Favorite Princess Half Marathon Weekend Memories

The Walt Disney World Princess Half Marathon is here and although I'm not running this year, I'm super excited to follow along with everyone who is! This race weekend is definitely a favorite of mine and I can't wait to return to run it again (hopefully next year)!

To date, I've run four Princess Half Marathon weekends and have so many incredible and fun memories from them, I thought I'd share a few today!

It's so hard to pick a first, so these are in no specific order. :)

Running with my family and friends! 

For 2017, we all dressed in our favorite seven dwarfs outfits and hit the roads for the Enchanted 10K! I loved being able to participate in this race with all of my family and I even saw them several times while on the course! So much fun!

Also, Brayden's first runDisney event (the Diaper Dash) took place at 2017's Princess Half Marathon Weekend and we had a blast being able to share in the excitement with him. (Where did my squishy baby go??)

Taking a picture in front of the castle with our medals was definitely a high point of this trip!

Dressing as Anna and Elsa for the Enchanted 10K

Back in 2015, my friend Melissa and I decided to dress as Anna and Elsa for the 10K, take our time, stop for pictures, and simply just enjoy ourselves. This race is one of my favorites to date! We re-wore our costumes for Dopey this year, but the cold really did bother us, so you can't see our outfits very well in pictures, anyway.

Bumping into Jeff Galloway while dressed for dinner...in our tutu's and tiaras! 

This will forever be one of o my favorite memories from a Princess weekend (2012 to be exact)! We'd completed our races and it was time for dinner. Our reservations were at 1900 Park Fare and we thought it would be fun to "dress up" for dinner. While enjoying a few snacks in the lounge, we bumped into Jeff Galloway who was just so very nice...he congratulated us and agreed to take a picture with us! We laughed and laughed and laughed some more. Such a fun night!

That time my mom had to have a tooth repaired after a 5K....


So, we can all laugh about this now and that's why I'm sharing it. It definitely wasn't a "fun" memory at the time but it is a memorable one for all of us...and like I said, we can laugh about it now. Short story version - my mom was tripped by a runner during the 2014 Royal Family 5K, she fell, and her tooth was cracked in half. Sad times. We stopped by medical but she didn't need stitches (thankfully)! We learned something new from this episode - there's a call center available where the schedules of several doctors, dentists, etc are available for vacation go-ers to use. We were able to get into a dentist THAT afternoon and her tooth was repaired within a few hours. CRAZY! My poor mom.

Running the Castaway Challenge with Jason!


One of my favorite Princess weekend memories is from 2015 Princess Half Marathon Weekend! Jason and I registered for races during the Princess Weekend (him the 5K and the Glass Slipper for me). We were also getting on the Disney Dream on the Monday following the race and I was registered for the Castaway Challenge. We had NO idea that Jason qualified for the Castaway Challenge as well, so he registered right there on the boat! Taking part in all of the runDisney activities with Jason while on board Disney Cruise Line was a BLAST and I definitely have my sights set on it again in the future!

Taking photos with Gaston while dressed as Belle

This is a runner-up memory from the 2017 Princess Half Marathon, but so worth mentioning. I stood in a ridiculously long line to take this picture but I HAD to and I'm so glad I did. This was by far one of the best runDisney character interactions I've had! Gaston was hysterical and he stole my book prop (I did get it back although he told the cast member to "burn it")! I loved everything about this brief character encounter!

If you're running this weekend, have SO much fun!!

If you've run races during Princess, what's your favorite memory from the race weekend?

Favorite Race in 2017

With the end of the year upon us, I can't help but look back over 2017 and reflect on my favorite/special moments of the year. Today's Tuesdays on the Run topic is all about a favorite race from 2017 and I'm going to tweak it a little bit and call it my favorite race "series" of 2017!

Several years back, I shared a "bucket list races" sort of list and mentioned the Tinker Bell Half Marathon in Disneyland as one of them. At the time, they'd just come out with a gorgeous pink Coast to Coast medal and I wanted to get my hands on that medal...bad!

Runners who complete a race in both Disney World in Florida as well as Disneyland in California receive an extra "bonus" medal for running a race on both coasts. Since this was a "girl" themed race series, the Coast to Coast medal was pink! I HAD to have it!

This year, when the Tink half didn't sell out as fast as I thought it would, I petitioned my friend who also ran the Princess half this year to see if she had any interest in Tink. Of course, she jumped on the bandwagon of this CRAZY idea and we were off for a whirlwind weekend in California where we both earned our pink coast to coast medals!

The Princess Half Marathon and the Tinkerbell Half Marathon both definitely hold special places in my heart as favorites of 2017. Not only did I have the opportunity to spend the week of the Princess Half with my family and son (his first trip...his first haircut...his first "race")....but I also had the chance to run 19.3 miles in the happiest place on earth! Running the Tinker Bell Half Marathon through Disneyland just a few months later with my friend was just like the icing on the cake!

So, to answer the initial question - no, I don't have a favorite race from 2017. I have two favorite race weekends from 2017 and so many special memories attached to both!

What was your favorite race/race weekend/race series of 2017?

Today, I'm linking up with  Erika, Marcia and Patty for Tuesdays on the Run!

runDisney Belle Costume Book Prop

Over the past couple of months since the Princess Half Marathon, I've received several questions and comments about my Belle book prop that I held while running the half, so I am going to share a closer look at my prop with you today!

You guys know I'm all about the details and I felt as if my Princess costume was rather plain. It just needed a little something extra in my opinion. The book I used in the photos of my costume reveal was a legit book from my book shelf and I knew I didn't want to run 13.1 miles holding onto it as it was heavy and bulky.

The day we left for our trip, I had a brilliant idea....why not make my own book, tailor it to the Beauty and the Beast story line, and make it light weight and race friendly?! Yes, please! 

Enter: my very own "Tale As Old As Time".

Supplies:

• Two pieces of lightweight foam
• Card stock
• Computer/printer
• Copy paper
• Tape
• Mod Podge, clear
• Paint brushes
• Elastic band
  

To begin, I cut two pieces of light weight foam (from a local craft store) into 6x8 size. I then used copy paper and tape to "wrap" each piece of foam like a present.

Using Word, I created my story line as well as the front, back, and spine of the book, printed it all on card stock, then cut each piece to fit the dimensions of the foam.

The spine was the first portion of the book to be glued down and was followed by the cover and back of the book. After these pieces were relatively dry (I was working against time as we were set to leave for our trip), I used mod podge over the entire outside of the book to hold things in place. I also figured that using mod podge was my best bet for the book to maintain it's color/form while running a humid and sweaty race!

After the outside was dry, the inside story pieces were glued down and also mod podged into place.

Once it was all said and done, the whole book weighed a whopping 2.5 ounces! 

My plan was to just carry the book along with me throughout the race and toss it if it got on my nerves. However, my genius husband had a grand idea!

He asked if I had an elastic hair band that was stretched out to the max. Oddly, I did!

He slipped the elastic band around the spine of the book so I could use it as a handle while running the half! In the end, it worked out GREAT!

Many people asked how I ran this race holding a "book" and now you know! It was super light weight (at 2.5 ounces, I barely knew it was there), functional, and matched my costume to boot!

A lot of the characters made comments about the book prop, but Gaston's response was my favorite. He took it from me and told his cast member handler to "toss it in the fire"! 

Having the prop really added a lot to my race experience and I'm so glad I decided on the last minute add-in!

2017 Princess Half Marathon Vlog

Last but not least in my recap of the Princess Half Marathon Weekend is a vlog of the Half Marathon itself!

I had so much fun running this race dressed as Provincial Belle and can't wait for the Tinkerbell Half Marathon coming up next month at Disneyland!

If you missed and previous recaps, check them out here:

• 2017 Princess Weekend Expo & VLOG
• 2017 Diaper Dash & VLOG
• 2017 Enchanted 10K & VLOG
• 2017 Princess Half Marathon & VLOG

Without further adieu, here's a vlog of the Princess Half Marathon! Enjoy!

Thanks so much for following along in this Princess Half Marathon journey! I really enjoyed sharing the experience with you! Stay tuned next month for blog and video recaps of the Tinkerbell Half Marathon at Disneyland!

2017 Enchanted 10K

Welcome to another recap from our 2017 Princess Half Marathon weekend! Today, I'm sharing all about my experience with the Enchanted 10K!

If you missed other updates from our Princess Half Marathon Weekend, you can check them out here:

• 2017 Princess Weekend Expo & VLOG
• 2017 Diaper Dash & VLOG
• 2017 Enchanted 10K & VLOG
• 2017 Princess Half Marathon & VLOG

For starters, I've had SO many questions about Brayden and who watched him the morning of the 10K. Well, I used Kids Nite Out and loved my experience with them - I can't wait to share all about that in an upcoming blog post!

So, race morning came bright and early as per usual with runDisney events. Promptly at 3:30 a.m., a knock came to my door from a Kids Nite Out sitter named Maria. After a brief rundown of Brayden's routine, we said goodbye and were on our way to the buses!

I was so excited for my husband and his first ever 10K! My parent's were participating in their first ever 10K, too!

The bus ride to the Epcot parking lot was fast and we arrived in no time!

Thankfully, we didn't have any bags and were able to walk right on through.

It wasn't long before we found the rest of our crew for a picture! At first, we were each going to be one of the 7 Dwarfs (6 in our case), but that became a little too complicated, so we went with these shirts from the WDW January Marathon Expo! 

The front said: Sleepy, Happy, Grumpy...
 

...and the back said, "and that's just the first three miles"!

We hung around the family reunion area for a little while before heading to the corrals. A huge plus of the 10K is the close proximity of the corrals!

I somehow landed corral A! 

After joining in the crowd, I realized I was also fairly close to the start line. Something I heard that runDisney started doing in January was separating the 10K corrals. I'm not sure if they did it for other events, but they definitely separated the 10K corrals into even smaller sections here for Princess weekend, too.

We watched a video from Children's Miracle Network which definitely brought a tear to my eye as it was all about a little girl who was diagnosed with cancer. It also hit close to home as my hospital is a CMN hospital! 

 

SO many runners behind me!

Even with my close proximity to the start line, I still managed to get stopped by the runDisney tape. However, I was in the very front of the second group from corral A.

After a fireworks start, we were off! 

Very early on in the race (around the first half mile), we spotted Moana at the overpass. I've seen Anna and Elsa here in the past, so it was nice to see a new character there! 

As we rounded up the highway towards the first character stop, we saw the lead runners not too far away and it felt pretty cool to be in the front of such a huge event! Even so, I was incredibly surprised at the line of runners for the first character stop.

It was Elena of Avalor and I just had to stop for my best friends nieces! They LOVE Elena. The super long line slowed me down and became a precedence for the remainder of the race.

The next stop was with Tink, followed by the Snow Queen!

I just HAD to stop for her! I've never seen her out for a race so this was really exciting for me!

While waiting in line for the Snow Queen, Jill stopped to say hello! Hi Jill! :)

As we approached Epcot and the 3 mile mark, I spotted my husband and his friend who were walking the race and started in corral C.

They asked if I was lapping them because they thought I would be long gone by that point. After talking about the crazy lines, I continued on my run.

Almost immediately, I received a notification that I crossed the 5K mark and my parents were only about 30 seconds behind me. They were also walking this race, so I stopped along the side to see if I could find them. While standing there, Kristen spotted me and said a quick hello! It was fun to see a familiar face in the sea of runners! 

It didn't take long before I found my parents. They were staying to the right like I instructed them to do (good job)! They also asked if I finished the race, where was my medal, and was I running a second time?! 

After arriving in Epcot, I grabbed a cup of water and continued on my run. That's when I saw Dopey. I've never ever ever been able to snag a picture with him and I hoped that day would be my lucky day. Besides, I booked his race for January, I just had to say hello, right?

Well, in true Disney fashion, the line for Dopey weaved in an out (via tape markers on the ground), but I finally made it to him! He wanted to know why he wasn't on my shirt! Whoops...sorry, Dopey!

Thanks, Dopey! See you in January! 

At this point, I made the executive decision to stop only for characters I'd never taken pictures with in the past.

This was also my first experience with the Disney Photo Pass photographers at runDisney events! They did an amazing job!!

By the time we left Epcot, the sun was starting to rise!

The course looped around to the Boardwalk, Yacht, and Beach Club resorts before leading us back into Epcot.

Such a gorgeous morning!

Epcot was gearing up for the Flower and Garden Festival and I couldn't wait to see it later in the week!

Epcot is truly one of my favorite parks!

Before I knew it, I was at Mile 6 and almost finished with the race!

My friend Melissa had crossed the finish line at this point but my parents and husband had not - I knew they weren't far behind!

Yay finish! The first part of my two part race weekend was complete!

Ok - I have a question....? I see that the backdrops for this race weekend were generic to runDisney. Was this a recent change? In the past, the backdrops have been tailored to each specific race. Anyone know? I do see that they've added little race specific overlays the bottom of the pictures...maybe this is their new way of doing things?

After the picture, I grabbed a food box and a banana, then wandered out of the finish area to wait on my family.

As usual, the food box was filled with all kinds of yummy goodies!

My husband and parents crossed the finish line to successfully complete their first 10K! I couldn't have been more proud!!

After eating some goodies and reuniting with our goofball friends, we decided to call it a morning and head back to our resort.

I relieved the Kids Nite Out sitter (she was seriously too wonderful for words) then after a quick shower, Brayden and I walked over to the Boardwalk Bakery breakfast. We really enjoyed sitting out on the Boardwalk, enjoying the beautiful weather, and saying hello to the ducks!

My pastry wasn't too bad either! Yum yum!

So that's it for my recap of the Enchanted 10K. Despite the crowded course, I really love this route and had a great time running this race!

Stay tuned for more from our Princess Half Marathon Weekend as well as my YouTube channel for video recaps! 

Have a great day!