10 RunDisney jackets, and had purchased the pre-order jacket (did that make me want the mint green half-marathon jacket any less? No. But I somehow managed to resist the purchase). In addition to the pre-order jacket, I had pre-ordered the annual passholder pin. My other souvenirs included 2 wine glasses, a pint glass, the tervis water bottle (they had all of the distances written on them, and the cutest Mickey - I couldn’t resist!), two pins - the replica marathon medal and the goofy challenge event pin, and a tank top commemorating the marathon. I really loved the dooney and burke bag that they were offering, but couldn’t bring myself to spend so much money on a purse. Once we had finished our shopping, we made a quick stop for pretzels - fueling is key - and then Mike and Jennie watched with jealousy as Jude and I lived our best lives, enjoying every moment of our pretzels and their dipping sauces.

Since our priorities were in order and we had taken care of food needs, the next step was to get our race bibs… you know, the whole reason we had come to Florida and all. While I had thought about printing out the waivers at home, I had completely forgotten to actually get it done, so we had to print them out before going into bib pickup. Thankfully, RunDisney has plenty of printers set up as you enter the expo for this reason, and since we were at the expo on its third day, there wasn’t much of a wait to print.

Waivers in hand we headed onto the main floor, and it was quick work to pick up our bibs. I had to take the traditional RunDisney mug shot, since I was running the Goofy Challenge. They always take your photo that way they can confirm that the same person is running both events, to ensure that the challenge medals are really earned. We snapped a few photos, and then headed to get our race shirts. We had fastpasses, so we didn’t have too much time to check out the vendors, but I made sure to stop by the ProCompression booth, and to pick up some GoGoSqueeze, which they always hand out at the expo.

The next plan was to head to animal kingdom, but as we went to leave the expo I remembered that the parks don’t let you bring glass ware in, and I had purchased a few pieces at the expo. So, I took everyone’s expo spoils, and sent them along to the park while I headed back to the hotel to drop everything off. I took a Lyft back to the room, and there was a bit of traffic leaving the expo, but soon enough I was back at All-Star Movies, and got lucky with bus times - right as I got to the bus stop a Animal Kingdom bus pulled up, and I wound up being the only one taking a ride. I got to the park just as they were getting off Dinosaur, so I met them in dinorama area. We had a fastpass for Avatar Flight of passage, so we headed over to Pandora next. It was necessary to make a stop at Pongu Pongu to get drinks - non-alcoholic for me, as I try not to drink in the days leading up to a marathon, but I looked on enviously while Jennie enjoyed her night blossom. We took another cross-park journey for our next fast pass, this time heading to expedition everest. This was the first time Mike and Jude had ever ridden at night, and I could hear Mike’s exclamations though out the ride, and I couldn’t help but to laugh with joy as we all enjoyed the ride together.

By the time we got off of everest, we had about 45 minutes until park closing. So, we pulled up the disney app to check out wait times, and decided we were going to try to get onto primevil whirl and then nav’i river journey. We were closer to dino land so we headed there first, and had a quick wait to get on the ride. By the time we were done it was a quick walk over to pandora, and I may have scared Mike into skipping a bathroom stop for fear of not getting into the queue before the park closed - but we made it, entering at 7:59 when there was an 8:00 closing time. Lucky for us, it was a quick wait, about 15 minutes total from entering the queue to getting on the ride - very much worth the hustle. We made a quick bathroom stop before heading to the buses, and making our way back to the hotel.

When we got back to all star movies we headed to the food court for dinner, where I went for some pasta and an uncrustables sandwich, I also picked up a runners box for the next morning. The food court had a decent selection of options for runners, but I would have loved to see a build your own pasta station, as some of the resorts offer on race weekends.

Then it was time to head back to the room, and set ourselves up for the next morning’s half marathon.

Race Recap: RunDisney Wine and Dine Expo

Did I manage to finagle our honeymoon being the same dates as a rundisney weekend? You know it! It truly wasn’t intentional as well, we just headed out for a week after our wedding, and the first weekend of November is the same weekend as Disney’s wine and dine half marathon weekend. 

Now, everyone on planet earth (basically) told me that I shouldn’t run a marathon the week after my wedding- which is why I didn’t register for the NYC marathon this year. But no one said a thing about half marathons! Or rundisney challenges for that matter.... so when registration opened up, I registered for the two course challenge- a 10k on Saturday morning, and a half marathon on Sunday morning. RunDisney races are always very early, so Den would even be able to sleep through the whole run. So, totally fair game in my book. 

I didn’t need to go to the race expo Thursday, but I was excited to check out all of the RunDisney excitement - so we planned to go Thursday afternoon, to avoid the opening crowds but get there before the locals got out of work that day.

We headed out to the bus stop at the beach club resort just after 2 pm, and after waiting for about 20 minutes, an expo bus pulled up..... and promptly left without stopping. Come on! After speaking with another runner who was waiting for the bus, who told us the last bus did the exact same thing 30 minutes before this bus, I headed into the resort and spoke to the front desk, who started to call the bus operators to see what was up. We had fastpasses that evening I’m Hollywood Studios that we didn’t want to miss, and she offered to call us a complimentary taxi to take us to the expo, so we wouldn’t loose any more time. 

So a few minutes later, we were in a cab and on our way. When we arrived at the ESPN wide world of sports, our first stop was the arena, where the official rundisney merchandise was housed, as well as the bibs. I headed into the merch area first, as I had read online that things were already selling out - apparently there was an extremely limited number of pins made for this weekend, and I wanted to make sure I got one for my backpack. By the time we arrived, all of the medal replica ones were already sold out, but I was at least able to grab the logo pin and an “I did it” pin for the challenge. 

I picked up an assortment of merch other than pins- a hat, a travel mug, a wineglass, a jacket, a magnet, a half marathon “I did it shirt,” and a shirt for den that reads “I support my wife’s runDisney obsession.” What can I say, I’m milking this newlywed thing. 

I don’t normally buy the “I did it” shirts that rundisney sells, but I have one from this weekend two years ago, and somehow managed to stain it recently, so I wanted a replacement. Plus, this year they were tech shirts, rather than cotton shirts, so it’s something I can actually run in. 

When we went to check out Den surprised me and took care of all my purchases for me, as my birthday is next week. We may be home by then, but at least I’ll have a little Disney Magic to look forward to. 

Once we were done with the merchandise, we headed into the bib pickup area, which was also in the arena this time around. There were no crowds, and I was able to walk right up to my designated pickup location. I missed the first corral by 30 (!!!!) bibs, but was kind of excited that my number fell into the first range of pickup line numbers. I’ll just have to work harder next time, corral A is so close!  As always, they were taking photos of runners who were signed up for the challenge, so that they can be verified at the finish line of the half.

Once we had checked all of the required boxes and snapped a few photos, I hopped in line to get a photo with chef Mickey before making my way over to the visa center, where I would be able to retrieve my race shirts. 

Again, there was no line to get into the visa center, so we walked right in and headed through the vendors to shirt pickup. I did buy one thing at the expo, but it’s a super secret surprise for Mike, so you’ll have to wait for the big reveal on that one. 

When I got my shirts I made sure to try all three on, and they were a good fit. I am a big fan of both the colors of the shirts and the art style that they used. I was hopeful that it would be cool enough in Florida to wear them around the parks after the races, as they’re all long sleeve shirts. 

Once we had all of the goods we left the expo, and had time to head to Disney springs to grab earl of sandwich, before making our way to Hollywood studios. We had fastpasses there to ride slinky dog dash for the first time, and the crowds were even light enough that we got onto toy story midway mania and alien swinging saucers. 

All in all a successful day, both in the parks and at the expo, and I was feeling excited for the race weekend ahead!

Princess Half Marathon Recap: Arrival to Florida and Expo day

My journey to Florida for the princess half marathon began at MacArthur airport in NY, where I boarded a flight with my parents on Wednesday night. Dennis was supposed to be joining us for this trip, but he recently started a new job and had to cancel. Dad won the seat game, when he snagged the emergency exit row seat that had no seat in front of him – talk about leg room! I had recently gotten some free drink coupons from Southwest, so Mom had a celebratory vacation drink as we flew to Florida.

The flight was smooth sailing, and when we got to Florida Mom and I collected our luggage while Dad grabbed the rental car, then we were on the road to Disney. This first ride of the weekend through Florida began the saga of the tolls, where we scrambled for the millions of quarters that we would need to chuck into the provided bins. In retrospect, we probably should have invested in a SunPass, but at the time we didn’t realize just how many quarters we would have to dig for.

We pulled into the All-Star Music resort, and found our room in the country music section. I had completed the online check in that Disney offers, so I didn’t even need to stop by the front desk when we got there – we had received a text with our room number and our magic bands would open the door. The most complicated part was figuring out where to park! We started by following the numbers around the building, starting high and marking them off as they got lower… but the parking lot ended at building 6 and we were headed for building 5. So we doubled back and realized that we needed to be in the parking lot that All-Star Music and Sports shared.

Once we lugged all of the luggage into the hotel we settled in and called it a night, planning to get up early and meet up with my mom’s sister and her family, and all go to animal kingdom together.

In the morning my Aunt Liz and Uncle Keith met up with us at the hotel for breakfast. Since the best way to start a Disney day is with a Mickey Waffle (or a cinnamon bun, I’m not picky), Dad and I both got bounty platters, complete with Mickey waffles to start the trip off on the right foot.

We all piled into the minivan that Dad had rented and headed for animal kingdom, and were directed to the Dinosaur lot. We got there just a few minutes after opening, and once we were in the park headed to Pandora. The first ride of the day was “Na’vi river journey,” and since the park had just opened there was only a 20–minute stand by line.

After the ride we found my cousin Keith, his wife Kristen, and their baby, Ainsley. Or, more accurately, they found us! Kristen jumped right into a photo I was taking of my parents, and we all got a laugh out of her photo bomb. 

After a few minutes of catching up as we hung out in Pandora, we made our way to flight of passage. Just a week before our trip the park hours got changed, which released an extra hour of fastpasses, and I managed to snag us each one for flight of passage. I was happy that my mom agreed to come on the ride with us, as she isn’t always a “ride” person, but we all had a great time.

When we exited the ride we found Keith and Ainsley hanging out by the gift shop, and all headed to dino land so we could take Ainsley on tricera tops spin, then hung out there for a little bit. We made our way around animal kingdom throughout the rest of the day, taking in festival of the lion king, riding expedition Everest, and grabbing lunch at flame tree BBQ.

We all had a great time just hanging out and enjoying the park and each other’s company, but as the afternoon rolled into the evening I needed to head to the Expo to pick up my race bibs, so we all parted ways, and my mom left with my aunt and uncle, as she was planning on staying with them for the next few days as Dad and I hung out in Disney.

We headed to the expo around 5 pm, and hit a little bit of traffic heading into the ESPN sports complex. Once we were parked we went to the bib pickup area first, as bib pickup was obviously my priority. We headed into the arena, and the process was easy enough. Flash my ID, trade my signature for a bib, and then do it once more for a challenge bib. Since it was the 10th anniversary of the princess half, in addition to my bib I was given a luggage tag in the shape of the half medal, a set of bib boards featuring mickey, and a button featuring the race logo.

The next stop was the main expo hall, where the shirts were waiting to be picked up. There was no line to get into the building, so we were able to walk right in. I stopped for a few photos with some snow white props they had out, and then we walked to the back of the hall where the shirts were set up. I tried on one of my shirts and it seemed good. While we were in the Visa center we stopped at the pandora booth. I wanted to check out the charm they were selling for the race weekend. It was kind of pricey, as it had to be purchased with a bracelet, but my annual pass knocked 20% off the price, and we had a $50 gift card from waiving maid service in the hotel room, so I wound up getting the charm in the end. I walked around the vendors a little, but there was nothing that I really needed in terms of running supplies, so the only other thing I picked up was some applesauce and buy one get one free chipotle coupons. 

Finally, we headed to the runDisney Merchandise area. I picked up the pre-order jacket that I was bought – there was no reminder that I had purchased one at any point in the bib pickup process, so if you pre-order merchandise, remember to retrieve it! It has the same logo on it that the annual passholder shirt bore, with each race distance and associated princess. Then we wandered around the merchandise, and I picked up a few things – a wine glass, a tervis water bottle, the pins of the race medals to add to my backpack, and a 13.1 magnet to add to the back of my car…. Yep, I’m THAT kind of runner. For the first time, the runDisney merchandise had its own building, which I really preferred over the usual arrangement. It meant that there was plenty of space for the merchandise to be spread out, so I was able to shop leisurely instead of being crammed into a small aisle with too many people. Before heading out, I waited in line to get a photo with princess Minnie, all ready for race weekend in her pink dress. 

With the expo complete, Dad and I headed back to the hotel and grabbed some pizza from the food court for dinner before calling it a night. I set up my outfit for the next morning and packed my bag with everything I would need, and headed to bed, excited for the weekend full of running that I had ahead of me.