Let's back up a minute, shall we? Travel back with me...all the way to February of 2021 and our should-have-been-princess-half-marathon-trip. (Ok that wasn't that long ago...but still...it feels like it!) I was registered to run the Fairy Tale Challenge, then added the 5K later on once I saw that it was Ariel themed. I decided to run the half marathon at home the weekend before we left for the trip, then complete both the 5K and 10K while at Disney.
Bibs and mile markers were printed ahead of time and brought along with me. I also loved this new shirt from Sparkle Athletic, so I went a little on the "Tiana inspired" side for this 10K!
The trail around Pop Century and Art of Animation is a beautiful one to run first thing in the morning. It's also a longer-ish trail, so you don't have to make quite as many loops to get all of your mileage in.
I felt kind of silly because I completely forgot about the Little Mermaid section at Art of Animation! I could have taken all of my 5K photos there the day before. Whomp whomp. Oh well!
Today it is! :)
The sunrise was breathtaking and the weather was perfect during this run. It truly was a beautiful morning!
I also managed to bump into a few slacker friends of mine! It was so nice to see them! (Check them out here and here.)
I love running super early, before the skyliner is running!
Before I knew it, I was done!
Although this experience of running Disney was 100% different from the norm, it was nice to have other runners out there, cheering each other on! That aspect made it feel not quite so different after all!
Now that live racing is returning to Disney, we are planning to run Princess once again, this time in 2022! What about you? What's the next race on your runDisney list?
The weather on the morning of the 2020 Enchanted 10K was COLD. Prior to leaving for our trip, I'd checked the weather forecast so I had an idea of what to expect. The only item I wish I had that I couldn't find in stores were hot hands. Other than that, I felt pretty prepared for race weekend.
That shirt I mentioned in my Expo recap that I purchased from Raw Threads? There it is! Oddly enough, no one had a chance to see it because it stayed covered by a pink sweatshirt the entire race!
One plus to this race weekend is that the buses were in abundant supply. I was very grateful for that!
Race morning tip: because the bus boarding time is so early and there's a lot of downtime prior to running the race, bring your breakfast with you! Mine is usually a clif bar of some sort that I eat on either the bus ride over or while I'm waiting in my corral!
After meandering around the race starting area for a few minutes, I decided to walk over to my corral. My goal was to get as close to the beginning of the corral as I possibly could.
I don't understand runDisney's reasoning on some things and wasn't sure why I was placed in corral C for the 10K and corral B for the half? Looking back I wish I'd waited in the runner relations line at the expo to talk to someone about it but honestly, I was OVER waiting in lines at that point. I'm still scratching my head over this one, though.
For about an hour, this was my view. I found that it was warmer to sit down on the concrete and wait vs standing.
Although it seemed to take a while because it really was chilly out there, we finally made it to the start line!
With a fireworks start and a 3-2-1 gooooo from Carissa, we were off!
Since the 10K was Pocahontas themed, she was at the overpass just at a half mile into the start.
I really enjoy this 10K route. Running in Epcot early in the morning is just beautiful!
Mile 1! The first character I skipped was John Smith, but I couldn't pass up the Governor and Percy!!
I mean, look how cute!
Just after mile 3, we officially entered Epcot from the Cast Member parking lot.
Another fun thing about this route is all of the behind the scenes things you get to see!
They also keep you entertained along the way which is always fun!
On to World Showcase
At China, Mushu was hanging out and I skipped waiting in his line. Another character line I also skipped earlier in the race was Meeko.
As I was attempting to take a selfie in Germany (it's a "thing" I do), a super nice guy asked if I wanted him to take the picture for me!
The empty countries are fun to see. I couldn't wait to try the brand new Regal Eagle Smokehouse later in our trip.
The Festival of the Arts was taking place during this race weekend, too!
Just after mile 4, I saw a huge line and couldn't figure out who it was for. Imagine my surprise when I saw Esmeralda and Quasimodo!! What?!
These were definitely unique and I HAD to stop!
It was also in this line that I spent a good bit of time attempting to figure out what was wrong with my GoPro gimbal. It decided to act crazy that morning and would spin uncontrollably. While doing my research in line, I found out that it was likely a lose wire that I couldn't fix on my own. Whomp whomp. No worries though, we are going to have it replaced.
The sunset in World Showcase was beautiful!
The course also took us beneath the skyliner which was so much fun to run under!
After leaving World Showcase, we looped back to the Boardwalk/Yacht/Beach club resorts.
Another stop I just had to wait for was Mickey! I've never seen him dressed in his racing attire before!
How cute!!
Another unique opportunity was Clarice! I've never seen her before, either.
It was while standing in this line that I heard someone say something about the balloon ladies being a minute behind us. Out of all of my 40+ runDisney races, I've NEVER seen the balloon ladies so I had zero worries about what I overheard. This would come back to haunt me later....
Mile 5 and back into Epcot!
I have no idea why I didn't take a picture of the following fiasco, but it happened regardless.
So, as we followed the course to the front of World Showcase, I spotted the Fairy Godmothers. I'd seen a photo of a runner with them on instagram from earlier that morning and knew I would have to stop. Prior to this race weekend, I'd never seen these fairies (ever) and this was definitely a photo opp I wanted to have. I joined the rather long line and waited about 20 minutes. As I was about 15 runners from the fairies, I heard someone say "there goes the balloon ladies"...
HUH?
Looking back, I realize that I had spent a good bit of time in line for characters (especially the Hunchback ones) and the Germany potty line got me, too.
Nevertheless, I decided to wait it out because I was so close.
Not long after that, one of the bikers came up to our line and told us we were behind pace and likely wouldn't finish. I could still see a TON of walkers though, and still wasn't worried. We were literally 0.6 miles from the finish line. What were they going to do with all of us if we waited?
By the time I was about 5 runners from the fairies, the walker line had thinned out significantly and I could see a line of about 6 bikers riding along behind the final walkers.
The guy who was hanging out on his bike near told us that was it - we could either get the picture with the fairies or cross the finish line but not both.
That's when I freaked out! I wasn't ready to forfeit my challenge medal because of a character picture being that I was so close to the finish line. Instead, I jumped out of line and started sprinting. I bobbed and weaved between runners and didn't look back for a second. Within minutes, I was passing the balloon ladies and knew all would be ok.
To be honest though, that was traumatizing. Seriously traumatizing.
Done!
I didn't hang around the finish area for long. After snagging my food box and water, I headed for the bus to take me back to Saratoga.
The post race food box from this race included cheese which was nice to see again! :)
It took a few minutes for my racing heart to calm down after the course fiasco, but it finally did chill out. My mind couldn't wrap around what had happened, especially since I skipped so many character lines in the beginning of the race. Looking back though, I see that the lines I did wait in were rather long and that's what sucked up most of my time. Oh well - it was a lesson well learned for sure!
With that, we spent the rest of the day Disney Springs and Hollywood Studios with a low key dinner at the Turf Club at Saratoga Springs (delicious and highly recommended).
Now you tell me, have you ever had a "balloon ladies" experience like this one? Let me know in the comments below!
To see a video recap of this race, check it out here!
Hello there and welcome back to another runDisney Princess Half Marathon Weekend Recap. I'm sorry these recaps are rolling out so slowly, but I'm also in the process of planning my soon to be three year old's birthday party. THREE? Craziness!
For a full recap of the weekend, check out the additional links below:
Today's recap is all about the Princess 10K which was actually my favorite race from this year's Princess weekend!
The weather on the morning of the 10K was super hot and sticky. I'd checked the weather forecast ahead of time, so I was definitely well prepared.
For this race, I decided to wear a Raw Threads shirt, and although Disneyland races are currently on the DL, it was still fitting! This was my first Princess race after having earned the pink Coast to Coast medal from Tink a couple of years ago!
After waking up at an insane hour of the morning, we headed to the bus stop. A bus was waiting, so it didn't take us long to get on and out to the start line.
We milled around the start line for a few minutes because I had plans to meet up with a blogger friend, Lesley!
It took a second, but we found each other! It was so nice to finally meet her in person!
Jason registered for the 10K as well!
We walked around for a few minutes and I realized how hungry I still was (because just my granola bar didn't cut it), so I bought a banana.
Before long, Jason and I said our goodbyes and headed to our corrals.
I ended up in the second wave of my corral and landed right near the front!
It made for a cool picture of the start line, at least!
When the announcers called go, I loved it because I was able to run at a pretty quick pace for a good little while - that is, until we hit the back of the previous wave of corrals. No worries, though...I was just having fun with this race anyway!
Around a half mile, we spotted Pocahontas on top of the overpass!
I loved seeing this road sign, too!
The line for the very first character stop we approached was INSANE. It was both Belle and Beast with a cute backdrop...but that line, y'all. Just wait till you see the video recap! (Coming soon, I promise.)
It was then and there that I decided if I had a picture with that character in the past and the line was long, I was going to skip it.
Imagine my complete and utter surprise when the next character along the way was Elvis Stitch! I seriously almost went into heart palpitations! Y'all know how much I love Lilo and Stitch, so this was perfect. Seriously, if I didn't see any other characters for the remainder of the races, I would have been 100% ok with it after this one.
Next along the way was vacation Donald and the line was rather short. Since Jason's a huge Donald fan, I had to get a picture with the #1 Duck!
Another exciting character spotting for me was Sadness and Joy! I missed this photo opportunity during the Marathon last year, so this was a must-stop for me!
After winding on the highway for a while, we made our way into Epcot. This is one of my favorite parts of this race because I LOVE Epcot and it's just simply a magical moment!
These guys were out in Norway, so I had to jump in for a quick picture!
A selfie with the EPCOT ball is also a must!
I somehow managed to snag a photo pass picture without a million runners around! Score!
By this point, I think the humidity had gotten to my brain, and I waited quite a while in line for a picture with Pinocchio - which broke my rule of "don't wait if you already have it". Honestly, I think I knew my time in Epcot for this race was coming to an end, so I just wanted to make it last as long as possible! Also, you can see how absolutely drenched I was here!
A little view from the runners perspective. :)
After leaving World Showcase, we looped around to the Boardwalk and Beach Club area resorts. Goofy, in his baseball gear, was waiting out along the Boardwalk with a relatively short line, so I jumped in!
Mile 5 was out in front of the Yacht Club, and I knew the finish line wasn't much further. Jason was somewhere around, so I kept trying to find him but I never did.
The final character stop along the course was classic Mickey, and I waited in a ridiculously long line for two reasons...number one, it was classic Mickey...and number two, it was the final character stop for the 10K and I was sad the race was almost over. Sad times.
Anyway, after a seriously 15ish minute wait, I was off and running again towards the finish line. It was around this time that Jason sent a text that he was finished with the race.
Mile six!
Although there wasn't a gospel choir here for the 10K, they did have these drummers who were doing a great job!
...and just like that, the 10K was over!
At the finish line, they were handing out the usual boxes of food, water, gatorade, and bananas, but they also gave us these really awesome cooling towels since it was so dang hot out there!
You can see how drenched I was from this race. It blows my mind how race weekend weather has been all over the place over the years - from seriously freezing to ridiculous heat and humidity.
We did it!! You can see the cooling towels I mentioned around our necks. They were serious life savers for sure!
Despite the weather (which is totally out of Disney's control...shocker, I know), this was such a fun race and definitely turned out to be my favorite of the weekend!
Thanks again for being patient with me, y'all! More recaps (blog and video) are to come!
If you ran the Princess 10K this year, what were your thoughts on the race?
