More Mouse: Blood, Sweat, and Halloween Fears

[MousePlanet AutoPoster]

Blood, Sweat, and Halloween Fears by Lorree Tachell

Lorree recounts her trip to Walt Disney World for the inaugural Twilight Zone Tower of Terror 10 Miler

Read it here!

[stan4d_steph]

I also participated in the run (that's me with the Big Bad Wolf), and have to disagree slightly on the lack of entertainment. The 2012 Tower of Terror race was light years ahead of the 2008 race, where the on-course "entertainment" consisted of people pretending to be mental patients (I think?) banging on pots and shouting as we ran through the wooded section toward Wide World of Sports. The addition of Disney characters, and theming to villains was what I was hoping for from the 2008 race.

Yes, there were dead spots along the course, but that happens at other Disney races too. It's possible that the perception of there being more due to the darkness, and also the hot, humid temperatures. I'm sure the challenge will be to figure out how to fill in some of those perceived dead spaces given that it's a night race and not everyone (like school groups) is available from 10 PM-1 AM.

There's not much that runDisney can do about the weather except move the race closer to Halloween, and then it starts to cut into the potential repeat business for the Wine & Dine half marathon.

Some improvements I would suggest for next time:

- More park time. The race only goes through Hollywood Studios, and that's right at the end. Either add more park time, or jazz up the section through Wide World of Sports more. The addition of a spooky props, smoke and lighting effects in the wooded section was great. More of that if we can't have more park time.
- Cool towels at the finish. I know it's a night race, but those chill towels they handed out at the Disneyland half marathon would have been extremely welcome at the finish area, especially since it was a long walk from there (behind Tower of Terror) to pick up my checked bag at the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular.
- Vent the tents. The changing tents were a nice alternative to changing in bathroom stalls, however they were like saunas. Lights inside plus hot runners made them almost unbearable. Find some nice fluorescent lights that don't give off so much heat, and have some fans running to pull the hot air out.
- Change the bag check area. I didn't encounter horrific lines at the bag check pick up like some did, however, having to walk down the stairs to the stage area of the stunt show, then back up to exit was not what I wanted to do after having run 10 sweaty miles. I'm not sure where else they could logistically do this, but the narrow stairway combined with slow, tired runners created a big backup toward the end of the night. You do not want hot, tired, cranky, sweaty runners waiting in long lines. They get pissed.

[Drince88]

- Vent the tents.
Change the bag check area

I sure hope they do something with the tents for the Wine & Dine. I know the first one (I cheered for my sister) the restroom lines were horrendous with people changing in the stalls - to the point she called me from one restroom line before we met up to check out the 'next' restroom around WS to see if it was bad too.

And that's RIDICULOUS to have to go up and down those steps to retreive your checked bag! I would have seriously considered paying someone to get my bag to avoid those stairs after 10 miles. My knees have issues with stairs anyway, so doing that AFTER tiring my muscles for 10 miles in the heat/humidity - yea, it would have been worth some money to avoid it!

I'm thinking maybe they 'made it just 10 miles' instead of a half marathon to account for the time of year - and then moved the Wine & Dine to the end of the festival to allow both to be run, and to (hopefully) have cooler weather for the 13 mile event. But really, does 3 miles shorter make it that much better in the heat? Not in my book. So I'm glad I did the first ToT event so I don't have to have medal envy (though I still think my ribbon should at least been a different color since I did the 6.5K event!)

Regarding the dirt areas in both the 5K and 10 miler -- did Disney 'advertise at sign up' that part of it would be trails? I'm really uncomfortable with going offroad for a race, especially at night, and honestly if I knew that ahead of time, I wouldn't sign up for a race.