My friend Leana posted a comment on her blogspot, on how bad traffic was during the Disney World Half Marathon on Saturday. This is my reply to her post:

Leana, I hear you!

We also drive from Old Key West or POP, and normally it's 10 minutes from parking lot to EPCOT parking lot.

We've timed it the last 2 years, where we drop our bag, and walk to the corral, and get there just as the Nation Anthem is being sung. Fireworks, GO!

NOT THIS YEAR. We left OKW at 4:05 am. By 4:30, we hadn't made it to Boardwalk. So we U-turned, drove back to OKW and parked.

We walked 2 1/2 blocks, straight to the A corral, roughly 20 minutes before anyone reached the corrals from the bag drop area. Some friends reported it took 40 minutes to walk from the bag drop to their corral.

Disney really screwed up the parking this year. People were still stuck on transportation buses when I was running and nearing mile 1. I could see them looking out the windows, and not able to get off the bus.

On Sunday, instead of attempting to drive, we slept in longer, and just walked across to the corrals again, long before the crowds were released from the bag drop area.

For the number of years Disney has been doing races, each time they are getting worse and worse at it.

Even post race, the parking lot was a zoo to get out of, and buses were long waits for the back of the packers to get back to their hotels.

Aloha,
Jeff