“Registration Coming Soon.” It feels like I’ve been reading those words for a very long time.

Clear Your Calendar and Be Race Ready

Well ‘soon’ has finally come, and for me (along with no doubt thousands of others), it’s tomorrow: registration for Disney’s Wine & Dine Half Marathon Weekend opens at 10 am ET.

My calendar is clear for the entire morning and I’ve got an alarm set on my phone for an hour before the actual registration time (just in case I should forget).

This is not my first runDisney registration, so I know this day can be a race in and of it’s own. To date, I’ve been fortunate enough to successfully register for each run I’ve wanted, but tomorrow looks to be a challenging day what with early registration spots for annual pass holders and vacation club members selling out far too quickly last week.

Wine & Dine Half Marathon Weekend 2020

This year’s Wine & Dine Half Marathon Weekend will be the first-ever runDisney villain themed race and it seems I am not the only one who is overjoyed and eagerly awaiting the chance to bring home some bling from this run. Far from it in fact. It appears the villain theme is creating a huge stir and drawing in runners who may have previously decided to skip this years Wine & Dine weekend, or who may never have tried a runDisney event in the past.

In addition, the themes for each individual race have yet to be announced and this seems to be another issue. Everyone has their favourite Disney villain, but without knowing which villains Disney will select, or even which villain will be the theme of each race, potential runners are in something of a conundrum: take your chances and register for just the one run your really want, or register for all of them and cover your bases? In my case, I’m hoping to register for the 10K and I really want Maleficent. But I have no guarantee Maleficent will even be one of the chosen villains, let alone appear on the 10K medal.

Ready, Set, Register!

These events sell out quickly, so it’s imperative that you have everything ready and you’re in position, hands poised above your keyboard, ready to go BEFORE the magical registration hour chimes.

So what can you do to be ready and give yourself the best chance?

• If you haven’t already, create a runDisney account. Don’t wait for the morning of registration! Log in and get familiar with your account.
• On registration morning, log into your account ahead of the official registration time.
• Even better, log into your account on several different devices. You never know which one will successfully log into the registration queue first.
• Have all your information ready: know the run (or runs) and/or challenge you want, know your shirt size, and have your POT (proof of time) ready if necessary. If you’re registering more than one person, make sure you have all of their information ready too!

Flashback to Last Year’s Wine & Dine

If you’ve been following my runDisney history through this blog, you know I successfully registered for the 2019 Wine & Dine Half Marathon Weekend. Sadly, a medical emergency with our daughter had us pulled off of the airplane before we could even pull away from the gate in Toronto, so we missed our trip and I had to miss my run.

Thankfully our daughter was ok after a visit to the nearest emergency room, and now I have another chance to register for my first runDisney Wine & Dine event. With any luck I’ll get in and I’ll be able to finally use the Maleficent running costume I had set aside for the 2019 run.

And just in case I do successfully register, I may or may not have an appointment with my travel agent already booked for tomorrow afternoon. Hey, a girl has to be prepared, right?

Good luck to everyone registering tomorrow!

March 10, 2020 UPDATE:

I’M IN!! So excited to say I’ll be there in November running the 10K. Can’t wait to see the themes for the specific runs. Fingers crossed for Maleficent. Hopefully I’ll see you there!