2018 Walt Disney World 10K

After a very cold 5K morning, I definitely wasn't looking forward to yet another freezing race start! I've said it before and I'll say it again, the worst part of Dopey Challenge for me was simply getting out of bed, knowing I had to face the cold for several hours before our run was set to begin. I was slightly better prepared this morning, though - I saved my mylar blanket from the day before and had it wrapped around my waist/legs - it was seriously a life saver! 

For a full recap of our WDW Marathon Weekend experience, check out these links below:

• Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend Expo & Vlog
• Walt Disney World 5K & Vlog
• Walt Disney World 10K & Vlog
• Kids Races (100 m Dash) & Vlog
• Walt Disney World Half Marathon & Vlog
• Walt Disney World Full Marathon & Vlog

We were appropriately dressed as Anna and Elsa for this 10K and received several funny comments along the course about it being "her" fault for the cold, make it go away, etc!

I waited once again until 4 a.m. to head to the bus stop. Thankfully, the line wasn't near as long as the day before which was great!

After arriving at the starting area, I found my running buddy and we made our way to coral C.

It honestly felt a little warmer this morning and we were able to bundle up close to the runners in our coral which made a world of difference!

Before long, our coral had made it to the start line and we were up and running!

Side note - I love the new(ish) digital start signs runDisney had out for both the 5K and the 10K!

I absolutely LOVE the Disney 10K course which leads runners out on the highway for a little while (ok, that's not my favorite part) then through World Showcase, the Boardwalk/Yacht/Beach Resorts, and finally back into EPCOT for the finish! 

 
While out on the highway, we spotted a couple of characters from Bug's Life but decided to skip that line...so when we saw these parade performers with a super short line, we knew we had to stop!

 Pinocchio was also inside World Showcase, so it was fun saying hi to him!

The sun was just starting to rise as we approached the Boardwalk and Crescent Lake. A few similar characters from the 5K were also out (like Vacation Genie), so we decided to skip them.

This dude cracked me up so I had to snap a picture! I'm assuming he was cheering on the Be Our Guest Podcast Lizards? Still hilarious, even though I wasn't an official part of their group! Also along this area, we spotted Lou Mongello from the WDW Radio Podcast - he was out to cheer on his WDW Radio racing team!

A fun surprise for us was seeing Duffy in EPCOT! We were a bit of a ways back in line and were told that Duffy was about to go on break - so several people left the line...which meant we got to see him before he left for break! Another fun surprise!

A photo with the EPCOT ball was also a must-do!

Our final stop of the race was with another set of parade performers! They were standing in the spot where the gospel singers are usually located and they had a super short line, so we had to stop and say hello!

We crossed the finish line, got our medals, drinks, and food boxes, then made a bee line for the bus! Although we'd run most of this race, we were both freezing by the time we finished and were ready to warm up!

Part 2 of Dopey Challenge, the Walt Disney World 10K was complete! I couldn't comprehend that I still had 39.3 miles to run!

Stay tuned for more from our 2018 WDW Marathon Weekend vacay! Also, if you're interested in Disney vlogs from the remainder of our trip, look to my YouTube channel for updates!  Have a great day!

Vintage Minnie & Dopey Challenge Costumes

Happy New Year! 

This weekend was full of fun things, especially those related to our upcoming Walt Disney World trip for Marathon Weekend! Our bags are mostly packed and we are ready!

We will be spending our week at Port Orleans Riverside with plans for visiting all four theme parks over the course of seven days. Jason's even taking a Disney fishing excursion with a friend of ours where they will have the opportunity to fish in World Showcase Lagoon before EPCOT opens for the morning! He is SO excited!

As far as other plans go, we will be at the Expo on Wednesday afternoon and Brayden will be participating in his first 100m dash on Friday morning! 

For the races, I'll be sporting several different outfits, most of which I've already worn...whoops. The full marathon is a different story, though! A friend of mine wanted to run the full dressed as Steamboat Willie Mickey and that's where the idea for Vintage Minnie came into play!

Putting this outfit together was SUPER easy as it didn't require any extra work on my part. With running the full marathon, I wanted everything to be functional and easy to run in.

For the costume itself, I put together the following pieces:

• Solid black dry fit BCG brand shirt from Academy
• Sparkle Skirts sparkle light vintage blue skirt
• Legend Compression sleeves in black
• Vintage Minnie ears from Etsy (my running buddy purchased her Steamboat Willie ears from the same vendor so we will match!) 

I used this picture as my inspiration....

...and voila! 

Easiest costume ever!

For the 5K, 10K, and Half, I decided to bring back a few oldies to wear again. We had so much fun running as Anna & Elsa several years back for the Enchanted 10K, so that was a no brainer. Lilo definitely needed a redemption race since most of that one was spent under a poncho in pouring down rain (the Wine & Dine Half of 2014 aka the "Splash & Dash"). We couldn't decide what to run as for the 5K and as a last minute (literally) idea, we threw in Mousketeers to the mix (from the Disneyland Half of 2013).

Mousketeer - 5K

Anna & Elsa - 10K

Lilo - Half Marathon

So, if you happen to see me out there, please don't hesitate to say hello!

If you're running this weekend, have a GREAT time and enjoy every moment! If it's your first runDisney race, I hope you have a blast!!

2015 runDisney Princess 10K Vlog

Sooo…I may be a little behind on my Vlog recaps of runDisney’s Princess Half Marathon weekend, but I’m getting there. By the end of next week, I hope to have all of them ready to go and available to share with you!

Missed any recaps of 2015’s Princess Half Marathon Weekend? Here they are:

• Princess Half Marathon Expo & VLOG
• Spectating at the Princess 5K
• Princess 10K Recap
• Princess Half Marathon Recap
• Castaway Challenge Recap Part 1

Hope you enjoy!

Thanks for watching! :)

runDisney “Royalty”

Every runDisney race brings about a different experience, a different course, and my favorite – different characters!

Today’s Wordless Wednesday theme is:
Royalty
Host: Deb at Focused on the Magic

It’s no secret, one of my favorite parts of runDisney events is the characters throughout the course!  Since today’s Wordless Wednesday theme is “Royalty”, I’m going to share pictures of “royal” characters that have been spotted throughout different runDisney events (or after)! Enjoy! :)

Want to participate in an upcoming Wordless Wednesday? Click on the button below for more details!

-----------------------------------------------------------

Who’s your favorite Disney Royal?

2015 runDisney Princess 10K

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?