I love a good race costume! Running in costume is SO much fun and really adds a lot to a race experience. Disney races are full of runners dressed in costume, most of them are Disney related of course! I love checking out others costumes while running by – it definitely helps pass the long stretch of miles when not in a theme park!
In full costume, I’ve run:
None of the above costumes were easy to think up and create, especially the first one (logos were scarce at the time). Don’t let me scare you away, though….with a little time and creativity, you can make anything happen!
Here’s my tips on creating a race costume that will leave you with memories to last a lifetime:
Below, you’ll find a step by step process of how I created my Mousketeer Costume for the Disneyland Half Marathon.
For the Disneyland Half, I decided on Mousketeer Karen. After a little research, I discovered that their skirts were blue and their hats were worn on the back of their heads (never realized this before….a very important detail)!
In order to make the costume itself, I needed several items – a shirt, a skirt, shorts, and ears.
I purchased the ears at WDW in January, before this costume idea was even born (definitely worked out for me)! The shirt was purchased at Wal-Mart, Danskin brand – somewhere around $5.00. I purchased a Sparkle Skirt to give a little pizazz to the outfit. The biking shorts came from Target and I already had them at home.
Yes, it IS possible to iron designs onto a “dry fit” shirt!
I purchased iron-ons to print my name on the front of the shirt and the logo on the sleeve. There are two types of iron-ons available – one for “Dark” and one for “Light”. Personally, I prefer the dark transfers because the colors are much brighter on them.
Dark Transfers – everything you see when you print the picture will look exactly the same when ironed onto your shirt, including the white of the transfer. When ironing “dark” transfers onto colored shirts, be sure to trim as close to the design as possible (this can be tricky)
Light Transfers – everything seen as white on a “light” transfer will take on the color of the shirt once it’s ironed on. Therefore, if you do not want everything that’s white on your light transfer to be the same as the color of your shirt, use dark transfers instead.
Here’s an example of the logo I used for my mom and I’s shirts during the Royal Family 5K. The logo was printed onto a dark transfer, then ironed onto a bright pink shirt. In hindsight, I should have trimmed away all of the white around the Mickey ears because that showed up on our shirts. Ah well, lesson learned.
After ironing on the Mousketeer logos, my costume was pretty much complete!
I really enjoyed running the Disneyland Half Marathon in costume! I especially enjoyed seeing the creative costumes others created! Overall, running in costume really added to the race experience – with my name on the front of my shirt, I received a ton of shout outs from spectators as I ran by. In the toughest moments of the last few miles, those shout outs really made a difference and helped push me through to the end.
Have you ever run a race in costume? If not, do you have a favorite costume…maybe one you’ve seen while running a race?
![Karen Mousketeer 2[4]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik2Z2INzBU74-sHVoQjehWDfI73ZtAH6AjwBnsZcjfOEWu9quQUZf8XxB05mzUlrI7PKzXAvn4xz18ti1URK-IkB5eXrd_s1zFYSFE4wusgqRe35TVq8GYjgzM1ZBMYC7k09FKLwomRVJa/s1600-h/Karen%252520Mousketeer%2525202%25255B4%25255D%25255B2%25255D.jpg "Karen Mousketeer 2[4]")
