As part of runDisney’s Glass Slipper Challenge, I participated in both the Princess 10K and the Princess Half Marathon over the Princess Half Marathon weekend.
After Princess last year, my friend Melissa and I began talking about dressing in costume for this 10K. We decided on Elsa and Anna, and the rest was history from there! (Click here to read about the creation of my Anna costume.)
Race morning, I woke up around 2:30 a.m. to begin getting ready – gotta love those early runDisney mornings! I hopped on a bus around 3:30 a.m. and thought it was nice that busses were picking up from all bus stops at our resort (Coronado Springs).
At the staging area, I met up with Mindy (who was dressed as Olaf) and my friend Melissa for a picture. Aren’t we a cute trio? :)
We even brought a few friends along to join in the fun! :)
Before long, we said goodbye to our husbands and made the short walk to our corrals.
Having the corrals around the corner was SO nice and easy to access. The only thing I didn’t like is there was no way to get to the start line for pictures like last year. That’s definitely not a big deal, though!
While waiting in the corral, we made our race strategy – RUN as fast as we could between each photo opportunity…and stop for all the characters! :D
As the race began, we wound around the areas outside of EPCOT for a couple of miles…
Of course we had to stop for a picture with this mile marker sign!
Not long after, we spotted Anna and Elsa (themselves)! Of course there was no way to take an actual picture with them, but this set-up was really neat (same as last year). I loved how the lighting effects made it look like it was snowing!
As we passed the White Rabbit’s area, we saw a line but no character. Funny thing is, I missed this picture opportunity last year, too…oh well. (No hard feelings here, I know they need breaks, too!)
This is a photo opportunity I was MOST excited for….
TINK and Periwinkle! I’ve never ever met Tink, so this was super exciting for me!! (I might have jumped up and down like a 5 year old, but I’ll never admit it…)
It wasn’t long before we were running into the back entrance of EPCOT. We stopped for a photo with these parade performers…
…and the one in red and yellow was singing “Let it Gooooo!” which was quite funny!
If you know me, you understand my “traditional” Germany picture! (Hehe!)
In EPCOT, we spotted a couple of characters to say hello to. Most were the same as last year, with the exception of a few (and by exception, I mean lack of…).
Jiminy in Italy
Marie in France
After running through World Showcase for a little while, the route took us out of EPCOT and towards Disney’s EPCOT resort areas. First up was the Boardwalk with Baseball Donald! (It was Baseball Goofy last year and as a baseball fan, I liked the change!)
Donald has the “Anna” pose down…apparently I didn’t do my homework. Whomp Whomp.
I snagged this shot of runners on the Boardwalk area while we were waiting for our Donald photo.
Hands down my favorite sign on this race course! Throughout the entire race, people asked if we wanted to “build a snowman”!
After leaving Boardwalk, we began our trek to the Yacht and Beach club areas. I was reminded of the time Melissa and I ran through here (on our own, not as part of a race) a few years ago! It was fun to be here with her again!
The sunrise over the lake was beautiful!!
Mile 5!
I was kind of mad at myself for brining along sunglasses that I never wore. The sun didn’t even rise until we were mostly finished with the race. Oh well…
We stopped in line for Minnie, but after standing for about a minute without it moving, we decided to keep on going. Y’all. This line was INSANE!
As we were leaving the EPCOT area, we saw these two ladies dressed as Rapunzel. I thought their costumes were clever – the “Before” Rapunzel and the “After” Rapunzel!
We entered EPCOT again, only this time in the Future World area.
Our last character stop of the day was for Goofy! He was hanging around inside EPCOT park.
Before we knew it, the finish line was in sight and the race was over!
We grabbed our medals, a food box, a banana, a water, and a gatorade, then went in search of our husbands.
I LOVE Disney 10K’s! To me, they are the perfect distance for a fun taste of runDisney…not too long and not too short, either.
Our Anna and Elsa duo was a big hit and we had a lot of fun running together, stopping for pictures, and really enjoying the race. There were a lot of Anna and Elsa’s on the course, but that made it even more fun for us! We loved saying hi as we saw other costumes!
After hanging out for a few pictures, we decided it was time for breakfast. The closest resort was Port Orleans Riverside, so we stopped there for Mickey waffles!
Guess who I ran into in the food court? :D
Pam and Christine! I was SO happy I had a chance to see them again and say hi!
Breakfast was AMAZING as always! You definitely can’t beat a post-race Mickey Waffle!
As we were leaving, I spotted this board display in the resort’s gift shop. Of course, I had to sign it! Teehee!
Final thoughts? I loved this race. The course was flat and SO much fun! I enjoyed seeing the characters that were out for photo stops (especially Tink)! Our strategy of running as fast as we could between characters worked out really well – we didn’t wait long in any character lines except Minnie (which we ended up leaving). The 10K distance is my second favorite runDisney event (after the half marathon distance…because it’s twice the fun)! I enjoyed running with a friend and we loved showing our “Disney Side”! :D
What was your favorite part of the Princess 10K this year? If you didn’t run it, what’s your favorite race distance in general?
