Not one to be thwarted by waking up at 2 am or running 13.1 (plus another 6.2) miles, I will not let a little thing like runDisney moving my favorite race to the morning (making it no longer my favorite race) ruin my Food & Wine plans. We made it through two rounds of booking and have a schedule fit for a very fat lush runner! Here we go…
We have a routine for Wine & Dine. It normally consists of whenever we arrive until Friday before the race eating as much food as possible and being relatively inebriated. There are of course moments of over the line where I only want to talk to birds, but I digress.
We take full advantage of the Food & Wine Festival, enjoying the food booths, attending ton of seminars and workshops, and booking as many special lunches as possible. On Friday night, we eat a big ol’ dinner somewhere fancy. The Food & Wine festival used to do a Beer dinner this night, but there hasn’t been much offered on Fridays recently. Saturday morning we wake up, go to the cheese seminar and drink a ton of wine (the first time I drank a little wine, that was silly). Then we go to a couple food booths and grab a snack. Sometimes we have tequila. Then we head back to our room around 2 and nap until 6ish. Then we get up, make ourselves a healthy dinner in our kitchen and get on the bus! I love night races. Then Sunday afternoon, we enjoy a Food & Wine lunch of some sort (last year it was French Family) and then head to Victoria & Albert’s Chef Table for dinner (sometimes we go on Monday instead).
With the new morning races, that is obviously ruined. Or is it.
The cheese seminars have been moved forward an hour (judging by all the 9ish food seminars and breakfasts, there is no way this race ends at Epcot, if it does, it will be a nightmare) to 9:15, so that is complication one. Complication Two is I am now doing two races, only the challenge, no 5k. Artboy does not recover as well from races and chose to only do the 10k so as not to ruin the Food & Wine Fest. We have priorities.
That means we will rush from the finish of the 10k to the hotel. Shower. Probably not nap. And get to the Festival Center by about 8:45. Should be doable if not just a little rushed. I guess it depends on what characters are on the course and where the finish line actually is. We are eating at Le Cellier, I guess, Saturday before the half. I will eat ravioli, then head to bed early so I can wake up at 2 am to head to the half.
Luckily, on Sunday our usual noon lunch has been moved to 1, which gives me plenty of time. runDisney really doesn’t want its runners to enjoy the many amazing food and wine events or the booths on Sunday because they scheduled the after party for 10 pm to 1 am. So people will need to nap and miss all the good stuff. Not me, I don’t have any faith the after party won’t be more crowded than the any Saturday night. I liked the after party after the race, because people came in at different times, so it didn’t get crazy crowded until closer to the end. This will be a mess. Plus, all the people who stayed up all day drinking after not drinking all week to prepare for the race will be a mess. A mess. We will instead enjoy the French Family Traditions Lunch, where we will no doubt leave saucy (see above photo of me with the birds).
So what is our 2016 F&W schedule?
We have two cheese seminars, the Mexican Tequila Lunch, French Family Traditions, Italian Wine Pairing, Japanese Craft Beer, Maker’s Mark Mix it Make it Celebrate it, and something I’m for sure forgetting….plus dinner at Frontera Cocina–Rick Bayliss’ new restaurant in Disney Springs, Tiffins, and Morimoto booked for dinner on our free evenings, and brunch at the California Grill and our usual V&A’s Chef Table on the Monday after the race. We’ll probably add a couple of beverage seminars and tours down the road. It seems like a lot, but we have four days totally free at moment (one of those we will go to the expo to get our bibs), all of our nights after the lunches are free at the moment.
